Cyril Falls

Cyril Falls was born in Dublin in 1888, the eldest son of an Ulster landowner, before crossing the water to become England's most disciplined witness of modern warfare. He fought in the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers, recorded the brutal arithmetic of the 36th (Ulster) Division, and later forced that memory into official history. A birthplace is usually a point of departure; for Falls it was a chamber pot of contradictions, Irish blood poured into British institutions until neither could be called innocent.