Graeme Warrack (June 1913-1985) was a Brigadier-General in the British Army during World War II. He notably served as a senior medical officer in the British 1st Airborne Division at the time of Operation Market Garden in 1944.
Biography[]
Graeme Warrack was born in June 1913, the son of an Edinburgh dentist. He graduated from Edinburgh University in 1936 and qualified in dental surgery and in medicine a year later, and he worked for the family practice. He also enlisted in the British Army in 1933, and he was promoted to captain in 1939. Warrack entered the airborne forces in 1942, and he first saw combat during Operation Husky - the invasion of Sicily - in 1943. In May 1944, he was promoted to colonel, becoming assistant director of medical services for the British 1st Airborne Division. During Operation Market Garden, British casualty rates were unbelievably high, so Warrack negotiated a ceasefire with the Germans so that the Germans could take the British wounded prisoner and treat them in their hospitals; Warrack and Doctor Jan Spaander figured that being a prisoner was better than being dead. Warrack and the medical staff waited with the wounded for the Germans to capture them on 26 September, and he later escaped with the help of the Dutch Resistance and joined forces with the Allies after Operation Pegasus. He left the army in June 1946 and served as an honorary colonel to the 144th Parachute Field Ambulance from 1969 to 1979. Warrack died in 1985.