About

Nicholas is a Halifax-based teacher, historian, and writer. He was born and raised in the beautiful Annapolis Valley, and completed degrees at Acadia University, Dalhousie University, and Mount Saint Vincent University.

His academic work as a historian has focused on the cultural and social history of the British Royal Navy. At Acadia, he completed an Honours Thesis on the administrative and cultural factors that underpinned the Royal Navy’s unprecedented level of success during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, a series of victories that handed the British a century of naval dominance. He followed this up at Dalhousie, where he completed a Master’s Thesis which examined how the shocking losses against the United States Navy during the War of 1812 sent the ever-victorious Royal Navy, and its adoring public in both Britain and the Canadian colonies, into a panic. He has presented this research twice to the annual Canadian Nautical Research Society conference, and in 2020 published a volume for Helion & Company that expanded on the work done in his Masters Thesis.

Nicholas is now a secondary school teacher in the Halifax area, with a commitment to creating a challenging yet nurturing learning environment for students with diverse needs. Nicholas is passionate about teaching social studies and science content through skills-based lessons, knowing that this world sorely needs an understanding of both. A portfolio of his lesson and unit plans is available here. Nicholas is an avid sailor and enjoys hiking the trails of his native Nova Scotia and travelling to see the sights of historical and natural significance around the world.