John Beales

Biography

I originally trained as a Registered General Nurse and spent 15 years in the N.H.S. working in various Accident and Emergency departments in London, during which time I also completed a B.A. in History via part-time study. I then spent 17 years working on oil and gas drilling or production operations in Kuwait, Angola, Algeria and Kenya, either as a pre-hospital medic or as a Health, Safety and Environmental consultant. Prior to starting the PhD I completed a M.A. in History at the University of Bristol.

Research and scholarship

Research project

A.H.R.C. funded Collaborative Doctoral Partnership studentship: War Stories: composure and discomposure in British veterans’ communication of their experiences of the Falklands War, 1982

Supervisors: Helen Parr (Keele) and Richard McDonough (Imperial War Museum, London)

Research interests

Oral history and memory; war and society in the twentieth century; public history.

Conferences and other

• 'Putting the record straight’: motivation for testimony and counter-narratives of a contested history in a British veterans’ account of the battle of Mount Longdon, 1982, BCMH 9th New Research in Military History Conference - 'Myth and Reality’, Southampton University, 16-17 November 2018.
  Guest blog on the Ministry of Information Digital website, 12 February 2019.
• 'Putting the record straight’: motivation for testimony and counter-narratives of a contested history in a British veterans’ account of the battle of Mount Longdon, 1982 - Falklands/Malvinas conference, University of Manchester, 25-26 April 2019
• BCMH New Research in Military History Conference, ‘Theatres of War’, Lancaster University, 8-9 November 2019: ‘These boots weren’t made for walking’: the D.M.S. boot and the impact of trench foot in the Falklands Campaign, 1982
• A.H.R.C./ Edinburgh International Television Festival Tv PhD scheme 2019
  
• Shackleton Scholarship Fund Award to fund travel to the Falkland Islands for a project entitled 'The locus of memory is in place not time’: the importance of the ‘pilgrimage’ to British veterans of the Falklands Campaign, 1982’
• Conference organiser, Society for the History of War New Voices twitter conference 25 September 2020. #NVHOW20
• Award: Society for the Social History of Medicine Roy Porter Student Essay Prize 2020. ‘Of One Blood?’ Challenging perceptions of wartime blood donor motivation and behaviour: a case study of Bristol and the South West, 1939-1945’.
• Presentation:  The Network for Developing Photographic Research, 28 April 2021 – ‘1000 Words: Short Talks, Powerful Photographs’series: ‘“What it shows invokes what is not shown”: meaning and memory in a photograph from the Falklands War, 1982’, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uaOjE5il3lA
• Roundtable participant at ‘Falklands War at 40: Voices of the Conflict’, Lancaster University, 26 May 2022: https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/centre-for-war-and-diplomacy/events/the-falklands-war-at-40-voices-of-the-conflict
• Expert contributor to IWM Institute Falklands Conflict episode of their ‘Conflict of Interest’ Podcast featuring actor Katherine Parkinson and Professor Helen Parr: https://www.iwm.org.uk/iwm-institute/conflict-of-interest/series-two
• IWM War and Conflict Subject Specialist Network Falklands 40 talk on the role and experiences of the naval veterans of the Falklands campaign, 5 April 2022, https://youtu.be/XrAamMXIHss

• IWM blog: expectations and reality of the Falklands D-Day landings, https://www.iwm.org.uk/blog/research/2022/05/d-day-in-the-falklands
• Researcher for Testimony Films, http://www.testimonyfilms.com/, Surviving Helmand (BBC, 2021 and on BBC iPlayer) and Proper Job Films, https://properjobfilms.co.uk, Falklands War: the Untold Story (Channel 4, 2022).