The Battlefields Trust is pleased to announce the appointment for two years of a Development Officer – Julian Humphrys – to work on battlefield heritage at risk and to build the capacity of the Trust and supported by English Heritage.

Julian is ideally qualified to take this work forward.  He read history at Emmanuel College, Cambridge and, after spending a post-graduate year at the Polytechnic of North London and qualifying as a Blue Badge Guide, he joined the staff of Chelsea’s National Army Museum.  He worked there for twelve years, researching, writing and staging a number of Special Exhibitions and was spokesman to the media on a wide range of historical matters.  His TV and radio appearances have ranged from Sky News to The Generation Game, and he has made a number of appearances on BBC Radio 4’s Ramblings Series.  As well as guiding battlefield tours in the UK, France, Belgium and Spain, Julian undertook three expeditions to Bosnia during the civil war to record the British Army’s activities there and to obtain objects for display in the Museum, setting up a major exhibition on his return.  In 2002 he began an ongoing association with English Heritage, developing and then leading its Tours Through Time programme of guided visits to historic properties and its popular series of battlefield hikes.  Julian is a regular contributor to BBC History Magazine and is the author of a number of books, including Clash of Arms: Twelve English battles and Enemies at the Gate: English castles under siege from 12th century to the civil war.

The priorities will be to work with English Heritage on their 43 registered battlefields in England and especially on the eight identified last year as being “at risk”.  He will be doing this by working with and setting up local “custodian groups” for each battlefield and developing and strengthening the Trust’s branch structure.  He will be building on success here with some custodians already appointed and with new branches in the offing.  Although the priority is England’s registered battlefields, Julian will be liaising with Historic Scotland and their proposed “inventory” of battlefields and will look at the very many unregistered but important battlefields to develop their heritage potential.