Background
Claude Auchinleck was born on 21 June 1984 in Ulster of a Scots-lrish military family.
Claude Auchinleck was born on 21 June 1984 in Ulster of a Scots-lrish military family.
Auchinleck was educated at Sandhurst military academy. He served in India and performed with distinction in the Middle East in World War I. He graduated from Wellington College, and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, and in 1904 was assigned to the Sixty-Second Punjab Regiment as a second lieutenant.
He served in India until the outbreak of World War I, when he went first to Egypt and then to Aden. In 1916 he was transferred to Mesopotamia, and during his three years' service there he was awarded the D.S.O., the O.B.E., and at the end of the war, the Croix de Guerre. After returning to India with his regiment, Auchinleck won distinction in 1933 in an expedition against Afghan tribesmen at the Khyber Pass. In 1936 he became the deputy chief of the General Staff in India, and from 1938 to 1940 he served as commander of the Meerut District.
In June 1943 he was succeeded by Sir Harold Alexander and returned to India as commander in chief, serving in that post until the realization of Indian independence in 1947. Auchinleck was knighted in 1945, and on June 1, 1946, he was promoted to field marshal. In the following year he was Supreme Commander in India and Pakistan. He retired from the army in 1948.