Dave is also the editor of the website 'Balkan Military History', which has covered the military history of the Balkans for over 23 years.
You can also follow Dave on Twitter (X) @Balkan_Dave, Threads @davewatson1683 and BlueSky @balkandave.
This blog covers Dave's wide-ranging military history and wargaming interests. Posts include book reviews, new wargame rules, wargame projects, travel and visits to historical sites. He wargames in most periods and scales, with a collection of over 20,000 models. Dave is the Secretary of Glasgow and District Wargames Society - one of the UK's longest-running wargaming clubs.
Dave is a graduate of the University of Strathclyde, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and an Associate Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. He is also the Secretary of the Keir Hardie Society. He retired from his post as Head of Policy and Public Affairs at UNISON Scotland in 2018 and now works part-time as a policy consultant and Director of the Jimmy Reid Foundation, a Scottish think tank. He lives with his wife Liz and Rasputin (the wargaming cat) in South Ayrshire, on the west coast of Scotland.
Historical magazine publications include:
- San Martin and the Chilean Campaign 1817-1818
- The Battle of Zenta 1697
- The Art of War - Warfare in the Age of Marlborough
- "Execrated Infidel Wretches!" - Bosnia and the Austro-Turkish War 1737-9
- Early Mughal India
- The Battle of Vaslui 1475
- Late Medieval Bosnia for WAB
- Battle of Doboj 1415
- Skanderbeg and Medieval Albania
- The Ottoman Army of the Greek War of Independence
- Inter-Allied Action at Kosturino 1915
- The Romanian Army of the Russo-Turkish War 1877-78
- The Normans in the Balkans
- The Battlefield of Adrianople 378AD
He is a contributing author to the book 'What Would Keir Hardie Say?' - Luath Press 2015, 'A New Scotland' (Pluto Press 2022) and many other current affairs books and publications.
His military history books include 'Chasing the Soft Underbelly: Turkey and the Second World War' (Helion 2023), 'The Frontier Sea, The Napoleonic Wars in the Adriatic' (BMH 2023) and 'Ripped Apart: Volume 1, The Cyprus Conflict 1963-64 (Helion 2023).