A volunteer at The National Archives has won a London Heritage Volunteer Award for her outstanding work.
Katrina Lidbetter won the Going the Extra Mile category in the annual awards managed by London Heritage Volunteering Group. She is one of a team of 22 volunteers who catalogued 203,000 Second World War POW record cards at The National Archives, making these fascinating records accessible to the public and inspiring a highly successful exhibition, Great Escapes: Remarkable Second World War Captives.
Katrina was presented with her award certificate in Volunteers’ Week (2-9 June 2025), when volunteers are recognised and thanked for the work they do in their communities.
Saul Nassé, Chief Executive of The National Archives, said: “It’s a joy to see one of our hard-working volunteers recognised in this way. Katrina’s award is so well deserved. Our volunteers do sterling work, uncovering wonderful stories as they help make the records more accessible.”
Alongside cataloguing, Katrina also translated a diary written in German by a wartime civilian internee in Britain who was shipped to Australia, meaning that too could be included in the exhibition.
She quality assured audio/video material for the exhibition and provided transcripts to create subtitles, as well as leading four tours for members of the public.
Besides this, Katrina helped catalogue records relating to more than 4000 individuals captured in Hong Kong and Malaya and also the liberation and escape reports of around 20,000 British and Allied prisoners of war captured by Japan and Germany.
Her research into individual stories also enabled her to publish several blogs.
Katrina, who volunteers two days a week at The National Archives, said: “When you handle record cards you’re handling history, I love seeing these stories come to light. I was astounded and astonished by the award. It’s very humbling because there are loads of volunteers who do fantastic amounts of work.”
