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.
Caterpillar Club
“Life depends on a silken thread”. Formed in 1922 by Lieutenant Harold R. Harris, The Caterpillar Club was for fliers all over the world whose lives had been saved by parachutes…
Black Friday
On 18th November 1910 some 300 women marched on the Houses of Parliament to demonstrate and campaign for votes for women. The day became known as Black Friday for the verbal and physical violence shown to the women by police and bystanders…
The Sinking of RMS Titanic
Believed to be unsinkable, Titanic was the world’s largest passenger steam ship. However during her maiden voyage to New York, an encounter with an iceberg on the night of the 14th April 1912 resulted in the loss of 1517 souls…
Battle of Kambula
Although one of the lesser-known actions of the Anglo-Zulu War, the Battle of Kambula on 29th March 1879 avenged the British defeat at Isandlwana, established the superiority of the invading force and became the turning point of the war…
Eight Assassination Attempts on Queen Victoria
Queen Victoria faced not one but eight assassination attempts during her historic sixty-three-year reign…
A History of HMS Belfast
In the early 1930s, a concerned British Admiralty discovered that the Imperial Japanese Navy had started construction of the new Mogami-class light cruisers, which were superior in specifications to their Royal Navy counterparts. Thus, in 1934, construction of what would become the Town-class light cruisers began at British shipyards…
Singapore Alexandra Hospital Massacres 1942
Caught between advancing Japanese troops and retreating British forces during the fall of Singapore, Alexandra Hospital was the scene of a massacre by Japanese soldiers of wounded British soldiers and medical staff on 14 February 1942…
Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles and the Foundation of Singapore
Two hundred years ago, Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles negotiated an important treaty, leading to the establishment of the British colony of Singapore. Raffles Hotel in Singapore, named after him, is one of the most famous hotels in the world…
Suffragette Outrages – The Women’s Social and Political Union WSPU
The suffragette movement, and in particular the militant Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU), should be regarded as violent, a distinction which distances suffragettes from peaceful suffragists. Their ‘outrages’ – escalating to bombings, arson, and chemical attacks – potentially had a detrimental effect on the outcome of the suffrage campaign…
The Fall of Singapore
During the fighting and immediately afterward, civilians were murdered, enemy soldiers decapitated, prisoners burnt alive, hospital patients slaughtered where they lay. Winston Churchill described the fall of Singapore as “the worst disaster and largest capitulation in British history.”