Museum poll reveals Britain's Greatest Enemy Commander

George Washington has been voted Britain’s Greatest Enemy Commander in the National Army Museum’s recent nationwide poll.

After months of fierce online voting, in which Napoleon, Rommel, Collins, Atatürk and Washington have all vied for the top spot, the deciding votes were cast at the Museum’s speaker day last month. Washington won with 30 votes, beating off his nearest rival by 16 votes.

The final voting results were as follows: George Washington 30 votes; Michael Collins 14 votes; Napoleon Bonaparte 12 votes; Erwin Rommel 7 votes; Mustafa Kemal Atatürk 4 votes.

The final vote concluded a hard-fought contest launched by the Museum back in February, which asked the public to vote online for their top foe. From its launch on 13 February to its close on 31 March, the online voting site attracted almost 8000 votes and over 300,000 web hits.

The top five commanders, as determined by the online poll, then went forward to be represented at the all-day speaker event, where guests voted George Washington as the ultimate foe.

The poll was created to highlight the achievements of Britain’s most celebrated enemies and to draw attention to some of our lesser-known adversaries. In assembling the shortlist the main criterion was that each commander must have led an army against British forces in the field of battle (which saw the exclusion of some political enemies, like Adolf Hitler) and that they must fall within the Museum’s historical remit (from the 17th century onwards). The final selection demonstrates the global nature of the British Army’s deployments throughout the centuries.