BEHOLD THE DARK GRAY MAN: Triumphs and Trauma: The Controversial Life of Sholto Douglas.

• Author: Couchman, Bryan

Author: Katharine Campbell Published by: Biteback Publishing Ltd, London, 2021, 488pp, 20 [pounds sterling].

The American writer William Faulkner once observed that 'The past is never dead. It's not even past.' This is one of the haunting themes of a new biography of Marshal of the Royal Air Force Lord Douglas of Kirtleside, evocatively written by his daughter, Dr Katharine Campbell. Drawing on her experience as a neuroscientist, Campbell re-examines the life of this unconventional and colourful 20th century airman. She offers fresh insights informed by her early personal childhood recollections, extensive medical knowledge and a robust analytical approach. These include new perspectives on the impact of what would probably now be diagnosed as post-traumatic stress disorder on Douglas's performance as a senior RAF commander. As Campbell notes,

I started looking back into his life through the prism of PTSD, and a new and different story emerged. I realised I was looking at a lifetime of trauma, from his early childhood, through not one but two world wars, and on into the devastation of post-war Germany. The author's personal insights and reflections, supported by meticulous research, are one of the book's greatest strengths. Campbell opens with a childhood memory of her elderly father sleepwalking, dressed in just a pyjama top and pushing a tea trolley, haunted by 'a meeting about the Sentences'. Trapped in his nightmares, Douglas repeatedly replayed the final judgments he had to review on the Nuremberg war criminals. Following early childhood deprivation, Campbell describes his trajectory from army subaltern to decorated aviator in the Great War, documenting his stellar rise in the period leading up to and after the Second World War to the very highest rank of the RAF. The head of Bomber Command, Sir Arthur Harris, was the only other officer to achieve this five-star status without first having served as chief of the air staff.

Like several of his military contemporaries, including Harris, Douglas was a polarising figure to whom history has not always been kind. His supporters, including British Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill and Secretary of State for Air Sir Archibald Sinclair, regarded him as 'the complete professional', admiring Douglas's drive, natural authority, charisma and sharp intellect. Unusually for a senior British officer of the time, Douglas was a committed socialist, an un-endearing trait for some of his American...