1. Richard Loudon McCreery was born on 1 February 1898, the eldest son of Walter Adolph McCreery of Bilton Park, Rugby, a Swiss-born American who spent most of his life in England but who represented the United States at polo at the 1900 Summer Olympics.
Richard McCreery's mother was Emilia McAdam, a great-great granddaughter of the Scottish engineer John Loudon McAdam, famous for his invention of the process of "Macadamization", a method of road surfacing, and great granddaughter of James Nicoll McAdam, known to his contemporaries as "The Colossus of Roads".
Six months after the outbreak of the First World War in August 1914, Richard McCreery sat the entrance examination for the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, only days after his seventeenth birthday, the minimum age, and finished 12th of 212 entrants.
On 11 August 1915, Richard McCreery was commissioned as a second lieutenant into the 12th Lancers, but instead of joining his regiment in France, was posted to the 6th Reserve Regiment of Cavalry based in Dublin for further training in cavalry tactics.
The next morning, the British cavalry came under heavy German artillery and machine gun fire before they were withdrawn; Richard McCreery was shot in his right thigh, severing his femoral artery.
Richard McCreery would have to learn to walk and ride again, and was affected by a pronounced limp for the rest of his life.
Richard McCreery finally rejoined the 12th Lancers on 11 September 1918.
Richard McCreery pushed boldly forward skilfully clearing up an enemy machine-gun post which threatened to hold up his advance from the outset, capturing ten prisoners and one machine gun.
Richard McCreery then cleared three villages and sent back a most accurate and clear report.
Richard McCreery had come close to death at Arras, a stroke of good fortune allowing him to survive a conflict in which a significant percentage of his generation had been swept away.
Richard McCreery was appointed adjutant of his regiment in December 1921.
Richard McCreery attended the Staff College, Camberley, from 1928 to 1929.
Richard McCreery was then appointed brigade major of the 2nd Cavalry Brigade in 1930 and Commanding Officer of his regiment in 1935.
The inter-war years saw Richard McCreery's greatest sporting achievements.
In 1928 Richard McCreery married Lettice St Maur, daughter of Major Lord Percy St Maur and the Hon.
Richard McCreery was serving in the British Army, but off-duty at the time.
Richard McCreery's youngest brother, Jack, who was a playwright with a play running in the West End, took his own life.
Richard McCreery was impressed by de Gaulle's bearing during the latter's direction of a counter-attack at Abbeville, and remained an admirer of the French general in later years.
Richard McCreery was an expert on the use of light armoured vehicles.
Richard McCreery's next posting overseas during the Second World War was as Adviser, Armoured Fighting Vehicles, Middle East, where he was Claude Auchinleck's chief adviser on such matters.
At Middle East Command Alexander was Montgomery's superior at the time of the Second Battle of El Alamein, in October 1942, and Richard McCreery had a role in the planning of that battle, in which armoured vehicles played such a significant part.
Richard McCreery remained at Alexander's side when the latter was made commander of the 18th Army Group in mid-February 1943.
Brooke, the CIGS, believed Richard McCreery never received the credit he deserved in the ultimately triumphant campaign.
Richard McCreery was given command of VIII Corps in the United Kingdom in July 1943 and then, following the Axis surrender in Tunisia, he was given command of X Corps in August 1943 which was training to take part in the Italian campaign.
In September 1943, Richard McCreery was responsible for dealing with the Salerno mutiny.
Richard McCreery was knighted in the field in July 1944 by King George VI, at Palazzo del Pero, near Arezzo, Italy.
Richard McCreery took over command of the Eighth Army from Lieutenant General Oliver Leese on 1 October 1944.
Doherty sums up this, the final campaign of the Eighth Army as follows: 'Sir Richard McCreery had managed one of the finest performances of a British army in the course of the war.
Richard McCreery had done so through attention to detail, careful planning and a strategic flair that had few superiors.
Richard McCreery was the last commander of the British Eighth Army; in 1945 it was re-constituted as British Troops Austria.
Richard McCreery was appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire in July 1945.
Richard McCreery was thus responsible for running that part of the country under British occupation.
Richard McCreery held this post from July 1945 to March 1946.
From 1946 to 1948, Richard McCreery was General Officer Commanding-in-Chief, British Army of the Rhine in Germany, succeeding Field Marshal Montgomery.
Richard McCreery lived with his family on Long Island and commuted to an office on the 61st floor of the Empire State Building in New York.
Richard McCreery lived the rest of his life at Stowell Hill in Somerset, a house built by his mother and designed by a pupil of the architect Edwin Lutyens.
General Sir Richard McCreery died on 18 October 1967 aged 69.
Appropriately for a man who was associated all his adult life with a cavalry regiment, Richard McCreery was a highly accomplished horseman.
Richard McCreery twice won the Grand Military Gold Cup at Sandown Park Racecourse, and represented the Army at polo.
In 1924 he and his younger brother Captain Selby Richard McCreery constituted 50 percent of the Army polo team that played against the United States.
Richard McCreery hunted all his life with the Blackmore Vale Hunt, of which he became joint Master of Foxhounds.
Richard McCreery was not comfortable in public speaking, but as Doherty puts it: 'Not a self-publicist in the manner of Montgomery, McCreery managed nonetheless to gain the confidence of his soldiers who trusted him in peace and war'.
Richard McCreery was clearly possessed of a high intelligence, which was not restricted in its operation by the early end of his formal academic education.
Richard McCreery regarded Montgomery as excessively cautious and indeed historians like Corelli Barnett have suggested that Montgomery failed to press home his advantage after the Battle of Alamein to the extent that he might have done.