GeneralSir John Winthrop Hackett, GCB,CBE,DSO & Bar,MC (5 November 1910 – 9 September 1997) was an Australian-born British soldier, painter, university administrator, author and in later life, a commentator.
On 3 August 1905, aged 57, Hackett Sr married Deborah Drake-Brockman, who was only 18 at the time — she later became Deborah, Lady Hackett; Deborah, Lady Moulden; and Deborah Buller Murphy — having married a director of several mining companies.[3] They had four daughters and a son. Hackett senior died in 1916. Lady Hackett remarried in 1918.[4]
Hackett junior received secondary schooling at Geelong Grammar School in Victoria and then travelled to London to study painting at the Central School of Art. He then studied Greats and Modern History at New College, Oxford, earning an M.A. 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.[5] During his military training, he completed a thesis in history with a focus on the crusades and the Early Middle Ages, particularly Saladin's campaign in the Third Crusade, for which he was awarded a B. Litt. He also qualified as an interpreter in French, German and Italian, studied Arabic and eventually became fluent in ten languages.[6][7]
He married Margaret Frena, daughter of Joseph Peter Frena, in Jerusalem Cathedral on 21 March 1942. Margaret outlived Hackett by a decade, dying on 14 May 2007. They had one child, Susan Veronica Hackett (20 May 1945 – December 1992).
Early career
He served in Palestine during the Arab revolt, where he was mentioned in despatches in 1936,[1] and then with the Trans-Jordan Frontier Force from 1937 to 1941, when he was mentioned in despatches.[1]
Second World War
King George VI inspects paratroops of 1st Airborne Division, 16 March 1944. Standing just a bit behind the King, with swagger stick and maroon beret, is Brigadier "Shan" Hackett, commanding the 4th Parachute Brigade, while Lieutenant Colonel K. B. I. Smyth, commanding the 10th Parachute Battalion and in maroon beret, stands just in front of him.
Hackett fought in the British Army in the Second World WarSyria-Lebanon campaign: he was wounded and was awarded the Military Cross.[1] During his recovery in Palestine, he met Margaret Fena, the Austrian widow of a German. Despite the difficulties caused by her nationality, they married in Jerusalem in 1942.[7]
In 1944, Hackett raised and commanded the 4th Parachute Brigade for the Allied assault on Arnhem, in Operation Market Garden. At the battle of Arnhem, Brigadier Hackett was severely wounded in the stomach, captured and then taken to the St. Elizabeth Hospital in Arnhem. A German doctor at the hospital wanted to administer a lethal injection to Hackett because he thought that the case was hopeless.[9]: 27 However, he was operated on by Alexander Lipmann-Kessel, who, with superb surgery, managed to save the brigadier's life.[9]: 44
St Elizabeth Hospital
After a period of recuperation, he managed to escape with the help of the Dutch underground. Although he was unfit to be moved, the Germans were about to move him to a prisoner-of-war camp. He was taken by 'Piet van Arnhem', a resistance worker from Ede, and driven to Ede. Hackett had extra bloody bandages applied to heighten the severity of his injuries. After leaving the hospital, Arnhem told the checkpoint they were taking Hackett to hospital, and were let through despite the hospital being in the opposite direction from which they had just come.[9]: 39
Hackett was hidden by a Dutch family, called de Nooij, who lived at No. 5 Torenstraat in Ede. The family nursed the brigadier back to health over a period of several months; he then managed to escape to the Allied lines with the help of the underground. He remained friends with the de Nooijs for the rest of their lives and visited immediately after they were liberated, bearing gifts. Hackett wrote about the experience in his book I Was A Stranger, published in 1977. He received his second Distinguished Service Order for his service at Arnhem.[1]
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.[1]
Retirement
After his retirement from the army, Hackett continued to be active in several areas. From 1968 to 1975, he was Principal of King's College, London. 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. American author Max Brooks cited Hackett's novels as one source of inspiration for his novel World War Z.[14]