Dr William Fletcher is a Lecturer in Defence Studies in the Defence Studies Department, King’s College London.

William read War Studies (BA) and the History of Warfare (MA) in the Department of War Studies, King’s College London, and was awarded his PhD by the Defence Studies Department in 2019. He was a Graduate Teaching Assistant, and then Teaching Fellow at King’s from 2016 before being appointed a full-time Lecturer in the Defence Studies Department in 2020.

He teaches across a broad range of courses at the Joint Services Command and Staff College (part of the Defence Academy of the United Kingdom) and the Land Command and Staff College (part of the Land Warfare Centre). He has been the module convener for the ‘Command’ and ‘Operations’ modules on the Intermediate Command and Staff Course (Land) from 2021-2024.

He is an elected Associate of King’s College London, Associate Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

He currently convenes the Military History Research Seminar at the Institute of Historical Research, University of London. He sits on the Regimental Historical Committee of the Scots Guards and on the council of the Waterloo Association. He has previously served on the committee of the British Commission for Military History and the council of the Society for Army Historical Research.

William’s research focuses on the development of systems of command and control. He is currently writing his first monograph, which explores the foundation of the first Staff College at High Wycombe in 1799 and the effect this had on the British Army’s performance in the field from 1801-1815.

Research Interests

• The history of warfare (particularly the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, as well as the First and Second World Wars)
• The development of command and staff systems
• The development of army doctrine
• The development of ‘Professional Military Education’