Robert Fleming

About

Rob is the Principal Maps Records Specialist in the Visual Collections team at The National Archives. He is a social and military historian whose research focuses on the political and military history of empire; exploration, cartography and intelligence; and trade, transport and communications. He has extensive experience in public engagement and regularly contributes to lectures, conferences and public programming.

Rob is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and a member of the British Cartographic Society. He is also a former council member of the Society for Army Historical Research.

Research activity

Rob studied law, politics and philosophy at the University of Tasmania, followed by history and archaeology at the University of Sydney. During his studies, he gained archaeological fieldwork experience at colonial-era military sites, undertook research into frontier conflict and convict transportation, and completed a dissertation on colonial settlement growth analysis.

After moving to the UK in 2005, Rob appeared as a guest archaeologist on Time Team and worked at the Imperial War Museum for two years. He subsequently joined the National Army Museum, where he developed curatorial expertise in Fine and Decorative Arts and developed extensive knowledge of British military records, military art—particularly prints, drawings and maps—and British colonial warfare. From 2016 to 2022, he managed the Templer Study Centre (library and archives).

In the lead-up to the centenary of the First World War Rob published two related books. During the centenary he was involved in several public engagement initiatives, and he participated in official centenary commemorations on the Western Front. This period marked the development of his deeper research interest in military cartography and the history of intelligence.

Rob’s research explores the role of maps and visual material in the construction and administration of empire, particularly their use in military planning, intelligence gathering, propaganda and the shaping of imperial narratives. He has recently focused on the development and evolution of cartography and espionage in the imperial age, and his forthcoming book, Scholars Soldiers and Spies (Amberley Publishing), examines these themes in depth.

He has a strong interest in highlighting the contributions of colonial and Commonwealth forces to British military history and in examining the intersections of identity, belonging and place arising from imperial legacy. His work also considers how travel, cross-cultural exchange, and visual culture have influenced historical and contemporary understandings of empire and continue to shape the contemporary world.

Since joining The National Archives, Rob’s research has concentrated on the development, scope and significance of The National Archives’ map collections, the relationship between cartography and the growth and management of empire, and the digital opportunities for researching and enhancing access to historic map collections.