James Carne: Difference between revisions

{{Use dmy dates|date=AprilDecember 20122020}}

|image= Lieutenant File:Colonel James Power Carne VC, DSO.jpg

|birth_place= [[Falmouth, Cornwall]], England

|death_place=[[Cheltenham]], [[Gloucestershire]], England

|unit= [[The Gloucestershire Regiment]]

|commands= 1st Battalion, [[The Gloucestershire Regiment]]

Carne was born in [[Falmouth, Cornwall]] on 11 April 1906 the son of George Newby Carne and Annie Emily Le Poar Carne (née Power).<ref name="Census1911" /> His father was a brewer and wine merchant.<ref name="Census1911" /> A career officer, he attended the [[Imperial Service College]] in Windsor<ref>D. G. Amphlett, ''Gloucester: History You Can See'', The History Press, 2014, {{ISBN|075095714X}}, 9780750957144]</ref> and later passed out from the [[Royal Military College, Sandhurst]] and was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Gloucestershire Regiment on 3 September 1925.<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=33081|page=5837|date=4 September 1925}}</ref> He was promoted to lieutenant on 3 September 1927 and to captain on 1 October 1935.<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=33342|page=8370|date=30 December 1927}}</ref><ref>{{London Gazette|issue=34205|page=6300|date=8 October 1935}}</ref> Seeing service in the Second World War, he was promoted to major on 3 September 1942.<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=35690|page=3856|date=1 September 1942}}</ref> He was promoted to [[lieutenant colonel]] on 7 February 1949.<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=38555|supp=y|page=1186|date=8 March 1949}}</ref>

According to documents held at the [[National Archives in Kew]] and not made public until 2006, when Carne was released in September 1953 he told Sir [[Esler Dening]], the British ambassador in Tokyo, "an extraordinary story" of [[brainwashing]].<ref>[httphttps://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/11/08/npow08.xml Daily Telegraph]{{dead link|date=July 2021|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref> "He says that between January 1952 and August this year he was kept in solitary confinement by Chinese communists and subjected to a softening-up process including the use of drugs, [the] result of which was, as he put it, to make his brain like a sponge, capable of receiving any kind of information put into it,", Sir Esler told the Foreign Office in a "top secret" category telegram.

The note, which was sent straight to Sir [[Winston Churchill]], in his second term as Primeprime Ministerminister, went on: "In March of this year, (i.e. about the time when the communists displayed a new interest in concluding an armistice) various thoughts were put in tointo his mind, and he remains convinced that he was meant to retain these and pass them on to Her Majesty's Government." The thoughts comprised a peace deal not just to end the war in Korea, but to reach a settlement covering the whole Pacific region. Sir Esler opined: "The whole thing might be pure fantasy except for the fact that Colonel Carne could hardly have invented it and does not strike one as that sort of person." The [[Foreign Office]] was sceptical about the plot, but suggested that perhaps its aim was to split Britain from its American ally.<ref>[httphttps://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/11/08/npow08.xml ''[[The Daily Telegraph]]'']{{dead link|date=July 2021|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}} 8 November 2006]</ref>

In 1954 it was announced that [[Warwick Productions]] wanted to make a film ''The Glorious Glosters'' starring [[Alan Ladd]] as Carne based on a script by [[Max Trell]].<ref>{{Cite news|title=FILM IS PLANNED ON GLOUCESTERS: Ladd Is Sought for Lead in Story of British Regiment That Fought in Korea|author=THOMAS M. PRYOR|date=29 January 1954|work=The New York Times|page=16}}</ref> However the film was never made. Carne was honoured by South Korea in 2015 when his image was featured on a South Korean stamp issued to commemorate the 65th anniversary of the start of the Korean War.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-gloucestershire-33343180|title=British war hero honoured on South Korean stamp|date=4 July 2015|publisher=[[BBC]]|access-date=2 June 2019}}</ref>

*27 October 1953 – Lieutenant-Colonel James Power Carne, DSO, (33647), The Gloucestershire Regiment, is awarded the [[Victoria Cross]] in recognition of gallant and distinguished service in Korea.<ref name="vc" /> His Victoria Cross is held by the Soldiers of Gloucestershire Museum, Gloucester, Gloucestershire, England.<ref>[{{Cite web |url=http://www.glosters.org.uk/ |title=The Soldiers of Gloucestershire Museum] |access-date=4 May 2007 |archive-date=17 August 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210817130216/http://www.glosters.org.uk/ |url-status=dead }}</ref>

*30 October 1953 – Lieutenant-Colonel James Power Carne, VC, DSO (33647)., The Gloucestershire Regiment is given permission to wear the [[Distinguished Service Cross (United States)|Distinguished Service Cross]] conferred by the President of the United States for gallant and distinguished services during operations by the United Nations in Korea.<ref name="dsc" />

<div class="center">

[[File:UK Victoria Cross (UK) ribbon bar.pngsvg|100px]]

[[File:United Nations KoreaService Medal Korea ribbon.svg|100px]]

</centerdiv>

{{reflist|30em|refs=

<ref name="dsc">{{London Gazette |issue=39999 |date=30 October 1953 |page=5767 |supp=y }}</ref>}}

* [https://web.archive.org/web/2011011216351320070822214645/http://www.britains-smallwarshomeusers.comprestel.co.uk/koreastewart/Imjingloucest.htmlhtm LieutenantLocation Colonelof Jamesgrave Carneand VC medal] ''(detailed account of the Battle of the Imjin RiverGloucestershire)''

* [https://web.archive.org/web/19990203035155/http://www.magicnet.net/~westham/vc00.html James Carne]

[[Category:British prisoners of war (in the Korean War)]]