Meyrick Edward Clifton James (April 1898 â€" 8 May 1963) was an actor
and soldier, with a resemblance to Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery.
This was used by British intelligence as part of a deception campaign
during the Second World War.Clifton James was born in Perth, Western
Australia, the youngest son of notable Australian public servant John
Charles Horsey James and his wife Rebecca Catherine Clifton.After
serving in the Royal Fusiliers during the First World War, and seeing
action at the Battle of the Somme, he took up acting, "starting at 15
shillings weekly with Fred Karno, who put Chaplin on the road to
fame." At the outbreak of the Second World War he volunteered his
services to the British Army as an entertainer. Instead of being
assigned to ENSA as he had hoped, on 11 July 1940 James was
commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Royal Army Pay Corps and
eventually posted to Leicester. Here, his acting seemed to be limited
to his membership of the Pay Corps Drama and Variety Group. In 1944
his resemblance to Montgomery was spotted, and he was employed to
pretend to be the general as part of a campaign designed to deceive
the Germans in the lead-up to D-Day. M. E. Clifton James Biography, NetWorth, Height, Age, Weight, Family, Married, Son, Daughter