Richard Holmes (military historian)

Edward Richard Holmes,

Holmes was educated at Forest School, Walthamstow; Emmanuel College, Cambridge; Northern Illinois University; and the University of Reading, where he was awarded a PhD in 1975.^[2]

Military career

In 1964, he enlisted in the

In 1995, he became Professor of Military and Security Studies at Cranfield University.^[20] From 1997 until his retirement in 2000, Holmes was Director General, Reserve Forces and Cadets, the Army's senior reservist.^[21] In the 1998 New Year Honours, he was promoted to Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) (Military Division).^[22]

From September 1999 to 1 February 2007, he was

Between 1969 and 1985, Holmes was a lecturer at the Department of War Studies at the RMA Sandhurst, becoming Deputy Head of the department in 1984.^[20]

In 1989 he was appointed as the co-director of Cranfield University's Security Studies Institute at the Royal Military College of Science, at Shrivenham. He became Professor of Military and Security Studies there in 1995, retiring from both positions, although retaining some part-time responsibilities in 2009.^[2]

Holmes was also President of the British Commission for Military History, and the Battlefields Trust.

He used a similar format in his series, In the Footsteps of Churchill, a documentary on Winston Churchill. In this, he travelled across the world, including South Africa, Sudan, Egypt and various locations in the United Kingdom and Europe. He also wrote a book to accompany the series.^[3]

In 2003 he presented Britain's Finest Castles, part of an eight-part documentary series for Channel 5.

Personal life

Holmes married Katharine Saxton in 1975, with whom he had two daughters.^[29]

Death

Holmes died on 30 April 2011, aged 65, from the effects of

• Bir Hacheim: Desert Citadel (1971)
  ISBN 978-0-345-02405-3
• The Little Field Marshal: A Life of Sir John French (1981)
  ISBN 978-0-224-01575-2
• Firing Line (1985)
  ISBN 978-0-224-02043-5
• Acts of War: The Behaviour of Men in Battle (1986)
  ISBN 978-0-02-915020-7
• Civil War battles in Cornwall, 1642 to 1646 (Mercia, 1989)
  ISBN 978-0-948087-32-5
• World Atlas of Warfare: Military Innovations That Changed the Course of History
  ISBN 978-0-670-81967-6
• Riding the Retreat: Mons to Marne: 1914 Revisited (1995)
  ISBN 978-0-224-03762-4
• Battle (1997)
  ISBN 978-0-7513-6057-8
• The Western Front (1999)
  ISBN 978-1-57500-147-0
• World War II in Photographs (2000)
  ISBN 978-1-84222-073-3
• Battlefields of the Second World War (2001)
  ISBN 978-0-563-53782-3
• The First World War in Photographs (2001)
  ISBN 978-1-84222-319-2
• Redcoat: The British Soldier in the Age of Horse and Musket (2001)
  ISBN 978-0-00-257097-8
• Wellington: The Iron Duke (2002)
  ISBN 978-0-00-713748-0
  ; pbk 0-00-713750-8 (2003)
• The D-Day Experience: From the Invasion to the Liberation of Paris (2004)
  ISBN 978-1-84442-805-2
• Tommy: The British Soldier on the Western Front (2004)
  ISBN 978-0-00-713751-0
• In the Footsteps of Churchill (2005)
  ISBN 978-0-563-52176-1
• The Napoleonic Wars Experience (2006)
  ISBN 978-0-233-00198-2
• Sahib: The British Soldier in India 1750–1914 (2005)
  ISBN 978-0-00-713753-4
• Dusty Warriors: Modern Soldiers at War (2006)
  ISBN 978-0-00-721284-2
• Battlefield. Decisive Conflicts in History
  ISBN 978-84-344-1335-1
• The World at War: The Landmark Oral History from the Previously Unpublished Archives
  ISBN 978-0-09-191751-7
• Marlborough: England's Fragile Genius (2008)
  ISBN 978-0-00-722571-2
• Shots from the Front (2008)
  ISBN 978-0-00-727548-9
• Soldiers: Army Lives and Loyalties from Redcoats to Dusty Warriors (2011)
  ISBN 978-0-00-722569-9