Derek Clayton
Derek Clayton was born in Yorkshire and attended Batley Grammar School before beginning a long association with the University of Birmingham. He graduated in 1979 with a BA in French and German and went on to teach Modern Languages in three Birmingham Schools before retiring in 2015. He returned to the university in 2004, following the publication of his battalion history, From Pontefract to Picardy: the 9th King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry in the First World War, and completed his MA in British First World War Studies in 2006. He then went on to write his doctoral thesis: ‘The Battle of the Sambre: 4 November 1918’ and was awarded his PhD in 2016. His book on the battle, Decisive Victory, was published by Helion in 2018. This was followed in 2023 by his history of the 21st Division in the Great War, To Do the Work of Men, also published by Helion.
Books
- Shaking the Pedestal : General Sir John Monash and the Battle of Hamel, 4 July 1918 Author
- Decisive Victory : The Battle of the Sambre: 4 November 1918 Author
- To Do the Work of Men : An Operational History of the 21st Division in the Great War Author
