Good evening, I'm J Andrew Campbell. I gather you already have another member with a very similar name (hence the extra J) so I hope there won't be confusion. My particular interest is the siege of Malta and Operation Pedestal in particular. Thank you for letting me join. Best wishes to all. Andrew.
Welcome to the board. What do you make of Dobbie? He seems to have quite unnerved some of the military establishment with quite how zealous he was about religious observance, but I've read that the people of Malta were rather pleased with that, despite the Protestant / Catholic divide. Full text of his book here, by the way: A Very Present Help Sir William Dobbie : William Dobbie : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive
According to the only biography of Mabel Strickland she was convinced by some possibly off hand remark Dobbie made quite early on in his Governorship that he was willing to surrender. He made a remark about painting a white cross on Hal Far. But to be fair Monckton seems to have agreed that he was a spent force by April '42 and convinced Churchill that was the case when he got home from visiting Malta to find out. Gort was given overall command of everything so had full powers to order the Army help out building blastpens etc. for the RAF aircraft, which Dobbie never had. The Maltese admired Dobbie as I understand it, but Gort was genuinely popular and liked. But then the George Cross Islanders appreciated that Gort was awarded the V.C. in September 1918. The Maltese Band Clubs gave him a Sword of Honour in IIRC 1943.
Thank you ”Mabel Strickland” by Joan Alexander, who was actually Lady Carnwath. Published in Malta in 1996 ISBN 99909-3-046-5. My second-hand copy cost me a small fortune on Abebooks. Much of it is of course about her post-war career as a Maltese politician. Very interesting on her conspiracy to get Sir William dismissed as Governor. Thank you for pointing me in the direction of Sir William's tract.
Ah, yes, I remember that now. It's on my long list of books to purchase once a copy surfaces at a sensible price. I think there's also a memoir by his wife (or was it hias daughter?). The title might have been Grace Under Fire, but I can't clearly recall. I'm not sure whether there will be anything of interest, but there's a list of biographies here and I'm happy to supply information from or details about them in the event that it will help. Here: The General Perspective
It was “Grace under Fire”. Both his wife and daughter were called Sybil. No copies available second hand so far as I can see on line.