Generals of the British Army Portraits in Colour with Introductory and Biographical Notes — Reading Companion

A Gallery of Two Parts

The book is divided into two portrait galleries, each with its own introduction. The first features twelve generals including Haig, Plumer, Rawlinson, and Allenby; the second adds twelve more, with Lord French as its 'central figure.' The introductions treat these as distinct phases of the war. Part I emphasises the early Western Front, where the British Army 'stood between the Allies and disaster.' Part II focuses on the first four months under French, calling that period 'unique' and noting that 'little of the first Army was left' after it. The structure suggests that the war's character changed fundamentally after the initial crisis, and that the generals of each phase faced different conditions.

The Language of Crisis and Scale

Dodd's prose is charged with urgency. He describes the German advance as emerging 'from behind its concealing curtain of horse,' and writes that the British role was to 'outflank the German right wing'—a plan that seems impossible in hindsight. The text uses terms like 'fiery trial,' 'awful tryst,' and 'evil dream' to convey the stakes. Numbers are vague but evocative: 'a full half-million picked German troops' marched across Belgium, while the British force was a 'handful' that 'ought to have been crushed at Mons.' The emotional register is high, with phrases like 'the fire and inspiration of the generations to come.' This is not a dry reference work but a piece of war literature, aiming to memorialise its subjects.

What the Catalog Subjects Omit

The catalog lists this under 'World War, 1914-1918 -- Biography' and 'Generals -- Great Britain,' but the excerpts reveal a narrower focus. The book does not attempt comprehensive biographies; it offers short notes alongside portraits, and the introductions dwell almost entirely on 1914. There is no mention of later battles like the Somme or Passchendaele, nor of strategy beyond the first months. The tone is celebratory and defensive, arguing that the generals' achievement was to hold on against impossible odds. Readers expecting a full operational history will find instead a commemorative sketchbook, heavy on atmosphere and light on detail. The portraits themselves are not described in the text, but the emphasis on colour plates suggests a visual as well as textual tribute.

Because the excerpts are limited to the introductions and table of contents, the biographical notes themselves are not represented here. Readers should approach the book as a contemporary artifact—a morale-boosting publication from 1917—rather than a detached historical account. The portraits and notes likely reinforce the heroic narrative sketched in the introductions. For those interested in how the British high command was presented to the public during the war, this volume offers a concentrated example of official admiration and emotional rhetoric.

The rain drummed on the windows while I pored over Francis Dodd’s stern portraits, struck by how few those British generals had to command in 1914. That haunting scarcity made me wonder about the other front, the one stretching vast and immense. I found myself reaching for Russia's Part in the World War — Reading Companion, and the afternoon deepened quietly from there.