Editing Claude Auchinleck (section)

==Partition of India and later years==
[[File:Claude Auchinleck.jpg|thumb|upright|Sir Claude Auchinleck as the last Commander in Chief of British India]]
Auchinleck continued as Commander-in-Chief of the Indian Army after the end of the war<ref>{{London Gazette| issue=37586| date=28 May 1946|page=2617| supp=y}}</ref> helping, though much against his own convictions, to prepare the future Indian and Pakistani armies for the [[Partition of India]]: in November 1945 he was forced to commute the more serious judicial sentences awarded against officers of the [[Indian National Army]] in face of growing unease and unrest both within the Indian population, and the [[British Indian Army]].<ref name=heath33/> On 1 June 1946 he was promoted to [[Field marshal (United Kingdom)|field marshal]],<ref>{{London Gazette| issue=37586| date=31 May 1946|page=2617|supp=y}}</ref> but he refused to accept a peerage, lest he be thought associated with a policy (i.e. Partition) that he thought fundamentally dishonourable.<ref name="Mead57"/>

[[File:Monty, wavvel, auk.jpg|thumb|left|Auchinleck (right) as Commander-in-Chief of the Indian Army, with the then [[Governor-General of India|Viceroy]] [[Archibald Wavell, 1st Earl Wavell|Wavell]] (centre) and [[Bernard Law Montgomery, 1st Viscount Montgomery of Alamein|Montgomery]] (left)]]

Sending a report to the British Government on 28 September 1947, Field Marshal Auchinleck wrote: "I have no hesitation, whatever, in affirming that the present Indian Cabinet are implacably determined to do all in their power to prevent the establishment of the [[Dominion of Pakistan]] on firm basis." He stated in the second, political part of his assessment, "Since 15th August, the situation has steadily deteriorated and the Indian leaders, cabinet ministers, civil officials and others have persistently tried to obstruct the work of partition of the armed forces."<ref>Bajwa, p. 36</ref><ref>Nawaz, p. 29</ref>

When partition was effected in August 1947, Auchinleck was appointed Supreme Commander of all British forces remaining in India and Pakistan<ref>Warner (1982), p. 269</ref> and remained in this role until the winding up and closure of the Supreme H.Q. at the end of November 1947.<ref name="Warner 289"/> This marked his effective retirement from the army (although technically field marshals in the British Army never retire, remaining on the active list on half pay{{sfn|Warner|1982|p=301}}). He left India on 1 December.<ref name="Warner 289">Warner (1982), p. 289</ref>

After a brief period in Italy in connection with an unsuccessful business project, Auchinleck retired to London, where he occupied himself with a number of charitable and business interests and became a respectably skilled watercolour painter.<ref>Warner (1982), pp. 291–294</ref> In 1960 he settled in [[Beccles]] in the county of Suffolk, remaining there for seven years until, at the age of eighty-four, he decided to emigrate and set up home in [[Marrakesh]],<ref>Warner (1982), p. 295</ref> where he died on 23 March 1981.<ref name=heath35>Heathcote, p. 35</ref>