General Boy: The Life of Lieutenant General Sir Frederick Browning

by Richard B. Mead

This is the first biography of ‘Boy’ Browning, whose name is inextricably linked with the creation and employment of Britain’s airborne forces in the Second World War. Commissioned into the Grenadier Guards, Browning served on the Western Front, earning a DSO during the Battle of Cambrai.

As Adjutant at Sandhurst, he began the tradition of riding a horse up the steps at the end of the commissioning parade. Browning represented England and Great Britain as a hurdler at the 1928 Winter Olympics. In 1932 Browning married Daphne du Maurier, who was ten years younger and became one of the 20th century’s most enduring and popular novelists with titles such as Jamaica Inn and Rebecca.

Browning commanded two brigades before being appointed to command 1 Airborne Division in 1941, later acting as Eisenhower’s advisor on airborne warfare in the Mediterranean. In 1944 he commanded 1st Airborne Corps, which he took to Holland for Operation MARKET GARDEN that September. Allegedly coining the phrase “a bridge too far”, he has received much of the blame for the operation’s failure.

In late 1944, Browning became Chief of Staff to Mountbatten. In 1948 he became Comptroller and Treasurer to Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip and then Treasurer to the latter following the Queen’s accession. He was a close adviser to the Royal couple, who respected and valued his judgment.

By this time, Boy and Daphne lived separate lives with Boy working at the Palace in London and Daphne reluctant to leave her beloved Cornwall although the marriage remained intact. Questions exist as to Daphne’s sexuality and Boy had a succession of discrete mistresses. After a nervous breakdown probably due to marriage problems, he resigned in 1959 and retired to Cornwall. Browning died in March 1965.

Genres: History, Military History, Biography, World War II

288 pages, Hardcover

First published October 21, 2010

Reviews

[Sharon Bollen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn't really know much about Boy Browing save that he was Daphne du Maurier's husband but I became intrigued when I read a framed letter from the Philip, Duke of Edinburgh in the Daphne du Maurier Museum in Cornwall in which he expressed how appalled he was by Boy's depiction in "A Bridge Too Far".

This book peels back the shadow cast by that film to reveal the real man beneath; complex, disciplined, focussed and committed to a life of exemplary public service. He deserved better.

Well worth a read.

[Andrea Di Bernardo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anyone who hears the mention of General Frederick Browning called "Boy" immediately goes to the memory of that beautiful film (in my opinion despite some flaws it is a classic) which is "A Bridge too far" from 1977, directed by Richard Attenborough and based on the book by Cornelius Ryan (also author of "The Longest Day"). In that film, which despite having a stellar cast did not have much success at the box office, Boy Browning, commander of the Airborne Corps and in practice head of Operation Market Garden, was played by a very good actor, a veteran of the Second World War himself , Dirk Bogarde. That actor, apparently suited to the role, for physique, delicacy in "upper class" ways, seemed to be perfect for interpreting the cold and detached (apparently) Browning, but unfortunately, as often in film productions, the result did not return all the facets of a great soldier, albeit of a difficult character, characterizing him as the all too often abused type of "British officer careless of his own men". This meant that his image was in a certain way tainted and that the widow, the famous writer Daphne Du Maurier, faced battles to partially redeem the memory of her husband.
It may seem strange that for this soldier, so important, is the first biography ever produced, but it is, and it is a beautiful biography by a specialist, Richard Mead. Published by Pen & Sword and with the foreword by Prince Philip of Edinburgh, who knew Boy Browning well, this book traces his beginnings and many defects, combined with the many merits as a man and soldier, in an enjoyable book that has, as an obvious point central, Operation Market Garden, the attempt to shorten the war with an airborne landing aimed at bridges over several Dutch rivers and which had the town of Arnhem on the Rhine as its last terminal.
But to act as a counterpart to military life, we know the man Browning, who in his private life found as a life partner the famous writer Daphne Du Maurier (Rebecca, Jamaica Inn), whimsical as vital partner opposed to the serious and often hyperactive (in the workplace) Browning. The couple had three children, and despite the few acquaintances during the war and mutual betrayals, the balance is that there was love between the two, taking into account the completely different worlds in which they moved.
The biography is thus balanced between an extremely interesting private life (no other high-ranking officer in my memory married such a successful novelist!) and Browning's military life, in which to use a suitable English term he was a "martinet" , but whose attention to discipline greatly influenced the formation of the British airborne troops, which started late compared to the enemy ones that had already been decisive in 1940. Veteran of two wars, creator of a tradition still well respected in Sandhurst, in the second postwar period close to the Princess and then Queen Elizabeth and to Prince Philip as controller of the Princess's household and then of the Duke of Edinburgh's. Unfortunately, his parable died out in the last sad years plagued by the after-effects of the two wars, wounds and a propensity for alcohol, but even these did not cancel his military career of absolute value that cannot be summed up by the technically excellent movie interpretation , but historically inaccurate, of Bogarde and the events that marked Market Garden. This book balances the facts with care and attention, which is what distinguishes a veteran of great biographies like Richard Mead.