Modern Monuments Man (Profile Piece)

A group of young men, some crawling through thick mud with barbed wire overhead, scrambling over a twelve-foot wall. All in identical green uniforms, A80 rifles slung across  their shoulders. The only way of recognition being the surname  taped onto the front of their Kevlar helmets.

To the eye there's nothing out of the ordinary about this scene, but what if I told you one of the men is twice the age of all of us in training, married with children and with a successful civilian career.

Mark Dunkley joined the British Army at forty-five, an age you would expect most soldiers to be leaving with a full pension. Why? Now, two years later I met with Captain Mark Dunkley in the Victory Services Club, London.

Mark approached me in the reception (all the memories I had of the man returned, the repetitive drills, the endless lectures and tenacious training). He is a man in his forties, well-dressed with dark fitted trousers and a light blue Oxford button down chequered shirt. He is of medium height, with a broad figure and chiselled yet youthful face enhanced by his blue eyes and dark blond hair. His familiar smile instantly instils a sense of comfort as we shake hands as old comrades. He made his way towards the marble topped bar offering a range of British drinks, asking me what I wanted. As he ordered, I seated myself on a low leather chair with an equally low old oak table; seconds later he joined me.

Mark doesn’t look like the traditional soldier, because he isn’t one. He is part of a new heritage unit within the British Army dubbed the “Modern Monuments Men” by The Telegraph Newspaper and the Cultural Property Protection Unit by the military, which Mark referrers to as “CPPU”. Being a new unit, little has been released about its role within the British Army, however, Mark was eager to tell of how the unit’s role has been conflated with that of the Monuments Men during World War Two; ‘The CPPU are being called the “Modern Monuments Men” but the two roles are very different’. He continued, ‘the role of the modern CPPU will be two-fold, they’ll be an element of training in the UK, to make sure that every soldier in training is aware of cultural aspects, there will also be a new cultural heritage overlay, for any operational maps.’ Overall, Mark made it clear to me that it will be the role of the unit to advise commanders whether a site can be attacked and the impact of damaging sites of heritage and cultural importance. The CPPU will still perform the “conflated” roles stated in The Telegraph, such as “protecting art, and archaeology, investigating looting, bringing smuggling gangs to justice”, however, again, Mark emphasised how the role is ‘Less physical and more intelligence lead’ to meet requirements of modern warfare.
​
Joining the army in your mid-forties , isn’t the career path many would consider, however, to Mark it was fulfilling a missed opportunity earlier in this life; “I have always had a really nerdy interest in the armed forces (…) since going to the Farnborough air show with my dad (aged ten) I knew I wanted to be a fighter pilot”, but unfortunately, his dream job was stolen from him when ‘George Younger stood up in parliament and said, “no more air crew”’ announcing cuts in defence spending, meaning he lost the chance to enrol with the Royal Air Force, even after accepting and completing a University Scholarship. Little did he know then, his degree in archaeology would lead to his specialist role within the British Army today.

​​Mark’s civilian career as an underwater archaeologist has been and will continue being as important and as that of his military career, however, even he understands that archaeology to many isn’t as striking; “the challenges for archaeology in general, is engaging people with bits of pot” because often a piece of pottery just isn’t as adrenaline pumped as war stories. However, Mark was keen to tell me of his find that uncovered the disturbing effects of war and eighteenth century colonialisation; “I was diving and found some human bone on this wreck site, but it was black and had been burnt and even more terrifying was an iron bracelet on this piece of forearm.” This led to Mark questioning “What had led to this individual dying in this heat?” and the answer was horrifying; “He was a slave, when the ship arrived in the harbour it was too dark to unload the human cargo, so they were going to wait until the morning to do it. One of the navel tactics at the time against an enemy fleet was to send in fire ships… So, the Dutch sent in fire ships, not realising perhaps that they were cargos of slaves, so the slave ships burnt and then these thousands of poor souls burnt to death.” If Mark hadn’t found the bone fused with metal, then this terrible event would have been forgotten to time. The piece of bone didn’t just “bring history alive” but it also had direct relevance to the population of Trinidad and Tobago now, as it is their heritage.
 
Marks career in underwater archaeology has given him unique speciality that the Army needs to catch up with other nations. The United Kingdom is not the last but the latest country to start a Cultural Property Protection Unit, behind Russia, Austria and Italy. Subsequently Mark was “Latched on to, and told to get himself through Sandhurst”. The aim: to prevent heritage being damaged and to limit the destruction of war on sites that simply cannot be rebuilt. This new aspect to warfare creates a debate that Mark is well aware of, as he asked me; “where do you value human life over protecting some Greek stones?”.