The Military History Prize was created as a one-time award in 1913 by a gift of $250 from Professor Robert M. Johnston for the best monograph in the field of military history. A prize of $200 was to have been awarded in 1915, but Council deemed the entries unworthy of the prize and postponed the competition until 1918. Ironically, war intervened, and the prize was postponed until 1920. In the latter year the award was renamed the Robert M. Johnston Prize in Military History in honor of the man who had organized support for it in 1913. It was awarded to Thomas Robson Hay and thereupon discontinued.
