Produced by David Clarke, Jeannie Howse and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net +--------------------------------------------------------------+ | Transcriber's Notes: | | | | In the original book, the unique headers on the odd numbered | | pages have been reproduced with [Page Heading: ] tags. | | | | A number of obvious typographical errors have been | | corrected in this text. For a complete list, please | | see the bottom of this document. | +--------------------------------------------------------------+ * * * * * [Illustration: FIELD-MARSHAL SIR JOHN D.P. FRENCH, G.C.B., G.C.V.O., K.C.M.G. _From a portrait by his son, J.R.L. French._] SIR JOHN FRENCH AN AUTHENTIC BIOGRAPHY BY CECIL CHISHOLM, M.A. WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY SIR EVELYN WOOD, V.C. AND A PORTRAIT BY J.R.L. FRENCH HERBERT JENKINS LIMITED ARUNDEL PLACE HAYMARKET LONDON S.W. MCMXV "This is the happy warrior--this is he That every man in arms should wish to be." _Wordsworth._ WYMAN & SONS LTD., PRINTERS, READING AND LONDON. INTRODUCTION BY FIELD-MARSHAL SIR EVELYN WOOD, V.C. I regard John Denton French as the man who for the last twelve years has been the driving force of tactical instruction in the British Army. He made use of all the best ideas of the Generals who preceded him in the Aldershot Command, and he was, I think, instrumental in causing the appointment of Horace Smith-Dorrien and Douglas Haig to succeed in turn to that nursery of soldiers. How sound his judgment has proved to be may be discovered from the dispatches--carefully worded--in which he describes how Smith-Dorrien conducted the most successful retreat since that of Sir John Moore to Corunna, 1808-9, and how Douglas Haig carried his Army across the Aisne river in the face of the enemy's fire opposition. From 1884-5, when as a Squadron Officer he showed marked determination in the abortive expedition for the relief of Gordon, until 1899-1902 in South Africa, he has been the foremost man to inculcate the "Cavalry Spirit," and unlike many advocates of that spirit, he has never become a slave to the idea. He has been at pains to teach the Cavalry soldier that when he can no longer fight to the best advantage in the saddle, he is to get off his horse and fight on foot. This is a marked feature of his military genius.