Finally visited the Great War Huts, almost two years after moving to Suffolk! It was great to talk about the commemoration of war dead buried in the UK, and have some fascinating conversations with the audience.

Huge thank you to those who came and @greatwarhuts.bsky.social for organising!

Great to be at @nationalarchives.gov.uk.web.brid.gy today talking about my research into the commemoration and care of war dead buried in the United Kingdom. It was wonderful to speak to the teams working with service records day to day, and share insights about how these records are vital resources

Fantastic evening at the opening of ‘Silver Wings: The US Army Air Forces in WWII Norfolk’ exhibition at The Forum, Norwich. Check it out for yourself if you’re interested in Second World War history and are in the East Anglia area.

Huge thanks to @runninghistorian.bsky.social for the invitation!

It’s a week of conferences for me! Following on from the fantastic @fasikcl.bsky.social conference, I’m back at @kingscollegelondon.bsky.social for the Second World War Research Group Conference. Looking forward to being part of the discussions, chairing a panel today and presenting tomorrow!

Really looking forward to the Postgraduate Air and Space conference today, hosted by @fasikcl.bsky.social. Looking forward to hearing the papers!

Huge thank you to the ‘For You the War is Over’ podcast team for dropping off a lovely gift as thanks for being on their podcast. Looking forward to the episode coming out soon!

A wonderful Bank Holiday weekend spent exploring our local area, including a visit to the Euston Estate. In the churchyard, I was fascinated by the fact that all the war graves were buried in a cemetery particular section of the site. I’m hoping to find out more, and see if this was intentional!

Huge thank you to staff and students from @cranfielduni.bsky.social’s Forensic Archaeology department for letting me join them as part of their mass graves module. It was really interesting to see a simulated excavation, and learn more about the process from colleagues!

Excellent few days at the Tri Lateral Strategic Steering Group’s symposium about shaping the essence of Air Power for future conflicts. It was a privilege to share my thoughts about the cultural impact of Air Power and hear @rafhistory.bsky.social speak about Air Power and Geography

Great to talk with students at the University of Kent about working in the Museums/Heritage Sector this week with Dr Stefan Goebel. Wonderful discussions, and great to meet some of the next generation of heritage professionals!

Sharing my back catalogue of Museum visits in the festive period, which I forgot to share!

These images were taken within or near to Lavenham Guildhall. One of my research interests recently has been museums as memorial spaces, so to view the ‘Friendly Invasion’ display here was really interesting!

One of my goals for this year is to read more books, including history books that aren’t for work reasons. I saw this in the local bookshop, and as someone who fell in love with history due to ‘Horrible Histories’ I couldn’t resist. So much nostalgia, and I learned a lot!

Recently I was able to visit the Ashmoleum Museum where I was tasked with with finding an object to talk about over lunch.

The chairs were donated by Lady Henriques for her son to memorialise him. I’ve visited his grave many times, and next time I visit I’ll be sure to remember this connection.

I am currently working on a few projects around the work of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission during the Second World War and came across this. This record highlights how people interacted with local war dead, which is one of my main research interests.

Record: CWGC/2/2/1/243 (WG1831/185)

Last weekend we had an impromptu flypast on our dog walk! Needless to say the dog wasn’t as excited as I was at seeing them fly over