Dr Colin White FSA FRHist

Director, Royal Naval Museum

Colin White was appointed Director of the Royal Naval Museum in June 2006.

He was educated at Culford School, Suffolk, Southampton University, and University of London, King's College, where he took an MA in War Studies. He joined the Royal Naval Museum in September 1975 as a research assistant, eventually becoming, in 1995, the Deputy Director and Head of Museum Services, with special responsibility for the Museum's ambitious Development Plan.

In 2000, Dr White was appointed Chairman of the Official Nelson Celebrations Committee, with responsibility for co-ordinating The Trafalgar Festival, an ambitious, and ultimately very successful, national and international programme of events to mark the bicentenary of Trafalgar in 2005. His achievement was recognised by the presentation of the Longmans-History Today Trustees Award in early 2006.

In 2001 he was seconded to the National Maritime Museum as Director, Trafalgar 200 to assist the Museum with planning its 2005 initiatives: including a major exhibition, publications and special events.

Dr White is one of the country's leading experts on Nelson. His publications include: The Nelson Companion (1995) which is now a best-seller, in its third edition; 1797: Nelson's Year of Destiny (1998), The Nelson Encyclopaedia (2002), Nelson: The new letters (2005) - awarded the ‘Distinguished Book Prize’ by the Society for Military History in 2006, and Nelson the admiral (2005).

He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and of the Societ of Antiquaries. In 2004, he was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Letters (DLitt) by the University of Portsmouth for his contribution to naval history. In 2006, he was awarded the Desmond Wettern Media Award, “For being the most visible spokesman of Britain’s maritime interests in 2005”. He is also a Vice President of the Navy Records Society and of The 1805 Club. In 2005, he presented his own series on Radio 4, Nelson: the latest news.