PRESS RELEASE 14th August 2016 HERITAGE LOTTERY FUND CONDEMNS HMS PRESIDENT 1918 TO THE SCRAP YARD HMS President Preservation Trust, the charity that owns HMS President 1918 (“The President”), London’s last remaining World War One ship, and one of only three left has been refused Lottery funding of £330,000 to secure its future. During […]
Author Archive | Simon Smith
CFP: Exploring the Urban Mindscape
Port Towns and Urban Cultures’ Dr Karl Bell is organising a Supernatural Cities conference ‘Exploring the Urban Mindscape’, to be held on Saturday 30th April 2016 at the University of Portsmouth. Please see the CFP below for details. Exploring the Urban Mindscape Saturday 30th April 2016 University of Portsmouth, Portsmouth, UK Keynote Speaker: Professor Steve Pile, […]
Belfast Commemoration of the Irish Sailor in the Great War
The War at Sea is rarely considered when discussing the impact of the First World War but, although it involved far fewer men on the front line, keeping the seas safe and the vital supplies flowing to feed the Army and the people of Britain and Ireland cannot be overlooked. From across Ireland over 10,000 […]
British Sailors and Prohibition: the experience of going “dry” in the USA during the Empire Cruise
Despite the cleansing of the sailor image during the late Victorian era, many contemporaries viewed sailors’ predilection for drink as a worrying problem.[1] In particular, Agnes Weston used the image of a drunken sailor riding a barrel to make her case for the temperance movement, although this portrayal was condemned by sailors.[2] Yet, the image […]
Annual Social History Society Conference 2015 – Conference Report
Last week I attended the annual Social History Society conference held at the University of Portsmouth. It was my first Social History Society conference, and I was particularly lucky to have the opportunity to present a paper on sailors and naval pageantry alongside my PTUC colleagues Daniel Swan and Chris Spackman on the first panel […]
Sailors and Knocking Shops: an important part of Jack’s requirements ashore?
Despite a concerted effort by the establishment in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century to create an image of professional, respectable men, Jack’s licentious proclivities ashore have continued to form a key part of his popular image.[1] Yet what did sailors themselves record on the subject of sex? Christopher McKee has argued that ‘most […]