Bernard Law Montgomery was born in London in November, 1887 where his father was an Anglican Vicar. His family and ancestry came from Moville in Co. Donegal, going back to the 1600’s. Family tradition held that an ancestor had come to England with William the Conqueror in 1066.

‘Monty’ is the first General of ten listed in a book I have at home entitled ‘Irish Generals’ – Ten Irish Generals who served in the Second World War. I’ve no doubt you would know at least some of the others: The Gentleman Commander: Alexander, The man who stopped Rommel: Auchinleck, Bridge Builder Between Allies: Dill, The First Victor: O’Connor, An Inspiring Leader: Russell, A Touch of Wellington: Scott, Scourge of the Luftwaffe: Pile, Saviour of Malaya: Templer, and Britain’s Greatest-Ever Chief: Field Marshall Sir Alan Brook.

Each of them tells a fascinating story of courage and greatness and all of them of Irish descent. I’ve been trying to find common themes that make such men so extraordinary. Apart from the obvious, that at the end of the day, they are all mere human beings who make mistakes like everyone else, there are two things which have struck me; all of them (apart from one) experienced the horror and carnage and devastation of the First World War. They saw, and were the victims of, catastrophic decisions made by their superiors in that war.

When they became Generals, they would avoid making such awful mistakes again, as far as was possible. The second most striking common theme, for me, was their almost total disregard for their own well-being. It was said, particularly of Churchill’s favourite General, Harold Alexander that he showed such courage and leadership in the field of battle that amounted to “an almost reckless disregard for his own safety”.

And, also, (perhaps this is a third common theme) it can be said of all great leaders, that there is an almost innate belief in their own capabilities to get the job done. It is when such egos collide that there are, and were, many a confrontation, particularly across Churchill’s desk in Whitehall.

I don’t mean to concentrate on Montgomery in particular, but there is no doubt that he was vain, egotistical and pompous. The men who served under him, however, would never hear a word said against him. He had led his men to victory and instilled in them a strong belief in their own abilities as soldiers, as individuals and as an army. Perhaps that could be said of all the ten Irish Generals in this book. There is a famous story, not quoted in the book, but one I heard a long time ago, of Monty at one time addressing his troops, and somewhere in his speech he felt called to quote the New Testament, “As our Lord once said”, he went on, “and, in my opinion, quite rightly...”

Perhaps being the son of a clergyman, who actually later became Bishop of Tasmania, of all places, and Monty didn’t actually return to the UK until he was 13, he wasn’t averse to quoting scripture.

In fact, he chose to open his book of memoirs with a quote from the Book of Job; “Yet man is born unto trouble as the sparks fly upwards”.

Yet man is born unto trouble as the sparks fly upwards; what does that mean? It’s actually a great line. In our New International Version it says, ‘Yet man is born to trouble as surely the sparks fly upwards’. It is said by the first of Job’s three friends, Eliphaz, who has supposed to come to comfort him in his sorrows. You know the expression well, ‘you’re a real Job’s comforter’ and this expression is typical of their ‘comforting’ – man is destined to trouble as sure as sparks fly upwards, and there’s not an awful lot you can do about it.

Very quickly; the book of Job is considered the greatest of the three Wisdom books of Job, Proverbs and Ecclesiastes. The comfortable teaching of much of ancient literature was that God, or the gods, blessed good people and punished the wicked. But Job looked around him and saw more truly that good people often suffer misfortune for no apparent reason, and he asks why. He asks the age-old question, ‘Why do bad things happen to good people?’ Job reaches a fury of despair when he only gets ‘non-answers’ from his friends, and from God himself. His book ends with a splendid section on the power of God in the universe, and at last Job submits in complete trust. Then, as in all good tales, his fortunes are restored to him. What really happens in the end is that he submits to life as it is. There is no solution to the mystery of existence, but God is God, infinite in wisdom. Man, his creature, is mortal and finite in understanding. To know that is to understand one’s relationship to the living God. That, in a nutshell, is what the Book of Job is about.

It’s an extraordinary verse with which to begin your memoirs; yet man is born unto trouble as the sparks fly upwards. The last thing that Montgomery, or any of those Irish Generals did, was to sit back and accept the ways things are.

Yes, in this world we will have trouble and heartache and war and death, but the last thing we’re going to do is sit back and just take it. Job’s first comment on all his troubles is; “The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away...blessed be the name of the Lord!” We’re still in the Old Testament, but the Book of Habakkuk is not unlike that of Job and, indeed, some of the Psalms, and here the ‘righteous shall live by his faith’. It’s a theme that Paul took up in his letters and at the time of the Reformation, it became the watchword for of Martin Luther. At the end of his book, Habakkuk prays an extraordinary prayer of faith,

“Though the fig-tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crops fail and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Saviour. The Sovereign Lord is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to go on the heights”.

Our age is full of trouble and strife and war, but there is no way we are going to sit down and just take it. It’s all about what we can do about it, and our fight is a fight for peace and restoration.