FIELD MARSHAL SIR HENRY WILSON by Keith Jeffery ( 9780199239672 )

Item Details

Title:

FIELD MARSHAL SIR HENRY WILSON
A POLITICAL SOLDIER

By:

Keith Jeffery

Format:

Paperback

List price:

£58.00

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£56.26

Discount:

3% off

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£1.74

ISBN 10:

0199239673

ISBN 13:

9780199239672

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Publisher:

OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS

Pub. date:

24 January, 2008

Pages:

352

Description:

Henry Wilson was at the centre of affairs during the First World War and after, recording everything in his wildly indiscreet diary. Using a range of official and private sources, this is the first modern biography of this controversial and misunderstood figure.

Synopsis:

Field Marshal Sir Henry Wilson, an Irishman who in June 1922 was assassinated on his doorstep in London by Irish republicans, was one of the most controversial British soldiers of the modern age. Before 1914 he did much to secure the Anglo-French alliance and was responsible for the planning which saw the British Expeditionary Force successfully despatched to France after the outbreak of war with Germany. A passionate Irish unionist, he gained a reputation as an intensely 'political' soldier, especially during the 'Curragh crisis' of 1914 when some officers resigned their commisssions rather than coerce Ulster unionists into a Home Rule Ireland. During the war he played a major role in Anglo-French liaison, and ended up as Chief of the Imperial General Staff, professional head of the army, a post he held until February 1922. After Wilson retired from the army, he became an MP and was chief security adviser to the new Northern Ireland government. As such, he became a target for nationalist Irish militants, being identified with the security policies of the Belfast regime, though wrongly with Protestant sectarian attacks on Catholics.He is remembered today in unionist Northern Ireland as a kind of founding martyr for the state. Wilson's reputation was ruined in 1927 with the publication of an official biography, which quoted extensively and injudiciously from his entertaining, indiscreet, and wildly opinionated diaries, giving the impression that he was some sort of Machiavellian monster. In this first modern biography, using a wide variety of official and private sources for the first time, Keith Jeffery reassesses Wilson's life and career and places him clearly in his social, national, and political context.

Illustrations:

4 maps, frontispiece, 8pp plates

Publication:

Imprint:

Oxford University Press

Prizes:

Winner of Winner of the 2006 Templer Medal and Book Prize, awarded by The

Returns:

Returnable

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