J. M. Callwell

Major-General Sir Charles Edward Callwell, (2 April 1859 – May 1928) was an Anglo-Irish officer of the British Army, who served in the artillery, as an intelligence officer, and as a staff officer and commander during the Second Boer War, and as Director of Operations (DMO) during the First World War. He was also a noted writer of military biography, history, and theory.

Early life and career

Callwell was born in London, the only son of Henry Callwell, of Lismoyne, Ballycastle, County Antrim, by his wife, Maud Martin, of Ross, Connemara. His elder sister Josephine Mary (J.M.) Callwell was a writer. He was educated by a German governess, and then at Haileybury, before entering the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, in 1876. He was commissioned as a lieutenant in July 1878, joining a battery of the 3rd Brigade, Royal Field Artillery, then stationed in India, and serving in the closing stages of the Second Anglo-Afghan War. In January 1881 his battery was transferred to Natal, arriving just in time to take part in the final operations of the ill-fated expedition against the Transvaal Boers. Shortly afterwards Callwell returned to Woolwich; then in late 1884 he passed the entrance examination to the Staff College, where he was a student from February 1885 into 1886. He was promoted to captain on 17 March 1886.

Small Wars

In 1886 Callwell was awarded the Trench Gascoigne Prize Essay Competition gold medal by the Royal United Service Institution for his essay Lessons to be learned from the campaigns in which British Forces have been employed since the year 1865. This was later expanded into a book Small Wars: Their Principles and Practices, published in 1896, which was adopted as an official British Army textbook, and won wide recognition. In the book, Callwell drew lessons not only from British military engagements, but also French, Spanish, American and Russian campaigns. The book became a "starting point for nearly all counterinsurgency theorists and practitioners."