Paul Evans

Graduated from Liverpool John Moores University in 2001 with a BSc (Hons) in Information and Library Management. In the same year he took the post of MoD Assistant Librarian at the James Clavell Library, Woolwich. In the following year the library and archive departments merged he was promoted to become the MoD Head of the library and archives at Firepower, the Royal Artillery Museum, Woolwich, where he remained until its closure in 2016.

Whilst there he participated in several largescale MOD archival projects including the closure and transfer of MOD Hayes into the Army Personnel Centre, Glasgow: the closure of the Army Medal Office, Droitwich, the dispersal of the development collections from DSTL Fort Halstead and the closure of the Old War Office, Library, Old Scotland Yard. On each occasion he was involved in the rediscovery and cataloguing of archival collections and their subsequent release into the public domain. 

A one-time regular contributor to the Who Do You Think You Are? Television series, he has also appeared on Salvage Squad, Hero in My Family, Building Britain and Great Railway Journeys. All of this led to his being chosen as the BBC’s artillery expert for their summer long 2014 roadshow commemorating the First World War across the United Kingdom. In 2017 he was again approached by the BBC and contributed to the new series Britain Afloat.

After the closure of the Royal Artillery Museum in 2016 he carried out historical tasks for the Regimental Colonel RA and joined Royal Marines Poole on temporary assignment in February 2017 to curate their historical collections.

From December 2017 to May 2018 he temporarily joined the Royal Logistic Corps Museum in Deepcut to act as their principal project writer during the design phase of their new regimental museum at Worthy Down. 

With the MOD reducing their civil service commitment to regimental museums in 2018 he accepted redundancy and joined the Army Museum Ogilby Trust (AMOT) as their lead historical projects officer, historical enquiries researcher and AMOT contract curator for the Suffolk Regiment museum, Bury St Edmunds. On completion of the Suffolk Regiment task he was seconded to The Ogilby Muster (TOM) team as their “meta-data explainer”, a role he continues in today. 

The Army Museum Ogilby Trust (AMOT) secured Government LIBOR funding to digitise and make available on-line the First World War regimental collections of the British Army. Invitations to participate were sent to every Regimental Museum and Trust body they could identify, and to date they have digitised over 1 million items for nearly 90 different collections with the launch of their platform planned for 2021.