The Victorian Soldier in Africa

The Victorian Soldier in Africa
Author: Edward Spiers
Publisher: Manchester University Press
Total Pages: 228
Release: 2004
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780719061219

This book re-examines the campaign experience of British soldiers in Africa during the period 1874-1902. It uses using a range of sources, such as letters and diaries, to allow soldiers to 'speak form themselves' about their experience of colonial.

Eminent Victorian Soldiers

Eminent Victorian Soldiers
Author: Byron Farwell
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Total Pages: 372
Release: 1988
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9780393305333

Farwell provides profiles of eight Victorian military officers--men who helped create the British Empire and whose lives reflect the age. Photos.

Forgotten Victorian Generals

Forgotten Victorian Generals
Author: Christopher Brice
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2015-10-19
Genre: Generals
ISBN: 9781910777206

Many of the British Army's actions during the Victorian Era are forgotten, misunderstood and misrepresented. Stereotypes of the Victorian officer, soldier and battlefield abound. As the latter half of the twentieth century was one of 'Imperial Guilt' it is perhaps unsurprising that many of the 'heroes' of the age have been forgotten. This is particularly true of the 'Generals'. They were lauded in their day but now are unknown. Yet there were many capable individuals exercising high office. This new work provides some examples of the many interesting and talented officers who exercised command during the Victorian Era. It is hoped that such a work will be of interest to both the casual reader and the student of military history. Much of the military history of this age has been unfairly ignored, and there are many powerful and important lessons to be learnt from the careers of the men included in this book. The Generals featured in this book represent different types of General. Field Marshal Sir George White was Commander in Chief in India from 1893 to 1898 and was a rising star of the Army. Yet his reputation suffered from the South African War and his decision to take refuge in Ladysmith and become sieged during the early part of the war. Field Marshal Robert Napier was also Commander-in-Chief India from 1870 to 1876. He was originally an officer of engineers in the East India Company Army. He was considered one of the finest civil engineers in India and developed a reputation as a fine battlefield commander, culminating in his successfully conducting the Abyssinia Campaign of 1867-68. Brigadier General Robert Loyd-Lindsay's success lay in the political arena more than the military. He did much in the name of military reform and worked hard for the medical support of soldiers. General Sir Archibald Allison was very much the fighting soldier in his younger days, but in later life proved a successful Commandant at Sandhurst and Head of the Intelligence Branch at the War Office. Field Marshal William Nicholson had an interesting campaigning career and had the distinction of being the Second Chief of the General Staff of the British Army and was credited with much success in reforming the army. General Sir William Lockhart was yet another Commander-in-Chief in India who had seen considerable active service including commanding the Tirah Expedition of 1897-1898. General Sir Henry Brackenbury saw considerable active service but his greatest contributions were behind the scenes. He was the greatest administrator in the British Army during the Victorian Era. Major-General Sir John Ardagh had served under Brackenbury in the Intelligence Branch and later became its leader. Ardagh was also a first rate administrator and did an excellent job in the Intelligence Branch. Although criticized during the South African War for a perceived failure of military intelligence he was exonerated by the Royal Commission set up after the war. General Sir Arthur Cunynghame was an officer of the old school. He perhaps deserves more credit than he gets and certainly provides for an interesting study. All in all the Generals featured in this book provides us with a very interesting insight into generals of this era and the way in which they exercised command. The authors are a collection of experienced and early career historians.

Warriors of the Queen

Warriors of the Queen
Author: William Wright
Publisher: The History Press
Total Pages: 492
Release: 2014-01-06
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0752497510

Who were the men who commanded the British Army in the numerous small wars of the Victorian Empire? Today, many are all but forgotten, save the likes of Cardigan, Kitchener, Baden-Powell and Gordon of Khartoum. Yet they were a disparate and fascinating assemblage, made up of men of true military genius, as well as egoists, fools and despots. In Warriors of the Queen, William Wright surveys over 170 of these men, examining their careers and personalities. He reveals not only the lives of the great military names of the period but also of those whom history has overlooked, from James 'Buster' Browne, who once fought a battle in his nightshirt, to Jack Bisset, who had fought in three South African wars by his twenty-third birthday. Based on original research and complemented by over sixty photographs, Warriors of the Queen provides new insight into the men who built (and sometimes endangered) the British Empire on the battlefield.

War, the Army and Victorian Literature

War, the Army and Victorian Literature
Author: John Peck
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Total Pages: 218
Release: 1998
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780312212988

During the first half of the nineteenth century, the military era of Wellington yielded to a new kind of liberal society, the mid-Victorians turning their backs on the army. In the last two decades of the century, however, there was a thorough-going resurgence of militarism. This major new study of the Victorian period considers the way in which literature both reflected and contributed to a double process of social change.

Queen Victoria's Little Wars

Queen Victoria's Little Wars
Author: Byron Farwell
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Total Pages: 436
Release: 1985
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9780393302356

From 1837 to 1901, in Asia, China, Canada, Africa, and elsewhere, military expedition were constantly being undertaken to protect resident Britons or British interests, to extend a frontier, to repel an attack, avenge an insult, or suppress a mutiny or rebellion. Continuous warfare became an accepted way of life in the Victorian era, and in the process the size of the British Empire quadrupled.But engrossing as these small wars are--and they bristle with bizarre, tragic, and often humorous incident--it is the officers and men who fought them that dominate this book. With their courage, foolhardiness, and eccentricities, they are an unforgettable lot.

The Victorian Soldier

The Victorian Soldier
Author: David Nalson
Publisher: Shire Publications
Total Pages: 32
Release: 2008-03-04
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780747804604

Although lacking the weapons of today, Victorian soldiers were no different from their present-day successors. This volume aims to bring these soldiers to life through their uniforms, weapons, equipment and illustrations of them at war and at peace.

A British Profession of Arms

A British Profession of Arms
Author: Ian F. W. Beckett
Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press
Total Pages: 369
Release: 2018-10-25
Genre: History
ISBN: 0806162023

“You offer yourself to be slain,” General Sir John Hackett once observed, remarking on the military profession. “This is the essence of being a soldier.” For this reason as much as any other, the British army has invariably been seen as standing apart from other professions—and sometimes from society as a whole. A British Profession of Arms effectively counters this view. In this definitive study of the late Victorian army, distinguished scholar Ian F. W. Beckett finds that the British soldier, like any other professional, was motivated by considerations of material reward and career advancement. Within the context of debates about both the evolution of Victorian professions and the nature of military professionalism, Beckett considers the late Victorian officer corps as a case study for weighing distinctions between the British soldier and his civilian counterparts. Beckett examines the role of personality, politics, and patronage in the selection and promotion of officers. He looks, too, at the internal and external influences that extended from the press and public opinion to the rivalry of the so-called rings of adherents of major figures such as Garnet Wolseley and Frederick Roberts. In particular, he considers these processes at play in high command in the Second Afghan War (1878–81), the Anglo-Zulu War (1879), and the South African War (1899–1902). Based on more than thirty years of research into surviving official, semiofficial, and private correspondence, Beckett’s work offers an intimate and occasionally amusing picture of what might affect an officer’s career: wealth, wives, and family status; promotion boards and strategic preferences; performance in the field and diplomatic outcomes. It is a remarkable depiction of the British profession of arms, unparalleled in breadth, depth, and detail.

Someone Has Blundered

Someone Has Blundered
Author: Denis Judd
Publisher: Orion
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2007
Genre: Battles
ISBN: 9780753821817

During Queen Victoria's reign British power was at its zenith: the export trade boomed, the Royal Navy ruled the waves, huge chunks of the map were coloured red. Yet almost every year saw British troops in action in some part of the globe. From the equatorial rain-forests of Ghana to the green hills of New Zealand, British redcoat, Indian mercenary and colonial volunteers fought for Queen and Empire - and mostly won.This fascinating book examines the other side of the Victorian penny - times when the soldiers of the Queen stumbled. The narrative is full of evocative contemporary eyewitness accounts and contains an incisive analysis of various catastrophes, including the Retreat from Kabul in 1842, the Charge of the Light Brigade at Baclava, the 1879 Invasion of Zululand, and the Battles of Majuba Hill and Spion Kop.

Imagining Soldiers and Fathers in the Mid-Victorian Era

Imagining Soldiers and Fathers in the Mid-Victorian Era
Author: Susan Walton
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 383
Release: 2017-11-30
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1351156020

Beginning with the premise that women's perceptions of manliness are crucial to its construction, The author focuses on the life and writings of Charlotte Yonge as a prism for understanding the formulation of masculinities in the Victorian period. Yonge was a prolific writer whose bestselling fiction and extensive journalism enjoyed a wide readership. The author situates Yonge's work in the context of her family connections with the army, showing that an interlocking of worldly and spiritual warfare was fundamental to Yonge's outlook. For Yonge, all good Christians are soldiers, and Walton argues persuasively that the medievalised discourse of sanctified violence executed by upright moral men that is often connected with late nineteenth-century Imperialism began earlier in the century, and that Yonge's work was one major strand that gave it substance. Of significance, Yonge also endorsed missionary work, which she viewed as an extension of a father's duties in the neighborhood and which was closely allied to a vigorous promotion of refashioned Tory paternalism. The author's study is rich in historical context, including Yonge's connections with the Tractarians, the effects of industrialization, and Britain's Imperial enterprises. Informed by extensive archival scholarship, Walton offers important insights into the contradictory messages about manhood current in the mid-nineteenth century through the works of a major but undervalued Victorian author.