Bernard Law Montgomery was born in London in 1887. He attended the Royal Military College Sandhurst, where he was nearly expelled for fighting with hot pokers. He graduated into the Royal Warwickshire Regiment, and was sent to France during the First World War (1914–1918) where he was shot through the right lung by a sniper, and nearly died.

Montgomery became one of the most prominent and successful British commanders of the Second World War (1939–1945). He is most famous for his victorious command of the Allies against General Erwin Rommel in North Africa, and during the invasions of Italy and Normandy.