The War Studies Library at King's College, London University

Abstract

Though lectures in military studies were given at King's College in the mid nineteenth century and again in the inter‐war period there was virtually no library to support them and history further records that towards the end of the Second World War military studies ceased and were not revived until 1953 when a Lectureship in Military Studies was established in the King's History Department. The holder of this lectureship was Michael Howard, who has since achieved wide renown in military history and strategic studies and is at present Chichele Professor‐Elect of the History of War in the University of Oxford. When he was appointed Reader in War Studies in 1961 and Professor of War Studies in 1963 the subject may be said to have finally got off the ground and in token of this it was organized as a separate Department of the College in 1961. I may add that, in common with higher education in general, the 1960s was a period of great expansion in the Department and between 1965 and 1971 four other lecturers were appointed to the staff. The growth of the War Studies Library kept pace with this expansion, for as early as 1953 when London University voted a special grant Michael Howard began to build up the Library on the surest foundations, so that as regards numbers there were approximately 2,500 volumes by the end of the 1950s and by 1977 it has grown to some 11,000.