“Who was this mysterious man and what was it that made him so indispensable to a wartime prime minister?”

By John Kiszely

ON 6 April 1982, at the very start of the Falklands War, the former British prime minister, Harold Macmillan, called on the incumbent prime minister, Margaret Thatcher, to offer advice on the management of the war.

“You will need a Pug Ismay,” he told her.[1]

Wags have suggested that her first response was, “What is a ‘pugismay?’”

Although undoubtedly apocryphal, the story illustrates that General “Pug” Ismay was not exactly a household name at the time, let alone today. Indeed, few people have ever heard of him. So who was this mysterious man and what was it that made him so indispensable to a wartime prime minister?

Ismay played a key role in the premiership of Winston Churchill. On Day One as prime minister in May 1940 Churchill appointed himself minister of defence with Ismay as his chief staff officer. The PM had seen Ismay at work in Whitehall running the key Committee for Imperial Defence – and been impressed.  They were to remain together until 1945.

When, prior to the French surrender in June 1940, Churchill travelled to France for crisis talks with the French government, Ismay was at his side for each of the five visits. Later that year during the Battle of Britain and the Blitz, when Churchill frequently visited RAF stations and bomb-damaged areas, it was almost invariably Ismay who was with him. The general witnessed Churchill in his finest hour, providing steadfast leadership and inspiring the survivors of the stricken communities. These visits, like those to France, were to strengthen both Ismay`s admiration for Churchill and the bond between them.  

Ismay’s official job was to head-up the minister of defence’s personal staff and ensure that his decisions were implemented without delay; in short, to make things happen. But his role developed into something far bigger. As Churchill was later to write of their relationship: “We became hand in glove and much more.”[2]

Ismay’s daily routine required him to be in close contact with Churchill from early morning — when he reported to Churchill’s bedside — and throughout the day, whether in Whitehall, on tour around the country or abroad at conferences. In the evening when Churchill was in his office working — and if he was in the office he was always working — Ismay would join him, sitting in a corner doing his own work but available as an advisor, counsellor and sounding board. These sessions often lasted until well after midnight. Indeed, Ismay spent more time with Churchill during the war than anyone outside the prime minister’s family.

Churchill also appointed Ismay to be a member of the exclusive Chiefs of Staff Committee – the other members being the heads of the Army, Royal Navy and Royal Air Force. Ismay became the intermediary between them and the prime minister.

As the relationship between prime minister and the military became increasingly fractious, with the Chiefs threatening resignation, Ismay took upon himself the role of mediator and conciliator, on several occasions acting to prevent an escalation into what threatened to become a constitutional crisis. He became known in Whitehall as “the man with the oil can.”

Many of the challenges facing Ismay resulted from the singular way in which Churchill ran the war. The prime minister produced a constant flow of ideas not just about strategy but also about detailed tactics, equipment, organisations, personalities, and anything else that sprang to his mind. Churchill’s impatience for action knew few bounds; his irritation with anyone opposing his ideas was renowned. Ismay became adept at handling him, knowing when and how to counter a proposal, when to let it go forward — possibly with a bit of rewording — or when to divert Churchill’s attention with a more pressing matter. This did not always work and sometimes resulted in abuse being heaped on Ismay himself. As other members of the prime minister’s staff have recorded, Churchill was not easy to work for, but Ismay understood the huge pressure that the prime minister was under and made the necessary allowances.

Ismay was also instrumental in building and maintaining the Anglo-American relationship. He befriended the senior American military staff in London and worked to establish the British military mission in Washington which was to play such an important part in joint planning. 

At the overseas summit conferences, many of which started in an atmosphere of discord and acrimony, Ismay, along with General Sir John Dill, again acted as mediator and conciliator, bringing the two sides together in a spirit of cooperation. He established a particularly close relationship with General Dwight Eisenhower, initially head of the American planning staff in London, then commander-in-chief of the Allied Expeditionary Force. He provided him with support and friendship at times when some senior British military – for example, Generals Alan Brooke and Bernard Montgomery – were expressing doubts about Eisenhower`s competence.  

When Churchill was replaced as prime minister by Clement Attlee in July 1945, Ismay continued to serve as chief staff officer until December 1946. On his retirement he was awarded a peerage. A month later the now Lord Ismay volunteered to accompany Admiral Louis Mountbatten, the newly appointed viceroy of India, as his chief staff officer for the transfer of power in India. Ismay was to play a key role in what became known as the Partition, both in its planning and conduct, and especially in using his skills as a conciliator and intermediary to alleviate the disastrous violence and turmoil of its implementation.

He was to be reunited with Churchill in 1951 when Churchill returned as prime minster, appointing Ismay to his cabinet as Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations. Then a year later Ismay was appointed the first secretary general of NATO, a post he was to hold for five years with great distinction. Indeed, he was instrumental in building the foundations of the alliance and in preserving its unity and cohesion at the height of the Cold War.

Ismay thus lived a life full of achievement and distinguished service. But the wartime role he played at Churchill’s right hand is perhaps the easiest to underestimate, not least because he believed that to be effective he should avoid the limelight, remain in the background and make no claim to be an influential figure.[3] However, John Colville, Churchill’s private secretary, was in no doubt about his role and influence. He wrote that it was Ismay “to whom Churchill owed more, and admitted that he owed more, than to anybody else, military or civilian, in the whole of the war.”[4]

John Kiszely is a former soldier and the author of General Hastings `Pug` Ismay. Soldier, Statesman, Diplomat. His previous book, Anatomy of a Campaign, The British Fiasco in Norway, 1940 won the RUSI`s 2018 Duke of Wellington Medal for Military History.

[1] Charles Moore, Margaret Thatcher: The Authorised Biography, Volume 1: Not for Turning (London, Allen Lane, 2013), 680.

[2] Hastings Ismay, The Memoirs of Lord Ismay KG, PC, GCB, CH, DSO (London, Heinemann, 1960), Foreword.

[3] Ismay to Ben Glazebrook, 6 May 1960, Ismay papers 1/11/17, Liddell Hart Archives, Kings College London.

[4] John Colville, Winston Churchill and His Inner Circle (New York, Simon and Schuster, 1981), 161.