After leaving school at the earliest opportunity, I returned to education via evening classes in 2012 and completed a Foundation Certificate in Modern History. Since then, it is safe to say that I have exceeded my own expectations.
Alongside working as a self-employed landscape gardener, I completed a BA in History from the University of Reading in 2016, where my paper on everyday life in Reading during the Second World War won the prize for best Local History dissertation. I then read for an MA in International Security Studies (2017) at the same institution and my research focused on the causes of war and the UK’s counterterrorism policy. I then worked for a year as a Research Officer at an international development not-for-profit organisation, where I focused on education delivery in low and middle-income countries.
This was followed by undertaking the MSc in English Local History at Kellogg College, Oxford (2019-21) and a return to studying the home front during the Second World War. My MSc dissertation examined popular morale in Bristol during the early stages of the war, with a particular emphasis on the blitz period. I returned to Oxford in October 2022 and started my DPhil at Lincoln College, where I am researching morale and social unity in wartime Hampshire, 1939-45.
Between September 2023 and September 2024, I worked as a Senior Researcher at Spear’s magazine, who are part of the New Statesman Media Group (now Progressive Media Investments).
I live in Oxfordshire with my wife, two young sons and a rather hyperactive shorthaired pointer.