The History of Britain Magazine

“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…

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…

“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 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…

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…

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…”

On 3rd May 1926, Britain’s miners walked out and in a move of solidarity, workers from other industries joined them. This was the first ever general strike in Britain. By 4th May, the number of strikers had reached 1.5 million…

Aristocrat and lady of letters, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu is most famous for her pioneering work, introducing smallpox inoculation into England…