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.
Dressed for War: Love Letters from Britain
Chief Warrant Officer James A. Pool, 29th Naval Construction Battalion (known as CBs or “Seabees”), US Navy, was stationed in Britain in the run-up to D-Day. Throughout this time, he wrote regular letters to his wife, in which he described his experiences of Britain and preparations for the D-Day landings. His daughter Suzanne shares some of these in the article below.
The Wardsend Cemetery Riot
The Victorians had a morbid fear of being removed from their coffins in the dead of night by Resurrection Men, to be used as dissection specimens for medical students. When rumours of grave robbing arose at one cemetery, a crowd gathered and the mob turned ugly…
Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon, Surveyors of the Mason-Dixon Line
Probably the most famous surveyors in history, Jeremiah Dixon and Charles Mason set out across pre-Civil War America to solve a boundary dispute. For many, their Dixon-Mason Line would later come to represent the dividing line between north and south, between free and slave states…
Dover Castle, Operation Fortitude and D-Day
Dover Castle stands imperious overlooking the harbour and across the sea to France. Underneath this imposing castle lies a myriad of clandestine tunnels, the nerve centre for Allied strategy for the invasion of Normandy, including Operation Fortitude, designed to deceive, confuse and distract the Germans prior to D-Day…
D-Day: Operation Pointblank
Operation Pointblank was one of the plans designed to protect the troops landing on the beaches of Normandy on D-Day. Instead of focusing bombing campaigns on German cities and industry, the objective of this new plan was to drive the Luftwaffe from the sky…
The D-Day Deceptions: a Masterclass in Subterfuge
Wooden aircraft set on mock airfields, fake ships in fake ports and inflatable Sherman tanks that could be lifted and moved by just four men – just some of the devices used to confuse the Germans as to the plans of the Allied forces in the run up to D-Day…
The Great Regency Fête of 1811
On 5 February 1811, George, Prince of Wales, was declared Regent of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. One of George’s first acts as Regent was to throw a grand party…
Operation Gambit: Britain’s D-Day X-Craft
Precise navigation to the invasion beaches was essential. Tasked with shining beacon lights out to sea in the early hours of D-Day to guide the army of landing craft ashore, two X-craft midget submarines were towed in secret and stationed off Sword and Juno beaches. Lying on the seabed, the 5 man crews waited for news that the invasion had begun…
Far from a Donkey: Ronald d’Arcy Fife
Lieutenant-Colonel Ronald d’Arcy Fife of the Green Howards Regiment – definitely not a donkey leading lions!
Whatever happened to the nit nurse – A history of the School Medical Service in England from 1908
Certain memories still cause shudders in the post-Second World War generation of British schoolchildren. School dinner tapioca with a blob of jam in it. Being forced to perform gymnastics in the school hall in vest and pants. And then there was the regular visit of the medical specialist known as the Nit Nurse…