Adrian Carton de Wiart was born on May 5 1880 in Brussels, within an aristocratic Belgian family. From a young age, his life seemed destined for the comfort and sophistication that corresponded to his social position. But destiny and his own rebellious nature took him down unusual paths.
His childhood was spent among privileges, under the tutelage of parents who offered him an elite education. His mother died when he was young, and his father, a businessman and diplomat, sent him to England to study. This is how Adrian grew up in an environment that combined academic rigor and British traditions.
Still a teenager, he entered the Balliol College de Oxford to study Rightbut university life did not captivate him. In 1899, when he was only 19 years old and fascinated by war stories, he decided to abandon his studies. With youthful ardor as his only driving force, he headed to South Africa to join the British troops fighting in the Second Anglo-Boer War.
Because he was too young to legally enlist, he lied about his age and identity, adopting a false name and adding years to his short life. There, in a dusty and hostile terrain, he received his first wounds bullet, one in the stomach and another in the ingle. He was sent back to England to recover, but this initial combat experience would only be a prelude to a life scarred by war.
In 1901after being a naturalized British citizen, began his official military career by joining the 4th Regiment of Royal Dragoons. Over the years that followed, Carton de Wiart built a reputation as a fearless and sometimes reckless man. World War I found him serving in Somaliland, where he fought against the followers of Mohammed bin Abdullah, known as the “Mad Mullah”.
It was during one of those confrontations that he was shot in the face, losing his left eye, which is why since then he wore the black patch which would become his trademark. Far from being intimidated, he considered this accident as a sort of blessing: The wound allowed him to return to Europe, where he believed the “real” combat was.
On the battlefields of World War I, Carton de Wiart cemented its status as living legend. In 1915, during the Second Battle of Ypres, his left hand was destroyed by shrapnel. According to his own narration in Happy Odysseyhis autobiography, decided to tear off two damaged fingers with his teeth after a surgeon refused to amputate them.
Eventually, the entire hand had to be removed, leaving him with a mutilated arm. But this did not stop him. He returned to the front, armed with an energy that inspired both his men and those around him. During the Battle of the Sommehe again distinguished himself by leading his troops under devastating enemy fire, earning himself the Victoria Cross, the United Kingdom’s highest military decoration.
The war was for him, as he expressed with disturbing clarity in his autobiography, an exciting experience. “Frankly, I enjoyed the war.” wrote. This feeling, difficult for many to understand, reflects his combative spirit and his almost carefree attitude in the face of danger and physical loss. Throughout his career, he received a total of eight serious injuries, including impacts to the hip, skull, leg and ear. On more than one occasion, his body was so punished that doctors assumed he would not survive.
After the First World War, Carton de Wiart continued his military service, serving on diplomatic missions in Poland during the interwar years. But his destiny was still linked to the heat of combat. When World War II broke out, despite having more than 60 yearsreturned to action. He was assigned to an operation in Norway to stop the German advance, a mission that failed due to lack of supplies.
Shortly after, in 1941while en route to Yugoslavia as leader of a British mission, his plane crashed in the Mediterranean. He survived the accident and swam to the coast of Italian Libya, where he was captured by fascist forces.
As a prisoner of war, Carton de Wiart demonstrated that his indomitable spirit knew no limits. He attempted to escape from the Italians on five occasions, managing to elude capture for eight days on one of them, despite being easily recognizable by his eye patch and missing hand. He was eventually released in 1943 and sent by Winston Churchill to China, where he served as British representative to Chiang Kai-shek during the final years of the conflict.
In his final years, Carton de Wiart retired to Ireland, where he devoted his time to fishing, an activity that contrasted deeply with the intensity of his previous life. He died peacefully in 1963, at 83 yearshaving survived more injuries and dangers than most people could imagine.
