The Templer Medal Book Competition Rules

1. Introduction

a. General. The competition is run by the Society for Army Historical Research (SAHR) co-sponsored by the National Army Museum (NAM).

b. The purpose of the competition is to encourage the production of original, high-quality, well-researched books on the history of the Armies of the United Kingdom and the British Empire/Commonwealth, thereby fostering interest in military history in accordance with the Society’s charter. It is the only such competition in UK and, along with the Journal, is a flagship activity of SAHR.

c. Composition. The Templer Medal Book Prize consists of two sections:

The Templer Medal Book Competition. Named after Field Marshal Sir Gerald Templer (President of SAHR 1965-79) after whom the Templer Research Centre at NAM is also named. Awarded to the book judged to be the best of those submitted and published in the preceding year.

The Chapple First Book Prize. Named after Field Marshal Sir John Chapple (former Chairman, and past President of SAHR 1993-2012), this prize is awarded to the best book submitted by a first-time author.

d. Note: The Templer Medal Competition takes precedence and the following rules and terms of reference refer primarily to that section of the competition. No distinction will initially be drawn between potential Templer and Chapple finalists. If a new author/editor’s work is of sufficient quality to win the Templer prize outright, then it will do so. Otherwise, it becomes eligible for consideration in the Chapple category. This distinction will be made only at the longlisting stage (see below), i.e. once books have been submitted by publishers. Thereafter, the Chapple Prize is scrutinised by the same judging panel and follows the same judging principles as the Templer Medal -  but adapted as appropriate to allow for the relative inexperience of new authors.

2. SAHR Council Oversight

a. SAHR Council has the ultimate responsibility for the policy & process for selecting and awarding prizes. To this end, Council appoints a Templer Medal Sub-Committee to conduct the judging process according to agreed Terms of Reference (below), and to make recommendations.

b. Decisions of Council following these recommendations shall be final and no correspondence concerning the decision will be entered into with publishers, authors, editors, or compilers in respect of the merits of particular candidate publications.

3. Templer Sub-Committee (‘The Judging Panel’)

a. The Sub-Committee Judging Panel is an advisory body; it has no executive powers. It will consist of seven or eight members. As co-sponsor, the NAM has the option of nominating at least one judging member. With the exception of the NAM representative, incoming panellists should either be existing SAHR members or should join on appointment.

b. The Chair of the Sub-Committee may be proposed by the Panel and/or endorsed/appointed by Council. On appointment, he/she becomes a full SAHR Council member & trustee. Other members are recommended by the Panel Chair and endorsed by Council. All panel members serve for a maximum of 5 years (extendable by one year in extreme circumstances) and must then stand down for at least one year before being eligible for reselection. The Panel Chair will draw up a succession plan accordingly starting with the longest-serving member standing down.

c. Members of the Sub-Committee may not bring forward a book of their own for consideration whilst serving on the judging panel. Should they wish to enter their own book, they must resign or at least stand down for the year concerned and take no part in the panel considerations.

d. Diversity: As far as is consistent with maintaining the standards of excellence expected of the Templer competition, membership of the Sub-Committee will reflect: the periods of history covered by the Society’s charter; the Society’s membership (‘soldiers, scholars, and enthusiasts’); the competition’s co-sponsor (NAM); and diversity in wider society, particularly within military history circles.

4. The Judging Process

a. Call In: The Sub-Committee will ‘call in’ those books which it thinks most appropriate for the competition without distinguishing between Templer and Chapple prizes at this stage. Publishers may also submit books for consideration at the Sub Committee’s discretion. Entries should be addressed to: templermedal@sahr.org.uk. The panel Chair will solicit books from publishers as early as possible, and judging will take place throughout the year as and when books arrive. The Society welcomes books from abroad and publishers are urged to bring potential candidates to the Sub-Committee’s attention as soon as possible in the Templer annual cycle (see below).

b. Longlisting: On receipt of entries, the Chair will allocate books to specific Sub-Committee members to assess according to their areas of specification (whether by date or theme). Towards the end of the year i.e. when an ample sufficiency of books have been received, each nominated member will recommend up to 3 books for each category (Templer/Chapple) in their area of specialisation, in order of priority, for shortlisting. Note: it is only at this stage that entries are streamed into Templer and Chapple categories.

c. Shortlisting. These books will then be assessed by all panel members and a shortlist and recommendations for winners & runners-up will then be sent to Council for endorsement. Once endorsed, the Shortlist may be released to the public, but the names of winners & runners-up will remain confidential until the AGM/Prizegiving Ceremony.

d. Sub-Committee Meetings will take place at least twice in the judging year, once for shortlisting and once for final selection. At least one of these meetings will be in-person. In addition, all judges will be invited to either the Templer Dinner or the Council Christmas dinner each year.

e. Voting. All panel members have an equal vote in the final selection - and all judges must vote, whether or not present at the relevant meeting, for the result to be valid. The Chair will usually withhold his or her vote until panel discussion is complete and only use it, if necessary, as a casting vote. Otherwise, the Chair convenes and facilitates the Sub-Committee’s work on Council’s behalf but has no power to direct members’ decisions, make policy decisions, or influence HR issues.

f. Policy and HR Issues may be referred to SAHR Council for direction & guidance at any stage. This applies particularly to matters which may affect the morale of the Sub-Committee; the reputation of the Society; the interpretation of these terms of reference; or eligibility of contentious books for entry.

g. Reporting. The Chair of the Sub-Committee will provide informal periodic progress reports on the judging process (but not results) at SAHR Council meetings through the year. In addition, he or she will render a formal annual report at the spring Council meeting i.e. a month or so before the AGM and Prizegiving ceremony. The annual report will make recommendations for prize-winners and the rationale behind them. It will also provide an annual review of any issues regarding the operation of Sub-Committee’s terms of reference and scoring system for Council to discuss and develop as required.

h. Budget. The Sub-Committee is – like Council itself – a voluntary body and therefore unpaid. Travel expenses will be admissible for one face-to-face meeting per year and for the cost of postage incurred by the Chair. All expense claims should be validated by the Chair and passed to the Treasurer for payment.

5. Time Frames

a. Financial vs Calendar Year. The Templer Medal (and Chapple Prize) competition runs concurrent with the SAHR financial year which begins and ends with the AGM & Prizegiving Ceremony in late April or early May each year. Books are accepted for consideration based on the criteria that the book is published in the calendar year running up to that date. Thus, books published in the calendar year (1 January to 31 December) will be eligible for an award at the SAHR prize-giving ceremony the following spring. Note that this assumes that the book's stated publication date is the same year as its actual production. If the year of publication is earlier than that printed on the book, it will only be eligible for the later year. Similarly, if the year of publication is later than that printed in the book, it will only be eligible for the year of publication.

b. Submissions. Books may be submitted to the Chair of the Sub-Committee at any time during the year of publication. However, it would greatly assist the judging panel, and it is in publishers’ and authors’ best interests, if entries are submitted as early as possible after 1 April or as and when publication takes place during the year. Only one copy of each publication need be submitted to the Chair of the Sub-Committee in the first instance. The Chair will subsequently advise publishers to forward additional copies of those titles that have been shortlisted. All copies must be submitted by 31 December during the year in question, after which no further entries will be entertained.

c. Summary - The sequence running up to final announcements is therefore:

• 31 December: entries for that year close.
• February: Final shortlist announced.
• March: Templer & Chapple finalists (3 each) discretely invited to prizegiving.
• Late April: Names of finalists announced at AGM/Prizegiving - Press releases.
• Subsequently: The full list of winners will be published on the SAHR website and in the next available edition of the Journal. In addition, the books of the Templer and Chapple prize-winners (at least) will be reviewed in the next available edition of the SAHR Journal.

6. Entry Criteria

a. Subject matter. Candidate publications must be about the history of the British Army, which is understood to mean any aspect of the Army and associated forces, including its Reserve or auxiliary formations/units (Militia, Yeomanry, Fencibles, Volunteers, Home Guard or other temporary and part-time units), the land forces of the Crown before 1660, and the ‘Offices’ and institutions which supported them. Candidates may also deal with the same material in respect of the countries of the British Empire/Commonwealth including forces maintained by non-Crown bodies within the Empire (e.g. the East India Company) or forces allied to, and forming an integral part of, the land forces operating on behalf of the Crown (e.g. North American indigenous people).

b. Type of Publication. For the Templer Medal, no restrictions are made concerning whether a work is authored, edited or compiled - or as to whether one or several persons are responsible for its content. However, only publications authored by a single person can be considered for the Chapple Prize. First consideration will be given to e-books provided they are supplied in lieu of, and pending, a hard copy publication which is unavailable until later in the year (but still bears the publication date of the year in question). Titles competing for the prize will normally have been produced by companies which are members of the Publishers Association of the UK or a similar body in their country of origin. Works produced in very limited runs by ‘desktop publishing’ methods will not normally be eligible for the competition. Notwithstanding this, privately published books shall be eligible if called in by the Sub-committee. Works produced for private circulation that are not commercially available, are ineligible.

c. Language. Works must be in the English language originally or by translation. In cases of translation, the English version shall be that upon which the judgement is based. The publication date of the English language version shall constitute the date of publication of the work for the purposes of the competition. Candidates works may be published anywhere in the world.

d. Quality. The work must make a significant contribution to advancing knowledge and understanding of the history of the Army as defined above, broaching new subjects or re-examining old ones by means of extensive, original research from primary sources. Moreover, the successful candidate’s work must:

• be accurate and thoroughly researched and shall include sufficiently full bibliographies and references to allow the judges to satisfy themselves that adequate sources have been used in the writing of the work.
• be written in such a manner that constant and detailed reference to other works on the subject is unnecessary; the narrative and arguments of the work must stand alone and be comprehensible to a well-informed reader of military literature.
• be sufficiently well written that the style of presentation does not, regardless of subject matter, obscure the message of the work.
• not be controversial to the extent that it would unduly threaten the reputation or role of the Society.

7. Prizes & Publicity

a. Prizes. Prizes will be awarded at a high-profile venue – normally in London – in the presence of SAHR’s royal Patron and/or President and the NAM Director in April each year. In addition to the academic distinction of being a finalist in UK’s premier military history book competition, the following prizes are normally awarded:

Templer Medal Competition
1st Place (Medal winner): Silver medal + £2000
2nd Place (Runner Up): Engraved Dartington Crystal + £1000
3rd Place (Runner Up): Engraved Dartington Crystal + £200

Chapple First Book Prize
1st Place (Best First Book): Engraved Dartington Crystal + £1000
2nd Place (Runner Up): Engraved Dartington Crystal + £ 200
3rd Place (Runner Up): Engraved Dartington Crystal + £ 200

b. Publicity. The Templer Medal, jointly sponsored by the SAHR and the NAM, has grown in status to become the highest-profile military history book prize in UK. The Chapple Prize plays an equally important role in raising the profile of new writers. We recognise the need for SAHR, NAM, publishers, and authors to work together to promote the competition and so enhance reputations and careers. SAHR will publish press releases and social media posts when the shortlist is announced in February and when the names of the finalists are announced at the AGM/Prizegiving in April or May each year. Where appropriate, these releases will be copied to the publishers and authors concerned so that they may capitalize on them. The SAHR can provide the necessary graphics if publishers are able to add ‘SAHR finalist’ etc. notices to their books. Both publishers and authors are welcome to bring suitably qualified reporters and photographers to the prize-giving ceremony provided that they clear this with the Chair of the Sub-Committee so that any necessary entry and security checks can be arranged in advance (especially in the event of of our royal Patron attending).

8. Review

These Terms of Review will be formally reviewed by SAHR Council at their meeting preceding Prize-giving in Mar/Apr each year– and any amendments will be published on the website in May i.e. in time for the following judging year.

These Terms of Reference were last updated in July 2023.

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