author
C. T. Dawkins
1858–1919
A British Army officer who turned frontline experience into practical military writing, he is best known for a clear-eyed 1916 guide to infantry night operations. His work reflects the pressures and changing tactics of warfare in the years around the First World War.
1 Audiobook
About the author
Born in 1858, Charles Tyrwhitt Dawkins was a British Army officer whose career included service in the Second Anglo-Afghan War, the Second Boer War, and the First World War. He rose to become a major-general and served as Deputy Quartermaster General during the war, bringing long field experience to the problems of military organization and operations.
For readers today, he is chiefly remembered as the author of Night Operations for Infantry (1916), a concise training manual prepared for company officers. The book focuses on the growing importance of movement, reconnaissance, discipline, and communication in darkness, showing how seriously modern armies were beginning to treat night fighting.
Dawkins died in 1919 from illness contracted while on active service in France. His writing remains interesting not only as military instruction, but also as a direct window into the practical demands of wartime leadership in the early twentieth century.