English military commander Bernard Montgomery, later 1st Viscount Montgomery, was BOTD in 1887. Born in London to an Ulster-Scots aristocratic family, he was raised in Tasmania, Australia when his father was appointed bishop. He returned to England in 1897, attending St Paul’s School and the Royal Military College at Sandhurst. Commissioned into the Royal Warwickshire Regiment in 1908, he was quickly promoted to lieutenant. He served on the front lines in World War One, wounded in battle at Ypres and surviving the Battle of Passchendaele. He married Elizabeth Carver in 1927, a widow with two children, and had a son in 1928. After Carver’s unexpected death in 1937, he threw himself back into military life, eventually bringing his son and stepsons into the armed forces. He rose to prominence as commander of the British Army during World War Two, leading successful military campaigns at El Alamein and Tunisia, the Allied invasion of Italy and the Battle of Normandy. In 1945, he commandeered the liberation of the Netherlands and accepted the surrender of German forces in north-western Europe. In recognition of his efforts, he was created 1st Viscount Montgomery of Alamein in 1946. After the war, he became Commander-in-chief of the British Army in Germany and Chief of the Imperial General Staff. He served as NATO’s Deputy Supreme Allied Commander for Europe until his retirement in 1958. Later in life, he publicly supported apartheid after visiting South Africa in 1962 and campaigned against the legalisation of homosexuality in the United Kingdom, calling the law reform “a charter for buggery”. Montgomery died in 1976, aged 88. His biographers, notably Nigel Hamilton, have noted Montgomery’s passionate attachments to fellow soldiers and pre-pubescent boys. Hamilton met Montgomery when he was 11, describing a loving but unconsummated relationship over several years.