Although family history and media research make up a lot of my time, I am happy to undertake other types of research! For example I have conducted house research, looked into divorce records, examined trial records and newspapers, and have spent a lot of time in literary archives, including the John Murray Archive. I have also helped PhD students across the pond by examining material held in Edinburgh etc – a cheaper option for them than travelling to here!

Below are details of a large project I am currently involved in.

So whatever your project needs, contact me to discuss further!

CARA

The Council for Assisting Refugee Academics was set up in 1933 (originally called Academic Assistance Council, then Society for Protection of Science and Learning) when Hitler came to power in Germany and started to kick out academics from universities. William Beveridge and others decided they had to do something to help and set up a charity to administer funds and give advice. Out of the 2000 academics they helped before the Second World War started, 16 went on to win nobel prizes and many became members of the Royal Society.

With the end of the war thoughts were turned to winding down and shutting the society but in 1956 the Hungarian revolution persuaded them to continue and since then they have helped academics from countries as diverse as Argentina, Chile, Czechoslovakia, Ethiopia, Iran, Iraq, Jordan (West Bank), Poland, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Uganda, USSR and Vietnam.

2008 sees CARA celebrating their 75th anniversary, and I am helping them with research for an exhibition, book and conference, looking through their archives at Oxford Bodleian and in their offices in London. I am also helping to trace those academics helped in the past who have since lost touch with the charity.