Far from a donkey

Ivor Maxse is a name well known to students of the First World War as that of an outstanding trainer of troops and an impressive commander with great vision, but his extraordinarily varied life in the years before he arrived in France in command of the 1st Guards Brigade in August 1914 has been little explored. In this, the first ever biography of Ivor Maxse, John Baynes paints a fascinating picture of a remarkable military man. Throughout his service, Ivor studied the men around him and learned to understand the mind of the ordinary soldier. While many of those around him in 1914 remained entrenched in the old ideas and traditions of soldiering he rose to the challenges before him. His skills in training and leadership showed him to be years ahead of his time. With his gift for communication he made a success of training the 18th Division in the new Kitchener army. John Baynes recounts how the 18th was one of the few divisions to succeed on the Somme, and how as a Corps Commander in 1917 Ivor seized opportunities to make good use of the new tanks. As Inspector General of Training for the whole BEF in 1918 he showed himself to have the vision that many of his contemporaries lacked and pointed the way to the more skillful and effective tactics for the use of infantry in World War Two.