Book description
The Times for over 150 years has been providing the most respected and
perceptive verdicts on the lives of outstanding individuals. The Times
Great Military Lives is an authoritative and fascinating collection of
obituaries depicting the great military commanders of the 19th and 20th centuries.
The obituaries collected in this volume are of outstanding military
commanders all of whom were remarkable men. Sometimes complex and
difficult, often intellectually brilliant and physically brave, always
with the confidence and clarity of mind to take the difficult decisions
which might carry a vital battle or turn a campaign. Above all, they
were great leaders of men, ready to bear the lonely responsibility of
high command, ever aware that they had the lives of thousands - even the
fate of nations - in their hands.
The obituaries are reproduced here as they were printed at the time,
with the contemporary assessment followed in each case by a current
perspective by Major-General Michael Tillotson, military obituaries
writer for The Times, who with Ian Brunskill, the paper's obituaries
editor, has selected the subjects for inclusion.
Great Military Lives tells stories of grand strategy, tactical boldness,
and courage and ingenuity under fire. In depicting an age of almost
ceaseless conflict, it bears witness to an enduring ideal of selfless
service - on land, at sea and in the air - to which those fortunate
enough to enjoy peace will always owe so much.
Those commanders featured include:
Wellington, Montgomery, Patton, Trenchard, MacArthur, Slim, Ulysses S
Grant, Robert E Lee, Giuseppe Garibaldi, Sitting Bull, Count Helmuth Von
Moltke, Macmahon, Cetywayo, Togo, Lord Roberts, Paul Von Hindenburg,
Erich Von Ludendorff, Lord Fisher, Foch, Haig, Beatty, Scheer, Kemal
Atäturk, Lord Allenby, Gustaf Mannerheim, Gerd Von Rundstedt, Heinz
Guderian, Earl Wavell, Sir Mav Horton, Alanbrooke, Sir Claude
Auchinleck, Cunningham, Karl Dönitz, Erwin Rommel, Eisenhower, Albrecht
Kesselring, Nimitz, Erich Von Manstein, Rokossovsky, Zhukov, Lord
Dowding, Sir Arthur Harris, Adolf Galland, Lord Slim, Orde Wingate,
Matthew B Ridgway, Sergei Gorshkov, Sir Walter Walker, Fleet Lord
Fieldhouse. William Hague is the best-selling author of William Pitt
the Younger, published in 2004 to rapturous reviews and was chosen as
History Book of the Year in the British Book Awards. At Oxford, he was
President of both the Union and the University Conservative Association.
He has been MP for Richmond, Yorkshire since 1989. He joined the Cabinet
in 1995 as Secretary of State for Wales, and was leader of the
Conservative Party from June 1997 to June 2001. He is now Shadow Foreign
Secretary. After a decade as a freelance writer, editor, lecturer and
translator, Ian Brunskill joined The Times in 1991. He became Obituaries
Editor in 1999, and, in addition, Letters Editor in 2005; he also edits
the paper's Saturday Faith page of religious features and news. He is
editor of The Times Great Lives (2005) and The Times Great Victorian
Lives (2007).
