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Notes
in England’s military heartland
Chapter DOI:
https://doi.org/10.7765/9781526174857.00020
Online Publication Date:
28 Jan 2025
Free access

Notes

Introduction

1 Tom Fort, The A303: Highway to the Sun (London: Simon & Schuster, 2019).
2 Charlotte Higgins, ‘The Battle for the Future of Stonehenge.’ Guardian, 8 February 2019.
3 Continual Operational Readiness: 3rd (United Kingdom) Division. The Iron Division (2023). Available from: https://lordslibrary.parliament.uk/warfighting-capability-of-the-british-army-3rd-uk-division/ (accessed 16 August 2024).
4 Guy Shrubsole, ‘Defence of the Realm: The Ministry of Defence Land Holdings’ (16 April 2016). https://whoownsengland.org/2016/08/14/mod-land/ (accessed 16 August 2024). The defence estate includes 16 major training areas, as well as more than a hundred smaller sites with ranges and camps for training purposes. In 2023 the Defence Infrastructure Organisation awarded Landmarc a new contract, worth £560 million, to manage the entire UK military training estate. The contractor, which had been working for the Organisationsince 2003, is a joint venture of Mitie, the UK’s leading facilities management and professional services company, and Amentum, a leading provider of global mission services to the US Government.
5 Rachel Woodward, ‘From Military Geography to Militarism's Geographies: Disciplinary Eengagements with the Geographies of Militarism and Military Activities.’ Progress in Human Geography, 29:6 (2005), pp. 718–740.
6 Rachel Woodward, Military Geographies (Oxford: Blackwell, 2004), pp. 3–4.
7 Peter Burt and Dave Webb, For Heaven’s Sake: Examining the UK’s Militarisation of Space (Drone Wars and CND, 2022). Available from: https://cnduk.org/resources/for-heavens-sake-examining-the-uks-militarisation-of-space/ (accessed 16 August 2024).
8 Some biographical details have been disaggregated from the information supplied by research participants. The book also makes general reference to unanticipated encounters recorded during the research, where it was impractical for the researcher to announce their presence and ask people to sign consent forms. Jon Swain and Brendan King, ‘Using Informal Conversations in Qualitative Research.’ International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 21 (2022), pp. 1–10.
9 Where our presence did not disturb the natural flow of life, and where we judged the potential harm to be limited, this allowed us to convey the spirit and mood of what was said and observed, and depict a naturalistic setting with greater verisimilitude. For more information about these ethical and methodological debates see A.S.J. Cree (ed.), Creative Methods in Military Studies (London: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2023).
10 Jessica Murray, ‘British Army Would Exhaust Capabilities after Two Months of War, MPs Told.’ Guardian, 4 February 2024.
11 Jason Hughes, ‘Wiltshire Hosts the MoD’s First Long Range Laser Energy Weapon Trial.’ Wiltshire Times, 20 November 2022.
12 Tarak Barkawi, among others, has argued that this is a Eurocentric notion that simply elides the history of imperial wars, invasions and occupations. T. Barkawi, ‘Decolonising War.’ European Journal of International Security, 1:2 (2022), pp. 199–214. https://doi.org/10.1017/eis.2016.7.
13 Ministry of Defence, Defence in a Competitive Age, HMSO CP411, March 2021, p. 9. Available from https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6063061e8fa8f55b6ad297d0/CP411_-Defence_Command_Plan.pdf.
14 Tony Diver, ‘US to Station Nuclear Weapons in UK to Counter Threat from Russia.’ Telegraph, 26 January 2024.
Dan Sabbagh, ‘Global Defence Spending Rises 9% to Record $2.2tn.’ Guardian, 13 February 2024.

Chapter 1

1 Jonathan Meades, ‘Blighted Plain.’ London Review of Books, 44:1 (6 January 2022).
2 Joanne Moore, ‘Salisbury Plain Firing Ranges Are “Death Traps” Says Union.’ Gazette and Herald, 19 April 2016.
3 The National Archives, Military Lands Act 1892, Legislation.gov.uk. Available from: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1892/43/pdfs/ukpga_18920043_en.pdf (accessed 16 February 2024).
4 N.D.G. James, Plain Soldiering (Salisbury: The Hobnob Press, 1987), p. 9.
5 For similarly uncritical account by a military historian see Arthur Tucker. ‘Army and Society in England 1870–1900: A Reassessment of the Cardwell Reforms.’ Journal of British Studies, 2:2 (May 1963), pp. 110–141.
6 Land Use Consultants, Wiltshire Landscape Character Assessment: FINAL REPORT. Prepared on behalf of Wiltshire County Council by Land Use Consultants, December 2004, p. 54; James, Plain Soldiering, pp. 9–17.
7 James, Plain Soldiering, p. 17.
8 Lieutenant Colonel Richard Clayton, (Retired), ‘Wiltshire: Larkhill and Westdown.’ Sanctuary, 46 (2017), p. 87. This article is based on a comprehensive GIS survey of Salisbury Plain from 1733 onwards completed by Tony Rowlands.
9 James, Plain Soldiering, pp. 5–6. The Wiltshire horned sheep had no hair on their underbellies because the chalk was warm and dry.
10 A.G. Bradley, Round about Wiltshire (1907), p. 241, cited in James, Plain Soldiering, p. 100.
11 Ella Noyes, Salisbury Plain, Its Stones, Cathedral, Villages and Folk (London: J.M. Dent, 1913), pp. vii–viii.
12 Carolyn Hart, ‘The Beekeeper Keeping Britain’s Honey Industry Abuzz.’ Telegraph, 5 April 2020.
13 The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers), ‘Military Environmentalism: Discover Prehistoric Sites and Rare Species Preserved on Salisbury Plain’, Discovering Britain (n.p.: Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers), 2012), p. 4.
14 Wiltshire Conservation Team, Salisbury Plain SSSI Integrated Site Assessment 2014–15 (York: Natural England, 2016), p. 1.
15 BBC News, ‘Army to Build ‘Afghan Compound’ on Salisbury Plain’, 21 January 2012.
16 BBC News, ‘Fake Refugee Camp Built on Salisbury Plain to Train Troops’, 28 October 2016.
17 Joshua Truksa, ‘Annual Bus Service Offers Glimpse at Evacuated Village.’ Salisbury Journal, 22 August 2023.
18 Monica M. Hutchings, The Special Smile (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1951), pp. 107–115.
19 Ibid.
20 Marianna Dudley, ‘A Fairy (Shrimp) Tale of Military Environmentalism: The “Greening” of Salisbury Plain.’ In Chris Pearson, Peter Coates and Tim Cole (eds), Militarized Landscapes: From Gettysburg to Salisbury Plain (London: Continuum, 2010), pp. 135–150.
21 Peter Coates, Tim Cole, Marianna Dudley and Chris Pearson, ‘Defending Nation, Defending Nature? Militarized Landscapes and Military Environmentalism in Britain, France and the United States.’ Environmental History, 16:3 (July 2011), pp. 458, 467.
22 Ibid., p. 459.
23 Rachel Woodward first used the term in 2001, citing Andrew Ross in The Ecologist, 26 (1996), pp. 22–24. Woodward, ‘Khaki Conservation: An Examination of Military Environmentalist Discourses in the British Army.’ Journal of Rural Studies, 17:2 (April 2001), pp. 201–217. For an overview of these debates see Chris Pearson, ‘Researching Militarized Landscapes: A Literature Review on War and the Militarization of the Environment.’ Landscape Research, 37:1 (February 2012), pp. 115–133.
24 This was largely as a response to the Dorset-based Tyneham Action Group and Friends of Tyneham which argued that the landscape should be ‘managed for the public good by experienced organisations’ such as the National Trust or Countryside Commission. Coates et al., ‘Defending Nation?’, pp. 467–469.
25 Nikolaus Pevsner, The Buildings of England: Wiltshire (1963), quoted in Meades, ‘Blighted Plain’.
26 Rex Sawyer, Little Imber on the Down: Salisbury Plain’s Ghost Village (Salisbury: Hobnob Press, 2001). The following account is taken from Sawyer’s book.
27 Ibid., pp. 129–130.
28 Coates et al., ‘Defending Nation?’, p. 460.
29 Patrick Wright, The Village that Died for England (London: Repeater Books, 2022), p. 414.
30 George Richard Hodges Nugent, the son of a colonel and great devotee of the countryside, began his career in the army. His previous roles included service in the National Farmers Union and the Ministry of Agriculture, as well as the chairmanship of the Thames Conservancy Board. See Coates, ‘Defending Nation?’, n. 12, p. 483.
31 Ibid., p. 469; Royal Geographical Society, ‘Military Environmentalism’, p. 22.
32 Dudley, ‘A Fairy (Shrimp) Tale’, p. 141.
33 Wright, The Village, pp. 506–507.
34 Sanctuary magazine is the Ministry of Defence’s annual sustainability publication, which has been showcasing conservation activities across the defence estate for over 45 years. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/sanctuary (accessed 5 May 2023).
35 Sanctuary, 46 (2017).
36 Ibid.
37 After being posted to Warminster in the early 1980s, Major Nigel Lewis (Retired), a prominent volunteer ornithologist, joined the HQ Director of Infantry IMBER Conservation Group, and continued his lifelong project of erecting and monitoring nesting boxes for owls and other raptors across areas of Salisbury Plain.
38 According to the QinetiQ website, ‘Team Pegasus will work in partnership with the MoD for a 10-year period on the transformation project – SOCIETAS – providing a specialist mission data and electronic warfare skills solution alongside training and IT support. The project will accelerate the production of mission data, enabling the UK’s military platforms and personnel to be better protected in a rapidly changing threat landscape and enhancing the performance of its advanced military systems. The partnership will also contribute to the UK’s export agenda by providing our allies with access to world-class mission data in support of UK Defence sales, enhancing UK Prosperity.’ www.qinetiq.com/en-gb/news/team-pegasus-awarded-80m-mission-data-partnership-contract-by-mod (accessed 5 May 2023).
39 Sanctuary, 50 (2021).
40 Adrian Parr, Hijacking Sustainability (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2009), p. 80. See also ‘If the world’s militaries were a country, this figure would mean they have the fourth largest national carbon footprint in the world’. Stuart Parkinson and Linsey Cottrell, ‘Estimating the Military’s Global Greenhouse Gas Emissions’. Scientists for Global Responsibility and the Conflict and Environment Observatory, November 2022. https://ceobs.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/SGR-CEOBS_Estimating_Global_MIlitary_GHG_Emissions.pdf (accessed 28 February 2024).
41 Parr, Hijacking Sustainability.
42 James, Plain Soldiering, p. 165.
43 Ibid., p. 127.
44 Ibid., p. 133.
45 Ibid., p. 92.
46 In 1914 there was a prison camp for interned aliens in Bulford as well. Ibid., p. 114.
47 Ibid., pp. 239–240. Lowa is an Indian village half-way between Lucknow and Allahabad.
48 James, Plain Soldiering, p. 37.
49 Vron Ware, Military Migrants: Fighting for YOUR Country (Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2012), pp. 282–283.

Chapter 2

1 Cynthia Enloe, Bananas, Beaches, and Bases: Making Feminist Sense of International Politics (Oakland, CA: University of California Press, 1990), p. 132.
2 Zoë H. Wool, ‘Critical Military Studies, Queer Theory, and the Possibilities of Critique: The Case of Suicide and Family Caregiving in the US military.’ Critical Military Studies, 1:1 (2014), p. 2. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/23337486.2014.964600.
3 Rachel Woodward, ‘From Military Geography to Militarism's Geographies: Disciplinary Engagements with the Geographies of Militarism and Military Activities.’ Progress in Human Geography, 29:6 (2005), pp. 718–740.
4 The Fan Dance challenge, in particular, is very popular with people thinking of joining, or already employed by, the armed forces. It consists of a gruelling 24 km march through the exposed terrain of the Brecon Beacons.
5 X-Forces Enterprise, ‘From Barracks to Bistro: Meet the Army Veteran’s Spouse at the Helm of a Thriving Family Business.’
6 Catherine Lutz, Homefront: A Military City and the American Twentieth Century (Boston, MA: Beacon Press, 2001). See pp. 122–124 for a fuller discussion of this concept in the context of the USA.
7 See this site for update of long-running campaign for parity in pensions: https://gurkhasatyagraha.org (accessed 27 April 2023).
8 Age UK, The Challenges of Rural Living for Older People, 22 July 2013. https://editorial.ageuk.org.uk/latest-press/archive/the-challenges-of-rural-living-for-older-people/ (accessed 27 August 2024).
9 Tom Sables, ‘How Religious Are Our Armed Forces?’ Forces.net, 16 December 2018.
10 Lieutenant Colonel L. T. Quinn, ‘“No Religion”: The Army’s Inclusivity Blind-Spot’, May 2016. www.secularism.org.uk/uploads/laurence-quinn-red-book.pdf?v=1635956048 (accessed 27 February 2024). See also UK Armed Forces Biannual Diversity Statistics 2021. www.gov.uk/government/statistics/uk-armed-forces-biannual-diversity-statistics-october-2021 (accessed 16 July 2023).
11 Chris Hughes, ‘Christianity Has No Place in the British Army Claims Senior Military Officer’, Mirror, 3 December 2014.
12 N.D.G. James, Plain Soldiering (Salisbury: The Hobnob Press, 1987), pp. 52–53.
13 Ibid.
14 Council for Christian Unity, ‘National Census 2001 and 2011: Changes in the Ethnic Diversity of the Christian Population in England’ (Archbishops’ Council of the Church of England, 2014). Available from: www.churchofengland.org/sites/default/files/2017-10/north_east.pdf (accessed 25 August 2024).
15 Mahendra Lawoti and Susan I. Hangen, Nationalism and Ethnic Conflict in Nepal: Identities and Mobilisation since 1990 (London: Routledge, 2013).
16 Mitra Pariyar, ‘Caste, Military, Migration: Nepali Gurkha Communities in Britain.’ Ethnicities (2019). https://doi.org/10.1177/1468796819890138.

Chapter 3

1 Rebecca Hudson, ‘Army Management Firm Hits Back at Claims Barracks “Not Fit For Animals” after Leaked Fire Safety Report.’ Salisbury Journal, 4 January 2019.
2 Tom Newton Dunn, ‘Fury as MoD Cover-Up Is Exposed, Revealing Thousands of Soldiers Are Living in Grenfell-Style Fire Traps, Watchdog Says.’ Scottish Sun, 31 December 2018.
3 Jonathan Meades, ‘Blighted Plain.’ London Review of Books, 44:1 (6 January 2022).
4 Nicholas A. Phelps, An Anatomy of Sprawl: Planning and Politics in Britain (London: Routledge, 2012), p. 2.
5 ‘Reasons why Andover Hampshire Is Such a Great Place to Live.’ Andover Advertiser, 1 December 2021.
6 N.D.G. James, Plain Soldiering (Salisbury: The Hobnob Press, 1987), pp. 47–48.
7 Cynthia Enloe, Maneuvers: The International Politics of Militarizing Women’s Lives (London: University of California Press, 2000), p. 159.
8 See, for example, the history of SSAFA, the Armed Forces charity that provides professional and voluntary help for families in every garrison, including at the Beeches Family Centre in Bulford. It was founded by Sir James Gildea, a British Army Militia officer who raised money for the families of British soldiers killed in the Zulu War of 1879 and the Second Afghan War of 1880.
9 The taxi office by Andover station had a hand-drawn map pinned to the wall. No GPS was able to keep up with the rapid construction of new streets and houses.
10 Wiltshire Council, Army Basing Briefing for the Amesbury, Pewsey, Tidworth and Warminster Area Boards –(September 2015). https://cms.wiltshire.gov.uk/documents/s94075/Army%20Re-basing.pdf.
11 Danielle Sheridan, ‘Army Wives Accuse MoD of “Utter Betrayal” over New Military Accommodation Plan.’ Telegraph, 23 February 2024.
12 Harry Cole, ‘Shot Down: Plans to Allocate Military Housing Based on Family Size Rather than Rank Paused in “Welcome Victory for Common Sense”.’ Sun, 27 February 2024.
13 Steve Dancey, ‘Town Status Gets the Nod.’ Andover Advertiser, 19 May 2008.
14 T.S. Crawford, Wiltshire and the Great War: Training the Empire’s Soldiers (Marlborough: The Crowood Press, 2012), pp. 112–113.
15 The first military railway, for example, was constructed by civilian engineers in the Crimea in 1854–55 ‘at a time when Government and military organisation for running the war had completely broken down’. Brian Cooke, The Grand Crimean Central Railway: The Railway that Won a War (Knutsford: Cavalier House, 1990).
16 Winifred Dixon, A History of Ludgershall (Ludgershall: Highfield House Trust, 1994), pp. 97–100.
17 James, Plain Soldiering, p. 208.
18 The Army Families Federation advised people that they needed to inform themselves about the rules and costs associated with owning a car and consider whether it was realistic for them.
19 Martina Moscariello, ‘More than 400 New Homes Set to Be Built on Former Ministry of Defence Site in Ludgershall.’ Salisbury Journal, 4 May 2020.
20 See Paul Dixon, Warrior Nation: War, Militarisation and British Democracy. Forces Watch, 2018, https://archive.ph/e01wh (accessed 24 February 2024); and Vron Ware, ‘Lives on the Line.’ Soundings, 45 (summer 2010).
21 Ministry of Defence, ‘The Government’s Response to the Report of Inquiry into National Recognition of Our Armed Forces.’ Presented to Parliament on behalf of the Secretary of State for Defence by the Minister of State for the Armed Forces (2008), p. 2. Available from: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5a795f59ed915d07d35b4f3b/govt_response_recognition_armed_forces.pdf (accessed 24 February 2024).

Chapter 4

1 See, for example, Hew Strachan, ‘The British Army, 1815–1856; Recent Writing Reviewed.’ Journal of the Society for Army Historical Research, 63:254 (summer 1985), pp. 68–79; Albert V. Tucker, ‘Army and Society in England 1870–1900: A Reassessment of the Cardwell Reforms.’ Journal of British Studies, 2:2 (May 1963), pp. 110–141.
2 Wiltshire Council, Military Presence and Economic Significance in the South West Region (Devizes, March 2009).
3 Ministry of Defence, ‘The Defence Estate Development Plan’, 3 July 2009 (DEDP 09: DE Est Dev 3–2–1–5). This document outlines the rationale for and requirements of a ‘super garrison’. ‘As a guide, a SG should consist of a hub of sufficient magnitude (ideally over 5000 service personnel) to attract significant MOD and local authority investment and a number of satellite sites within easy travelling distance’, p. 5.
4 Wiltshire Council, Military Population in Wiltshire and the SW Region (Devizes, October 2012), p. 8, figure 5.
5 Wiltshire Council, Provision of Services to Wiltshire’s Military Communities (Devizes, June 2011), p. v.
‘A number of agencies working with service families have noted an increase in relationship breakdown related to the current high levels of military deployment, which in some cases leads to spouses requiring support to secure housing and manage financially. Relate mid Wiltshire have reported in the course of this study that they would be keen to offer pre- and post-deployment support to families to help them adjust to the pressures of separation and being reunited to try to address this issue.’
6 Wiltshire Council, Deprivation in Wiltshire: Indices of Deprivation 2010 (Devizes, June 2011).
7 Gary Cleland, ‘MoD Homes “Scandal” as 400,000 Call Helpline.’ Telegraph, 15 October 2007.
8 Roland Batten, ‘Army Housing Worst in UK.’ Salisbury Journal, 23 September 2007.
9 Ibid. See also BBC News, ‘Forces Minister Opens Army Homes’, 26 June 2008.
10 BBC News, ‘Army Troop Relocations Announced by Ministry of Defence’, 10 November 2011.
11 Ibid.
12 Ministry of Defence, ‘New Employment Model’, gov.uk, 12 December 2012. Available from: www.gov.uk/guidance/new-employment-model (accessed 27 February 2024).
13 Danielle Sheridan ‘Unmarried Couples Entitled to Service Accommodation in Armed Forces Housing Shake-Up.’ Telegraph, 19 September 2023.
14 Danielle Sheridan, ‘Army Wives Accuse MoD of “Utter Betrayal” over New Military Accommodation Plan.’ Telegraph, 23 February 2024. www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/02/23/army-wives-utter-betrayal-military-housing-ministry-defence/ (accessed 24 February 2024).
15 Daniel Boffey, ‘MoD Apologises over “Unacceptable” Standard of Army Homes.’ Guardian, 3 October 2022. See also Julian Perreira, ‘New Year, New Housing Misery for Military Families Living in Mouldy Homes.’ Forces.Net, 4 January 2023.
16 Army Family Federation. ‘Housing Success for Army Families’, Army&You, 11 January 2019. See also Military Families and Transition (London: The Centre for Social Justice, 2016). www.centreforsocialjustice.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/MILITARY-FAMILIES.pdf (accessed 26 August 2024).
17 According to Defence Infrastructure Organisation Army Basing Project Manager Andy Corcoran. See ‘Saxon Cemetery Discovered at Bulford, Wiltshire.’ Archaeology News Network (2016), https://archaeology.org/news/2016/04/15/160415-anglo-saxon-cemetery/ (accessed 27 February 2024).
18 Aspire Defence, ‘Work Begins on the New Medical and Dental Centre for Larkhill’, 18 July 2018.
19 Ministry of Defence, ‘Guidance: Service Pupil Freedom: What You Need to Know’, 19 May 2023. Available from: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-service-pupil-premium/service-pupil-premium-what-you-need-to-know. Service children also have access to subsidised private school education in boarding schools, a benefit that is often taken up at secondary school level when stability and continuity are so important to good educational attainment. Fees are partially paid for by the Ministry of Defence, funded through public money.
20 Wiltshire Council, ‘Military Population’, p. 19.
21 M. Rodrigues, A.K. Osborne, D. Johnson and M.D. Kiernan, ‘The Exploration of the Dispersal of British Military Families in England Following the Strategic Defence and Security Review 2010.’ PLoS ONE, 15 (9) (2020). e0238508.https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0238508. G. Huxford, ‘“School Is Everywhere”? British Military Children, “Turbulence” and the Meanings of Post-War Mobility.’ History of Education (Tavistock), 51:5 (2022), pp. 710–731; K.M.T. De Pedro, et al. Avi Astor, R. Benbishty and J. N. Estrada, ‘The Children of Military Service Members: Challenges, Supports, and Future Educational Research.’ Review of Educational Research, 81:4 (2011), pp. 566–618.
22 See for example, the support that the charity Little Troopers provides regarding the impact upon service children of frequent house moves and periods of separation from serving parents due to training or deployment.

Chapter 5

1 Hilary Callan and Shirley Ardener (eds), The Incorporated Wife (London: Croom Helm, 1984).
2 The late nineteenth-century decision to allow soldiers to marry and bring wives with them on postings was an important part of the way in which Britain sought to manage the transmission of venereal diseases between soldiers and sex workers, particularly in the colonial context. Antony Beevor, Inside the British Army (London: Corgi Books, 1990), p. 59.
3 Cynthia Enloe, Maneuvers: The International Politics of Militarizing Women’s Lives (London: University of California Press, 2000), p. 159.
4 Vron Ware, ‘Thin Ice: Postcoloniality and Sexuality in the Politics of Citizenship and Military Service.’ In Sandra Ponzanesi (ed.), Gender, Globalisation and Violence: Postcolonial Conflict Zones (London: Routledge, 2014), pp. 46–63.
5 Further funding has been supplied by the EU (the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development) and DEFRA. https://archive.ph/E6mar (accessed 27 February 2024).
6 The Flatcap Story: www.flatcapcoffee.com/ (accessed 23 February 2024).
7 Lucy Fisher, ‘Worrying Armed Forces Exodus Triggers Inquiry.’ The Times, 5 February 2019.
8 According to the website Payscale, the average salary in Andover in 2020 was £27,000 a year, in Salisbury £26,000 and in Tidworth £25,000 These figures are derived from payscale.com and check.a.salary.co.uk.
9 BBC News, ‘Defence Review to See Dozens Of Sites Close’, 7 November 2016. ‘In addition to the sale of 35 MoD sites that had previously been announced. A further eight sites in Scotland, including the Redford Cavalry and Infantry Barracks in Edinburgh, and Fort George, near Ardersier.’
10 Ibid.
11 Clare Buchanan, ‘Rosyth: MOD Caledonia Closure Delayed until 2026 but Swimming Pool to Stay Shut.’ Dunfermline Press, 29 September 2022.
12 Ministry of Defence, The Rt Hon Tobias Ellwood MP, and The Rt Hon Sir Gavin Williamson CBE MP. ‘Defence Secretary Announces Five-Year Plan for Key Military Sites’, gov.uk, 28 February 2019.www.gov.uk/government/news/defence-secretary-announces-five-year-plan-for-key-military-sites (accessed 27 August 2024).
13 Ibid.
14 Ministry of Defence and Defence Infrastructure Organisation, Strategy for Defence Infrastructure, 2022. Available from: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/61f0008ee90e0703787c56f3/20220125-Strategy_for_Defence_Infrastructure.pdf (accessed 27 August 2024).
15 N.D.G. James, Plain Soldiering (Salisbury: The Hobnob Press, 1987), p. 17.
16 Catherine Lutz, Homefront: A Military City and the American Twentieth Century (Boston, MA: Beacon Press, 2001), p. 180.
17 Ibid., pp. 171–213.
18 Ibid., pp. 180–185; Kim Sengupta, ‘Collateral Damage: British Troops Are Set to Finally Leave Germany But What Will Be the Effect of Their Departure?’ Independent, 26 March 2013. It is hard to assess the actual impact of the British Army’s withdrawal from Germany at the time of writing.
19 Ibid.
20 See for example Oxford Economics, The Wider Value of the British Army, Oxford Economics Ltd, May 2021, pp. 42–3.
21 Ibid., p. 41.
22 GVA is an economic productivity model that measures the contribution of a corporate subsidiary, company, or municipality to an economy, producer, sector or region. A net study would calculate the value in a ‘counterfactual hypothetical’ situation – as in, what if, in this instance, the base did not exist?
23 Lilith Foster-Collins, ‘Grocer 33 Store of the Week Tesco Tidworth.’ The Grocer, 3 February 2023.
24 In 2018 Rollalong was awarded a contract worth over £100 million by Aspire Defence to design, manufacture and install 52 new high-class single living accommodation buildings for service personnel returning from Germany in 2020: the Army Basing Programme 2020.
Rollalong won Best Offsite Project of the Year for this Project at the Constructing Excellence South West Built Environment Awards. The award recognises the outstanding work carried out on Salisbury Plain to support Aspire’s delivery for the Army Basing Programme.
25 James Ashworth, ‘Classified Business SMI Applies for Andover Extension.’ Andover Advertiser, 4 May 2021.
26 The Enterprise Network in Swindon and Wiltshire. Porton Science Park. www.theenterprisenetwork.co.uk/centre/porton/ (accessed 25 February 2024).
27 Martin Boddy, John Lovering and Keith Bassett, Sunbelt City? A Study of Economic Change in Britain’s M4 Growth Corridor (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1986), pp. 81–84, 122.
28 Matt Kennard and Mark Curtis, ‘Britain’s Warfare State.’ Open Democracy, 24 September 2018.
29 Matt Kennard, ‘How Britain Has Become a World Leading Manufacturer of the Products of War.’ Action Against Armed Violence, 20 October 2017.
30 Kennard and Curtis, ‘Britain’s Warfare State.’
31 Mark Curtis, ‘Britain Always Seeks a Profit in Wars.’ DeclassifiedUK, 5 October 2023.
32 Wiltshire Council, Military Presence and Economic Significance in the South West Region, March 2009.
33 Ibid., p. 16.
35 SouthWest Regional Defence and Security Cluster. https://southwestrdsc.co.uk/ (accessed 27 February 2024). According to the website, ‘The cluster seeks to aggregate and raise the profile of regional D&S capability to stimulate greater sector knowledge, business, economic growth and productivity across the South West region. It will attract businesses of all scales with an interest in D&S to deliver new sector and cross-sector capability. It aims to apply a “Team UK” approach to enable more joined up working between industry, academia and government, providing an efficient and accessible route to industry curation and the region’s D&S value chain.’
36 Jinsella, ‘Explained: The £1BN-plus Deals between UK Universities and the Arms Trade.’ DeclassifiedUK, 7 February 2023.
37 Jenna Corduroy and Billy Stockwell, ‘UK Universities Take Millions from Defence Companies Arming Israel.’ OpenDemocracy, 19 December 2023.
38 Richard Murphy, ‘Freeports: A Pathway to the End of Government as We Know It.’ West Country Voices, 24 September 2023. See See Plymouth and South Devon Freeport (https://pasdfreeport.com) for more information.
39 Matt Kennard, ‘The 183 American Troops Deployed at Secret Locations across Britain.’ DeclassifiedUK, 9 February 2023.
See also Nick Hopkins and Julian Borger, ‘NSA Pay £100m in Secret Funding for GCHQ.’ Guardian, 1 August 2013.
40 Oxford Economics, The Wider Value, p. 41.

Chapter 6

1 Paul Dixon, Warrior Nation: War, Militarisation and British Democracy. Forces Watch, 2018, pp. 2, 18.
2 People began migrating from Oudja in north-eastern Morocco in the 1960s and 1970s to work in factories like the Bowyers meat factory. The town has a mosque, built in 1997. See Sarah Hackett, Britain’s Rural Muslims: Rethinking Integration (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2021).
3 N. Danilova, The Politics of War Commemoration in the UK and Russia (Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2015), cited in Dixon, Warrior Nation. For a more recent ethnographic analysis of Armed Forces Day see R. McGarry, ‘Visualizing Liminal Military Landscape: A Small-Scale Study of Armed Forces Day in the United Kingdom.’ Critical Military Studies, 8:3, (2021), pp. 273–298, and M.F. Rech and R. Yarwood, ‘Exploring Post-Military Geographies: Plymouth and the Spatialities of Armed Forces Day.’ In Rachel Woodward (ed.), A Research Agenda for Military Geographies (Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2019).
4 Dan Sabbagh, ‘Head of British Army Could Quit in Row over Further Cuts.’ Guardian, 29 June 2023.
5 S. Walklate, G. Mythen and R. McGarry, ‘Witnessing Wootton Bassett: An Exploration in Cultural Victimology.’ Crime, Media, Culture, 7:2 (2011), pp. 149–165.
6 Joshua Truksa, ‘Lord-Lieutenant Wiltshire Appoints Vice Lord-Lieutenant Andrew Gregory.’ Salisbury Journal, 18 January 2023. ‘He is governor of a school and a patron of many organisations, including “Fighting with Pride,” a charity seeking to address the historic wrongs done to LGBT veterans.’
7 Our response from the army media department was polite and frank. ‘After thorough consideration, and based upon current Army core communication priorities, the return on academic books and projects (noting that resource is tight and not as extensive as it was in 2008), and especially as academic books do not have the same degree of reach as some of the books we have supported over years (some with sales of 52,000 or more), my chain of command has taken the decision that we will not be able to support your current project.’
8 Esme Kirk-Wade. UK Defence Personnel Statistics. House of Commons Library Research Briefing, No. 7930, 13 August 2024, pp. 26–27. Available from: https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/CBP-7930/CBP-7930.pdf (accessed 21 August 2024).
9 These figures are made available through regular publication of Ministry of Defence statistics online, sometimes with useful summaries and diagrams. For example: ‘Between 2000 and 2022, inflow of personnel to the UK Regular Forces has only been higher than outflow in six years. In the 12 months to 31 March 2022 there was a negative net flow of personnel – intake was 13,350 while outflow was 14,630. This followed two consecutive years of positive net flow.’ Esme Kirk-Wade, UK Defence Personnel Statistics, House of Commons Library Research Briefing, 2022, p. 4.
10 Max Colbert, ‘Military Spending on Recruitment Adverts Far Outstrips Teaching and health.’ Byline Times, 25 August 2022.
11 Mark Paine, ‘Banking Crisis Led to Army Career for Sergeant Dennis Kofitia.’ Andover Advertiser, 13 September 2023.
12 ‘Filling the Ranks.’ A Report for the Prime Minister on the state of recruiting into the United Kingdom armed forces by the Rt Hon Mark Francois MP, July 2017, p. 33.
13 Ibid., p. 2.
14 Child Rights International Network, Conscription by Poverty: Deprivation and Army Recruitment in the UK (London, 2019).
15 Jonathan Parry, ‘From the Classroom to the Frontline – Schools Must Be Careful What They Teach Kids about the Army.’ The Conversation, 26 September 2017.
16 Dan Sabbagh, ‘Nine Rapes at Harrogate Military College Reported to Civilian Police in 13 Months.’ Guardian, 5 October 2023.
17 Geneva Abdul, ‘British Soldier Took Her Own Life after Sexual Harassment from Boss, Says Army.’ Guardian, 4 October 2023.
18 Rhianna Louise and Emma Sangster, Selling the Military: A Critical Analysis of Contemporary Recruitment Marketing in the UK. ForcesWatch and Medact, 2019, p. 15.
19 Ibid., pp. 13–14.
20 Noel Dempsey, UK Defence Personnel Statistics. House of Commons Library Briefing Paper No. CBP7930, 27 July 2020. Available from: https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/CDP-2018-0016/CBP-7930.pdf.
21 Kirk-Wade, UK Personnel Defence Statistics, House of Commons Library Research Briefing, 13 August 2024, pp. 26–27.
22 Steven Morris, ‘Army Accused of Targeting Children via Gaming Magazine.’ Guardian, 29 January 2019; Tom Sables, ‘What Does the Military See in Gamers?’ Forces News, 5 January 2021.
23 Mark Townsend, ‘Inside the British Military Base where Young Hackers Learn to Stop Cybercrime.’ Guardian, 19 August 2018.
24 Joe Glenton, Veteranhood: Rage and Hope in British Ex-Military Life (London: Repeater Books, 2021), pp. 18–21. See also. Ministry of Defence, The Armed Forces Covenant (London, n.d.). p. 4. Available from: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5a78c7b740f0b62b22cbcbd4/the_armed_forces_covenant.pdf (accessed 25 February 2024).
25 Wiltshire Council, Military presence and Economic Significance in the South West Region (Devizes, March 2009), pp. 72–96. This study was conducted in the months following the financial crash of 2008 and recognised that the large numbers of vacancies in the region, which might well tally with the career aspirations of those leaving the forces, would likely shrink and transform as economic decline continued. Using survey data, the study noted that many expressed a desire to move into technical and engineering, or police and fire services; but predicted that the region’s reservoir of labour service would be increasingly funnelled into security and care work which would welcome younger veterans’ military experience⁠.
26 Ministry of Defence, Annual Population Survey: UK Armed Forces Veterans Residing in Great Britain, 2017, 31 January 2019. Available from: www.gov.uk/government/statistics/annual-population-survey-uk-armed-forces-veterans-residing-in-great-britain-2017 (accessed 21 August 2024).
27 Annette J. Beveridge, ‘Alabare: Navy Veteran Talks Truth about Homelessness.’ Salisbury Journal, 24 June 2023.
28 David I. Walker, ‘Anticipating Army Exit: Constructions of Final Year UK Career Soldiers.’ Armed Forces & Society, 39:2 (2012), pp. 284–304.
29 In 2022, for example, Lovell offered a £5,000 incentive to buyers with a military connection at Drummond Park, its new development of a mixture of 412 affordable and open-market homes on the former defence medical site in Ludgershall. It also sponsored the Tidworth Armed Forces Day event that year. Julie Bowen, regional sales director, explained that ‘Celebrating Armed Forces Day is very important to us, as we recently launched our Veteran Community Build scheme at Drummond Park. This scheme is providing veterans with work, mentoring and the opportunity to secure a new affordable home, which they have helped to build … We are committed to supporting local veterans across Wiltshire wherever we can.’ Catriona Aitken, ‘Event Held for Armed Forces Day Sponsored by Developer Offering £5,000 Incentive for Members and Veterans at Newbuild Properties.’ Andover Advertiser, 27 June 2022.
30 Sharon A.M. Stevelink, Margaret Jones, Lisa Hull, David Pernet, Shirlee MacCrimmon, Laura Goodwin, Deidre MacManus, Dominic Murphy, Norman Jones and Neil Greenberg, ‘Mental Health Outcomes at the End of the British Involvement in the Iraq and Afghanistan Conflicts: A Cohort Study.’ The British Journal of Psychiatry, 213 (8 October 2018), pp. 690–697. https://doi.org/10.1192/bjp.2018.175.
31 NHS England (2021), ‘NHS Launches “Op Courage” Veterans’ Mental Health Service.’www.england.nhs.uk/2021/03/nhs-launches-op-courage-veterans-mental-health-service/ (accessed 26 February 2024).
32 Johnny Mercer MP, ‘New Funding and Support Scheme to Finally End Armed Forces Veterans’ Homelessness.’ Office for Veterans Affairs, 21 December 2022www.gov.uk/government/news/new-government-funded-hotline-to-end-veteran-homelessness-now-live-across-the-uk--2 (accessed 25 February 2024).
33 Aletha Adu, ‘Homelessness among Armed Forces Veterans in England Rises by 14%.’ Guardian, 26 December 2023.
34 Josh Layton, ‘Hidden Toll of Afghan War on British soldiers Being Uncovered 20 Years On.’ Metro, 22 July 2023. https://archive.ph/iny4s (accessed 25 February 2024); Zara Raza, Syeda F. Hussain, Suzanne Ftouni, Gershon Spitz, Nick Caplin, Russell G. Foster and Renata S. M. Gomes, ‘Dementia in Military and Veteran Populations: A Review of Risk Factors – Traumatic Brain Injury, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Deployment, and Sleep.’ Military Medical Research, 8 (2021), p. 55.
35 Glenton, Veteranhood, p. 3. See also Joe Glenton, ‘I Survive by Scrimping – The Plight pf Former Soldiers in Britain.’ DeclassifiedUK, 21 December 2023.
36 Ken MacLeish, ‘Churn: Mobilization–Demobilization and the Fungibility of American Military Life.’ Security Dialogue, 51:2–3 (2020), p. 196. https://doi.org/10.1177/0967010619889469.
37 ‘Armed Forces Day 2019: Salisbury Celebrates National Event.’ Forces.net, 27 June 2019.

Chapter 7

1 Hema Kiruppalini, ‘Imperial Inheritance: The Transnational Lives of Gurkha Families iIn Asian Contexts, 1948–1971.’ Modern Asian Studies, 57:2 (2023), pp. 669–690. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0026749X22000191. See also The Gurkha Museum, ‘Gurkhas and the First World War’ (n.d.). https://thegurkhamuseum.co.uk/blog/gurkhas-and-the-first-world-war/ (accessed 24 February 2024).
2 David Olusoga, The World’s War: Forgotten Soldiers of Empire BBC Two, July 2014. See also David Olusoga, The World’s War (London: Head of Zeus, 2014).
3 David Lammy, ‘How Britain Dishonoured its African First World War Dead.’ Guardian, 3 November 2019. See also Michele Barrett, ‘Dehumanization and the War in East Africa.’ Journal of War & Culture Studies, 10:3 (August 2017), pp. 238–252.
4 Megan Howarth, The Changing Face of War Memorialisation, Remember Me Project (2017). https://archive.ph/lr1al (accessed 24 February 2024); Peter Donaldson, Remembering the South African War: Britain and the Memory of the Anglo-Boer War from 1899 to the Present (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2013).
5 BBC News, ‘WWI Practice Tunnels Found under Salisbury Plain’, 24 April 2017.
6 Maev Kennedy, ‘First World War Training Tunnels and Trenches Discovered in Wiltshire.’ Guardian, 24 April 2017.
7 Thebignote, ‘With the British Army in Flanders & France’. https://thebignote.com/?s=Mary+Agnes+Langdale (accessed 25 August 2024).
8 The Women’s Royal Air Force was the first incarnation of the women's branch of the Royal Air Force; it existed from 1918 to 1920.
9 Zoë H. Wool, After War: The Weight of Life at Walter Reed (Chapel Hill, NC: Duke University Press, 2015).
10 Francis Terry and Associates, Recovery Centre, Tedworth House, Wiltshire. https://ftanda.co.uk/projects/recovery-centre/.
11 Editorial, ‘Restoration and Recuperation.’ Wiltshire Magazine, 2011; The Royal British Legion also assumed part responsibility for some of the costs of running the centre.
12 Terry, Recovery Centre.
13 David Falke, ‘Future of Tedworth House Secured.’ Salisbury Journal, 14 December 2023.
14 Jerome Starkey, ‘Blow to Heroes. Help For Heroes Gives up Flagship Recovery Centres and Lays off 90 as Income Plunges during Covid.’ Sun, 7 April 2021.
15 Wool, After War, p. 5.
16 Ewen MacAskill and Ian Cobain, ‘British Forces’ Century of Unbroken Warfare Set to End with Afghanistan Exit.’ Guardian, 11 February 2014.
17 Mark Curtis, ‘The UK’s 83 Military Interventions Around the World since 1945.’
DeclassifiedUK, 10 January 2023.
18 Paul Rogers, Irregular War: The New Threat from the Margins (London: I.B. Taurus, 2017), p. 196.
19 Ministry of Defence, Defence in a Competitive Age (London: HMSO, March 2021). CP411, p. 9. Available from https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6063061e8fa8f55b6ad297d0/CP411_-Defence_Command_Plan.pdf (accessed 24 August 2024).
20 Mary L. Dudziak, War-Time: An Idea, Its History, Its Consequences (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012), p. 8.
21 Ken MacLeish, ‘The Ethnography of Good Machines.’ Critical Military Studies, 1:1 (2015), p. 9. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/23337486.2014.973680.
22 Ned Temko and Mark Townsend, ‘Scandal of Treatment for Wounded Iraq Veterans.’ Guardian, 11 March 2007.
23 Ibid. A spokesman for University Hospital Birmingham Trust, which is inclusive of Selly Oak Hospital, said that ‘While we cannot comment on individual cases the types of injuries that soldiers sustain and that we treat are very complex – therefore their pain control is very complex.’
24 BBC News, ‘Helping Heroes at Headley Court’, 27 July 2010.
25 Dixon, Warrior Nation, p. 17; Richard Dannatt, Leading from the Front: An Autobiography (London: Bantam, 2011).
26 Kim Sengupta ‘“Diana Effect” Blamed for War Weariness.’ Independent, 5 April 2010.
27 John Bingham, ‘Charity Watchdog Examining Serious Concerns over Help for Heroes.’ Telegraph, 7 February 2016.
28 Ana Pozo and Catherine Walker, ‘UK Armed Forces Charities: An Overview and Analysis.’ Directory of Social Change, 2014. https://archive.ph/yvUUZ.
29 Rebecca Cooney, ‘Help for Heroes Criticised by The Times for Allegedly Spending Millions on Unused Beds.’ Third Sector, 29 September 2015. The article referred to an internal Ministry of Defence review that spoke ‘of an ambitious project where costs grew and decisions to spend charity and tax money were made without sufficient analysis of where it was needed’. The defence correspondent Deborah Haynes claimed that costs for the project had risen to £350 million from the original £70 million, taking over ten years instead of the planned four. In addition, only half of the available bedrooms at the two largest recovery centres were used by serving personnel between August 2013 and January 2015.
30 By 2022, for example, statistics showed that more than half of injuries occurred in training, with the greatest proportion of those sustained by recruits struggling to up their fitness levels in their first phase. While a military-related profession entails more risks to health and safety than many other occupations, this can hardly be expected to arouse sympathy as much as the life-changing injuries suffered in war. Ministry of Defence, ‘MOD health and Safety Statistics: Annual Summary & Trends over Time 2017/18 – 2021/22’ (published 7 July 2022, revised 8 September 2022). Available from: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1104101/MOD_Health___Safety_Statistic_Annual_Report_2021-22.pdf (accessed 24 August 2024).
31 Help for Heroes, ‘Afghanistan: We Fight for Those who Fought for, and with, Us’, 12 July 2022. www.helpforheroes.org.uk/about-us/news/afghanistan-we-fight-for-those-who-fought-for-and-with-us/ (accessed 26 February 2024).
32 Joe Glenton, ‘Shame, Confusion, Betrayal: UK Veterans on the War in Afghanistan.’ DeclassifiedUK, 29 September 2021. https://archive.ph/t5334 (accessed 27 February 2024). Chris Bamford served in the Royal Signals and worked with Afghan translators to intercept radio communications, turning the information into workable intelligence. He told the journalist Joe Glenton that he was unclear what happened to those he worked with. ‘I’m not sure any got out, but at least two were told somewhere that their work would get them into the UK. Hence the betrayal being all the fucking worse, because if they have been left behind after being promised asylum …’
33 Unite the Union and UK Disability History Month, ‘War and Impairment: The Social Consequences of Disablement for Disabled Ex-Servicemen’, November/December 2014. Available from: www.worldofinclusion.com/v3/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/UK-Disability-history-month-2014.pdf (accessed 26 February 2024).
34 ‘The Remarkable Story of Enham Alamein.’ Great British Life, 24 October 2017. www.greatbritishlife.co.uk/magazines/hampshire/22580141.remarkable-story-enham-alamein/ (accessed 26 February 2024).
36 Deborah Cohen, The War Come Home: Disabled Veterans in Britain and Germany, 1914–1939 (London: University of California Press, 2001), p. 123.
37 Ibid., p. 124.
38 ‘The Remarkable Story of Enham Alamein.’
39 Joe Riddle, ‘Veterans Complete Iron Age Project.’ Salisbury Journal, 22 June 2017. https://archive.ph/KU72N (accessed 25 June 2023).
40 N.D.G. James, Plain Soldiering (Salisbury: The Hobnob Press, 1987), p. 113. In James’s account the project was dreamed up after ‘an outbreak of trouble’ at the camp.
41 New Zealand History, First World War Overview, 1919: 15–16 March. ‘Troops Riot at Sling Camp’ https://nzhistory.govt.nz/war/first-world-war-timeline (accessed 24 August 2024). See also T.S. Crawford, Wiltshire and the Great War: Training the Empire’s Soldiers (Marlborough: The Crowood Press, 2012), pp. 233–236.
42 Ministry of Defence, ‘Bulford Kiwi Is Restored to Its Original Splendour’, 16 June 2022. www.gov.uk/government/news/bulford-kiwi-is-restored-to-its-original-splendour (accessed 27 February 2024).
43 The chalk is renewed annually in a joint ceremony with the New Zealand High Commission. In 2023 the Defence Iinfrastructure Organisation issued a statement announcing that ‘As the All Blacks prepare to take on Italy at the Rugby World Cup on Friday, DIO has highlighted the connection between the soldiers who created the Kiwi and the “Trench All Blacks” – a team of soldiers from New Zealand who won “The Somme Cup”, a special rugby division for those fighting in the war’. The press release repeated that falsehood that ‘the New Zealand soldiers still in the UK decided to leave their mark on the countryside before they returned home’. Ministry of Defence and Defence Infrastructure Organisation, ‘Giant Kiwi Monument Shines after Chopper Chalk Drop’, 29 September 2023. gov.uk, 29 September 2023. www.gov.uk/government/news/giant-kiwi-monument-shines-after-chopper-chalk-drop (accessed 24 June 2023).
44 Vron Ware, ‘From War Grave to Peace Garden: Muslim Soldiers, Militarised Multiculture and Cultural Heritage.’ Journal of War and Culture Studies, 10:4 (2017), pp. 287–304. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17526272.2017.1396069.

Chapter 8

1 Martyn Barber, A History of Aerial Photography and Archaeology: Mata Hari’s Glass Eye and Other Stories (Swindon: English Heritage, 2011).
2 Jesse Casana, David D. Goodman and Carolin Ferwerda, ‘A Wall or a Road? A Remote Sensing-Based Investigation of Fortifications on Rome’s Eastern Frontier.’ Antiquity, 97:396 (December 2023), pp. 1516–1533. https://doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2023.153.
3 Wessex Archaeology, Operation Nightingale. www.wessexarch.co.uk/our-work/operation-nightingale (accessed 25 February 2024).
4 Heritage Fund, ‘Project Florence Gains Heritage Lottery Fund Support’, 7 October 2014. www.heritagefund.org.uk/news/project-florence-gains-heritage-lottery-fund-support (accessed 26 February 2024).
5 Layla Renshaw, Exhuming Loss: Memory, Materiality and Mass Graves of the Spanish Civil War (Walnut Creek, CA: Left Coast Press, 2011), p. 11; Layla Renshaw, Marina Álamo Bryan, Zuzanna Dziuban and Claire Moon, Tools in the Search for Human Remains: Thinking through Objects in Forensic Practices. Independent Social Research Foundation, 13 May 2020.
6 ‘Breaking Ground at Barrow Clump.’ Current Archaeology, 5 February 2018. See also Paul Everill, Richard Bennett and Karen Burnell, ‘Dig In: An Evaluation of the Role of Archaeological Fieldwork for the Improved Wellbeing of Military Veterans.’ Antiquity, 94:373 (2020), pp. 212–227. https://doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2019.85.
7 Richard Osgood, Alex Southeran and Maj Ryan Parmentar, ‘A Decade of Discovery – 10 Years of Operation Nightingale.’ Sanctuary, 49 (2020), pp. 18–21.
8 Jonathan Meades, ‘Blighted Plain.’ London Review of Books, 44:1 (6 January 2022).
9 Melanie Friend, The Plain (Stockport: Dewi Lewis Publishing, 2020).
10 Ibid., pp. 84–86.
11 Roy Canham, ‘40 Years on Salisbury Plain, How the Battle to Save Archaeology Was Won.’ Sanctuary, 44 (2015), pp. 26–27.
12 Wiltshire Conservation Team Natural England, Salisbury Plain SSSI Integrated Site Assessment (2014–15), p. 1.
13 Marianna Dudley, ‘A Fairy (Shrimp) Tale of Military Environmentalism: The “Greening” of Salisbury Plain.’ In Chris Pearson, Peter Coates and Tim Cole (eds), Militarized Landscapes: From Gettysburg to Salisbury Plain (London: Continuum, 2010), p. 141.
14 The article is no longer available, but for a full account of the conservation programme on Salisbury Plain see the RSPB’s Wessex Stone-curlew project, Hampshire Ornithological Society, 2021 www.youtube.com/watch?v=5fQzsgUjQXw.
15 Clare Richmond, ‘UK Military Training in Belize, Considering the Environment.’ Sanctuary, 49 (2017), pp. 8–10.
16 Phil Miller and Matt Kennard, ‘Britain Uses Vast Swathes of One of the World’s Most Biodiverse Countries for Military Training – and Pays Nothing.’ DeclassifiedUK, 4 February 2020.
17 N.D.G. James, Plain Soldiering (Salisbury: The Hobnob Press, 1987), pp. 22–23. In 1899 the War Office Salisbury Plain Committee decided that ‘all land outside the approved limits of the Avon Valley cultivation zone should be laid down permanently to grass, as soon as possible’.
18 Brianna Millett, ‘The History of Salisbury Plain “Ghost Village” Left Abandoned since the 1940s.’ Bristol Live, 31 May 2020.
19 Michael Priestly, ‘How a Tenant Farm Manages 3,200ha of Wiltshire Grassland.’ Farmers Weekly, 30 July 2019.
20 Ibid.
21 Tom Heap, ‘On Your Farm: Military Farm’, BBC, 11July 2011, produced by Emma Weatherill.
22 BBC News, ‘Salisbury Plain Stray Shell “Misses Target by Five Miles”’, 10 March 2024.
23 Water is a relatively unexplored aspect of the Ministry of Defence’s historic management of the Plain. Adam Doig, ‘Water Consumption Reduction: Managing a Precious Resource.’ Sanctuary, 49 (2020), p. 50.
24 An FOI request in 2022 showed that there have been no incidents involving damage to animals on Salisbury Plain since 10 July 2020 when eight cows were killed and four injured in a live firing exercise on Castlemartin Army Firing Range in Pembrokeshire, Wales. In 2017, however, an artillery shell landed a few feet from Bruce’s herd. Fortunately, it did not harm any cows although two were trapped in a crater.
25 In October 2023, for example, the Defence Infrastructure Organisation, Wiltshire Council and the Salisbury Plain Rights of Way Volunteers signed an agreement to support the ongoing work of volunteers dedicated to improving and maintaining public access across Salisbury Plain Training Area. Benjamin Paessler, ‘Agreement to Support Volunteers on Salisbury Plain Training Area.’ Salisbury Journal, 4 October 2023.
26 DIO, Salisbury Plain Training Area Newsletter, December 2018.
27 Ministry of Defence, Greenlaning Good Practice Guide. Salisbury Plain Training Area (2020). Ref: MMC13–08–129. Available from: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5fd8c243d3bf7f40cb84c624/20201022-SPTA_Greenlaning_Practice_Guide_2020_Version__Web_-FINAL.pdf (accessed 23 August 2024).
28 ‘Operation Launched to Shut Down Illegal Activity on Salisbury Plain.’ Andover Advertiser, 23 September 2018.
29 Salisbury Plain Safaris, https://salisburyplainsafaris.co.uk.
30 Charles Smith-Jones, ‘Netheravon Shoot in Wiltshire.’ Shooting Times, 25 December 2013.
31 BBC News, ‘Fire Reignites on Salisbury Plain, Causing “Smog”’, 16 July 2022.
32 Phil Miller, ‘Ashes of Empire: Britain’s Burning Injustice in Kenya.’ DeclassifiedUK, 19 January 2023.
33 ‘If the world’s militaries were a country, this figure would mean they have the fourth largest national carbon footprint in the world.’ Stuart Parkinson and Linsey Cottrell, ‘Estimating the Military’s Global Greenhouse Gas Emissions’, p. 2. Scientists for Global Responsibility and the Conflict and Environment Observatory, November 2022. p https://ceobs.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/SGR-CEOBS_Estimating_Global_MIlitary_GHG_Emissions.pdf (accessed 28 February 2024).
34 Lieutenant General Sharon Nesmith, ‘Foreword’, Sanctuary, 51 (2022), p. 2. See also Major General Richard Clements, ‘Around the Services: British Army’. Scientists for Global Responsibility and the Conflict and Environment Observatory (November 2022), p. 7.
35 Stuart Parkinson, ‘The Environmental Impacts of the UK Military Sector.’ Scientists for Global Responsibility and DeclassifiedUK, 2020.
36 Phil Miller, ‘Ukrainian Soldiers Seen with Depleted Uranium Ammo in UK.’ DeclassifiedUK, 27 March 2023. There is no evidence that live depleted uranium has ever been used in Wiltshire.
37 ‘UK to Send Depleted Uranium Munitions to Ukraine.’ CND Salisbury, 21 March 2023.
38 ‘Sinjajevinans Kept Military off the Mountain Again.’ Sinjajevina blog, 13 June 2023 https://sinjajevina.org/blog-feed/ (accessed 26 February 2024).
39 See the campaign website for more information: https://sinjajevina.org/blog-feed (accessed 26 February 2024).
40 David Swanson, ‘UK Pushes Mountain Destruction on Montenegro as Green Policy.’ World Beyond War, 18 August 2022.
41 Caroline Kimeu, ‘Kenya Launches Inquiry into Claims of Abuse by British Soldiers at Training Unit.’ Guardian, 14 August 2023.
42 Phil Miller, ‘British Army’s White Phosphorus Habit Revealed.’ DeclassifiedUK, 3 August 2022. See also Phil Miller, ‘Kenya Warned British Army about Dangerous Ammunition Decades Ago.’ DeclassifiedUK, 21 September 2023.
43 Peter Ross, ‘A Journey Back in Time to the Ghost Village on Salisbury Plain.’ Guardian, 25 August 2023.
See also History of the Bus Services through Imber: https://imberbus.org/bus-history/.

Conclusion

1 Phil Miller, ‘Revealed: The UK Military’s Overseas Base Network Involves 145 Sites in 42 Countries.’ DeclassifiedUK, 24 November 2020.
2 Zoë H. Wool, ‘Critical Military Studies, Queer Theory, and the Possibilities of Critique: The Case of Suicide and Family Caregiving in the US Military.’ Critical Military Studies, 1:1 (2014), p. 2.
3 Cynthia Enloe, Maneuvers: The International Politics of Militarizing Women’s Lives (London: University of California Press, 2000), p. 219.
4 Cynthia Enloe, Bananas, Beaches, and Bases: Making Feminist Sense of International Politics (Oakland: University of California Press, 1990), p. 132.
5 Army Technology, ‘UK Chief of Defence Staff Participated in Daily Coronavirus Briefing’, 2020 https://www.army-technology.com/news/uk-chief-of-defence-staff-participates-in-daily-coronavirus-briefing/ (accessed 15 January 2024).
6 Prime Minister’s Office, ‘Prime Minister’s Statement on Coronavirus (COVID-19)’, 7 January 2021. www.gov.uk/government/speeches/prime-ministers-statement-on-coronavirus-covid-19-7-january-2021 (accessed 10 August 2021).
7 Army.mod.uk, ‘A Year of Supporting COVID Response’, 23 March 2021 www.army.mod.uk/news-and-events/news/2021/03/a-year-of-supporting-covid/ (accessed 26 February 2024).
8 Ministry of Defence, ‘COVID Support Force: MOD’s Contribution to the Coronavirus Response.’ Gov.uk, 2022. www.gov.uk/guidance/covid-support-force-the-mods-continued-contribution-to-the-coronavirus-response (accessed 26 February 2024).
9 Matt Kennard and Joe Glenton, ‘The British Armed Forces Are Using Covid-19 to Solve a Recruitment Crisis and to Heal Their Damaged Reputation.’ Declassified UK, 13 May 2020.
10 Ibid.
11 Ibid.
12 Ryan Evans, ‘Less than 1 in 4 Admire Work of Armed Forces’ Covid Response.’ Andover Advertiser, 24 June 2021.
13 Although some mistakes were made. See BBC News, ‘Used Coronavirus Tests Handed Out by Mistake in Birmingham’, 14 October 2020.
14 Staff working for the Army Welfare Service were also aware that suicide rates amongst personnel had increased slightly during the pandemic. In fact a number of shocking deaths of personnel were reported across Britain’s ‘super garrison’ areas in 2020 and 2021, including the unexplained deaths of Lance Corporal Bernard Mongan in Catterick in January 2020 and an unnamed woman soldier in Larkhill in July 2021. The circumstances around Mongan’s death were particularly egregious as his body was not discovered for a number of weeks and it later emerged that he had been complaining of bullying and had been severely distressed – complaints that were not investigated. Jonathan Beale, ‘Bernard Mongan: Failings by Army over Soldier’s Death, Report Says.’ BBC News, 11 July 2021; Holly Christodoulou, ‘Police Probe Death of Female Soldier, 30s, Found Unresponsive at Royal Artillery Barracks in Larkhill.’ Sun, 23 July 2021.
15 In one example a local bus driver, who walked regularly on Sidbury Hill, the site of an Iron Age hillfort and thus a scheduled monument, told us about an occasion when he was approached by some young men on quad bikes who had warned him to go back as there was some kind of army exercise going on ahead. Since he knew that military training was not permitted there, he had ignored them but it still made him apprehensive.
16 Ulf Schmidt, Secret Science: A Century of Poison Warfare and Human Experiments (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015), pp. 1–2.
17 BBC News, ‘Timeline: Porton Down Laboratory’ 31 January 2008.
18 Defence Science and Technology Laboratory, ‘The Truth about Porton Down: Answering the Myths and Misconceptions.’ gov.uk, 27 June 2016. www.gov.uk/government/news/the-truth-about-porton-down.
19 Frank Gardner, ‘Porton Down: What’s Inside the UK’s Top-Secret Laboratory?’ BBC News, 13 June 2019.
20 James Gallagher, ‘Porton Down: Can This Laboratory Help Stop the Next Pandemic?’ BBC News, 17 August 2023.
21 See also the Defence Chemical Biological Radiological and Nuclear Centre at Winterbourne Gunner, on the south-eastern edge of the Plain. www.gov.uk/government/publications/defence-chemical-biological-radiological-and-nuclear-centre-dcbrnc/defence-chemical-biological-radiological-and-nuclear-centre.
22 Jamie Grierson, ‘Former Kent Barracks to House Asylum Seekers who Arrived by Boat.’ Guardian, 15 September 2020.
23 BBC News, ‘Napier Barracks: Housing Migrants at Barracks Unlawful, Court Rules’, 3 June 2021.
24 Macaully Moffat, ‘Home Secretary James Cleverly on Wethersfield Asylum Centre.’ Daily Gazette, 21 November 2023.
25 Kamena Dorling and Maddie Harris, ‘Ghettoised and Traumatised: The Experiences of Men Held in Quasi-Detention in Wethersfield.’ Helen Bamber Foundation and Humans for Rights Network, 5 December 2023. www.helenbamber.org/sites/default/files/2023-12/HBF%20HRNF%20Ghettoised%20and%20traumatised_report%20on%20Wethersfield_December23.pdf (accessed 26 February 2024).
26 Jordanna Bailkin, Unsettled: Refugee Camps and the Making of Multicultural Britain (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020), p. 10.
27 MoD Boscombe Down, RAF, 2024. www.raf.mod.uk/our-organisation/stations/mod-boscombe-down/ (accessed 26 February 2024).
28 Annette J. Beveridge, ‘Rwanda Deal May Need Migrant Flights from Boscombe Down.’ Salisbury Journal, 18 December 2023.
29 Paul Rogers, ‘The Latest Military Review Decoded.’ Peace News, 2654 (1 June 2021).
30 A survey had in 2012 found that 83 per cent of the population had a high opinion of UK troops (rising to 92 per cent of the over-65s), while only half of those questioned supported the war in Helmand. A. Park, E. Clery, J. Curtice, M. Phillips and D. Utting (eds), British Social Attitudes: the 29th Report (London: NatCen Social Research, 2012).
31 Here Wordsworth was echoing John Milton’s appeal to Lord Fairfax at the siege of Colchester in 1648: ‘For what can war but endless war still breed, / Till Truth and Right from violence be freed.’ (Sonnet 15: Fairfax, whose name in arms through Europe rings).
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England’s military heartland

Preparing for war on Salisbury Plain

eISBN:
9781526174857
Publisher:
Manchester University Press
Cover England’s military heartland
Subjects:
Politics
Keywords:
military; arms industry; ecology; rural; colonial countryside; nature conservation; veterans; army recruitment; war memorials; Salisbury Plain
Page Count:
22
Publisher:
Manchester University Press

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Cover Building a peace economy?

Building a peace economy?

Liberal peacebuilding and the development-security industry

Book

Publication History:

Online Publication Date:
21 Feb 2018
Subjects:
  1. Politics
Available In:
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This book critically examines the range of policies and programmes that attempt to manage economic activity that contributes to political violence. Beginning with an overview of over a dozen policies aimed at transforming these activities into economic relationships which support peace, not war, the book then offers a sustained critique of the reasons for limited success in this policy field. The inability of the range of international actors involved in this policy area, the Development-Security Industry (DSI), to bring about more peaceful political-economic relationships is shown to be a result of liberal biases, resulting conceptual lenses and operational tendencies within this industry. A detailed case study of responses to organised crime in Kosovo offers an in-depth exploration of these problems, but also highlights opportunities for policy innovation. This book offers a new framework for understanding both the problem of economic activity that accompanies and sometimes facilitates violence and programmes aimed at managing these forms of economic activity. Summaries of key arguments and frameworks, found within each chapter, provide accessible templates for both students and aid practitioners seeking to understand war economies and policy reactions in a range of other contexts. It also offers insight into how to alter and improve policy responses in other cases. As such, the book is accessible to a range of readers, including students interested in peace, conflict and international development as well as policy makers and practitioners seeking new ways of understanding war economies and improving responses to them.
Cover Pockets of resistance

Pockets of resistance

British news media, war and theory in the 2003 invasion of Iraq

Book

Publication History:

Online Publication Date:
16 May 2016
Subjects:
  1. Politics
Available In:
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This book analyses British news media coverage of the 2003 invasion of Iraq. It describes the analytical framework that serves as the basis for theoretically informed and systematic analysis of wartime media performance. The book synthesises a range of models, hypotheses and explanatory variables to set out a framework composed of three models of news media performance: the elite-driven model, the independent model and the oppositional model. It provides three case studies which, in different ways, illuminate each model of news media performance in wartime. The three case studies include the case of Jessica Lynch, the case of Ali Abbas and the case of the anti-war movement. The book then presents an account of how the relationship between foreign policy, news media and war might be expected to operate, based on current theoretical understanding. In order to place British coverage of the invasion in context, the book offers brief summaries of the structure and character of Britain's television news services and its press. The book provides an analysis of the ways in which the news media's visual depictions of the war reinforced supportive coverage. It is devoted to documenting and analysing evidence for negotiated and oppositional coverage. The book also examines the representation of civilian casualties, military casualties and humanitarian operations across both television and press, three subject areas that generated a good deal of media criticism.
Cover The United States Supreme Court

The United States Supreme Court

A political and legal analysis, Second edition

Book

Publication History:

Online Publication Date:
16 Jun 2020
Subjects:
  1. Politics
Available In:
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The United States Supreme Court is an important, exciting and controversial institution. This book includes the major decisions of the 2014 and 2015 Supreme Court Term. It examines some of the fascinating policy issues that are central to the Court by examining its contemporary agenda. The book analyses the Court's major decisions on controversial issues such as race, abortion, capital punishment and gay rights. It explains the ideas that underpinned the creation of the Supreme Court in the first place and how and why it has changed over the years. The book then investigates how the framers of the Constitution envisaged the nature and the role of the Supreme Court, and how and why these have evolved. With examples, it also explains the process by which the personal, the judicial and the political are interwoven in some of the Court's most important cases. Next, the book takes up the specifically judicial and legal basics of the Court's structure and processes and looks at the rules and procedures that govern the Justices' work. The key concept of judicial review, the source of the Court's power is then examined. The book moves on to analyse one of the most controversial features of the contemporary Supreme Court, the process of appointing new Justices, and examines the politicisation of the appointment process. Finally, it explores how powerful is the Court and what is its role in American government and politics.