Zack White joined the BCMH Committee in 2018 and is one our the Committtee's links with the Post Graduate community.
Doctoral researcher, and holder of the Archival scholarship, at the University of Southampton, specialising in crime and punishment in the British Army during the Napoleonic Wars.
I have devoted my academic career to studying the social impact of the Napoleonic era, with a particular focus on Britain during the period. My work has included examining the relationship between British soldiers and their commander the Duke of Wellington during the Peninsular War (1808-1814), and exploring the role and impact of caricatures and newspapers on the British public’s engagement with the same conflict.
In 2018 I was very fortunate to be awarded an archival scholarship by the University of Southampton, and began research for my PhD. My project, entitled ‘Plunder, Provost and Punishment: Discipline under Wellington’s Command, 1808-1818’, investigates crime and punishment in the British Army during that period, uncovering evidence of a ‘live and let live’ attitude amongst many officers towards disciplining their men, and questioning why some crimes, such as sexual misconduct do not appear in army trial records.
Prior to taking up my scholarship, I was a secondary school history teacher, and I remain passionate about making the past accessible and engaging for the public. I am very luck to maintain strong links with my former teaching colleagues, and run a history lecture series aimed at A-level students and members of the public at a school in Bournemouth.
I am also Editor-in-Chief of the Nineteenth-Century interdisciplinary research journal Romance, Revolution & Reform, the creator on the online hub TheNapoleonicWars.net, and the British Commission for Military History’s ‘Post-Graduate Liaison and Social Media Officer’.
