Coordinates	29°25′″N98°30′″N
name	County Championship
administrator	England and Wales Cricket Board
cricket format	first-class
tournament format	two nine-team divisionshome and away in 4-day matches.
first	1890
participants	18
champions	Nottinghamshire
most successful	Yorkshire (30 titles + 1 shared)
most runs	Phil Mead (46,268)
most wickets	Tich Freeman (3,151)
current	2011 County Championship }}

The County Championship (currently the LV= County Championship for sponsorship reasons) is the domestic first-class cricket competition in England and Wales. All but one of the teams are named after, and were originally representatives of, historic English counties, the exception being Glamorgan, which is a Welsh county.

History

Constitution

The ''official'' County Championship was constituted in a meeting at Lord's Cricket Ground with representatives of the first-class county clubs on 10 December 1889. "While the secretaries were engaged in making the fixtures the representatives of the eight leading counties held a private meeting to discuss the method by which the county championship should in future be decided. The meeting was, we understand, not quite unanimous, but a majority were in favour of ignoring drawn games altogether and settling the championship by wins and losses." Under this system defeats were subtracted from victories and the county with the highest total were champions. The new competition began in the 1890 season and at first featured Gloucestershire County Cricket Club, Kent County Cricket Club, Lancashire County Cricket Club, Middlesex County Cricket Club, Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club, Surrey County Cricket Club, Sussex County Cricket Club and Yorkshire County Cricket Club.

"Champion County"

Until 1890, the concept of an unofficial championship existed whereby various claims would be made by or on behalf of a particular club as the "Champion County", an archaic term which now has the specific meaning of an unofficial claimant for the County Championship title prior to 1890. In contrast, the term "County Champions" applies in common parlance to a team that has won the official title since 1890.

The most usual means of claiming the unofficial title was by popular or press acclaim. In the majority of cases, the claim or proclamation was retrospective, often by cricket writers using reverse analysis via a study of known results. The unofficial title was not proclaimed in every season up to 1889 because in many cases there were not enough matches or there was simply no clear candidate. Having already been badly hit by the Seven Years War, county cricket ceased altogether during the Napoleonic Wars and there was a period from 1797 to 1824 during which no inter-county matches took place. The concept of the unofficial title has been utilised ''ad hoc'' and relied on sufficient interest being shown.

Origin of concept

It is difficult to know when the concept originated. While early matches were often between XIs named after counties, they were not the club teams the usage would imply today. Rowland Bowen states in his history that earliest usage of the term "County Championship" occurred in 1837 re a match between Kent and Nottinghamshire. That may be so re the actual terminology but closer examination of the sources does indicate a much earlier expression of the idea.

The earliest known inter-county match was in 1709 between Kent and Surrey but match results are unknown until the 1720s. The first time a source refers to the superiority of one county is in respect of a match between Edward Stead's XI and Sir William Gage's XI at Penshurst Park in August 1728. Stead's XI won by an unknown margin although Gage's XI "needed just 7 (more?) in their second innings". The source says that the game could be called Kent v Sussex as the players were reported ''as 11 of each county''. Sir William Gage was a Sussex landowner and Edward Stead was a resident of Maidstone in Kent. Evidently Mr Stead's Kent team also won two games earlier that season against the Duke of Richmond's XI (also representative of Sussex). The source states that (Stead's victory over Sir William Gage's XI) ''was the third time this summer that the Kent men have been too expert for those of Sussex''. This clearly implies that Kent was considered to be the champion county at that time.

In 1729, Sir William Gage’s Sussex team defeated Kent on 5 September: "The latter got (within three) in one hand, as the former did in two hands, so the Kentish men threw it up". This may have been the earliest known innings victory. The report goes on to say that Thomas Waymark "turned the scale of victory, which for some years past has been generally on the Kentish side".

That statement indicates that inter-county matches had been played for many years previously and that there was keen rivalry with each team seeking ascendancy: i.e., in effect as champions or at least in terms of "bragging rights".

Development of county cricket

Inter-county cricket was popular throughout the 18th century although the best team, such as Kent in the 1740s or Hampshire in the days of the famous Hambledon Club, was usually acknowledged as such by being matched against All-England. There were a number of contemporary allusions to the best county including some in verse, such as one by a Kent supporter who celebrated a victory by Kent over Hampshire in terms of (we shall) "bring down the pride of the Hambledon Club".

Analysis of 18th century matches has identified a number of strong teams who actually or effectively proclaimed their temporal superiority. The most successful county teams were Hampshire, Kent, Middlesex, Surrey and Sussex. But there was often a crossover between town and county with some strong local clubs tending at times to represent a whole county. Examples are London, which often played against county teams and was in some respects almost a county club in itself; Slindon, which was for a few years in the 1740s effectively representative of Sussex as a county; Dartford, sometimes representative of Kent; and the Hambledon Club, certainly representative of Hampshire and also perhaps of Sussex. One of the best county teams in the late 18th century was Berkshire, which no longer has first-class status.

Using the same sort of reverse analysis, it is possible to compile a list of the most competitive teams from the recommencement of county cricket in 1825. Rowland Bowen published his ideas about this in the 1960s when he was the editor of the ''Cricket Quarterly'' periodical. He began by stating that Sussex was publicly acknowledged as the "best county" in the 1827 season when they played against All-England in the roundarm trial matches, although the team's involvement in these matches had more to do with the fact that Sussex was the prime mover in the "roundarm revolution". Kent, which had a celebrated team at the time, has long been acknowledged as a champion county in most seasons of the 1840s but in other years there is no clear-cut contender.

County clubs

The middle years of the 19th century are the period of county club formation. So, when Sussex "claimed" titles in 1826 and 1827, it was the same loose association based on Brighton Cricket Club that had a successful season in 1792. But claims on behalf of Sussex from 1845 were by Sussex CCC. A similar situation has existed re Kent CCC and Surrey CCC. Nottinghamshire is the only other 19th century claimant before the 1860s, starting in 1852, but all of its claims have been made by Nottinghamshire CCC, the club having been founded in 1841.

As cricket expanded throughout England, more county clubs came into contention and, by the mid-1860s, they included Cambridgeshire County Cricket Club, Hampshire County Cricket Club, Lancashire County Cricket Club, Middlesex County Cricket Club and Yorkshire County Cricket Club. At this time and into the 1870s, the press began to advocate some form of league system and various journals and individuals, including W G Grace, began publishing their views about who was the champion in a given season. Grace became interested after Gloucestershire County Cricket Club was founded in 1870, with himself as captain, and made several claims to the championship during the 1870s.

In the 1870s, it became widely accepted that the side with fewest losses should be the champions. Various lists of unofficial champions began to be compiled by the contemporary press and others, but they are not usually in complete agreement.

Qualification rules

An important year was 1873, when player qualification rules came into force, requiring players to choose at the start of each season whether they would play for the county of their birth or their county of residence. Before this, it was quite common for a player to play for both counties during the course of a single season. Three meetings were held, and at the last of these, held at The Oval on 9 June 1873, the following rules were decided on:

''That no cricketer, whether amateur or professional, shall play for more than one county during the same season.''

''Every cricketer born in one county and residing in another shall be free to choose at the commencement of each season for which of those counties he will play, and shall, during that season, play for the one county only.''

''A cricketer shall be qualified to play for the county in which he is residing and has resided for the previous two years: or a cricketer may elect to play for the county in which his family home is, so long as it remains open to him as an occasional residence.''

''That should any question arise as to the residential qualification, the same shall be left to the decision of the Marylebone Cricket Club''.

Newspaper "leagues"

It was in the 1870s that newspapers began to print tables of inter-county results and then proclaim a champion on the basis of their chosen criteria. In Arthur Haygarth's ''Scores and Biographies'', reference is often made to "least matches lost" as a means of deciding the champion. This was a method that, in a modified form, permeated through to the official championship when one point was awarded for a win but one was deducted for a defeat. It was discontinued after 1909 as it was deemed to be inherently unsatisfactory and a points per win method replaced it in 1910.

As Derek Birley describes, the papers did not use standard criteria and so there were several seasons in which any title must be considered "shared", as there was no universally recognised winner. With no consistency of approach, the issue inevitably led to argument, counter-arguments and confusion until the matter was taken in hand at the meeting of club secretaries in December 1889 where the official championship was constituted.

The unofficial titles

All "titles" claimed before 1890 are ''strictly unofficial'' and are based on (a) contemporary claims made by or on behalf of a particular team and recorded at the time; (b) reverse analysis performed by a writer who was trying to establish the best team in a given season by reference to the known fixtures and results. It must be stressed that the purpose of such lists when published has never been to ascribe any kind of ruling but rather to provoke discussion. The main value of the lists is to indicate which were the most competitive teams during a given period.

First official competition

The final positions in 1890 were based on number of wins minus the number of losses. Later, a points system was introduced but it has been subject to several variations.

Expansion and points systems

In the 1891 season, Somerset County Cricket Club competed in the championship and in 1895 Derbyshire County Cricket Club, Essex County Cricket Club, Hampshire County Cricket Club, Leicestershire County Cricket Club and Warwickshire County Cricket Club all joined; the rules were changed so each side had to play at least 16 matches per season. Until World War II, counties played differing numbers of matches and the points system had to be modified so that the ratio of points to ''finished games'' (games minus draws) decided the final positions.

In 1910 the system was modified again so that the order was based on ratio of matches won to matches played, whilst from 1911 to 1967 a variety of systems were used that generally relied on points for wins and for first innings leads in games left unfinished. Since 1968, the basis has been wins (increased from 10 points in 1968, to 12 in 1976, to 16 in 1981, then back down to 12 in 1999, up to 14 in 2004 and currently 16) and "bonus points", which are earned for scoring a certain number of runs or taking a certain number of wickets in the first 110 overs of each first innings (the number of overs has changed at various times, but has been 110 since 2010). In an effort to prevent early finishes, points have been awarded for draws since 1996.

Of the current 18 sides in County Cricket the remaining joined at the following dates:

Worcestershire County Cricket Club in 1899 (did not play in 1919)

Northamptonshire County Cricket Club in 1905

Glamorgan County Cricket Club in 1921

Durham County Cricket Club in 1992

An invitation in 1921 to Buckinghamshire County Cricket Club was declined, due to lack of proper playing facilities, and an application by Devon County Cricket Club in 1948 to join was rejected.

Recent developments

All matches prior to 1988 were scheduled for three days, normally of a nominal six hours each plus intervals, but often with the first two days lengthened by up to an hour and the final day shortened, so that teams with fixtures elsewhere on the following day could travel at sensible hours. The exception to this was the 1919 season, when there was an experiment with two-day matches played over longer hours, up to nine o'clock in the evening in mid-summer. This experiment was not repeated. From 1988 to 1992 some matches were played over four days. From 1993 onwards, all matches have been scheduled for four days.

More information about the history of the County Championship can be found here.

Doubts about the future of the competition

By 2008 many voices were heard questioning the future of the County Championship in the light of the shaky financial structure of many counties, poor attendances and the irresistible rise of Twenty20 cricket. Amongst those questioning the whole basis of the competition was Frank Keating of The Guardian who said on 15 April 2008:

''"sheepishly stirs another summer of what has tragically become a drawn-out primeval charade, the English County Championship. For decade upon decade it was a cherished adornment of the summer sub-culture, certainly for my generation when heroes were giants and giants were locals. About a quarter of a century ago the championship began fraying and then in no time unravelling. It is now a pointless exercise, unwatched, unwanted, serviced by mostly blinkered, greedy chairman-bullied committees and played by mostly unknown foreign and second-rate mercenaries."''

However doubts have been raised over many decades concerning the competition's viability, yet it still survives. ''The Changing Face of Cricket'' (1963) by Clarke and Batchelor, made similar predictions about County Cricket.

Despite suggestions that the format could change to 10 games per side in 3 six team regional groups with a knockout phase at the end of the season from 2010 in July 2008 the ECB decided to keep the current format till at least 2013.

Competition format

Points system

The county championship works on a points system, the winner being the team with most points in the first division. The points are currently awarded as follows:

Win: 16 points + bonus points. Tie: 8 points + bonus points. Draw: 3 points + bonus points. Loss: Bonus points.

Bonus points are collected for batting and bowling. These points can only be obtained from the first 110 overs of each team's first innings. The bonus points are retained regardless of the outcome of the match.

Batting

:200-249 runs: 1 point :250-299 runs: 2 points :300-349 runs: 3 points :350-399 runs: 4 points :400+ runs: 5 points

Bowling

:3-5 wickets taken: 1 point :6-8 wickets taken: 2 points :9-10 wickets taken: 3 points

Deductions

Occasionally, a team may have points deducted. These are normally small deductions, between 0.5 and 1 point. Deductions are most commonly handed out for slow over rates or poor pitches. However, in 2005, Surrey were awarded an 8 point penalty for ball tampering. At the end of the 2005 season, this deduction resulted in their relegation to the second division. In 2007, Glamorgan were deducted 8 points for an unprepared wicket at Swansea. Also, in 2011, Warwickshire and Hampshire were deducted 8 points for poor pitches at Edgbaston and at the Rose Bowl.

Results

Official county champions

Yorkshire have won the Championship the most, doing so on 30 occasions (plus 1 shared). Three current first class counties hold no County Championship titles: Gloucestershire, Northamptonshire and Somerset. (However, Gloucestershire won some unofficial titles prior to 1890.)

Promoted and relegated

There have been two divisions since 2000.

Hampshire, Durham, Derbyshire Yorkshire Surrey Sussex Warwickshire Nottinghamshire Sussex Sussex Durham Durham Nottinghamshire

Year	! County Champions	! Relegated	! Division 2 Champions	! Promoted
2000	Surrey	|	Northamptonshire	Essex, Glamorgan
2001	|	Northamptonshire, Glamorgan, Essex	Sussex	Hampshire, Warwickshire
2002	|	Hampshire, Somerset, Yorkshire	Essex	Middlesex, Nottinghamshire
2003	|	Essex, Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire	Worcestershire	Northamptonshire, Gloucestershire
2004	|	Worcestershire, Lancashire, Northamptonshire	Nottinghamshire	Hampshire, Glamorgan
2005	|	Surrey, Gloucestershire, Glamorgan	Lancashire	Durham, Yorkshire
2006 County Championship	2006	|	Nottinghamshire, Middlesex	Surrey	Worcestershire
2007 County Championship	2007	|	Warwickshire, Worcestershire	Somerset	Nottinghamshire
2008 County Championship	2008	|	Kent, Surrey	Warwickshire	Worcestershire
2009 County Championship	2009	|	Sussex, Worcestershire	Kent	Essex
2010 County Championship	2010	|	Essex, Kent	Sussex	Worcestershire

Wooden spoons

Since the expansion of the Championship from 9 counties to 14 in 1895, the wooden spoon for finishing bottom has been 'won' by:

Derbyshire 15

Somerset 12

Northamptonshire 11

Glamorgan 10

Nottinghamshire 8

Sussex 8

Gloucestershire 7

Leicestershire 7

Worcestershire 6

Durham 5

Hampshire 5

Warwickshire 3

Essex 2

Kent 2

Yorkshire 1

Lancashire, Middlesex and Surrey have never finished bottom. Leicestershire have shared last place twice, with Hampshire and Somerset.

Records

All records can be found at Cricinfo - Records.

Highest team scores

887 Yorkshire v Warwickshire: Edgbaston, Birmingham 1896

863 Lancashire v Surrey: The Foster's Oval, Kennington 1990

850-7d Somerset v Middlesex: Taunton 2007

811 Surrey v Somerset: Kennington Oval 1899

810-4d Warwickshire v Durham: Edgbaston, Birmingham 1994

803-4d Kent v Essex: Old County Ground, Brentwood 1934

801-8d Derbyshire v Somerset: County Ground, Taunton 2007

Lowest team scores

12 Northamptonshire v Gloucestershire: Spa Ground, Gloucester 1907

13 Nottinghamshire v Yorkshire: Trent Bridge, Nottingham 1901

14 Surrey v Essex: County Ground, Chelmsford 1983

15 Hampshire v Warwickshire: Edgbaston, Birmingham 1922 (Hampshire won game)

16 Warwickshire v Kent: Angel Ground, Tonbridge 1913

20 Sussex v Yorkshire: The Circle, Hull 1922

20 Derbyshire v Yorkshire: Bramall Lane, Sheffield 1939

Most runs in an innings

501* BC Lara: Warwicks v Durham, Edgbaston 1994

424 AC MacLaren: Lancashire v Somerset, Taunton 1895

405* GA Hick: Worcestershire v Somerset, Taunton 1988

366 NH Fairbrother: Lancashire v Surrey, The Oval 1990

357* R Abel: Surrey v Somerset, The Oval 1899

Best figures in an innings

10-10 H Verity: Yorkshire v Nottinghamshire, Leeds 1932

10-18 G Geary: Leicestershire v Glamorgan, Pontypridd 1929

10-30 C Blythe: Kent v Northamptonshire, Northampton 1907

10-32 H Pickett: Essex v Leicestershire, Leyton 1895

10-35 A Drake: Yorkshire v Somerset, Weston-s-M 1914

10-36 H Verity: Yorkshire v Warwickshire, Leeds 1931

10-40 EG Dennett: Gloucestershire v Essex, Bristol 1906

10-40 W Bestwick: Derbyshire v Glamorgan, Cardiff 1921

10-40 GOB Allen: Middlesex v Lancashire, Lord's 1929

Sponsors

1977-1983 Schweppes

1984-1998 Britannic Assurance

1999-2000 AXA ppp Healthcare

2001 Cricinfo

2002-2005 Frizzell

2006–present Liverpool Victoria (now branded as "LV=")

See also

Pro40

Friends Provident Trophy

Twenty20 Cup

External links

Official Website

References

Category:English domestic cricket competitions Category:English cricket in the 19th century Category:English cricket in the 20th century Category:English cricket in the 21st century Category:1890 establishments

de:County Championship fr:County Championship

Coordinates	29°25′″N98°30′″N
Honorific-prefix	The Right Honourable
Name	The Viscount Montgomery of Alamein
Honorific-suffix	KG, GCB, DSO, PC
Name	Field Marshal The Right Honourable The Viscount Montgomery of Alamein KG GCB DSO PC
Birth date	November 17, 1887
Death date	March 24, 1976
Birth place	Kennington, London
Death place	Alton, Hampshire
Placeofburial	Holy Cross Churchyard, Binsted
Placeofburial label	Place of burial
Nicknames	Monty, The Spartan General
Allegiance	UK
Branch
Serviceyears	1908–1958
Rank	Field Marshal
Commands	Eighth Army 1942–1943Allied 21st Army Group 1943–1945Chief of the Imperial General Staff 1946–1948Deputy Supreme Commander Europe of NATO 1951–1958
Battles	First World WarAnglo-Irish WarArab revolt in PalestineSecond World War
Awards	KG (1946)GCB (1945)DSO (1914)MID (9 times)Other foreign awards (listed in main text)
Laterwork	Colonel Commandant, Royal Tank RegimentColonel Commandant, Parachute Regiment ( -1956)Representative Colonel Commandant, Royal Armoured Corps (1947-1957)Colonel Commandant, Army Physical Training Corps (1946-1960)Colonel Royal Warwickshire Regiment(1947-1963)Deputy Lieutenant of Southampton (1958–) }}

Field Marshal Bernard Law Montgomery, 1st Viscount Montgomery of Alamein, KG, GCB, DSO, PC (; 17 November 1887 – 24 March 1976), nicknamed "Monty" and the "Spartan General" was a British Army officer. He saw action in the First World War, when he was seriously wounded, and during the Second World War he commanded the 8th Army from August 1942 in the Western Desert until the final Allied victory in Tunisia. This command included the Battle of El Alamein, a major turning point in the Western Desert Campaign. He subsequently commanded Eighth Army in Sicily and Italy before being given responsibility for planning the D-Day invasion in Normandy. He was in command of all Allied ground forces during Operation Overlord from the initial landings until after the Battle of Normandy. He then continued in command of the 21st Army Group for the rest of the campaign in North West Europe. As such he was the principal field commander for the failed airborne attempt to bridge the Rhine at Arnhem and the Allied Rhine crossing. On 4 May 1945 he took the German surrender at Luneburg Heath in northern Germany. After the War he became Commander-in-Chief of the British Army of the Rhine (BAOR) in Germany and then Chief of the Imperial General Staff.

Early life

Montgomery was born in Kennington, London, in 1887, the fourth child of nine, to an Anglo-Irish Anglican priest, the Revd Henry Montgomery, and Maud Montgomery (née Farrar). Henry Montgomery, at the time the Vicar of St Mark's, Kennington, was the second son of the noted Indian administrator, Sir Robert Montgomery, who died a month after Bernard's birth. Bernard's mother Maud was the daughter of the well-known preacher Frederic William Farrar, and was 18 years younger than her husband. After the death of Sir Robert Montgomery, Henry inherited the Montgomery ancestral estate of New Park at Moville, a town on the Inishowen Peninsula of north County Donegal in the west of Ulster.

However, there was still £13,000 to pay on the mortgage, a fairly large amount of money in the 1880s, and Henry was at the time still only a mere parish priest. Despite selling off all of those farms that were at Ballynally, "there was barely enough to keep up New Park and pay for the blasted summer holiday" (i.e., at New Park). It was a financial relief of some magnitude that, in 1889, Henry was made Bishop of Tasmania, then still a colony. He considered it his duty to spend as much time as possible in the outlying country of Tasmania and was away six months at a time. While he was away his wife, still in her mid-twenties, gave her children "constant" beatings, then ignored them most of the time as she performed the public duties of the bishop's wife. Of his siblings, Sibyl would die prematurely in Tasmania, and Harold, Donald and Una would all emigrate. In the absence of her husband, Maud Montgomery took little active interest in the education of her young children other than to have them taught by tutors brought across from England. The loveless environment made Bernard something of a bully, as he himself later recalled "I was a dreadful little boy. I don't suppose anybody would put up with my sort of behaviour these days." Later in life Montgomery refused to allow his son David to have anything to do with his grandmother and he refused to attend her funeral in 1949.

The family returned home once for the Lambeth Conference in 1897, and Bernard and his brother Harold were educated for a term at The King's School, Canterbury. In 1901, Bishop Montgomery became secretary of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, and the family returned to London. Montgomery went to St Paul's School and then the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, from which he was almost expelled for setting fire to a fellow cadet during a fight with pokers. On graduation he joined the 1st Battalion, The Royal Warwickshire Regiment in September 1908 as a second lieutenant, first seeing service in India until 1913. He was promoted to lieutenant in 1910.

First World War

The First World War began in August 1914 and Montgomery moved to France with his regiment that month. He saw service during the retreat from Mons, during which half his battalion was destroyed. At Méteren, near the Belgian border at Bailleul on 13 October 1914, during an Allied counter-offensive, he was shot through the right lung by a sniper and was injured seriously enough for his grave to be dug in preparation for his death. A platoon sergeant came to assist him but was killed. He fell on Montgomery. The German sniper fired at him until sunset. The body of the sergeant protected Montgomery and took most of the enemy fire. Montgomery was hit once more though, in the knee. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Order for gallant leadership. The citation for this award, published in the ''London Gazette'' in December 1914 reads:}}

After recovering in early 1915, he was appointed to be brigade major training Kitchener's New Army and returned to the Western Front in early 1916 as an operations staff officer during the battles of the Somme, Arras, and Passchendaele. During this time he came under IX Corps, part of General Sir Herbert Plumer's Second Army. Through his training, rehearsal, and integration of the infantry with artillery and engineers, the troops of Plumer's Second Army were able to achieve their objectives efficiently and without unnecessary casualties.

Montgomery served at the battles of the Lys and Chemin-des-Dames before finishing the war as General Staff Officer 1 and effectively chief of staff of the 47th (2nd London) Division, with the temporary rank of lieutenant-colonel. A photograph from October 1918 shows the then unknown Lt.-Col. Montgomery standing in front of Winston Churchill (Minister of Munitions) at the victory parade at Lille.

Between the wars

After the First World War Montgomery commanded 17th Battalion Royal Fusiliers, a battalion in the British Army of the Rhine, before reverting to his substantive rank of captain (brevet major) in November 1919. He wrote up his experiences in a series of training pamphlets and manuals. He then attended the army's Staff College, Camberley, before being appointed Brigade Major in the 17th Infantry Brigade in January 1921. The brigade was stationed in County Cork during the Irish War of Independence. A cousin of Montgomery's, Lt Col. Hugh Montgomery, had been assassinated by the IRA in 1920 (see the Cairo Gang). IRA officer Tom Barry said that he "behaved with great correctness". Montgomery came to the conclusion that the conflict could not be won without harsh measures, and that self-government was the only feasible solution; in 1923, after the establishment of the Irish Free State and during the Irish Civil War, Montgomery wrote to Colonel Arthur Percival of the Essex Regiment:

In 1923, Montgomery was posted to the Territorial 49th Division, eschewing the usual amounts of drill for tactical training. He returned to the 1st Royal Warwickshires in 1925 as a company commander and captain. In January 1926 having been promoted to major in 1925, he was appointed D.A.A.G. at the Staff College, Camberley in the temporary rank of lieutenant-colonel, a position he held until January 1929 by which time he had been made a (brevet lieutenant-colonel).

In 1927, he met and married Elizabeth Carver, widow of Oswald Carver, Olympic rowing medalist who was killed in the First World War. Their son, David, was born in August 1928. Elizabeth Carver was the sister of the Second World War commander Percy Hobart.

In 1931 Montgomery became lieutenant-colonel commanding the 1st Battalion of The Royal Warwickshire Regiment and saw service in Palestine, Egypt, and India. He was promoted to full colonel in 1934 and became an instructor at the Indian Army Staff College in Quetta, India. As was usual, Montgomery maintained links with the Royal Warwickshires and was later to take up the honorary position of Colonel-of-the-Regiment in 1947. Montgomery stirred up the resentment of his superiors for his arrogance and dictatorial ways, and also for his disregard of convention when it obstructed military effectiveness. For example, he set up a battalion brothel in Tripoli, Libya during the Second World War, regularly inspected by the medical officer, for the 'horizontal refreshment' of his soldiers rather than forcing them to take chances in unregulated establishments. He was quoted as saying that his men "deserved it".

On completion of his tour of duty in India, Montgomery returned to Britain in June 1937 where he became commanding officer of the 9th Infantry Brigade with the temporary rank of brigadier, but that year also saw tragedy for him; his wife was bitten by an insect while on holiday in Burnham-on-Sea. The bite became infected, and his wife died in his arms from septicaemia following an amputation. The loss devastated Montgomery, but he insisted on throwing himself back into his work immediately after the funeral. In 1938, he organised an amphibious combined operations landing exercise that impressed the new commander-in-chief, Southern Command, General Wavell. He was promoted to major-general in October 1938 and took command of the 8th Infantry Division in Palestine. There he quashed an Arab revolt before returning in July 1939 to Britain, suffering a serious illness on the way, to command the 3rd (Iron) Infantry Division. On hearing of the rebel defeat in April 1939, Montgomery said, "I shall be sorry to leave Palestine in many ways, as I have enjoyed the war out here".

Second World War

Britain declared war on Germany on 3 September 1939. The 3rd Division was deployed to Belgium as part of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF). Montgomery predicted a disaster similar to that in 1914, and so spent the Phoney War training his troops for tactical retreat rather than offensive operations. During this time, Montgomery faced serious trouble from his superiors for his attitude regarding the sexual health of his soldiers. However, he was defended from dismissal by his superior Alan Brooke, commander of II Corps. Montgomery's training paid off when the Germans began their invasion of the Low Countries on 10 May 1940 and the 3rd Division advanced to the River Dijle and then withdrew to Dunkirk with great professionalism, returning to Britain intact with minimal casualties. During Operation Dynamo—the evacuation of 330,000 BEF and French troops to Britain—Montgomery had assumed command of the II Corps after Brooke had taken acting command of the whole BEF.

On his return Montgomery antagonised the War Office with trenchant criticisms of the command of the BEF and was briefly relegated to divisional command. He was however made a Companion of the Order of the Bath. In July 1940, he was appointed acting lieutenant-general, placed in command of V Corps, responsible for the defence of Hampshire and Dorset, and started a long-running feud with the new commander-in-chief, Southern Command, Claude Auchinleck. In April 1941, he became commander of XII Corps responsible for the defence of Kent. During this period he instituted a regime of continuous training and insisted on high levels of physical fitness for both officers and other ranks. He was ruthless in sacking officers he considered would be unfit for command in action. In December 1941 Montgomery was given command of South-Eastern Command overseeing the defence of Kent, Sussex and Surrey. He renamed his command the South-Eastern Army to promote offensive spirit. During this time he further developed and rehearsed his ideas and trained his soldiers, culminating in Exercise Tiger in May 1942, a combined forces exercise involving 100,000 troops.

North Africa and Italy

Montgomery's early command

In 1942, a new field commander was required in the Middle East, where Auchinleck was fulfilling both the role of commander-in-chief Middle East Command and commander Eighth Army. He had stabilised the Allied position at the First Battle of El Alamein, but after a visit in August 1942, the Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, replaced him as C-in-C with Alexander and William Gott as commander of the Eighth Army in the Western Desert. After Gott was killed flying back to Cairo Churchill was persuaded by Brooke, who by this time was Chief of the Imperial General Staff to appoint Montgomery, who had only just been nominated to replace Alexander as commander of the British ground forces for Operation Torch.

A story, probably apocryphal but popular at the time, is that the appointment caused Montgomery to remark that "After having an easy war, things have now got much more difficult." A colleague is supposed to have told him to cheer up – at which point Montgomery is supposed to have said "I'm not talking about me, I'm talking about Rommel!"

Montgomery's assumption of command transformed the fighting spirit and abilities of the Eighth Army. Taking command on 13 August 1942, he immediately became a whirlwind of activity. He ordered the creation of the X Corps, which contained all armoured divisions to fight alongside his XXX Corps which was all infantry divisions. This was in no way similar to a German Panzer Corps. One of Rommel's Panzer Corps combined infantry, armour and artillery units under one corps commander. The only common commander for Montgomery's all infantry and all armour corps was the Eighth Army Commander himself. Correlli Barnett commented that Montgomery's solution "...was in every way opposite to Auchinleck's and in every way wrong, for it carried the existing dangerous separatism still further." Montgomery reinforced the long front line at El Alamein, something that would take two months to accomplish. He asked Alexander to send him two new British divisions (51st Highland and 44th) that were then arriving in Egypt and were scheduled to be deployed in defence of the Nile Delta. He moved his field HQ to Burg al Arab, close to the Air Force command post in order better to coordinate combined operations. Montgomery was determined that the Army, Navy and Air Forces should fight their battles in a unified, focused manner according to a detailed plan. He ordered immediate reinforcement of the vital heights of Alam Halfa, just behind his own lines, expecting the German commander, Erwin Rommel, to attack with the heights as his objective, something that Rommel soon did. Montgomery ordered all contingency plans for retreat to be destroyed. "I have cancelled the plan for withdrawal", he told his officers at the first meeting he held with them in the desert. "If we are attacked, then there will be no retreat. If we cannot stay here alive, then we will stay here dead."

Montgomery made a great effort to appear before troops as often as possible, frequently visiting various units and making himself known to the men, often arranging for cigarettes to be distributed. Although he still wore a standard British officer's cap on arrival in the desert, he briefly wore an Australian broad-brimmed hat before switching to wearing the black beret (with the badge of the Royal Tank Regiment next to the British General Officer's badge) for which he became notable. The black beret had been offered to him by a soldier upon climbing into a tank to get a closer look at the front lines. Both Brooke and Alexander were astonished by the transformation in atmosphere when they visited on 19 August, less than a week after Montgomery had taken command.

First battles with Rommel

Rommel attempted to turn the left flank of the Eighth Army at the Battle of Alam Halfa from 31 August 1942. The German/Italian armoured Corps infantry attack was stopped in very heavy fighting. Rommel's forces had to withdraw urgently lest their retreat through the British minefields be cut off. Montgomery was criticised for not counter-attacking the retreating forces immediately, but he felt strongly that his methodical build-up of British forces was not yet ready. A hasty counter-attack risked ruining his strategy for an offensive on his own terms in late October, planning for which had begun soon after he took command. He was confirmed in the permanent rank of lieutenant-general in mid October.

The conquest of Libya was essential for airfields to support Malta and to threaten the rear of Axis forces opposing Operation Torch. Montgomery prepared meticulously for the new offensive after convincing Churchill that the time was not being wasted. (Churchill sent a telegram to Alexander on 23 September 1942 which began, "We are in your hands and of course a victorious battle makes amends for much delay.) He was determined not to fight until he thought there had been sufficient preparation for a decisive victory, and put into action his beliefs with the gathering of resources, detailed planning, the training of troops—especially in clearing minefields and fighting at night—and in the use of 252 of the latest American-built Sherman tanks, 90 M7 Priest self-propelled howitzers, and making a personal visit to every unit involved in the offensive. By the time the offensive was ready in late October, Eighth Army had 231,000 men on its ration strength including British, Australian, South African, Indian, New Zealand, Greek and Free French units.

El Alamein

The Second Battle of El Alamein began on 23 October 1942, and ended 12 days later with the first large-scale, decisive Allied land victory of the war. Montgomery correctly predicted both the length of the battle and the number of casualties (13,500). However, soon after Allied armoured units and infantry broke through the German and Italian lines and were pursuing the enemy forces at speed along the coast road, a violent rainstorm burst over the region, bogging down the tanks and support trucks in the desert mud. Montgomery, standing before his officers at headquarters and close to tears, announced that he was forced to call off the pursuit. Corelli Barnett has pointed out that the rain also fell on the Germans, and that the weather is therefore an inadequate explanation for the failure to exploit the breakthrough, but nevertheless the Battle of El Alamein had been a great success. Over 30,000 prisoners were taken including the German second in command, General von Thoma, as well as eight other general officers. Rommel, having been in a hospital in Germany at the start of the battle, was forced to return on 25 October 1942 after General Stumme – his replacement as German commander – died of a heart attack in the early hours of the battle.

Tunisia

Montgomery was knighted and promoted to full general. Inter-Allied tensions grew as the American commanders Patton and Bradley (then commanding II US Corps under Patton), took umbrage at what they perceived as Montgomery's attitudes and boastfulness.

Italian Campaign

During the autumn of 1943, Montgomery continued to command the Eighth Army during the landings on the mainland of Italy itself. In conjunction with the Anglo-American landings at Salerno (near Naples) by Mark Clark's Fifth Army and seaborne landings by British paratroops in the heel of Italy (including the key port of Taranto, where they disembarked without resistance directly into the port), Montgomery led the Eighth Army up the toe of Italy. Some criticism was made of the slowness of Montgomery's advance. The Eighth Army, responsible for the eastern side of the Allied front, from the central Apennine mountain spine to the Adriatic coast, fought a succession of engagements alternating between opposed crossings of the rivers running across their line of advance and attacks against the cleverly constructed defensive positions the Germans had fashioned on the ridges in between. The Eighth Army crossed the Sangro river in mid-November and penetrated the German's strongest position at the Gustav Line but as the winter weather deteriorated the advance ground to a halt as transport bogged down and air support operations became impossible. Montgomery abhorred the lack of coordination, the dispersion of effort, and the strategic muddle and opportunism he perceived in the Allied effort in Italy and was glad to leave the "dog's breakfast" on 23 December.

Normandy

Montgomery returned to Britain to take command of the 21st Army Group which consisted of all Allied ground forces that would take part in Operation Overlord, the invasion of Normandy. Preliminary planning for the invasion had been taking place for two years, most recently by COSSAC staff (Chief of Staff to the Supreme Allied Commander). Montgomery quickly concluded that the COSSAC plan was too limited, and strongly advocated expanding the plan from a three-division to a five-division assault. As with his takeover of the Eighth Army, Montgomery travelled frequently to his units, raising morale and ensuring training was progressing. At St Paul's School on 7 April and 15 May he presented his strategy for the invasion. He envisaged a ninety day battle, ending when all the forces reached the Seine, pivoting on an Allied-held Caen, with British and Canadian armies forming a shoulder and the US armies wheeling on the right.

During the hard fought two and a half month Battle of Normandy that followed, the impact of a series of unfavourable autumnal weather conditions disrupted the Normandy landing areas and seriously hampered the tactical delivery of planned transportation of personnel and supplies which were being carried across the English Channel. Consequently, Montgomery argues in his literary account that he was unable to follow his pre-battle plan precisely to the timescales planned outside of battle. It should be noted that the extension of the battle plan by one month was the cause of significant retrospective criticisms of Montgomery by some of his American peers, including the much respected Bradley and equally controversial Patton.

Montgomery's initial plan was, most likely, for an immediate break-out toward Caen. Unable to do so, as the British did not get enough forces ashore to exploit the successful landing, Montgomery's advance was checked. When it appeared unlikely that the British Second Army would break out, Montgomery's contingency was designed to attract German forces to the British sector to ease the passing of United States Army through German defences to the west, during Operation Cobra. This series of battle plans by the British, Canadian and American armies trapped and defeated the German forces in Normandy in the Falaise pocket. The campaign that Montgomery fought was essentially attritional until the middle of July with the occupation of the Cotentin Peninsula and a series of offensives in the east, which secured Caen and attracted the bulk of German armour there. An American break-out was achieved with Operation Cobra and the encirclement of German forces in the Falaise pocket at the cost of British sacrifice with the diversionary Operation Goodwood.

Advance to the Rhine

[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-14059-0018, Berlin, Oberbefehlshaber der vier Verbündeten.jpg|thumb|The Supreme Commanders on 5 June 1945 in Berlin: Bernard Montgomery, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Georgy Zhukov and Jean de Lattre de Tassigny.]] The increasing preponderance of American troops in the European theatre (from five out of ten divisions at D-Day to 72 out of 85 in 1945) made it a political impossibility for the Ground Forces Commander to be British. After the end of the Normandy campaign, General Eisenhower himself took over Ground Forces Command while continuing as Supreme Commander, with Montgomery continuing to command the 21st Army Group, now consisting mainly of British and Canadian units. Montgomery bitterly resented this change, although it had been agreed before the D-Day invasion. Winston Churchill had Montgomery promoted to field marshal by way of compensation.

Montgomery was able to persuade Eisenhower to adopt his strategy of a single thrust to the Ruhr with Operation Market Garden in September 1944. It was uncharacteristic of Montgomery's battles: the offensive was strategically bold, but poorly planned. Montgomery either didn't receive or ignored ULTRA intelligence which warned of the presence of German armoured units near the site of the attack. As a result, the operation failed with the destruction of the British 1st Airborne Division at the Battle of Arnhem and the loss of any hopes of invading Germany by the end of 1944.

Montgomery's preoccupation with the push to the Ruhr had also distracted him from the essential task of clearing the Scheldt during the capture of Antwerp; and so, after Arnhem, Montgomery's group was instructed to concentrate on doing this so that the port of Antwerp could be opened.

When the surprise attack on the Ardennes took place on 16 December 1944, starting the Battle of the Bulge, the front of the U.S. 12th Army Group was split, with the bulk of the U.S. First Army being on the northern shoulder of the German 'bulge'. The Army Group commander, General Omar Bradley, was located south of the penetration at Luxembourg and command of the U.S. First Army became problematic. Montgomery was the nearest commander on the ground and on 20 December, Eisenhower (who was in Versailles) transferred Courtney Hodges' U.S. First Army and William Simpson's U.S. Ninth Army to his 21st Army Group, despite Bradley's vehement objections on national grounds.|group=nb}} Montgomery grasped the situation quickly, visiting all divisional, corps, and army field commanders himself and instituting his 'Phantom' network of liaison officers. He grouped the British XXX Corps as a strategic reserve behind the Meuse and reorganised the US defence of the northern shoulder, shortening and strengthening the line and ordering the evacuation of St Vith. The German commander of the 5th Panzer Army, Hasso von Manteuffel said:

The operations of the American 1st Army had developed into a series of individual holding actions. Montgomery's contribution to restoring the situation was that he turned a series of isolated actions into a coherent battle fought according to a clear and definite plan. It was his refusal to engage in premature and piecemeal counter-attacks which enabled the Americans to gather their reserves and frustrate the German attempts to extend their breakthrough.

Eisenhower had then wanted Montgomery to go on the offensive on 1 January to meet Patton's army that had started advancing from the south on 19 December and in doing so, trap the Germans. However, Montgomery refused to commit infantry he considered underprepared into a snowstorm and for a strategically unimportant piece of land. He did not launch the attack until 3 January, by which point the German forces had been able to escape. A large part of American military opinion thought that he should not have held back, though it was characteristic of him to use drawn-out preparations for his attack. After the battle the U.S. First Army was restored to the 12th Army Group; the U.S. Ninth Army remained under 21st Army Group until it crossed the Rhine.

Montgomery's 21st Army Group advanced to the Rhine with operations Veritable and Grenade in February 1945. A meticulously planned Rhine crossing occurred on 24 March. While successful it was weeks after the Americans had unexpectedly captured the Ludendorff Bridge and crossed the river. Montgomery's river crossing was followed by the encirclement of the German Army Group B in the Ruhr. Initially Montgomery's role was to guard the flank of the American advance. This was altered, however, to forestall any chance of a Red Army advance into Denmark, and the 21st Army Group occupied Hamburg and Rostock and sealed off the Danish peninsula.

On 4 May 1945, on Lüneburg Heath, Montgomery accepted the surrender of German forces in northern Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands. This was done plainly in a tent without any ceremony. In the same year he was awarded the Order of the Elephant, the highest order in Denmark.

Later life

After the war Montgomery became the C-in-C of the British Army of the Rhine (BAOR), the name given to the British Occupation Forces and the British member of the Allied Control Council. He was created 1st Viscount Montgomery of Alamein in 1946. He was Chief of the Imperial General Staff from 1946 until 1948, succeeding Alanbrooke, but was largely a failure as it required strategic and political skills he did not possess. He was barely on speaking terms with his fellow chiefs, sending his VCIGS to attend their meetings and he clashed particularly with Arthur Tedder, who as Deputy Supreme Commander had intrigued for Montgomery's dismissal during the Battle of Normandy, and who was by now Chief of the Air Staff. When Montgomery's term of office expired, Prime Minister Clement Attlee appointed General (later Field-Marshal) William Slim as his successor; when Montgomery protested that he had told his protegé General Crocker, a former corps commander from the 1944-5 campaign, that the job was to be his, Attlee is said to have given the memorable retort "Untell him".

Montgomery was then appointed Chairman of the Western European Union's commanders-in-chief committee. Volume 3 of Nigel Hamilton's ''Life of Montgomery of Alamein'' gives a good account of the bickering between Montgomery and his land forces chief, a French general, which created splits through the Union headquarters. He was thus pleased to become Eisenhower's deputy in creating the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation's European forces in 1951. He was an effective inspector-general and mounted good exercises, but out of his depth politically, and his exacting manner and emphasis on efficiency created ill-feeling. He continued to serve under Eisenhower's successors, Matthew Ridgway and Al Gruenther, until his retirement, aged nearly 71, in 1958. His mother died in 1949; Montgomery did not attend the funeral, claiming he was "too busy". He was chairman of the governing body of St John's School, Leatherhead, Surrey from 1951 to 1966 and a generous supporter. Montgomery was an Honorary Member of the Winkle Club, a noted charity in Hastings, East Sussex, and introduced Winston Churchill to the club in 1955.

In 1953, the Hamilton Board of Education in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, wrote to Montgomery and asked permission to name a new school in the city's east end after him. Viscount Montgomery Elementary was billed as "the most modern school in North America" and the largest single-storey school in Hamilton, when the sod was turned on 14 March 1951. The school officially opened on 18 April 1953, with Montgomery in attendance among almost 10,000 well-wishers. At the opening, he gave the motto "Gardez Bien" from his own family's coat of arms.

Montgomery referred to the school as his "beloved school" and visited on five separate occasions, the last being in 1960. On his last visit, he said to "his" students:

Let's make Viscount Montgomery School the best in Hamilton, the best in Ontario, the best in Canada. I don't associate myself with anything that is not good. It is up to you to see that everything about this school is good. It is up to the students to not only be their best in school but in their behaviour outside of Viscount. Education is not just something that will help you pass your exams and get you a job, it is to develop your brain to teach you to marshal facts and do things.

Before retirement, Montgomery's outspoken views on some subjects, such as race, were often officially suppressed. After retirement these outspoken views became public and his reputation suffered. He supported apartheid and Chinese communism under Mao Zedong, and spoke against the legalisation of homosexuality in the United Kingdom, arguing that the ''Sexual Offences Act 1967'' was a "charter for buggery" and that "this sort of thing may be tolerated by the French, but we're British – thank God." However, several of Montgomery's biographers, including Chalfont (who found something "disturbingly equivocal" in "his relations with boys and young men" ) and Nigel Hamilton (2002) have suggested that he may himself have been a repressed homosexual; in the late 1940s he conducted an affectionate friendship with a 12-year-old Swiss boy. One biographer called the friendship "bizarre" although not "improper" and a sign of "pitiful loneliness"

Montgomery's memoirs (1958) criticised many of his wartime comrades in harsh terms, including Eisenhower, whom he accused, among other things, of prolonging the war by a year through poor leadership—allegations which ended their friendship, not least as Eisenhower was still US President at the time. He was stripped of his honorary citizenship of Montgomery, Alabama, and was challenged to a duel by an Italian officer. He was threatened with legal action by Field-Marshal Auchinleck for suggesting that Auchinleck had intended to retreat from the Alamein position if attacked again, and had to give a radio broadcast (20 November 1958) expressing his gratitude to Auchinleck for having stabilised the front at the First Battle of Alamein. The 1960 edition of his memoirs contains a publisher's note (opposite page 15) drawing attention to that broadcast, and stating that in the publisher's view the reader might assume from Montgomery's text that Auchinleck had been planning to retreat and pointing out that this was in fact not the case.

Montgomery was never raised to an earldom like his wartime contemporaries Harold Alexander, Louis Mountbatten and even Archibald Wavell, but unlike them he had never been a Theatre Supreme Commander or held high political office. An official task he insisted on performing in his later years was bearing the Sword of State during the State Opening of Parliament. His increasing frailty, however, raised concerns about his ability to stand for long periods while carrying the heavy weapon. Ultimately, those fears were borne out when he collapsed in mid-ceremony in 1968 and did not perform this function again. A favourite pastime of the British press during these years was to photograph Montgomery cashing his old age pension cheque at the local social security office. Due to his eminence, the British public assumed Montgomery was wealthy and did not need the money. In fact, he had always been a man of modest means and it caused him great anguish that many believed he was taking taxpayer money he did not need. Another blow was a break-in at his home. Despite his making a televised appeal for the return of his possessions, the items were never recovered.

Death

Montgomery died from unspecified causes in 1976 at his home Isington Mill, Isington near Alton, Hampshire, aged 88. After a funeral ceremony at St George's Chapel, Windsor, he was interred in the Holy Cross Churchyard, Binsted.

Legacy

His portrait (by Frank O. Salisbury, 1945) hangs in the National Portrait Gallery.

A statue of Montgomery can be found outside the Ministry of Defence (the M.o.D.) in Whitehall, alongside those of Field Marshal Lord Slim and Field Marshal Lord Alanbrooke. Another statue of Viscount Montgomery can be found in Brussels, Belgium, watching a Montgomery Square. Another statue of Montgomery is in Southsea, Hampshire, opposite the 'D' Day Museum.

Montgomery gave his name to the French commune Colleville-Montgomery, Normandy.

The Imperial War Museum holds a variety of material relating to Montgomery in its collections. These include Montgomery's Grant command tank (on display in the atrium at the Museum's London branch), his command caravans as used in North West Europe (on display at IWM Duxford), and his papers are held by the Museum's Department of Documents. The Museum maintains a permanent exhibition about Montgomery, entitled ''Monty: Master of the Battlefield''.

His Rolls Royce staff car is on display at the Royal Logistic Corps Museum, Deepcut, Surrey.

The Montgomery cocktail is a martini mixed at a ratio of 15:1, facetiously named that because Montgomery supposedly refused to go into battle unless his numerical advantage was at least that high. Following severe internal injuries received in the First World War, Montgomery himself could neither smoke nor drink.

Honours and awards

Viscount (December 1945)

Knight of the Order of the Garter (1946) Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath (1945) KCB – 11 November 1942, CB – 11 July 1940

Distinguished Service Order (1914)

Mentioned in Despatches (17 February 1915, 4 January 1917, 11 December 1917, 20 May 1918, 20 December 1918, 5 July 1919, 15 July 1939, 24 June 1943, 13 January 1944) Distinguished Service Medal (USA) (1947) Legion of Merit (Chief Commander) (USA) (10 August 1943) Order of Victory (USSR) (21 June 1945)

Order of Suvorov, 1st class (USSR) (16 January 1947)

Croix de Guerre (France) (1919) Order of the Elephant (Denmark) (2 August 1945) Order of King George I, Grand Commander (Greece) (20 June 1944) Virtuti Militari V Class (Poland) (31 October 1944) Order of the White Lion, Grand Cross (Czech.) (1947) Grand Cordon of the Seal of Solomon (Ethiopia) (1949) Order of Leopold II, Grand Officer with Palm (Belgium) (1947) Croix de Guerre 1940 with Palm (Belgium)

Grand Cross of the Order of the Dutch Lion (Netherlands) (16 January 1947)

Order of St. Olav, Grand Cross (Norway) (1951)

Médaille militaire (1958),

Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour (May 1945)

Military Order of the White Lion, 1st class (Czechoslovakia, 1947)

War Cross 1939 (Czechoslovakia, 1947)

Styles

1887–1910: Bernard Law Montgomery

1908–1910: Second Lieutenant Bernard Law Montgomery

1910–1912: Lieutenant Bernard Law Montgomery

1912–1914: Captain Bernard Law Montgomery

1914–1915: Captain Bernard Law Montgomery, DSO

1915–1918: Captain (Bvt. Major) Bernard Law Montgomery, DSO

1918–1919: Captain (Bvt. Major and Temp. Lieutenant-Colonel) Bernard Law Montgomery, DSO

1919–1925: Captain (Bvt. Major) Bernard Law Montgomery, DSO

1925–1926: Major Bernard Law Montgomery, DSO

1926–1929: Major (Temp. Lieutenant-Colonel) Bernard Law Montgomery, DSO

1929–1931: Major (Bvt. Lieutenant-Colonel) Bernard Law Montgomery, DSO

1931–1934: Lieutenant-Colonel Bernard Law Montgomery, DSO

1934–1937: Colonel Bernard Law Montgomery, DSO

1937–1938: Colonel (Temp. Brigadier) Bernard Law Montgomery, DSO

1938-9 July 1940: Major-General Bernard Law Montgomery, DSO

9–22 July 1940: Major-General Bernard Law Montgomery, CB, DSO

22 July 1940 – 16 October 1942: Major-General (Actg. Lieutenant-General) Bernard Law Montgomery, CB, DSO

16 October – 10 November 1942: Lieutenant-General Bernard Law Montgomery, CB, DSO

10 November 1942–1944: General Sir Bernard Law Montgomery, KCB, DSO

1944–1945: Field Marshal Sir Bernard Law Montgomery, KCB, DSO

1945–1946: Field Marshal Sir Bernard Law Montgomery, GCB, DSO

1946–1976: Field Marshal The Right Honourable the Viscount Montgomery of Alamein, KG, GCB, DSO

Quotations

"The US has broken the second rule of war. That is, don't go fighting with your land army on the mainland of Asia. Rule One is don't march on Moscow. I developed these two rules myself."

:(spoken of the US approach to the Vietnam War) Quoted in Chalfont's ''Montgomery of Alamein''.

"Well, now I must go to meet God and try to explain all those men I killed at Alamein."

:(Field Marshal Montgomery in 1976 quoted in ''The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition'')

See also

Afrika Korps

M. E. Clifton James (Montgomery's double during the war)

Famous military commanders

Irish military diaspora

North African Campaign

Panzer Army Africa

Western Desert Campaign

Notes

Explanatory notes

Citations

References

Bierman, John & Smith, Colin. ''Alamein: War without hate''. Penguin Group. 2002 ISBN 0-670-91109-7

Brighton, Terry, ''Masters of Battle: Monty, Patton and Rommel at War'', Penguin, 2009. ISBN 978-0-141-02985-6

Bungay, Stephen, ''Alamein'', Auram, 2002. ISBN 978-1854109293

Chalfont, Arthur Gwynne Jones, ''Montgomery of Alamein'', Atheneum, 1976. ISBN 978-0689107443

D'Este, Carlo. ''Decision in Normandy: The Unwritten Story of Montgomery and the Allied Campaign''. London: William Collins Sons, 1983. ISBN 0002170566.

Dixon, Norman, ''On the Psychology of Military Incompetence'', Pimlico, 1976. ISBN 978-0712658898

Fraser, David, ''And We Shall Shock Them: The British Army in World War II'', Sceptre, 1988. ISBN 978-0340426371

Heathcote, Tony, ''The British Field Marshals 1736–1997'', Pen & Sword Books Ltd, 1999. ISBN 0-85052-696-5

Hastings, Max, ''Armageddon: The Battle for Germany, 1944–1945'', Knopf, 2004. ISBN 0375414339

Lattimer, Jon, ''Alamein'', John Murray, 2002. ISBN 978-0674013766

McKee, Alexander, ''Caen: Anvil of Victory'', 1984. ISBN 978-0333383131

Neillands, Robin, ''The Battle for the Rhine 1944'', 2005. ISBN 978-1590200285

Sheehan, William, ''British Voices from the Irish War of Independence'', 2005. ISBN 978-1905172375

Schultz, James. ''A framework for military decision making under risks.'' Thesis, Air University, Maxwell Airforce Base, Alabama, 1998.

Weigley, Russel F., ''Eisenhower's Lieutenants'', Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1981. ISBN 0-253-13333-5

Primary sources

External links

Biography of Montgomery at the Jewish Virtual Library

Category:1887 births Category:1976 deaths Category:Chief Commanders of the Legion of Merit Category:British Field Marshals Category:British World War II Field Marshals Category:British Army personnel of World War I Category:British military personnel of the Irish War of Independence Category:Knights Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath Category:Knights of the Garter Category:Companions of the Distinguished Service Order Category:Foreign recipients of the Distinguished Service Medal (United States) Category:Recipients of the Croix de Guerre (France) Category:Recipients of the Croix de Guerre (Belgium) Category:Knights of the Elephant Category:Grand Commanders of the Order of George I Category:Recipients of the Order of George I with Swords Category:Recipients of the Cross of Valour (Greece) Category:Grand Crosses of the Order of the White Lion Category:Recipients of the Order of Solomon Category:Knights Grand Cross of the Order of St. Olav Category:Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom Category:Recipients of the Virtuti Militari Category:Grand Officers of the Order of Leopold II Category:Knights Grand Cross of the Order of the Netherlands Lion Category:Recipients of the Order of Victory Category:Recipients of the Order of Suvorov Category:Recipients of the Médaille Militaire Category:Grand Croix of the Légion d'honneur Category:Recipients of the Czechoslovak War Cross Category:Viscounts in the Peerage of the United Kingdom Category:Royal Warwickshire Fusiliers officers Category:Sandhurst graduates Category:Operation Overlord people Category:Old King's Scholars Category:People from Alton, Hampshire Category:Anglo-Irish people Category:Chiefs of the Imperial General Staff

ar:برنارد مونتغمري an:Bernard Montgomery be:Бернард Лоў Мантгомеры be-x-old:Бэрнард Лоў Мантгомэры bs:Bernard Law Montgomery br:Bernard Montgomery bg:Бърнард Монтгомъри ca:Bernard Law Montgomery cs:Bernard Law Montgomery da:Bernard Law Montgomery de:Bernard Montgomery el:Μπέρναρντ Μοντγκόμερυ es:Bernard Law Montgomery eo:Bernard Montgomery eu:Bernard Montgomery fa:برنارد لاو مونت‌گومری fr:Bernard Montgomery fy:Bernard Montgomery gl:Bernard Law Montgomery ko:버나드 로 몽고메리 hr:Bernard Law Montgomery id:Bernard Montgomery it:Bernard Law Montgomery he:ברנרד לו מונטגומרי la:Bernardus Montgomery lv:Bernards Montgomerijs lt:Bernard Law Montgomery hu:Bernard Montgomery mk:Бернард Монтгомери nl:Bernard Montgomery ja:バーナード・モントゴメリー no:Bernard Law Montgomery pl:Bernard Law Montgomery pt:Bernard Montgomery ro:Bernard Law Montgomery ru:Монтгомери, Бернард Лоу simple:Bernard Law Montgomery, 1st Viscount Montgomery of Alamein sk:Bernard Montgomery sl:Bernard Montgomery sr:Бернард Монтгомери sh:Bernard Montgomery fi:Bernard Montgomery sv:Bernard Montgomery tr:Bernard Montgomery uk:Бернард Монтгомері vi:Bernard Montgomery yi:בערנארד מאנטגאמערי zh:伯納德·蒙哥馬利，第一代阿拉曼的蒙哥馬利子爵