Clayton, Anthony 1928-

PERSONAL:

Born September 3, 1928, in Upavon, Wiltshire, England; son of Emilius (a military officer) and Irene (a homemaker) Clayton; married Judith Mary Blackstone (a homemaker), April 28, 1973; children: Robert, Penelope. Ethnicity: "English." Education: University of Paris, diploma in French language and literature, 1947; University of St. Andrews, M.A., 1950, Ph.D., 1970. Politics: "Whig." Religion: Church of England. Hobbies and other interests: Historic architecture, classical music.

ADDRESSES:

Home—April Cottage, 43 Ford Ln., Lower Bourne, Farnham, Surrey GU10 3NB, England.

CAREER:

Writer. British Army, career officer in Territorial Army, 1948-82, retiring as lieutenant colonel; Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, England, senior lecturer, 1965-93; Conflict Studies Research Centre, Sandhurst, librarian, 1994-99. Served in education department of Colonial Government of Kenya, 1952-65; University of Surrey, tutor, 1994—. Farnham Castle, volunteer guide.

MEMBER:

Royal Africa Society.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Decorated chevalier, l'Ordre des Palmes Académiques, 1998.

WRITINGS:

(With Donald C. Savage) Government and Labour in Kenya, 1895-1963, Cass (London, England), 1973.

Communication for New Loyalties: African Soldiers’ Songs (monograph), Ohio University Press (Athens, OH), 1978.

The Zanzibar Revolution and Its Aftermath, C. Hurst (London, England), 1981.

Counter-Insurgency in Kenya, 1952-56 (monograph), Sunflower University Press (Manhattan, KS), 1985.

The British Empire as a Superpower, 1919-39, University of Georgia Press (Athens, GA), 1986.

France, Soldiers, and Africa, Brassey's (London, England), 1988.

(With David Killingray) Khaki and Blue: The Military and Police in Colonial Africa, Ohio University Press (Athens, OH), 1989.

Three Marshals of France, Brassey (London, England), 1990.

Forearmed: A History of the Intelligence Corps, Brassey (London, England), 1993.

The Wars of French Decolonisation, Longman (London, England), 1994.

The End of Empire: The Experience of Britain and France and the Soviet Union/Russia Compared (monograph), Army Staff College (Camberley, England), 1996.

Frontiersmen: Warfare in Africa since 1950, University College London Press (London, England), 1998.

(Editor, with Alan Russell, and contributor) Dresden: A City Reborn, Berg (Oxford, England), 1998.

Paths of Glory: The French Army, 1914-19, Cassell Publishing (London, England), 2003.

The British Officer: Leaders of the Army from 1660 to the Present, Pearson Longman (New York, NY), 2006.

Contributor to books, including Decolonisation and After: The British and French Experience, edited by W.M. Morris Jones and G. Fischer, Cass (London, England), 1980; Sport in Africa, edited by William Baker and J.A. Mangan, Holmes & Meier (New York, NY), 1986; Military Power and Politics in Black Africa, edited by S. Baynham, Croom Helm (London, England), 1986; Fallen Stars: A Study of Twentieth Century Military Disasters, edited by Brian Bond, Brassey (London, England), 1992; and Exile Armies, edited by Matthew Bennett and Paul Latawski, Palgrave Macmillan (New York, NY), 2005. Contributor of articles and reviews to periodicals in French and English, including British Army Review, Small Wars and Insurgencies, Sandhurst Journal of Military Studies, History Today, Conflict Studies Research Centre Papers, and Journal of African History.

SIDELIGHTS:

Anthony Clayton told CA: "I have written my books because I felt that I had something to say that would be useful to the understanding of past events. I suppose that my background, in the sixth consecutive generation of my family to hold the sovereign's commission in the army, influences my work.

"My writing process is very messy! I create a handwritten manuscript which a kind lady somehow or another decrypts. In writing, I generally try to cover half the ground needed for research, put something down on paper, and then add, amend—or rewrite.

"I am a profound Francophile; hence, my four works on the French Army. I believe the British Empire was on balance a power for good in the world; hence, the super-power book. I have sympathy for Africa's problems; hence, the Africa works. I am a Christian and a lover of baroque architecture; hence, my work for the Dresden Trust."