Hannah Cunliffe Historical Researcher

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Hannah Cunliffe - Historical Researcher & Maritime Consultant

I spent the early years of my life on board Hirta, a 50ft Bristol Channel Pilot Cutter built 1911 and, at the age of four, sailed for Iceland, America and the Caribbean with my parents. I lived on Hirta for five years, by which time my photo by Kos appreciation for historic vessels was cemented and I was more at home on the sea than in our newly bought house. In between summer cruising, I took to dinghy sailing and again headed for a ‘classic’ in the shape of Tern, a clinker scow built by Berthon in the 1930s. I still go sailing at every opportunity today on the modern family wood-epoxy 40ft gaff cutter Westernman.

I went to school in Salisbury and then did a degree at the University of Exeter where my lifelong love for vessels from the past contributed to my choice of reading history. Although my degree was in general history, my first major research project was a controversial 9,000 word dissertation investigating the 1940 evacuation of Dunkirk and the Little Ships involved in this.

Graduating from university, I chose a career which would allow me adequate time for my boating pursuits without making actual hands-on sailing my profession. I had been fascinated by the intricate nature of the research I had done for my thesis and decided to start a business as a self-employed historical researcher.

I later completed a Masters in Maritime History at the University of Greenwich which also comprised a 20,000 word dissertation on the training of boys for The Marine Society, 1820-1880.

My maritime background has proved invaluable in research of that field. It gives me an advantage over many researchers, since it provides me with a reference bank from which I have drawn contacts to solve diverse queries. Since starting my business I have widened my research skills to include genealogy and more general enquiries.