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Dorman O’Gowan Papers

Date range: 1926-1969

Medium: Archive

Papers of Major-General Eric Edward Dorman O’Gowan, formerly Dorman-Smith (1895–1969), Second World War general.

He was briefly Chief-of-Staff to Field Marshal Sir Claude Auchinleck in North Africa in the summer of 1942, until both were sacked. He fell out with the military establishment, became disillusioned with Britain and in 1949 adopted the Irish name O'Gowan, later becoming an IRA sympathiser.

The archive contains correspondence relating to the war in the Western Desert, 1940-1942, and to various works published after the war concerning the Desert Campaigns and other aspects of the Second World War; personal memoirs; and correspondence relating to general military thinking, notably on the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Many of the documents deal with recurring themes, notably the reputations of Auchinleck, Montgomery, Churchill (of whom O'Gowan was highly critical) and others.

See also:

Further information:

Catalogue available online via ELGAR.

Location:


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