History@Portsmouth

University of Portsmouth's History Blog

Author Archive | Mike Esbester

Vinnie Jones and Paul Gasgoigne

‘Do it the safety way!’ 100 years of accident prevention.

By on July 13, 2017 in Research in Focus

In this blog Dr Mike Esbester, senior lecturer in history, discusses how he has been working with the British Safety Council in order to create an online archive of their material. Mike draws upon his research interests in his 3rd year Special Subject strand. Mike’s wide-ranging take on the history of accident prevention touches upon accidents at work, in the streets and at home, and examines how the state has interacted with its citizens – and how the messages found in safety education were not neutral, but contained some very distinct ideas about who could prevent accidents. This is just one aspect of Mike’s research, which has been funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council and supported by […]

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1921-CR-booklet-keeping-clear-photo-640x640

The sad death of 16-year old James Beck

By on July 4, 2017 in Public History, Research in Focus

Dr Mike Esbester, senior lecturer in history at Portsmouth, has written the following blog telling the story of the death, in July 1914, of a teenager working for the Caledonian Railway Company. Mike’s research focuses on the cultural history of safety, risk and accident prevention in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Volunteers working on the ‘Railway Work, Life & Death’  project have uncovered the stories of nearly 4,000 individuals who were either injured or killed whilst working on Britain’s railways between January 1911 and June 1915. Amongst the casualties was 16-year old James Beck, a ‘wagon greaser’ (someone responsible for ensuring the axle boxes of freight wagons were topped up […]

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1909 railway accident postcard. Courtesy Mike Esbester.

Working & Dying on the Railways

By on April 16, 2017 in Research in Focus

Dr Mike Esbester is a senior lecturer in history at Portsmouth.   Mike’s research focuses on nineteenth- and twentieth-century Britain, particularly on the cultural history of safety, risk and accident prevention, and on the history of mobility Working & Dying on the Railways At 5.45am on 11 August 1913, steam locomotive fireman Charles Lock, an employee of the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway, clocked on as usual. His train arrived at Portsmouth Town station, now known as Portsmouth & Southsea, at 10.13am; 2 minutes later, whilst he was underneath the engine oiling it, another engine gently touched the train, moving it forwards slightly. Lock was caught in the locomotive’s mechanism […]

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