author
E. (Edward) Kirkpatrick
b. 1869
Best known for a practical early-20th-century guide to soldiering, this Edward Kirkpatrick wrote with the clear, no-nonsense voice of a working officer. His surviving public record is sparse, but his book remains a vivid snapshot of how infantry training was taught before the First World War.
1 Audiobook
The training of an infantry company
by E. (Edward) Kirkpatrick
About the author
Little biographical information could be confirmed about E. (Edward) Kirkpatrick beyond the catalog record that identifies him as born in 1869 and the evidence of his military authorship. He is credited as the author of The Training of an Infantry Company, a handbook first published in the years just before World War I.
Written under the name Major E. Kirkpatrick, the book is aimed at company commanders and junior officers, and it focuses on field training, discipline, movement, attack, defense, scouting, and the everyday practical work of preparing infantry soldiers. Its tone is direct and instructional, making it useful not just as a military manual but also as a window into British Army thinking in the early 1900s.
Because reliable biographical sources on Kirkpatrick himself are limited, the strongest impression he leaves is through his writing: organized, experienced, and intensely practical. For listeners interested in military history, his work offers both instruction and atmosphere from a world on the edge of modern war.