Georgine Thorburn is the founder and Managing Director of Document S.O.S, Britain's only fully comprehensive disaster restoration company for business paperwork, books and art damaged by flood, fire and explosion.

She pioneered the field of mass-damaged document disaster recovery in 1987 after 4 years intense study of Paper Conservation at Camberwell College of Art. She spent the next 3 years developing treatments and chemical formulae that are non-toxic and non-damaging to documents and books. The Document S.O.S Operations Headquarters are near Dartford in Kent. There they have over 300,000 cubic feet of chilled and frozen storage. John Kirby and Georgine joined technical and precision expertise to build and develop the Dryfast Chamber in 1995. This has the largest capacity for document drying in the world and has revolutionised the process of drying waterlogged paper. Cutting edge treatments for sewage and mould damaged paper are part of the continuous product development by John Kirby, Document S.O.S's technical manager who is also a microbiologist.

Operating a 24 hour response worldwide, Document S.O.S implement immediate disaster control measures and coordinate precision disaster recovery and electronic tracking to ensure maximum business continuity in the aftermath of an incident, whilst greatly mitigating insurance claims. The freeze/vacuum drying chamber, which is reputedly one of the largest in Europe, and is fitted with state-of-the-art Eurotherm monitors. This allows the client to have accurate details of the drying process which is of particular interest to antiquarian collections.
The historical conservation services have just been introduced to provide a rolling schedule of conservation works for large collections. However, most watercolours, prints and books can be treated in a conservation manner which will increase their life span for the future.
Georgine and her team of trouble-shooters have reinstated damaged documents and books from national tragedies, libraries and private collections worldwide, saving insurance millions of pounds. This broad expertise has led her to chairing the Special Interest Group of the British Damage Management Association (BDMA), the certifying authority for the recovery and restoration industry.

The Piper Alpha Oil Well tragedy, the B.C.C.I., and the City of London Terrorist Bombings are but a few examples and their growing international reputation involved them with documents from the World Trade Center disaster on the 11th September 2001.

In 2005 Document SOS were WINNERS of Insurance Service Provider of the Year and FINALISTS for Recovery of the Year at the British Business Continuity Awards.