William Deakin

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Sir William Deakin (1913-2005) was a historian, World War II veteran, and literary assistant to Winston Churchill.

Deakin was educated at Westminster School, then at Christ Church, Oxford, where he began to develop a reputation as one of the most brilliant and dashing figures of his generation. He was seconded to Special Operations, War Office, in 1941, and in May 1943 led the first British Military Mission to Tito, who was wounded during an attack by fragments of a bomb that also injured Deakin. His impressive reporting on the situation from on the ground is considered to have had a decisive impact on British policy towards the support of resistance movements in Yugoslavia.

He was assigned the role of Literary Assistant to Sir Winston Churchill during the years 1936-40 , and the period 1945-55. He was described by Churchill's biographer, Sir Martin Gilbert, as being "at the centre of the web of all Churchill's literary efforts."

Following the war Deakin completed several historical works , including The Brutal Friendship, published in 1962. This was a detailed examination of German-Italian relations during World War II, and revealed Deakin not only as a formidable historian of diplomacy , but also, in his assessment of the death of Italian fascism, a notable political analyst. He was later editor, with his friend Alan Bullock, of two series of historical texts, The British Political Tradition and The Oxford History of Modern Europe.