Lashmer Whistler

Sir Lashmer Gordon Whistler
Lashmer Whistler, pictured here in the centre, with Home Guard commanders in Oswestry, 1954.
Nickname(s)	"Bolo" "Private Bolo"
Born	(1898-09-03)3 September 1898
Died	4 July 1963(1963-07-04) (aged 64)
Allegiance	United Kingdom
Service/branch	British Army
Years of service	1917–1957
Rank	General
Unit	Royal Sussex Regiment
Commands held	4th Battalion, Royal Sussex Regiment 132nd Infantry Brigade 131st Infantry Brigade 160th Infantry Brigade 3rd Infantry Division Northumbrian District and 50th (Northumbrian) Infantry Division West Africa Command Western Command
Battles/wars	First World War Second World War Battle of France Western Desert Campaign Tunisia Campaign Italian Campaign Battle of Normandy Operation Market Garden Operation Veritable Western Allied invasion of Germany
Awards	Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire Distinguished Service Order & Two Bars Mentioned in dispatches (3)
Other work	Chairman, Committee on the New Army (1957)

First World War
Second World War

General Sir Lashmer Gordon Whistler GCB, KBE, DSO & Two Bars, DL (3 September 1898 – 4 July 1963), known as Bolo, was a senior officer of the British Army who served in both the First World War and the Second World War. During the latter, he achieved senior ranks serving with Field Marshal Sir Bernard Law Montgomery in North Africa and North-western Europe. Montgomery considered that Whistler "was about the best infantry brigade commander I knew". In peacetime, his outstanding powers of leadership were shown in a series of roles in the decolonisation process, and he reached the rank of general.

Whistler was the son of Colonel A.E. Whistler of the British Indian Army and his wife Florence Annie Gordon Rivett-Carnac, daughter of Charles Forbes Rivett-Carnac. He was educated at St Cyprian's School where he was an outstanding sportsman, and on the recommendation of the headmaster was awarded a sporting scholarship at Harrow School. He played cricket for Harrow, and was to remain a redoubtable batsman throughout his career. He then went to Royal Military College, Sandhurst, and was commissioned as a second lieutenant into the Royal Sussex Regiment in September 1917 and served on the Western Front during the Great War. He was wounded twice, and on the second occasion he was taken as prisoner of war by the Germans before he had recovered. Later, he managed to escape from a prison train, but was re-captured within 20 yards of the Dutch border. He was then held at Ulrich Gasse in Cologne where he lost five stone and could hardly walk by the end of the war