SMYTH, Brigadier The Rt Hon Sir John Smyth, Bt, VC, MC.
Bolo Whistler: The Life of General Sir Lashmer Whistler, GCB, KBE, DSO, DL. A Study in Leadership. London: Frederick Muller, 1967.
First edition. Field-Marshal Montgomery presentation copy to Lord Portal.
First edition, first impression. A superb presentation copy, inscribed on the front free endpaper: “To Peter from Bernard.” The recipient was Lord Portal, known privately as Peter, wartime Chief of the Air Staff and later Marshal of the Royal Air Force. The presenter was Field-Marshal Viscount Montgomery of Alamein, who contributes one of the forewords to this volume and was Chief of the Imperial General Staff from 1946 to 1948. This is therefore a remarkable written link from the post-war professional head of the British Army to the wartime professional head of the Royal Air Force.
The book was written by Brigadier Sir John Smyth, Bt, VC, MC, soldier, politician and military author. Smyth’s own decorations were hard-won: he received the VC in 1915 after carrying bombs forward under intense fire with most of his party killed or wounded, and later received the MC for gallantry in Waziristan. He was well placed to write a study of leadership, and here writes about General Sir Lashmer “Bolo” Whistler, one of Montgomery’s most admired fighting commanders. Montgomery’s printed tribute appears on the dust-wrapper: “He was about the best infantry brigade commander I knew.”
The association is exceptional. Montgomery and Portal stood at the summit of Britain’s wartime command structure: Portal as the air strategist and Chief of the Air Staff, Montgomery as the leading British field commander and later head of the Army. Presentation inscriptions between figures of this rank are rarely encountered, and the use of Portal’s familiar name, “Peter”, gives this copy a personal immediacy far beyond a formal ownership association.
A distinguished military biography transformed by a remarkable high-command presentation.
Condition: octavo, original black cloth, red spine label lettered in gilt, red top edge, in the original red dust-wrapper. With photographic plates throughout. A very good copy in a good to very good dust-wrapper. The jacket shows rubbing, handling wear and edge wear, with wear to the spine ends and corners, together with noticeable sunning and fading to the spine panel. The binding is sound and clean, the contents well-preserved, and Montgomery’s presentation inscription is clear and legible.
