Person    | Male  Died /6/1982

Flight Lieutenant Charles Cholmondeley

Categories: Armed Forces

Cholmondeley and Ewen Montagu conceived the idea behind Operation Mincemeat and carried it out.

He joined the Royal Air Force Voluntary Reserve (RAFVR) in 1939 and was commissioned as a pilot officer. But his height (6'3") and poor eyesight meant he could not be a pilot.

Wikipedia describes him as "a flight lieutenant in the Royal Air Force who had been seconded to MI5, Britain's domestic counter-intelligence and security service. He had been appointed as the secretary of the Twenty Committee, a small inter-service, inter-departmental intelligence team in charge of double agents."

Wikipedia has this photo captioned "Charles Cholmondeley and Ewen Montagu on 17 April 1943, transporting the body to Scotland."

Erenow gives an account of Charles Christopher Cholmondeley's life after the war: "In October 1945 he joined the “Middle East Anti-Locust Unit” as “First Locust Officer,” a job that involved chasing swarms of locusts all over the Arab states and feeding them bran laced with insecticide", going on to suggest that this was a cover for the work he was still doing for the British secret service. He was appointed MBE in 1948. This intelligence work also took him to Malaya but he left MI5 in 1952, moved to the West Country, married Alison, and set up a business selling horticultural machinery.

The plaque describes him as a British aristocrat which seems likely but we can't corroborate. 

Comments are provided by Facebook, please ensure you are signed in here to see them

This section lists the memorials where the subject on this page is commemorated:
Flight Lieutenant Charles Cholmondeley

Commemorated ati

Operation Mincemeat

The Biblical quotation draws attention to the secrecy which was essential to ...

Read More

Other Subjects

Lieutenant Ralph Charles Fairbairn Cotton

Lieutenant Ralph Charles Fairbairn Cotton

Ralph Charles Fairbairn Cotton was born on 16 January 1883 in Sydenham, Kent (now Greater London), one of the three children of Stephen Fairbairn Cotton (c.1857-1929) and Carrie Henrietta Maria Cot...

Person, Armed Forces, Law, France

War dead, WW1
1 memorial
C. Challis

C. Challis

Employed at the Streatham bus garage. Served and was killed in WW1.

Person, Armed Forces

War dead, WW1
1 memorial
Patrick Byrne

Patrick Byrne

Resident of the Central Ward, Hendon who served and died in WW1.

Person, Armed Forces

War dead, WW1
1 memorial
Wandsworth Regulars

Wandsworth Regulars

The 13th (Service) battalion of the East Surrey Regiment. Raised in the Borough of Wandsworth in 1915, the battalion was known as the Wandsworth Regulars and served with distinction in France from ...

Group, Armed Forces, France

1 memorial
Archery practice

Archery practice

From the Norman period, at least, until the introduction of firearms in the 16th century, some version of the longbow was the long-distance weapon of choice.  The last recorded use in England seems...

Event, Armed Forces

4 memorials

Previously viewed

Gnr. E. Drysdale
War dead, WW2
1 memorial
Virtues - Lucidity

Virtues - Lucidity

WC2, Trafalgar Square, National Gallery - Staircase Hall - North Vestibule

Bertrand Russell is reaching out to remove a blindfold from a naked woman who holds a mirror. She is the symbolic figure of Truth and he ...

1 subject commemorated
Frederick Nicholas Charrington

Frederick Nicholas Charrington

Renounced a brewing fortune to help the East End poor.  Born Bow Road, the heir to Charrington’s Brewery in Stepney.  He entered the business but, aged 19, experienced a religious conversion and be...

Person, Food & Drink, Jack the Ripper suspects, Philanthropy, Politics & Administration, Social Welfare

2 memorials
JMW Turner - SW10

JMW Turner - SW10

SW10, Cheyne Walk, 119

Joseph.Mallord.William.Turner. landscape.painter. B.1775. D.1851. lived.&.worked.in.this.house.

1 subject commemorated
Marcus Garvey - Haringey

Marcus Garvey - Haringey

N15, Philip Lane, 1, Marcus Garvey Library

This is the foundation stone for the building.

1 subject commemorated, 1 creator