Victorian Military Society

The Victorian Military Society is an British educational charity (Registered Charity No 1117006) which promotes the study of military history – of all nations and races – in the period 1837 to 1914. Its journal "Soldiers of the Queen" publishes work by both professional and amateur historians as well as articles by academic researchers.

The Society aims to bring previously unpublished or under researched material to the attention of a wider audience, together with making it available to present and future historians.

History

The Victorian Military Society was founded in 1974 by the late John Crouch FRIBA, who was an architect employed by the Ministry of Defence in Great Britain. His work involved him visiting a number of Victorian buildings and military works such as Woolwich Arsenal, Chatham Dockyard and the Palmerston Forts protecting Portsmouth Harbour, and he became interested in their history and the events that had given rise to buildings of such considerable size and complexity.

As the result of a letter to the press asking if there were any other people who might share his interest in the military history of the Victorian period (at the time a deeply unfashionable one), the Victorian Military Society was formed. The Marquis of Anglesey, the distinguished historian of the British Cavalry, became the Society’s president and the late Stanley Baker, the actor and producer of the film "Zulu", became the Society’s first vice-president.

Other notable members include the military historians Ian Knight (one of the Society’s founder members) the noted expert on the Zulu War and Rorke’s Drift, Michael Barthorp author of books on the North West Frontier, the Boer War and the Sudan campaigns and the late Kenneth Griffith, actor, documentary film maker, Boer war historian and author of a book on the siege and relief of Ladysmith.

The Society publishes original research and articles on the period in its quarterly Soldiers of the Queen (Journal), taking its name from the popular song of the period. It became an educational charity in 2007.

Over the years, as well as publishing many articles on a wide number of subjects related to the period 1837 to 1914, the journal has also reflected some of the major anniversaries of the time, producing special editions of "Soldiers of the Queen" to commemorate General Gordon and the attempt to relieve Khartoum, the Boer War, the Sudan Campaigns and most recently the 150th anniversary of the Indian Mutiny.

A whole edition was also dedicated to the Royal Navy in the Victorian period, recognising the role it played in maintaining the "Pax Britannica", as well as in polar exploration, surveying the oceans and the suppression of the slave trade.

References

British Library DSC 8327.246000NSystem no. 00987978 shelf mark P635/100

David Nalson "The Victorian Soldier" pub Shire Books.ISBN- 0747804605

Denis Edwards & David Langley "British Army Proficency Badges" ISBN-095042707

External links

Anglo-Boer War Memorial Project www.casus-belli.co.uk/abwmp/index.html [http://www.casus-belli.co.uk/abwmp/index.html ]