Field marshal is a military rank. Traditionally, it is the highest military rank in an army.

The origin of the rank of field marshal dates to the early Middle Ages, originally meaning the keeper of the king's horses (from Old German Marh-scalc = "horse-servant"), from the time of the early Frankish kings.

Some nations use the title of marshal instead, while some have used field marshal general. The Air Force equivalent in the Commonwealth and many Middle Eastern air forces is marshal of the air force (not to be confused with air marshal). The corresponding naval ranks are normally fleet admiral, grand admiral or admiral of the fleet.

Traditionally, upon their promotion, field marshals are awarded a decorative baton as a symbol of their rank. The baton is often studded with jewels and inlaid with precious metals. In many countries like Austria-Hungary, Prussia and Germany, extraordinary military achievement by a general (a wartime victory) is required for a field marshal.

Historically, however, several armies used field marshal as a divisional command rank, notably Spain and Mexico (Spanish: mariscal de campo). In France, Portugal and Brazil (French: maréchal de camp, Portuguese marechal de campo) it was formerly a brigade command rank.

Field Marshal Sam Hormusji Framji Jamshedji Manekshaw, MC "Sam Bahadur" (lit. Sam the Brave) (3 April 1914 – 27 June 2008) was a Field Marshal of the Indian Army. His distinguished military career spanned four decades and five wars. Manekshaw rose to be the 8th chief of staff of the Indian Army in 1969 and under his command, Indian forces concluded a victorious campaign, the 1971 Indo-Pakistani War, that led to the liberation of Bangladesh.

Sam Manekshaw was the first of only two Indian military officers to hold the highest rank of Field Marshal in the Indian Army (the other being Field Marshal K M Cariappa).

Manekshaw was born in Amritsar, Punjab to Parsi parents, Hormusji Manekshaw, a doctor, and his wife Heerabai, who moved to the Punjab from the small town of Valsad on the Gujarat coast. After completing his schooling in Amritsar and Sherwood College (Nainital), with distinction in the School Certificate examination of the Cambridge Board, he asked his father to send him to London to study medicine. When his father refused to send him till he was older, in an act of rebellion Manekshaw appeared for and qualified in the entrance examination for enrolment into the Indian Military Academy (IMA), Dehradun and as a result became part of the first intake of 40 cadets on 1 October 1932. He graduated from the IMA on 4 February 1934 and was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Indian Army.

Henry Bernard Levin CBE (19 August 1928 – 7 August 2004) was an English journalist, author and broadcaster, described by The Times as "the most famous journalist of his day". The son of a poor Jewish family in London, he won a scholarship to the independent school Christ's Hospital and went on to the London School of Economics, graduating in 1952. After a short spell in a lowly job at the BBC selecting press cuttings for use in programmes, he secured a post as a junior member of the editorial staff of a weekly periodical, Truth, in 1953.

Levin reviewed television for The Manchester Guardian and wrote a weekly political column in The Spectator noted for its irreverence. During the 1960s he wrote five columns a week for The Daily Mail on any subject that he chose. After a disagreement with the proprietor of the paper over attempted censorship of his column in 1970, Levin moved to The Times where, with one break of just over a year in 1981–82, he remained as resident columnist until his retirement, covering a wide range of topics, both serious and comic.