All articles in Society & Culture
10th November, 2016 in Biography & Memoir, History, Society & Culture
Alan Turing’s ‘On Computable Numbers’
Alan Turing is best known for helping to crack the Nazi’s Enigma cipher machine at Bletchley Park during World War II. Turing’s work helped the Allies to shorten the conflict by at least two years. However, Turing was more than an incredible codebreaker. He was a brilliant mathem…
8th November, 2016 in History, Society & Culture
Seven things you (probably) didn’t know about America’s presidential elections
The 2016 US presidential campaign was one unlike any other. Party politics (and Twitter rants) aside, it was truly exceptional for being the first presidential race between a female major party candidate (the first woman to make a run for the White House was suffragette Victoria…
28th September, 2016 in Military, Society & Culture
10 things you didn’t know about Britain’s black community during the World Wars
Britain’s black community played an important part in the First and Second World Wars. Here are 10 facts you might not have known. 1. During World War I King George V wanted to show the world a united empire in wartime so, in October 1915, the British West Indies Regiment (BWIR)…
21st September, 2016 in Society & Culture, Women in History
The Pankhursts: Politics, protest and passion
More than any other name, Pankhurst is associated with the struggle for women’s right to vote. The Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU), the leading militant organisation campaigning for Women’s suffrage in the United Kingdom, was founded at the Pankhurst family home in…
16th September, 2016 in Military, Society & Culture
Theresienstadt: Paradise Camp
23 June, 1944. Maurice Rossel – a Swiss representative of the International Red Cross – paid a visit to a special camp run by the SS in the former fortress of Theresienstadt located in the north-west of the Czech Republic. The camp was home to thousands of Jewish inmates of…
30th August, 2016 in Military, Society & Culture
The evacuation of children during the Second World War
With the start of the Second World War came Operation Pied Piper. This was the plan to evacuate civilians from cities and other areas that were at high risk of being bombed or becoming a battlefield in the event of an invasion. The country was split into three types of areas: Eva…
22nd July, 2016 in History, Society & Culture
1966: When Britain was the envy of the world
The 1960s was arguably the most upbeat and exciting decade of the twentieth century and beyond. Even those who argue against this have to concede that for most of us it was the decade in which our whole way of life changed for the better, like never before in modern history. The…
20th July, 2016 in History, Society & Culture
Celebrating 80 years of the Speaking Clock
First introduced in Britain on the 24 July 1936, the Speaking Clock was created specifically by the General Post Office (GPO) to settle disputes over time. Prior to this the nation was largely run on mechanical wind-up clocks that were prone to drift and increasing numbers of peo…
19th July, 2016 in Society & Culture, Women in History
Non-militant suffragettes and their peaceful march for votes
The Women’s Suffrage Pilgrimage of July 1913 was a peaceful march designed to show the British government the sheer number of women from across the country who demanded the right to vote. Members of the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies (NUWSS) set off on foot, or some…
1st May, 2016 in Military, Society & Culture
Changes to medical practice from 1914 – 1918
At the Order of St John hospital in Etaples patients received the highest possible standards of care. Medical staff of the Order were also at the forefront of medical research. The first Commanding Officer Colonel James Clark established the Etaples Medical Society on 18 August 1…
16th March, 2016 in History, Military, Society & Culture
How the Talking Book was born
Today, talking books reach hundreds of thousands of blind and partially sighted people. It all started over 80 years ago when the Royal National Institute of Blind people (RNIB) began providing books to war-blinded soldiers. What’s more, as part of their 80th anniversar…
10th February, 2016 in Biography & Memoir, Society & Culture
Mandela: From prison cell to president
Nelson Mandela lived one of the most remarkable lives of the twentieth century. Growing up in an era of oppression and racial segregation in South Africa, he devoted his life to fighting for an equal and democratic society and championed social justice. Imprisoned for almost thre…