Caunter , John Alan Lyde , 1889-1981 , Brigadier

Born 1889; educated at Uppingham School, Leicestershire, and Royal Military College, Sandhurst; commissioned into The Gloucestershire Regt, 1909; served in Bombay, India, 1910; Lt, 1911; service with 7 Bn, The King's (Liverpool Regt), Territorial Force, 1913; served with 1 Bn, The Gloucestershire Regt, Bordon, Hampshire, 1914; served in World War One, 1914-1918; service with 1 Bn, The Gloucestershire Regt, 3 Infantry Bde, 1 Div, 1 Corps, British Expeditionary Force (BEF), Belgium and France, 1914; captured by German forces, 1914; POW, 1914-1917; Capt, 1915; awarded MC, 1916; escaped to the Netherlands from Schwarmstedt prison camp, Germany, 1917; service on Western Front, Macedonia and Turkey, 1917-1918; awarded Bar to MC, 1918; General Staff Officer 3, General Headquarters (Operations and Intelligence), British Salonika Force, 1918-1919; Brevet Maj, 1919; General Staff Officer 3, British Salonika Force and British Army of the Black Sea, Russia, 1919-1920; General Staff Officer 3, 6 Div, Mesopotamian Expeditionary Force, Iraq, 1920-1921; Capt, Royal Tank Corps, 1923; graduated from Staff College, Camberley, Surrey, 1923; Maj, 1924; Deputy Assistant Adjutant General, British Army of the Rhine (BAOR), Germany, 1925-1927; Senior Officers School, Sheerness, Kent, 1927; General Staff Officer 2, Northern Command, 1927-1929; Deputy Assistant Adjutant and Quartermaster General, Northern Ireland District, 1930-1933; Brevet Lt Col, 1933; Lt Col, 1935; Commanding Officer, 1 Bn (Light), Royal Tank Corps, Egypt, 1935-1939; Col, 1936; temporary Brig, 1939; commanded 1 Army Tank Bde, 1939; served in World War Two, 1939-1945; commanded Armoured Bde, Egypt, 1939-1941; commanded 4 Armoured Bde, 7 Armoured Div, Western Desert campaign, 1940-1941; commanded 4 Armoured Bde in capture of Fort Capuzzo, Battle of Beda Fomm, Libya, Feb 1941; awarded CBE, 1941; Brig General Staff and Deputy Director of Staff Duties, Armoured Troops, General Headquarters, India, 1941-1943; retired 1944; member of Looe Urban District Council, Cornwall, 1952-1967; member for Great Britain, International Committee of the International Game Fish Association; died 1981. Publications: 13 days. The chronicle of an escape from a German prison camp (G Bell and Sons, London, 1918); A short guide to shark angling at Looe, and other places in SW England (Published by the author, Looe, Cornwall, 1958); Shark angling in Great Britain (George Allen and Unwin, London, 1961).