As a child, John Chapple was introduced to Rudyard Kipling at Brown’s Hotel in London, where the great imperial author had written The Jungle Book. If Kipling had lived longer, he would surely have found a place in his books for the awed four-year-old and later colourful soldier, for Chapple was a late product of empire and steeped in its history, fighting some of its final battles as a Gurkha in the jungles of the Far East.
The apex of his career, however, was at the Ministry of Defence in the aftermath of Nato’s victory in the Cold War. And it was bittersweet. Chapple had taken over as chief of the general staff (head of the army) in September 1988 as cracks began to