News

# Katrina scoops LHVA award in Volunteers’ Week

A volunteer at The National Archives has won a London Heritage Volunteer Award
(LHVA) for her outstanding work.

Published 2 June 2025

Katrina Lidbetter won the Going the Extra Mile category in the annual awards
managed by London Heritage Volunteering Group. She is one of a team of 22
volunteers who catalogued 203,000 Second World War POW record cards at The
National Archives, making these fascinating records accessible to the public and
inspiring a highly successful exhibition, Great Escapes: Remarkable Second World
War Captives.

Katrina was presented with her award certificate in Volunteers’ Week (2-9 June
2025), when volunteers are recognised and thanked for the work they do in their
communities.

Saul Nassé, Chief Executive of The National Archives, said: “It’s a joy to see
one of our hard-working volunteers recognised in this way. Katrina’s award is so
well deserved. Our volunteers do sterling work, uncovering wonderful stories as
they help make the records more accessible.”

Alongside cataloguing, Katrina also translated a diary written in German by a
wartime civilian internee in Britain who was shipped to Australia, meaning that
too could be included in the exhibition.

She quality assured audio/video material for the exhibition and provided
transcripts to create subtitles, as well as leading four tours for members of
the public.

Besides this, Katrina helped catalogue records relating to more than 4000
individuals captured in Hong Kong and Malaya and also the liberation and escape
reports of around 20,000 British and Allied prisoners of war captured by Japan
and Germany.

Her research into individual stories also enabled her to publish [several
blogs](https://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ukgwa/20250613141441/https://blog.nationalarchives.gov.uk/author/klidbetter/).

Katrina, who volunteers two days a week at The National Archives, said: “When
you handle record cards you’re handling history, I love seeing these stories
come to light. I was astounded and astonished by the award. It’s very humbling
because there are loads of volunteers who do fantastic amounts of work.”

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