Portsmouth University, March 31st – April 2nd 2015 A call for papers has been announced for the Social History Society’s annual conference to be held on 31st March – 2nd April 2015 at the University of Portsmouth. The annual Social History Society Conference is the largest gathering of social and cultural historians in the UK. Proposals […]
Meet the Guernsey evacuees who fled their homes to northern England in June 1940, just days before Germany invaded their island. An event for all the family. Admission free. Activities for all ages. Hear their stories and discover how 17,000 Guernsey children, teachers and parents adjusted to life on the British mainland during WW2. Thousands came […]
There remains a stereotypical image of Jack Tar as a man with loose morals who enjoyed himself ashore whenever he got the opportunity. Yet, how far this stereotype stands up has increasingly been questioned by historians.[1] This article does not intend to join in this debate per se but rather to reflect on the stereotype […]
Following on in similar vein to my recent article on sailors in the Royal Navy during the First World War, this article will expand upon sailors’ attitudes to killing and death in the Great War by considering their diaries. At this juncture it is worth revisiting Joanna Bourke’s interesting study: An Intimate History of Killing.[i] […]
Given the upcoming centenary of the Great War this year it is understandable that we find ourselves saturated with discussions of the tragedy that befell the European empires in 1914. Yet, despite this wide and encouraging engagement with the topic, the key focus of popular debate is centred on the many millions who died fighting […]
It is an interesting question whether or not the men who joined the Royal Navy in the late nineteenth century knew of or imagined the time-consuming and monotonous aspects the job entailed. Consideration of sailor diaries reveals that one of the most common, and indeed, disliked tasks aboard ship, was painting the vessel, inside and […]
