Wikipedia:WikiProject Military history/News/December 2022/Op-ed


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How did you become interested in Military History?

I grew up in a family with a strong and (somewhat? maybe I'm biased!) storied military history, including several close relatives who many of my living family members knew and discussed. This steady immersion in family military history combined with my father's hobby collecting military vehicles (from a Chieftain to a Ferret and most things in between, not forgetting my long-time favourite Abbot!) meant that an interest in military history was probably a foregone conclusion! As is probably obvious from my work here, my personal interest is the Royal Navy in the Napoleonic Wars. I really have no clear idea of why that is the case, but it's been a focus of mine for five years or so. Maybe I watched or read too much Hornblower as a child?

How did you become involved with the Wikipedia Military History Project?

I made my Wikipedia account in 2018 just so that it would stop telling me I wasn't logged in at the top of the screen when I was browsing! I began editing properly during the COVID-19 lockdowns when I was stuck inside. The idea was that if I was going to be doing all this reading in my newly expanded free time I might as well try and write about it as well! I started with military history edits and haven't really deviated since, and MILHIST was the obvious place to go when starting out.


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How did you become interested in Military History?

At age twelve I was in the school reserve chess team. (Four to a team.) This appealed to the strategic side of my nature, but I was intimidated playing with and against seventeen- and eighteen-year-olds. Then someone set up a table top wargaming society. I was blown away by the variety and the flexibility. That took care of my lunch breaks for the next six years. We probably spent more time debating troop capabilities than "fighting" the battles. Which led to a precocious level of research and theorising by all of us. Like others, I still have my Purnell and my Orbis, Oman and The Fifteen Decisive Battles of the World; a rag bag of populist guff and serious texts. It must have been strange, a group of snotty fourteen-year-olds on the school bus debating whether hoplites used their thrusting spears over- or under-arm, what about pikemen; how did the Companions act as shock cavalry without stirrups; and legionaries actually fighting in that checker board formation, where every front-line unit had two open flanks, come on; and can longbows outrange crossbows or not?. Bonus points for reliable sources. Anyone skimming my list of promoted articles will see that I am still working out some of these.

How did you become involved with the Wikipedia Military History Project?

The long answer is at this reflective essay, but it started with my dabbling in copy editing at a trivial level for four years. Frequently for MilHist articles, because I understood them. In December 2018 I added a source to Battle of Ortona, moved to add it to Christopher Vokes and wondered why there was no mention anywhere of the razing of Friesoythe. Sources, sources! By the end of the month I had near doubled my edit count. By the end of the next I had started my first article. (Yes, "Razing of Friedsoythe".) I was hooked. "Razing" getting 22,000 views in April 2018 as a DYK and 14,000 ten days later in OTD convinced me that this was the way to fame and fortune. The rest is history.