David Chandler
1934- 2004
The news of the death of David Chandler swept through the pages of the internet a few weeks ago. To be honest the news did not come as a massive surprise his health had been a matter of concern for some years, but the sense of loss that came with the news was massive.
I had the honour and the very real pleasure of knowing David personally from the period in the 1970s and 80s when I attended the battle re-enactments of the Sealed Knot. David was always amazingly good and self effacing company, and a man who was both willing and able to communicate with everyone including pain- in- the-arse teenagers like me who had very fixed ideas and were not afraid to voice them.
I remember a night in a beer tent at Sudeley Castle where I harangued David with my theories about Napoleon and his campaigns. David, God bless him, listened to all I said and responded fully and with consideration, and in so doing gained my own total respect.
He was after all the nation's foremost military historian, largely responsible for the Worldwide interest in the Napoleonic period by writing a series of learned, yet readable works on Napoleon and his commanders. His works proved the inspiration for a generation of historical writers who even when they have been critical of David's conclusions have illustrated the massive influence that his writings and have had on the subject.
For me though it was the works that he published on the life and campaigns of the
Duke of Marlborough that were his masterworks. He brought to life a British military genius, a man of truly astounding ability, brought low by political intrigue. As he once said " I honestly prefer Marlborough to Napoleon! I am happier therefore in the early 18th century rather than in the 19th". If you have not read Marlborough as Military Commander, then get hold of a copy immediately!
David was born in 1934, his mother a Yorkshire woman and his father a clergyman who had served in the Great War and lost a leg in 1918. An only child he inherited an interest in history from his mother, and went on to gain both a BA and MA at Oxford. He also served as an officer in the Army in the late 1950s, serving in West Africa. He entered the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst in 1960, and lectured with distinction until 1994 when illness forced his retirement.
He was a visiting lecturer with the US Marine Corps, West point Military Academy and the US Naval Academy Annapolis. He was a Fellow of the Royal Historical, Royal Geographical, and Royal Masonic Societies; Council member for the Society for Army Historical Research, and trustee of the Royal Armouries. His numerous works are well known and widely read and in recognition he was awarded a Doctorate in letters from Oxford University in 1991. Personally I feel that his works deserved at least the recognition of other pre-eminent historian like Oman, Liddell-Hart and Michael Glover, after all what does a knighthood cost ?
I last met David a few years ago at Colours and it was great to sit down and chat and to catch up on events and stories of mutual friends. Although I was shocked by the toll his illness had had on him
physically, his sense of humour was a gentle and as sharp as ever. The World is a far poorer place with the loss of David, not only because it has lost one of it's foremost historians, but also because it has lost a true gentleman. I will miss him.
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