As you might expect from an archivist, William Spencer is to be found poring over old documents as he awaits his
Legion interview. The head of military records at the National Archives, located near Kew Gardens in London, explains that the yellowing papers in front of him form part of an opinion-gathering exercise on ‘field-punishment number one’.
Consequently, the first question of the interview is:
“What was field punishment number one?”
It turns out that it was an Army practice established in 1881 to replace flogging. “Basically,” says William, “the guilty party was tethered to the wheel of a field gun for two hours a day, and for a period of up to 90 days if the punishment was awarded by a court martial.”
He says that, despite persistent rumours to the contrary, he has seen no evidence that the guns were ever fired while someone was tied to the wheel. And although it was introduced as a more humane punishment than the whip, there was still a feeling that it was a degrading and humiliating punishment. “These documents show that they talked about its abolition in 1916, but Douglas Haig, the Commander in Chief of the British Expeditionary Force, wanted to continue with it because he thought it was a good deterrent – not unlike being stuck up against the wall and shot. But Winston Churchill was one of the prime movers to get it abolished and that happened in 1923.”
As arguably the country’s leading military historian, William is hugely enthusiastic about documents like these. He’s no less enthusiastic about his job as a whole – which ranges from answering calls from the public on any archive-related topic, to serving as an expert witness for the FBI.
It’s not a purely academic interest either, since he served in the Falklands War with the Royal Navy and has been a keen medal collector for more 25 years (see next page).
His academic credentials are equally good, and include
an MA in War Studies from King’s College, London. He is also the author of 14 books (in just 15 years) on military research. He’s pretty much obsessed, if truth be told, and confesses that he finds it hard to switch off, even when at home. He’s so keen to read about military history that the only fiction he’s read in the past 10 years has been the Harry Potter series of children’s books.
“It is a passion,” he admits. “I find it very easy. It’s because I really do eat, sleep and drink military history.”
Clearly, he wishes there were more hours in the day. He explains that the National Archives has material dating back to the 15th century and such is the volume that there are 2.75 million records of service of British Army and other ranks for World War I alone. The Archives don’t yet have the records of service for World War II, but there are 142.5 million pieces of paper in the hands of the Ministry of Defence, relating to records of service from 1921 to 1949, which will be passed on in the near future. Then there is all the operational material, related to design, production and procurement of material for the armed forces.
“The total number of records is difficult to pin down,” says William. “Suffice to say that we have 160km (100 miles) of shelving in Kew, and a significant number of records, primarily medieval and Victorian, stored up in Cheshire.”
From Agincourt to WaterlooThere is such a wealth of information that no one person could ever look through it all. As a result, the Archives’ staff work with other institutions. For example, there is currently work devoted to researching material on the archers from the Battle of Agincourt in 1415. There were several thousand archers in total, and the University of Southampton is working its way through all the material about them to see what new insights it can unearth.
In addition, William says that every man who served at the Battle of Trafalgar has now been identified and catalogued onto a database, and the same is likely to be done for the records from the Battle of Waterloo to coincide with the forthcoming bicentenary of the battle.
His job isn’t always connected to military records, however. When he takes his turn on the public enquiry desk, he may get calls on any subject. “It might be something to do with the design of a bus or a canal or a railway or tax. It’s always interesting,” he says.
But it can be frustrating in equal measure. “If you actually look at a lot of our records – which tend to be used by people researching family trees – they often to relate to money. Certainly, the Army was never interested in an individual for a family historian’s future use. They wanted to know when they joined, when they left, and what they did between those dates that could affect the Treasury, whether it’s pensions, or deprivation of pay if they had been bad.”
Not surprisingly, given his background, William is looking forward to getting his hands on material relating to the Falklands. The operational material is still in the hands of the Ministry of Defence and in accordance with current legislation should be available in 2013. “I am looking forward to it. Hopefully I can pick up some of my own personal trails,” he says.
If you ask him about his time in the Falklands, he says it was ‘an experience and a half’. Originally, he had wanted to become a pilot, but an eye operation convinced him that his sight wouldn’t be good enough. So, he chose the next best thing, which was “to stay with aeroplanes and to be an aircraft engineer”. And the reason he chose the Royal Navy over the Royal Air Force was because it would provide him with the opportunity for travel and yet still work on aircraft.
The travel opportunities came quickly. Joining in 1980 at 17, he was soon in the South Atlantic. “I watched HMS
Antelope get hit, explode and sink,” he says. “And I was on the
Fearless when the container ship
Atlantic Conveyor was hit and destroyed. Then, I was transferred from the
Fearless to the
Europic Ferry in a landing craft during an air raid, and then I ended up on the
Hermes until she came home in July.
“That was my war experience,” he says. He acknowledges that he didn’t see or experience a lot of things that other people endured. “I was on the periphery,” he admits. Even so, he thinks that the experience helps him in his current role. “In a way, I have been there, seen it and done it.
I find that it puts ex-service personnel at ease if you can say, ‘well actually I’ve done this.’
“Plus, I can understand the lingo. It means that I can, hopefully, use my experience and my knowledge of the records to help them to get where they are going and help unlock the records that we hold here.”
• If you want to search for military records prior to 1922, contact the National Archives by post at: The National Archives, Kew, Richmond, Surrey, TW9 4DU. Or you can telephone on 020 8876 3444. Lines
are open Mondays and Fridays from 9am to 5pm; Tuesdays
and Thursdays from 9am to 7pm; Wednesdays from 10am to 5pm and Saturdays from 9:30am to 5pm. You can also search online at
www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/militaryhistory
