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.
London 1948: the Austerity Olympics
The 1948 London Olympic Games became known as the “Austerity Olympics”. No one tried to hide the fact the games would be delivered on a shoe-string budget. They embraced it enthusiastically and with pride. All participating British athletes even had to provide their own shorts…
The Battle of Bamber Bridge
In June 1943, exacerbated by alcohol, underlying hostility and entrenched racial prejudice, a minor incident in a small Lancashire village among American GIs stationed nearby, escalated into what became known as the Battle of Bamber Bridge…
Lady Florence Dixie
The aristocratic Lady Florence Dixie threw off the shackles of her Victorian upbringing and embraced a career as a war correspondent, feminist writer, traveller, campaigner – and first President of the British Ladies Football Club…
Gladstone and Disraeli In Opposition
“If Gladstone fell into the Thames, that would be misfortune; and if anybody pulled him out, that, I suppose, would be a calamity”. The verbal jousting between Prime Ministers Gladstone and Disraeli is legendary…
Millicent Fawcett
Regarded by many as the most influential leader of the moderate women’s suffrage movement in Britain, Millicent Fawcett was not just a campaigner for votes for women but also for many other causes which affected women, ranging from education, careers to divorce rights.
Jane Haining
The daughter of a farmer from Dumfriesshire, Jane Haining died in Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp in July 1944. A Church of Scotland missionary, she had refused to leave the Jewish girls under her care in Budapest, Hungary…
The Battle of Waterloo
The Battle of Waterloo in 1815 is one of the great events in British history. This decisive battle ended the French Emperor Napoleon I’s bid to dominate Europe, a war which had lasted some 23 years…
Growing Up In Cardiff: A Wartime Childhood
Thomas Gareth Thomas was born in Cardiff on 13th July 1936 at 154 Inverness Place, Roath. Gareth’s most powerful childhood memories were of his childhood during the Second World War and the Cardiff Blitz…
Battle of Brunanburh 937AD
When you think of pivotal battles that shaped the course of British history, what first comes to mind? The Battle of Hastings? The Battle of Bosworth Field? Waterloo? Curiously, it was The Battle of Brunanburh that defined the countries that we now know as England, Scotland and…
