The exploits of Jack Cornwell at the battle of Jutland in 1916 offer a well-known story of gallantry in the face of adversity during the First World War. From humble origins, Cornwell joined the navy as a teenager and was stationed aboard HMS Chester at the Battle of Jutland.[1] Within the first hour of hostilities […]
The Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834 meant that more and more paupers were forced to enter workhouses, since outdoor relief was essentially eliminated. This increase in admissions meant that workhouses were overflowing, and the Poor Law Board needed to find places to house all of the new admissions. One way that they accomplished this […]
Portsmouth, 21st May 1662: “I arrived here yesterday about two in the afternoon, and as soon as I had shifted myself I went to my wife’s chamber. Her face is not so exact as to be called a beauty, though her eyes are excellent good, and not anything in her face that in the least […]
Book Review by James H. Thomas: Viveka Hansen, The Textile History of Whitby 1700-1914 (The IK Foundation & Company: London and Whitby, 2015), 454 pp. £80 www.ikfoundation.org Limited to a run of 350 copies, and weighing 1.8 kilograms (4 lbs), this detailed volume will cost the reader £80. Given that it is a work at the […]
The city of Hull, East Yorkshire enjoyed the status of ‘third port’ with a booming, world-renowned fishing industry on the outbreak of war on 4 August 1914. This industry, employing many thousands of local men and women in trawling and peripheral works, was fundamentally altered by ‘total war’, as civilian fishing vessels and their men […]
As recent investigations into London’s ‘Sailortown’ have shown we now have to re-consider previous accounts of London east of the Tower and take into account the cosmopolitan mix of its communities. Perhaps we would do better to describe this part of London as being a vibrant cosmopolitan place with a not inconsiderable intellectual life. Many […]
