Fulwood Barracks and the Garrison Town of Preston: Regional Identity, Local Regiments and Social Change, 1848-1948

Beck, Rose

Abstract

British Army regimental histories have attracted a good deal of criticism among historians due to their partisan nature and their tendency to gloss over human error, poor command, or the actual nature of a campaign in which a regiment participated. In comparison to the high number of regimental histories, there are far fewer studies which consider the relationship between regiments and the towns in which they were based. This longitudinal study considers Fulwood Barracks in the industrial town of Preston in the North West of England and the interactions that occurred with the citizens between 1848-1948. At the barracks the Loyals (North Lancs.), the East Lancashire and the South Lancashire regiments, in particular, were based. The purpose of this study is to chart the nature of social and attitudinal changes vis-à-vis civil-military relations in Britain from the completion of the barracks in 1848, through the wars of Empire in Victorian and Edwardian Britain; the Crimean War, the South African War, the First World War and the Second World War. This study is a social history, which seeks to identify trends over a one-hundred year period. It sheds new light on a range of subjects including class relations, the appeal of Empire and the social impact of successive military reforms, especially the Cardwell Reforms, the Childers Reforms, the Haldane Reforms and the effects of demobilisation after 1918 and 1945. This thesis ultimately argues that the construction of Fulwood Barracks contributed to a change in civilian attitudes towards soldiers in Preston, moving from ambivalence to acceptance and eventually adoption.

• Thesis Type: Thesis
• Online Publication Date: Mar 27, 2025
• Deposit Date: Mar 4, 2025
• Publicly Available Date: Apr 28, 2025
• Award Date: Mar 27, 2025