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.
Sir Ernest Shackleton and Endurance
A legendary figure in the history of polar exploration, Ernest Shackleton led three British expeditions to the Antarctic including the ‘Endurance’ expedition of 1914-16. With little prospect of surviving on the island, Shackleton took matters into his own hands and set out once more in one of his small lifeboat vessels with…
VJ Day
There was much joy and celebration around the world when on 15th August 1945 US President Harry S Truman declared the day as Victory over Japan Day. To crowds gathered outside the White House, President Truman said: “This is the day we have been waiting for since Pearl Harbor.”
Historic August
View our list of historic events that occurred in the month of August. Among many other events, August saw the last English king to die in battle, and…
Angela Burdett-Coutts, Philanthropist
“After my mother, she is the most remarkable woman in the kingdom”. This was how King Edward VII described Angela Burdett-Coutts, an outspoken and dedicated philanthropist, who helped to found both the NSPCC and RSPCA, as well as funding countless other humanitarian causes…
Left Behind After Dunkirk
After the Dunkirk evacuation, pockets of military personnel were left behind in France who had to make their way to the French ports for evacuation as best they could. These were dangerous journeys, along roads blocked with refugees and under bombardment by enemy aircraft. Some of those left behind were women of the ATS…
William Knibb, Abolitionist
“The cursed blast of slavery has, like a pestilence, withered almost every moral bloom”. The words of William Knibb, an English Baptist Minister who would make his mark in Jamaica…
The Wardian Case
The Wardian Case was an early example of a terrarium, a glass case with plants inside. However this humble portable glass case would come to play a huge part in the success of the British Empire, facilitating the transportation of commodities across the globe, changing fortunes of nations and influencing the palates of a generation…
Nancy Astor
American born, Lady Nancy Astor became only the second woman to be elected as an MP and the first to take her seat in the House of Commons…
The London Blitz Through the Eyes of a Young Boy
Dr Charles Berkoff grew up in the East End of London during World War Two and shares with us some of his boyhood memories. “My immediate concern was that if the war lasted more than a week or two, it might interfere with my plans for my seventh birthday…”
