Image Courtesy of Keel Marine ltd
D-Day Pioneers to Future Innovators
This is a partnership project with The University of Portsmouth's Centre of Excellence for Heritage Innovation and other partners including The D-Day Story, Portsmouth Museums, Red Funnel Ferries, The Royal Logistics Corps Museum, Wight Link Ferries, Keel Marine and funded by The Lloyds Register Foundation's small grants programme. The concept was developed by Britain's D-Day Heritage founder Martin Gegg, to align with our long term vision of building educational channels to help young people explore the engineering and logistical achievements of Operation Overlord – and to develop key technical skills and understanding that will help shape the future.
Martin has co-designed the project alongside Dr Tarek Teba and doctoral candidate Eve Horsfall, both from the University of Portsmouth’s Centre of Excellence for Heritage Innovation (CoE-HI).
The Project will act as a pilot, delivering workshops, educational toolkits and public exhibitions based on engineering and logistical achievements using Landing Craft/Ship development and Mulberry Harbours as a backdrop.
Stage 1 Research
Whilst there is a lot of material already in the public domain a small team of researchers will develop stories that will help complex and technical material become relatable for young people and others keen to learn more about how their local area contributed to D-Day.
Stage 2 Design Workshop Material
The Project team working with educational partners will develop workshops directly aligned to the national curriculum, that provide age appropriate, challenging and interesting exploration of STEM subjects and local heritage sites.
Stage 3 Delivery
The Project team will deliver practical workshops that will study materials and how they were used, explore planning and logistics and the evolution of design concepts. The aim is to also develop educational toolkits that can be used for both specific qualification-based learning and enrichment activities.
Legacy
Image: Webador Stock BDDH & Keel Marine Ltd
The Project team will develop a series of flexible public exhibitions for delivery during stage 3 and beyond. Using feedback from partners, and the public; the team will assess if the pilot can provide the foundation for project with wider cover.
Discover more about D-Day Now
You can find more information about Museums and Archives on our Further Research page, or visit sites on our D-Day Virtual Tours page.
Page Updated: October 2026. Images Webador Stock, unless otherwise stated