John Paul Harris
University Education: 1974-1977 Department of History - King’s College London; 1977-1980 Department of War Studies King’s College London; 1980-1981 Faculty of Education University of Birmingham; University Prize Brewer Prize for History King’s College London –1976; Degrees: 1977 BA (Hons) History – (Upper Second Class) King’s College London; 1983 PhD War Studies King’s College London Thesis title: “The War Office and Rearmament 1935-1939” EMPLOYMENT HISTORY: Jan 1983-Apr 1983 Lecturer in Politics London International College; Apr 1983-Aug 1984 Registrar London International College; Aug 1984-Nov 1986 Director of Studies London International College; Nov 1986-July 2022 Senior Lecturer Department of War Studies Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. RESEARCH FELLOWSHIP: Senior Research Fellow in the Institute for the Study of War and Society De Montfort University 1994-2000. VISITING PROFESSORSHIPS: Visiting Professor of History, University of Southern Mississippi, 1999-2000 Visiting Professor of History, Shepherd University, West Virginia, August-December 2008. ACADEMIC/LITERARY PRIZES: Templer Medal (for best book on the history of the British Army) 2009; Distinguished Book Award for Biography, (US) Society for Military History 2010; [Both for Douglas Haig and the First World War (Cambridge) 2008] MEMBERSHIP OF ACADEMIC SOCIETIES: Fellow of the Royal Historical Society; Member of the Royal United Service Institute; Member of the British Commission for Military History; Member of the Society for Military History; Member of the Army Records Society. BATTLEFIELD STUDIES: I was for a while in charge of co-ordinating the RMA War Studies department’s support for battlefield studies and staff rides for the British armed services. In over thirty years at RMA Sandhurst, I was involved in many battlefield studies for the RMA and for the wider British army and one for a NATO headquarters. I have made several trips to the battlefields of the Western Front 1914-1918, including the Ypres Salient, Vimy Ridge and the Somme. I have assisted with studies of the Second World War battlefields of Sedan, Arras and Crete. I have helped conduct a total of four battlefield studies to the Gallipoli Peninsula including three in the period 2015-2016, these being with the Lille-based NATO Rapid Reaction Corps, with 42nd Brigade and with 2 PWRR. In February 2020I was the main historian with Operation Urban Shamrock, taking a Northern Ireland reserve brigade around the urban battlefield of Hue, Vietnam. CONFERENCE PAPERS: I have given a very large number over my thirty-five years at Sandhurst and have kept few records. I gave a paper on the British government and the Dardanelles to the Rapid Reaction Corps at Lille in early 2015 and a paper entitled “Haig and the Somme” to the University of Liverpool’s “Last Day of the Somme” conference in November 2016.
