Bernard Wilkin holds a degree in History from the University of Liège, Belgium. Having worked in the public sector in Belgium for several years, he then moved to Wales to study at the University of Aberystwyth. In 2014, he completed a PhD on 'Allied Propaganda in the Occupied Territories of France and Belgium during the First World War' at the University of Sheffield. He was subsequently appointed Visiting Lecturer at the University of Huddersfield, then at the University of Exeter (2015). Since 2016, he has been working at the State Archives in Belgium, first in Brussels and then in Liège.

His research interest focuses on the occupation of France in 1914-1918, more specifically on the relations between the German military and the civilians, the French army during the “phoney war” as well as on the daily life of Napoleon’s soldiers. Bernard Wilkin is the author of several books:

• 'Fighting for Napoléon: French soldiers’ letters from 1798-1815', (Barnsley, 2015);
• 'Aerial propaganda and the wartime occupation of France, 1914-1918', (Surrey, 2016);
• 'Fighting the British: French soldiers’ letters and memoirs', (Barnsley, 2017);
• 'Clash of Cultures? Wartime interactions, 1870-1945', (Bruxelles, 2017);
• 'Correspondance du brigadier Armand Ghiot, prisonnier de guerre au stalag IIIB, 1940-1945', (Bruxelles, 2018);
• 'French soldiers’ morale during the Phoney War', (Surrey, 2018);
• 'Lettres de Grognards : la Grande Armée en campagne'.