History@Portsmouth

University of Portsmouth's History Blog

Tag Archives | Second World War

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Tin Cans and Relics: The Royal Navy’s over-age destroyers in the Second World War

By on May 10, 2024 in Research in Focus

Although Winston Churchill argued for the importance of building new destroyers, at the outset of the Second World War in 1939, many destroyers in the fleet were aged, and of limited practical value.  In a paper given on Wednesday 8 May, Dr Jayne Friend examined the careers of these destroyers in the context of propaganda, culture and imagination to suggest how these very different classes of vessel had wide-ranging but parallel importance and purpose. Dr Jayne Friend is a naval historian specialising in the relationship between the Royal Navy, culture and identity within Britain. She gained her PhD, titled “‘The Sentinels of Britain’: Royal Navy Destroyers, British Identity, Culture and […]

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Debates about the Jews’ place in a decolonised world

By on December 1, 2023 in Research in Focus

On Wednesday 8 November Dr Laura Almagor (University of Utrecht) presented a paper in our History Research seminar series entitled Reinvention at Bandung: Jewish Displaced Persons and the new global order, 1943-1962. During the summer and autumn of 1945 millions of uprooted persons made their way back to homes across Europe.  The remaining refugees crowded together in displaced persons camps in Germany, Austria and Italy.  Six years later, 175,000 individuals, mostly Jews, still languished in the camps.  In 1955, the Bandung conference convened to discuss the lingering problem of these displaced persons. Laura’s research looks at what the conference debates reveal about how displaced persons and Jewish leaders understood the […]

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They Shall Not Be Forgotten: Remembering Tangmere’s aviation dead

By on November 10, 2023 in Learning in Focus, Public History

In this blog post, UoP students Lisa Pittman, Oliver Ballard, Jamie Edwards and Holly Scott-Wilds look at some of the men memorialised in the graveyard at St Andrew’s Church in Tangmere, West Sussex. All of these men were connected to aviation in the area, as Tangmere was the site of a significant airfield from the First World War. The work involved the group thinking about who was remembered, how and where, and reflecting on the practice of public history. Lisa, Oliver, Jamie and Holly produced this as part of their second-year module, ‘Working with the Past’, working with Tangmere local historian Paul Neary. The module helps build our students’ employability […]

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Blackout accidents on Britain’s railways during World War Two

By on August 4, 2023 in Research in Focus, Uncategorized

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.

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Follow in the footsteps of history: Liberation Route Europe’s Hiking Trails network

By on March 3, 2023 in Events, News, Public History, Research in Focus, Uncategorized

Earlier in the year our Rob James participated in an outreach event hosted by Liberation Route Europe in Portsmouth Historic Dockyard. LRE Foundation is an international network that brings together people and organisations who are dedicated to preserving the cultural heritage of the Second World War. At the event, Rob took part in a panel discussion outlining the benefits of the organisation and its new Hiking Trails project. The southern section of the UK Hiking Trail runs from London to the South coast, and one of Rob’s PhD researchers, (now Dr) Jayne Friend, was employed by the Foundation to provide material for the trail. Jayne identified many points of interest […]

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Researching the letters of Allied service personnel in WW2: A student podcast

By on January 5, 2023 in Employability, Learning in Focus, Public History, Research in Focus, Uncategorized

Recently, the internationally-renowned museum, The D-Day Story, published on their website a podcast recorded in 2022 by three second year History students, Amy Deighton, Jessie Rickman and Sam Marchetti. The students, who are now in the final year of their studies, worked with the museum’s archives as part of their assessment for the ‘Working with the Past’ module, coordinated by Mike Esbester. The second-year module encourages students to work with our local community partners where possible and produce work that has a benefit to them and the organisation they are working with. To hear the podcast, go to the D-Day Story website here.

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