Public Lecture
Hearts and Minds of a different kind: The Military Family at War
Dr. Aimée Fox, King's College London
Date and Venue
Wednesday
2 April 2025
1700 hrs
Massey 7
Abstract
Throughout history, the family has been depicted as a source of strength and resilience for modern militaries, contributing to operational effectiveness. Yet, family often represents a political problem for armed forces as it has the potential to challenge the loyalty of service personnel to the ‘greedy' military institution. As recent defence censuses and attitudes surveys reveal, the family plays a critical role in influencing retention decisions. This lecture seeks to bridge modern and historic perspectives on the military family. Drawing on correspondence and material culture from the First World War, the lecture explores the various ways service personnel and their families tried to (re)create closeness and meaning during periods of wartime separation. Using letters to and from spouses and children, the lecture charts the 'biography' of a family at war—through departure, separation, and reunion. By doing so, the lecture exposes the overlapping—and, sometimes, oppositional—nature of martial, marital, and familial identities. More broadly, it argues that emotional perspectives deserve far more attention and offer significant value when integrated into ‘harder’ accounts of conflict.