SAHR Annual Student Essay Competition – Prize Winners
2016
First Prize
Matthew Mallia (University of Malta)
Undergraduate ‘Galloping at everything’: Wellington and the British Heavy Cavalry charge at
Waterloo
Runner-up
Eamonn O’Keeffe (Merton College, University of Oxford)
Undergraduate ‘Such want of gentlemanly conduct’: The General Court Martial of Lt John de Hertel
First Prize
No award made
Schools
Runner-up
No award made
Schools
2015
First Prize
Filip Kurowski (University of Birmingham)
Undergraduate Wandering in the Desert: What kind of difficulties did the British Army encounter
during the North African Campaign 1940-1943?
Runner-up
Christopher Batt (University of Birmingham)
Undergraduate To what extent was the Allied victory in the Peninsular War due to the performance of
the Duke of Wellington and his British troops?
First Prize
Toby Clark (Bloxham School)
Schools
An investigation into the wartime experiences of three generations of the Cartwright
family
Runner-up
No award made
Schools
Honourable
Shakil Karim (Harrow School)
Mention
To what extent did the Battle of Jutland change the course of the blockade of Germany
in the North Sea?
2014
First Prize
Alice Parker (University of Liverpool)
Undergraduate To what extent were the officers and men of Wellington’s army responsible for the
negative image of Britain’s role in the Peninsular War (1808-1814), that has to a very
large extent held sway in Spain right down to the current era?
Runner-up
Liam Davison (University of East Anglia)
Undergraduate ‘Wilderness of Warfare?’ To what extent can it be argued that conventional military
tactics failed in the Anglo-French war in North America 1754-1760?
First Prize
Lucy Richardson (Woodbridge School)
Schools
To what extent was Douglas Haig a bad General?
Runner-up
Vinura Abeysekera (Gateway College, Sri Lanka)
Schools
History of the British Army: Evolution of the British Raj and the British Indian Army
2013
First Prize
Christopher Cottrell-Mason (Gonville & Caius College, University of Cambridge)
How far did the British security forces help bring about a solution to ‘the Troubles’ in
Ireland?
Runner-up
James Vitali (Sherborne School)
The British Army and D-Day: Why were the British Forces more successful than the
Americans on the day?
First Prize
Runner-up
First Prize
Runner-up
First Prize
Runner-up
2012
Scott Ansell (New College, University of Oxford)
Trench raiding in the First World War: A misunderstood practice
James O’Riordan (Woodbridge School)
Has the threat to British soldiers increased since World War II?
2011
No award made
No award made
2010
Christopher Choy (University of Kent)
Last stand on the Imjin River: Could the loss of the 1st Battalion, Gloucestershire
Regiment have been averted?
Jordan Emery (Welbeck Defence Sixth Form College)
An ‘Entente Cordiale’? Franco-British Military relations from 1850 to 1904