Brigadier Claude Nicholson, (2 July 1898 – 26 June 1943) was a British Army officer who fought in the First World War and commanded the defence at the Siege of Calais in the Second World War. Early life and military career Claude Nicholson was the elder son of Richard Francis Nicholson, a distiller from Hampshire, and was born on 2 July 1898 in Chelsea, London. He was educated at Winchester College and in 1914 entered the Royal Military College, Sandhurst. On being commissioned as an officer in 1916, he served with the 16th Lancers in France and Belgium during the First World War. He later served in Palestine, India and Egypt. After attending the Staff College, Camberley, from 1928 to 1929, he served at the War Office from 1930 to 1931 and then commanded cadets at the Royal Military College. He was promoted to brevet major in 1934. On 31 December 1935 he married Ursula Katherine Hanbury-Tracy. In 1938, Nicholson was promoted to lieutenant colonel and taught at the Staff College, Camberley and then commanded his regiment, the 16th/5th Lancers, in India from 1938 to 1939. Second World War Following the outbreak of the Second World War, Nicholson was given command of the 30th Infantry Brigade, which was raised on 20 April 1940 to serve in Norway. Dennis Talbot, later a major general, was Nicholson's brigade major. Nicholson's brigade left Dover and reached Calais on 23 May 1940 to keep the Calais port open and relieve the defenders at the Battle of Boulogne. With the German advance, that became impossible and Nicholson held Calais. The Germans advanced on the town and laid siege to it, shelling the town and drawing closer. This was just before the start of Operation Dynamo, the evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) through Dunkirk. The next day, Nicholson was told that his brigade might be evacuated back to Britain. As the large German force fought through the town the same day, Nicholson ordered a staged withdrawal from the ramparts to more easily defensible places in the city, such as the Citadel and the Gare Maritime, a train station. On the morning of 25 May, the Germans sent the mayor of Calais to Nicholson to ask him to surrender, saying that if he did not, they would bomb and shell the town until it was razed. Nicholson said: "Surrender? No, I shall not surrender. Tell