Dr Rob James, Senior Lecturer and Course Lead for the MA Naval, Maritime and Coastal History, has recently published an article, co-written with one of the MA’s alumni students, Martin Backhouse, in the journal War in History. The article, ‘Un-silencing “The Most Silent Section of ‘The Silent Service’’’: The Portrayal of Royal Navy Submarines and Submariners in the Illustrated London News, 1939-1945’, examines the portrayal of Royal Navy submarines and their crews in the world’s first weekly illustrated newspaper, the Illustrated London News, during the Second World War. It argues that the newspaper depicted Britain as having a technologically advanced and potent submarine service, whose personnel were part of an […]
Author Archive | Robert James
The Lost Crafts of the Past
As part of their work on the second year core module ‘Working with the Past’, three University of Portsmouth History students – Chanel Parker, Loraya Head, and Gemma Norris – collaborated with Portsmouth Museum and Art Gallery to curate a three-month exhibition that both celebrated the crafts of our ancestors and highlighted the importance of preserving the craftspeoples’ skills for future generations. In this blog, written for Hampshire Archives Trust, Chanel Parker discusses the research methods the group used when curating the exhibition. ‘Working with the Past’ is coordinated by Mike Esbester. To read the blog, click this link. Slider image courtesy of Birmingham Museums Trust
Dangerous operations: Railway goods guards’ safety burdens
University of Portsmouth History student Lauren Lee produced a blog for the Railway Work, Life & Death project as part of her work on the second year core module ‘Working with the Past’, coordinated by Mike Esbester. In this blog, Lauren looks at some of the dangers encountered by goods guards while working on the railway, and reveals that tragic tale of one guard, William Jolley, who sadly lost his life while undertaking his duties. Mike co-leads the RWLD project along with Karen Baker (Librarian, National Railway Museum) and Helen Ford (Manager, Modern Records Centre) with the assistance of Craig Shaw (Volunteer Administrator, NRM). To read the blog, click this link.
Blackout accidents on Britain’s railways during World War Two
University of Portsmouth History student Evan Cossburne produced a blog for the Railway Work, Life & Death project as part of his work on the second year core module ‘Working with the Past’, coordinated by Mike Esbester. Mike co-leads the RWLD project along with Karen Baker (Librarian, National Railway Museum) and Helen Ford (Manager, Modern Records Centre) with the assistance of Craig Shaw (Volunteer Administrator, NRM). In this blog, Evan looks at the impact of the Second World War on railway personnel’s working conditions, focusing particularly on the accidents caused by a ‘lack of light’. To read the blog, click this link.
Graduation 2023: A day to celebrate our students’ achievements!
Our students’ graduation day is always a special day for us tutors (and, of course, for our students and their families and friends, too!). This year it was even more special because it marked the success of our first cohort of students who started university at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. Despite all the challenges they (and we) faced, they have succeeded and we are so proud of them all and their amazing achievements. This short blog features a few images taken on the day as we celebrated with our undergraduate and postgraduate students. Congratulations all! While graduation is always a day of mixed emotions – it’s exciting to […]
‘Ports Cities in Comparative Global History’: Team members collaborate with researchers in Hong Kong
Earlier this month, a number of team members visited Hong Kong to participate in a series of institutional visits and present at an international conference on ‘Port Cities in Comparative Global History’ at Hong Kong Baptist University. To find out more about the conference, read this excellent blog by one of our PhD researchers, Charlotte Steffen, who presented their paper ‘Beyond China Town- The Multi-national Migration of Chinese Students in Europe’ on the second day of the event. The link to Charlotte’s blog is here.