Wheeler-Bennett's Final Decades
An Anglican, he enjoyed his life in the English countryside. From 1959 until his death, he worked as the Historical Adviser for the Royal Archives. He became founding chairman of the Ditchley Foundation, the Anglo-American conference group, in 1958. In 1972 he was elected to the British Academy.
He was a follower of the Great Man school of history and his writings usually explained historical events in terms of leading personalities of the given period. This view of history, together with his own conservative outlook, inclined him to make Winston Churchill a principal hero of his writings.
Sir John Wheeler-Bennett died of cancer in London on 9 December 1975, aged 73.
He was very well known in his lifetime and his interpretation of the role of the German Army influenced a number of British historians. However, he is somewhat neglected today.
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