Catherine Walker awarded MBE
Our congratulations to Catherine Walker for her recognition in the Queen’s Birthday Honour List.
Catherine is curator of the War Poets Collection and part of the Learning and Research Services team within Information Services.
She has been awarded an MBE for services to education, heritage and public engagement. While working at Edinburgh Napier University, she has developed and promoted the War Poet’s Collection over a 20 year period, making it into an internationally renowned special collection.
The War Poet’s Collection celebrates the meeting and work of First World War poets Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon, as well as the history of Edinburgh Napier’s Craiglockhart campus as a hydropathic and hospital for officers suffering from shell shock. Catherine has an enormous wealth of knowledge about the Collection, and has gained many supporters for it over the years. She has been interviewed in documentaries by the BBC, the CBC, on the radio, and the collection has also featured in the Antiques Road Trip.
Malcolm Jones, Head of Learning and Research Services said "We’re delighted to hear about this richly deserved award. Through her drive and determination, Catherine has developed the War Poets Collection from small beginnings (a single bookcase) to a newly refurbished and much visited site of interest to researchers, historians and the wider community. All the people across the world that have been touched by the Collection, and the story it tells, owe an enormous debt of gratitude to Catherine’s energy, engaging personality and infectious enthusiasm."
See the full story at OBE, MBE for University stalwarts.