Books

  1. A Soldier's Life: General Sir Ian Hamilton 1853-1947
    A Soldier's Life: General Sir Ian Hamilton 1853-1947
  2. Knight Gunner
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  3. Millennium Girl
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  4. Hell - I'Ve Been There
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  5. Letters to Virginia
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  6. The Personal Correspondence of Sam Houston: 1846-1848 (Vol 2)
    The Personal Correspondence of Sam Houston: 1846-1848 (Vol 2)
  7. Love, War, and Other White Lies: A Poetic Diary of Love, War and Other Topics
    Love, War, and Other White Lies: A Poetic Diary of Love, War and Other Topics
  8. Grandpa's Gone: The Adventures of Daniel Buchwalter in the Western Army, 1862-1865
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  9. Billy Drake, Fighter Leader: The Autobiography of Group Captain B. Drake Dso, Dfc & Bar, Dfc (Us)
    Billy Drake, Fighter Leader: The Autobiography of Group Captain B. Drake Dso, Dfc & Bar, Dfc (Us)
  10. Prince of Edisto: Brigadier General Micah Jenkins, Csa
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  11. Warriors and the Battle Within
    Warriors and the Battle Within
  12. Matthew B. Ridgway: Soldier, Statesman, Scholar, Citizen
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  13. Symphony of Experiences
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  14. Sexual Harassment Undercover: What Happens
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  15. A Life on the Ocean Wave and on Shore
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  16. Called to Command: A World War II Fighter Ace's Adventurous Journey
    Called to Command: A World War II Fighter Ace's Adventurous Journey
  17. Surrounded by Dangers of All Kinds: The Mexican War Letters of Lieutenant Theodore Laidley (War and the Southwest Series, 6)
    Surrounded by Dangers of All Kinds: The Mexican War Letters of Lieutenant Theodore Laidley (War and the Southwest Series, 6)
  18. Stormy Petrel: The Life and Times of General Benjamin F. Butler, 1818-1893
    Stormy Petrel: The Life and Times of General Benjamin F. Butler, 1818-1893
  19. Grant and His Campaigns: A Military Biography
    Grant and His Campaigns: A Military Biography
  20. Red Knight of Germany
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  21. A Narrative of Colonel Ethan Allen's Captivity
    A Narrative of Colonel Ethan Allen's Captivity
  22. The Ops Story
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  23. Journey To Freedom And Beyond
    Journey To Freedom And Beyond
  24. Before the Fields of Crosses
    Before the Fields of Crosses
  25. Tenting on the Plains
    Tenting on the Plains
A Soldier's Life: General Sir Ian Hamilton, 1853-1947
Average customer rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
  • A weak case for Hamilton as a general
  • Interesting look at a much-maligned general
 A Soldier's Life: General Sir Ian Hamilton, 1853-1947
John Lee
Manufacturer: Pan Books Limited
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

GeneralGeneral | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0330484001

Book Description

In this riveting new biography, John Lee shows that Sir Ian Hamilton had a far more successful and influential military career than history has so far related. In the years before the First World War, Hamilton was widely acknowledged as possibly the most experienced soldier in the world. All this was to be shattered by the devestating failure in Gallipoli in 1915. Through painstaking study of archive material and contemporary sources. John Lee reveals that Gallipoli was a doomed exercise almost from the start and that Hamilton, though largely exonerated by the Dardanelles Commission which investigated the campaign, deserves to have his entire career re-assessed.

Customer Reviews:

3 out of 5 stars A weak case for Hamilton as a general.......2004-10-04

As a semi official biography (the authors' wife wrote the biography of Sir Ian's wife!), the book tries a tad too hard to polish the tarnished reputation of Sir Ian Hamilton, arguably one of the more infamous Great War generals, and an abject failure at that. This attempt to burnish Hamilton's grotesque incompetence as a general, and his all too typical and familiar British way of generalship in chateaus (in his case, luxury liner) miles behind/away from the front, hands off attitude regarding operations and intrigues aginst colleagues, just come across as pathetic.

4 out of 5 stars Interesting look at a much-maligned general.......2003-04-24

Sir Ian Hamilton is destined to be remembered for one thing - the disaster at Gallipoli. In reality, however, he was a veritable rennaisance man with a varied and largely successful career that came crashing down around his ears over the period of a few weeks in 1915. John Lee is the first person, to the best of my knowledge, to take a close look at Hamilton's life outside the box of his performance at Gallipoli.

Lee deals with Hamilton's early career, his friendship with Lord Kitchener, his regimental career during the Boer War and his extensive service as an attached officer with the Japanese Army. The Gallipoli fiasco is also covered and Hamilton is given a sympathetic, though by no means hagiographical or apologistic, hearing.

Of particular interest are Hamilton's personal and political views. His early distaste for the Japanese Army (and broadly pro-Chinese sympathies) and his predictions that a) the Japanese Army was an effective fighting force that should not be taken lightly and b) that it was only a matter of time before Britain and China came to blows make informative reading. His reformist, radical even, left-wing political views and overt Liberal connections made him slightly out of place in the army (which had it's share of liberals, though of a less radical bent than Hamilton). Yet they led him, like a number of other left wing radicals with big ideas in the inter-war years, eventually to become somewhat attached to political ideas and causes which, while not exactly fascistic (and he was certainly no pro-Nazi) were fairly borderline.

Lee documents these issues in a readable fashion which adds flesh to the bones of the often rather superficial popular perception of Hamilton both as a person and as an army officer. The book should obviously be of interest to readers with an interest in the Gallipoli campaign (the recent history of the campaign by L. A. Carlyon is also excellent) but there is a lot more to it than that and anybody with an interest in the Great War in general or the history of the British Army would do well to take a look.

All in all, a good book. Having read it, one emerges with the feeling that Hamilton deserved a fair hearing and I believe John Lee has given him just that.

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