Charles Cholmondeley (intelligence officer)

Charles Cholmondeley MBE was a British intelligence officer known for his leading role in Operation Mincemeat, a critical military deception operation which misdirected German forces' attention away from the Allied Invasion of Sicily in Operation Husky.[1]

Cholmondeley and Montagu in 1943

Biography

Cholmondeley, who was born in O'Halloran Hill, South Australia,[2] was a flight lieutenant in the Royal Air Force (RAF) who had been seconded to MI5, Britain's domestic counter-intelligence and security service. He had been appointed as the secretary of the Twenty Committee, a small inter-service, inter-departmental intelligence team in charge of double agents.[3]

In November 1942, the Twenty Committee turned down Cholmondeley's Operation Mincemeat plan as being unworkable, but thought there may have been some potential in the idea. As there was a naval connection to the plan, Ewen Montagu, the naval representative, was assigned to work with Cholmondeley to develop the plan further.[4][5] As part of his duties Montagu had been briefed on the need for deception operations to aid the Allied war aims in a forthcoming invasion operation in the Mediterranean.[5]

He was awarded the MBE in 1944.[6]

Cholmondeley died 15 June 1982; Montagu wrote an obituary that was published in The Times.[7]

  • Cholmondeley has also been portrayed by David Cumming in Operation Mincemeat (Musical), a show first performed at New Diorama Theatre in 2019 and premiered at Fortune Theatre in the West End in 2023.

References
  1. "The War on Paper: Operation Mincemeat".
  2. "R.A.A.F. AWARDS IN LONDON". Sydney Morning Herald. 9 June 1944. Retrieved 4 March 2023.
  3. Macintyre 2010, p. 13.
  4. Macintyre 2010, pp. 19–20.
  5. Smyth 2010, p. 28.
  6. "Page 2584 | Supplement 36544, 2 June 1944 | London Gazette | The Gazette". www.thegazette.co.uk. Retrieved 2023-03-04.
  7. Montagu, Ewen (23 June 1982). "Mr Charles Cholmondeley". The Times. No. 61267. p. 12.

Books
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