The Isle of Man Natural History and Antiquarian Society (IoMNHAS) latest lecture in its winter season of presentations takes place next weekend.

Hosted by Dr Susan Nicol the talk will be entitled, ‘The Island’s Secret Role in the Liberation of Occupied Norway’.

The event will start promptly at 2.30pm on Saturday (January 31), taking place in the Manx Museum lecture theatre.

Susan was born and bred in Lancashire which she explains made it a natural choice for her to study Medieval and Modern History at the University of Liverpool.

She says that in those very far off days, the port city still had a Norwegian Mission to Seafarers based in a picturesque villa in St Michael in the Hamlets, and in getting to know some of the Norwegians in Liverpool, she first started to hear stories of war, occupation and resistance.

Much of Dr Nicol’s professional life was spent either working in or teaching about social policy, alongside major educational projects aimed at people who had been denied education through circumstance or disability.

After moving to the Isle of Man around 30 years ago, she became a lecturer in social policy and related subjects, with her only formal link to history being the teaching of welfare history.

That changed when she undertook further study with the Open University, completing a Master of Science followed by a Master of Arts degree. The latter proved transformative, which she describes as ‘the door out of the dark side and back to the light’, particularly through a module on 19th century criminology.

A ‘late in life’ PhD at the University of Liverpool, technically in social policy, brought her firmly back into historical research.

Five years working at the Manx National Heritage archives deepened this connection, especially given her long-standing fascination with Scandinavian links to the Isle of Man.

She says: ‘Stepping out of education to go and work on the counter in the archives reading room for the final few years as a wage slave was a wonderful immersion in the raw material of history.’

‘I was also delivering on Catriona Mackie’s superlative history degree programme at UCM. It was during this time I had the opportunity to search out people who could reveal something about the hidden history of the island’s involvement in the wartime Norwegian Resistance.’

Her research revealed that while Onchan Camp is widely known for housing Italian internees during the Second World War, it also played a crucial and secret role in supporting hundreds of young Norwegian men who were on route to joining Allied forces.

The camp additionally hosted a vital intelligence and security unit that helped prepare Norway for liberation from Nazi occupation in May 1945, following years of rule under Reichskommissar Josef Terboven.

As customary, the lecture will be followed by tea or coffee and biscuits.

Attendees are advised to arrive early to secure seating, and non-members may make a voluntary contribution. For further details about IoMNHAS and how to join, email [email protected], visit www.manxantiquarians.com or www.facebook.com/IsleofManNaturalHistoryandAntiquarianSociety.