Some sad news about Nigel Evans and his RA site

I have been in contact with the RAI and the friends of the Royal Artillery Collections (the old Friends of Firepower)
They seem keen to integrate Nigel's content into the work they are undertaking on the RAHT website - with the appropriate acknowledgements.

Old Git check your PMs for copies of emails Colonel Rob Alston the serving officer on the project and Rick Hatton from the Friends of the RA Collections, and their contact details. They are asking me all sorts of detailed questions that you may be able to answer.

 

Hi Sheldrake,

thanks for that mate, I've seen your PM and replied to you.

As a side note to the Admins perhaps it would be an idea to start a pinned thread discussing the best way forward for all of us to curate our various research data and/or websites. This is a problem that will eventually afflict us all and it might be an idea if we begin discussing it now and sharing tips and ideas about how best to deal with this going forward.

Nigel's family are hunting for this login/password for his website but are not even 100% certain where to start with that as Nigel was very security conscious. We all need to leave documents for our families instructing them in how we do things, where our data is stored, who it should be donated to, who our closest contacts are who can be trusted to talk to for guidance etc. and most importantly what the login URL is for our websites, domain names etc. and the login names/password for those.

About a year ago I was talking to the son of a deceased author about getting access to his Dad's research and maybe having all of that donated to a particular archive. The son said that he does have stuff he cleared out of his father's house and it may well be in there but he has it all in storage in a barn and hasn't been into look at it in years. I got the sense that he had had a bit of a difficult relationship with his father and he seemed very un-keen to revisit those memories by dredging through his Dad's old affairs. That's another aspect that needs to be considered, our nearest and dearest have lives of their own and will have a lot to contend with when we've gone, not least of which will be the very busy nature of their own lives. We need to make it easy for them to pickup where we left off and follow clear, simple, well laid out instructions for how this should all be dealt with.

And all that before we get to digital storage, RAID systems, proper backup procedures etc. The biggest risk to future distribution of data is digital storage, over time the plastic substrate of CD's, DVD's and general electronic integrity of HDD's and ESD's is far less resilient than paper and clay tablets.

I'm getting my failed hard drives back this week and whilst a lot of stuff is easily identified there are huge areas where the data has been salvaged but the file names and directory/folder names has not and I'm simply going to have to single step through every file, identify it, rename it and re-archive it. Really looking forward to that job! But imagine doing that if you do not have intimate knowledge of the files or the subject area itself.

 

Happy to report that I've just this minute got access to the back-end of Nigel's website and have downloaded everything on there via FTP. Was a wee bit of a pain until I discovered I could indeed FTP into the back-end.

Tripod don't make it easy. Nigel's paid for service had expired so they'd turned off the file manager access to the site. They were could enough to re-enable it when I advised them of the circumstances but their backup process only allows for the download of an 'un-editable' BAK file, i.e. something that will only work again with Tripods upload features. When I did try their backup it only seemed to backup a couple of admin files and not the actual website. Digging around I found I could get in via FTP and get the files that way. Didn't work via a web browser though and my old DOS FTP skills couldn't get it to work in a Command Prompt window, but I found I did have a copy of WS_FTP and that worked a treat.

So, I now have a full copy of Nigel's website as he intended it. I will need to check the HTML code to ensure all the graphics and links are pointing locally rather than back to the Tripod site. Once that's done I can then zip it all up and send it out to various places. Sheldrake has put me in touch with the RA Historical Team and they will be first in-line. I'll then start talking to various other institutions as well.

Adam, I'll be in touch about adding it to your safe harbour area as well mate.

I'm talking with Nigel's family members, who have enduring power of attorney over his affairs, and they are extremely happy to know that his work and his website will be preserved and in that regards they are happy for Nigel's work to be shared as long as the source is properly acknowledge, as per the copyright notice on Nigel's original website.

 

Sad news, great response, especially from Old Git and Sheldrake. My hat is off to you both.

I never knew Nigel but his site kept being the only place I could find an answer to my WW2 Gunner questions. If you get the chance, please pass on the respects and thanks of this random researcher.

 

Sad news about Nigel, so sorry to hear this.

Wonderful effort by you guys to preserve his legacy, thanks to all concerned.

 

A lot of Nigel's excellent work has already been captured on the Wayback Machine.
British Artillery in World War 2

Tim

 

Just a quick update: I've just been informed that Nigel Evans passed away on December 14th, 2021.

I'd last talked to Nigel's wife, Carolyn, in August 2021 when she asked me to assist the Royal Australian Artillery History Company who wanted to host a copy of Nigel's website on their own Website. I understand that they have successfully done this but, having checked today, it would appear to behind a paywall. So I may have to discuss that with them when I've talked more about it to Carolyn. I understand that RAAHC also took most of Nigel's library and papers, at least those that were RA related.

The old Tripod website that hosted Nigel's site is becoming unusable so I may well ask them to delete the site and I will host a copy on my own website in the coming year.

At any rate I thought you might all like to know of Nigel's passing.

 

Bloody hell that's sad news to hear about Nigel. He certainly built an impressive legacy and hopefully it will continue to be available to those interested in the subject.

Gary

 

Oh, I totally missed that. Shocking news, his work was superb and an inspiration.

All the best

Andreas

 

Sad news. Nigel's site has been a godsend.

 

Sad news, indeed and belated condolences. I once read his lucid insight into Mistakes and Errors and bizarrely found myself mentally extrapolating some of the illustrations into vignettes and imagined ammunition logistics sequiturs. Bombard OP has just flashed in my mind for the first time in over two decades.

 

Very sad news, his site is a mine of information on the technical aspects of gunnery. While it is good to know the site is still available it must become freely available to all as it was when Nigel was in charge.

 

Dear All,

Just a quick update on this, as I indicated in my last email I am concerned that no-one has yet managed to get another copy of Nigel's website onto the web, which I think is essential as the old site is no longer being paid for and is advert ridden. It is only a matter of time before it disappears completely. So, I have taken the opportunity to migrate Nigel's site to a new web server under its own domain name. I don't intend to make any major edits to the site other than maybe add a bio page on Nigel's career with the Royal Artillery and the Royal Australian Artillery, where he served in Vietnam, before coming back to Royal Artillery in UK. New site can be found at link below, it'll stay there until I pop my clogs and hopefully be passed to a new custodian at that point.

www.britishartillery.co.uk

 

I'm sure I won't be the last to say thank you for making that happen, and to Nigel's family for letting it.

 

That's great - thank you very much OG!

 

That's wonderful news OG.Nigel's work and with it his memory will live on. All of this has inspired me to ensure that my family know my wishes regarding my own site. I am making sure that they have all the relevant information to access the site once I have shuffled off this mortal coil or become incapable of running it.

 

Excellent work by you Old Git and sincere thanks to Nigel’s family. While the web can provide a fantastic resource, unlike hard copy its information can be ephemeral and the effort needed to preserve Nigel’s work is a reminder of the vulnerability of its information. Sermon over.

 

Congratulations from me also on the folks who've arranged to keep the site intact and online. Wayback/Archive are wonderful tools but they don't save everything as I've found over the years.

Gary