Hew Strachan

Sir Hew Strachan
Hew Strachan in June 2013
Born	(1949-09-01) 1 September 1949 (age 67) Edinburgh, Scotland
Occupation	Military historian, author
Spouse	Pamela Symes

Sir Hew Francis Anthony Strachan FRSE FRHistS (born 1 September 1949) is a Scottish military historian, well known for his work on the administration of the British Army and the history of the First World War. He is currently Professor of International Relations at the University of St Andrews, and a council member of the Royal Company of Archers, the Queen's Bodyguard for Scotland. Since May 2014, he has been Lord Lieutenant of Tweeddale. Before moving to St Andrews, Strachan was the Chichele Professor of the History of War at All Souls College, Oxford.

Strachan was born in Edinburgh, Scotland. He was educated at Rugby School, then in 1968 was a merchant seaman for three months, working his passage around the world on ships of Ben Line Steamers Ltd. He then spent three years at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, graduating BA in 1971 and proceeding to M.A. in 1975. In 1973, he joined a survey of antiquities in the Sudan.

In 1975, Strachan was elected a research fellow of Corpus Christi College, and in 1977–1978 was a senior lecturer in war studies at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. In 1978, he returned to his Cambridge college as a tutor.

His early research and published work focussed on the history of the British Army, and he was awarded the Templer Medal for From Waterloo to Balaclava and the Westminster Medal for The Politics of the British Army. Commissioned by the Oxford University Press to write a history of the First World War to replace C. R. M. F. Cruttwell's one-volume A History of the Great War, 1914-1918, Strachan completed the first of three volumes, The First World War: Volume 1: To Arms in 2001 to wide acclaim and is acknowledged as one of the world's authorities on the subject. Accompanying the print publication of his one volume survey The First World War (2004) was a multi-part documentary series for television entitled The First World War, with some episodes being titled after the chapters in the written work. This set was also released on DVD by Image Entertainment.