Sir Ronald Forbes Adam, 2nd Baronet
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General A general officer is an Officer (armed forces), officer of high rank in the army, armies, and in some nations' air force, air and space forces, marines or naval infantry. In some usages, the term "general officer" refers to a rank above colone ...
Sir Ronald Forbes Adam, 2nd Baronet, (30 October 1885 – 26 December 1982) was a senior
British Army The British Army is the principal Army, land warfare force of the United Kingdom. the British Army comprises 73,847 regular full-time personnel, 4,127 Brigade of Gurkhas, Gurkhas, 25,742 Army Reserve (United Kingdom), volunteer reserve perso ...
officer An officer is a person who has a position of authority in a hierarchical organization. The term derives from Old French ''oficier'' "officer, official" (early 14c., Modern French ''officier''), from Medieval Latin ''officiarius'' "an officer," fro ...
. He had an important influence on the conduct of the
British Army during the Second World War At the start of 1939, the British Army was, as it traditionally always had been, a small volunteer professional army. At the beginning of the Second World War on 1 September 1939, the British Army was small in comparison with those of its en ...
as a result of his long tenure as Adjutant-General, responsible for the army's organisation and personnel, from June 1941 until the end of the war, and as a close confidant of Field Marshal Sir Alan Brooke, the
Chief of the Imperial General Staff Chief of the General Staff (CGS) has been the title of the professional head of the British Army since 1964. The CGS is a member of both the Chiefs of Staff Committee and the Army Board; he is also the Chair of the Executive Committee of the A ...
(CIGS), the professional head of the British Army. A graduate of
Eton College Eton College ( ) is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school providing boarding school, boarding education for boys aged 13–18, in the small town of Eton, Berkshire, Eton, in Berkshire, in the United Kingdom. It has educated Prime Mini ...
and the Royal Military Academy Woolwich, Adam was commissioned on 27 July 1905 into the Royal Artillery. After a posting to India with the
Royal Horse Artillery The Royal Horse Artillery (RHA) was formed in 1793 as a distinct arm of the Royal Regiment of Artillery (commonly termed Royal Artillery) to provide horse artillery support to the cavalry units of the British Army. Although the cavalry link rem ...
, he served on the Western Front and the Italian Front during the
First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
. After the war he attended the
Staff College, Camberley Staff College, Camberley, Surrey, was a staff college for the British Army and the presidency armies of British India (later merged to form the Indian Army). It had its origins in the Royal Military College, High Wycombe, founded in 1799, which ...
, and held successively senior staff postings at the
War Office The War Office has referred to several British government organisations throughout history, all relating to the army. It was a department of the British Government responsible for the administration of the British Army between 1857 and 1964, at ...
. He was an instructor at the Staff College between 1932 and 1935, and was briefly its commandant in 1937. When Lord Gort became CIGS, Adam was made Deputy Chief of the Imperial General Staff (DCIGS). In October 1939, he was appointed commander of
III Corps III or iii may refer to: Companies * Information International, Inc., a computer technology company * Innovative Interfaces, Inc., a library-software company * 3i, formerly Investors in Industry, a British investment company Other uses * I ...
. When, in late May 1940, the BEF was ordered to evacuate France, Adam was given the task of organising the Dunkirk perimeter. Following his return from France on 31 May 1940, Adam was appointed General Officer Commanding-in-Chief Northern Command, responsible for the defence of the coastline from
The Wash The Wash is a shallow natural rectangular bay and multiple estuary on the east coast of England in the United Kingdom. It is an inlet of the North Sea and is the largest multiple estuary system in the UK, as well as being the largest natural ba ...
to the Scottish border. In June 1941 he was appointed Adjutant-General. The role was of particular importance during the war years because of the need for the army to adapt its practices to meet the needs of a conscript army led by non-career officers. He set up a personnel selection department that drew up
aptitude tests An examination (exam or evaluation) or test is an educational assessment intended to measure a test-taker's knowledge, skill, aptitude, physical fitness, or classification in many other topics (e.g., beliefs). A test may be administered verba ...
to establish recruits' psychological stability, combatant temperament, technical aptitudes and leadership potential. Under Adam's guidance, officer selection was no longer based on a simple interview by commanding officers, but carried out through a War Office Selection Board ("Wozbee") whose members, advised by psychiatrists and psychologists, oversaw various tests, especially those aimed at showing a man's initiative potential. Adam did not accept the traditional view that there was an officer-producing class, but believed that men and women of ability could be found in all parts of the community. Both these innovations met resistance. So too did Adam's proposal to create a Corps of Infantry. This alarmed traditionalists at the War Office, who blocked it. However, Adam managed to then push through another reform creating the
General Service Corps The General Service Corps (GSC) is a corps of the British Army. Role The role of the corps is to provide specialists, who are usually on the Special List or General List. These lists were used in both World Wars for specialists and those not allo ...
(GSC). All recruits—some 710,000 between July 1942 and May 1945— were initially posted to the GSC for the period of their basic training, after which they were sent to a training centre for specialised training. Even more controversial was Adam's championing of the
Army Bureau of Current Affairs The Army Bureau of Current Affairs (ABCA) was an organisation within the British Army during World War II to promote discussion among soldiers about current events, citizenship, and post-war reconstruction. In August 1940, Lord Croft, Under-Se ...
(ABCA), which produced fortnightly pamphlets on current developments to provide officers with material for compulsory discussion groups with their men. He and other senior officers believed that a citizen army had to be encouraged into battle, not just ordered. The leftward swing in British public opinion during the war years that resulted in a landslide win for the Labour Party in the 1945 general election was blamed on the ABCA. As the end of the war approached, Adam instituted a demobilisation system based on the "first in, first out" principle, and he resisted attempts to repeat the practice in 1918–19 of giving priority to the needs of the economy, which had led to mutinies by long-serving men. After the war he retired from the Army in October 1946, and was the chairman of several bodies involved in adult education.


Early life

Ronald Forbes Adam was born in
Bombay Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial centre, financial capital and the list of cities i ...
,
India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...
, on 30 October 1885, the eldest child of Frank Forbes Adam, a merchant, and his wife Rose Frances Kemball, the daughter of Charles Gurdon Kemball, a judge of the High Court of Bombay. His father was a prominent businessman and a member of the
Bombay Legislative Council Bombay Legislative Council was the legislature of the Bombay Province and later the upper house of the bicameral legislature of Bombay Province in British India and the Indian state of Bombay. History The Indian Councils Act 1861 set up the B ...
who was made a Companion of the
Order of the Indian Empire The Most Eminent Order of the Indian Empire is an order of chivalry founded by Queen Victoria on 1 January 1878. The Order includes members of three classes: #Knight Grand Commander (:Knights Grand Commander of the Order of the Indian Empire, ...
in 1888, was
knighted A knight is a person granted an honorary title of a knighthood by a head of state (including the pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church, or the country, especially in a military capacity. The concept of a knighthood ...
in 1890, and was created Baronet of Hankelow Court in
Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Merseyside to the north-west, Greater Manchester to the north-east, Derbyshire to the east, Staffordshire to the south-east, and Shrop ...
in 1917. He had two younger brothers, Eric Forbes Adam and Colin Forbes Adam, and a younger sister, Hetty Reay Clifford Forbes Adam. Because infant mortality was high in India, he was sent to England to live with relatives when he was three years old. The rest of the family followed the next year, settling in Hankelow Court. Adam was educated at Fonthill Preparatory School in
East Grinstead East Grinstead () is a town in West Sussex, England, near the East Sussex, Surrey, and Kent borders, south of London, northeast of Brighton, and northeast of the county town of Chichester. Situated in the northeast corner of the county, bord ...
,
Sussex Sussex (Help:IPA/English, /ˈsʌsɪks/; from the Old English ''Sūþseaxe''; lit. 'South Saxons'; 'Sussex') is an area within South East England that was historically a kingdom of Sussex, kingdom and, later, a Historic counties of England, ...
, and then at
Eton College Eton College ( ) is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school providing boarding school, boarding education for boys aged 13–18, in the small town of Eton, Berkshire, Eton, in Berkshire, in the United Kingdom. It has educated Prime Mini ...
from September 1898 to December 1902. Setting his sights on a military career, he attended Adams and Millard, a
cram school A cram school (colloquially: crammer, test prep, tuition center, or exam factory) is a specialized school that trains its students to achieve particular goals, most commonly to pass the entrance examinations of high schools or university, univer ...
in
Freiberg Freiberg () is a university and former mining town in Saxony, Germany, with around 41,000 inhabitants. The city lies in the foreland of the Ore Mountains, in the Saxon urbanization axis, which runs along the northern edge of the Elster and ...
, Germany, in 1903, to study for the entrance examination to the
Royal Military Academy, Woolwich The Royal Military Academy (RMA) at Woolwich, in south-east London, was a British Army military academy for the training of Officer (armed forces), commissioned officers of the Royal Artillery and Royal Engineers. It later also trained officers o ...
. He passed, ranked 33rd out of 39, and graduated in 1905, still ranked 33rd out of 39 in his class. Adam was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the
Royal Field Artillery The Royal Field Artillery (RFA) of the British Army provided close artillery support for the infantry. It was created as a distinct arm of the Royal Regiment of Artillery on 1 July 1899, serving alongside the other two arms of the regiment, the ...
on 27 July 1905. A month of further instruction followed at the Royal Artillery School of Gunnery at
Shoeburyness Shoeburyness ( ), or simply Shoebury, is a coastal town in the City of Southend-on-Sea, in the ceremonial county of Essex, England; it lies east of the city centre. It was formerly a separate town until it was absorbed into Southend in 1933. I ...
in
Essex Essex ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the ...
, and four more at the Ordnance College at Woolwich, after which he was posted to the 54th Battery, 39th Field Artillery Brigade, based at
Shorncliffe Army Camp Shorncliffe Army Camp is a British Army installation near Cheriton in Kent, established in 1794. The camp, described as "the birthplace of the modern British Army", previously consisted of Ross Barracks, Burgoyne Barracks, Somerset Barracks, Na ...
in
Kent Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...
. After three years there, the regiment moved to
Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...
. Parades and drill took up the mornings; in the afternoons he went horse riding, and played
rugby Rugby may refer to: Sport * Rugby football in many forms: ** Rugby union: 15 players per side *** American flag rugby *** Beach rugby *** Mini rugby *** Rugby sevens, 7 players per side *** Rugby tens, 10 players per side *** Snow rugby *** Tou ...
,
cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...
,
polo Polo is a stick and ball game that is played on horseback as a traditional field sport. It is one of the world's oldest known team sports, having been adopted in the Western world from the game of Chovgan (), which originated in ancient ...
,
hockey ''Hockey'' is a family of List of stick sports, stick sports where two opposing teams use hockey sticks to propel a ball or disk into a goal. There are many types of hockey, and the individual sports vary in rules, numbers of players, apparel, ...
,
golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various Golf club, clubs to hit a Golf ball, ball into a series of holes on a golf course, course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standa ...
and
billiards Cue sports are a wide variety of games of skill played with a cue stick, which is used to strike billiard balls and thereby cause them to move around a cloth-covered table bounded by elastic bumpers known as . Cue sports, a category of stic ...
. He was promoted to
lieutenant A lieutenant ( , ; abbreviated Lt., Lt, LT, Lieut and similar) is a Junior officer, junior commissioned officer rank in the armed forces of many nations, as well as fire services, emergency medical services, Security agency, security services ...
on 27 July 1908. In May 1911, he embarked for India, where he joined N Troop,
Royal Horse Artillery The Royal Horse Artillery (RHA) was formed in 1793 as a distinct arm of the Royal Regiment of Artillery (commonly termed Royal Artillery) to provide horse artillery support to the cavalry units of the British Army. Although the cavalry link rem ...
, at
Ambala Ambala () is a city and a municipal corporation in Ambala district in the state of Haryana, India, located on the border with the Indian state of Punjab (India), Punjab and in proximity to both states capital Chandigarh. Politically, Ambala ...
.
Alan Brooke Field Marshal Alan Francis Brooke, 1st Viscount Alanbrooke (23 July 1883 – 17 June 1963), was a senior officer of the British Army. He was Chief of the Imperial General Staff (CIGS), the professional head of the British Army, during the Secon ...
, "a man that would become a lifelong comrade-in-arms and friend", was a fellow officer in the troop. Although Adam was known in the Army by his nickname of "Bill", Brooke, for obscure reasons, always referred to him as "George". On home leave in 1913, he met and became engaged to Anna Dorothy Pitman, the daughter of
Frederick I. Pitman Frederick (Freddie) Islay Pitman (18 April 1863 – 22 January 1942) was a British rowing (sport), rower who rowed in the Boat Race three times and won the Diamond Challenge Sculls and the Wingfield Sculls in 1886. Biography Pitman w ...
, a rower and financier.


First World War

Four days after Britain's declaration of war on Germany on 5 August 1914, N Troop was alerted to prepare to move to join the British Expeditionary Force in France. It sailed from
Bombay Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial centre, financial capital and the list of cities i ...
on 9 September, via the
Suez Canal The Suez Canal (; , ') is an artificial sea-level waterway in Egypt, Indo-Mediterranean, connecting the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea through the Isthmus of Suez and dividing Africa and Asia (and by extension, the Sinai Peninsula from the rest ...
and
Marseilles Marseille (; ; see below) is a city in southern France, the prefecture of the department of Bouches-du-Rhône and of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the Provence region, it is located on the coast of the Mediterranean S ...
, and reached the front on 5 November. He was promoted to
captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader or highest rank officer of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police depa ...
on 30 October 1914, and married Dorothy, who was serving with a
Voluntary Aid Detachment The Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD) was a voluntary unit of civilians providing nursing care for military personnel in the United Kingdom and various other countries in the British Empire. The most important periods of operation for these units we ...
, on 7 January 1915. Adam became second-in-command of the 41st Battery, 42nd Brigade, Royal Field Artillery in March 1915,
adjutant Adjutant is a military appointment given to an Officer (armed forces), officer who assists the commanding officer with unit administration, mostly the management of “human resources” in an army unit. The term is used in French-speaking armed ...
of the 3rd Brigade, Royal Field Artillery in July, and commander of the 58th Battery, 35th Brigade, Royal Field Artillery in October. He was evacuated to England suffering with
trench fever Trench fever (also known as "five-day fever", "quintan fever" (), and "urban trench fever") is a moderately serious infectious disease caused by the bacterium '' Bartonella quintana'' and transmitted by body lice. From 1915 to 1918 between one-f ...
in September 1916. While convalescing, he was promoted to
major Major most commonly refers to: * Major (rank), a military rank * Academic major, an academic discipline to which an undergraduate student formally commits * People named Major, including given names, surnames, nicknames * Major and minor in musi ...
on 14 November 1916. When he recovered, he was appointed commander of the 464th Battery, 174th Brigade, Royal Field Artillery, in January 1917. He took it to the Western Front on 12 May. In November, Adam was in command of
F Battery, Royal Horse Artillery F (Sphinx) Parachute Battery Royal Horse Artillery is a close support battery of 7th Parachute Regiment Royal Horse Artillery, part of the Royal Horse Artillery of the British Army, currently based in Merville Barracks in Colchester. Histo ...
when it was ordered to the Italian Front. He remained there for the rest of the war, becoming
brigade major A brigade major was the chief of staff of a brigade in the British Army. They most commonly held the rank of major, although the appointment was also held by captains, and was head of the brigade's "G - Operations and Intelligence" section direct ...
of the XIV Corps in March 1918, and then of the 23rd Division in April. He was awarded the
Distinguished Service Order The Distinguished Service Order (DSO) is a Military awards and decorations, military award of the United Kingdom, as well as formerly throughout the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth, awarded for operational gallantry for highly successful ...
in the
1918 Birthday Honours The 1918 Birthday Honours were appointments by King George V to Orders, decorations, and medals of the United Kingdom, various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of the British Empire. The appointments were made to ...
, appointed an
Officer of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...
in the
1919 Birthday Honours The 1919 Birthday Honours were appointments by King George V to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of the British Empire. The appointments were made to celebrate the official birthday of The King, and were ...
, and thrice
mentioned in despatches To be mentioned in dispatches (or despatches) describes a member of the armed forces whose name appears in an official report written by a superior officer and sent to the high command, in which their gallant or meritorious action in the face of t ...
. Adam had four children, all daughters: Barbara in 1917, Margot in 1918, and twins Bridget Islay and Isobel in 1927. The middle name "Forbes", originally a common family second name, was now used as an unhyphenated double family surname.


Between the wars

After the war, Adam was posted to No. 5 District,
Aldershot Command Aldershot Command was a Home Command of the British Army. History After the success of the Chobham Manoeuvres of 1853, reformers of the British Army decided to create a permanent training camp at Aldershot. To begin the preliminary work a smal ...
as a brigade major. In 1920, he was sent to the
Staff College, Camberley Staff College, Camberley, Surrey, was a staff college for the British Army and the presidency armies of British India (later merged to form the Indian Army). It had its origins in the Royal Military College, High Wycombe, founded in 1799, which ...
. After graduating the following year, he was briefly posted to Woolwich, and then to the
War Office The War Office has referred to several British government organisations throughout history, all relating to the army. It was a department of the British Government responsible for the administration of the British Army between 1857 and 1964, at ...
as a General Staff Officer (Grade 3) ( GSO3). He then returned to Camberley as an instructor, with the acting rank of lieutenant colonel. In March 1926, he assumed command of the 72nd Battery, 16th Brigade, Royal Artillery, which was stationed at
Kirkee Khadki is a cantonment in the city of Pune, Maharashtra, India. It has now flourished as a quasi-metropolis & centered in the northern region of the city. Description Khadki could be considered an Indian Army base, along with an ordnance facto ...
in India. He became a brevet lieutenant colonel in July 1926, and inherited the Baronetcy of Hankelow Court in the County of Chester as 2nd Baronet Forbes Adam on the death of his father on 22 December 1926. He was promoted to
colonel Colonel ( ; abbreviated as Col., Col, or COL) is a senior military Officer (armed forces), officer rank used in many countries. It is also used in some police forces and paramilitary organizations. In the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, a colon ...
on 9 October 1932, with seniority backdated to 1 July 1930. In December, he returned to the War Office as a General Staff Officer (Grade 2) ( GSO2). He attended the
Imperial Defence College The Royal College of Defence Studies (RCDS) instructs the most promising senior officers of the British Armed Forces, His Majesty's Diplomatic Service and Civil Service in national defence and international security matters at the highest level ...
in 1930. After nine months in command of the 13th Field Brigade at Woolwich in 1932, he served as an instructor at Camberley until 1935. Other instructors there at this time included Lord Gort,
Bernard Montgomery Field Marshal Bernard Law Montgomery, 1st Viscount Montgomery of Alamein (; 17 November 1887 – 24 March 1976), nicknamed "Monty", was a senior British Army officer who served in the First World War, the Irish War of Independence and the ...
,
Philip Neame Lieutenant General Sir Philip Neame, (12 December 1888 – 28 April 1978) was a senior British Army officer and a recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Common ...
, Bernard Paget and
Andrew Thorne General Sir Augustus Francis Andrew Nicol Thorne, (20 September 1885 – 25 September 1970) was a senior British Army officer who served in the First and Second World Wars, where he commanded the 48th (South Midland) Infantry Division during t ...
. He was then posted back to the War Office again as a General Staff Officer (Grade 1) ( GSO1) in the Directorate of Military Operations and Intelligence, becoming deputy director of Military Operations (DDMO) with the temporary rank of
brigadier Brigadier ( ) is a military rank, the seniority of which depends on the country. In some countries, it is a senior rank above colonel, equivalent to a brigadier general or commodore (rank), commodore, typically commanding a brigade of several t ...
when the directorate was reorganised on 1 October 1936. Adam was appointed Commander, Royal Artillery (CRA) for the 1st Division on 14 November 1936, retaining his acting rank of brigadier. The 1st Division was sent to
Shanghai Shanghai, Shanghainese: , Standard Chinese pronunciation: is a direct-administered municipality and the most populous urban area in China. The city is located on the Chinese shoreline on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the ...
in 1937, but the artillery remained behind. On 24 September 1937, he received the prestigious posting of Commandant of the Staff College, Camberley, with the temporary rank of major general, vice Gort, who became Military Secretary. Both appointments were instigated by the new
Secretary of State for War The secretary of state for war, commonly called the war secretary, was a secretary of state in the Government of the United Kingdom, which existed from 1794 to 1801 and from 1854 to 1964. The secretary of state for war headed the War Offic ...
,
Leslie Hore-Belisha Isaac Leslie Hore-Belisha, 1st Baron Hore-Belisha, PC (; 7 September 1893 – 16 February 1957) was a British Liberal, then National Liberal Member of Parliament (MP) and Cabinet Minister. He later joined the Conservative Party. He proved h ...
, who attempted to put his stamp on the Army by appointing younger officers to key positions. To replace
Field Marshal Field marshal (or field-marshal, abbreviated as FM) is the most senior military rank, senior to the general officer ranks. Usually, it is the highest rank in an army (in countries without the rank of Generalissimo), and as such, few persons a ...
Sir
Cyril Deverell Field Marshal Sir Cyril John Deverell, (9 November 1874 – 12 May 1947) was a British Army officer who served as Chief of the Imperial General Staff (CIGS), the professional head of the British Army, from 1936 to 1937. Prior to his becoming CI ...
as
Chief of the Imperial General Staff Chief of the General Staff (CGS) has been the title of the professional head of the British Army since 1964. The CGS is a member of both the Chiefs of Staff Committee and the Army Board; he is also the Chair of the Executive Committee of the A ...
(CIGS), Hore-Belisha considered Adam, Gort and Frederick Pile, all of whom were aged 52 or 53. He decided to appoint Gort, who had a
Victoria Cross The Victoria Cross (VC) is the highest and most prestigious decoration of the Orders, decorations, and medals of the United Kingdom, British decorations system. It is awarded for valour "in the presence of the enemy" to members of the British ...
and the Distinguished Service Order with two bars, and would make a fine public face of the Army. He was concerned, though, about the ability of Gort, a man of action but not particularly cerebral, to push through reforms that he felt were urgently needed for a war that he felt was just around the corner.
Basil Liddell Hart Sir Basil Henry Liddell Hart (31 October 1895 – 29 January 1970), commonly known throughout most of his career as Captain B. H. Liddell Hart, was a British soldier, military historian, and military theorist. He wrote a series of military his ...
then suggested that he revive the post of Deputy Chief of the Imperial General Staff (DCIGS), and give it to Adam, "to be the thinking head whilst Gort provided the drive." Adam took up the new position on 3 January 1938, with the temporary rank of
lieutenant general Lieutenant general (Lt Gen, LTG and similar) is a military rank used in many countries. The rank traces its origins to the Middle Ages, where the title of lieutenant general was held by the second-in-command on the battlefield, who was norma ...
, although he remained only a substantive colonel. There were important differences of opinion on policy and strategy between the Army and the government concerning the nature of the war and how it would be fought. The Army staff thought in terms of a field army that could be sent to France, as in 1914. The government saw this as preparing for the last war. It considered that the French Army was invulnerable behind the
Maginot Line The Maginot Line (; ), named after the Minister of War (France), French Minister of War André Maginot, is a line of concrete fortifications, obstacles and weapon installations built by French Third Republic, France in the 1930s to deter invas ...
, and therefore the Germans would most likely attempt to knock Britain out of the war by attacking its industry and commerce. The emphasis was therefore placed on building up
Anti-Aircraft Command Anti-Aircraft Command (AA Command, or "Ack-Ack Command") was a British Army command of the Second World War that controlled the Territorial Army anti-aircraft artillery and searchlight formations and units defending the United Kingdom. Origin ...
, and creating mobile units for service in the Middle East. Adam concentrated on matters of organisation, particularly of the infantry, armour, and artillery. Simple changes like getting the infantry to march in three lines instead of four to save road space encountered stiff opposition, as did proposals to mechanise the cavalry, which only got as far as combining cavalry regiments which had mechanised with the
Royal Tank Corps The Royal Tank Regiment (RTR) is the oldest tank unit in the world, being formed by the British Army in 1916 during the First World War. Today, it is an armoured regiment equipped with Challenger 2 main battle tanks and structured under 12th A ...
(renamed
Royal Tank Regiment The Royal Tank Regiment (RTR) is the oldest tank unit in the world, being formed by the British Army in 1916 during the World War I, First World War. Today, it is an Armoured warfare, armoured regiment equipped with Challenger 2 main battle tanks ...
) to form the
Royal Armoured Corps The Royal Armoured Corps is the armoured arm of the British Army, that together with the Household Cavalry provides its armour capability, with vehicles such as the Challenger 2 and the Warrior tracked armoured vehicle. It includes most of the Ar ...
. His efforts to prepare for amphibious warfare met grudging acceptance from the
Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...
, which created a Combined Operations Centre at
Eastney Eastney is a district in the south-east corner of Portsmouth, England, on Portsea Island. Its electoral ward is called Eastney and Craneswater. At the 2011 Census the population of this ward was 13,591. History Barracks and fortifications ...
only to disband it soon after the war began. The
Prime Minister A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...
,
Neville Chamberlain Arthur Neville Chamberlain (; 18 March 18699 November 1940) was a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from May 1937 to May 1940 and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of the Conservative Party from ...
, resisted pressure from Hore-Belisha for the introduction of conscription, but a national appeal for volunteers for the Territorial Army fell short of the numbers required, and the
Auxiliary Territorial Service The Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS; often pronounced as an acronym) was the women's branch of the British Army during the World War II, Second World War. It was formed on 9 September 1938, initially as a women's voluntary service, and existe ...
began recruiting women. Finally, conscription was introduced in May 1939. For his services, Adam was made a
Companion of the Order of the Bath Companion may refer to: Relationships Currently * Any of several interpersonal relationships such as friend or acquaintance * A domestic partner, akin to a spouse * Sober companion, an addiction treatment coach * Companion (caregiving), a caregi ...
in the
1939 New Year Honours The 1939 New Year Honours were appointments by King George VI to Orders, decorations, and medals of the United Kingdom, various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of the United Kingdom and British Empire. They were a ...
.


Second World War

When Gort went to command the British Expeditionary Force (BEF), he wanted to take Adam as his
chief of staff The title chief of staff (or head of staff) identifies the leader of a complex organization such as the armed forces, institution, or body of persons and it also may identify a principal staff officer (PSO), who is the coordinator of the supportin ...
. Hore-Belisha refused the request on the grounds of maintaining continuity. However, in October 1939 Adam was appointed commander of
III Corps III or iii may refer to: Companies * Information International, Inc., a computer technology company * Innovative Interfaces, Inc., a library-software company * 3i, formerly Investors in Industry, a British investment company Other uses * I ...
, which by February 1940 was crossing the Channel to join the BEF. III Corps was earmarked for operations in Scandinavia, but by April the planned invasion was cancelled when Germany invaded Denmark and Norway, and the Corps remained in France. When in late May, the BEF was ordered to evacuate, Adam was given the task of organising the Dunkirk perimeter; Major General S. R. Wason took over command of III Corps. It was substantially due to Adam's leadership that the BEF was able to retreat behind a strong perimeter and carry out the
Dunkirk evacuation The Dunkirk evacuation, codenamed Operation Dynamo and also known as the Miracle of Dunkirk, or just Dunkirk, was the evacuation of more than 338,000 Allied soldiers during the Second World War from the beaches and harbour of Dunkirk, in the ...
. Ordered to leave on 26 May, Adam and Brigadier Frederick Lawson found a canvas boat on the sand dunes and rowed out to a waiting destroyer. For his part, he was mentioned in despatches a fourth time. Following his return from France on 31 May 1940, Adam was appointed
General Officer Commanding General officer commanding (GOC) is the usual title given in the armies of the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth (and some other nations, such as Ireland) to a general officer who holds a command appointment. Thus, a general might be the GOC ...
-in-Chief Northern Command, responsible for the defence of the coastline from
The Wash The Wash is a shallow natural rectangular bay and multiple estuary on the east coast of England in the United Kingdom. It is an inlet of the North Sea and is the largest multiple estuary system in the UK, as well as being the largest natural ba ...
to the Scottish border. It was during his year with Northern Command that he concluded that the army needed both more effective selection procedures and to ensure that soldiers understood the cause for which they were fighting. On 1 June 1941 he was appointed Adjutant-General, the second military member of the Army Council and a key role with responsibility for all personnel, administration and organisational matters. The role was of particular importance during the war years because of the need for the army to adapt its practices to meet the needs of a conscript army led by non-career officers. In peacetime, each infantry regiment conducted its own recruit training. As a result, in 1941 there were fifty-eight infantry and four machine gun training centres. In July 1941, Adam consolidated them, reducing their number to just fourteen and one. This saved 14,000 men. Adam then went further. Since battle casualties need to be replaced either by cross-posting or new recruits from training centres, he proposed creating a Corps of Infantry. Others ranks could then be routinely cross-posted; no transfer to another regiment would be required. The proposal met with alarm among traditionalists at the War Office, who blocked it. However, Adam managed to then push through another reform creating the
General Service Corps The General Service Corps (GSC) is a corps of the British Army. Role The role of the corps is to provide specialists, who are usually on the Special List or General List. These lists were used in both World Wars for specialists and those not allo ...
(GSC) in January 1942. All recruits—some 710,000 between July 1942 and May 1945— were initially posted to the GSC for the period of their basic training, after which they were sent to a training centre for specialised training, which took from sixteen weeks for the infantry up to thirty weeks for signallers. Transfers of men from one corps to another were still needed, especially in late 1944 when thousands of men were transferred from anti-aircraft units to the infantry. The new system gave the Army more time to assess the capabilities of recruits and how to best employ them. In 1940, the government had hastily mobilised 120 infantry battalions. By the middle of 1941, half of these had been disbanded, and their manpower transferred to other arms. In November 1941, recruiting of skilled men was halted pending investigation of 9,800 allegations of misuse of skilled personnel. Of these, 1,300 were found to be justified. Adam noted in July 1941 that the Army was "wasting its manpower in this war as badly as it did in the last." He set up a Directorate for the Selection of Personnel that drew up aptitude tests to establish recruits' psychological stability, combatant temperament, technical aptitudes and leadership potential. IQ tests were rejected as being for children. Standardised tests were developed to classify men into six grades, and nine trade groupings, which were then allocated to each arm. Under the new system the failure rate for tradesmen dropped from 16.7 to 6.7 per cent, and for drivers from 16 to 20 per cent to 3 per cent. When applied to women, the failure rate for radio operators plunged from 64 per cent to just 3 per cent. Under Adam's guidance, this led to tackling the British Army's other major personnel problem, officer selection. As in the Great War, the classes that had traditionally provided leadership in society could not furnish the numbers of leaders that the Army needed. Those with a university education who had completed
Officers' Training Corps The University Officers' Training Corps (UOTC), also known as the Officers' Training Corps (OTC), are British Army reserve units, under the command of the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, which recruit exclusively from universities and focus on ...
(OTC) training were immediately commissioned. Those that had attended a public school were sent to an Officer Cadet Training Unit (OCTU) for a three-month course before being commissioned. While there were those who felt that one's parents' ability to pay for an education did not necessarily imply the possession of leadership qualities, it was considered that public school boys were imbued with good character, self-restraint, perseverance, and courage, and that participation in team sports promoted physical fitness and quick decision making—all characteristics that the Army considered desirable in its officers. This still did not provide enough officers. Commanders were ordered to furnish quotas of potential officers from their other ranks for OCTUs, but not all nominated, or could nominate, good candidates, and there was a general feeling that men with only elementary schooling, regional accents or even mildly left-wing views had no chance of nomination. Failure rates at the OCTUs were high, averaging around 30 per cent of the candidates on each course. Adam did not accept the traditional view that there was an "officer-producing class", but believed that men and women of innate ability could be found in all parts of the community. Both these innovations met resistance, most of which was overcome. He instituted a new system of OCTU nomination that was no longer based on a simple interview by commanding officers, but carried out through a War Office Selection Board ("Wozbee") whose members, advised by psychiatrists and psychologists, oversaw various tests, especially those aimed at showing a man's leadership potential. Psychiatrists were in short supply, and there were doubts about the value of predictive psychiatry. Wozbees were established at home starting in March 1942, and overseas by the middle of 1943. Men were sent to a country house in groups of 30 to 40, and divided to groups of about eight. They then undertook a series of tests. Adam particularly liked the one where a leaderless group was asked to bridge a stream using material lying about, which included three planks, all too short, and some rope. "The test showed", he noted, "not only who were the leaders, but also those who fitted into a team." By the end of the war, 21 per cent of the British Army's officers had elementary school education, compared with 34 per cent who had attended public schools. Adam went even further in his search for officer candidates. In one experiment, he divided a unit into four groups—officers, junior NCOs, senior NCOs and polled an entire unit, asking all ranks to nominate potential officers. Those nominated by three out of four groups were then sent to the Wozbee. Of the 114 nominated, 56 per cent passed, which was not significantly higher than the usual 54 per cent, but 7 per cent of the unit was nominated instead of the usual 0.1 per cent, producing far more officers. Adam then wanted to expand the trial, but for his critics, it was clear evidence that he had finally crossed the line from
socialism Socialism is an economic ideology, economic and political philosophy encompassing diverse Economic system, economic and social systems characterised by social ownership of the means of production, as opposed to private ownership. It describes ...
to full-blown
Bolshevism Bolshevism (derived from Bolshevik) is a revolutionary socialist current of Soviet Leninist and later Marxist–Leninist political thought and political regime associated with the formation of a rigidly centralized, cohesive and disciplined p ...
. The Commander-in-Chief of Home Forces, Lieutenant General Sir Bernard Paget wrote to the
Secretary of State for War The secretary of state for war, commonly called the war secretary, was a secretary of state in the Government of the United Kingdom, which existed from 1794 to 1801 and from 1854 to 1964. The secretary of state for war headed the War Offic ...
, Sir James Grigg, warning him that Adam was "a serious menace to both morale and discipline." When the matter was placed before the Army Council, Brooke and Grigg, who normally protected Adam, failed to support it, and the trial did not proceed. The British Army remained short of officers. In order to supplement the British Army with junior officers, Adam helped devise the
CANLOAN The CANLOAN program (or the Canada Loan program) was a scheme created in 1944 to loan officers from the Canadian Army to serve in British Army units. The program's initial aims were to help supplement the undermanned British Army officer corps and ...
program in 1944; which saw 673 Canadian officers serve in British units. Just before
D-Day The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during the Second World War. Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as ...
, some 200 Canadian officers were seconded to the British
21st Army Group The 21st Army Group was a British headquarters formation formed during the Second World War. It controlled two field armies and other supporting units, consisting primarily of the British Second Army and the First Canadian Army. Established ...
in Europe, and 168 Australian officers to the Fourteenth Army in Burma. The effectiveness of the Wozbees is hard to gauge. When commanding officers in the Mediterranean and the 21st Army Group were surveyed in 1943 and 1944, they considered that there was little difference between the products of the Wozbees and those nominated by earlier means, suggesting that their training was more important.
George MacDonald Fraser George MacDonald Fraser (2 April 1925 – 2 January 2008) was a Scottish author and screenwriter. He is best known for a series of works that featured the character Harry Paget Flashman, Flashman. Over the course of his career he wrote eleven n ...
, the author of the ''
Harry Flashman Sir Harry Paget Flashman is a fictional character created by Thomas Hughes (1822–1896) in the semi-autobiographical '' Tom Brown's School Days'' (1857) and later developed by George MacDonald Fraser (1925–2008). Harry Flashman appears in a ...
'' series of novels opined that "the general view throughout the Army was that they weren't fit to select bus conductors, let alone officers." No one was specifically responsible for morale in the Army as a whole until 1941, when it was given to Adam. He championed the
Army Bureau of Current Affairs The Army Bureau of Current Affairs (ABCA) was an organisation within the British Army during World War II to promote discussion among soldiers about current events, citizenship, and post-war reconstruction. In August 1940, Lord Croft, Under-Se ...
(ABCA), which produced fortnightly pamphlets on current developments to provide officers with material for compulsory discussion groups with their men. He and other senior officers recognised that the call of "King and Country", which had been so powerful in 1914, was not enough for a more sceptical generation; a citizen army had to be encouraged into battle, not just ordered. However, the "Theirs not to reason why, theirs but to do and die" attitude was still widespread almost a century after the
Battle of Balaclava The Battle of Balaclava, fought on 25 October 1854 during the Crimean War, was part of the Siege of Sevastopol (1854–55), an Allied attempt to capture the port and fortress of Sevastopol, Russian Empire, Russia's principal naval base on the Bl ...
, and the leftward swing in British public opinion during the war years that resulted in a landslide for the Labour Party in the 1945 general election was blamed by some Conservatives on the ABCA, a charge Adam considered absurd. The ABCA discussion groups substituted the "habit of rational argument for the anarchy of the barrack-room argument", he told the British Institute of Adult Education in 1945. On an inspection tour of the
Middle East Command Middle East Command, later Middle East Land Forces, was a British Army Command established prior to the Second World War in Egypt. Its primary role was to command British land forces and co-ordinate with the relevant naval and air commands to ...
in November 1943, Adam, by pure chance, encountered men who had been condemned to death and penal servitude for their part in the Salerno mutiny. He immediately suspended their sentences. In a letter to General Sir Bernard Montgomery, who had not been consulted about the sentences, Adam wrote that this was "one of the worst things we have ever done." Some of the men subsequently deserted, and therefore had their sentences re-imposed. Adam appointed a psychiatrist to examine their mental state. He wanted them released, but this did not occur before the end of the war. Adam blamed the mutiny on maladministration in General Sir Harold Alexander's
15th Army Group The 15th Army Group was an army group in World War II, composed of the British Eighth Army and initially the Seventh United States Army (1943), replaced by the Fifth United States Army (from January 1944), which apart from units from across the Br ...
; Montgomery was more specific, putting the blame on Lieutenant General Sir Charles Miller, Alexander's Chief Administrative Officer. As the end of the war approached, thoughts turned to demobilisation. Adam asked for the records of the demobilisation after the Great War, and found that they had been destroyed. Information was gathered from newspapers, ''
Hansard ''Hansard'' is the transcripts of parliamentary debates in Britain and many Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth countries. It is named after Thomas Curson Hansard (1776–1833), a London printer and publisher, who was the first official printe ...
'', journal articles, and a chapter in Winston Churchill's ''The World Crisis''. He instituted a demobilisation system based on the "first in, first out" principle, in which the only criteria were age and length of service, and resisted attempts to repeat the practice in 1918–19 of giving priority to the needs of the economy. Employers had preferred men with recent experience to those who had been away for years, which had led to mutinies by long-serving men. Adam remembered that many men had been hurt that in the demobilisation process they had left the Army without a word of thanks for years of service. He instituted a procedure whereby an officer personally thanked each man and said "goodbye." Adam was seen by Churchill, amongst others, as being too radical, and Adam aroused the suspicions of more conservative generals like Paget. Churchill even attempted to have him posted in early 1944 as Governor of Gibraltar but Brooke, who had been appointed CIGS at the end of 1941, and who saw him as progressive, ensured Adam continued to hold the post of Adjutant-General so long as Brooke remained CIGS, which he did until the end of the war. Adam was promoted to general on 12 April 1942. His influence on the conduct of the war was not only through his long tenure as Adjutant-General but also because he was one of Brooke's only two confidants, and the two of them lunched together regularly when both were in London. Adam was appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath in the 1941 Birthday Honours, and a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath in the 1946 New Year Honours. He was also made a Commander of the United States Legion of Merit on 14 November 1947. He was colonel commandant of the Royal Army Dental Corps from 1945 to 1951, of the Royal Artillery from 1940 to 1950, and of the Army Educational Corps from 1940 to 1950. He retired from the Army on 15 July 1946. He was succeeded by General Sir Richard O'Connor, who hated the job, and resigned in August 1947. Few of Adam's reforms survived. The Wozbees remained, but psychologists were removed from them. Infantry training reverted to the regiments, but post-war cuts in the size of the British Army reduced the number of infantry regiments though amalgamation and disbandment from 64 in 1945 to 16 in 2012, achieving much the same result. The ABCA was abolished in 1945.


Later life

In retirement, Adam's progressive record as Adjutant-General made him highly sought after by civilian organisations working in the field of adult education. He was chairman and Director General of the British Council from 1946 to 1954. He was also chairman of the National Institute of Industrial Psychology from 1947 to 1952, of the council of the Institute of Education at the University of London from 1948 until 1967, of the Library Association in 1949, and of the National Institute of Adult Education from 1949 to 1964. He was a member, and then chairman of the executive board of the UNESCO, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), and chairman of the United Nations Association – UK from 1957 to 1960. He was also principal of the Working Men's College, and sat on the governing bodies of the University of London's Birkbeck College from 1949 to 1967, and National Institute of Adult Continuing Education from 1949 to 1964. He was awarded an honorary Legum Doctor, LLD degree by the University of Aberdeen in 1945, and made an honorary fellow of Worcester College, Oxford, in 1946. He remained a severe critic of the British educational system and in 1961 wrote that it would not be fundamentally changed until private education was ended. Passionate about cricket, Adam was the president of the Marylebone Cricket Club from 1946 to 1947. He also served as chairman of the Linoleum Working Party in 1946, and was a member of the council of the Tavistock Clinic from 1945 to 1953, and the Miners' Welfare Commission from 1946 to 1952. With Charles Judd he published a short book produced in association with the United Nations Association, ''Assault at Arms: A Policy for Disarmament'' (1960). His sister, Hetty, moved in to help when his wife Dorothy became ill in the late 1960s, and remained after Dorothy died in 1972, until her own death in 1977. Adam died at his home in Faygate,
Sussex Sussex (Help:IPA/English, /ˈsʌsɪks/; from the Old English ''Sūþseaxe''; lit. 'South Saxons'; 'Sussex') is an area within South East England that was historically a kingdom of Sussex, kingdom and, later, a Historic counties of England, ...
, on 26 December 1982, and was buried in St Mary Magdalene churchyard in Rusper, Sussex, on 5 January 1983. He was survived by three of his daughters, and succeeded in the baronetcy by his nephew, Christopher Eric Forbes Adam. His papers are in the Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives at King's College London.


Arms


Notes


References

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External links


British Army Officers 1939–1945
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