British Army Research Articles

Medical leadership in the military and NHS: what transferable lessons can be identified?

In this article, I explore the different ways leadership in healthcare is taught and developed by the British Army and National Health Service. What lessons and elements of best practice...

William Taylor, Peninsular War surgeon and deputy inspector of hospitals at Waterloo.

William Taylor was a British army surgeon remembered for his role as deputy inspector of hospitals (DIH) at Waterloo serving under Sir James Grant MD (1778-1852). No biography of Taylor exists beyond his entry in Drew's records of commissioned officers in the medical services of the British Army. Taylor appears to have been a Scotsman and is first noted as a hospital mate in 1795. He joined the 10th Royal Dragoons (Hussars from 1806) as an assistant surgeon in 1797. He is recorded at Guildford (1800) and Brighton (1803). He was made surgeon in August 1803. A further reference to Taylor, deduced from the title of "regimental surgeon," is documented at Lewes, Sussex, in 1808. Taylor served with the 10th Hussars in the Peninsular and Challis' roll call records his service at the Battles of Sahagún (21 December 1808) and Benavente (29 December 1808). Taylor was transferred to the staff on 20 June 1811 and made DIH on 25 July 1811. He was put on half-pay before being reinstated for Waterloo. Taylor retired on half-pay in February 1816 and died at Turnham Green on 9 January 1820. His Waterloo medal was sold in 2006.

Field validation of The Heat Strain Decision Aid during military load carriage

ObjectivesWe aimed to determine the agreement between actual and predicted core body temperature, using the Heat Strain Decision Aid (HSDA), in non-Ground Close Combat (GCC) personnel wearing multi terrain pattern clothing during two stages of load carriage in temperate conditions. DesignCross-sectional. MethodsSixty participants (men = 49, women = 11, age 31 ± 8 years; height 171.1 ± 9.0 cm; body mass 78.1 ± 11.5 kg) completed two stages of load carriage, of increasing metabolic rate, as part of the development of new British Army physical employment standards (PES). An ingestible gastrointestinal sensor was used to measure core temperature. Testing was completed in wet bulb globe temperature conditions; 1.2–12.6 °C.Predictive accuracy and precision were analysed using individual and group mean inputs. Assessments were evaluated by bias, limits of agreement (LoA), mean absolute error (MAE), and root mean square error (RMSE). Accuracy was evaluated using a prediction bias of ±0.27 °C and by comparing predictions to the standard deviation of the actual core temperature. ResultsModelling individual predictions provided an acceptable level of accuracy based on bias criterion; where the total of all trials bias ± LoA was 0.08 ± 0.82 °C. Predicted values were in close agreement with the actual data: MAE 0.37 °C and RMSE 0.46 °C for the collective data. Modelling using group mean inputs were less accurate than using individual inputs, but within the mean observed. ConclusionThe HSDA acceptably predicts core temperature during load carriage to the new British Army non-GCC PES, in temperate conditions.

Nigel Standfield: vascular surgeon who trained generations worldwide

Nigel Standfield was born in Wuppertal, Germany, to John Standfield, who had served in the British and Indian armies during the second world war and then in British intelligence, and...

Using converted WW1 Army Grid Referencing Systems to identify locations where Australian soldiers fell Europe

ABSTRACT Topographic maps (1:40,000) used by the British Army on the Western Front in World War 1 had a five-part Grid Reference System consisting of: (1) Map Number; (2) Letter-Square – 24 letter squaresA to X on each map; (3) Number-Square – 36 (and sometimes 30) 1000-yard squares in each letter square; (4) Minor-Square – four 500-yard squares denoted a, b, c, d in each number square; (5) Small-Square – 10 × 10 = 100 small-squares in a minor-square. Letter and number grid Woesten references (e.g. X: 28.A.6.b.73) cannot be used by modern GPS navigation devices that require geographical coordinates (latitude and longitude) or current map grid coordinates. This paper provides the background behind this project and demonstrates a method of transforming WW1 grid references to Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) grid coordinates using Google Maps to obtain geographical coordinates, Geographic to UTM grid conversion and a 2D Conformal transformation. As well, it provides a ‘snapshot’ of practical methods that were used to develop a software package that would allow amateur military historians to convert the WW1 Grid Reference System to contemporary coordinates.

The Characteristics and Geographic Origins of King Harold Godwineson’s Army at the Battle of Hastings

The Battle of Hastings is without question one of the more important conflicts in English history, representing the last time England was successfully invaded by a foreign power. Reflecting this fact, there are literally hundreds of accounts that seek to examine and explain precisely what happened when opposing English and Norman forces met in Sussex on 14 October 1066. Although much has been written about the men who actually fought there, surprisingly little has been written about where they originated from. To help address this anomaly, this article examines participation in the English army at the battle with the aid of geographic information systems (GIS) techniques. The analysis indicates that participation in the English army was spatially dependent and related to the amount of land per manor. It is also demonstrated that manors held by the local elites at the time (thegn) by and large did not participate in the battle. The article concludes with a discussion of the implications of these findings for the veracity of existing historical accounts of the Battle of Hastings, as well as options for and benefits of applying GIS analysis to other historical events.

Teaching in the British Army

In this instalment of Paramedic Roles, Sgt Ty Jewell shares some insight into his role as a paramedic in the British Army and how things operate, reflecting on his own contributions and passion for teaching

George Bereday Award for 2020

Previous articleNext article FreeAwardGeorge Bereday Award for 2020PDFPDF PLUSFull Text Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditEmailQR Code SectionsMoreEach year the George Bereday Award Committee selects the most outstanding Comparative Education Review (CER) article for the George Bereday Award. The selection committee includes scholars who are chosen for their breadth of methodological skills and intellectual rigor. This year’s committee was chaired by Jeremy Rappleye (Kyoto University, Japan), and included Inés Dussel (Centro de Investigación y de Estudios Avanzados, Mexico), Guorui Fan (East China Normal University, China), Padma Sarangapani (Tata Institute of Social Sciences, India), Miki Sugimura (Sophia University, Japan), and Stephen Carney (Roskilde University, Denmark). From 26 research articles published in volume 64 (2020) of CER (themselves selected from almost 200 annual submissions), the George Bereday Committee awarded the honor to Lisa Yiu for her article “Educational Injustice in a High-Stakes Testing Context: A Mixed Methods Study on Rural Migrant Children’s Academic Experiences in Shanghai Public Schools,” published in July. The committee reported the following: “The article utilized an impressive mixed methods approach to suggest that ‘successful’ teaching practices can only be understood within the diminished integrity of teaching in high-stakes testing contexts. It brings into rich focus the ways that the essentially moral act of teaching comes to be distorted under various national and global assessments, whilst artfully linking the teaching-learning experience to the larger social, political and economic landscape, including the hukou system and PISA. The committee noted the piece emerged from the author’s own experiences, multiyear relations with Shanghai teachers, and linguistic abilities, and felt the article had potential to open new lines of critical research.” The CER editors congratulate Lisa Yiu on this honor.The committee also noted the high quality of other articles and in particular offered an honorable mention to two articles: Manuel Enrique Cardoso, “Policy Evidence by Design: International Large-Scale Assessment and Grade Repetition,” published in November, and Nigel O. M. Brissett, “Teaching Like a Subaltern: Postcoloniality, Positionality, and Pedagogy in International Development and Education,” also published in November.George Zygmunt Fijalkowski Bereday, born in Warsaw in 1920, was both the founding editor of the CER and a cofounder of the Comparative Education Society, along with his close colleague William Brickman. A graduate of London and Oxford (while also serving in the British army during World War II), Professor Bereday subsequently arrived in the United States for PhD studies at Harvard’s Graduate School of Education. Later he received a JD from Columbia Law School, where he studied while teaching comparative education, sociology, and juvenile law at Columbia Teachers College from 1955 until his untimely death in 1983. William Brickman (writing in the fall of that year in Western European Education) called Bereday an extraordinarily talented and gifted personality: “A polyglot, he read, spoke, comprehended, and lectured in several Slavic, Germanic, and Romance languages … and he attained a practical ability in the use of Japanese. Brickman also enthused that “Professor Bereday represented a rare blend of the classical and the modern, of Eastern and Western European education and scholarship, and of the Occidental and Oriental cultures” and that he “exhibited endless evidence of humanism toward other cultures and humanitarianism toward persons of all ethnic, racial, and national backgrounds.” The composition of this year’s George Bereday Award Committee underscores that legacy. Previous articleNext article DetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Comparative Education Review Volume 65, Number 2May 2021 Sponsored by the Comparative and International Education Society Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/713788 © 2021 by the Comparative and International Education Society. All rights reserved.PDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

John Gilbert McCurdy, Quarters: the Accommodation of the British Army and the Coming of the American Revolution

John Gilbert McCurdy, Quarters: the Accommodation of the British Army and the Coming of the American Revolution

What’s in a name? Identifying military engagements in Egypt and the Levant, 1915-1918

This article examines the official names listed in the 'Egypt and Palestine' section of the 1922 report by the British Army’s Battles Nomenclature Committee and compares them with descriptions of military engagements in the Official History to establish if they clearly identify the events. The Committee’s application of their own definitions and guidelines during the process of naming these conflicts is evaluated together with examples of more recent usages in selected secondary sources. The articles concludes that the Committee’s failure to accurately identify the events of this campaign have had a negative impacted on subsequent historiography.

The Problem of Women’s Service in the British Army During World War II: An Analysis of W.Churchill’s Public Discourse

The Problem of Women’s Service in the British Army During World War II: An Analysis of W.Churchill’s Public Discourse

Treating trauma

Treating trauma

‘Very Prejudicial to the Service of the Revenue’: The British Army on Coastal Duty in Eighteenth-Century East Anglia

Throughout the eighteenth century, one of the main peacetime functions of the British Army was to supplement the Customs in combatting smuggling, but it remains little studied. The article aims to explore the structural features of the cooperation between the British Army and the Customs service on coastal duties by giving particular emphasis to matters of potential conflict. A second aim is to study such matters for the East Anglian counties. The article ultimately aims to show that while successful coastal policing depended on the cooperation between the Customs and the army, the supposedly frictionless cooperation was anything but straightforward.

Keeping the peace with dentistry.

Peacekeeping and the delivery of humanitarian aid is a vital component in the repertoire of any modern military and the UK has been at the forefront in contributing to these types of operation at an international level. When preparing for an enduring task such as peacekeeping, it is essential to consider all supporting components that can help deliver a common goal. Whether access to healthcare for the local population has collapsed or maintaining a healthy deployed force, dentistry will inevitably need to be considered and appropriate provision secured.This paper aims to look at the deployed dental support provided to recent peacekeeping interventions by the British Army.

British Army dentists and Colditz during World War II.

This article provides insights into the life and experiences of two British Army dental officers who were both imprisoned at Colditz during World War II. Eric Cooper and Julius Green were in the early years of their careers as dentists when World War II began. They joined the Army Dental Corps and both were captured by Germans and held as prisoners of war at various locations. The last place they were imprisoned until the end of the war was Colditz. They both survived to share their stories which are summarised here.

The Royal Army Dental Corps today.

The Royal Army Dental Corps (RADC) provides dental care to the British Army both in barracks and on deployment While a significant proportion of most RADC dental officers' careers is spent working in permanent military primary care dental clinics, it is the ability of all RADC dental officers to provide dental care when deployed that provides unique challenges only seen in the military environment. All RADC dental officers are able to deliver high quality care in temporary facilities. During a career the majority of RADC dental officers will have at least one job in a medical regiment providing the dental component of the British Army's rapidly deployable medical capability. This article covers some of the issues faced when delivering dental care outside the UK using portable equipment on a recent exercise.As RADC officers gain experience they are expected to lead increasingly large teams, both within primary care dentistry and some in the wider Army Medical Services, with the appropriate professional and military training to support their development.Working under pressure can be developed through the use of adventurous training and sport and the authors have pushed themselves well beyond their comfort zones in the air, on land and under the sea.

Dentistry and the British Army: 1661 to 1921.

Between 1661 and 1921, Britain witnessed significant changes in the prevalence of dental caries and its treatment. This period saw the formation of the standing British Army and its changing oral health needs. This paper seeks to identify these changes in the Army and its dental needs, and place them in the context of the changing disease prevalence and dental advances of the time. The rapidly changing military and oral health landscapes of the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century bring recognition of the Army's growing dental problems. It is not, however, without years of campaigning by members of the profession, huge dental morbidity rates on campaign and the outbreak of a global conflict that the War Office resource a solution. This culminates in 1921 with, for the first time in 260 years, the establishment of a professional Corps within the Army for the dental care of its soldiers; the Army Dental Corps is formed.

Book Review: Fighting the People’s War: The British and Commonwealth Armies and the Second World War

Book Review: Fighting the People’s War: The British and Commonwealth Armies and the Second World War

Korea - The Forgotten War (1950-1953).

A summary of the British Army's contribution to dental provision for Commonwealth troops engaged in the Korean War including the personal recollections of James Donaldson, a Royal Army Dental Corps veteran. It outlines the planning and setting up of dental facilities in the theatre of war, some of the problems encountered and how these were overcome while operating under difficult and, at times, extreme weather conditions.

Private Laurence Arthur Coe DCM: dental technician to prisoner of war escapee.

Private Coe of the Army Dental Corps is thought to be the first soldier in the British Army to escape captivity in the Second World War and achieve the 'home run' back to the UK. He was captured near Dunkirk on 30 May 1940 by the German Army and was transported to camp Stalag XXA (Thorn) in Poland. He successfully escaped from the prisoner of war camp and made his way back to the United Kingdom. King George VI thought the escape a fine performance on the part of Private Coe and awarded him the Distinguished Conduct Medal.