Jill has been interested in the First World War since her schooldays and first visited the battlefields in the early 1980s returning many times since then. In 2007 she began to research those named on war memorials in her home area of Moray. Retiring from a career in local government in Autumn 2014 she immediately embarked on a project with the local weekly newspaper, together with the Chairman of the North of Scotland Branch of The Western Front Association, to provide weekly articles during the course of the centenary commemorations. During this time, she worked with local schools and community groups and published two local interest books on the impact of WW1 on Moray. She has worked as a volunteer in The Highlanders Museum at Fort George since 2014, assisting in the staging of temporary exhibitions and research. Latterly she has volunteered on Project Alias and Hometown.