Tom Bennett

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Nomination for New Professional of the Year Award 2024 – Tom Bennett

I would like to nominate Tom Bennett for his hard work in the last 18 months in his roles as Historic Archives and Collections Officer at George Watson’s College, and as co-convenor of the Scottish and Northern England School Archives Group and committee member for the School Archives and Records Association. Besides his role as school archivist, Tom has taken on all these other roles in the last 18 months (including as Training Officer with ARA Scotland) helping to raise the profile of School Archives across the sector.

At George Watson’s College, Tom has worked hard talking to various groups about the school founder’s links to the slave trade. By being open and honest about the evidence uncovered, presenting the facts, he has informed and helped other schools and school archivists across the UK to understand how they can look at their origins and links to slavery and how they too can go through this process and their findings to work towards a better future for the school and the wider community to help stamp out racism.  Using the school archives, Tom has helped the school go towards healing the rift that the amalgamation caused when the doors closed of the girls’ school in George Square and the sense of ’closure’ they had instead of 'amalgamation’. He has worked closely with former pupils to build up a sense of community and trust during their 150th Anniversary.

As co-convenor of the Scottish and Northern England School Archives Group, Tom has helped this group go from quite a small, disconnected group, to one that is more connected, visible, relevant and productive member of the wider UK sector. Tom has hosted a range of speakers to look at areas such as digitisation, archive accreditation and engagement and is a point of contact for advice and support. As lone archivists, this support and leadership has had an invaluable impact and is driving the school archive sector in Scotland forward.

As committee member for the School Archives and Records Association, he helped organise, and hosted, the first SARA Conference to be held in Scotland for many years. With archivists and educational specialists from across Scotland speaking at the event, this has helped raise the profile of Scottish School Archives in the UK and helped the sector show the work that it is doing and helped the Scottish sector feel more a part of the wider UK school archive sector.

He has demonstrated commitment, drive and leadership, which in someone so new to the sector has been inspiring and his continuing dedication to the sector will have a wider impact in both the school and archive communities.  

https://www.gwc.org.uk/about-us/heritage

https://sites.google.com/gwc.org.uk/gwlc150/george-watsons-ladies-college-150th-anniversary

Nominated by Julie Devenney