CHANDLER, David (Geoffrey) 1934-2004

OBITUARY NOTICE— See index for CA sketch: Born January 15, 1934, in England; died October 10, 2004. Historian, educator, and author. Chandler, an expert on military history, was former head of war studies at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst and was particularly noted for his writings about Napoleon Bonaparte and John Churchill, duke of Marlborough. Educated at Keble College, Oxford, he earned his B.A. there in 1955, followed by a diploma of education in 1956. After three years in the British Army, he received a master's degree in 1960 from Keble. Chandler then joined the faculty at Sandhurst as a lecturer in politics and modern history, eventually rising to the post of head of the department of war studies and international affairs from 1980 until his 1994 retirement. The historian is best remembered for his first book, The Campaigns of Napoleon (1967), which has been praised by such modern-day generals as Charles de Gaulle and Norman Schwarzkopf. The historian went on to write many more books after this, many of them on the Napoleonic wars and the wars of the Spanish succession, but he also released works on twentieth-century battles, including a number of dictionaries and encyclopedias. Among these are Marlborough as Military Commander (1973), A Dictionary of Napoleonic Wars (1979), Battles and Battle-Scenes of World War II (1989), Jena 1806 (1993), and On the Napoleonic Wars (1994). As a recognized authority on military history, Chandler was frequently consulted to assist with television programs, such as a British Broadcasting Corp. production of Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace; he also was general editor of a series of military books published by Osprey.

OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:

periodicals

Daily Telegraph (London, England), November 9, 2004, p. 1.

Times (London, England), October 18, 2004, p. 48.