Simon Trew (born 1965) is a British military historian and author, specialising in

D-Day The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during the Second World War. Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as ...

and the

Normandy Campaign Operation Overlord was the codename for the Battle of Normandy, the Allied operation that launched the successful liberation of German-occupied Western Europe during World War II. The operation was launched on 6 June 1944 (D-Day) with the N ...

. Trew served as a senior lecturer in the Department of War Studies at the

Royal Military Academy Sandhurst The Royal Military Academy Sandhurst (RMAS or RMA Sandhurst), commonly known simply as Sandhurst, is one of several military academy, military academies of the United Kingdom and is the British Army's initial Commissioned officer, officer train ...

for nearly three decades, also serving at times as deputy and acting head. Trew has been featured in various television historical documentaries and live broadcasts, and has received a nomination for an

Emmy award The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the year, each with their own set of rules and award categor ...

in 2009 for his contributions as a historical consultant.

Early life and education

Born in 1965, Trew earned a

First Class Honours The British undergraduate degree classification system is a grading structure used for undergraduate degrees or bachelor's degrees and integrated master's degrees in the United Kingdom. The system has been applied, sometimes with significant var ...

Bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Medieval Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six years ...

in International Relations from

Keele University Keele University is a Public university#United Kingdom, public research university in Keele, approximately from Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire, England. Founded in 1949 as the University College of North Staffordshire, it was granted uni ...

in 1986, before completing his

PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

in History in 1992. His doctoral dissertation ''No Pity Distilled: Britain, Mihailovic and the Chetniks, 1941-2'' focused on British relations with the Yugoslav

Chetnik The Chetniks,, ; formally the Chetnik Detachments of the Yugoslav Army, and also the Yugoslav Army in the Homeland; and informally colloquially the Ravna Gora Movement, was a Kingdom of Yugoslavia, Yugoslav royalist and Serbian nationalist m ...

resistance movement during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

Career

Trew lectured at the University of Keele before joining

where he served as a senior lecturer in the Department of War Studies from 1993 to 2022. During this time, he also held roles as deputy head of department from 2002 to 2012 and acting head from 2013 to 2014. Recognised as an expert on D-Day and the

, Trew has made numerous appearances in television historical documentaries and live broadcasts, including the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

's commemorative anniversary broadcasts from Normandy. In 2004, the 13-part series ''Battle Zone Normandy,'' that he edited and contributed to, was selected in

The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...

''D Day: Essential reading'' by the organisers of the

Imperial War Museum The Imperial War Museum (IWM), currently branded "Imperial War Museums", is a British national museum. It is headquartered in London, with five branches in England. Founded as the Imperial War Museum in 1917, it was intended to record the civ ...

’s ''D-Day exhibition''. In 2009 he was nominated for an

for his work as historical consultant on the BBC documentary ''D-Day: The True Story of Omaha Beach''.

Select bibliography

* * *With Stephen Badsey: *In: *In: * *With Bob Carruthers: *With Gary Sheffield: *As editor: *As editor: *

Television appearances

BBC Timewatch ''Timewatch'' is a long-running British television series showing documentaries on historical subjects, spanning all human history. It was first broadcast on 29 September 1982 and is produced by the BBC. The ''Timewatch'' brandname is used as a ...

''Bloody Omaha'': with

Richard Hammond Richard Mark Hammond (born 19 December 1969) is an English journalist, television presenter, and author. He co-hosted the BBC Two motoring programme ''Top Gear (2002 TV series), Top Gear'' from 2002 until 2015 with Jeremy Clarkson and James Ma ...

BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's oldest and flagship channel, and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television b ...

''Britain at War - The Road To Victory''

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Trew, Simon 1965 births Living people British military writers British military historians Historians of the Balkans Alumni of Keele University Academics of the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst