Slim, William, 1st Viscount Slim

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Slim, William, 1st Viscount Slim (1891–1970). Soldier. Born in Bristol and brought up in Birmingham, Slim joined the army in 1914, emerging twice wounded from the war with the rank of major. He spent most of the inter-war years with the army in India and in 1940 was sent with a brigade to Eritrea to fight the Italians. In 1942 he was given a command in Burma and in October 1943 took over the 14th Army. The following year he won a great victory in repelling a major Japanese offensive and was able to launch a counter-attack to recover Burma, with a brilliant diversionary movement towards Mandalay. After the war he served as chief of the imperial general staff from 1948 and was governor-general of Australia 1953–60. He was given the Garter in 1959 and a viscountcy in 1960. Slim was a fighting general, bluff and pugnacious, ‘the finest general the Second World War produced’ according to Mountbatten, and known to his men as ‘Uncle Bill’.

J. A. Cannon

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William Joseph Slim 1st Viscount Slim

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