Peter E. Hodgkinson

I started my career as a Clinical Psychologist in 1978, developed an interest in bereavement, and went on to work with the passenger survivors and bereaved of the Zeebrugge Disaster (1987). In 1990 I set up, with Michael Stewart, the Centre for Crisis Psychology, a consultancy dealing with the aftermath of traumatic events in industry. In the early days of this practice I wrote, again with Michael, 'Coping with Catastrophe' (Routledge), outlining psycho-social response to major disasters, later revised in a second edition (1998).

With a lifetime interest in the First World War, I later completed an MA and PhD at the University of Birmingham, and 'British Infantry Battalion Commanders in the First World War' (Ashgate) is based on that PhD research. I then wrote 'Glum Heroes: Hardship, Fear and Death - Resilience and Coping in the British Army on the Western Front' (Helion), an essay on how soldiers managed potential trauma using resources generated by the current social norms of stoicism and manliness.

During 2017, my work on the British Army at the Battle of the Selle, 9-24 October 1918, will be published by Helion. I hope to publish a guide book to the battle simultaneously.