{{Short description|British army officer and writer (1942–2026)}} {{Use British English|date=September 2010}} {{Use dmy dates|date=August 2021}} '''John Gordon Harvey Corrigan''' MBE, FRHistS (30 June 1942 – 26 February 2026) was a British army officer and historical writer and broadcaster.
==Life and career== Corrigan was educated at the Royal School, Armagh, and the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. He served in the British Army's Royal Gurkha Rifles, mainly in the far east, and reached the rank of major. Between 1980 and 1987 he took a break from military service, joining the Royal Hong Kong Jockey Club where he was clerk of the course at the Happy Valley Racecourse from 1980 to 1982, and Racing Secretary from 1982 to 1987.<ref name=Brum>{{Cite web|url=http://www.firstworldwar.bham.ac.uk/members/corrigan.htm|publisher=University of Birmingham|title=Members of the Centre|year=2009|accessdate=23 February 2009|archive-date=16 March 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090316043502/http://www.firstworldwar.bham.ac.uk/members/corrigan.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref> Corrigan was awarded the MBE in 1995<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.gazettes-online.co.uk/issues/54255/supplements/6/page.pdf |title=Supplement to the London Gazette, 30 December 1995 |access-date=5 July 2010 |archive-date=16 June 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120616131159/http://www.gazettes-online.co.uk/issues/54255/supplements/6/page.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref> His last appointment was commanding the Gurkha Centre in Hampshire.
Following his retirement from the army in 1998, Corrigan became a freelance writer on military history. He also presented television documentaries, made speaking appearances and conducted tours of World War I battlefields. He was an honorary research fellow of the University of Kent,<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.kent.ac.uk/history/staff/index.html?tab=emeriti-amp-honorary-staff |title=Staff - School of History - University of Kent |access-date=13 November 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150203225327/http://www.kent.ac.uk/history/staff/index.html?tab=emeriti-amp-honorary-staff |archive-date=3 February 2015 |url-status=dead }}</ref> and the University of Birmingham,<ref name=Brum/> and a teaching fellow at the Joint Services Command and Staff College. He was also a fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society, a member of the British Commission for Military History and a liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Farriers.
Corrigan authored '' Mud, Blood and Poppycock'', one of the more recent histories of the First World War which challenges a number of popular cultural beliefs about that conflict. Among the targets for his book are the beliefs that British generalship was incompetent, blinkered and reactionary and that the military justice system was unfair. The book received a positive review from historian Gary Sheffield.<ref>[https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/mud-blood-and-poppycock-by-gordon-corrigan-588687.html The Independent - Books ''Mud, Blood and Poppycock, by Gordon Corrigan'' Saturday, 2 August 2003]{{dead link|date=August 2021|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref> Corrigan later wrote ''Blood, Sweat and Arrogance: The Myths of Churchill's War'' in which he set out to demolish the "myths of Churchill's War". This book was criticised in a review by historian Piers Brendon, who wrote:<ref>[https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/blood-sweat-and-arrogance-by-gordon-corrigan-477774.html The Independent - Books - Piers Brendon ''A debunker debriefed'' Friday, 12 May 2006]</ref> <blockquote>"his tone, occasionally sneering, often patronising and always cocksure, is particularly tiresome in someone so prone to error. He makes the elementary mistake of asserting, for example, that a Russian declaration of war against Japan "never came".</blockquote>
His 2010 book on the Second World War, ''The Second World War: A Military History'' received positive reviews.
Corrigan died on 26 February 2026.<ref>{{cite web |title=Maj Gordon Corrigan, who died this morning, was a great Ulsterman, accomplished historian & author, who was the epitome of the highest standards of the Brigade of #Gurkhas. |url=https://x.com/HarryBucknall/status/2027055142198018158 |website=Harry Bucknall on X |access-date=3 March 2026 |date=26 February 2026}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Gordon Corrigan. A Great Friend and Writer. |url=https://aspectsofhistory.com/gordon-corrigan-a-great-friend-and-writer/ |website=Aspects of History |access-date=3 March 2026}}</ref>
==Published works== *''Sepoys in the Trenches – The Indian Corps on the Western Front 1914–15'', 1999 ({{ISBN|1-86227-354-5}}) *''Mud, Blood and Poppycock'', 2003 ({{ISBN|0304359556}}) *''Blood, Sweat and Arrogance: The Myths of Churchill's War'', 2006 ({{ISBN|0-297-84623-X}}) *''Wellington – a Military Life,'' 2006 ({{ISBN|1-85285-262-3}}) *''Loos 1915: The Unwanted Battle'', 2006 ({{ISBN|1-86227-239-5}}) *''The Second World War: A Military History'', 2010 ({{ISBN|1843548941}}) *''A Great and Glorious Adventure: A History of the Hundred Years War and the Birth of Renaissance England'', 2014 ({{ISBN|978-1-60598-579-4}}) *''Waterloo – A new history of the battle and its armies,'' 2015
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== *{{IMDb name| 5719111}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Corrigan, Gordon}} Category:1942 births Category:2026 deaths Category:People educated at The Royal School, Armagh Category:Historians of World War I Category:Royal Gurkha Rifles officers Category:Members of the Order of the British Empire Category:British military writers Category:British military historians Category:Graduates of the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst Category:Fellows of the Royal Asiatic Society Category:20th-century British Army personnel