My research focuses on the military history of the First World War, particularly the German army. I was awarded a PhD by King’s College London and have developed my thesis into a book, Holding Out: The German Army and Operational Command in 1917, published in CUP’s Cambridge Military Histories series. There’s more about the book here.
I have lectured and written widely on the German army in the First World War. I’m a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and a member of the British Commission for Military History, the Society for Military History, the Army Records Society and the Western Front Association. Before retiring, I was a British diplomat for over 30 years, with postings in Beijing (Peking when I was there!), Hong Kong twice, Brussels and The Hague.
There’s more about my research on academia.edu and about me in this interview with Professors Brian Feltman and Bill Allison for their podcast Military Historians are People, Too – including some Terrible Confessions.
You can follow me on Twitter at @TonyCowan5 and you can contact me here.
Latest:
Biographies of officers. I’ve added entries for twelve officers from OHL’s Intelligence Department, so there are now 154 biographies; I’ve also added Guards provenance as applicable.
My review of John Kiszely, General Hastings ‘Pug’ Ismay, in British Journal for Military History, vol. 11, no, 1 ( February 2025), 192-194.
German military intelligence assessment in the First World War lists all the officers I’ve identified so far in OHL’s Intelligence Department, with prosopographical analysis. Now updated.
Site last updated: 27 March 2025