Acknowledgements

Many special people have contributed their time and effort to make this book possible. I wish to thank first and foremost Paul Corthorn for his continuing guidance and supervision of my PhD at Queen’s University Belfast. As both a mentor and friend, he has aided and encouraged me more than anyone else.

I am also indebted to the wise counsels of Alexander Titov, Kieran Connell, Richard Toye and Dianne Kirby. All have been nothing but generous with their advice, support and assistance during the writing process and far beyond.

Equally, my appreciation goes to my friends and colleagues who unwaveringly supported and backed me during this endeavour. These include Connel McKeown, Jessica Simonds, Samuel Beckton, Rebecca Kerr, Massimiliano Nastri, Oscar Holiday, Alexei Gavriel, Dominik Hamm, Bechara Karam, Charlie Freeland and Ryan McLean.

I have been afforded the great opportunity to publish this book within New Historical Perspectives by the University of London Press and the Royal Historical Society. This allowed me the guidance and assistance of a number of great historians. These are Heather Shore, Charlotte Alston, Ben Harker and Matthew Grant. I am grateful to all of them. No doubt their expert guidance and suggestions made this book better than it would otherwise have been. In addition, I owe a large amount of gratitude to Emma Gallon and Megan Garry-Evans from the University of London Press alongside Rosie Stewart at River Editorial.

Finally, I would like to thank the archivists and staff at The National Archives at Kew; the Modern Records Centre at the University of Warwick; People’s History Museum Archive in Manchester; Lambeth Palace Library; Churchill Archives Centre in Cambridge; Public Record Office of Northern Ireland; Liddell Hart Military Archives in Kings College; and Weston Library in Oxford. Again, without their assistance this book would not have been possible.