ALLIED LEADERS (16): Gen. Sir Ronald Adam

New Zealand Listener, Volume 2, Issue 38, 15 March 1940, Page 2

ALLIED LEADERS (16): Gen. Sir Ronald Adam

ce E is so professional one feels H that here is a foreign soldier, not an English one; English soldiers are rather amateur." That is a foreign observation, made not so long ago, of Lieut.-General Sir Ronald Forbes Adam, Deputy Chief of the Imperial General Staff and Lord Gort’s right-hand man. Those who prophesy have stated that this officer is marked for the highest appointments in the British Army. General Adam is only 52, the youngest man in the history of the British Army to have held his present post. He is a product of Eton and Woolwich. Not much was heard of General Adam until the last war broke out, principally because he is quiet and retiring by nature, but as soon as he got into the field his outstanding ability brought him honours and promotion. He fought in Italy, France, and Flanders, winning the D.S.O. and being mentioned in despatches; later he was awarded the O.B.E, Although trained for the Royal Artillery and regarded as a great gunnery expert, he firmly believes in the co-ordination of the three fighting forces — air, army and navy. In 1932 General Adam was appointed to the Imperial Staff College at Camberley, and at the end of three years he became Deputy-Director of Military

Training. For a year he was O.C., Ist Royal Artillery Division, then Commandant of Camberley. Hore-Belisha lifted him over the heads of many senior officers to his present post. General Adam is a Scot, and has three daughters.