WLA Historian Stuart Antrobus wins national award

I’m thrilled to share that Stuart Antrobus, WLA historian and long-standing mentor and advisor to this website has been chosen by the Trustees of the British Association for Local History (BALH) to receive its certificate for An Outstanding Individual Contribution to Local History for 2023.

The purpose of this award is to honour publicly local historians who have made outstanding and significant voluntary contributions to the subject in their own areas and more widely.

The BALH Awards Panel, made up of experienced local historians, both professional and amateur, wrote of Stuart’s ‘extensive and long-standing voluntary work in local history’ including a 20-year period of research, publications and educational activities relating to the Women’s Land Army in Bedfordshire.

This includes a major oral history project with former Land Girls, extensive archival research to discover the records of over 3,300 young women who served in the county and the creation of an award-winning website, in conjunction with Bedfordshire Virtual Library.

Stuart Antrobus standing next to the memorial to the WLA and WTC following its unveiling in October 2014 at the National Memorial Arboretum.

Stuart’s publications include his detailed, illustrated book, We wouldn’t have missed it for the world: Bedfordshire Women’s Land Army, 1939-1950 (Book Castle Publishing, 2008) and Life in Bedford during the Second World War (BAALHS, 2021).

Stuart has been unfaltering in his support of my website, sharing his own research, whilst also mentoring a young historian through the opportunities and challenges of developing an archive. My website would not be where it is today without Stuart’s support.

Please join me in wishing Stuart a warm congratulations for his amazing research efforts.