Dwin Bramall: The Authorised Biography of Field Marshal the Lord Bramall, KG, GCB, OBE, MC

Dwin Bramall: The Authorised Biography of Field Marshal the Lord Bramall, KG, GCB, OBE, MC. Michael Tillotson. Sutton Publishing. [pounds sterling]19.99. xv + 272 pages. ISBN 0-7509-4238-X. The author, who has spent much of his life writing about dead soldiers as principal military obituaries writer for The Times here turns his attention to Lord Bramall.

General Tillotson's subject is the last Chief of the Defence Staff to have fought in the Second World War, during which he was awarded the M.C. and during which he learned lessons which influenced his career as a professional soldier. Lord Bramall was also Chief of the General Staff during the Falklands War. Twice in Lord Bramall's career his actions have had political consequences. The first time was in the 1980s when he clashed with the then Secretary of State for Defence, Michael Heseltine, over the reorganisation of the MOD. The Secretary of State had not bothered to consult the then Chief of the Defence Staff, thereby turning a problem into something of a crisis. The second was recently when, as a Life Peer, he spoke out against the involvement of this country in the Second Iraq War just as earlier he had warned governments about the problems facing this country in the Middle East, again to no avail. His greatest gift was his common sense as in his warning that 'unlike naked aggression, terrorism cannot be defeated by massive military means' but by 'competent protection and positive diplomacy'. Biographies like this not only restore one's faith in the British Army but make one wish politicians would know good advice when they hear it. (T.B.)

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