Hastings Lionel Ismay, 1st Baron Ismay
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Hastings Lionel Ismay, 1st Baron Ismay, KG, GCB, CH, DSO, PC (21 June 1887–17 December 1965) was a British soldier and diplomat.
He joined the Indian Army and served during World War I in Somaliland. During World War II he was Winston Churchill's Chief of Staff, retiring from the British Army in 1946. He then served as chief of staff to Lord Mountbatten of Burma, then Viceroy of India. In 1951 he was made Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations, and in 1952 became the first Secretary General of NATO, a post he held until 1957.
In January 1947 he was raised to the Peerage as Baron Ismay, of Wormington in the County of Gloucester. Baron Ismay died without a male heir and hence on his death the title became extinct.
He was nicknamed "Pug", which is the name by which both Mountbatten and Churchill knew him.
Biography
- Born in 1887
- Educated at Charterhouse and Royal Military College, Sandhurst
- Commissioned 1905
- Joined 21 Cavalry (Frontier Force), Indian Army, 1907
- North-West Frontier, India, 1908
- World War I, 1914-1918
- Operations in Somaliland against Mohammed bin Abdullah (The Mad Mullah), 1914-1920
- Staff College, Quetta, India, 1922
- Deputy Assistant Quartermaster General, Army Headquarters, India, 1923
- RAF Staff College, Andover, 1924
- Army Headquarters, India, 1925
- Assistant Secretary, Committee of Imperial Defence, 1926-1930
- Military Secretary to Freeman Freeman-Thomas, 1st Earl of Willingdon, Viceroy of India, 1931-1933
- General Staff Officer Grade 1, War Office, 1933-1936
- Deputy Secretary, Committee of Imperial Defence, 1936-1938
- Secretary, Committee of Imperial Defence, 1938
- Chief of Staff to Ministry of Defence, 1940-1945
- Deputy Secretary (Military) to War Cabinet, 1940-1945
- Additional Secretary (Military) to the Cabinet, 1945
- Made Baron Ismay of Wormington, 1947
- Chief of Staff to Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma, last Viceroy of India, Mar-Nov 1947
- Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations, 1951-1952
- Secretary-General, North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), 1952-1957
- Allegedly made the statement: "NATO is designed to keep the Americans in, the Russians out, and the Germans down," sometime during his office at NATO
- Vice Chairman, North Atlantic Council, 1952-1956
- Chairman, North Atlantic Council, 1956-1957
- Died in 1965
Source: Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives
Publications
- The memoirs of General the Lord Ismay (Heinemann, London, 1960)
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