What did it take to be a good junior officer in the First World War?
This month, Chris, Angus and Jessica speak to Charles Fair about the development of junior officer training in the war. Along the way we discuss the significance of the Territorial Force, which schools had officer training corps and the definition of a 'temporary gentleman'.
References
John Bourne, ‘British Generals in the First World War’ in Gary Sheffield (ed), Leadership and Command: The Anglo-American Military Experience since 1861, (London: Brassey's, 1997) pp. 93-116
John Bourne, ‘The BEF's Generals on 29 September 1918: An Empirical Portrait with Some British and Australian Comparisons’ in Peter Dennis and Jeffrey Gray (eds), Defining Victory 1918, (Canberra: Army History Unit, Dept of Defence, 1999), pp.96-113.
Martin Petter, (1994). ‘Temporary Gentlemen’ in the aftermath of the Great War: Rank, status and the ex-officer problem. The Historical Journal, 37(1), 127-152. doi:10.1017/S0018246X00014734 Michael Roper, The Secret Battle: Emotional Survival in the Great War (2009) Paul Harris, The Men Who Planned the War: A Study of the Staff of the British Army on the Western Front, 1914-1918(2015) Peter Simkins,‘ ‘Building Blocks’: Aspects of Command and Control at Brigade level in the BEF’s Offensive Operations, 1916-–1918’ in Gary Sheffield and Dan Todman (eds), Command and Control on the Western Front: The British Army’s Experience 1914-18, (Staplehurst: Spellmount, 2004) R.C. Sherrif, Journey's End (1928) Reginald Hill, The Wood Beyond (1995) Robert Graves, Goodbye to All That (1929) Royal Military College Sandhurst, ‘Syllabus of the Course of Instruction (For Three-Term Course)’, 1912 Siegfried Sassoon, The Memoirs of George Sherston (1928-1936) Tim Halstead, ' "A Ragged Business": Officer Training Corps, Public Schools and the Recruitment of the Junior Officer Corps of 1916' in Spencer Jones (ed) At All Costs: The British Army on the Western Front 1916, pp. 414-429. Also see his forthcoming More Than Victims of Horace: Public Schools 1914-1918 (Helion, 2022)More episodes from "Oh! What a lovely podcast"
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