By the way, I’d very much like to read the whole of “Allenby’s Last Message”. I can’t find it on the internet. Can you please point me in the right direction?

Paradoxically, Allenby was an early master of strategic deception, a skill largely unpracticed by other military commanders during WW1. For Allenby, unlike almost every other general of the Great War, deception plans were a key element of every operational plan. As T.E Lawrence remarked, ‘Deceptions, which for the ordinary general were just witty hors d’oeuvres before battle, had become for Allenby a main point in strategy.’

Allenby’s operations closely resembled the more complex schemes devised during the Second World War. Allenby’s deception staff in WWI included General Archibald Wavell, who in WWII used Allenby’s methods successfully against the Italians and Germans in the Western Desert, at one point defeating 250,000 of the enemy with a British force of only 50,000. General Wavell and his deception planner, Brigadier Dudley Clarke, recommended these methods, leading to establishment of the London Controlling Section (LCS), the “Allied D-day deceivers”.

Allenby has been called “the father of the 20th century grand military deception”, although I think he would have preferred to have been remembered for other achievements.

If ever you come across “Allenby of Arabia, Lawrence’s General” (published in 1966 and long out of print) by Brian Gardner, have a browse. I think you’ll find yourself reading the book.

It’s funny how it works. Thanks to this photo, I’ll never mistake Laurence Olivier for Stuffy Dowding, but I do always think Trevor Howard for Keith Park. Perhaps somebody should put up that statue to him …