Richard Holmes Dead

I was shocked to see this morning that the noted military historian, Richard Holmes, had died yesterday at only 65. I'm sure many of you were enthralled as I was by his TV series "War Walks" - I envied him his easy use of a quotation to bring an action to life (he made it look effortless even though I'm sure it wasn't).

I also thoroughly approved of his desire to put the common soldier at the centre of things - best epitomised by his trilogy that began with Redcoat and followed up with Sahib and Tommy. I'm sure that many of us who like small scale actions would agree with his view that very often it was the men down at the coalface who turned round what seemed like a lost cause.
 
It isn't often that I get upset by the death of a celebrity but I feel rather saddened today (if only because I harboured a secret desire that he would do a North American "War Walks" series - he would have been an ace presenter of Gettysburg or Guildford Courthouse).

French Line Infantry are "proceeding".