Military maestro

As part of last week’s World Book Day celebrations, we profiled a number of colleagues who have second careers as authors.

Who knew that behind the scenes Royal Mail was such a creative treasure trove of both aspiring and published poets, bloggers, authors and novelists?

Perhaps our most prolific wordsmith however, is none other than accountant and historian, Paul Kendall, from our Pensions Trustees team, who has written no less than nine books covering the First World War.

In addition, Paul has submitted two further books to his publisher, ‘The Last Hundred Days of WW1 in 100 Locations’ and ‘Henry VIII in 100 Objects’ and is currently working on a book on Queen Victoria.

Paul has worked for Royal Mail for nearly 23 years. His interest in military history was awakened through the four years that he served as an Honorary Midshipman for the University of London Royal Naval Unit (1990-94).

‘I also have a personal interest in World War One, because my great grandfather, Private William Kendall, was killed at the Battle of Bullecourt in 1917, which is the subject of my second book,’ said Paul.

‘During my service with the University of London Royal Naval Unit I visited Zeebrugge and Bruges during my first deployment. This was the site of the Zeebrugge raid which was intended to block the German submarines that were based at Bruges during World War One. This would become the subject of my first book. I really enjoy researching and visiting the places where these historic events took place.’

Paul’s first book ‘The Zeebrugge Raid 1918: The Finest Feat of Arms’ was published in 2008, followed by ‘Bullecourt 1917: Breaching the Hindenburg Line’ in 2010 and ‘Aisne 1914: The Dawn of Trench Warfare’ in 2012. He has also written various articles for ‘Britain at War’ and ‘The Armourer’ magazines.

In 2011, Paul moved from London to Folkestone where he continued to write about the First World War for Frontline Books. His book ‘Somme 1916: Success and Failure on the First Day of the Battle of the Somme’ was published in 2015, followed by ‘Voices from the Past: The Zeebrugge Raid 1918’ and ‘The Battle of Neuve Chapelle: Britain’s Forgotten Offensive of 1915’ in 2016.

Paul supported the curators at the Caverne du Dragon Museum in France as a consultant in producing an exhibition relating to the British Expeditionary Force at the Battle of the Aisne 1914. The exhibition entitled ‘Tommies on the Aisne 1914’ showed the role of British troops in this region, using images and personal stories from the research sourced from his book ‘Aisne 1914: The Dawn of Trench Warfare’. The exhibition, which was open from April 2014 until March 2015, was very well received by both British and French visitors.

Click here to view Paul’s Amazon page. Further information on Paul and his work can be found here.