12 Facts About Craig Stockings

Craig Anthony John Stockings was born on 1974 and is an Australian historian with research interests in military and defence history.

Since 2016, Stockings has been Official Historian and general editor of the Official History of Australian Operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, and Australian Peacekeeping Operations in East Timor, based at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra.

Craig Stockings was born in Sydney, New South Wales, in 1974.

Craig Stockings returned to ADFA the following year to undertake an Honours degree in History, following which he was posted to the 3rd Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment in 1998.

On his return from East Timor, Craig Stockings completed a Graduate Diploma of Education at Monash University and read for a Master of Arts in International Relations at Deakin University, graduating with both in 2001.

Craig Stockings's doctoral thesis, supervised by Jeffrey Grey, was a history of the Army Cadet movement in Australia from 1866 to 2004.

Craig Stockings graduated with the doctorate in 2006, and his thesis was later revised and published as The Torch and the Sword with UNSW Press in 2007.

Craig Stockings was promoted to senior lecturer in history in 2008.

The remit Craig Stockings received from Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull on accepting the appointment of Official Historian was clear that the history be delivered "by July 2022".

The authors have five years to complete their respective volumes, with Craig Stockings granted an additional twelve months to edit the series prior to publication.

In November 2019 it was reported that Craig Stockings had threatened to resign as official historian due to his frustration over the large number of changes requested to the first volume on East Timor by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

An official launch was not held by the AWM, which Craig Stockings described in February 2023 as being "unusual".