All articles in Biography & Memoir
29th November, 2018 in Biography & Memoir, Military
Churchill’s hidden years
Have you ever wondered what Churchill did in the First World War? Most people recall the Dardanelles. Some ask ‘Wasn’t he a soldier?’ But then they generally get stuck. I began to think about this and took a closer look. I was staggered to find both how active he was and how cont…
30th October, 2018 in Biography & Memoir, Local & Family History, Military
A Gloucestershire Lad in World War I
‘That means good luck’ – so said Arthur Stanley Bullock’s mother as Arthur stumbled while ascending the stairs from his sister’s basement. His leave had been curtailed and he was summoned to France, to serve in the most terrible war the world has ever known. His mother’s pr…
25th October, 2018 in Biography & Memoir, History
Sir Walter Raleigh: The last act
The prisoner was taken from the old Gatehouse close to Westminster Abbey at around 8.00 a.m. by an armed guard of pikemen. He was dressed in a black embroidered velvet nightgown, a hare-coloured satin doublet and a black embroidered waistcoat. He wore a ruff-band, a pair of black…
11th October, 2018 in Biography & Memoir, History
The House of York: Edmund of Langley and his children
Edmund of Langley, first duke of York and founder of the House of York, was born on or a little before 5 June 1341 at the royal palace of Langley in Hertfordshire. He was the seventh child and fifth but fourth eldest surviving son of King Edward III (b. 1312) and Philippa of Hain…
17th August, 2018 in Biography & Memoir, History, Natural World
What prompted Charles Darwin to publish his theory of evolution?
Charles Darwin spent five years on scientific survey ship HMS Beagle, returning to England in 1836 and by 1838 he was beginning to formulate his natural selection theory. Yet it was not until 1859, after two decades of gestation and hesitation, that his transformative theory…
17th July, 2018 in Biography & Memoir, History
James I: England’s first Stuart monarch
On 24 March 1603 the 69 year old Elizabeth I died, bringing to an end her ‘golden’ Elizabethan age and the Tudor dynasty. James VI of Scotland, the son of her former rival Mary, Queen of Scots, was named her heir, and the Stuart era began, bringing England and Scotland under the…
22nd June, 2018 in Biography & Memoir, Military, Women in History
Mathilde Carré: The Second World War’s ‘exceedingly dangerous woman’
In his book Double Agent Victoire, David Tremain uses official and previously unpublished MI5 documents to explore the betrayal of France’s Interallié network and the woman who served three masters during the Second World War, but ultimately served herself. A cat is mercurial: sh…
21st June, 2018 in Biography & Memoir, History, Military
Robert the Bruce: Earl, outlaw, king
Born in Essex in 1274, Robert the Bruce was a French-speaking Anglo-Norman with enormous estates in England. He was the rightful heir to Alexander III, but Edward I appointed John Balliol as king in his stead. He betrayed William Wallace at the battle of Falkirk and scored one vi…
21st June, 2018 in Biography & Memoir, History
Braveheart: The immortality of William Wallace
Scottish hero William Wallace was hanged, drawn and quartered on 23 August 1305. 600 years later his fight for Scottish independence was immortalised in the 1995 film, Braveheart, and in 2018 both Robert the Bruce and Mary, Queen of Scots are set to be portrayed in new films that…
17th May, 2018 in Biography & Memoir, History
Infamous royal marriages
‘This is the stuff of which fairytales are made’, or are they? Royal marriages are of course a celebration (as with any marriage) but do royal marriages have a history of fairy tales or controversy? Let’s take a look at some of the more unusual marriages over the centuries that w…
9th May, 2018 in Biography & Memoir, History
Alfred the Great: King of the Anglo-Saxons
King Alfred the Great is the most famous and celebrated of all Anglo-Saxon kings. His statue stands at the heart of a number of southern English towns – Wantage, where he was born over a thousand years ago; Winchester, where he was buried; Pewsey and Shaftesbury, where he also ha…
4th May, 2018 in Biography & Memoir, History, Military
A conflict beyond peacemakers: James I and the Thirty Years’ War
400 years since the beginning of the Thirty Years’ War, John Matusiak discusses King James I of England and VI of Scotland’s relationship with one of the bloodiest conflicts in European history. The moral aversion to warfare so glibly evinced by most modern-day leaders was h…