Re-archiving the Individual: British Army Officers, 1790-1820

Description

How do you analyse the lives of 40,000 people from the past?

‘Re-Archiving the Individual’ explored how we can reconstruct historical lives from archival records on a mass scale through the development of digital technologies.

Our research team created a ‘life archive’ as a tool to understand people in the past. This publicly accessible database of officers in the British Army from the late 18th and early 19th century, covers over 50,000 people who served in conflicts across the globe.

You can explore the database here. Through it, you can explore patterns to understand what was typical about officers’ careers. The database allows us to understand:

• how long officers were in the Army
• how quickly – or slowly – they were promoted
• who served where and when

You can search for individuals, or whole cohorts by unit or rank.

To create this database, we developed a process and code to link historical records and so allow the exploration of individuals at a scale that is impossible through traditional historical techniques.

As well as developing the technology we explored the importance of this technique to archives looking at records can be ‘re-archived’ in a way that offers innovative opportunities for researchers, new ways for archives to engage with the collections they hold, and is more accessible to the public.

Partners and collaboration

Delivering this project involved working closely with some key partners to bridge between archives, digital humanities, and academics. The project works closely with:

• The National Archives, Kew: not only do they hold the records that we are using, but they are also the UK’s leaders for the archive sector.
• The Digital Humanities Institute, the University of Sheffield: the UK’s leader centre for digital humanities, famous for the Old Bailey Online project.

We also welcome contact from archives and museums who would like to know more about the project or may hold material that relates to our work.

Project activities 

Events

• 25 March 2023: ‘Family and social connections of British Army officers’ commissions, 1790-1820’ at the Alliances in ‘The History of Armed Conflict, 1642-Present’ conference at The National Army Museum. Book via The National Army Museum website. Read more about the research and conference on the news page.
• 21 April 2023: ‘Personal and Personnel: Military Records 1790-1820’. Hands-on workshop at The National Archives. Read more about the workshop on the news page.
• 17th July 2023: ‘Data Workshop: British Army Officers, 1790-1820’, at the University of Leeds. Read more about the workshop on the news page.
• 8th December 2023: ‘Making the British Army Officer’: a talk at the National Army Museum, London. Read more on the news page.
• 15 June 2024: ‘Waterloo Study Day: Officers of the British Army, 1790-1820’ at the National Archives. Read more about the workshop on the event page.
• 10^th July 2024: ‘Data Workshop: Person-Matching Technology and Archival Records’, at the University of Leeds. Read more about the workshop on the event page.

Publications and outpits

• Kevin Linch, William Butler and Simon Quinn, ‘The Architecture and Archaeology of War Office Records’, Archives and Records (published online 2024). Available open access through the journal’s website.
• Kevin Linch, Simon Quinn, and Jamie McLaughlin, Georgian Army officers database.

Resources

• Kevin Linch, Simon Quinn, and Jamie McLaughlin, Georgian Army officers dataset.
• Jamie McLaughlin, Source code for the British Army Officers project.

In the news

• 'Mystery of Waterloo’s dead soldiers to be re-examined by academics', The Guardian, 18 June 2022.
• Funding success to develop new ways of reconstructing historical lives

External links

• UK Gateway to Research page for the project
• Arts and Humanities Research Council