‘The Sanctuary of Them All’: The politics of manpower and nationality in the armies in exile in the United Kingdom, 1940–4', Historical Research, 97/276 (2024), pp. 259-79.

Historians have long remarked upon the political significance of the Allied armies from Continental Europe which were established on British soil during the Second World War. Much less attention has been devoted to the implications of maintaining and expanding these forces amid the very particular circumstances of wartime exile.

This article examines three aspects of the tension between the imperatives to secure as many men as possible for military service while maintaining the distinctly ‘national’ character of the force as  a whole. The failure to mobilize emigrants and expatriates is examined in the first section, while the second section shows how soldiers could use national identities to their own advantage and pass between foreign armies. The final section examines the far-reaching political consequences of the often-obscured ethnic diversity within the ranks, focusing particularly on Jewish soldiers.

This publication can be accessed at the journal's website. It is paywalled. If you are having difficulty accessing it, please contact me.

‘The ‘Settler Moment’ in Belgian Africa: Europeans in the Belgian Congo and Ruanda-Urundi during the Second World War’, Journal of Belgian History, 50/1 (2020), pp. 38-58.

The article argues that the unique circumstances of the Second World War allowed the white population of Belgian Africa to seek enhanced power and influence. Though ultimately unsuccessful, their experience is significant for several reasons, not least because it serves to illustrate a number of important longer-term trends. These include the complex relationship between Europeans and both their own colony, at once dependent but resentful, and that with other European populations elsewhere in Africa.

It does not aim to present a panoramic overview of the often-disparate factions and political causes which emerged during the period.  Rather, it focuses on two particular themes. The first is the sense of political possibility which was created by new relationships, between the Congo and other African colonial societies and in particular South Africa. The second examines their experimentation with new forms of political mobilisation loosely based on trade unionism which would characterise the period.

Taken together, these themes show a colonial population intent on seizing real power and influence from the colonial administration rather than passively following it, as is sometimes assumed.

This publication is available open-access at the journal's website.



I regularly contribute book reviews of works connected to my fields of interest.  Recent examples have appeared in the Journal of African History, Canadian Journal of African Studies, Journal of African Military History, Journal of Military History, and Journal of Belgian History.