Summary Guide

Note: The item numbers represent a subset from ISAD(G) rules (General International Standard Archival Description) promulgated by the International Council on Archives to standardise archival description world-wide. Only item numbers relevant to our specific archive are included here.

3.1 IDENTITY STATEMENT

3.1.1 Reference code: GB99 KCLMA Purdon

3.1.2 Title: PURDON, Maj Gen Corran William Brooke (b 1921)

3.1.3 Dates of creation of material: 1993

3.1.4 Level of description: collection level (single item)

3.1.5 Extent: 1 volume

3.2 CONTEXT

3.2.2 Biographical history: Born in 1921; educated at Campbell BorneoCollege, Belfast and Royal Military College, Sandhurst; 2nd Lt, Royal Ulster Rifles, 1939; served with Army Commandos in raids on Norway and France, 1940-1942; POW, Germany, 1942-1945; 1 Bn, Royal Ulster Rifles, Palestine, 1945-1946; GHQ Middle East Land Forces, 1949-1951; on Staff, Malayan Emergency, 1956-1958; Company Commander, 1 Royal Ulster Rifles, Cyprus Emergency, 1958; Commanding Officer, 1 Bn, Royal Ulster Rifles, British Army of the Rhine, 1962-1963, and Borneo, 1963-1964; General Staff Officer Grade 1 and Chief Instructor, School of Infantry, Warminster, 1965-1967; Commander, Sultan's Armed Forces, Oman, and Director of Operations, Dhofar War, 1967-1970; Commandant, School of Infantry, Warminster, 1970-1972; Small Arms School Corps, 1970-1972; General Officer Commanding North West District, 1972-1974; General Officer Commanding, Near East Land Forces, 1974-1976; retired, 1976; publication of List the bugle, reminiscences of an Irish soldier (Greystone, Antrim, 1993).

3.2.5 Provenance/source of acquisition: Presented to the Centre by Purdon in 1996.

3.3 CONTENT AND STRUCTURE

3.3.1 Scope and content: List the bugle, reminiscences of an Irish soldier (Greystone, Antrim, 1993), a memoir of his life and career, 1921-1976, notably his service in the UK and France, 1942, including the Allied raid on St Nazaire,1942, his experiences as a POW, Germany, 1942-1945, his service in Palestine, 1945-1946, Egypt, 1949-1951, Malaya, 1956-1958, and Cyprus, 1958, and his command of the 1 Bn, Royal Ulster Rifles, Borneo, 1963-1964, and of the Sultan's Armed Forces, Oman, 1967-1970.

3.3.4 Arrangement: single item

3.4 CONDITIONS OF ACCESS AND USE

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

3.4.3 Copyright: 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 College Archivist.

3.4.4 Language: English

3.4.6 Finding aids: Summary guide entry on-line and due to be published in hard copy.

3.5 ALLIED MATERIALS

3.5.3 Related units of description: The Centre also holds the diary of Purdon's cousin, Lt Col Richard Gittins Wall, covering Wall's service as a beach landing officer in Normandy, Jun 1944-Sep 1944 (Ref: GB99 KCLMA Wall).

3.6 NOTE AREA

3.6.1 Date of compilation: Feb 1997

3.6.2 Decorations: CBE, MC, CPM

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