User Advisory Group (UAG) delegates represent different sections of our user community, not just their own interests.
As well as attending UAG meetings, each delegate has a responsibility to cascade the details of the meetings to members of their user community and gather feedback from them.
You can find further details on the UAG in our terms of reference (PDF, 0.23MB).
Our current delegates:
Sue Adams
Independent researchers representative
Sue Adams is a professional genealogist who qualified with an MSc in Genealogical, Palaeographic and Heraldic Studies from the University of Strathclyde in 2012. She is currently working on a PhD using late manorial records at the University of Lincoln, reflecting her research interests in 17th to 19th century land and property.
Sue is a member of the Association of Genealogists and Researchers in Archives, the Register of Qualified Genealogists and the Association of Professional Genealogists.
Matthew Cleary
Student and online users representative
Matthew Cleary is currently a PhD candidate in Law at the University of Edinburgh. Matthew’s research focuses on 15th- and 16th-century English inheritance law, more specifically on the administration of wills under canon and common law.
Matthew is attached to the Centre for Legal History within the Edinburgh Law School. Previously Matthew studied in Canada where he received a BA Spec. Hons. and MA degrees in History.
Matthew is passionate about supporting researchers in their historical projects and looks forward to voicing the comments and suggestions of online and student users of The National Archives. Matthew can be reached at m.cleary-1@sms.ed.ac.uk.
James Fenwick
Academic users and Diversity and Inclusion (LGBTQ) representative
James Fenwick is Associate Professor in the Department of Culture and Media at Sheffield Hallam University and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. He has authored numerous archive-based film and media history books, including Stanley Kubrick Produces, Unproduction Studies and the American Film Industries, and Archive Histories: An Archaeology of the Stanley Kubrick Archive.
He is the co-founder of the Archives and Archival Methods Special Interest Group for the British Association of Film, Television and Screen Studies (BAFTSS) and founder and lead of the Archive Research Community. He is particularly interested in enhancing collaborative relationships between archivists and researchers.
Roger Fisher
Map Room users and overseas researchers (North America) representative
Roger Fisher is an Associate Professor of Humanities at York University, Toronto, Canada, and a barrister and solicitor with the Law Society of Ontario. His research at The National Archives examines the intersection between law, literature and culture, with a particular emphasis on the court records for lawsuits in the 1700s and early 1800s having to go with the performing arts, music publishing, and copyright.
He looks forward to providing the perspective of an overseas user to the Users Advisory Group and welcomes the input of other overseas users. He may be reached at rfisher@yorku.ca
Aristides Hatzis
Academic users and overseas researchers (Europe) representative
Aristides Hatzis is a professor at the University of Athens and the director of the Laboratory for Political and Institutional Theory and the History of Ideas. He’s interested in the Age of Revolutions, Early Liberal Political Theory, and the Greek War of Independence.
His research at The National Archives focuses mostly on the FO, CO, and ADM collections. He represents both academic users and overseas researchers, so he’s open to feedback from users in both groups. You can reach him at ahatzis@uoa.gr.
Alison Kay
County/external archives representative
Alison Kay is the Archives Manager at the National Railway Museum (NRM), part of the Science Museum Group. Alison manages the NRM’s vast manuscript, photography, moving image and sound collections and a team of archivists. She has worked in railway archives since qualifying as an archivist in 2008.
Alison led a successful Archives Accreditation application for the NRM and has worked on diverse research and exhibition projects including Ambulance Trains where she researched The National Archives’ war diaries.
Richard Marks
Academic users representative
Richard Marks became a freelance professional historian after a career in the technology industry as a manufacturing system engineer and is also a doctoral candidate. His thesis examines the role of railways in the industrialisation of rural counties in the nineteenth century.
He is a published author and frequent user of the National Archives for research as well as numerous other archive collections across the country. Richard is a frequent speaker on historical topics and is currently researching the history of a number of British Aircraft manufacturing companies. Richard is a passionate supporter of archives across the country, often using social media to promote the use of historical record collections and museum archives.
Phaedra McLean
Online users representative
Phaedra McLean is an enthusiastic amateur with a strong interest in family and military genealogy. She is also a volunteer for the Commonwealth War Graves Commission ‘Eyes On, Hands On’ programme, caring for local war graves and preserving their community and local history stories.
She has completed 38 years of public service, a full 30-year career as a Police Officer working in a number of operational and specialist roles and is still a serving Army Reserve Officer and Deputy Lieutenant for Cheshire.
Sadie McMullon
Family history researchers and online users representative
Dr Sadie McMullon is an independent historical researcher and family historian. She is passionate about local history and how this can inform, and place into context, a person’s family history. As an increasing number of people conduct their family history research online Sadie values high quality online sources, and as the Archive Liaison Officer with the Family History Federation she also wants to ensure that researchers are aware of the variety of records repositories hold.
Caroline Nielsen
Diversity and inclusion representative
Caroline Nielsen is Senior Lecturer in History and Heritage at the University of Northampton. She researches the different experiences of people with disabilities and mental health conditions from the 18th to the early 20th centuries. She is Programme Leader for BA History at Northampton and presents the ‘Oh the Humanities’ podcast for NLive Northampton community radio. Caroline is currently working on a project looking at responses to self-harming behaviours within the 19th century British army.
Caroline is passionate about encouraging interdisciplinary use of the historic materials, and is especially interested in how archival materials can be used to help inform current health and scientific debates and research. She can be reached at caroline.nielsen@northampton.ac.uk
Anne Samson
Diversity and inclusion representative
Dr Anne Samson is an independent historian specialising in the First World War in Africa. She runs the Great War in Africa Association (https://gweaa.com) and a small publishing house which has a Great War in Africa imprint. Anne is passionate about education, global access to archives and dispelling myths about the past.
Anne advises and works on cross-country and -cultural projects. She liaises with researchers across the globe, mainly with an interest in the First World War in Africa but not exclusively. While Anne has experience of researching in diverse archives in the UK and South Africa, she is aware of the challenges researchers face accessing archives in the UK as well as Africa, India, and the Caribbean.
Her work as researcher, author, publisher and speaker, in different countries, as well as having grown up in Apartheid South Africa, means she is constantly negotiating the complexities of issues such as language and inequalities when dealing with the past, not least imperial and colonial history.
Lisbet Sherlock
Family history and online users representative
Following a successful business career in market research and corporate communications in the high-tech sector, Lisbet Sherlock has returned to her academic roots and now dedicates her time to history projects. As an independent researcher she is currently focussed on the history of two militant suffragettes whose dramatic story is hiding in plain sight in archives across the country as well as researching and writing the history of a Hertfordshire farm.
Jeremy Stocker
Academic research representative
Dr Jeremy Stocker is an Associate Fellow of the Royal United Services Institute in London, and an independent historian and defence analyst. He served in the Royal Navy and Royal Naval Reserve for nearly 40 years, retiring in 2016. Captain Stocker saw active service in the Persian Gulf and in Afghanistan. With interests including nuclear weapons, missile defence and naval history, he is currently editing a series of volumes for the Navy Records Society.
Gill Thomas
Map room users and genealogists representative
Gill Thomas is the Chair of AGRA – the Association of Genealogists and Researchers in Archives. AGRA is a membership organisation representing and accrediting professional genealogists across England and Wales. Its members are regular users of archives, including The National Archives, county archives and beyond.
Gill became a professional genealogist following a career in publishing. She runs her own research practice and is a regular visitor to The National Archives, using a wide variety of records on subjects.
Gary Willis
Academic users and environmental representative
Gary Willis had a first career in the international development charity and trade union sectors before undertaking an MRes in Historical Research at the Institute of Historical Research, and a History doctorate at the University of Bristol. He is an environmental historian with a particular interest in the environmental impact of warfare.
Gary is currently working on his first book, on the military-industrial enclosure of Britain’s countryside in the Second World War, due to be published in 2026. He can be reached at eden@garywillis.plus.com.