The History of Britain Magazine
Welcome to the History of Britain! The home nations share a varied and shared history unlike anywhere else, so we thought it only right to create a section dedicated to our mutual heritage.
The Great Gold Robbery of 1855
Mention the Great Train Robbery and everyone assumes that you mean the one in 1963, when a group of robbers including Ronnie Biggs, held up the Glasgow to London mail train. However there was another audacious Great Train Robbery in 1855 in which a large quantity of gold bullion was taken…
Packet vs. Privateer: The Victory of the Windsor Castle
A true-life David and Goliath story.
Dic Penderyn, Welsh Working Class Martyr
Caught up in the midst of the Merthyr Risings of June 1831, young miner Dic Penderyn was tried and subsequently executed for a crime he did not commit. In death he has become a Welsh folk hero…
The Angels of Mons
At the start of the First World War, during the Battle of Mons on August 23, 1914 rumours arose and took root of a heavenly host of angels, armed with bows and arrows, that came to the rescue of the heavily outnumbered British soldiers. Veterans of the battle were reputed to have talked of St. George and the ghostly Bowmen of Mons…
Powder Monkeys
Admiral Lord Nelson’s decisive victory at the Battle of Trafalgar is well known. What is less well known is that without the powder monkeys, the brave young boys who ferried the gunpowder to the guns, this great victory could not have happened.
The Christmas Truce 1914: When Peace Briefly Reigned on Earth
“And the guns fell silent on Christmas Eve … ” By December 1914, the war that was supposed to be over by Christmas was clearly far from it. Two entrenched armies were facing one another across No-Man’s Land. And then incredibly, on Christmas Eve carol singing broke out in the trenches. Slowly the two sides emerged and approached each other across No-Man’s Land…
Dickens and Debt: the story of London’s Marshalsea Prison
Charles Dickens’ novel ‘Little Dorrit’ is set within the Marshalsea Prison, where his own father was incarcerated and a place he knew well. This notorious, 500 year old prison was home to debtors, pirates, smugglers and other undesirables…
Women on the March: Camp Followers of the 17th and 18th Centuries
Viewers of the Sharpe TV series, based on the books by Bernard Cornwell on the Peninsular War, will be very familiar with the baggage train of camp followers, the women who accompanied their menfolk on campaign. These women were the backbone of the army, their contributions often ignored…
Mary Wollstonecraft
Writer, political philosopher and advocate of women’s rights, Mary Wollstonecraft’s experiences in Britain and Revolutionary France inspired much of her work. Her personal life however was complicated and full of heartache…
Naval Wives: The Hidden Strength of the Royal Navy
The important role of women on board ship during the Royal Navy’s heyday in the 1700s and 1800s has often been overlooked. As well as maintaining morale and caring for the men, many of these wives and girlfriends also worked as nurses and during battle, sometimes even as powder monkeys…