Talk:Alan Brooke, 1st Viscount Alanbrooke

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CIGS

The sentence "Brooke’s focus was primarily on the European theatre of operations." Should be "Brooke's focus was primarily on the Mediterranean theatre of operations." He was consistently opposed to operations both in NW Europe, Southern France, and the Cross Channel attack, generally. "War Diaries, 1939*1945 Field Marshal Lord Alanbrooke" Danchev and Todman (editors) University of California Press, c.1957, 1959, 2001. pgs 419-420 specifically and throughout.Thomas9070 (talk) 18:00, 6 September 2013 (UTC)

• fixed. Dormskirk (talk) 18:42, 6 September 2013 (UTC)

Ornithology

He was also a noted ornithologist; I'll dig out some material, unless someone else can do so more quickly. Andy Mabbett 23:28, 11 April 2007 (UTC)

I will try to add some material on his interest in ornithology. Sometimes during breaks from his work as CIGS he used visit book stores in search for rare bird books. For financial reasons he was forced to sell some of his bird books after the war. I also hope to add more material on his impact on Allied strategy, his war diaries, references and footnotes. I am quite new to editing Wikipedia so please comment on my progress as well as my grammar (English is not my native tongue... ) Cheers! Charlemagne72 22:21, 2 May 2007 (UTC)

Have now added info on his love for birds. Now I think we need some proper references and footnotes! /Charlemagne 17:05, 17 June 2007 (UTC)

France 1940

Have added a reference to Brooke's famously scathing view of the French army i 1939-40, though sadly I don't have the complete quote in front of me. It's perfectly well-known, but the interesting question is: was it written at the time or with hindsight? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 171.192.0.10 (talk) 16:16, 2 December 2007 (UTC)

Actually it is quite evident from reading the war diaries that this view was not fabricated afterwards. Charlemagne72 (talk) 21:48, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

Criticism

This article smacks too much of court history. Who says that he is "one of the chief architects of the Allies' victory in 1945"? That's ok if Roosevelt and Stalin had expressed anything like it but alas the historical record doesn't seem to contain such references. A sober reading of Brooke's career reveals a timid, mediocre general with a very high opinion of himself. Flattering accounts are inevitably based on his own account.Richardwinter (talk) 09:47, 26 September 2009 (UTC)

• A somewhat unusual reading of the man and his career! Brookie :) - he's in the building somewhere! ^(Whisper...) 14:54, 3 December 2009 (UTC)

"Architects" has now been removed. I believe the original sentence said "... sachitects of the Allies' vicotory in the west" I will shortly try to make a moore balanced view on Brooke. Charlemagne72 (talk) 14:43, 3 December 2009 (UTC)

Sorry I'm not good at posting here but want to help. In the last paragraph of "War Diaries" it says "One reason why Alanbrooke (as he had become) changed his mind was the lack of credit to him and the Chiefs of Staff in Churchill's own war memoirs which essentially presented their ideas and innovations as his own." It seems to me that it should say "presented his ideas ... as their own". Thanks hope this helps. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.252.65.65 (talk) 05:37, 4 December 2010 (UTC)

Likewise "When Churchill’s many fanciful strategic ideas collided with sound military strategy it was only Brooke on the Chiefs of Staff Committee who was able to stand up to the Prime Minister." is straight out of The Turn of the Tide; and Jones (of Most Secret War) is scathing about Alanbrooke on their one meeting. Pinkbeast (talk) 02:17, 24 January 2014 (UTC)

" ... is scathing about Alanbrooke on their one meeting" - it was perhaps unwise of Jones to judge a person on the basis of one meeting.

Churchill was prone to getting "a bee in his bonnet" about his own ideas on military strategy and Alanbrooke was one of the few people whom Churchill respected enough to be able to be dissuaded by him. Sometimes the ideas proposed by Churchill weren't bad, per se, but the military resources were simply not available to carry them out. As CIGS Alanbrooke was in a position to know when this was the case, whereas some of the other people advising Churchill may not have been. Churchill was aware of this.— Preceding unsigned comment added by 95.149.173.52 (talk) 09:57, 15 December 2017 (UTC)

1960's TV programme with Alanbrooke here: [1] The presenter is Brian Horrocks — Preceding unsigned comment added by 95.149.247.9 (talk) 13:25, 1 February 2018 (UTC)

«In 1952 both Churchill and Beaverbrook threatened legal action against a biography of Stanley Baldwin». I think they were Churchill and Alanbrooke, or the sentence makes little sense. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Ngl.mr (talk • contribs) 17:43, 21 December 2022 (UTC)

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Identity or ethnicity

Why is his ethnic makeup a secret? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 92.5.91.155 (talk) 05:54, 5 December 2017 (UTC)

Because we in Britain don't much care what a person's "ethnic makeup" is, we try not to let such things matter.

BTW, I think what you are referring to is what we here call a sun tan. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 95.149.173.52 (talk) 10:24, 15 December 2017 (UTC)

It doesn't matter what you in Britain care about. It is supposed to be an encyclopedia and ethnic heritage is commonly reported for all parties' entries. Venqax (talk) 23:35, 17 June 2023 (UTC)

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Title

Does anyone know why he chose to combine his first name and surname into his title? It's an unusual thing to do -- are there any other examples of people doing this? cagliost (talk) 10:14, 16 May 2018 (UTC)

It was to keep the name Alan Brooke alive, and to distinguish it from any other Lords Brooke. I think it's mentioned in Philip Ziegler's biography of Mountbatten (Mountbatten chose "Mountbatten of Burma" rather than being simply "of Burma" to keep the Mountbatten name, as the title was to be inherited by his daughter, whose surname changed on marriage). Duncan Sandys did much the same thing for his life peerage, as there was already a Lord Sandys, and also George Brown. DuncanHill (talk) 10:20, 16 May 2018 (UTC)

Other examples of hyphenated titles combining first names and surnames are Lord Noel-Buxton (who I believe may have been the first to do this, in 1930), Lord Courtauld-Thomson, Lord Francis-Williams, Lord Elwyn-Jones, Lord Goronwy-Roberts, Lord Geoffrey-Lloyd, Lord Edmund-Davies, Lord Harmar-Nicholls, Lord Selwyn-Lloyd, Lord John-Mackie (whose younger brother was already Lord Mackie of Benshie), Lord Elystan-Morgan, Lord Merlyn-Ress and Lord Russell-Johnston. The Alanbrooke approach of actually merging the words is much more rare. The only other direct example I'm aware of is Lord Normanbrook. (Perhaps there's something about the surname Brook(e)? It does make the new merged word look like it could be a place name, in a way that Geoffreylloyd or Johnmackie could never manage.) A similar process created the Viscountcy and Barony of Leverhulme: the grantee's surname was Lever, and his wife's surname was Hulme. (As with Alanbrooke and Normanbrook, Leverhulme looks like it could conceivably be a place name. I don't think Viscount Smithjones would have had quite the same reception!) Proteus (Talk) 12:09, 16 May 2018 (UTC)

I've come across another example: Lord Roberthall (formerly Sir Robert Hall). Proteus (Talk) 10:44, 5 May 2020 (UTC)

Interesting. You just think there'd be rules about that sort of thing. Nope.Venqax (talk) 20:01, 24 October 2023 (UTC)