The provincial press of the late nineteenth-century provides a fascinating insight into how imperialistic sentiment was conveyed to a newly literate working-class.[1] The provincial press adopted the conventions of ‘new journalism’, catering for working-class tastes by prioritising the reporting of sport, sensationalist news and by placing a focus upon localised issues.[2] Its rise paralleled the […]
Tag Archives | Victorian
‘Painting for Empire’: sailors and ship-board banalities
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 […]
The Culture of a Victorian Coaling Station
It is well known that the late-Victorian navy was immensely popular in the public imagination and celebrated as a symbol of Britain’s power and empire. This link between the navy and the Empire very real, and the most obvious manifestation of this link was at overseas naval stations. British seamen would often seek British and […]