T.A. Heathcote - The British field marshals, 1736-1997 : a biographical dictionary

The aim of these biographies is to give an outline of the military careers of the field marshals of the British Army, with (so as to put the flesh of humanity on the dry bones of chronology) as much detail as space permits of their personal and private lives. Entries generally contain information relating to the dates and places of their subjects birth and death; their family background and the number of their siblings; their marriages and children; their education; the dates of their first commissions and subsequent promotions; their regimental and staff appointments; their campaigns and battles; their commands and their other public appointments. Regiments are recorded at length because, to a soldier, his regiment is his family writ large. The dates of peerages, baronetcies or knighthoods are given when their award resulted in a change of style or title. Other honours and awards, including degrees, civil distinctions, county lieutenancies or appointments of an honorary or largely ceremonial nature, are omitted, following the principle set out by W.S.Gilbert (himself a deputy lieutenant for Middlesex) in The Gondoliers. (On evry side field marshals gleamed, small beer were Lords Lieutenant deemed.)

The presence of an officer in person in a battle, siege or other combat is indicated by the word at before the name or place of the engagement, the date of which is given in brackets. Numerals in bold within square brackets [nn] indicate the place of a field marshal in the seniority list (Table 1) which also gives the date when each field marshal was promoted to that rank. I have assumed a general knowledge on the part of the reader of the outcome and relative importance of battles and campaigns, of the organization of the army, and of the social, political and military history of the times in which the field marshals lived. To do otherwise would make this work not a set of biographies, but a history of the British Army and the British State in the story of which so many of the field marshals played an important part.

I take this opportunity of acknowledging my debt to everyone on whose help I have depended in writing this book, beginning with my much valued former colleague Matthew Midlane, Director of Studies at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, for his kind sponsorship of my continued access to the RMAS Central Library. My thanks are also due to Diane Hiller and Sarah Oliver, of the RMAS Central Library, for their efficiency in supplying many of the publications on which I have relied in this work, and for their invariable helpfulness to all their readers. I also wish to express my gratitude to all those who have contributed their time or scholarship to my research or who have otherwise encouraged me by their interest in this project, including especially His Grace the Duke of Argyll; Professor Robert ONeal, Chichele Professor of Military History, Oxford; Professor I.F.W. Beckett of the Department of History at Luton University; Dr Paul Harris of the Department of War Studies at the RMAS; Dr John Sweetman, late Head of Political and Social Studies, RMAS; Alastair Campbell of Airds, Unicorn Pursuivant at Inveraray Castle; the Reverend Canon Tim Sedgeley, Vicar of St Marys Church, Walton on Thames; Marjory Szurko, Librarian of Keble College, Oxford; Randolph Vine Esq, of the Huguenot Society, University College, London; Martine de Lee, Curator of the Staff College Collections, Camberley; Anne Ferguson, Media Resources Librarian at the RMAS; Tina Pittock, Curator of the Airborne Forces Museum, Aldershot; Angela Bolger, Curator of the Taplow Court Collection; G E Hughes Esq, Assistant Curator for Audley End, English Heritage; John A Flower Esq, of Penshurst; Colonel Gordon Spate, formerly TA Colonel for London and South East Districts, and to all those field marshals now on the retired or halfpay lists who were kind enough to comment on the relevant entries in this book while it was in preparation. I am especially grateful to Dr Gary Sheffield, Senior Lecturer in War Studies at the Joint Service Command and Staff College, Bracknell, for reading the work in draft and for making many valuable suggestions. All errors of fact or interpretation, however, are entirely those of the writer.