The War in the Air

On Thursday 23 April 2026 at 6pm, Dr Ross Mahoney will assess the challenges encountered in the production of The War in the Air, the official history of Britain’s role in the air war of the First World War. This lecture will be hosted virtually via Crowdcast.

Talk Outline
In 1922, the first volume of the official history of Britain’s role in the air war of the First World War, The War in the Air, was published. Sir Walter Raleigh, the Merton Professor of English Literature at the University of Oxford, authored the first volume. After Raleigh died in 1922, the task of completing the official history was given to D.G. Hogarth, the Keeper of the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford. However, due to ill health, Hogarth resigned his position in early 1924 and died in 1927. After a drawn-out process in selecting a successor, the task of writing The War in the Air fell to the former Director of the Air Historical Branch, civil servant and First World War veteran, H.A. Jones, MC, in late 1924.

The second volume of the official history was published in 1928, and all six volumes, along with an appendix, were completed by 1937. On completion in 1937, the joint secretaries to the Committee for Imperial Defence’s Sub-Committee of the Control of Official History, E.Y. Daniel and Cecil Longhurst, wrote to Jones thanking him for his work on The War in the Air, describing it as an ‘admirable achievement.’

The War in the Air covered the operations of the Royal Air Force and its forebears, the Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Naval Air Service, and its production reflected many of the challenges that confronted the publication of official history in this period, namely purpose, influence, and control. This paper provides an archivally driven assessment of the challenges encountered in the production of The War in the Air, as well as evaluating its place in the development of air power history as a field of historical enquiry.

Livestream
To attend virtually, register via Crowdcast.