Professor Brian Holden-Reid
Department of War Studies
Room K6.14
King's College London
Strand, London WC2R 2LS
Email:
brian.reid@kcl.ac.uk
Tel: +44 (0)20 7848 2831
Fax: +44 (0)20 7848 2026
Office hours: Tuesdays 15:00-16:30
Areas of interest
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British and American Military Thought in the 20th Century
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The American Civil War
Biography
Brian Holden Reid is Professor of American History and Military Institutions, King’s College, London. He is a graduate of the Universities of Hull, Sussex and London. He first joined the Department of War Studies in 1982. having also taught at the Polytechnic of North London and City University. He was appointed Senior Lecturer in 1982 and to his chair in 2000. He served as Head of the Department of War Studies 2001-07 and in 2007 was awarded the Fellowship of King’s College (FKC), the highest honour the College can award its alumni and staff and he is both. Professor Holden Reid is also a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, the Royal Geographical Society, the Royal United Services Institute, and the Royal Society for the Encouragement of the Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (FRSA)
For much of Professor Holden Reid’s career he has enjoyed a close association with the British armed forces. From 1984-1987 he was editor of the RUSI Journal in Whitehall, and he edited the RUSI's publications, including its 'Defence Studies' Series (Macmillan). In 1996 he became a Consultant Editor (Military History) to the RUSI Journal, and he is now a member of its editorial board as he is of numerous other journals. From 1987-97 he was seconded by the Department of War Studies to the Staff College, Camberley, where he served as Resident Historian. He was the first civilian to serve on the Directing Staff for over a century, and helped set up the Higher Command and Staff Course to prepare selected Colonels and Brigadiers for the most senior appointments. Among his old students include the current Chief of the Defence Staff, the Chief of the General Staff and a former First Sea Lord, and the chiefs of many overseas armies. Professor Holden Reid has lectured at innumerable military institutions and formation study days, and served on many boards involved with the training and education of officers, including the Strategic and Combat Studies Institute. He was Chief Examiner of the Army Promotion Examination in War Studies for many years. Professor Holden Reid is a graduate of the Staff College, Camberley (HCSC, 1988, psc, 1991) and an honorary graduate of the School of Advanced Military Studies at the United States Command and General Staff College, Fort Leavenworth.
Affiliations & postions held
Professor Holden Reid was a member of the Council and then Chairman of the Army Record Society, and is currently an Honorary Vice President. He has also served on the Council of the Army Records Society, as an elected Trustee of the Society of Military History, currently serving his second term, and a Trustee and Member of the Council of the National Army Museum, London, and serving as chairman of its Disposals and Acquisition subcommittee; from 2003-7 he was a Trustee of the Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives at King’s. He was the first non-American to serve on the Jury for the Lincoln Prize, the most distinguished prize awarded in the field of Civil War History. He has delivered prominent lectures in the United States, and in 2007 the year of the bicentenary of Robert E. Lee, was the first non-American to deliver the Elizabeth Roller Bottimore Lecture at the University of Richmond on the theme of ‘Robert E. Lee: The British View’.
Professor Brian Holden Reid was recently selected by the Society for Military History to receive the 2010 Moncado Award for his outstanding article, 'Michael Howard and the Evolution of Modern War Studies' published in the 73rd volume of The Journal of Military History. In 2010 he become a member of King’s College Council .
Lectures, keynotes & presentations
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Professor Brian Holden-Reid gave a lecture on ‘The Relations between Officers and British Society’ to a joint session of the Advanced Staff Course of the UK Joint Services Command and Staff College and the French equivalent at l’École de Guerre housed in the École Militaire in Paris on Wednesday, 1st February 2012. This is a wholly new venture in combined staff training, following the signing of the Lancaster House Treaty of 2 December 2011 which links our military forces together.
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Professor Holden-Reidsopke at Warwick School on the topic of HG Wells on March 23 2011.
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Professor Holden-Reid gave the John Terraine Memorial Lecture at Birmingham University on 10 May 2010
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Professor Holden Reid gave a lecture at the Royal United Services Institute, Whitehall, on 10 November 2009 on the theme of 'The Origins of the American Civil War' - noting the connection between how wars start, are conducted and remembered.
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Professor Holden Reid gave a revised and extended Peter J. Parish Memorial Lecture (sponsored by the British American Nineteenth Century Historians, BrANCH, which Parish founded) on 'William T. Sherman and the South' in All Souls College, Oxford on 4th November 2009
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He is lectured on the subject of 'How Were Civil War Armies Kept in the Field?' and gave the inaugural oration of the Keogh Society, a new body named after an Australian army officer who wrote two books on the American Civil War, dedicated to furthering its study, which the former Deputy Prime Minister Kim Beazley and other distinguished Australians attended.
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Brian Holden Reid lead a seminar on the theme of 'The Idea of a Staff College' with the Deputy Commandant and Senior Directing Staff at the Australian Staff College.
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On 17 October 2009 he gave the Peter J. Parish Memorial Lecture (sponsored by the British American Nineteenth Century Historians, BrANCH, which Parish founded) on 'William T. Sherman and the South'.
For a list of publications, please see:
Prof Brian Holden Reid - Select Publications