Hastings Lionel Ismay 1st Baron Ismay

Hastings Lionel Ismay Ismay, 1st Baron , 1887-1965, British general, known as "Pug" Ismay. He served in India and, during World War I, in Africa. During World War II he held simultaneously the posts of chief of staff to Winston Churchill and deputy secretary to the war cabinet. In 1946 he retired from the army and received a peerage. In 1951 he was appointed secretary of state for commonwealth relations. He resigned the following year to become secretary-general to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, remaining in that post until 1957.

Bibliography: See his memoirs (1960, repr. 1974).

Ismay, General Hastings (1887–1965),British Army officer who served as Churchill's chief of staff in his capacity as minister of defence. He handled the relationship between Churchill and the British Chiefs of Staff with great aplomb and Churchill trusted him totally. His position was unique and he spent, as he said, ‘the whole war in the middle of the web’. He was promoted lt-general in 1942 and general in 1944. He was never knighted but was created a baron in 1947.

Bibliography

The Memoirs of Lord Ismay (London, 1960).