Participant Info

First Name
Aimee
Last Name
Fox
Affiliation
King's College London
Website URL
https://www.kcl.ac.uk/people/aimee-fox
Keywords
British army, British armed forces, Military Innovation, Military Learning, Twentieth Century, First World War, WW1, World War 1, Military Operations, Military History, Adaptation, Military Marriages, Military Wives, Intimacy
Additional Contact Information

Personal Info

Photo
About Me

Dr Aimée Fox is an historian of warfare and senior lecturer at King’s College London. Her research focuses on the twentieth-century and explores how military organisations innovate and change in historic and contemporary contexts.

In August 2016, Aimée joined King’s from the Department of History at the University of Birmingham where she held the post of Teaching Fellow in History of Warfare. She also completed her AHRC-funded doctorate on innovation and change in the British Army of the First World War at the University of Birmingham in 2015.

Aimée has published widely on the British army’s experience in the First World War. Her first monograph, Learning to Fight: Military Innovation and Change in the British Army, 1914-1918, was published by Cambridge University Press in 2018 and won both the British Army Military Book of the Year prize for 2018 and the 2018 Templer Best First Book Prize from the Society for Army Historical Research. Her next major publication is a scholarly edition of the papers of Major-General Guy Dawnay for the Army Records Society, due for publication in 2023.

Her primary research interests focus on the British military in the era of the First World War (c.1899-1923). Her research considers how armed forces – both historic and contemporary – accommodate and respond to change, along with the frictions associated with the movement of expertise, experience, and knowledge between and within organisations as well as across geographical boundaries.

She is currently pursuing two research projects: first, an exploration of the importance of social relations, gossip, and informal networks to the process of innovation, and the ways in which the social politics of military organisations help or hinder innovation with a particular focus on the role of command and leadership; and secondly, an examination of the emotional mobilisation of women during the First World War, exploring how intimacy, feelings, labour, and family were co-opted and exploited by the British military and the ways in which this was negotiated and contested by women.

Aimée is a Fellow of both the Royal Historical Society and the Higher Education Academy. She is a member and a current Trustee of the Society for Military History. She previously served on the Editorial Advisory Board of Journal of Military History and currently sits on the Editorial Advisory Boards of Journal of Advanced Military Studies, British Journal for Military History, and Marine Corps University Press. She is also a series editor for Brill’s ‘History of Warfare’ series and is currently book reviews editor (post-1815) for War in History. Beyond academia, she serves on the National Army Museum’s research and collections advisory panel. Aimée has held fellowships with the Australian Defence Force, Australian War Memorial, Brute Krulak Center for Innovation and Future Warfare at Marine Corps University, and the Royal British Legion.

Recent Publications

Monographs
Learning to Fight: Military Innovation and Change in the British Army, 1914-1918 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018) ISBN: 9781107190795

  • Winner, 2018 British Army Military Book of the Year
  • Winner, 2018 Templer Medal for Best First Book

 

Peer-reviewed articles
‘“I have never felt more utterly yours”: Presence, Intimacy, and Long-Distance Marriages in the First World War’, Journal of British Studies (First View, 2022)

‘The Secret of Efficiency? Social Relations and Patronage in the British Army in the Era of the First World War’, English Historical Review, 135, no. 577 (2020) pp. 1527-57

‘Goats Mingling with Sheep? Professionalisation, Personalities, and Partnerships between British Civil and Military Engineers, c.1837-1939’, War & Society 38 (4) (2019), pp. 268-285

‘“Thomas Cook’s Tourists”: The Challenges and Benefits of Inter-Theatre Service in the British Army, 1914-1918’, Journal of Historical Geography 58 (4) (2017), pp. 82-91

‘Beyond the Western Front: The Practice of Inter-Theatre Learning in the British Army during the First World War’, War in History 23 (2) (2016), pp. 190-209

 

Book chapters
‘Evacuating Gallipoli: Military Advice and the Politics of Decision-Making, 1915-16’, in W.D. Mills and T.G. Heck (eds.), Armies in Retreat: Chaos, Cohesion, and Consequences (Fort Leavenworth, KS: Army University Press, 2022; in press)

‘From Gallipoli to the Western Front: The Difficulties of Learning and Adapting across Theatres’, in P. Dennis (ed.), The Skill of Adaptability: The Learning Curve in Combat (Newport, NSW: Big Sky, 2018), pp. 55-74. ISBN: 9781922262012

‘“Hopeless Inefficiency?” The Transformation and Operational Performance of Brigade Staff, 1916-1918’, in M. LoCicero, R. Mahoney, and S. Mitchell (eds.), A Military Transformed? Adaptation and Innovation in the British Military, 1792-1945 (Solihull: Helion, 2014), pp. 139- 156. ISBN: 9781909384460

 

Forthcoming
The Military Papers and Correspondence of Major-General Guy Dawnay, 1915-1919 (Woodbridge: Boydell and Brewer, 2023)

Media Coverage
Country Focus
United Kingdom
Expertise by Geography
Australia, United Kingdom
Expertise by Chronology
20th century
Expertise by Topic
Military, Women, World War I