Prit Buttar is a British

general practitioner A general practitioner (GP) is a doctor who is a Consultant (medicine), consultant in general practice. GPs have distinct expertise and experience in providing whole person medical care, whilst managing the complexity, uncertainty and risk ass ...

and writer. He has written twelve

history History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the Human history, human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some t ...

books on the eastern fronts of

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

and

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, and two

novel A novel is an extended work of narrative fiction usually written in prose and published as a book. The word derives from the for 'new', 'news', or 'short story (of something new)', itself from the , a singular noun use of the neuter plural of ...

s. Buttar was a Senior Partner at Abingdon Surgery until he moved to Scotland in late 2017.

Career

Buttar studied medicine at

Oxford University The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the second-oldest continuously operating u ...

and

London University The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degr ...

, and served in the

British Army The British Army is the principal Army, land warfare force of the United Kingdom. the British Army comprises 73,847 regular full-time personnel, 4,127 Brigade of Gurkhas, Gurkhas, 25,742 Army Reserve (United Kingdom), volunteer reserve perso ...

as a surgeon and medical officer for five years. He later worked in

Bristol Bristol () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, the most populous city in the region. Built around the River Avon, Bristol, River Avon, it is bordered by t ...

as a general practitioner (GP). Buttar worked as a GP in

Abingdon-on-Thames Abingdon-on-Thames ( ), commonly known as Abingdon, is a historic market town and civil parish on the River Thames in the Vale of the White Horse district of Oxfordshire, England. The Historic counties of England, historic county town of Berksh ...

from 2000 to 2017 and served on the GP's Committee of the British Medical Association. He is Chairman of the Oxfordshire Local Medical Committee. Buttar's first book, ''Battleground Prussia'', was inspired by one of his patients. The 83-year-old patient recalled stories about her life as a nurse in

East Prussia East Prussia was a Provinces of Prussia, province of the Kingdom of Prussia from 1772 to 1829 and again from 1878 (with the Kingdom itself being part of the German Empire from 1871); following World War I it formed part of the Weimar Republic's ...

and her escape from the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of People ...

near the end of World War II. Buttar spent 8 years writing the book. His second book, ''Between Giants'', is a study of the battles for the Baltics in WWII, and explores the experiences of people from

Lithuania Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania, is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea, bordered by Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, P ...

Latvia Latvia, officially the Republic of Latvia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is one of the three Baltic states, along with Estonia to the north and Lithuania to the south. It borders Russia to the east and Belarus to t ...

, and

Estonia Estonia, officially the Republic of Estonia, is a country in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, and to the east by Ru ...

. His third book, ''Collision of Empires'', is a study of the Eastern Front of World War I. It is the first of a four volume series. Before writing the book, Buttar spent a year studying archives in

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

, and

Freiberg Freiberg () is a university and former mining town in Saxony, Germany, with around 41,000 inhabitants. The city lies in the foreland of the Ore Mountains, in the Saxon urbanization axis, which runs along the northern edge of the Elster and ...

. With the help of another historian, the multi-lingual Buttar was able to translate the German archives. The second book of the series, ''Germany Ascendant: The Eastern Front 1915'', was released in 2015. In 2023, Buttar appeared on the history-centered podcast, Out of the Box with Jonathan Russo.

Personal life

Buttar is of Indian descent. He is married to Debbie, an army nurse. They have two children.

Published works

*''Battleground Prussia: The Assault on Germany's Eastern Front 1944–45''. 2010. Osprey Publishing. *''Between Giants: The Battle for the Baltics in World War II''. 2013. Osprey Publishing. *''Collision of Empires: The War on the Eastern Front in 1914''. 2014. Osprey Publishing. *''Germany Ascendant: The Eastern Front 1915''. 2015. Osprey Publishing. *''Russia's Last Gasp: The Eastern Front 1916-17''. 2016. Osprey Publishing. *''The Splintered Empires: The Eastern Front 1917–21''. 2017. Osprey Publishing. *''On a Knife's Edge: The Ukraine, November 1942–March 1943''. 2018. Osprey Publishing. *''Retribution: The Soviet Reconquest of Central Ukraine, 1943''. 2019. Osprey Publishing. *''The Reckoning: The Defeat of Army Group South, 1944''. 2020. Osprey Publishing. *''Meat Grinder: The Battles for the Rzhev Salient, 1942–43''. 2022. Osprey Publishing. *''Centuries Will Not Suffice: A History of the Lithuanian Holocaust''. 2023. Amberley Publishing. *''To Besiege a City: Leningrad 1941–42''. 2023. Osprey Publishing. *''Hero City: Leningrad 1943–44''. 2024. Osprey Publishing. *''Bagration 1944: The Great Soviet Offensive''. 2025. Osprey Publishing. *''Into the Reich: The Red Army’s advance to the Oder in 1945''. 2025. Osprey Publishing.

Fiction

*''There Stood A Soldier: A Novel of Stalingrad''. 2017. Lulu Press. *''Old Friends: A story of love''. 2017. Amazon Publishing.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Buttar, Prit 20th-century British medical doctors 21st-century British medical doctors Alumni of the University of London Alumni of the University of Oxford British historians British military historians Historians of World War I British historians of World War II Living people Year of birth missing (living people) British people of Indian descent