Biography and Contact Information
Dr Spencer Jones is an award-winning historian, author, broadcaster and public speaker specialising in the First World War, the British Army, and the life and times of Sir Winston Churchill. He is Senior Lecturer in Armed Forces and War Studies at the University of Wolverhampton and serves as Regimental Historian for the Royal Regiment of Artillery. In 2026, he became President of The Western Front Association, one of the world’s leading organisations dedicated to the study, understanding and remembrance of the First World War.
His books include From Boer War to World War: Tactical Reform of the British Army 1902 – 1914 (University of Oklahoma Press, 2012) and the edited collection Stemming the Tide: Officers and Leadership in the British Expeditionary Force 1914 (Helion & Co., 2013), runner-up for the 2014 Templer Medal.
He is best known for his acclaimed year-by-year history of the British Army on the Western Front – Courage without Glory (1915), At All Costs (1916) and The Darkest Year (1917) – and for the innovative interactive history The Armchair General World War One: Can You Win The Great War? (Penguin, 2023).
His most recent work is Inferno: 12 Battles of the World Wars that Shaped the 20th Century (HarperCollins), written with the team behind Battle Guide.
His scholarship has been widely recognised. He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society (FRHistS) and a Fellow of the Society for Army Historical Research (FSAHR). In 2024 he received the Alfred Burne Memorial Medal from the Royal Artillery in recognition of a decade of outstanding service as its historian.
Spencer is co-host of the hugely successful First World War podcast WW1: Not So Quiet on the Western Front, which has built a large and devoted international audience alongside a thriving membership community.
A sought-after public speaker, he is a regular lecturer for Road Scholar and has appeared on television programmes including The One Show, Who Do You Think You Are? and the major Channel 4 documentary Britain’s Forgotten Army.
Spencer is available for academic, public and corporate speaking engagements. To discuss an event or enquire about availability, please get in touch.
THE BOOKSHELF
Books Written or Edited by Dr. Spencer Jones
INFERNO
A gripping history of the world wars told through twelve battles that shaped the fate of the 20th century
ARMCHAIR GENERAL WWI:
Can You Win The Great War?
A ground-breaking approach to history where YOU decide the fate of World War I. Will you follow the path of the past – or shape a new history?
THE DARKEST YEAR:
The British Army on the Western Front 1917
An essay collection where leading First World War historians examine key aspects of the British Army’s campaign on the Western Front in 1917.
CATHOLIC GENERAL:
The Private Wartime Correspondence of Major-General Sir Cecil Edward Pereira, 1914-19
Editor. A detailed and fascinating mid-level BEF commander’s private wartime correspondence with his devoted wife Helen and numerous contemporaries both civil and military.
AT ALL COSTS:
The British Army on the Western Front 1916
This book brings together leading scholars of the First World War to examine the experience of the British Army in 1916.
COURAGE
WITHOUT GLORY:
The British Army on the Western Front 1915
An in-depth study of the experience of the British Army on the Western Front 1915 that offers a new assessment of this forgotten year.
STEMMING THE TIDE:
Officers and Leadership in the British Expeditionary Force 1914 (Revised)
An award winning collection of 15 biographical essays studying the commanders and officers of the British Expeditionary Force 1914. Revised edition published 2022.
BOER WAR TO
WORLD WAR:
Tactical Reform of the British Army 1902-1914
Award nominated study of how the British Army learned from disaster in the Boer War and developed into the elite ‘Old Contemptibles’ in 1914.
THE GREAT RETREAT
OF 1914:
From Mons to the Marne
A short history of the British Army’s desperate battle for survival in the opening weeks of the First World War.
OVER THE TOP
A collection of essays that examine ‘what ifs’ of the First World War, showing how history could have turned out very differently.
VIDEOS
A series of YouTube video lectures.
Lessons from
the Boer War
How the lessons learned in the Boer War (1899 – 1902) made the British Army a formidable force in 1914.
A BLACK WEEK FOR
THE BRITISH ARMY
The story of how the British Army suffered a trio of bloody defeats in ‘Black Week’ in South Africa in 1899.
SCORCHED EARTH &
METHODS OF BARBARISM
The Boer War 1899-1902 would become infamous for the British use of concentration camps. This lecture examines this brutal aspect of the war.
Prelude
to War
What were the strengths and weaknesses of the British Army on the eve of the First World War?
Leadership
in the BEF
How did the British Army maintain command and control during the chaos of battle in 1914?
DAVID
LLOYD GEORGE
How did Prime Minister David Lloyd George reshape British strategy in WW1?
BLOGS
A selection of academic blogs by Dr. Spencer Jones
In October 1914 the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) was locked into a battle for survival. Fighting alongside her French and Belgian allies, the British Army sought to hold off a massive German offensive that aimed to capture the last sliver of… READ MORE »
At the beginning of 1915 Great Britain found herself locked into a major European war for the first time in over a century. This was a situation for which the country was not strategically, militarily, economically or psychologically prepared… READ MORE »
© Dr. Spencer Jones 2026. All Rights Reserved.
Website Maintained by Jon Burrage.