Lord Edmund Ironside

Field Marshal Lord Ironside was a born commander and, besides being a gifted linguist, was mobilised as a subaltern for the Boer War to act as a secret agent and to streamline the peace process. After serving on the Western Front for most of the First World War he became C-in-C of the Expeditionary Force in North Russia and, being knighted and promoted to major general by the age of 39, went on to modernise staff training at Camberley and to champion mechanised and aerial warfare. His generalship was tested out in the Raj and, in 1939, on the day war was declared, he reached the top of the British Army leadership as CIGS. In that capacity he played a key role in developing strategy during the first months of the war, before helping to organise the defence of Calais to free up the British Expeditionary Force escape route to Dunkirk. After a final stint as C-in-C Home Forces, preparing to resist German invasion, he was given his baton and raised to the peerage. This first full authorised biography, written by his son, Edmund Ironside, and based upon the field marshal’s meticulously kept diaries covering more than fifty years, is the definitive account of the incredibly varied and long career of one of the most prolific military leaders of the twentieth century.