Donald Featherstone (wargamer)

Donald Featherstone (wargamer)

Donald F. Featherstone (born 20 March 1918, London) is a British author of more than forty books on wargaming and military history. He wrote classic texts on wargaming in the 1960s and 1970s.

During the Second World War, Featherstone attempted to join the Royal Air Force and the Royal Navy; both rejected him. Therefore he settled on the Army and joined the Royal Armoured Corps. An account of his war experiences can be found in his book Lost Tales

Originally a physiotherapist, Featherstone was first introduced to wargaming by reading HG Well's Little Wars and his first opponent was Tony Bath in 1955. In 1960 the two of them began editing the UK version of the War Game Digest, a seminal wargaming newsletter started by Jack Scruby. Disapproving of a trend towards articles that were "attempting to spread an aura of pseudo-science over what is a pastime," Featherstone started his own periodical in 1962, the Wargamers' Newsletter. While in discussion late one night with Dr. Paddy Griffith (the well known military historian), Don had a Eureka moment when he came to realise that the hobby of wargaming could considerably aid understanding of military history . Featherstone appeared on the BBC to promote the hobby. In 1966 he organized the first UK wargames convention. However, Featherstone's greatest contribution was his books: hardcover collections of rules for the recreational wargamer, culminating in his encyclopedic War Games through the Ages series. Featherstone continued to write in the 1990s, switching to works on military history. He published a further book in 2009 Lost Tales about his wartime experiences, the first UK wargaming convention and the wargaming rules he liked most.