Eve was a teacher in East London comprehensive schools for forty years, including fifteen as Headteacher of Willowfield Humanities College, specialising in English, History and Citizenship.
History has always been important in her private life too. Her husband, Malcolm Doolin, was a historian by training and by passion and, having spent many holidays exploring the Western Front, his interest in the Great War inevitably rubbed off on her.
They were both co-opted onto WFA East London’s management committee and Eve manages social media for the branch. She supported Malcolm’s organisation of several special events during the centenary including, in 2017, an ambitious World War One Day: a partnership event with many local groups including schools. When Malcolm died in March 2018, his preparations for a similar event that September were already well advanced and Eve took over the organisation of the day which attracted 700 visitors.
They were also involved in the University of Kent’s “Great War Theatre” project. Having assisted with research, they arranged rehearsed readings of plays by branch members, one of which featured in a Dan Snow documentary. Eve recently gave a presentation about this at the WFA Chairs’ Briefing.
Eve represents the branch at local Remembrance Day commemorations and, in 2019, was honoured to support the Chinese Labour Corps delegation at the WFA cenotaph Service of Remembrance.
Eve believes that young people need a sense of the past to understand their present world and have the confidence to control their future. She believes the WFA can contribute to this.