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.
British Convicts to Australia
26th January is the official national day of Australia and marks the arrival of the First Fleet of British ships and the raising of the Union flag at Sydney Cove. The fleet included six ships transporting around 1,000 convicts…
Spencer Perceval
The only British Prime Minister ever to be assassinated, Spencer Perceval was shot in the lobby of the House of Commons in 1812…
Empire Day
The words “Empire Day” summon up an image of a motherly Queen Victoria presiding over an Empire which spanned almost a quarter of the entire globe. However it was not until after the death of Queen Victoria that Empire Day was first celebrated…
Hannah Beswick, the Mummy in the Clock
Taphophobia, the fear of being buried alive and waking up in one’s own grave, is the stuff of nightmares. Hannah Beswick had a pathological fear of premature burial, after her brother John was found to be still alive at his own funeral…
VE Day
VE Day. On May 8th 1945, the Allies celebrated the defeat of Nazi Germany and the end of Adolf Hitler’s Reich, formally recognising the end of the Second World War in Europe….
The Cotton Industry
By 1825, cotton was Britain’s biggest import. It became the centrepiece of the developing industrial revolution which impacted the country socially, economically and culturally for generations…
The 19th century Garotting Panic
During the Garotting Panic of 1862, sensational newspaper reports led the public to believe would-be attackers lurked around every corner. The satirical magazine Punch produced cartoons showing wittily ingenious ways in which people might tackle this “crisis”…
Lord Palmerston
Henry John Temple, the 3rd Viscount Palmerston was a British politician, twice Prime Minister and the only PM thus far to die in office. He was also well known for his quick wit and for his womanising…
The Devils Porridge
During World War One, Gretna was the site of the Britain’s largest cordite factory. Women workers came from all over the UK to help make “Devil’s Porridge”, a mixture of gun cotton and nitro-glycerine that was used to produce cordite as a shell propellant. This hazardous work even turned their skin yellow…
Walter Arnold and the World’s First Ever Speeding Ticket
On 28th January 1896 Mr Walter Arnold of East Peckham became the first person to be caught speeding in a motorised vehicle. Mr Arnold was spotted doing a heady 8mph, four times the 2mph speed limit, and was pursued for 5 miles by a policeman on a bicycle…