1st Earl of Ypres, is commemorated by memorials in Ypres Cathedral and Canterbury Cathedral. French in popular culture After the Colesberg Operations (early 1900) the following verse was published about him: During the Boer War, the press lionised him as "Uncle French" and "the shirt-sleeved general", writing of how he smoked a briar pipe and enjoyed being mistaken for a private soldier. At the beginning of the First World War a supporter of French, Arthur Campbell Ainger, tried, with little success, to popularise a marching song in honour of French. The words read: Field Marshal French was played by Laurence Olivier in Richard Attenborough's World War I satire film Oh! What A Lovely War (1969). Ian Beckett writes that French and Wilson are portrayed almost as "a comic duo" in the film. By this time, although Terraine's Mons: Retreat to Victory (1960), Alan Clark's The Donkeys (1961), and A. J. Smithers' The Man Who Disobeyed (a 1970 biography of Smith-Dorrien) kept up some interest in French, he was already becoming a somewhat forgotten figure as popular interest from the 1960s onwards concentrated on the Battle of the Somme, inevitably focussing attention on Douglas Haig. In Russian the word french (), a type of four-pocketed military tunic, is named after John French. See also Army Manoeuvres of 1913 Christmas truce Gheluvelt Park – a public park in Worcester, which he opened on 17 June 1922 Saint George's Memorial Church, Ypres Mount French, a mountain in Canada named after him Notes References Further reading Books by French Report of General Sir John French upon his inspection of the Canadian Military Forces (Ottawa 1910). The Despatches of Sir John French: I Mons, II the Marne, III The Aisne, IV Flanders (London: Chapman & Hall 1914). The Despatches of Lord French...And a Complete List of the Officers and Men Mentioned (London: Chapman & Hall 1917). The German and Small Nations: An Interview with Lord French (London: J.J. Keliher & Co 1917). 1914 (London: Constable & Co 1919). Some War Diaries, Addresses and Correspondence (ed.) Maj The Hon Edward Gerald French (son) (London: Herbert Jenkins 1937). Older books Modern books External links The grave of John French, 1st Earl of Ypres, in Ripple, Kent National Portrait Gallery |- |- |- |- |- 1852 births 1925 deaths 19th Royal Hussars officers 8th King's Royal Irish Hussars officers British Army cavalry generals of World War I British