Bernard Law Montgomery (1887—1976) served in the First World War, where he was wounded in combat, and by 1939, he was a division commander in the British Expeditionary Force. Montgomery fought the Germans the following year in the Battle of France, and his command became known for meticulous planning, emphasis on rigorous training, and insistence on physical fitness. In August 1942, Montgomery was chosen to lead the British Eighth Army in North Africa.

Montgomery was a cautious leader, and his practice of postponing action until his forces outnumbered and outgunned his enemies in the field endeared him to those throughout the Eighth Army. Others outside the Eighth Army were less enamored. Montgomery became the most acclaimed British military leader of the war, but he was widely disliked among his fellow senior commanders who disdained his abrasive and arrogant manner and overly deliberate pace of operations. Though he proved an effective combat leader in the Mediterranean, his later record in France, where he served as the Allied ground commander in the early days of Operation Overlord, as well as in Holland, was decidedly more mixed. Still, Montgomery received much adulation at home in Britain after the war.

Montgomery died in 1976 at the age of 88.