In this post, Rowan Thompson introduces his new book — Organised Militarism in Interwar Britain. The Navy League and the Air League of the British Empire — which is published in April 2026 the Society’s ‘New Historical Perspectives’ series with University of London Press.
Organised Militarism demonstrates that martial and militaristic sentiment remained an important part of mainstream British political culture, despite the ravages of the First World War.
Rowan’s monograph examines the aims and activities of the Navy League and the Air League of the British Empire – two extra-parliamentary organisations established to promote naval and aerial supremacy.
In doing so, it shows how martial and militaristic sentiment remained prominent, despite the ravages of war.
Organised Militarism in Interwar Britain is the 26th title in the Society’s New Historical Perspectives series for early career historians. Rowan’s book, and all other titles in the series are published free, Open Access, and in paperback print.
Writing in The Daily Mirror in June 1933, the Air League’s chairman Lord Mottistone – former secretary of state for war and under-secretary of state for air – reflected on a series of apparent paradoxes:
The Briton is the most soberly dressed man in the whole world, yet he loves nothing more than a Pageant. He glories in being undemonstrative, and yet revels in national demonstrations like the Tattoo, the Hendon Display, and the countless historical pageants that are taking place up and down the country.
He passionately denies being militaristic, and yet flocks in thousands to any display of the national uniform. What does it all mean? Is it dangerous militarism or just a harmless form of national pride?
The ‘peace-loving Briton’, according to Mottistone, was drawn to naval, military and aerial displays in such numbers because the division between the ‘Jingoes and the Pacifists’ had ‘well-nigh disappeared’.
Mottistone claimed that in the ‘old days the Jingoes would have cheered the spectacle, and the Pacifists would have protested with equal vigour. Now we are all of one mind . . . Nowadays all sections of the British people love to see the precision, the skill, the manliness of those whose task it is to defend us.’[1]
Mottistone, of course, overstated the commonalities between jingoist and pacifist. Indeed, numerous anti-war, pacifist and left-leaning societies vigorously protested against various forms of military displays throughout the interwar years.
The Royal Air Force Display at Hendon, Empire Air Day, the Army’s Aldershot Command Searchlight Tattoo, the Royal Tournament at Olympia, Navy Weeks and fleet reviews (among other events) were attended by millions of spectators.
Yet, such opposition was largely fragmented and sporadic and did little to dampen public enthusiasm for martial and military spectacle. The Royal Air Force Display at Hendon, Empire Air Day, the Army’s Aldershot Command Searchlight Tattoo, the Royal Tournament at Olympia, Navy Weeks and fleet reviews (among other events) were attended by millions of spectators. All were conscious, choreographed displays of power and military might, exhibited to both domestic and foreign audiences.
Science Museum Group. Empire Air Day. 1950-306/59. Science Museum Group Collection Online: https://collection.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/objects/co536674/empireair-day
The popularity of military displays after 1918 – and militarism more broadly – appears rather curious in the context of a long-standing historical orthodoxy; namely that conventional notions of patriotism and martial masculinity held little sway in Britain after the rupture of the First World War, and that the social, cultural and political landscape of the post-war period was inhospitable to militarism in all its forms.
My book demonstrates that institutional, ideological, cultural and popular forms of militarism were able to enjoy significant resonance despite the competing growth of anti-war sentiment.
My new book, Organised Militarism in Interwar Britain, challenges this narrative. It demonstrates that institutional, ideological, cultural and popular forms of militarism were able to enjoy significant resonance despite the competing growth of anti-war sentiment, pacifism, liberal internationalism, support for disarmament and collective security, and the popularity of peace movements (Chapter 2). In doing so, it focuses on two organisations in particular: the Navy League and the Air League of the British Empire.
The Navy League emerged in December 1894 and, from its inception, focused on securing and preserving British naval supremacy. The Air League, founded in January 1909, was conversely devoted to the political promotion of British aerial power. In pursuing these objectives, the two leagues sought to impress upon the British public the centrality of the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force to notions of national and imperial identity, to the preservation of Britain’s insularity and status as an island nation, and to the maintenance of empire (Chapter 4).
To advance their respective aims, each league organised lectures, public gatherings and speaking tours; lobbied politicians, produced pamphlets, leaflets and other forms of printed propaganda; wrote widely in local and national newspapers; and published their own journals. To foster sea- and airmindedness among the nation’s youth, the leagues were active in schools and universities, while they also formed their own uniformed youth branches – the Sea Cadet Corps and Air Defence Cadet Corps (Chapter 5).
Through its annual commemoration of Trafalgar Day, the Navy League celebrated the history and heritage of Britain’s long-standing naval supremacy, while the Air League showcased military might, technological innovation and modernity on Empire Air Day.
The two leagues also played an important role in the promotion of naval and aerial power through popular forms of civic ritual and military theatre. Through its annual commemoration of Trafalgar Day (Chapter 6), the Navy League celebrated the history and heritage of Britain’s long-standing naval supremacy, while the Air League showcased military might, technological innovation and modernity on Empire Air Day (Chapter 7) – an ‘at home’ day in which members of the public were permitted entry into aerodromes across the country.
In the context of the peace-mindedness of the interwar years, the promotion of naval and aerial supremacy (Chapter 3) was not without opposition. Both leagues were accused, at various points, of being militarists, scaremongers, alarmists, jingoists, appendages to the ‘merchants of death’ (armament manufacturers) and even warmongers by their detractors.
Despite such opposition, each organisation was supported by key figures from the social, political and military elite. Both were underpinned by a broad and influential network of Conservative politicians, parliamentary backbenchers, leading figures in the Admiralty and Air Ministry, military theorists, armament manufacturers, ex-servicemen, members of the popular press and emerging fascist and pro-German organisations (Chapter 1).
Far from being marginalised for their links to the extreme right, both leagues were supported in their endeavours by prime ministers, the most senior members of the service departments and by members of the royal family. This support, underpinned by a programme of popular education and political lobbying, meant that the two leagues were able to carry out their activities on a local, national and imperial scale.
Organised Militarism does not deny the presence or power of anti-war voices, nor does it suggest that pacifism was anything other than a major political or cultural force in Britain after 1918. However, it argues that the legacy of the First World War was far more contested and complex than an outright rejection of war or the straightforward dissolution of militarism and militaristic values.
In examining the work of the Navy League and the Air League of the British Empire, Organised Militarism goes beyond providing a solely institutional history of the two organisations.
Organised Militarism demonstrates that martial and militaristic sentiment remained an important part of mainstream British political culture, despite the ravages of war.
Instead, it argues that the two leagues provide an important lens through which to explore wider issues of the period including the impact of war on British society and culture, civil-military relations, nation and empire, technology and tradition, military theatre and commemoration, youth and education, and the politics of disarmament, collective security, internationalism, and national defence. In doing so, it demonstrates that martial and militaristic sentiment remained an important part of mainstream British political culture, despite the ravages of war.
[1] The Daily Mirror, 24 June 1933, 10.
About the author
Rowan Thompson is a historian of modern Britain, with research interests in militarism, associationalism, and the impact of war on British society and culture. He is currently an Academic Assistant at Northumbria University.
From 2020–21, Rowan held the Alan Pearsall Fellowship for Naval and Maritime History at the Institute of Historical Research. In 2022, he was awarded the Sir Julian Corbett Prize for Research in Modern Naval History.
His work has been published in Twentieth Century British History, Historical Research, the Journal of War & Culture Studies, The Historical Journal, and History: The Journal of the Historical Association.
About the ‘New Historical Perspectives’ book series from the Royal Historical Society
New Historical Perspectives (NHP) is the Society’s book series for early career scholars (within ten years of their doctorate), commissioned and edited by the Royal Historical Society, in association with University of London Press and the Institute of Historical Research, and with support from the Economic History Society.
The series publishes monographs and edited collections by early career historians on all chronologies and histories, worldwide. Contracted authors receive mentoring and an author workshop to develop their manuscript before its final submission.
All titles in the series are published in paperback print and Open Access (as pdf downloads and Manifold reading editions) with costs covered by University of London Press and the Royal Historical Society.
Organised Militarism in Interwar Britain. The Navy League and the Air League of the British Empire is the 26th volume published in the series (April 2026). For more on recent titles in the series, for 2025 and 2026, please see here.
HEADER IMAGE: ‘Empire Air Day’, detail. 1950-306/59. Science Museum Group Collection Online, public domain CC BY 4.0: https://collection.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/objects/co536674/empireair-day
