author

Cyril Field

1859–1942

A Royal Marines officer turned naval historian, he wrote lively early-20th-century books on the British Navy, submarines, and the long story of the Marines at sea and ashore. His work blends military experience with a clear desire to explain maritime history to general readers.

1 Audiobook

The British Navy Book

The British Navy Book

by Cyril Field

About the author

Born in 1859 and dying in 1942, Cyril Field is best remembered as a Royal Marines officer and military writer. Sources consistently identify him as Colonel Cyril Field, and one maritime history source says he served for more than four decades in the Royal Marines before retiring with the rank of Colonel.

Field wrote several works on British naval and military history, including The British Navy Book, The Story of the Submarine, and the substantial Britain's Sea-Soldiers, a history of the Royal Marines. Library and catalog records show that his books were being published in the early 20th century, with Britain's Sea-Soldiers appearing in 1924 and The Mastery of the Sea in 1929.

His books stand out for bringing service knowledge to popular history. Rather than writing as a distant academic, he appears to have drawn on long firsthand experience of the naval world, which helps explain why his histories of ships, sailors, and marines remained in circulation through library collections and reprints.