The Highland Brigade at Tel el-Kebir: a jumping-off point for big military history

The Highland Brigade at Tel el-Kebir provides an excellent context to explore concepts of identity and belonging relying on both internal and external definitions. The Brigade's ad hoc nature prevented it from developing group characteristics and thus from developing an internal sense of identi...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of the Society for Army Historical Research 2007-01, p.47-58
Main Author: Kelly, Ian Stuart
Format: Article
Language:English
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The Highland Brigade at Tel el-Kebir provides an excellent context to explore concepts of identity and belonging relying on both internal and external definitions. The Brigade's ad hoc nature prevented it from developing group characteristics and thus from developing an internal sense of identity. The reorganisation immediately prior to Tel el-Kebir created new groups that were forced to negotiate new identities. In some cases, such as for the 1st Gordons, this called for almost a total reconstruction of artefacts and espoused values. In looking for artefacts, espoused values and underlying assumptions, we can draw conclusions about how groups, national and supranational, identified themselves and responded to conflict.
ISSN:0037-9700