22 NOVEMBER 1957, Page 7

so FAR As the British Army is concerned Monty's main

contribution may have been his ability to associate others—even God, I have heard the irreverent maintain—with him in any project he undertakes. With the players of Portsmouth Football Club—of which he is president—no less than with the Eighth Army, it is always 'we' and never 'you.' Monty has always been a leader and never just a boss; a beret and not a brass hat, in fact. Perhaps that is why people have come to realise that what would in a lesser man be arrogance is in him a very different quality. You do not accuse a Henry V or a Cromwell of hubris, and it is with that company that as a master of the set battle you must rank Mont- gomery.