Haig's Tower of Strength: General Sir Edward Bulfin-Ireland's Forgotten General

This is the first biography of General Sir Edward Bulfin, who rose to high rank despite his Catholic Irish republican background, at a time when sensitivities were pronounced. Not only that but by the outbreak of the Great War, Bulfin was a brigade commander despite having not attended Sandhurst or Staff College and never commanding his battalion.

In his early career he was a protégé of Buller’s and he made his name in the Boer War. In 1914 Haig credited him with saving the day at First Ypres despite being wounded and gave him 28th Division. Unable to get on with Gough, he was sent home. He raised the 60th London Division and took it to France, Salonika and Egypt where Allenby chose him to command a corps. His success against the Turks at Gaza, Jerusalem and Megiddo justified Allenby’s confidence.

Despite ruthlessly crushing disturbances in post-war Egypt, Bulfin’s beliefs and background led him to refuse Churchill’s order to command the police and army in Ireland.

A private man, Bulfin left few letters and no papers and the author is to be congratulated on piecing together this fascinating biography of an enigmatic military figure.

Brigadier John Powell OBE was educated at Marlborough College and Durham University and commissioned into the Green Howards in 1966. He commanded his regiment in Londonderry and his final tour was commanding a brigade in Exeter, retiring in 1998. He was the last Colonel of the Green Howards from 2003 until its merger into the Yorkshire Regiment in 2006.

He co-authored, with his father Geoffrey Powell, the updated edition of The History of The Green Howards (Pen and Sword books, 2002). A keen skier, fly fisherman and mountain walker, he lives at Farnham, Surrey.