An essay on Wavell

Islamabad: National Book Foundation . Very Good/No DJ. 1999. First Edition. Hard Cover. 8vo Only 1,000 copies of first printing. Illustrated boards. Previous owner's inscription on ffep. Maps. 397 pages clean and tight. Mr.Close's views on the specifically military aspect of Lord Wavell's genius, as declared during his period as Commander-in-Chief, form the theme of the book that is now published. About the author: -Mr. H.M. Close, SI, OBE, MC, MA, has been known in Peshawar since 1947, first as a teacher at Islamia College, and at Edwardes College, and more recently, in the few years since his retirement, (though still at Edwardes College) as the author of a few books. He was born in London in 1914, and educated at University College School, Hampstead, and then at St. John's College, Cambridge. On leaving Cambridge, in 1937, he took a teaching appointment at St. Stephen's College, Delhi. In 1940, however, he joined the Indian Army and sailed to the Middle East to join an Indian battalion there. In the later part of the War he commanded a company of Pathans, and this proved such a happy experience, that, when hostilities ended, he not only left New Delhi and settled in Peshawar, but was prompted to write a book about his military experiences with the title, "A Pathan Company." The Book has proved a success. His years as a soldier in the Middle East provided Mr. Close not only with a lifelong interest in the Pathans, but a second interest too, in the achievement and personality of Lord Wavell. He was sailing up the red Sea with reinforcements, when that first astonishing news of Sidi Barrani left him with a sense of Genius that led him to study it all his life - not Wavell's career as whole but specifically his achievement as Commander-in-Chief, and secondly as Viceroy. The fiftieth anniversary of freedom and partition, with the growing perception of the disasters conveyed by Mountbatten's failings, led him to publish the short book "Attlee, Wavell Mountbatten and the Transfer of Power", arguing that Wavell, if left in charge, would probably have done much better. .