Rory M. Butcher

Email: hyrdmb@leeds.ac.uk
Thesis title: The Fencible Regiments in Britain, 1793-1802.
Supervisors: Dr Kevin Linch, Dr Pete Maw

Profile

I began my academic career at the University of Wales Trinity St David, Lampeter, where I completed my undergraduate degree in Conflict and War in 2018. I then moved to the University of Kent to complete my master’s degree in Imperial History. In the time after graduating, I worked in an education institution and the civil service before relocating to Leeds for my doctorate. My MA dissertation entitled 'Preparatory and Apparently Easy Service’: The Fencible Regiments in Britain 1793–1802 introduced me to the home defence apparatus which operated during the French Revolutionary Wars; I have continued working on this topic for my PhD thesis, and other publications. Alongside my doctoral research, I am currently receiving a three-year Fellowship from the Army Records Society to support the production of an edited collection on the fencible regiments, scheduled for publication in 2026.

Awards

Army Records Society Fellowship Scheme, 2022-2025
Second Prize, British Commission for Military History “3 Minute Thesis” Competition, 2023
Society for Army Historical Research Minor University Research Grant, 2022
Professor Daniel Dawson Prize for History, 2018

Book Reviews

‘No Want of Courage: The British Army in Flanders, 1795–1795, by R. N. W. Thomas’, Journal of the Society for Army Historical Research, 101.406 (Autumn 2023), 256-7

Conference Papers

‘Done the Correct Way’? Spectrums of Authenticity and Accuracy in UK Historical Reenactment of c.1750-1870’, Playing War: Simulations, Games, Exercises, and the Representations of MIlitary Force and Violence, Universität Regensburg (2024)
‘I was obliged to go to please the laird’: Enlistment Data and Motivations in the Fencible Regiments, 1793-1802’, Napoleonic and Revolutionary War Graves Commission: War and Peace in the Age of Napoleon Conference, York St John University (2024)
‘Labourers, Hatters, and Wrights: The Fencible Regiments, Motivations for Service, and British Home Defence, 1793-1802’, Military History Consortium Annual Conference, University of Lancaster (2024)
‘Best for the Country? The Fencible Deployments in Ireland, 1795-1802’, British Commission for Military History Early Careers Researcher Conference, University of Hull (2023)
'The Hampshire Fencibles and Public Perception', Lightning Talk, Alliances in the History of Armed Conflict Conference, The National Army Museum (2023)
‘Flags, Badges, and Bagpipes: Regimental and National Identity in the British Fencible Regiments’, Weapons in Society Conference, The Royal Armouries, Leeds (2023)
“Behaving in a Dastardly Manner’? Fencible (Dis)order in the French Revolutionary Wars’, Napoleonic and Revolutionary War Graves Commission: War and Peace in the Age of Napoleon Conference, The National Army Museum (2022)
‘Foreigners at Home? The Scottish Fencibles “Abroad” in Britain, 1793-1802’, Eighteenth-Century Scottish Studies Society Annual Conference, University of Liverpool (2022)
‘The Fencibles: Assessing Recruitment to the Home Defence Regiments’, Society for Army Historical Research Centenary Conference, The National Army Museum (2021)

Media

BBC 3 Counties Radio
History Rage, Podcast
The Napoleonic Wars Podcast
Well That Aged Well, Podcast

Presentations

‘Le Régiment Gatinois and the American Revolution, 1776-1781’, Redcoats and Revolutionaries Lecture Series (2024)
‘Home Defence in the French Revolutionary Wars’, Waterloo Association Study Day, Royal Armouries, Leeds (2024) and History Society Lecture Series, University of Kent, Canterbury (2024)
‘Soldiering in Late Eighteenth-Century Britain’, Department for War Studies Guest Lecture, University of Hull (2024)
‘My King and My Kingdom’: The Scottish Fencibles and their Service within Britain, 1793–1802’, Napoleonic and Revolutionary War Graves Commission Seminar Series (2023)

Publications

‘A Mutinous Disposition? Discipline and (Dis)order in the Fencible Regiments in Britain and Ireland, 1793-1802’, War in History (Forthcoming in 2025)
“By Beat of Drum or Otherwise': Assessing Recruitment to the Fencible Regiments, 1793–1802’ in One Hundred Years of Army Historical Research: Proceedings of the SAHR Centenary Conference, ed. Andrew Bamford (Warwick: Helion & Company Ltd., 2023), pp. 103–128
‘An Acceptable Level of Violence: Assessing the Development of the British Government’s Security Approach to ‘The Troubles’ From 1969–79’, The Journal of Intelligence Conflict and Warfare 1:2 (2018)

Teaching

HIST1000 – Exploring History
HIST1065 – Diverse Histories of Britain

Academic Activity

I currently serve as the Student Representative on the Council for the Society for Army Historical Research, and am organising their February 2025 research conference ‘Land Forces of the Crown, c.1660-2000’, taking place in Leeds. I am affiliated with the War Studies Research Cluster at Leeds, and am a member or postgraduate member of the other following organisations:

Research interests

My PhD research is focused on the fencible regiments – a solution to opposition to the introduction of the quasi-conscripted militia system in Scotland – during the French Revolutionary Wars. They had been used throughout the latter decades of the eighteenth century, and later gained popularity in British North America; my doctoral research is restricted to the period 1793–1802. This includes questions surrounding:

Interactions between the different branches of the home defence apparatus, particularly during the extended fencible deployment in Ireland before, during, and after the 1798 Rising
Civil-military relations within British and Irish society
Discipline and disorder within the fencible regiments, noting the roles that contractual soldiering played in forging a distinct military identity and that cultures of honour played in shaping military masculinity
Recruitment strategies and enlistment motivations, including consideration of the impact of the lessened Highland Clans
Military, regional, and national identity in fencible regiments, particularly focusing on the layers of British, and subnational (i.e. English, Scottish, Welsh, and Irish) identities which developed in the fencibles
The role the fencibles played in furthering commissioned and non-commissioned military careers

My wider research interests include, but are not limited to:

the British Army, 1775–1815
British national identity
civil-military relationships
military material culture and identity
contractual soldiering and motivations for military service
working with archives
public engagement with history

I welcome any correspondence on these topics, whether that be academic discussion or avenues for collaboration. I can be contacted via email, on Twitter @RMB_History, or on Bluesky @RMBHistory.

Qualifications

PhD History (in progress)
MA Imperial History, Distinction (2019)
BA (Hons) Conflict and War, First Class (2018)

Research groups and institutes

War Studies