Adrian Liddell Hart

Adrian John Liddell Hart (1922–1991) was a British soldier, Royal Navy officer, Liberal Party politician, author and adventurer. He served briefly in the French Foreign Legion and portrayed it in the 1953 book Strange Company.

Early life and career The son of Sir Basil Liddell Hart (1895–1970), by his first wife Jessie Stone, Liddell Hart was the godson of Major-General J. F. C. Fuller, and was educated at St Andrew's School, Pangbourne, before Eton and King's College, Cambridge. With the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939 he joined the British Army and in 1940 became adjutant of the Local Defence Volunteers at Dartington, Devon. In 1941, he joined the trained Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve and after training at , Fareham, he was selected as an officer candidate.

After obligatory sea time as a junior rank on the Flower-class corvette Carnation during which he saw service in the Battle of the Atlantic, he was commissioned and attended the RNVR officer training course at in Hove, Sussex. He was promoted to sub lieutenant on in 1942 and saw active service in the Mediterranean in 1943, before joining the Combined Operations Command of British North African Forces later that year and the Signal Division of the Admiralty in London from 1943 to 1944, then and later in 1944. In 1945, he was appointed flag lieutenant to the admiral commanding Iceland.

Later career From 1945 to 1946 Liddell Hart was assistant editor to the Preparatory Commission of the United Nations, and, from 1946 to 1947, was a political affairs officer of the United Nations Organisation, based in New York.

He next joined the Control Service for Germany, attached to the British Army of the Rhine, and the administrative staff headquarters of the Allied Control Council (British sector). He worked for the original Outward Bound Sea School in 1949 and as the House of Commons lobby correspondent of The Yorkshire Observer from 1949 to 1950.

Politics At the 1945 general election, Liddell Hart was the Liberal candidate for Blackpool South, and at the 1950 general election was the party's candidate for Sowerby. On both occasions, he was defeated.

Works Books The Growth of New Germany (1949) Strange Company (1953) The Sword and the Pen: Selections From the World's Greatest Military Writings (1975)