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 Fall of Singapore
During the fighting and immediately afterward, civilians were murdered, enemy soldiers decapitated, prisoners burnt alive, hospital patients slaughtered where they lay. Winston Churchill described the fall of Singapore as “the worst disaster and largest capitulation in British history.”
Battle of Spion Kop
Fought on 24th January 1900 during the Second Boer War, the Battle of Spion Kop was a disastrous British defeat. Winston Churchill, Louis Botha and Mahatma Gandhi were all present at the battle, and a stand at Liverpool’s football stadium Anfield is named after it…
The Glorious First of June 1794
The Glorious First of June (1794) was the first major naval battle between the French and British fleets during the French Revolutionary Wars…
The White Feather Movement
In Britain during the First World War a white feather was often given to men out of uniform by women to shame them publicly into signing up to fight…
The Bravery of Noor Inayat Khan
The descendant of Indian royalty Noor Inayat Khan, known as Nora Baker, was a British spy who was sent to occupied France in World War Two as a secret agent. After months of carefully avoiding being exposed, she intended to head back to England on 14th October. Sadly, this was not to be, as…
A Victorian Christmas
Christmas trees, carol singers, Christmas cards, Father Christmas and crackers – integral parts of a traditional Christmas, but why? The Victorians…
William Armstrong
Inventor, engineer, industrialist and philanthropist, William Armstrong the 1st Baron Armstrong is sometimes called Britain’s forgotten genius…
Edith Cavell
During the First World War, on the morning of October 12th 1915, British nurse Edith Cavell was executed by a German firing squad in Brussels, Belgium…
The Hundred Years War – The Caroline Phase
Nine years after the truce between France and England was cemented by the Treaty of Brétigny, hostilities broke out when the new French King on the throne, Charles V declared war. This second phase of the Hundred Years War became known as the Caroline War…