THORNHILL, Lt Col Edmund Basil (1898-1998)

Identity Statement

Reference code(s)	: GB 0099 KCLMA Thornhill
Held at	: Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives, King's College London   Click here to find out how to view this collection at http://www.kingscollections.org/catalogues/lhcma ›
Full title	: THORNHILL, Lt Col Edmund Basil (1898-1998)
Date(s)	: Created 1993
Level of description	: Collection (fonds)
Extent	: 1 volume
Name of creator(s)	:

Context

Administrative/Biographical history:

Born 1898; educated at Rosslyn House, Felixstowe, Suffolk, St Bees School, Cumberland, and the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich; served in World War One, 1914-1918; commissioned into the Royal Field Artillery, 1916; service with 1B Reserve Bde, Royal Field Artillery, Forest Row, Sussex, 1916; service with C Battery, 93 Army Field Bde, Royal Artillery, Western Front, 1917-1918; wounded, Battle of Vimy Ridge, 1917; Lt, 1918; awarded MC, 1918; served with 31 Bde, Royal Field Artillery, Boyton Camp, Codford, Wiltshire, 1919-1920; service with 133 Battery, 20 Bde, Royal Field Artillery, Trimulgherry, India, 1920-1921; served with 41 Battery, 20 Field Regt, Royal Artillery, Trimulgherry and Bangalore, India, 1921-1924; service in Aldershot, Hampshire, 1925-1927; Adjutant, 5 Light Bde, Royal Artillery, Ewshot, Hampshire, 1927-1930; Capt, 1929; Second in Command, Z Battery, 21 Field Regt, Royal Artillery, Catterick, Yorkshire, 1930-1931; graduated from Staff College, Camberley, Surrey, 1933; General Staff Officer 3, Ceylon, 1935-1937; Staff Capt, Southern Command Headquarters, Salisbury, Wiltshire, 1937-1939; Maj, 1938; Deputy Assistant Adjutant and Quartermaster General, Chatham, Kent, 1939; served in World War Two, 1939-1945; Deputy Assistant Adjutant General, Headquarters 1 Corps, British Expeditionary Force (BEF), Belgium and France, 1939-1940; evacuated from Dunkirk, France (Operation DYNAMO), 1940; Assistant Adjutant and Quartermaster General, 61 Div, Ballymena, Northern Ireland, 1940-1942; Second in Command, 2 Regt, Royal Horse Artillery, 8 Army, Western Desert, 1942; Second Battle of El Alamein, Oct 1942; Commanding Officer, 121 (Self Propelled) Field Regt, Royal Artillery, 1942-1943; Deputy President, Middle East Officer Selection Board, Tripoli, Libya, 1943-1944; Deputy President, War Office Selection Board, Catania, Sicily, and San Giorgio Acrimona, Italy, 1944; General Staff Officer 1, 1 District, Foligno, Italy, 1944; Lt Col, 1945; Commandant, Z POW Camp, Perugia, Italy, 1945; Assistant Adjutant General, General Headquarters, 2 Echelon, Naples, Italy, 1945-1946; served at School of Artillery, Larkhill, Wiltshire, 1947; retired 1948; Deputy Commandant, Cambridgeshire Army Cadet Force, 1949-1952; Deputy Lieutenant, Cambridgeshire and Isle of Ely, 1956; Chairman, Cambridgeshire and Isle of Ely Territorial Army and Auxiliary Forces Association, 1957-1962; Vice Lieutenant, Cambridgeshire and Isle of Ely, 1965-1975; died 1998.

Content

Scope and content/abstract:

Printed volume entitled 'Recollections', a memoir of Thornhill's life, 1898-1992, including service on the Western Front, World War One, 1917-1918, including the Battle of Vimy Ridge, 1917; India, 1920-1924, and North Africa and Italy, World War Two, 1942-1945, notably the Second Battle of El Alamein, Oct 1942.

Access & Use

Language/scripts of material:
English

System of arrangement:

1 volume

Conditions governing access:

Open, subject to signature of reader's undertaking form.

Conditions governing reproduction:

Copies, subject to the condition of the original, may be supplied for research use only. Requests to publish original material should be submitted to the Trustees of the Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives, attention of the Director of Archive Services.

Finding aids:

Summary guide available on-line at http://www.kcl.ac.uk/lhcma/top.htm,and in hard copy in the Centre's reading room.

Archival Information

Archival history:

Immediate source of acquisition:

Presented to the Centre by the family in 1999.

Allied Materials

Related material:

National Register of Archives: Click here to view NRA record

Publication note:

Description Notes

Archivist's note:

Rules or conventions:

Date(s) of descriptions:
Sep 1999