In regards to my previous post I have been able to put back together all books by the late Mr. Rawkins and as such I leave bellow the information I have been able to gather on his work in general, hope it helps any future researcher and I hope to answer some of the questions which were asked along the years about his works.
Introduction extract on his website(now archived, but which can be accesed by using the wayback machine) and other stuff:
THE ARMIES AND UNIFORMS SERIES by W. J. Rawkins
Introduction to the series
This series of small reference books designed for the war gamer and military modeller originated some forty years ago and the first volumes published from 1972 were a series of illustrated booklets and colour plates on various uniforms and flags of the Napoleonic Wars, many with artwork by the late Pat Evans some of whose work appeared in the later books until 1979. At that time there were virtually no easily available reference works on many of the uniforms of Napoleonic armies and so a small publishing company The Historical and Military Research Group' was formed with the intention of trying to fill the gap in low cost, no frills, easy to use uniform guides. In 1978 when we relocated from Maidenhead to new premises in Norwich the publishing was absorbed into my bookselling business and The HMR Group Ltd ceased to exist as a separate entity.
In 1977 thirty odd pamphlets and papers were combined into the first two larger and more comprehensive studies of the uniforms of the Russian and the Austro-Hungarian Armies; subjects which had never been adequately covered in the English language. Unable to find a main-stream publisher who was willing to take on the project as the subject matter was 'obscure with no discernable market' I decided to use the completed manuscripts and publish the books in a duplicated booklet format, re-jigged the original colour illustrations into black and white, and printed an initial 500 copies of each. The booklets were 'cheap and cheerful' and not without flaws but the entire 1000 copies had sold out within two weeks and I saw no reason to change the format or look elsewhere for an outside publisher. By the time that the final print runs were made in 1984 the series consisted of nearly twenty 'In Print' uniform guides, two volumes of skirmish wargaming rules, two books of solo wargaming scenarios, with a further seven Armies & Uniforms titles in the draft stage of preparation. Most titles had been reprinted multiple times and several of the earlier works had been substantially revised and updated with newly acquired information and in total the 'Armies & Uniforms Series' had sold well over 200,000 copies.
By 1984 with my own health deteriorating rapidly, plus added concerns over family health issues, I was forced to withdraw from most daily business activities and only returned to the book trade full time after a break of several years although I continued to research and formulate new and revised titles for the series. I finally. retired as a book dealer in 2009 after forty-nine years. The last five years have been spent scanning and indexing an office full of filing cabinets containing forty years worth of documents, photographs and illustrations into usable digital images, including the huge photographic image collection of uniforms by the late Erik Carlsen-Smythe courtesy of Erik's family and estate in Sweden.
It had always been my intention to update and re-issue the Armies and Uniforms of the Napoleonic Wars series in one format or another and perhaps finish the unpublished manuscripts; the publication of these books was always totally customer driven and so the advent of E-publishing seems to be an ideal medium to be able to offer the books to modern enthusiasts in a low cost, no frills format, in keeping with my original principals of fifty years ago.
Unlike paper editions where size and weight must be a consideration for the independent publisher, e-books have no such restrictions. A large amount of information omitted from the early books will now be included and hopefully the errors, some minor and some real 'howlers' have now been corrected in the revisions. Many of the original colour illustrations which were not used in the 1970s and 1980s have been updated and will replace the black and white versions, and from 2014 most of the new editions will be in full colour throughout. In particular I am over joyerd to be able to use the fine colour illustrations of flags by my late wargaming partner Pat Evans which were last published as a series of colour plates in the 1970s. For the first time it will now be possible to make use of illustrations sourced from contemporary or well known military artists.
I started work on revising the text elements of the original books in 2011 and the new colour illustration boards in 2013 to replace the older black and white versions. It is intended to re-publish most of the original titles in time and a couple of the unpublished manuscripts are now in the process of being finally completed. I hope that these new editions are of interest to the modern generation of war gamers and Napoleonic enthusiasts, so far the response has been very encouraging. It is particularly satisfying that so many clients from the 1970s and 1980s have contacted me to acquire the new editions and have been very kind in their comments.
My particular thanks must go to those correspondents who have reminded me of booklets and prints which appeared briefly in our publication schedules in the 1970s and 1980s and were kind enough to send me copies of those which had disappeared from our archives in the course of various shop and office moves over the years.
-W. J. Rawkins June 2014
Q| Who are The HMR Group who published some of the paperback books?
A The Historical and Military Research Group Ltd was a company based in Maidenhead that I started in the early 1970s it was absorbed into WJ Rawkins (Military Books) in 1978.
QI visited your military book shop in Norwich some years back. is the shop still open?
No. The shops were closed several years ago, although I continued to sell books via the internet until I 'officially' retired in 2008, following major heart surgery, and after close to 50 years as a book dealer.
Q|Why have you decided to bring these books back after nearly thirty years?
A. It was always my intention to re-publish the series and the project was looked at several times but always I was unable to produce a better quality product for a 'hobby money' selling price. The e-book edition seems to fit the principals of providing reliable information, without "bells and whistles' at an affordable price in a format that the modern generation of wargamers appreciate. I have always continued to receive a lot of communications about this series and the decision was very much reader driven.
Digital books published between 2014-2020
CB2 Austro-Hungarian Army – 454 pages (but actually somewhat less in my copy as some pages have only one sentence on them)
CB3 Army of Italy – 342 pages
CB4 Army of Bavaria – 229 pages
CB5 Rheinbunde Contingents Volume1 (The Duchy of Nassau, Grand Duchy of Würzburg & The Saxon Duchies) – 149 pages
CB6 Rheinbund Contingents Volume 2 (Anhalt, Lippe, Reuss, Schwarzburg, Waldeck, Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Oldenburg & Frankfurt) – 270 pages
CB7 Army of Naples 1806-1814 – 186 pages
CB8 Army of Westphalia – 282 pages
CB11 Royal Saxon Army 1792-1814 – 312 pages
CB13 Army of Hesse-Darmstadt – 129 pages
CB14 Army of Warsaw 1807-1814 – 132 pages
CB15 Regts Etrangere Vol 1 The Irish & Germanic Regiments – 246 pages
CB16 Swiss in French Service – 163 pages
CB17 Army of Baden – 132 pages
CB18 Army of Sweden 3rd Edn – 107 pages
CB19 Army of Wurttemberg – 180 pages
CB21 Army of Portugal – 235 pages
CB22 Regiments Etrangere Vol 2 The Mediterranean & Balkan Regiments – 238 pages
CB23 The Portuguese Legion – 151 pages
CB27 Army of Berg 1806-1813 – 77 pages
CB28 Polish Legions – 234 pages
CB31 Hanover & KGL – 322 pages
A list of the Out of Print ‘ARMIES & UNIFORMS' titles with original publication dates:
Napoleonic Flags in Colour – A Series of A4 Plates with Descriptive Booklet
1: Infantry Standards of Wurttemberg, W J Rawkins & Pat Evans (1973)
2: Westphalia & Wurzburg, W J Rawkins & Pat Evans (1973)
3: Austro-Hungarian Army 1796-1815 W J Rawkins & Pat Evans (1973)
4: Infantry Flags of Bavaria 1805-1814 W J Rawkins & Pat Evans (1974)
5: Infantry & Cavalry Flags of Saxony 1811-14 W J Rawkins & Pat Evans (1974)
6: Infantry & Cavalry Flags of Baden 1806-1814 W J Rawkins & Pat Evans (1974)
7: British Infantry Flags at Corunna W J Rawkins & Pat Evans (1975)
8: Eagles, Flags & Standards of the Italian Army 1805-1814 W J Rawkins & Pat Evans (1975)
9: Eagles, Flags & Standards of the Italian Army 1805-1814 (2) W J Rawkins & Pat Evans (1975)
10:Austro-Hungarian Army – Austro-Turkish War 1788-1792 W J Rawkins & Pat Evans (1975)
Armies & Uniforms of the Napoleonic Wars Series
Austrian Light Cavalry 1805-1814 ( 1974) – Pocket Uniform Guide
The Polish Legions 1798-1812 (1974) - Pocket Uniform Guide Series
The Army of Naples 1806-1814 (1974) - Pocket Uniform Guide Series
The Army of Baden 1806-1814 (1974) - Pocket Uniform Guide Series
French Line Infantry Uniforms 1812-1815 W J Rawkins & Pat Evans (1974)- Pocket Uniform Guide Series
Swiss Regiments in French Service 1800-1814 (1974) - Pocket Uniform Guide Series
The Portugese Army 1808-1813 (1974) – Pocket Uniform Guide
The Portugese Legion 1808-1813 (1974) – Pocket Uniform Guide
The Spanish Army of Joseph Bonaparte 1808-1813 (1974) Booklet for Thames Valley Wargames Assn
The Army of the Duchy of Kleve-Berg 1806-1814 (1974) - Pocket Uniform Guide
Russian Infantry 1805-1814 (1975) - Pocket Uniform Guide
Austrian Infantry 1805-1814 (1975) - Pocket Uniform Guide
Russian Cavalry 1805-1814 (1975) - Pocket Uniform Guide
Brunswick Troops 1815 (1975) - Pocket Uniform Guide
The Tirailleurs du Po and Corsican Troops (1976) Booklet for Thames Valley Wargames Assn.
The Kings German Legion in the Mediteraenean 1811 – A Skirmish Wargame Campaign (1976)
Uniforms of the King's German Legion 1811 (1976) W J Rawkins & Bryan Keep Booklet for Thames Valley Wargames Assn
British Regiments at Corunna (1976) - Booklet for Thames Valley Wargames Assn.
Danish Army Uniforms 1807 Lars Borge & WJ Rawkins - Booklet for Soldier,Soldier Symposium 1976
Austrian Artillery & Engineers 1805-1814 (1976) – Pocket Uniform Guide
Russian Artillery & Engineers 1805-1814 (1976) - Pocket Uniform Guide
The Russian Army: 1805-14 (1977)
The Austro-Hungarian Army: 1805-1814 (1977)
The Italian Army: 1805-14 (1977, Revised Edition 1982)
The Bavarian Army: 1805-14 (1978, Revised Edition 1982)
The Armies of Naples & Kleve-Berg: 1806-1814 (1978)
The Austrian Army 1740-1780 (1979)
The Saxon Army 1806 (1979) W J Rawkins & David G Wones (Booklet for the 1806 Wargamers Society)
The Prussian Army 1806 (1979) W J Rawkins & David G Wones (Booklet for the 1806 Wargamers Society)
The Armies of Westphalia & Wurzburg: 1806-1814 (1979)
The Prussian Army: 1808-15 (1979)
The Army of Saxony: 1805-14 (1979 Revised 1984)
The Armies of Baden and Wurttemberg 1806-1814 (1979, Revised 1984)
Prussian Infantry uniforms and Flags 1797-1806 (1979) – Pocket Uniform Guide Series
The Confederation of the Rhine: Hesse-Darmstadt, Mecklenburg & Nassau (1980)
The Polish Army: 1807-14 (1980)
The Austro-Hungarian Army: 1798-1814 Enlarged 2nd Edn. (1980)
British Naval, Royal Marine and Sea Services Uniforms 1790-1815 (1981) - Pocket Uniform Guide Series
Britain's Sepoy Armies 1784-1819 W J Rawkins and R Ranjit Singh (1981) Booklet for the Thames Valley Wargames Assn.
Swedish Infantry & Artillery of the Napoleonic Wars (1981) - Pocket Uniform Guide Series
The Prussian Army 1797-1806 (1982)
Foreign Regiments in French Service 1805-1814 (1) Swiss & Regiments Etrangere (1982)
The Russian Army: 1805-14 (1982) Revised Edition
Skirmish Wargames Rules for the Solo Gamer 1: Gladius to Pike & Firelock (1982)
Skirmish Wargames Rules for the Solo Gamer 2: Sword & Musket 1700-1866 (1983)
Napoleonic Scenarios for Solo Skirmish Wargaming Vol 1 (1983)
Foreign Regiments in French Service: 1800-14 : (2) Polish Legions and Regiments Croates (1983)
The Army of Sweden: 1802-1814 (1983)
The Army of the Duchy of Warsaw 1807-1814 (1983)
The Royal Westphalian Army 1807-1813 (1983)
The Austro-Hungarian Army 1792-1814 (1984) 3rd.Revised edn.
Napoleonic Scenarios for Solo Skirmish Wargaming Vol 2 Boats, Sailors and Marines (1984)
The Troops of Hanover, Brunswick and the K.G.L 1807-1815 (1984)
A list of Digital books which were upcoming but never published:
CB24 The Armies of the Netherlands 1795-1810 (Batavian Republic and Kingdom of Holland)
CB10 The Army of the Kingdom of Prussia 1792-1807
CB30 The Armies of the Hesse-Cassel & the Hanseatic League 1792-1815
CB9 The Army of the Kingdom of Prussia 1808-1815
CB12 The Uniforms of the Navies,Marines and Sea Services of the Napoleonic Wars 1790-1814 (New revised and expanded edition which on its cover has the naval flags of Royal Navy, French Navy, Spanish Navy and the Navy of the USA)
*Not Numbered* The Army of the Kingdom of Spain 1793-1814(Bourbon Spain)
CB32 French Foreign Troops: Colonial troops and garrisons 1790-1814
CB1 The Army of Imperial Russia 1792-1814
CB33 French Troupés Légerè and Volontaires 1792-1810
*Not Numbered* Dutch and Belgian Troops 1815
CB25 The Italian Armies of the Revolutionary Wars 1792-1804 & The Mediterranean Campaigns 1804-1814
CB34 Emigre Troops in the British Army 1792-1815
CB36 Britains Indian Armies 1784-1819 including the Armies of the Honourable East India Company (was supposed to be made in collaboration with Dr. R. Ranjit Singh)
CB35 The French Army in Egypt 1798-1801
CB29- The Army of Brunswick 1792-1815 & the German Freikorps 1806-1815(including the Duke of Brunswick-Oels Korps, Freikorps von Schill and Lutzowisches Freikorps)
CB26 The Army of Denmark-Norwat 1800-1814
CB37 The Spanish Army of Joseph Napoleon 1808-1813
What actually happend to the books supposed to be published between 2019-2020/2021(CB37,CB26,CB29)?
The late author's wife unfortunately passed that year leading to a postponement, bellow is the extract from his website explaining(Though I am not certain wether these books were finished before the author passed away, they may exist but werent published, or they might not):
A MESSAGE FROM BILL
Firstly, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to all those clients and friends who sent such kind messages earlier in the year when it was announced that my darling wife, June, had died after a prolonged and distressing illness. It was much appreciated by all the family.
As we are a family run concern our loss has had a devastating effect on our business interests this year the effects of which are still being felt after five months. Additionally, I have now been made aware that further major heart surgery is in the offing for the late summer which is likely to put me out of action for an extended period of time.
Whilst the processing and dispatch of orders for discs and downloads of existing titles should not be affected unduly, it does mean that our forward publishing schedule for new titles will now be suspended until the end of 2019 or early 2020. Please continue to watch this page for news of new titles being released.
My regards and best wishes to all
Bill Rawkins
The History Book Man
Where there 2 Rawkins?
The books were written by Rawkins (father) who died in the 1990s. Rawkins (son) reissued them with some additional stuff from his father's notes. I understand that Anshcluss actually owns the copyright on them and they original booklets(Take this with a grain of salt, reffer to the question bellow) are still available from Peter Heath, the Anschluss proprietor – so hopefully these excellent works won't disappear
What next?
Despite multiple TMPers attempting to contact the authors family, no real success was achieved, the closest person coming across any information was Chaosman:
"His daughter in law posted on another site that the family didn't have any ability to continue on the work, but she/they were willing to continue to sell the existing volumes. Unfortunately no way to contact her was posted yet. So the mystery continues. I continue to look for a full set."
We got an indirect and kind reply from Bill Rawkins' family a few weeks ago. I've edited the response lightly.
"I'm so sorry for the delay, as you can imagine we have had so much to do with regard to Bill. We are now coming round to year ago….still can't believe he has gone. With regard to his ebooks I have not given this any thought and to be honest I just don't know how I would set this up. I promise I will talk to my sister and let you and Pierre know."
So there is consideration under way and some movement. We remain super respectful of the family and their wishes – and passive/moving at their pace. They have my contact info, I don't have theirs.
As a reminder, the offer was to get the sale of his books going again with proceeds going to the family or to charity, whatever they wish. And to see if we could get the unfinished work and finish it (as a collective?).
What is Anschluss Publishing doing publishing books under the Rawkins name?
Anschluss Publishing, or the owner, owns the rights to the books published by TheHistoryBookman publishing house(I am unsure wether the rights extend only to the paperback ones from the 80s and 90s or to the new ones as well). Take this info with a grain of salt however as in a Q&A in 2019/2020 Mr Rawkins said:
Q. I had heard that you had sold the nghts to these books to Anschluss Publishing in the 1990's?
A. Several 'pirated' versions in paper and e-book format have appeared briefly over the years since the series went Out of Print in 1984. At no time has the copyright been sold or transferred or permission given to any person or company to publish or copy any part of these works.
Though they are a nice addition and by what they are saying they should be upgraded/refurbished, they are far bellow the quality that Mr Rawkins published them initially, having bought the saxon one, its only 50 pages compared to the initial 311 pages of CB11 Royal Saxon Army and are somewhat expensive and only avaiable on paper back(16-17£ compared to the 4-5£ of the old ones) I leave a list bellow.
Napoleonic Uniform Guide series 01 The Army of Saxony 1805 – 1814 (https://anschlusswargames.com/products/napoleonic-uniform-guide-series-the-army-of-saxony-1805-1814?_pos=3&_sid=3c6520bdb&_ss=r)
The Napoleonic Uniform Guide 02 The Army of Poland 1807 – 1814 (https://anschlusswargames.com/products/pre-order-the-army-of-poland-1807-1814?_pos=2&_sid=3c6520bdb&_ss=r)
The Napoleonic uniform guide 03 – Baden Wurttemburg (https://anschlusswargames.com/products/pre-order-the-napoleonic-uniform-guide-03-baden-wurttemburg?_pos=1&_sid=3c6520bdb&_ss=r)
The Armies of Westphalia and Wurzburg 1807-1814 (https://anschlusswargames.com/collections/books-and-rule-sets/products/the-armies-of-westphalia-and-wurzburg-1807-1814)
The Army of the Kingdom of Prussia 1797-1806 (https://anschlusswargames.com/products/pre-orders-the-army-of-the-kingdom-of-prussia-1797-1806?_pos=4&_sid=3c6520bdb&_ss=r)
Furthermore on the Anschluss topic here is a message i received from them upon enquiring on the books in December 2025 (Initial questions was if the books are reissues or updates):
The answer is yes. If you look on our website site you will see the re-issues available… updated, corrected and with colour plates. Austria is the next out in January.
This seems to close the chapter for now the topic of Rawkins, if you have any extra informations leave a message bellow. If I come across anything new I shall return to this post.
Happy days and Cheers!
SaxonHistorian
returns to Flintloque to paint an Ogre.
