Military History Club Podcast · Saul David

Professor Gary Sheffield

·48 min·3 clips

Forgotten Victory grew from frustration with Blackadder-style First World War memory.

1. Military History Club Podcast features Saul David talking with Gary Sheffield about Sheffield's life, work, and current project. 2. Saul David is the host, and Gary Sheffield is a historian whose work spans Leeds University, King's College London, Sandhurst, and King's again as a visiting professor. 3. The episode asks how Sheffield became a military historian and why his current book Civilian Armies compares armies across the First and Second World Wars. 4. Sheffield says his childhood interest came from the 'Lady Bird book of Nelson' and making Airfix kits. 5. He links that interest to being born in the early 1960s, with his parents as small children during the Second World War and his grandparents as adults in its aftermath. 6. He also says he grew up in Merton in southwest London, where 'the Nelson Hospital' and 'the Nelson Pub' kept military history in view. 7. At Leeds University, Sheffield studied first as an undergraduate and then for a master's degree, which he describes as a strong foundation. 8. He names Hugh Cecil as an inspirational teacher of First World War literature and Edward M. Spears as a major mentor on the British Army and chemical warfare. 9. Sheffield says Hugh Cecil died at the beginning of COVID and that he is editing a memorial volume of Hugh's shorter pieces. 10. He says his own career has been shaped by 'really, really excellent mentors,' and he now tries to mentor younger historians in return. 11. Sheffield explains that his first professional break came at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst and Department of War Studies after Leeds. 12. He says Ministry of Defence funding supported his part-time PhD, and that the British taxpayer paid for the work 'Thank you very much.' 13. A recommendation from Keith Simpson's wife led to a new history of the Royal Military Police, which Sheffield says taught him how to make institutional history human. 14. He recalls being able to use military police archives and other sources to write from the perspective of ordinary military policemen and Provost Marshals. 15. He also remembers a complaint from someone whose unit was not mentioned, because that unit had left little written evidence. 16. Brian Bond's foreword mattered to Sheffield because Bond said the book could have been 'a really tedious institutional history' but became 'a genuine work of military history.' 17. Sheffield describes Forgotten Victory as a response to frustration that public memory still leaned on 'Blackadder' and 'Oh, What a Lovely War.' 18. He says the book also helped him break through from a small academic circle into a wider public audience. 19. The interview is relaxed and collegial, with Saul David and Sheffield trading anecdotes about Oxford, Wikipedia, book reviews, and shared professional frustrations. 20. People interested in First World War revisionism, Haig, and military historiography will get the most from this conversation, while casual listeners seeking a short entertainment segment may skip it.

As heard by us

A serious military history conversation that traces Sheffield's path from Nelson and Airfix kits to Haig, the Somme, and revised judgment.

Gary Sheffield comes across as a committed military historian with a personal path into the field, from the Lady Bird Nelson book and Airfix kits to later work on Haig and the Somme.

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Why you'd press play

Press play for a conversational look at Douglas Haig, the Somme, and why one historian says his view of Haig has shifted over time.

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