Oakeshott's WWII Service
During the Second World War, Oakeshott served with Phantom
, an Intelligence
unit concerned with artillery targetting.
Oakeshott's WWII military ID,
courtesy BLPES Oakeshott Archive
I first met [Oakeshott] in Holland when he was the unit adjutant and I a newly-joined young subaltern fresh from Cambridge, and full of undergraduate arrogance. Such was Oakeshott's modesty and reticence that he never let on that he was also from Cambridge where he had been a famous pre-war don, author of what was already a classic work. Having no idea who or what he was, I used to lecture him ceaselessly in the mess, while he sat back giggling encouragement to my wildest flights of intellectual absurdity. We even shared a tent together for a while, which gave me even more opportunities to air my views, far into the night, still in total ignorance of his true identity. Not until I returned to Cambridge after the war, and attended my first lecture, did the penny drop. For there at the podium stood the self-same Oakeshott, with a crammed audience hanging on his every word.
– Peregrine Worsthorne,Notebook, The Spectator (11 March, 1978) p. 5.