Alanbrooke, Alan Brooke, 1st Viscount
Alanbrooke, Alan Brooke, 1st Viscount (1883–1963). Soldier. Chief of the imperial general staff for much of the Second World War, Brooke was the son of an Irish baronet from Fermanagh and a member of the protestant ascendancy. After the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich from 1902 he spent the Great War on the western front as an artillery officer. During the inter-war period he had spells at staff college and at Imperial Defence College and at the outbreak of the Second World War was a lieutenant-general in charge of anti-aircraft defence. After commanding in France, he was appointed commander-in-chief home forces in 1940 after Dunkirk and the following year took over as chief of the imperial general staff. He was capable of standing up to and working with Churchill, whose boldness and imagination he complemented with sober planning, worked well with Cunningham (navy) and Portal (RAF), and appointed winning generals in Alexander, Montgomery, and Slim. Brooke was given a barony in 1945 and a viscountcy in 1946.
J. A. Cannon
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