The Oldest Wartime Leaders in World History

Ferdinand Foch, who joined the French Army during the Franco-Prussian War in 1870, was a general and military theorist who earned a reputation as an astute tactician. He stopped the Germans at the First Battle of the Marne in 1914 and, after being named France’s Supreme Allied Commander, won the Second Battle of the Marne four years later. He went on to help lead the combined forces of France, Great Britain, and the U.S. to victory over the German Empire.

Tōgō Heihachirō was a Japanese admiral who studied naval strategy with Britain’s Royal Navy in the 1870s. At the age of 56, he led the Japanese fleet to victory over the Russian Navy’s Baltic fleet in the Battle of Tsushima during the Russo-Japanese War (1904-05). That victory and other Japanese successes led to Japan’s victory over Russia, the first time an Asian power had defeated a Western nation in war. The consequences would be far-reaching, boosting Japan’s presence in Asia and greatly expanding its imperial ambitions.

Geronimo was an Apache medicine man, or shaman, not a chief, but he was the most feared Native American leader of the 19th century. His use of guerrilla tactics enabled him to avoid capture by the American army for more than two decades. After being confined to a reservation, he broke out three times. It took a quarter of the army to finally capture him. In 1886, at age 57, he became the last Native American leader to formally surrender to the United States military. He would be a prisoner of war for the last 23 years of his life.

The Duke of Wellington, also known as the “Iron Duke,” was the author of one of Great Britain’s greatest military triumphs, when the British – with Prussian help – defeated Napoleon Bonaparte at Waterloo in 1815. The victory ended Napoleon’s reign in France and ushered in the Pax Britannica, a nearly 100-year period without major European wars. Wellington’s military success at Waterloo, preceded by triumphs in India and on the Iberian Peninsula, enabled him to become prime minister in 1828. In 1842, after he had left political office, he began a ten-year stint as commander-in-chief of the British army, remaining in that position until his death at 83.