Athabasca University | AU Student/Staff Login | Invited Guest Login
Digging the Trenches: The Archaeology of the Western Front
Thursday, Nov. 2, 7-10pm
Military Museums, Calgary.
"How does archaeology and military history come together?" Find out by joining Valour Canada, the Archaeology Society of Alberta, the University of Calgary and The Military Museums Foundation in welcoming Mr. Andrew Robertshaw to The Military Museums to speak about his archaeological findings during excavations on the western front.
Andrew Robertshaw, BA, MA, FSA, is a self employed military historian, author and broadcaster based in the United Kingdom. He was previously Curator/Manager of The Royal Logistic Corps Museum in Deepcut and before that Head of Education at The National Army Museum in London.
During his career, Andrew has lectured to international audiences on many aspects of military history including Leadership at the Staff College, Shrivenham, infantry history at the Infantry Training Centre, Catterick and military medicine for the Norwegian Army’s annual surgical course held in Oslo. An Honorary lecturer in public archaeology at University College London and Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries. For the past twenty years, Andy has been conducting archaeological projects on the Western Front.
Andy is Director of Battlefield Partnerships Ltd and the company is currently preparing for a major archaeological project on the Western Front. Other projects include a battlefield summer school and a programme of conferences on conflict archaeology. Much of the year will be spent on the Western Front although MOD battlefield studies will include trips to Crete, Italy and Normandy.
Andy’s publications include various articles and essays, three books on military history for young people including ’A Soldier's Life’, Heinemann 1997. ‘Somme I July 1916: Tragedy and Triumph’ was published by Osprey in 2006. A joint work with David Kenyon ‘Digging the Trenches: The Archaeology of the Western Front’ was published in the spring of 2008 and is currently in a third edition. Research on film and photography in June and July 1916 was used in the publication ‘Ghosts on the Somme’ and in the viewing notes to accompany the Imperial War Museum DVD. Following the success of ’24 Hour Trench’ and ‘Feeding Tommy: Rations and cooking on the Western Front’ his newest publication is a book on the Battle of the Somme.
Over the past fifteen years he has regularly appeared in archaeology and military family history series such as the BBC series 'Two Men in a Trench', Channel 4's 'Time Team’ and ‘Blood and Bullets’ for The History Channel. He is best know for the series ‘Finding the Fallen’ and ‘The Trench Detectives’.
He is currently building a replica trench system and restoring a Victorian house in Kent, United Kingdom.
