School of Geography, Archaeology and Palaeoecology

Heather Montgomery

Heather A Montgomery

Qualifications

BA (1st Class Hon’s) Archaeology, QUB, 2009

Postgraduate

Email: hmontgomery03@qub.ac.uk

Address

School of Geography, Archaeology and Palaeoecology (GAP)
Queen’s University Belfast
Belfast, BT7 1NN
Northern Ireland, UK

Telephone

+44 (0)28 9097 5287

Current Research: Past Cultural Change (PCC)

Trench Warfare in the First World War, 1914 – 1918: ‘The Practice and the Reality

Supervisors

Dr Colm Donnelly
Professor Audrey Horning
Dr Alastair Ruffell

The archaeological study of the First World War has been a major developing area of international research within the discipline over the past decade. With the 100th Anniversary of the start of the British Empire entering the war due to be commemorated on 4th August 2014, the proposed project is a timely exercise that will help to firmly place the experience of the soldiers from Ireland within the British Army at the heart of this developing international research agenda. The project will investigate the practice trenches used by the Irish regiments prior to their service in France, and set the evidence obtained through their study against the reality of trench-warfare that the soldiers experienced when they arrived at “The Front”.

As we move further into what has being termed the “Decade of Anniversaries” in Ireland, the events that took place between 1914 and 1918 gain increasing resonance. Heavily politicised even while the war was still being fought, its public – if perhaps not entirely its private – commemoration tended towards the valuing of the contribution made by only one section of our community. A more nuanced commemoration is required if we are to set the past behind us and work towards a new shared future. That this might occur, however, will necessitate the construction of new narratives. The current project proposes to attempt such a narrative through the sensitive use of archived oral testimony in combination an archaeological methodology in order that the practice trenches – hitherto a somewhat ephemeral component of the war’s heritage in Ireland – might be used as a means of remembering, recognising and valuing the contribution made by all of the Irish soldiers who trained and went to war.

Research Objectives

The project has three central objectives:

• To use desk-based study to identify the locations of WW1 practice trenches at the various regimental training camps across Ireland (including Clandyeboye, County Down; The Curragh, County Kildare; Ballykinler, Lecale, County Down; Grey Point Fort, Crawfordsburn, County Down; and Finner, Ballyshannon, County Donegal; Kilworth, County Cork), followed by a programme of Level 1 field survey at each site and the production of a gazetteer.
• To use archaeological surveying methods (topographic and geophysical) to create detailed records of the vestiges of selected practice trench systems in Ireland – with 3 sites selected on the basis of the results obtained during the Level 1 survey – and to develop an understanding of the nature of the practice trenches, assisted by the evidence of recorded oral testimony and the historic archive (cartographic evidence, photographic archives)
• To undertake a comparative study and site-visits at practice trenches used in England (eg: Seaford, Sussex) and those used in the conflict by the Allied Forces in northern France at Thiepval.

Research Questions

• Where are the practice trenches located in Ireland, what was their format, and what survives at each of the sites?
• Were practice trenches used by both the 16th Irish Division and the 36th Ulster Division, in addition to the pre-existing Irish regiments of the British Army? 
• Was this informed by experience from previous campaigns by the British Army (eg: Boer War fortifications), pre-war training manuals (eg: the British Army’s Manual of Field Engineering), or was it derived from local concepts of trench warfare and what trench warfare did / would involve?
• How many of the practice trenches / training camps were located on land owned by the MoD and how many were located on private property as demonstrations of support for the war effort by local landowners?
• Was there a chronological evolution in the format and sophistication of the practice trenches used in Ireland and England as the war progressed, and did training keep up-to-date with new developments and the evolution in trench warfare that occurred over the course of the war?
• Can we see information from official British Army manuals (for example, 1917’s Notes for Infantry Officers, or 1918’s Diagrams of Field Defences) being used in the training camps in the latter years of the war? 
• Were the practice trenches in Ireland and England of comparable standard (a) at the start of the war, and (b) in the concluding stages of the war? 
• Were the practice trenches at Seaford (in southern England) more sophisticated than those in Ireland, given that they were “closer” to the actualities of the conflict and trench warfare?
• Did their time in the practice trenches provide soldiers with genuine training in trench warfare? How prepared were these troops for the realities of life in the trenches and in trench warfare? Does oral testimony married to excavated evidence from northern France assist in developing our understanding of this issue? 
• What measures are or can be taken for the long-term preservation of these relics of the First World War by government agencies in both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland? How many of them are accessible and / or presented to the public? How might their presentation be improved, and how might they be used as a cross-community educational resource within Ireland?

Previous Research

My BA dissertation in archaeology focused on the archaeological investigation of a First World War trench mortar position in Thiepval Wood, northern France.

Memberships

Ulster Archaeological Society since 2011
Ulster Archaeological Survey Group since 2012
Irish Regiments Historical Society since 2011
‘Friends of the Somme’, Somme Association and Heritage Centre since 2000