John Winthrop Hackett received secondary schooling at Geelong Grammar School in Victoria, Australia.
Gallery of John Hackett
Central School of Art, London, United Kingdom
John Winthrop Hackett studied painting at the Central School of Art in London.
College/University
Gallery of John Hackett
Holywell St, Oxford OX1 3BN, United Kingdom
Hackett attended New College at Oxford, where he read history under Richard Crossman, almost exhausting him with his relentless flow of questions. There he earned his Master of Arts.
Hackett attended New College at Oxford, where he read history under Richard Crossman, almost exhausting him with his relentless flow of questions. There he earned his Master of Arts.
(Badly wounded at the battle of Arnhem, and then spirited ...)
Badly wounded at the battle of Arnhem, and then spirited from his hospital bed by the Dutch Resistance, Brigadier John Hackett spent the winter of 1944 in Nazi-occupied Holland, hidden by a Dutch family, at great risk to their own lives. Hackett was at last well enough to set out on an adventure which would, he hoped, lead him to freedom.
Sir John Winthrop Hackett was an Australian-born British highly respected fighting soldier. He had a successful 35-year career in the Army culminating in command of the Northern Army Group in NATO, from 1966 to 1968. In addition to his achievements as a soldier, he was also a well-regarded author, university administrator, interpreter, and commentator.
Background
John Winthrop Hackett was born on November 5, 1910 in Perth, Australia. His father, also Sir John Winthrop Hackett, who was of Irish descent, owned two newspapers. His mother was Deborah Drake-Brockman. Her parents were prominent members of Western Australian society - Grace Bussell, famous for rescuing shipwreck survivors as a teenager and Frederick Slade Drake-Brockman, a prominent surveyor and explorer. John Winthrop Hackett had four sisters: Verna Hackett, Joan Hackett, Patricia Hackett, and Deborah Winthrop Hackett.
Education
John Winthrop Hackett received secondary schooling at Geelong Grammar School in Victoria, Australia, and then traveled to London to study painting at the Central School of Art. He then left to continue his university studies at Oxford.
Hackett attended New College at Oxford, where he read history under Richard Crossman, almost exhausting him with his relentless flow of questions. There he earned his Master of Arts degree.
As his degree was not good enough for an academic career, Hackett joined the British Army and was commissioned into the 8th King's Royal Irish Hussars in 1933, having previously joined the Supplementary Reserve of Officers in 1931.
During his military training, he completed a thesis on Saladin's campaign in the Third Crusade, for which he was awarded a Bachelor of Literature. Besides, he also qualified as an interpreter in French, German and Italian, studied Arabic and eventually became fluent in ten languages.
John Winthrop Hackett was commissioned in 1931 as an officer in the 8th King's Royal Irish Hussars. In Palestine, in 1936, he was mentioned in dispatches and was then seconded to the Trans-Jordan Frontier Force from 1937-1941, where he was mentioned in dispatches twice.
In 1941 Hackett was wounded in Syria and again in the Western Desert, after he had formed and commanded the 4th Parachute Brigade. He was wounded yet again in Italy, in 1943, and once more in 1944, when he took part in the disastrous parachute landing on Arnhem in Holland, where the Germans were waiting. He remained in the British Army after the Second World War and went on to become one of that country's most famous Army generals.
He returned to Palestine in 1947 where he assumed command of the Trans-Jordan Frontier Force. Under his direction, the force was disbanded, as part of the British withdrawal from the region. He then attended university at Graz, as a postgraduate in post-mediaeval studies.
After attending Staff College in 1951, he was appointed to command the 20th Armoured Brigade and, on being promoted to Major General, assumed command of the 7th Armoured Division. In 1958, he became Commandant of the Royal Military College of Science, Shrivenham, and was promoted to Lieutenant General in 1961. He became General Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Northern Ireland Command, in 1961 and was knighted (KCB) on 2 June 1962.
In 1963, he was appointed to Ministry of Defence as Deputy Chief of the General Staff, responsible for forces organisation and weapon development and became the leading figure in the reorganisation of the Territorial Army, which made him unpopular. He relinquished his appointment as Deputy Chief of the General Staff on 4 February 1966.
On 14 April 1966, he was appointed commander of the British Army of the Rhine and the parallel command of NATO's Northern Army Group, and his ability to speak several languages made him a natural choice, as did his friendship with foreign soldiers such as Johann von Kielmansegg of the Bundeswehr.
In 1968 he wrote a highly controversial letter to The Times that was critical of the British government's apparent lack of concern over the strength of NATO forces in Europe but signed the letter as a NATO officer, not as a British commander.
After retirement from the Army, he continued to be active in several areas. From 1968 to 1975, he was Principal of King's College, London. He proved to be a popular figure, addressing gatherings of students on several occasions and attending at least one NUS demonstration for higher student grants.
In 1978, he wrote a novel, The Third World War: August 1985, which was a fictionalized scenario of the Third World War based on a Red Army invasion of West Germany in 1985. It was followed in 1982 by The Third World War: The Untold Story, which elaborated on the original, including more detail from a Soviet perspective.
Hackett lived in England until his death at Cheltenham, Gloucestershire on 9 September 1997. His ashes were returned to Australia to be placed on the grave where his father was buried and where his mother's ashes were also placed.
John Winthrop Hackett was fluent in ten languages.
Connections
John Hackett married Margaret Fena, the Austrian widow of a German, in Jerusalem in 1942. They had met in Palestine during his recovery (after a wound in the Second World War). The couple had a daughter, but she deceased. John Hackett had also two stepdaughters.