David Kenyon

Guest Writer at GetHistory

Dr David Kenyon is responsible for historical research in support of all public content at Bletchley Park, the Second World War code-breaking site in Buckinghamshire, now a museum. He also appears as a spokesman for Bletchley Park on TV and radio. He has published two books on Bletchley Park: Bletchley Park and D-Day in 2019, and Arctic Convoys, Bletchley Park and the War for the Seas in 2023.

He was previously a free-lance military historian and museum consultant and has worked on and appeared in numerous historical TV and film projects. Before that, he worked for a number of years as an archaeologist and is one of the UK’s leading experts on the archaeology of the First World War. Another major interest and area of expertise is horses, and the history of cavalry. His book on the British cavalry in the First World War, Horsemen in No-Man’s-Land was published in August 2011. This provided inspiration for the Channel 4 documentary Warhorse: The True Story on which David was advisor and contributor in 2012.

The Latest from David Kenyon

Second World War

Tackling the Mythology of the Arctic Convoys

Contrary to the prevailing mythology, not only did the Allies and the Royal Navy win the campaign in the Arctic, but they did so with the help of a huge and previously largely unacknowledged signals intelligence effort, at the heart of which lay the codebreakers of Bletchley Park.

by David Kenyon

On this day in history

1381 - The 14-year-old Richard II met Wat Tyler at Blackheath to hear the grievances of the Peasants' Revolt.

1645 - The Parliamentarians won a decisive victory over Royalist forces at the Battle of Naseby. The Royalist forces were so badly damaged that within a year, the Parliamentarians would win the First Civil War.

1928 - Leading suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst died, aged 69.

1940 - German troops entered Paris, just five weeks after starting the invasion.

1982 - Argentinian forces surrendered to the British, ending the Falklands War.