Dick McCreery was commissioned into the 12th Lancers in 1915, seeing service on the Western Front where he was wounded and won the Military Cross. In World War II he commanded an armoured brigade in France in 1940, became an adviser to General Auchinleck and then Chief of Staff to General Alexander. He led a corps in Italy from Salerno to the Gothic Line before becoming the last commander of Eighth Army. After the War he served as British High Commissioner in Austria and Commander of the British Army of the Rhine.
Richard Mead was educated at Marlborough College and Pembroke College, Cambridge. He qualified as a Chartered Accountant before becoming an investment banker. From 1994 he worked as an adviser to and director of a large number of companies, at the same time developing a parallel career as a military historian and biographer. He has had five books published, focusing on British military leaders of World War 2
