Viscount Bernard Law Montgomery
Just an idea for a new thread but one closely linked with 'On this Day'. Anyone with a mind so to do would be welcome to join in.
The idea is to select one person from one of the lists put on the 'On this Day' thread on the basis of his or her appeal to you. It's meant to be a positive thing. We won't all like or admire the same people of course but I'm certainly intending to feature those people whose lives have meant something to me in any one of many different ways.
I start with Viscount Montgomery primarily because he was a war hero in every sense of the word. He realised that results would only be achieved if his troops were treated with respect and could be confident of his total support.
He had joined the army in 1908 after training at Sandhurst and was active in the Great War. But it was in WWII when the Eighth Army under his command drove Rommel's Panzers right across North Africa that he made his name.
He ruffled the feathers of one or two American Generals of course but that was inevitable as Monty and George Patton were as alike as chalk and cheese.
In later life, after the war, Bernard Law Montgomery became the President of Portsmouth Football Club and his name was linked with that of Admiral Nelson whose ship, The Victory, was pictured on the Club's programme. How appropriate. Two great British leaders.
