An Imperial Brotherhood: Freemasonary and Fraternity in the British Army 1870-1914 (From Musket to Maxim 1815-1914) Paperback – August 15, 2026

At the height of Empire, the British Army was led by men who shared not just an unwavering commitment to the Imperial project but membership of an exclusive fraternal society – the Freemasons. This masonic network not only consolidated Imperial power but shaped the values of the Empire’s officer class.In An Imperial Brotherhood, Andrew Smith explores the role of Freemasonry in the British Army of the late Victorian and Edwardian period; how it influenced Imperial policy, and how the Empire in turn made use of masonic lodges and masonic ideals to advance the Imperial cause, not least by forging a comradeship between military officers and the civil servants and administrators who ran the vast and growing Empire of the late nineteenth century.Many of the ‘celebrities’ of the Victorian Army, lionised by the British press and public, were prominent Freemasons whose masonic activities were interwoven with their military careers, including generals Kitchener, Wolseley, Roberts, Warren and Buller, as well as heroes such as John Chard VC, defender of Rorke’s Drift, and the writer hailed as the ‘Poet of Empire’, Rudyard Kipling, who, although not a soldier himself, was probably the single most influential champion of the British Army in the Imperial period.Andrew Smith has had a lifelong interest in nineteenth century military history and especially the role of the British Army in expanding and defending Queen Victoria’s Empire. In An Imperial Brotherhood, he reveals the vital connection between Freemasonry and the Army during this eventful and turbulent period. Read more