2022 SAHR Online Lecture Programme : Civilian Specialists at War
Tuesday 15th February 2022
On Tuesday, February 15th 2022, Dr Chris Phillips delivered a virtual talk to the Society entitled Britain’s Transport Experts and the First World War.
The lecture is now available to view on Youtube (click here).
Synopsis: The war of 1914–1918 was the first great conflict to be fought between vast industrial powers, each capable of manufacturing and transporting immense quantities of men and materials to the field of battle. In this talk, Dr Christopher Phillips (Aberystwyth University) will examine the manner in which Britain’s position at the heart of a global trading and logistics empire influenced the character and conduct of industrial warfare. Focusing on the tripartite relationship between the Army, the government, and some of the largest private companies in pre-war Britain, it will illustrate the army’s evolving response to the First World War alongside the multiple roles played by non-military expertise in the prosecution of such a conflict. It will argue that the potential for Britain’s transport experts to improve military efficiency was recognised prior to the outbreak of hostilities in 1914; that civilian technologies and methods facilitated the prosecution of war on an unprecedented scale; and that the exploitation of civilian specialists was constrained by the political and military demands of coalition warfare.
Biography: Dr Christopher Phillips is a Lecturer in International Security at Aberystwyth University. His first monograph, Civilian Specialists at War: Britain’s Transport Experts and the First World War, was published in April 2020 by the University of London Press and is available both in print and as an open-access download via the Humanities Digital Library.
