Meanwhile, in Oxfordshire:

Morning all. Photographer Tony Ray-Jones. Weymouth 1968.

We have no business sharing the world with whales. My second favourite creatures after equines 🐋

Jeffers

🎵 My lovely horseee 🎶. Max did so well with his TREC obstacles today.

As my maternity leave comes to an end, a reminder that I’m now offering an archive photography service primarily for museums/archives in the south east England (IWM, TNA, BL etc etc) to help make ends meet. Details below: lucybetteridgedyson.com/archive-rese...

My favourite thing*, is when people who are not military historians, write books about something that there are already 100 million books about, and they become best sellers and the press are all over them. *something that really pisses me off

Our morning bird watching session

Proof that your history does not define you 🤮 #eyesore

Are we using Threads and BlueSky? because I don’t know if I have the time for all these platforms 🫠

What was that? Oh that was your maternity leave mate.

Lovely Max

re: the #GrandNational: 43 racehorses have been killed on UK courses so far this year. I’m not on favour of an outright ban on horse racing - but that figure alone tells you everything about an industry in urgent need of serious reform

Wonderful to see the Orion capsule splash down and hear the crew are well. Can‘t imagine the mix of emotions they must be feeling about humanity right now.

It’s been one of those days where I have not achieved what I set out to PhD wise, however, I‘m trying not to beat myself up because I did manage to: 1) keep everyone in this photo alive 2) hang on to my sanity 3) reply to 4 emails & 5) have a zoom meeting about a project. #phdlife

🎶 The future's so bright My horse has gotta wear shades 🎶

Hey guys and gals. I have a favour to ask... If you’ve read and enjoyed my book, Jungle Commandos, I’d be most grateful if you could review or simply rate it on Amazon. It makes a big difference. Thank you 🙏🏻

Finished this on Wednesday. Really very good. The last few chapters tremendous, with the final one quite emotional. @lmbd1418.bsky.social

Cheeky little book green lit whilst I work on the proposal for my second big one!

Can we just… #Artemis2 📸Earth set at 6:41 p.m, NASA

What a miserable, insular, reductive and pedestrian view

I enjoy how this is turning up a lot of ‘whatever happened to *insert unusual vehicle here* at *unexpected place*’ responses.

Does anyone in the south-east of UK have an armoured vehicle/tank that I could film with for 30 mins? Ideally for free or a bag of beans.

One of my absolute favourite things about Americans is how squeamish they are about the word ‘cunt’. Such fun.

Ted’s second Discworld book. The Last Continent.

Just watched The Bride! A curious film. I liked it.

Members of a mule transport company of the Royal Indian Army Service Corps (known as Force K6) on parade in France, 10 February 1940. 📸F 2478 #MuleMonday

I’m starting a new series of posts: #MessierMonday. Let’s see how long I can continue. First is M1, the Crab Nebula, whose history is almost a history of astronomy.

5 April 1944: the Japanese encirclement of Kohima is complete. Of the 2,500-strong garrison c.1,000 were non-combatant clerks, cooks, drivers etc, who picked up rifles to defend the position. Slim had expected a regiment to attack but a full Japanese division came instead. 📸IND3697 Kohima Ridge

Roman cavalry parade helmet Found River Wensum, Worthing, Norfolk. Early 3rd Century CE Ceremonial helmet, which would have been too flimsy for use in battle It was made, possibly in the Danube valley, from a single thin gilt bronze sheet. Now Castle Museum, Norwich, Norfolk #Archaeology #Roman

A little known Nazi side hustle was trying to resurrect the extinct wild equine, the Tarpan. Rare wild Przewalski horses were taken from occupied territories to Berlin for the project (@susannaforrest.bsky.social covers this amazing story in her book The Age of Horse - recommend!)

Kitty News @garius.bsky.social

Cambodia unveils a statue of famous landmine-sniffing rat Magawa

Silly not to, unless you want the physical book.

Well. They’ve got a much nicer kit, at least.

Come on Port Vale !

Not all doctors are surgeons and not all military historians are military analysts.

In Scottish lore, folk born on Good Friday not only have the ability to see ghosts but to order them about... #PhantomsFriday

The return of mounted police to the West Midlands force is evidence of how even today the horse still has an active operational role to play in society and cannot simply be replaced by mechanised vehicles or tech.

Doesn’t roll or crawl but today decided to stand. Celebrating the Artemis II launch 🚀 I think.

Must be real nice for the crew of Artemis II to know that if all goes well, they’ll have 10 solid days off from occupying the same planet as Trump.

'Jungle Commandos: The Battle for Arakan, Burma 1945' by Lucy Betteridge-Dyson is included in Amazon's Kindle Monthly deals and you can get the ebook for only £3.99! This is a gripping history of the experiences of the Commandos and their unsung allies. https://amzn.to/4c1wgwO

*clears through for best marketing voice* The kindle edition of Jungle Commandos is currently just £3.99 on Amazon. In the book, I made it my mission to share the incredible achievements of not just 3 Commando Brigade but the men of the Indian and African divisions who fought alongside them

No disrespect to any of the speakers here - some of whom I call friends - but honestly, I think it’s unacceptable to have a conference line up with such poor diversity in 2026.

🗓️ #OTD in 1945 – in Burma (Myanmar), COPP 9 starts a sequence of small-scale reconnaissance operations near Taungup (📸 NARA 204969564). Unfortunately at present I'm only know very brief details for these ops. #NavalHistory ▶️ buff.ly/Y1WmU1J

VOICEOVER: are you tired of ME: absolutely

Great time filming at Fort Eben-Emael with the team from Windfall Films. I was blown away by the passion, dedication and knowledge of the guides there, proof if ever I’ve seen it, of why heritage organisations should invest and look after their volunteers.

Nearly an hour to get through passport control at Brussels. Thanks Brexit.

Yesterday I got to enjoy @meganahamilton.bsky.social's excellent paper on learning and innovation in the SWW. Today I'm listening to @milhistcurator.bsky.social , @mhptpodcast.bsky.social and @amyjay401.bsky.social on making military history accessible and connecting people with the past #SMH2026