General Boy: The Life of Lieutenant General Sir Frederick Browning - Hardcover

Mead, Richard

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1848841817 ISBN 13: 9781848841819

Publisher: Pen and Sword Military, 2011

Synopsis

This is the first biography of ‘Boy’ Browning, whose name is inextricably linked with the creation and employment of Britain’s airborne forces in the Second World War. Commissioned into the Grenadier Guards, Browning served on the Western Front, earning a DSO during the Battle of Cambrai.

As Adjutant at Sandhurst, he began the tradition of riding a horse up the steps at the end of the commissioning parade. Browning represented England and Great Britain as a hurdler at the 1928 Winter Olympics. In 1932 Browning married Daphne du Maurier, who was ten years younger and became one of the 20th century’s most enduring and popular novelists with titles such as Jamaica Inn and Rebecca.

Browning commanded two brigades before being appointed to command 1 Airborne Division in 1941, later acting as Eisenhower’s advisor on airborne warfare in the Mediterranean. In 1944 he commanded 1st Airborne Corps, which he took to Holland for Operation MARKET GARDEN that September. Allegedly coining the phrase “a bridge too far”, he has received much of the blame for the operation’s failure.

In late 1944, Browning became Chief of Staff to Mountbatten. In 1948 he became Comptroller and Treasurer to Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip and then Treasurer to the latter following the Queen’s accession. He was a close adviser to the Royal couple, who respected and valued his judgment.

By this time, Boy and Daphne lived separate lives with Boy working at the Palace in London and Daphne reluctant to leave her beloved Cornwall although the marriage remained intact. Questions exist as to Daphne’s sexuality and Boy had a succession of discrete mistresses. After a nervous breakdown probably due to marriage problems, he resigned in 1959 and retired to Cornwall. Browning died in March 1965.

About this title

About the Author

Richard Mead was educated at Marlborough College and Pembroke College, Cambridge. He has written General ‘Boy’: The Life of Lieutenant General Sir Frederick Browning and The Last Great Cavalryman: The Life of General Sir Richard McCreery, Commander Eighty Army, The Men Behind Monty and Commando General – The Life of Sir Robert Laycock, all in print with Pen and Sword Military. Richard and his wife live in Gloucestershire and he has two grown-up sons.

Review

As a fighting soldier “Boy’ Browning had already acquired a reputation in the British Army by the end of the First World War. As a 20-year-old Grenadier Guards lieutenant he had won the DSO on the Western Front in 1917 for taking command of three companies whose officers had all been wounded and inspiring them to repel attacks by overwhelming numbers of Germans. ... During the Second World War he established himself as a leading advocate of airborne operations and, as Richard Mead’s book makes clear, the creation of Britain’s airborne forces as a distinct fighting arm was very much his achievement. Richard Mead is even-headed and, if we would have liked to know a good deal more about the remarkable marriage to du Maurier, he gives us a convincing impression of what kind of man – and soldier – her husband actually was. (The Times Newspaper)

About this edition

• Publisher: Pen and Sword Military
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 1848841817
• ISBN 13: 9781848841819
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 288