Helen is standing for election as a Trustee at the AGM 11 October 2025
Helen returned to live in Hampshire in 2023 and is enjoying reacquainting herself with its rich and varied history. After a career in IT she went as a mature student to study at the University of Exeter. Here she achieved an MA with distinction and carried on to a PhD. Subsequently she taught history at the university, both business and maritime history, at undergraduate level and supervised postgraduates.
Helen’s experience of archives is longstanding; from early years researching family and local history and then as an academic historian. She has also been very involved with local history societies encouraging them to use local and national archives and helping them to write up their findings and publish.
She has published extensively and among her books are The First Atlantic Liner and SS Great Britain: Brunel’s Ship, her Voyages, Passengers and Crew. She was recently commissioned by the RNLI to write their official book to mark its bicentenary, One Crew.
She has published two highly regarded RAF biographies, Fighter Pilot, the biography of WW2 ace Bob Doe, her father who was based at RAF Middle Wallop during the Battle of Britain, and most recently Stanford Tuck: Hero of the Battle of Britain.
She was a long term trustee of the ss Great Britain which holds the world class archive on Isambard Brunel. She is a government advisor to the National Historic Ships and Chair of the British Commission for Maritime History. She has appeared as an expert regularly on television and radio, most recently as part of Villages by the Sea on BBC2 which featured Bucklers Hard.