Bidwell, (Reginald George) Shelford (1913–1996), army officer and military historian, was born on 12 August 1913 at Brooklyn, Sydenham Avenue, Beckenham, Kent, the son of an Indian army officer, Lieutenant-Colonel Reginald Frank Bidwell (1868–1936), and his wife, Mabel Alice Graves, née Petley (1878–1948)...
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Brian Holden Reid
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Cannon, Richard (1779–1865), civil servant and military historian, was educated at Christ's Hospital, London. On 1 January 1802 he was appointed to a clerkship at the Horse Guards, one of fifteen clerks administering the adjutant-general's department. In 1805 he was made principal clerk of the adjutant-general's office, which appointment he held for nearly fifty years. Reputedly, ...
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Stanley Lane-Poole
revised by James Falkner
Chesney, Charles Cornwallis (1826–1876), army officer and military historian, was a nephew of General Francis Rawdon Chesney, in whose house he was born, and to whom he owed his first advance in life. He was the son of another Charles Cornwallis Chesney (1791–1830)...
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Francis Espinasse
revised by David Gates
Drinkwater, John [later John Drinkwater Bethune] (1762–1844), army officer and military historian, was born at Latchford, near Warrington, on 9 June 1762, the eldest son of John Drinkwater, a medical practitioner at Salford (then a suburb of Manchester) and formerly a ...
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Sir John William Fortescue (1859–1933) by William Strang, 1909 © National Portrait Gallery, London
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Fortescue, Sir John William (1859–1933), military historian, was born on 28 December 1859 in Madeira, the fifth son (and ninth of thirteen children) of Hugh Fortescue, third Earl Fortescue (1818–1905), and his wife, Georgiana Augusta Charlotte Caroline (1826–1866), eldest daughter of Colonel George Lionel Dawson-Damer...
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John Gurwood (1790–1845) by William Salter, 1834–40 © National Portrait Gallery, London
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H. M. Chichester
revised by James Lunt
Gurwood, John (1790–1845), army officer and editor of Wellington's dispatches, was the second son of one Gurwood; his widowed mother married H. Okey. He started work in an office, but after an unrequited love affair entered the army as ensign in the 52nd light infantry...
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Gerald Napier
Jackson, Sir William Godfrey Fothergill [Bill] (1917–1999), army officer and military historian, was born on 28 August 1917 at Blackpool, the only son and elder of the two children of Colonel Albert Jackson (1887–1956), an officer in the Royal Army Medical Corps, and his wife, ...
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Sir John Desmond Patrick Keegan (1934–2012) by unknown photographer, 2008 Rex Features
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Keegan, Sir John Desmond Patrick (1934–2012), military historian and journalist, was born on 15 May 1934 at 18a Cedars Road, Clapham, London, the eldest child of Francis Joseph Keegan (1898–1974) and his wife, Eileen Mary, née Bridgman (1911–2002). At the time of his birth registration his parents lived at ...
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E. M. Lloyd
revised by James Falkner
Malleson, George Bruce (1825–1898), army officer and military historian, born in London on 8 May 1825, was the second son of John Malleson of Wimbledon and Lucy (née Nesbitt), whose father was colonial secretary in the Bahamas. He was educated at Wimbledon...
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Donald F. Bittner
Moulton, James Louis (1906–1993), marine officer and military historian, was born on 3 June 1906 at The Terrace, His Majesty's Dockyard, Pembroke Dock, Pembrokeshire, the son of John Davis Moulton (d. 1921), staff captain in the Royal Navy (also JP for Kingston, Jamaica...
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R. H. Vetch
revised by James Falkner
Siborne [Siborn], William (1797–1849), army officer and military historian, was the son of Captain Benjamin Siborn of the 9th (East Norfolk) regiment, who was wounded at the battle of the Nivelle in the Peninsular War, and died while serving with his regiment at ...
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David Stewart of Garth (1772–1829) by Sir Henry Raeburn photograph by courtesy Sotheby's Picture Library, London
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E. M. Lloyd
revised by Roger T. Stearn
Stewart, David, of Garth (1772–1829), army officer and writer on the Scottish highlanders, was the second son of Robert Stewart of Garth, Perthshire, and was descended from James Stewart (son of the Wolf of Badenoch, one of the many bastard children of Robert II...
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T. R. Moreman
Tuker [formerly Tucker], Sir Francis Ivan Simms (1894–1967), army officer and military historian, was born at 22 College Road, Brighton, on 14 July 1894, one of three sons of William John Sanger Tucker, who cultivated coffee in the West Indies and later grew fruit in ...
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Young, Peter (1915–1988), army officer and military historian, was born at 54 Fulham Road, London, on 28 July 1915, the son of Dallas Hales Wilkie Young, clerk, and Irene Barbara Lushington Mellor, and educated at Monmouth School and Trinity College, Oxford. He was commissioned second lieutenant in the ...
