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 West Africa Squadron
Between 1807 and 1860, the Royal Navy’s West Africa Squadron attacked and seized approximately 1,600 ships involved in the international slave trade, and freed around 150,000 Africans…
Ellen and William Craft
“It was not until we stepped ashore at Liverpool that we were free from every slavish fear”. This is how William Craft described the moment he and his wife Ellen arrived in England after a perilous journey to freedom from slavery in America…
Howard Carter and the Discovery of Tutankhamun’s Tomb
“Can you see anything?” “Yes, wonderful things!”
Howard Carter’s famous words as he peered into the treasure-filled tomb of Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamun…
1919: Riots, Rebellions and Strikes
The Great War had ended. Millions of fighting men had returned home to find much changed, whilst those in camps waiting to be demobbed were bored and chaffed against the discipline they thought obsolete. Mutiny was in the air. At home there was class division, economic hardship and racial tension. In Europe there had been rebellion and the rise of communism in Russia. Feelings were high and spilled over onto the streets of Britain…
The Last Invasion of Britain
Forget 1066; this is the story of how one Welsh lady beat back a French invasion.
Decimalisation in Britain
Prior to 1971, there were 12 pennies to the shilling and 20 shillings to the pound. There were guineas, half crowns, threepenny bits, sixpences and florins. This old system of currency, known as pounds, shillings and pence or lsd, dated back to Roman times, when…
A Short History of Medicine
In Britain, medicine has drastically changed over the last thousand years, from folk remedies in the early medieval period to the formation of the NHS in the 20th century…
The First Anglo-Afghan War 1839-1842
Concerned that Russia was expanding its influence in the region, Britain invaded Afghanistan in 1839. Initially successful, the campaign ended in disaster with an ignominious and bloody withdrawal from Kabul… one of the most shocking failures of modern British military history…
Elizabeth Fry
The “Angel of Prisons”. A Quaker minister, social reformer and mother of 11 children, Elizabeth Fry is perhaps best known for her work on behalf of the women and children in Newgate Prison in London. Some of the more specific requirements she concerned herself with after her numerous visits to the prison included ensuring that men and women would be separated, with female guards provided for the female inmates.
Battle of Talana, 1899
Take a pompous general who objects to fighting before breakfast, 200 cavalrymen who disappear into thick mist, Irishmen shooting at one another on opposite sides and British infantrymen shelled by their own artillery – and you have the tragicomic ingredients for the Battle of Talana…