Alan Brooke, 1st Viscount Alanbrooke

The Viscount Alanbrooke
Sir Alan Brooke in 1943
Birth name	Alan Francis Brooke
Nickname(s)	Brookie Colonel Shrapnel
Born	(1883-07-23)23 July 1883 Bagnères-de-Bigorre, France
Died	17 June 1963(1963-06-17) (aged 79) Hartley Wintney, Hampshire, England
Buried at	St Mary's churchyard, Hartley Wintney
Allegiance	United Kingdom
Service/branch	British Army
Years of service	1902–1946
Rank	Field marshal
Unit	Royal Artillery
Commands held	Chief of the Imperial General Staff (1941–1946) Home Forces (1940–1941) II Corps (1939–1940) Southern Command (1939) Mobile Division (1937) 8th Infantry Brigade (1934–1935) School of Artillery (1929–1932)
Battles/wars	First World War Second World War
Awards	Knight of the Order of the Garter Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath Member of the Order of Merit Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order Distinguished Service Order & Bar Mentioned in Despatches See below
Other work	Lord High Constable of England Constable of the Tower of London President of the Zoological Society of London (1950–1954) Vice-President of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds Chancellor of Queen's University Belfast (1949–1963)

Field Marshal Alan Francis Brooke, 1st Viscount Alanbrooke, KG, GCB, OM, GCVO, DSO & Bar (23 July 1883 – 17 June 1963) was a senior officer of the British Army. He was Chief of the Imperial General Staff, the professional head of the British Army, during the Second World War, and was promoted to field marshal in 1944. As chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Committee, Brooke was the foremost military advisor to Winston Churchill, the British Prime Minister, and had the role of co-ordinator of the British military efforts in the Allies' victory in 1945. After retiring from the army, he served as Lord High Constable of England during the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953. His war diaries attracted attention for their criticism of Churchill and for Brooke's forthright views on other leading figures of the war.

Alan Brooke was born in 1883 at Bagnères-de-Bigorre, Hautes-Pyrénées, to a prominent Anglo-Irish family from West Ulster with a long military tradition. He was the seventh and youngest child of Sir Victor Brooke, 3rd Baronet, of Colebrooke, Brookeborough, County Fermanagh, Ireland, and the former Alice Bellingham, second daughter of Sir Alan Bellingham, 3rd Baronet, of Castle Bellingham in County Louth. Brooke was educated in Pau, France, where he lived until the age of 16: he was a bi-lingual in French and English.