Lucy Noakes is Rab Butler Professor of Modern History at the University of Essex and a social and cultural historian of early to mid 20th-century Britain.

As a specialist in the history of modern Britain, Lucy researches the experience and memory of those who have lived through conflict, with a particular focus on the First and Second World Wars. Her recent monographs include Dying for the Nation. Death, Grief and Bereavement in Second World War Britain (2020) and War and the British: Gender, Memory and National Identity 1939-1991 (revised edition 2023). Her latest book, The People’s Victory: VE Day Through the Eyes of Those Who Were There, will be published in May 2025. Lucy’s work has made extensive use of the Mass Observation Archive, of which she is now a trustee.

Before joining the University of Essex in 2017, Lucy Noakes held academic posts at the universities of Southampton Solent, Portsmouth and Brighton.

Lucy is the 36th President of the Royal Historical Society and took up her role in November 2024.