‘Dad disappeared for about six months’: The actor hired to impersonate a British war commander

It was arguably the most audacious hoax of the Second World War. With the Allied forces preparing the D-Day invasion on the Normandy Beaches of northern France it was essential to take the occupying Nazi forces unawares.

Britain’s military planners instigated what was dubbed “the biggest bluff of all time” to deceive the German high command. The idea was to let the Germans see the Allied commander, Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery, known as “Monty”, somewhere overseas. In reality, he was in Britain working on invasion plans.

The real Monty: Field Marshal Montgomery leaving the Maastricht conference in 1958.Credit: Imperial War Museum

All that was required was someone to impersonate Monty. Enter stage left, Australian actor Meyrick Clifton James, the son of a former West Australian chief justice who was working in Leicester, England as a lieutenant in the pay corps and entertaining the troops on the side.

The D-Day landings on June 6, 1944, altered the course of the war. Ahead of their 80th anniversary on Thursday, the actor’s family has spoken of the hoax and for the first time opened the family photo album.

Clifton James went on to write a book and star in a movie about the secret assignment, both entitled I was Monty’s Double (1958).

Clifton-James was in his dressing room at the Comedy Theatre in London for a troop show when a photographer came in and said he had heard of his resemblance to Montgomery. The actor borrowed a beret and posed for a photo, which was published shortly afterwards in a newspaper. A few days later a letter arrived in Leicester from the War Office inviting him to London.

Actor Meyrick Clifton James with wife Eve in the same kind of outfit worn by Monty and decorated with replica badges.

There he was met by someone called “Colonel Lester” who told him: “I am a member of MI5, the Army Intelligence Branch. You have been chosen to act as the double of General Montgomery ... I am in charge of this job. It is our business to trick the enemy, and perhaps save the lives of thousands of men.”

After the meeting he was asked to sign the Official Secrets Act. He learnt how to walk and talk like Monty and was supplied with a battle-dress from a military tailor adorned with replicas of the general’s badges, red tabs and rows of medal ribbons.

Of his first dress-rehearsal in the role, Clifton James, writing in the Herald in 1946, said: “I got into the battle-dress and, slightly whitening my hair, and broadening my moustache, put on the beret. Hesitating and taking a deep breath, I stepped out into the room. Abruptly the conversation ceased. Someone said, ‘It’s Monty to the life.’ I felt a surge of relief.”

He added: “There was one point that had always worried me. During the last war I lost the middle finger of my right hand, and I felt something must be done about it, for Monty seldom wore gloves and invariably waved with his right hand. ‘Captain Y’ very cleverly, with a piece of cotton wool and flesh-coloured plaster, manufactured a false finger and fixed it into position.”

Clifton-James appeared in the movie “I was Monty’s Double”.Credit: Internet

Just before D-Day the actor went on a tour of inspection of the Mediterranean war theatre. He was seen in Gibraltar and was driven along the streets of Algiers, through lanes of cheering people unaware that it was not the real Monty. Fascist spies, via Spain, transmitted the news to Berlin that Monty was away from his invasion base. The outcome? D-Day, as history testifies, indeed surprised the enemy.

The actor had two sons, Keith and Tony. Keith later settled in Australia and had four sons (Stuart, Michael, David and Andrew) by his first wife Jean. He then remarried, to Lynn, now living in Perth, with whom he had another son, Richard.

Richard and Lynn Clifton James with a portrait of Monty lookalike Meyrick Clifton James.Credit: Trevor Collens

Richard Clifton James, 36, said his grandfather’s role as Monty’s double was a demanding one: “I understand he needed a lot of training to do the job, but, as my dad said, it was all about England and doing what needed to be done. That apparently was what my grandad’s mindset was like. It really was an incredible story.

“They really do look alike, don’t they?” Richard said. “My dad Keith was so proud of him. He [Keith] was in the British army in the late 50s and drove tanks. The film producers brought him over from Germany [where he was serving] for a preview of the movie at the Savoy hotel in England.”

Keith passed away two years ago, but Lynn said: “There are many pictures of Meyrick with other actors including John Mills and a signed photo from Leslie Phillips. We have a portrait in the hall and people come in and say, “Why have you got a picture of Monty hanging up?

“Keith told me that during the war his dad disappeared for about six months. He said he and his mum thought he’d walked out on them, but it seems he couldn’t come back because of the Official Secrets Act. Then, apparently, after six months, a big posh car turned up at their home in Worthing in Sussex, and he got out of the car along with two blokes wearing trilbies.

Richard said his grandfather also had served during the First World War and lied about his age to sign up for to the Royal Fusiliers. While fighting, he was gassed, which affected his breathing for the rest of his life.

A production still from I was Monty’s Double with Clifton-James arriving in Gibraltar on Winston Churchill’s plane.

“Apparently during the filming of the movie they had to have oxygen tanks handy because of his breathing. Keith remembered after the war his dad was in a wheelchair because he had tuberculosis brought on by being gassed.”

Brad Argent of genealogy website Ancestry, who helped the Herald track down the family, said: “I found several family trees that included Meyrick Clifton James which led me to his family. History is full of captivating stories like this, just waiting for us to rediscover them.”

Actor John Mills (centre) and Meyrick Clifton-James (R) with their wives Mary Hayley Bell (L) and Eve Clifton James.

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