General Sir Leslie Chasemore Hollis, (9 February 1897 – 9 August 1963) was a Royal Marines officer who served as Commandant General Royal Marines from 1949 to 1952.
Military career
Hollis was commissioned into the Royal Marine Light Infantry in 1914 and served in the First World War in the Grand Fleet and the Harwich Force.
Between the wars he attended the Royal Naval College, Greenwich, from 1927 to 1928, and later served on the staff of the Commander-in-Chief Africa Station and of the Plans Division at the Admiralty before being appointed assistant secretary of the Committee of Imperial Defence in 1936.
He served in the Second World War as senior assistant secretary in the War Cabinet Office. He was present at virtually every major decision during that period, attending all the major conferences—Washington, Cairo, Tehran, Yalta and Potsdam—and was instrumental in establishing what became known as the Cabinet War Rooms (now known the Churchill War Rooms).
After the war Hollis became deputy secretary (military) to the Cabinet in 1947 and Commandant General Royal Marines in 1949. He was credited with saving the Royal Marines from being disbanded and retired in July 1952.
References
Bibliography
- Mead, Richard (2007). Churchill's Lions: a biographical guide to the key British generals of World War II. Stroud (UK): Spellmount. ISBN 978-1-86227-431-0.
Further reading
- Hollis, Leslie One Marine's Tale, published 1956
- Hollis, Leslie The Captain General. A life of H.R.H. Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, KG, Captain General, Royal Marines, published 1961
- Leasor, James; Hollis, Leslie (1959). War at the Top; based on the experiences of General Sir Leslie Hollis. London: Michael Joseph. OCLC 385375.
External links
- Generals of World War II
- Royal Marine (RM) Officers 1939−1945
