I started volunteering at the National Army Museum in 2011, in what was then called the department of printed books, cataloguing decades-old training manuals of the defence ministry. Some of the subject matter was eye-opening.
After helping re-label the museum’s vast medal collection, I’m now with the education department. As well as helping transcribe and research letters written from the western front, I prepare material for blogs and websites, and also assist with outreach projects in local primary schools.
For more than 20 years I worked in human resources for an oil and gas firm in the UK. Before that I worked in Saudi Arabia and Colombia.
Some of those old skills have been useful in my volunteer work, particularly in areas such as record-keeping and cataloguing.
I am also a keen photographer and last year I worked on a project to record landmarks – war memorials, street and place names and so on – that reflect society’s relationship with the army and past conflicts.
All those roads called Mafeking – from the second Boer war – and pubs called the Marquis of Granby show there is military history all around us. I’m hoping some of my images will make it into the society gallery when the refurbished museum reopens next year.
After helping re-label the museum’s vast medal collection, I’m now with the education department. As well as helping transcribe and research letters written from the western front, I prepare material for blogs and websites, and also assist with outreach projects in local primary schools.
For more than 20 years I worked in human resources for an oil and gas firm in the UK. Before that I worked in Saudi Arabia and Colombia.
Some of those old skills have been useful in my volunteer work, particularly in areas such as record-keeping and cataloguing.
I am also a keen photographer and last year I worked on a project to record landmarks – war memorials, street and place names and so on – that reflect society’s relationship with the army and past conflicts.
All those roads called Mafeking – from the second Boer war – and pubs called the Marquis of Granby show there is military history all around us. I’m hoping some of my images will make it into the society gallery when the refurbished museum reopens next year.