Download this summary catalogue (PDF) ›PURDON, Maj Gen Corran William Brooke (b 1921)

Identity statement

Reference code(s)

GB0099 KCLMA Purdon

Title

PURDON, Maj Gen Corran William Brooke (b 1921)

Date(s)

Created 1993

Level of description

collection level (single item)

Extent and medium of the unit of description (quantity, bulk, or size)

1 volume

Context

Administrative / 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).

Immediate source of acquisition or transfer

Presented to the Centre by Purdon in 1996.

Content & structure

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.

System of arrangement

single item

Conditions of access & use

Conditions governing access

Open, subject to signature of Reader's undertaking form, and appropriate provision of two forms of identification, to include one photographic ID.

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.

Language/scripts of material

English

Finding aids

This Summary Guide

Allied materials

Existence and location of originals

King's College London College Archives

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).

Notes

Note

Decorations: CBE, MC, CPM

Description control

Rules or conventions

Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal Place and Corporate Names 1997.

This catalogue is made available under the Open Data Commons Attribution License. This catalogue may be updated from time to time in order to reflect additional material and/or new understandings of the material.