Rory M. Butcher

Rory M. Butcher began his academic career at the University of Wales Trinity St David, Lampeter, where he completed his undergraduate degree in Conflict and War in 2018. Rory then moved to the University of Kent to complete his master’s degree in Imperial, where his dissertation introduced him to the home defence apparatus which operated during the French Revolutionary Wars. His doctoral research centred on the Fencible Regiments - units raised under specific geographic and time limitations – which allowed the explorative questions of national identity, masculinity, civil-military relationships, and negotiated authority in late-eighteenth-century Britain.

Dr Butcher is a keen advocate for public engagement with history, and has worked in heritage and historical outreach for over a decade. In recent years this has included serving on the Council for the Society for Army Historical Research, organising a two-day research conference at Leeds, and presenting nationally and internationally at museums and conferences. Rory has most recently worked as the Research Promotion Officer at the Armouries, co-ordinating academic outreach initiatives and events.

In addition, he is 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 2027.

As a LAHRI Postdoctoral Visiting Fellow, Rory will build upon his doctoral research into the Fencible Regiments between 1793 and 1802, which included the collation and digitisation of over 2000 soldiers’ enlistment records, to consider how seasonal employment/unemployment impacted recruitment into the eighteenth-century British army, and will consider how changes in the labour market and in urban development impacted labourer migration.

Scholarship concerning enlistment motivations has undergone reconfiguration in recent years, with explanations moving beyond the cynical ideal of soldiers dragged from the gutter towards a more holistic evaluation of personal experiences. This research will reflect this, and in particular is influenced by the methodology pioneered by John Lynn and Ilya Berkovich, in which the motivation behind military service is broken down into three stages. The “initial” stage of motivation is when soldiers are afforded the most agency over their lives in uniform, and in particular meant that men exerted control over entering the army, as opposed to continuing their pre-enlistment trade. After all, enlistment is the one point in a soldier’s military career where he occupies the liminal space of both soldier and civilian, and this research utilises this nature to examine both spheres.

Publications:

Journal Articles 

‘A Mutinous Disposition? Discipline and (Dis)order in the Fencible Regiments in Britain and Ireland, 1793-1802’, War in History (2024), https://doi.org/10.1177/09683445241306994.

‘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).

Edited Volume 

(Forthcoming) The Fencible Regiments in Britain and Ireland, 1793-1802, ed. by Rory Butcher, Army Records Society Primary Source Volume (Boydell and Brewer, 2027).

Book chapter 

(Forthcoming) ‘Scottishness on English Terms? Highland Uniform in the late Eighteenth Century’ in Uniform: Innovation and Identity, ed. by Matilda Greig and Melanie O’Brien-Price (Helion, 2027).

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.

Conferences and events:

• ''Uniformly and decently dressed’: Constructing regimental and national identity in the British fencible regiments, 1793-1802, Material Matters Conference, Fort Ticonderoga Center for Digital History (2026) 
• ‘The Fencible Regiments in Britain and Ireland, 1793-1802’, Friday Insights Public Lecture Series, National Army Museum (2025) 
• ‘Contractual soldiering and negotiated authority during the French Revolutionary Wars’, Early Modern Economic and Social History Seminar, University of Cambridge (2025) 
• “Merit worthy of approbation’, Catholic and Jacobite rehabilitation in the British Fencibles, 1793 – 1802’, Society for the History of War Conference, University of Potsdam (2025)

Teaching:

Rory has taught on 3 modules at Leeds. His work on HIST1000 Exploring History prepared students with the basics of the methodology of historical enquiry, considering how scholarship and primary material must be used as the foundation for good quality research. Rory's teaching on HIST1065 Diverse Histories of Britain centred on widening student understanding about historiographical approaches, the importance of evaluating how historians’ work includes or excludes communities, and how this can be challenged. HIST1060 Faith, Knowledge, and Power discusses early modern Europe, and he thoroughly enjoyed bringing the experiences of the period to his students; he taught on everything from the Reformation, to cultural exchange, to luxury and print culture.

Qualifications:

• PhD History (2026) 
• MA Imperial History, Distinction (2019) 
• BA (Hons) Conflict and War, First Class (2018)

Professional memberships:

• Associate Fellowship AdvanceHE (AFHEA)