Britain’s Railways in the Great War, 1914-1918
Fully-funded AHRC PhD studentship
Applications are invited for an AHRC-funded PhD about Britain’s railways in the First World War. This studentship is a fully-funded award made by the Collaborative Doctoral Partnership managed by the Science Museum Group. The project will be supervised by Professor Tony Heywood and Dr Ben Marsden (University of Aberdeen) and Dr Oliver Betts (National Railway Museum, York). The studentship, which is funded for three years full-time equivalent, will begin in October 2019 or earlier if the successful candidate’s circumstances permit.
The Studentship
This project will produce the first full-length scholarly study of how Britain’s railways were managed and operated during the First World War. The project will be based on extensive archival research to be undertaken mainly at the National Railway Museum (York), the UK National Archives (Kew) and the National Archives of Scotland (Edinburgh). Funds will be available to help pay for the necessary research travel.
The project will address six core inter-connected themes - political, administrative, economic, technical, cultural and social - both to explore the basic questions of how, and how well, the railways coped and to serve as a framework for future research. The geographical scope will be limited to the lines under state control via the Board of Trade and Railway Executive Committee - in other words, excluding Ireland’s railways, which were managed separately. Case-studies might be used to analyse the performance and impacts on selected strategic routes (such as the lines to the Channel ports) and fixed assets such as major workshops. The assessments are expected to be mainly qualitative, with statistics used where appropriate to identify basic trends.
The research will need to start by reassessing pre-war preparations and mobilisation, especially J.A.B. Hamilton’s view that the network entered the war with a sensible and workable organisation largely as a matter of luck, and A.J.P. Taylor’s claim about the mobilisation timetable’s inflexibility: could the network have coped with an order to send the army to, say, Antwerp instead of France? As for the subsequent reaction of the railways to the war emergency, key issues for analysis are likely to include the meaning of ‘total war’ in relation to the network; state control (for example: how did it affect operations, infrastructure, finances and inter-company relations?); traffic performance (how did the demands change? where were the key bottlenecks?); relations with the armed forces (how effective was the coordination? how were military demands communicated and implemented?); the infrastructure (how far were railway supply needs met? does poor management explain the wagon shortages? how did the railway workshops contribute? how bad was the maintenance backlog by 1918?); and the workforce (how did losses of skilled staff affect the railways? how important were female employment and strikes?). And in the immediate aftermath, how did the war experience affect the government’s decision not to nationalise the network, but instead to create four large geographically-based private companies?
How to Apply
Applicants should have a good undergraduate degree in history, geography, or other relevant discipline, and will need to satisfy AHRC academic and residency eligibility criteria. Some understanding of how the British railway system was organised and operated will be necessary but is not a prerequisite, so while preference may be given to candidates with prior experience in working with business or railway archives, others are warmly encouraged to apply.
Applicants should submit a single Word file, maximum length strictly four pages, with:
1/ a curriculum vitae (1 page)
2/ a letter explaining your interest in the studentship and outlining your qualifications for it (2 pages)
3/ a brief cover note that includes your full contact details together with the names and contact details of two academic referees (1 page).
Applications must be emailed to both Professor Tony Heywood and Dr Oliver Betts ([log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>; [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>) no later than Wednesday 31 October 2018.
Interviews are scheduled to be held in the National Railway Museum, York, on Friday 16 November 2018.
If you have any questions concerning the project, please contact Tony Heywood ([log in to unmask]).
Professor Anthony Heywood
Series co-editor Russia's Great War and Revolution, 1914-1922 https://slavica.indiana.edu/series/Russia_Great_War_Series
School of Divinity, History and Philosophy,
University of Aberdeen,
Aberdeen, AB24 3FX,
UK
tel. +44-1224-272640
fax +44-1224-272203
The University of Aberdeen is a charity registered in Scotland, No SC013683.
Tha Oilthigh Obar Dheathain na charthannas clàraichte ann an Alba, Àir. SC013683.
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