Charlotte Macdonald’s Garrison World: Redcoat Soldiers in New Zealand and across the British Empire has won the 2026 Ernest Scott Prize. Awarded annually by the University of Melbourne’s Faculty of Arts, the prize recognises the most distinguished contribution to the history of Australia, New Zealand or the history of colonisation.
Garrison World places the New Zealand Wars within the wider framework of empire, tracing the lives of soldiers, sailors and their families stationed in Aotearoa between the 1840s and 1870. Richly illustrated with over 200 images, it shows how the violence and dispossession of the period echoes into the present.
The judges write: 'The book's originality… is to bring together the scholarship on soldiering and war, and histories of settlement, and in doing so, to transform them both. In Garrison World, the crucial role of imperial soldiers in both war and peace in establishing the ascendency of settler society and Pākehā civilian government comes alive in vivid prose, rich illustrations, through compelling characters and an unwavering account of what was at stake for Māori people.'
The Ernest Scott Prize is the latest in a series of recognitions for Garrison World since its publication in November 2025, including being shortlisted for the 2026 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards in the BookHub Award for Illustrated Non-Fiction.
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