Join us to explore key aspects of the Great War in our popular one-day focused history seminar, on an original Great War site.
This year’s speakers are:
Peter Hart – Peter worked for some 40 years as the oral historian for the Department of Sound Records, Imperial War Museum where he interviewed countless veterans. He has written several books on World War One and Two, is an experienced civilian/military tours guide and has appeared in numerous television documentaries. After retiring from the Imperial War Museum, Peter launched “Pete & Gary’s Military History” podcast.
Peter’s Talk is titled: I’m Out: Escape from German POW Camps, 1914-18.
Steve Erskine – Steve is the Regimental Researcher at the Green Howards Museum and a Freelance Battlefield Guide. He holds a master’s degree (with Merit) in British First World War Studies from Birmingham University (2008). Steve is a regular feature on the public speaking circuit, he was a Keynote speaker at the Peace & Security conference in Catania, Sicily in July 2023 and the Thirtieth Annual War College of the Seven Years’ War at Fort Ticonderoga in New York State in May 2026. He has also written for Britain at War Magazine.
Steve’s Talk is titled: A loyal and simple soldier. Lt.-Gen. Sir David Henderson, father of the RAF?
Sarah Paterson is Curator (World War One and Early 20th Century) at the Imperial War Museum, and an expert on prisoners of war. She recently opened the First Great Escape exhibition at Stow Maries Great War Aerodrome. Sarah initially joined IWM as a Librarian in 1988 and for many years she had responsibility for family history research at IWM. Her areas of particular interest include prisoners of war, women and conflict, military families, and the British Occupation of Germany after both world wars. She recently wrote the introduction for the IWM publication Most Secret: MI9 and Evasion Devices, and is the author of Tracing Your Prisoner of War Ancestors: The First World War. Sarah’s talk will focus on the experiences of World War One officers in the Holzminden prisoner of war camp, and how 29 of them managed to break out through a tunnel dug with sharpened cutlery.
The day includes up-close and personal tours of aircraft and object handling sessions, as well as lunch in the original 1917 mess, now The Airmen’s Mess café. Stow Maries Great War Aerodrome was the home of 37 Squadron Royal Flying Corps in 1916 and is now an Accredited Museum.
Tickets cost £35 (plus booking fee). For more information or to book visit https://www.stowmaries.org.uk/events