Churchill’s Team in World War II

Military Aides
Imperial General Staff
Key British Commanders, Mediterranean
Key Associates
War Cabinet (1940-1942)
War Cabinet (1942-1945)
Churchill Aides

Military Aides

Chief of Staff to the Minister of Defence, Secretary of the Imperial Defense Council
General Hastings “Pug” Ismay
(Assistant: General Ian Jacob)
Special assistant and in charge of Special Information Centre: Joan Bright Astley
Air Commander-in-Chief, SHAEF (17 January 1944)
Air Marshal Arthur Tedder
Secretary to the Chief of Staff and Assistant Secretary to the War Cabinet
General Leslie “Jo” C. Hollis
Supervisor of Defence Map Room
Captain Richard Pike Pim,
Director of Military Operations
General John Kennedy
Direct of Plans, War Office
Brigadier D. G. Stewart
Military aide to prime minister
Navy Commander Charles Ralfe “Tommy” Thompson

Imperial General Staff

Chairman, Chiefs of Staff (COS) Committee
Dudley Pound (1939-1942)
Alan “Brookie” Brooke (1942-1946)

Chief of the Imperial General Staff
Edmund Ironside (1939-1940)
John Dill (1940-1941)
Alan Brooke (1941-1945)

/Chief of Air Staff
Cyril Newall (1940)
Charles Portal (1940-1945)

Admiral of the Fleet/First Sea Lord
Dudley Pound (1939-1943)
Andrew Browne “ABC” Cunningham (1943-1946)

Chief of Combined Operations
Roger Keyes (1940-1941)
Louis Francis Albert Victor Nicholas “Dickie” Mountbatten (1941-1943)

Key British Commanders, Mediterranean

Archibald Wavell (1939-1941)
Claude Auchinleck (1941-1942)
Harold Alexander (1942-1945)
Bernard Montgomery (1943)
Henry “Jumbo” Maitland Wilson, (1943-1944)

Key Associates

Viscount Cherwell Frederick “The Prof”  Lindemann, scientific advisor and Paymaster General (1942-1945)
Brendan Bracken, Minister of Information (1941-1945), First Lord of the Admiralty (1945)
Lord Max Beaverbrook (Max Aitken), Minister of Aircraft Production (1940-41), later Minister of Supply (1941-1942), Minister of War Production (1942), Lord Privy Seal (1943-19450
Alexander Cadogan, Permanent Undersecretary at the Foreign Office
Lord Moran (Dr. Charles Wilson), personal physician
Jan Christian Smuts, prime minister of South Africa (1939-1948)
Hugh Dowding, commander of  RAF Fighter Command (1937-1940)

War Cabinet (1940-1942)

Lord President of the Council: Neville Chamberlain (1940)
Lord Privy Seal: Clement Attlee (1940-1942)
Foreign Secretary: Lord Halifax (Edward Frederick Lindley Wood) (1938-1940), Anthony Eden (1940-1945)
Minister without Portfolio: Arthur Greenwood (1940-1943)

War Cabinet (1942-1945)

Deputy Prime Minister and Secretary of State for Dominions Affairs: Clement Attlee (1942-1945)
Lord Privy Seal and Leader of the House of Commons: Sir Stafford Cripps (1942)
Lord President of the Council: John Anderson (Conservative) (1940-1943), later Chancellor of Exchequer (1943-1945)
Foreign Secretary: Anthony Eden, also Leader of the House of Commons (1942-1945)
Minister of Production: Oliver Lyttelton (1942-1945)
Minister of Labour and National Service: Ernest Bevin (Labour) (1940-1945)

Churchill Aides

Charles Barker, chief clerk (1941-1945)
Anthony Bevir, private secretary (1940-
Edward Bridges, secretary to the War Cabinet (1938-1946)
Norman Brook, deputy secretary to the War Cabinet (1942)
John Rupert “Jock” Colville, assistant principal secretary (1940-1941, 1943-1945)
Kathleen Hill, confidential secretary (1936-1945)
Marian Lumley-Holmes, secretary (1938-1945)
Peter Kinna, traveling secretary, clerk
John Miller Martin, principal private secretary (1940-1945)
Elizabeth Layton Nel, secretary (1940-1945)
John Peck, assistant private secretary
Leslie Rowan, private secretary (1941-1945)
Frank Sawyers, butler-valet
Eric Seal, private secretary (1940-1941)
“Mags” Stenhouse
Cecil Syers, private secretary (1940-1941)
Mary Shearburn Thompson, personal private secretary (wife of W. H. Thompson)
Nina Edith “Jo” Sturdee, secretary
Walter H. “Tommy” Thompson, retired detective inspector body guard.
Elizabeth Watson, secretary