Founded in 1921 to foster ‘interest in the history and traditions of British and Commonwealth armies, and to encourage research in these fields’, the Society for Army Historical Research is one of the oldest societies of its kind, dedicated to ‘serving scholars, enthusiasts and soldiers’. In 2021 the Society celebrated its centenary year with a series of events including a research conference, which, due to the ongoing COVID pandemic, took place partly online and partly at the National Army Museum. This volume contains a selection from the proceedings of that conference, as well as a short history of the Society’s first 100 years.
Topics covered comprise: a personal microhistory of service in the Restoration army; a new narrative of the Battle of Lincelles, 1793; a study of the Fencible regiments during the French Revolutionary War; analysis of medical aspects of Wellington’s campaigns in India; fashion and satire in the aftermath of Waterloo; relations with friends and foes during the Salonika campaign, 1915; the evolution of identity discs during the Great War and afterwards; the Motor Machine Gun Corps in India 1915-1919; civil relations during the invasion of Sicily, 1943; British and Canadian combat engineers during operations to clear the Scheldt estuary, 1944; and the changing role of Army chaplains in the past century.