Signed group portrait.
MONTGOMERY OF ALAMEIN, Bernard Law Montgomery, Viscount.
From Peter Harrington. ABA/ ILAB., London, United Kingdom
AbeBooks Seller Since July 26, 1999
Quantity: 1From Peter Harrington. ABA/ ILAB., London, United Kingdom
AbeBooks Seller Since July 26, 1999
Quantity: 1About this Item
Outstanding signed group portrait, capturing an Army Council meeting headed by the Secretary of State for War, Manny Shinwell, and Chief of the Imperial General Staff, Field Marshal Sir Bernard Montgomery. The date of Friday 22 October, clearly visible on the desk calendar, is significant, as it was the anniversary of the eve of Monty's great victory at El Alamein. That evening Montgomery attended an El Alamein Anniversary reunion at the Royal Albert Hall, original newsreel footage of which can be seen on YouTube. However, the business at hand at this meeting was almost certainly the introduction of National Service, which Shinwell opposed and Montgomery promoted, a bill for which had been approved in 1947. The financial crises faced by the post-war Labour government, the Berlin Crisis, and the exigencies of the Malayan Emergency (which had begun in June of that year), forced a re-think and "gave Montgomery the opportunity to argue that demobilization of troops should be retarded, introducing, de facto, two years of National Service", as opposed to the proposed six months (Strachan, p. 42). The Chiefs of Staff argued for an extension of National Service to 18 months but Montgomery, "with his vision of a mass Army to defend Europe" pushed for a two-year term, "indeed, on 19 October 1948 he threatened the resignation of the military members of the Army Council if such a measure was not conceded" (ibid.). In October 1950, in response to the Korean War, Britain adopted two-year National Service. It is irresistible, although perhaps facile, to read an element of strain in the faces of the assembled company but Montgomery's announcement to Shinwell three days earlier that "he was about to lose his Army Council" left him "a bit startled" (Memoirs, p. 430). In addition, Montgomery was not a success as CIGS; Templer, seated second left, described him as "the worst CIGS for 50 years" (cited in Baxter, p, 122). "He fell out with both his fellow Chiefs of Staff and his own Army Council. Mutual contempt and personal antipathy shaped Montgomery's relations" (Cohen, p. 77). However, despite their differences over National Service, relations between Shinwell and Montgomery were cordial, Monty describing the pugnacious Glaswegian in glowing terms: "Shinwell had a quick and clear brain and his heart was in the right place; he could understand and decide quickly. He and I became great friends. I used to tell him that when he was in his chair in the War Office from Monday to Friday he was excellent, and just what we wanted as our political chief" (Memoirs, p. 385). Of the three Secretaries of State for War under whom Montgomery served Shinwell was "the best of the three". Signed by all figures present, except as indicated (from left to right): unknown (not signed); General Sir Gerald Templer (Vice-Chief of the Imperial General Staff); General Sir James Steele (Adjutant-General to the Forces); Michael Stewart (Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for War); Brigadier John Faviell (Joint Secretary, Military); Shinwell; unknown (signed) but possibly the Joint Secretary, Civil; Montgomery; General Sir Sidney Kirkman (Quarter-Master General to the Forces); General Sir Kenneth Crawford (Deputy Chief of the General Staff). Colin F. Baxter, Field Marshal Bernard Law Montgomery 1887-1976: A Selected Bibliography (1999); Michael J. Cohen, Fighting World War Three from the Middle East: Allied Contingency Plans, 1945-1954 (1997); Montgomery, The Memoirs (1958); Huw Strachan (ed.), The British Army, Manpower and Society in the Twenty-First Century (2000). Original silver gelatin print (239 x 292 mm) tipped to textured paper leaf (275 x 310 mm) and card mount (315 x 355 mm); signed in pencil by the photographer lower right (signature obscured by those of others). A couple of small bumps to corners of card mount, the image in excellent condition. Presented to style in a stained oak frame with conservation acrylic glazing. Seller Inventory # 142680
Bibliographic Details
Title: Signed group portrait.
Publisher: London: 22 October, 1948
Signed: Signed by Author(s)
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