Cyril Falls

Cyril Bentham Falls CBE (2 March 1888 – 23 April 1971) was a British military historian, journalist, and academic, noted for his works on the First World War. He was born in Ireland and spent most of his life in England. At the age of 27, he published his first book, Rudyard Kipling: A Critical Study.

First World War During the First World War, he received a commission into the British Army as a subaltern in the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers. He served as a Staff Officer in the Headquarters of the 36th (Ulster) Division and the 62nd (2nd West Riding) Division. He received the French Croix de Guerre, and was discharged from the British Army with the rank of captain.

Military history career Immediately after leaving the army, Falls wrote a history of one of the divisions that he had served with during the war, entitled The History of the 36th (Ulster) Division, that was published in 1922. From 1923 to 1939, he was employed by the Historical Section of the Committee of Imperial Defence, researching and writing the text of several volumes of the official History of the Great War. From the late 1940s through to his death in the early 1970s, he was a productive writer of military histories, publishing detailed studies as well as general works for the commercial market, his final two titles being published posthumously. The historian, Sir Michael Howard, later described Falls' work The History of the 36th (Ulster) Division (1922),

Falls was made Commander of the British Empire in 1967.

Death Falls died aged 83 in Walton-on-Thames, in the county of Surrey, on 23 April 1971.

Publications