Peter Cottrell
Peter James Cottrell is a Welsh soldier, sailor, writer, educator and revisionist military historian of the Irish War of Independence and Irish Civil War.
Career
Cottrell is the author of the best-selling military history The Anglo-Irish War: The Troubles 1913–23 which challenges traditional nationalist interpretations of the Easter Rising; the role of the Royal Irish Constabulary and the popularity of the IRA campaign whilst supporting the view that the conflict was as much an Irish civil war as a struggle for independence from the UK.He grew up in the village of Kenfig Hill, Mid-Glamorgan in South Wales and between 1981 and 2008 served in the ranks of the British Territorial Army and as an officer in both the Royal Navy and British Army and saw operational service in the Middle East, Bosnia, Afghanistan and Northern Ireland.
After qualifying as a teacher he was commissioned into the Royal Navy in 1988 and transferred to the British Army in 1995, ending his military career as a Major. He is a great-great nephew of the English rugby player George Cottrell, and a member of the Royal [Dublin Fusiliers] Association.
Works
- The Militarisation of Policing in Ireland: 1913–22
- Myth, the Military and Anglo-Irish Policing 1913–1922
- The Anglo-Irish War, The Troubles, 1913–23
- The Irish Civil War 1922–23
- The War for Ireland 1913–23 – Editor and principal contributing author
- I Am Soldier – Contributing author
- Lies, damned lies and statistics: a British perspective of policing the Anglo-Irish War. Paper delivered to the Military History Society of Ireland/National Museum of Ireland Conference marking the ninetieth anniversary of the outbreak of the Anglo-Irish War, Dublin, October 2009
- England's Janissary – An historical novel set during the Anglo-Irish War
- Wyrdegrove – An historical fantasy novel set in Afghanistan and the English Civil War
- The Lambs – The prequel to England's Janissary set during The Great War