Early life

Devereux was born in Cabana, Cuba,^[1] where his father, Dr. John Ryan Devereaux, a U.S. Army surgeon, was stationed. In 1910, the family moved to Chevy Chase, Maryland, on the north border of the District of Columbia with Washington, D.C. There, Devereux, one of ten children,^[2] rode to hounds in Rock Creek Park and played polo. At age 10 he obtained a driver's license from the District of Columbia, which had no age requirement at the time.

Devereux also attended the Army and Navy Preparatory School in Washington, D.C., then the Tome School overlooking the Susquehanna River at Port Deposit, Maryland, LaVilla in Lausanne, Switzerland (when his parents lived in Vienna, Austria), and later Loyola College of Baltimore, a Jesuit Roman Catholic institution in Maryland.^[1]

Marine Corps career

Devereux enlisted in the United States Marine Corps in July 1923 at age 20, was commissioned a second lieutenant in February 1925, and then was assigned to duty in Norfolk, Virginia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the Marine barracks at Quantico, Virginia, and at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. In 1926, he was detailed to the mail guard detachment in New York City and later was transferred to the force of Marines then serving in Nicaragua as a company officer.^[1]

Returning to the United States early in 1927, he was assigned to the USS Utah and subsequently was sent ashore again to Nicaragua. Shortly thereafter he was ordered to China where he was promoted to first lieutenant. While in China he also commanded the Mounted Detachment of the U.S. Legation Guard at Beiping.^[1]

In 1933, following a year's tour of duty at Quantico, he was assigned to the Coast Artillery School at Fort Monroe, Virginia.^[3] Following his promotion to captain in December 1935, he was ordered back to Quantico, where, until 1936, he instructed in the Base Defense Weapons School and aided in the preparation of a Marine Corps manual on Base Defense Weapons.^[4]

In 1938, following a tour of duty with the Marine detachment on board the USS Utah, Devereux was transferred to the Marine Corps Base at San Diego.^[4]

Prisoner of war

Maj Devereux, as POW in Shanghai, c. 1942.

After his capture, he remained on Wake Island until January 12, 1942, when he was sent away with his men on the Nita Maru. He stopped at Yokohama, where some American officers debarked, but later arrived at Wusong, located downriver from Shanghai, on January, 24.^[8] He remained there until December 9, 1942, when he was transferred to Jiangwan, where he spent 29 months imprisoned. For five weeks, he stayed at Fengtai, near Beiping, and then was transferred to camps in central Hokkaidō, Japan. Devereux was released from the Hokkaidō Island prison camp on September 15, 1945.^[9]

Awards and decorations

BGen Devereux's awards include:

Navy Cross	Navy Presidential Unit Citation	Prisoner of War Medal
Marine Corps Expeditionary Medal w/ "WAKE ISLAND" clasp	Nicaraguan Campaign Medal (1933)	Yangtze Service Medal
American Defense Service Medal w/ "BASE" clasp	Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal with one battle star	World War II Victory Medal

Devereux became eligible for the Prisoner of War Service Medal when it was authorized on November 8, 1985.

Post-military career – farming, Congress, public safety

Devereux took up horse farming^[11] – with a farm near Glyndon, Maryland, in suburban Baltimore County; and following his retirement from the Marine Corps, Devereux moved to a 200-acre (0.81 km²) farm at Stevenson, Maryland.^[11]

In 1950, Devereux was elected as a Republican to the U.S. Congress for Maryland's 2nd Congressional District by defeating incumbent Democratic Rep. William P. Bolton. Devereux would serve four terms in the U.S. House of Representatives from January 3, 1951, to January 3, 1959. During his Congressional career, he supported public school desegregation and ending racial discrimination in employment.^[11] He served on the House Armed Services Committee from July 3, 1952 (replacing John Anderson (R-Calif.)) until he left Congress.^[12] Devereaux did not sign the 1956 Southern Manifesto and voted in favor of the Civil Rights Act of 1957.^[13] He was not a candidate for renomination in 1958, but was an unsuccessful candidate for election as Governor of Maryland against Democrat J. Millard Tawes from Crisfield on Maryland's lower Eastern Shore of the Chesapeake Bay. In 1960, he was named Republican Party chairman in his congressional district.

He later served as director of public safety for Baltimore County, Maryland, from December 1962 to 1966, supervising the police and fire departments.

He was a member of the Sons of the American Revolution.

He was resident of Ruxton, Maryland, until his death.

Family

Devereux is the grandson of Joseph F. Sinnott, a prominent Irish businessman in Philadelphia who made a fortune as a co-owner of Gibson's Rye Whisky. Devereux's mother, Annie Sinnott Devereux, passed away on October 27, 1944, while he was interred in a Japanese Prison Camp.^[2] While stationed in Peiping, China, Devereux met Mary Brush Welch, the daughter of Colonel John P. Welch, a U.S. Army officer.^[14] They were married in 1932. They had one son, James Patrick, and one daughter who died at birth (1934).^[15] Mrs. Devereux died of complications from diabetes in 1942, shortly after his capture by the Japanese on Wake Island. She was buried in Arlington National Cemetery. In 1946, he married Rachel Clarke Cooke and they had two sons. The second Mrs. Devereux died in 1977.^[11] He married a third time, to Edna Burnside Howard – in 1978, gaining a stepson and three stepdaughters.^[11] His sister, Margaret, married Brigadier General Richard H. Jeschke, USMC.

Death and burial

Brigadier General Devereux died at age 85 in Stella Maris Hospice in the county seat of Towson, Maryland, just north of Baltimore on August 5, 1988, from pneumonia.^[11] He is interred in Arlington National Cemetery in northern Virginia overlooking the Potomac River.^[16]

Electoral history