Speaker
Dr Ismini Pells is Departmental Lecturer and Course Director for the Advanced Diploma in Local History in the Department for Continuing Education at the University of Oxford. Her research interests are in early modern military and medical history, in particular during the British Civil Wars. She completed her doctorate at the University of Cambridge in 2014, where her thesis examined the career of Philip Skippon, commander of the infantry in the New Model Army. She was a postdoctoral research associate at the Universities of Exeter and Leicester, serving as Project Manager of the Civil War Petitions Project, before moving to Oxford in 2021. Ismini is the author of Philip Skippon and the British Civil Wars: the ‘Christian Centurion’ (Abingdon: Taylor & Francis, 2020). She is also a British Army Veteran, having served in the Honourable Artillery Company.
Speaker
Richard “Dickie” Bennett is a researcher and practitioner specialising in heritage-based wellbeing interventions for veterans, with a focus on mental health, recovery, and social reintegration. As Director of Services at Breaking Ground Heritage and a PhD candidate at Solent University, his work explores how archaeological engagement can meaningfully support those transitioning from military to civilian life. He has led pioneering studies with Operation Nightingale, demonstrating measurable improvements in wellbeing through heritage participation. Dickie brings both lived experience and academic insight, making him uniquely placed to speak on the evolving landscape of veterans' welfare.
Speaker and Course Director
Andrew Hopper has been Professor of Local and Social History in the Department for Continuing Education at the University of Oxford since 2021. Previously Andrew taught History at the Universities of East Anglia, Birmingham and Leicester. He is the author of Black Tom: Sir Thomas Fairfax and the English Revolution (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2007), and Turncoats and Renegadoes: Changing Sides during the English Civil Wars (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012). He is the Principal Investigator of the AHRC-funded Civil War Petitions Project and is currently working on his third monograph Widowhood and Bereavement during and after the English Civil Wars for Oxford University Press. Andrew is patron of the Naseby Battlefield Project and chairman of the editorial board of Midland History. He was appointed a Fellow of the Society for Army Historical Research in 2024.
Speaker
Professor Bricknell was appointed as Professor of Conflict, Health and Military Medicine at King’s College London in April 2019 after serving 34 years in the UK Defence Medical Services, culminating as the Surgeon General of the UK Armed Forces. He undertook operational tours in Afghanistan, Iraq, and the Balkans with numerous additional overseas assignments. He was awarded the Companion of the Order of Bath, the Order of St John and the US Bronze Star during his military service. He is an accredited specialist in General Practice, Public Health and Occupational Medicine.
