Dan Snow

Daniel Robert Snow (born 3 December 1978) is an English television presenter. He has presented and appeared in many popular history-related programmes for the BBC and is the "History Hunter" for The One Show.

Early life and background
Dan Snow is the youngest son of Peter Snow, BBC television journalist, and Ann MacMillan, Managing Editor of CBC London Bureau. Dan therefore has dual British-Canadian citizenship. Through his mother, he is the nephew of Canadian historian Margaret MacMillan, and a great-great-grandson of British Prime Minister David Lloyd George. One of his father's cousins is the Channel 4 news reporter Jon Snow.

Education
Snow was educated in London at Barnes Primary School and at St Paul's School where he was captain of the school and rowed for his school team. He went on to Balliol College, Oxford, his father's alma mater, and graduated with first-class honours in Modern History. A keen rower since his secondary school days, he won the U-23 men's division at the 2000 British Indoor Rowing Championships and rowed three times in the Boat Race, winning in 2000 and losing the controversial 2001 race as president.

Career
Snow presented his first programme in October 2002 just after graduating from university, co-presenting the BBC's 60th anniversary special on the Battles of El Alamein with his father Peter. Father and son then collaborated to present an 8-part documentary series called Battlefield Britain, which aired in 2004 and won a BAFTA Craft Award for special effects. The same year Snow won a Sony award as one of the presenters on the LBC Boat Race coverage.

He has made numerous history programmes for the BBC. He also presents on many of the state occasions such as the 200th anniversary celebration of the Battle of Trafalgar, Beating Retreat 2006, the 60th anniversary of the end of World War Two, the 90th anniversary of the Armistice in November 2008, Trooping the Colour and the City Salute. Snow again collaborated with his father to present BBC 2's 20th Century Battlefields and its print edition, which were both well received. The series covers battles all around the world and is presented in similar fashion to the first Battlefield Britain which was broadcast in various markets in 2006 and is available on DVD. The second series can also be viewed on the Military Channel. In June 2008, Dan Snow was in a three-part series which was called 'Britain's Lost World' on BBC 1. Along with Kate Humble and Steve Backshall, he stayed on the island of St Kilda, Scotland, to find out more about its history and wildlife. In the TV programme My Family at War he was critical of Thomas D'Oyly Snow, his great-grandfather, who commanded VII Corps on the first day on the Somme.

In November 2011 Snow teamed up with the Irish army to fire a British or Canadian made Browning Mark II (or a Mk. II* variant) .303" machinegun which he had excavated from a Spitfire which crashed in Donegal while being flown by Bud Wolfe. Despite being in a peat bog for 70 years the machine gun fired without a hitch after careful cleaning and with fresh ammunition.

On December 8, 2012, Snow co-presented Rome's Lost Empire with Dr. Sarah Parcak, a space archaeologist from University of Alabama at Birmingham (U.A.B.).

In late 2012 Snow embarked on a promotional tour for his new book Battle Castles: 500 Years of Knights and Siege Warfare, which was published in conjunction with a 6-part documentary he had presented for the History Channel. In early 2013, he presented a programme on the history of railways on BBC Two, called "Locomotion: Dan Snow's History of Railways".

Personal life
On 27 November 2010, Snow married criminologist Lady Edwina Grosvenor, the second daughter of the 6th Duke of Westminster. Their daughter Zia was born in 2011.

On Sunday 18 April 2010 Snow and a few friends took three rigid-hulled inflatable boats from Dover to Calais to help 25 people return to the UK after they were stranded in France by the air travel disruption after the 2010 Eyjafjallajökull eruption in Iceland. When they arrived at Calais they were told by the French authorities that they could not return to collect any more people.

In August 2011, Snow performed a citizen's arrest on a rioter in London who was stealing from a shoe shop.

He is a Distinguished Supporter of the British Humanist Association.

Credits

 * Television


 * Radio
 * Art in the Trenches, Radio 4
 * At War with Wellington, Radio 4
 * Prince of Wales, Radio 4, a look at the history of the office of Prince of Wales and the current occupant

Awards

 * BAFTA (Visual Effects) for 'Battlefield Britain'
 * Sony Award (Best Live Coverage) for Boat Race Day
 * BAFTA Cymru (Best Presenter) for 'Hadrian'
 * Maritime Media Award for best television, film or radio for 'Empire of the Seas'
 * 2011 History Makers Award (Most Innovative Production) for 'Battle for North America' a 1 hour special on Snow's book 'Death or Victory.' Produced by Snow's production company Ballista
 * Voice of the Listener and Viewer Special Award 2013