The Templer Medal Book Competition
Candidate publications must be about the History of the British Army by which is understood any aspect of the Army and its activities, including its Reserve or Auxiliary formations/units (Militia, Yeomanry, Fencibles, Volunteers, Home Guard or other temporary and part time units) or the land forces of the Crown before 1660, or 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 (the Honourable East India Company) or forces allied to and forming an integral part of the land forces operating on behalf of the Crown (North America Indians, for example).
The work must make a significant contribution to advancing knowledge and understanding of the History of the Army, as defined above, by broaching new subjects or re-examining old ones by means of extensive, original research from primary sources.
Books dealing with British subject matter, the official records of which are still covered by the Thirty Year Rule, will not be eligible. The varying "closed periods" of records relating to the forces of Empire/Commonwealth countries will be taken into consideration.
No restrictions are made concerning whether a work is authored, edited or compiled nor as to whether one or several persons are responsible for its content.
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 "desk top publishing" methods will not normally be eligible for the competition. Not withstanding the above, privately published books shall be eligible if "called in" by the sub-committee. Works produced for private circulation, ie. Not commercially available, are ineligible.
Works must be in conventional printed book format. Works produced exclusively in electronic format are not acceptable.
Works must be in the English language originally or by translation and, in cases of translations, 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 purpose of the competition. Candidate works may be published anywhere in the world.
Successful candidates shall:
a) 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.
b) 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.
c) be sufficiently well written that the style of presentation does not, regardless of subject matter, obscure the message of the work.
The organisation of the competition and the recommendation of a title to Council shall be in the hands of a sub-committee consisting of members of the Society of which the Chairman and at least two members shall be members of the Society's Council. The sub-committee shall consist of at least three members representing as wide a background of interests as possible. Members of Council who are employees of the National Army Museum shall not be eligible to sit on the sub-committee. A representative nominated by the National Army Museum Development Trust shall act as an independent observer and serve as the voice of the Trust. He or she should not normally have a voice in the choice of the winning title, but may offer advice on any issue arising from the administration of the prize.
It shall be permissible not to make an award in respect of any year if no book is of sufficient quality to merit it.
The sub-committee will "call in" those books which it thinks most appropriate to consider for the competition. Unsolicited books received by the sub-committee will be examined for inclusion, but will not necessarily form part of the short list to be read for the competition. Publishers are urged therefore to submit catalogues of appropriate material to the Chairman of the sub-committee:
Dr Stephen Hart,
Department of War Studies,
Royal Military Academy Sandhurst,
Camberley,
Surrey, GU15 4PQ.
Email (work): s.hart@rmas.mod.uk.
(home): StephenAHart@aol.com
Publishers may submit copies of Proof form before publication date; the book must however be available through normal commercial outlets before 31st December of the year in which it is included in the competition. Publishers should advice the sub-committee chairman as soon as possible if a title which has been submitted is not going to appear in the year of the competition for which it is being considered.
The Society welcomes books abroad and publishers are urged to bring potential candidates to the sub-committee's attention as soon as possible, as candidate titles qualify strictly by their year of publication and not from when they become known about and available in London.
The Short List of titles will be closed at the end of November for books published in the UK and at the end of December for books published abroad.
The decision of the Council of the Society for Army Historical Research following the recommendation of the Templer Medal sub-committee and after acceptance by the NAM Development Trust, 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.
The winning work will normally be announced in time for the presentation of the award to be made at the Society's Annual General Meeting, usually in April.
1981 Fit for Service: The Training of the British Army 1715-1795, by J.A. Houlding. Published by the Clarendon Press.
1982 A History of the British Cavalry, Volume 3: 1872-1898, by the Marquess of Anglesey. Published by Leo Cooper in association with Martin Secker & Warburg Ltd.
1983 For the sake of Example: Capital Courts-Martial 1914-1920, by Anthony Babington. Published by Associated University Press.
1984 The British Army and Theory of Armored Warfare 1918-1940, by Robert H. Larson. Published by Associated University Press.
1985 From Waterloo to Balaclava: Tactics, Technology and the British Army 1815-1854, by Hew Strachan. Published by Cambridge University Press.
1986 Monty: The Field Marshal 1944-1976, by Nigel Hamilton. Published by Hamish Hamilton.
1987 The British Army of William III, by John Childs. Published by Manchester University Press.
1988 Kitchener's Army: The Raising of New Armies 1914-16, by Peter Simkins. Published by Manchester University Press
1989 No Award made.
1990 British Counterinsurgency 1919-60, by Thomas R. Mockaitis. Published by Macmillan in association with King's College, London.
1991 The Crimean Doctors. A History of the British Medical Service in the Crimean War, by John Shepherd. Published by Liverpool University Press.
1992 Politics and Military Morale: Current-Affairs and Citizenship Education in the British Army 1914-1950, by S.P. Mackenzie. Published by the Clarendon Press.
1993 To Long Tan: The Australian Army and the Vietnam War 1950-1966, by Ian McNeill. Published by Allen and Unwin in association with the Australian War Memorial.
1994 No Award made.
1995 British Victory in Egypt 1801: The End of Napoleon's Conquest, by Piers Mackesy. Published by Routledge.
1996 The English Ordnance Office, 1585-1625: a case study in bureaucracy, by Richard W. Stewart. Published by the Boydell Press for the Royal Historical Society.
1997 Smallarms of the East India Company, 1600-1856, Vols 1 and 2, by David Harding. Published by Foresight Books.
1998 British Logistics on the Western Front, 1914-1919, by Ian Malcolm Brown. Published by Praeger.
1999 British Military Intelligence in the Crimean War, 1854-1856, by Stephen M. Harris. Published by Frank Cass.
2000 Raising Churchill's Army: The British Army and War against Germany 1919-45. Published by Oxford University Press.
2001 No award was made
2002 The British General Staff: Reform and Innovation, edited by David French & Brian Holden Reid. Published by Frank Cass Publishers.
2003 Phoenix from the Ashes: The Indian Army in the Burma Campaign, by Daniel P. Marston. Published by Praeger.
2004 Medicine and Victory: British military medicine in the Second World War, by Mark Harrison. Published by Oxford University Press.2005 Military Identities: the Regimental System, the British Army & the British People, by David French. Published by Oxford University Press.
2006 Field Marshal Sir Henry Wilson: A Political Soldier, by Professor Keith Jeffery. Published by Oxford University Press