A SYSTEM OF CHANGE: INNOVATION FROM THE BOTTOM IN THE BRITISH ARMY, 1914-1918

Abstract

This research is about innovation. Using the example of the British Army, which underwent great changes during the First World War, I focus on the role of soldiers and civilian in its process of adaptation to the new tools of warfare. Innovation was not a process forced from the top of the Army or produced solely by officers. Change came from a complex interaction between soldiers, army institutions, and civilians at home. Technology was the topic of this interaction: soldiers used technology to lobby for change and improve their effectiveness on the battlefield, civilians used it to help and participate to the war, while institutions transformed their own structures to adapt to the fast-paced changes, providing a common place to absorb and redistribute innovation. I try to break the common narrative that portrays the inventor producing a weapon, a committee of the army adopting it, and the weapon changing warfare. Ideas surfaced from a complex environment that looked for solutions in a constant dialogue between the experience of the battlefield, the personal competencies of soldiers and civilians, and the necessities of the British Army to simplify, streamline, and standardize.