The Great Debate concluded on 21 March 2026 in Central London following a thrilling day. The competition started in the autumn of 2025 with heats running across the UK and online until February 2026. The three semi-finals held online led to the 21 finalists who were invited to London for the final stage with their families present.

Across the day was a wide range of outstanding talks that left most of the audience wondering how the judges were going to choose a winner, a runner up and two Highly Commended from such a strong field. Indeed, it did prove difficult with the judges insisting on having a third runner up just so that they could find a way to agree!

The question that each of the young people all addressed was:

How important are personal and public records as evidence for explaining the story or stories, of your local area?

As one of the judges Professor Lucy Noakes said

The diversity and range of the histories that we heard about was striking: we were taken from the role of Gaelic in Scottish identity to the impact of Nazi occupation in Jersey; from the aftermath of a Turkish earthquake to a flogging on 18^th century Hounslow Heath, and from a woman imprisoned in a Syrian cell during the civil war to as woman chained in a nineteenth century Barnsley workhouse. We learnt how to read the historic landscape of a Lancashire village and how to trace the histories of fishing in Devon and of the saffron trade in north Essex.  Local histories were retold through the eyes and the words of migrants and of the working class while a gendered lens was used to analyse the written histories of an Oxford College.

At the final the students present their five minute talk to three judges all of whom this year are professional historians led by the Historical Association President Professor Alex Walsham, Professor of Modern History, Cambridge; who was supported by: Professor Lucy Noakes, Rab Butler chair in Modern History, Essex; and Dr Antonio Sennis, Associate Professor of Medieval History, UCL.

Winner:

• Roddy McLuskey, James Gillespie’ss Hugh School, Edinburgh

Runner up:

• Duni Kariuki, Cheltenham Ladies College

Highly commended:

• Afeefah Daji, Batley Girls’ High School
• Bilal Nashawi, William Farr School
• Dhaani Singh, Withington’s Girls’ School

The competition is open to students from year 10 to 13 meaning ages throughout the competition, including heats ranges from 15 to 18 years. The competition is in the style of a Balloon debate so they are not arguing against one another but are required to answer the question posed, demonstrate that they have carried out historical research and can provide evidence to deliver their conclusions.

All of those who took part in the final did exceptionally well, with the judges needing extra time to reach an agreement. Their final thoughts on their decision are summated here by Professor Walsham:

Winner

Roddy McLuskey

Roddy's speech was an original, striking and distinctive exploration of the history of the Gaelic language and its speakers in Edinburgh and the Highlands and Islands. Drawing on a set of rediscovered manuscripts now in the National Library of Scotland, it highlighted the long hiatus in Gaelic scholarship created by their neglect and considered the interplay between the oral and written in the history of the Gaelic language. Roddy spoke movingly of language as an expression of humanity and as the 'heartbeat of the past'. His speech was beautifully written and a pleasure and privilege to hear. All three judges were immensely impressed by Roddy's performance.

Runner Up

Duni Kariuki

Duni's presentation was a passionate discussion of how both public and personal records neglect important actors in the history of Nairobi during World War II. Thoughtful and sophisticated from the start, it was filled with resonant points and compelling turns of phrase. It warned of the danger that surviving written sources tell us not who was there, but who was allowed to be seen and whose voices were deemed worthy of recording. It urged the audience to pay attention not just to ink on paper, but memories conveyed down the generations by word of mouth. This was a powerful performance that impressed the judges greatly.

Highly Commended

Afeefah Daji

Afeefah's speech was imaginative and powerful. It drew a compelling contrast between the two lines of medical notes that survive for a long-term inmate of the Barnsley workhouse and the diary of the daughter of an educated landowning family. It thoughtfully interpreted the silences in the historical record as well as the surviving sources. It was a moving clarion call for acknowledging that some lives have mattered more than others and for the need to consider those who have been forgotten as well as those who have been remembered.

Bilal Nashawi

Bilal's speech told the powerful and passionate story of the protests against dictatorship and state repression in Damascus in 2011 and of the fear, loss, and struggle experienced by those who participated in them. Drawing on a surviving personal record of his own grandmother's detention and on the pictures taken by a government forensic photographer, this excellent presentation demonstrated impressive rhetorical skills. Full of thoughtful insights, it highlighted how absence and silence can speak volumes about traumatic and formative experiences in the past. 

Dhaani Singh

Dhanni's speech centred on the Civil War history of the city of Chester, especially during the siege of this Royalist stronghold in 1644-6. It made striking use of urban architecture, maps, engineering surveys, and personal diaries to evoke the experience of those who lived through these turbulent years and to show that 'boring bricks' and material scars on the built environment can bring to life the history of distant times. Dhanni held the attention of her audience throughout and told her story persuasively and well.

Further comments from the judges included

Professor Lucy Noakes:

I was privileged to be a judge at the national finals of the HA's Great Debate competition in London this year.  The quality of the talks from all the finalists was outstanding.

All the finalists showed an impressive ability to conduct historical research, deliver an effective argument concerning a complex historical question and - most strikingly - to show both how history is made and why it matters. 

Dr Antonio Sennis:

It was a genuine privilege to be part of the judging panel at this year’s HA Great Debate national finals in London. The level of work on display was deeply impressive, not simply in terms of polish, but in the seriousness of engagement and the confidence with which students handled demanding material. There was a strong sense throughout that these were not rehearsed narratives, but carefully considered interpretations shaped by curiosity, judgement, and independence of thought.

Across the board, finalists demonstrated a capacity not only to investigate the past, but to weigh evidence, make choices, and sustain an argument under pressure. Above all, they showed an understanding that history is not a fixed body of knowledge, but an ongoing process of questioning, interpretation, debate, and that this process has real intellectual and civic value.

All the talks will be available online later in the year. And all those who reached the semi-final were invited to submit a written version of the talk to be published on the HA website in May.

We are grateful for the support we have received for the competition by our sponsor Rayburn Tours. They have a written a blog about the final that can be found here: What the HA Great Debate Finals Taught Me About the Future 

Each year we pose a new question which for 2027, with heats starting in the autumn of this year will be: More than words: 

Can your local environment help us to understand national and global histories? 

So, if you want to take part or know someone who might register for interest with Olivia olivia.dent@history.org.uk 

Interested in hosting a regional heat? Host a heat for the 2027 Great Debate  – Fill in form

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