Henry Pleasants, III

Henry Pleasants, III
Personal details
Born	12 May 1910 Wayne, Pennsylvania
Died	4 January 2000 London, England
Nativity	United States
Religion	Protestant
Known for	Spy, Music Critic
Military service
Allegiance	United States
Branch	United States Army
Arm / service	Air Corps
ASN	0914107
Rank	Second Lieutenant
Rank at Ritchie	First Lieutenant
Camp Ritchie	Class 9 (21 June – 18 August 1943)
Section	5E

Research notes on this page are compiled from the source file and later edits. They may be unverified, incomplete, or incorrect, and should not be treated as established fact. Please correct the article or add sources on the talk page. For class-roster terms, see About the data.

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Henry Pleasants III (12 May 1910 – 4 January 2000) was a Wayne-born Ritchie Boy (Class 9), Philadelphia music critic, and postwar CIA / music scholar in London.

Biography

Henry Pleasants III was born on 12 May 1910 in Wayne, Pennsylvania. At nineteen he became a music critic for the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin and served as the paper’s music editor from 1934 to 1942. Drafted that year, he was commissioned a second lieutenant for his German, Italian, and Russian and trained at Camp Ritchie (Class 9).

He landed at Naples on New Year’s Eve 1943 and served with a German-speaking order-of-battle team at Fifth Army headquarters in the Royal Palace at Caserta, where Special Services staged San Carlo Opera performances he attended nightly. He later wrote about wartime opera in “War and Remembrance.”

After the war he worked in intelligence in Europe and became a widely read music critic and author in London. He died there on 4 January 2000.

Gallery

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  Henry Pleasants, American music critic (RB Archive)

Technical record

Field	Imported value
Approx Age at Death	90
Class_ASN	914107
Class_Name	PLEASANTS, Henry
match_method	asn_exact_name_exact
row_source	both

Timeline

• 12 May 1910 — Born in Wayne, Pennsylvania.
• 1930–1942 — Philadelphia Evening Bulletin music critic / editor.
• 1942–1943 — Commissioned; Camp Ritchie Class 9; to Naples / Fifth Army Caserta.
• Postwar — Intelligence work in Europe; music criticism and books in London.
• 4 January 2000 — Died in London.

Sources

• Henry Pleasants, American music critic (RB Archive)
• Henry Pleasants, “War and Remembrance” opera memoir (RB Archive)
• The Guardian — Henry Pleasants obituary
• New York Times — Henry Pleasants obituary
• Wikipedia — Henry Pleasants (music critic)
• Camp Ritchie Museum, Inc. (The Ritchie History Museum), Classes 1–31 roster data
• Dan Gross research spreadsheets, including original Excel timeline/roster work, combined with other research and records
• NARA World War II Army enlistment records (where a NARA ASN is present)
• 1940 U.S. Census (where a census match is present)
• Ritchie Boys of WWII Facebook page, post dated 2022-12-29 (1 post)
• Wikipedia