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A visit to the National Archives

As an aspiring historian, perhaps more of an enthusiastic amateur, I appreciate that nothing can beat information from a primary source. The National Archives, at Kew outside London, is the national repository for official documents. The value can’t be understated; war department maps and plans, war diaries from frontline fighting units, or logbooks from long abandoned coastal forts, they can all be found at Kew. I visited twice between the middle of January and the end of February 2023 , primarily souring information for my upcoming visit to Gibraltar with Orkney Exploration. I was able to get copies of war diaries from the Gibraltar tunnelling companies as well as a copy of the defence plan and searchlight battery documents. All incredible valuable documents to bring life to the wealth of remains still littering Gibraltar.