MsLinda Hutton

I am a perpetual student, having begun my university career with the Open University in 1998. I am now a PhD candidate at the University of Wolverhampton examining aspects of the First World War in my home town of Barnsley, South Yorkshire.

I previously worked at Sheffield Hallam University in Student Records and Systems Management. This provided me with technical and administrative skills which are directly transferable to my research. I was part of the team which presented training on the various IT systems in the University to new and continuing members of staff, and following my reluctant early retirement took a PGCE in Teaching IT to the Elderly with placements teaching with AgeUK and the Barnsley Council's Adult Learning programme. Sadly my ill health prevented me from being able to continue this as a career change, however I did spend a number of years travelling to various schools and community groups, on an occasional basis, speaking on local and family history and latterly the history of the First World War.

During the Centenary of the First World War I was part of a voluntary project, the Barnsley War Memorials Project, which aimed to seek out and record all the war memorials in the Barnsley area. I was the Secretary of the Project and the first webmaster, responsible for the creation of a website using Blogger software which would make our findings available to the general public. At the close of the project in 2019, myself and one other committee member took over the administration of website and continue improving it to the present day. I also managed the projects to transcribe the 1918 Absent Voters List for Barnsley, and the indexing of the local newspaper, the Barnsley Chronicle, from August 1914 to March 1919, for every mention of a serviceman, woman or civilian war worker. This involved providing batches of work to volunteers who undertook the tasks in their own homes, collating and checking the completed batches, and preparing the transcriptions for printing and digital presentation. These transcriptions and indexes are available at Barnsley Archives and online.

My aim is to make the history of the First World War as it concerned Barnsley, and knowledge of the ways in which communities in the Barnsley area commemorated and remembered their servicemen and women, much more widely available to the general public of Barnsley. One way of achieving this has been to create a Public Facebook Group called Barnsley's History - The Great War which now has over 1.2k members. Posts are made daily and experienced members (local historians, battlefield specialists, military historians) respond to questions submitted by members. Members post their own photographs and family stories which help to create an interactive local online community.

Edit November 2022: Despite its success I have had to pause the Facebook group, as of Remembrance Sunday. My co-administrator passed away in the summer and I have been unable to find anyone willing and able to replace him. As a consequence the group was taking up too much of my time and despite the value of connections with other people interested in Barnsley in the First World War I sadly made the decision to pause it for now. This is reversible and I will reassess my position in a few months time.

The Barnsley & District War Memorials website and the Barnsley's History - The Great War Facebook group are registered as one entity with the Community Archives and Heritage Group. My research interests, 'Barnsley 1914-1939 in particular the impact of the FWW', are registered with the One Place Studies Society.