The Warwickshire Regiment


Field Marshal Sir Bernard Law Montgomery
1st Viscount Montgomery of Alamein KG GCB DSO


Bernard Montgomery was born in Kennington, London on 17th Nov 1887. His father was a clergyman who married a woman 18 years younger. They moved to Tasmania while Bernard was still young and while his father was away visiting far flung parishioners the mother would beat the child mercilessly. In later life Montgomery did not allow his own son David to have anything to do with his hated mother, and when she died in 1949 he refused to attend her funeral.

Perhaps because of his upbringing in an atmosphere of violence, Bernard was a bully to his classmates and to the people he worked with later. He was almost expelled from Sandhurst for setting fire to a fellow cadet but passed out in 1908 when he became a 2nd Lieutenant in the 1st Battalion Royal Warwickshire Regiment. Two years later he was a lieutenant and in 1913 was in India.

In the 1st World War he was in the retreat from Mons which brought heavy casualties on the Warwicks. On 13th Oct 1914 he was badly wounded in the lung and knee and won the DSO. By the end of the war he was an acting Lieutenant-Colonel on the staff of the 47th Division. After the war he was the Commanding Officer of the 17th Battalion Royal Fusiliers and served time in Ireland during the troubles. While there he expressed strong views on how the rebellion should be put down.

In 1925 he reverted to the substantive rank of Captain and commanded a company in his old regiment, the Warwicks. Later he attended Staff College and in 1927 he married Elizabeth Carver. By 1931 he was CO of 1st Warwicks when they were in Palestine, Egypt and India. Three years later he was an instructor at the Indian Staff College in Quetta as a full Colonel. In 1937, while he was commanding 9th Infantry Brigade, Elizabeth died of septicaemia which caused him great grief.

In October 1938 he was promoted to major-general in command of 8th Infantry Division in Palestine. He spent the early part of World War 2 commanding various districts but his big break came in August 1942 when he was given command of the 8th Army in North Africa. The army was on the defensive and morale was low but he instilled a sense of hope and refused to listen to any talk of retreat. He was very good at generating good publicity and adopted a recognisable look with a tank commander's black beret and extra badge. By October he was a Lieut-General and on 23rd the Battle of El Alamein began. It lasted 12 days and ended with complete victory for the 8th Army, thus turning the tide in that theatre of war.

After Rommel's defeat in North Africa the 8th Army invaded German occupied Sicily, then Italy. Monty's next big moment was the organistaion of the D-Day invasion of Normandy. He had command of the Allied Forces in Operation Overlord. His first well-known failure was the attack at Arnhem. He continued with the campaign in North West Europe, commanding 21st Army Group until the German surrender which he accepted at Luneburg Heath on 4th September 1945.

After the war he was Commander-in-chief of the British Forces in occupied Germany. He was promoted to Field Marshal and made Chief of the Imperial General Staff. On 1st Jan 1947 he was appointed Colonel of the Royal Warwickshire Regiment. He died on 24th March 1976 at Isington near Alton in Hampshire.


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by Stephen Luscombe