Mary Fraser, University of Glasgow mary.fraser.2@glasgow.ac.uk This so far untold story of the release of policemen into agriculture during the last two years of the First World War was a surprise! 1917 was the year of war weariness, when nothing seemed to go well for Britain: blockading started in earnest from February, a severe … Continued
JC Niala, University of Oxford Jc.niala@stcatz.ox.ac.uk @jcniala This blog describes a public engagement project that won the SHS’s 2022 Public History Prize. You can read the announcement here. I was already researching urban allotments in Oxford before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Oxford did not have a city-wide waiting list before the pandemic started. … Continued
Anna Maguire, Queen Mary, University of London a.maguire@qmul.ac.uk @AnnaMaguire24 In his oral history, A Chief is a Chief by the People (1975), Stimela Jason Jingoes, who served with the South African Native Labour Corps, recalled arriving in Liverpool in 1917. When we boarded the train, before we left Liverpool, the girls of that place arrived … Continued
Mary Fraser, writingpolicehistory.blogspot.co.uk @drmaryfraser My new open access article for Cultural and Social History develops the surprising and, to date, untold story of the release of policemen across Britain to help farmers plough the fields. Britain faced starvation in March 1917 due to the German blockade which sank increasing numbers of ships bringing essential foodstuffs. … Continued
Megan Kelleher, University of Kent @MeganEKelleher Each year, individuals make pilgrimages to the former battlefields of the two World Wars to pay their respects to those who made the ultimate sacrifice for their country. However, in light of the Coronavirus pandemic members of the public are now turning to their local area to research those … Continued
Dr Michael Reeve, Bishop Grosseteste University/Leeds Beckett University @DrMichaelReeve As a historian of wartime resilience, I have found it difficult not to draw parallels between aspects of the current public health crisis and elements of my own research into public safety and early forms of civil defence during the First World War. Though such parallels … Continued
Dr Vivien Newman, First World War Women @worldwarwomen On 20 April, The Shields Gazette reported that ‘residents are knitting hearts to cheer up patients being treated for coronavirus in intensive care’. This reminded me of knitting in World War One. In 1914, Secretary of State for War Lord Kitchener issued a Call to Knitting Needles. … Continued
Dr Andrew Jackson, Bishop Grosseteste University andrew.jackson@bishopg.ac.uk @mylocalpasts Some of those who trod the centenary-rich public-history trail through the years 2014-18, might feel that there is a sense of the past revisiting us in the present. Many of the features of the national crisis and emergency arrangements that established themselves during 1914-18 are being resurrected. … Continued
Edda Nicolson, Wolverhampton University @Edda_Nicolson The General Federation of Trade Unions (GFTU) was created at the 1899 Trades Union Congress in Manchester, with a view to collecting and administrating a strike fund that could be accessed by affiliates at times of industrial unrest. Within 5 years, they had a membership of over 500,000; by 1915, … Continued
The house was a miracle of miniature technology, from the pair of Purdy shotguns that actually broke even if they didn’t fire, to the electric lift and working plumbing. It was also packed with beautiful and very tiny works of art and literature that represented a major shift from their creators’ wartime output. C.R.W. Nevinson’s “Paths of Glory” had been banned in 1918 because of its shockingly unpatriotic content of faceless British corpses lying in the trench mud, but his contribution to the dolls’ house was a pretty watercolour of a mountain town.
