Britain & Ireland

What was it about industrialisation that led to the emergence of a woman’s movement in Victorian Britain? Why do we see so many people fighting for so many rights and liberties in this period and what are the origins of some of the issues we still campaign on today? This section includes our major series on Social and Political Change in the UK from 1800 to the present day. There are also articles and podcasts on the often violent relationship between England and Ireland during this period and England’s changing relationship with Scotland and Wales. Read more

Sort by: Date (Newest first) | Title A-Z
  • Britain’s Jews and the First World War

    Article

    Jewish service in the UK military forces can be traced back over 300 years. During the First World War that service was demonstrated into the tens of thousands. In this article the contribution of Anglo-Jewry is brought to light.

    Click to view
  • My Favourite History Place: Keswick

    Article

    Adventure is a buzz word in the tourist trade and this old market town with under 5,000 residents advertises that it is the Lake District’s Adventure Capital. There is plenty to justify the title – the challenges of mountaineering on foot, bicycle or climbing-rope, swimming, canoeing, sailing, dragon-boat racing, hang-gliding and...

    Click to view
  • From Bedfordshire to the Arctic Circle

    Article

    Travelling from the Western Front to fight former Allies in Russia is not the usual story of 1919 for a British ‘Tommy’.  Yet that was the story of some of those men still serving King and Country. On 9 January 1918 the supplement to The London Gazette, an official paper...

    Click to view
  • Journeys Home: Indian forces and the First World War

    Article

    This article examines the importance of understanding the experiences of the Indian Forces during the First World War and how that can affect young people today. One hundred and four years ago the British Empire was one of the largest global operations in existence. Roughly a quarter of the world’s population...

    Click to view
  • Out and About with homing pigeons in the Great War

    Article

    Trevor James emphasises the role and importance of ‘messenger’ pigeons on the Western Front. Amidst the one-hundredth anniversary commemorations of the ending of the Great War, there has been a sudden burst of interest, in such varying locations as both Houses of Parliament and the Antiques Roadshow, in the role...

    Click to view
  • The Northern Limit: Britain, Canada and Greenland, 1917-20

    Article

    Imperial ambitions during the First World War extended beyond the Middle East and Africa.  In this article Ben Markham looks at the territorial wrangling over Greenland. It is well known that the British Empire grew in size significantly in the wake of the First World War. In the course of...

    Click to view
  • We will remember them: well, most of them

    Article

    Richard Broadhead provides a personal view on whether the mammoth task of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission can always be fulfilled, especially at a time of so many anniversaries.

    Click to view
  • A fit country for heroes?

    Article

    In this article Steve Illingworth explores the conditions for returning British servicemen at the end of the First World War in relation to the promise by Prime Minister Lloyd George about creating ‘a fit country for heroes’. In particular, it looks at the experiences of former soldiers in Salford, a...

    Click to view
  • A South African, a Welshman and a Scotsman and the birth of the Royal Air Force

    Article

    In this article Sebastion Cox explores the significant role of international involvement in the creation of the Royal Air Force. The RAF owes its existence to a number of people but high among those deserving of credit are a South African Field Marshal, a Welsh politician and a Scottish soldier.

    Click to view
  • Snapdragon

    Article

    Snapdragon: The World War II Exploits of Darby’s Ranger and Combat Photographer Phil Stern, Liesl Bradner, Osprey, 2018, 312p, £20-00, ISBN 978-1-4728-2850-7 Phil Stern was a highly successful photographer of fashionable and remarkable figures in the post-war era. His range extended from Marilyn Monroe and Frank Sinatra to the more serious...

    Click to view
  • Podcast: Medlicott Lecture 2018 - Justin Champion

    Article

    Click to view
  • Good Evening Sweetheart

    Article

    The talk given by Sue and Pete Mowforth to the Glasgow Branch, reading from a selection of their parents’ war-time letters, resulted in a flurry of media interest from the national press and radio, including an appearance on the BBC’s The One Show in February 2017. Olga and Cyril Mowforth married in June...

    Click to view
  • ‘The story of her own wretchedness’: heritage and homelessness

    Article

    David Howell uses eighteenth-century beggars at Tintern Abbey as a starting point for his research into the use of heritage sites by the homeless. In 1782, the Reverend William Gilpin published his Observations on the River Wye, a notable contribution to the emerging picturesque movement. A key element of his work is a commentary on Tintern Abbey....

    Click to view
  • The German prisoner-of-war camp in Dorchester

    Article

    Dave Martin investigates why there is a war memorial for German soldiers, ‘buried in a foreign field’, in a Dorset churchyard.

    Click to view
  • The initial impact of the Battle of Jutland on the people of Portsmouth

    Article

    This local study by Steve Doe draws together the human effects of what happened at the Battle of Jutland in June 1916 with accounts of how the families of those who fought in the battle and the wider local community dealt with the tragedy.

    Click to view
  • The LGBT civil rights movement in Britain

    Article

    This article has been created from the podcast of the same name on this website by Professor Sally R. Munt, University of Sussex. It has been put into article form by Paula Kitching, and the factual and arguments of the piece are those of the original author. 

    Click to view
  • 1968: the year of reckoning

    Article

    Hugh Gault explains why, 50 years later, 1968 is still remembered as a dramatic year. 1967 was 'the summer of love', and that spirit continued into 1968; but there were also many events in 1968 that were of a different sort, when the liberty of 1967 was accompanied by a...

    Click to view
  • Homosexuality in Britain Since 1967

    Article

    Harry Cocks marks the 50th anniversary of the 1967 Sexual Offences Act with an examination of what has happened since this crucial piece of legislation.

    Click to view
  • A tale of two Turings

    Article

    Among the posthumous attempts to celebrate his scientific importance, alongside recognition of the unwarranted injustices to which he was subjected, two important statues to Alan Turing are highlighted by Dave Martin.

    Click to view
  • English first-aid organisations and the Provisional IRA mainland bombing campaign of 1974

    Article

    Barry Doyle reveals how the devastating Provisional IRA bombing of two Birmingham public houses in 1974 led to a resurgence in first-aid training and preparation, on the scale with which we are familiar today.

    Click to view