Alan Brooke, 1st Viscount Alanbrooke

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Field Marshal Sir Alan Francis Brooke, 1st Viscount Alanbrooke, Baron Alanbrooke, KG, GCB, OM, GCVO, DSO (July 23, 1883 - June 17, 1963) was a British Field Marshal during World War II. He also served as Lord High Constable of England during the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953.

1 Background and early life
2 World War II
3 Honours
- 3.1 Coat of Arms
4 War diaries
5 Finally
6 External references

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Background and early life

Born at Bagnères-de-Bigorre to a prominent Northern Irish family, Alan Brooke was educated in France where he spent the greater part of his childhood and at the Royal Military College, Woolwich. During World War I he served with the Royal Artillery in France, ending the conflict as a Lieutenant-Colonel. Between the wars he was a lecturer at Staff College, Camberley and the Imperial Defence College, where he worked with most of the leading British officers of the Second World War.

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World War II

Following the outbreak of World War II, Brooke commanded the II Corps of the British Expeditionary Force and played a leading role in the evacuation of Allied troops from Dunkirk. In July 1940 he was appointed to command United Kingdom Home Forces and in December 1941 was promoted Chief of the Imperial General Staff [CIGS] and Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Committee, a post which he held until 1946.

In this role, Brooke served as the foremost military advisor to the Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, the War Cabinet, and to Britain's allies. As CIGS, Brooke was the functional head of the Army, and as head of the Chiefs of Staff Committee, he was responsible for the overall strategic direction of the war effort. Although the post of CIGS may not have been as glamorous as a high-profile field command, it was nonetheless important. Brooke was offered command of British forces in the Middle East, which he declined, believing that he ought to remain in Britain to prevent Churchill from leading the country into any military adventures which might prove foolhardy.

Image:Alan Brook - Field Marshall The Viscount - Statue - MOD - Whitehall - London - 240404.jpg

In 1942, Brooke joined the western Allies' ultimate command, the U.S.-British Combined Chiefs of Staff, in Washington D.C..

He was later bitterly disappointed to be passed over for command of the Allied invasion of Western Europe, in favour of U.S. General Dwight D. Eisenhower.

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Honours

Brooke was created Baron Alanbrooke, of Brookeborough, County Fermanagh, in 1945, and Viscount Alanbrooke in 1946.

He won the Distinguished Service Order in World War I,
He was appointed KCB in 1940,
Became a Knight of the Garter
A a member of the Order of Merit in 1946,
The GCB in 1953
And GCVO in 1953.

He also served as Chancellor of the Queen's University of Belfast from 1949 until his death.

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Coat of Arms

His Coat of Arms as issued to him by the College of Arms is: "A cross engrailed per pale Gules and Sable a crescent for difference."

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War diaries

Image:AlanbrookeGrave.jpg The publication in 2001 of Alanbrooke's uncensored War Diaries attracted attention for their insight into the day-to-day running of the British war effort and their, at times, forthright criticism of Winston Churchill and other leading figures of the time.

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Finally

He is buried in his home village of Hartley Wintney, Hampshire, where the last heir to the Alanbrooke viscountcy also still lives. At his death in 1963, Alanbrooke's estate was probated at £50,580.

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