Alanbrooke, Alan Francis Brooke, 1st Viscount

Alanbrooke, Alan Francis Brooke, 1st Viscount (ăl`ənbrk'), 1883–1963, British general. He entered the field artillery in 1902 and served with distinction during World War I. In the 1930s he made himself a master of mechanized warfare. At the beginning of World War II he commanded the 2d Army Corps in France and was (1940–41) commander in chief of the British Home Forces. From Dec., 1941, to 1946 he was chief of the imperial general staff and participated in the war conferences of Winston Churchill, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and Joseph Stalin. He was made Baron Alanbrooke in 1945 and Viscount Alanbrooke in 1946.

Bibliography

See biography by D. Fraser (1982).

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Alanbrooke (of Brookeborough), Alan Francis Brooke, 1st Viscount

(born July 23, 1883, Bagnères-de-Bigorre, France—died June 17, 1963, Hartley Wintney, Hampshire, Eng.) British military leader. He served in World War I and later became director of military training (1936–37) and an expert on gunnery. In World War II he began as commander of a corps in France and covered the Dunkirk evacuation. After serving as commander of the British home forces (1940–41), he was promoted to chief of staff (1941–46). He established good relations with the U.S. forces and exercised a strong influence on Allied strategy. He was promoted to field marshal in 1944 and created a viscount in 1946.