In the decade after the Second World War had come to an end, and indeed beyond, many communities across the United Kingdom were faced with very vivid reminders of the conflict: bomb sites, the country’s ‘war scars.’ In this blog, we will examine how people in Britain lived alongside bomb sits in the 1950s, using newspapers taken from The Archive. We will explore how communities adapted to live beside bomb sites, and how they transformed them into gardens and playgrounds. …
Military History
This week we have added another 256,709 brand new pages to our collection, with an amazing ten brand new publications joining us from across England and Scotland. Meanwhile, we have updated 64 of our existing titles over the past seven days, with additions to some of our international titles, to our Welsh language titles, and to our national and regional titles. So read on to discover more about all of our new titles of the week, which hail from Erdington to Stanmore, as well as to discover …
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Women last week made history in the youngest Service, for the first delivery flights of aeroplanes from factory to storage depot, ‘somewhere in Great Britain,’ were carried out by the Women’s Transport Section of the Air Transport Auxiliary. There are nine members of this body. So reported The Sketch on 17 January 1940. Four months into the Second World War, and women were making history, and in particular, the nine women who belonged to the Air Transport Auxiliary. These women, along with …
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Russia is building up a formidable air fleet and doubling her military railways. America is laying down new capital ships. Britain is strengthening her Navy and her Air Force. A few days ago Belgium announced her intention to spend more money on her Army…One never quite knows what Germany is doing. Her budget reveals her intention to re-arm to a modest extent…No doubt she is drilling her young men and inuring them to war on land and in the air… …
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This week at The Archive we are celebrating reaching another incredible milestone – we have now reached 46 million pages in our collection, all now available to search. Meanwhile, we have added 181,690 brand new pages over the last seven days, with the addition of eight brand new titles, from London, Peterborough and Beckenham, whilst we have also updated an amazing 85 of our existing titles. So read on to discover more about all our new titles of the week, which include an historic law and bankruptcy title, as well …
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By November 1920, some ‘three millions of money‘ had been spent on ‘memorials of various kinds and designs…in the United Kingdom,’ as reported the Milngavie and Bearsden Herald. In today’s money, that’s roughly £87,000,000 – the equivalent of £2 donated by every person in Britain. The strength of the nation’s desire to remember their war dead is manifested in these memorials, as the population struggled to come to terms with the great losses suffered during the First World War, in which …
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This week at The Archive we have added 96,924 new pages, covering 140 years of headlines from across the United Kingdom and Ireland, and beyond. Furthermore, we are delighted to welcome a brand new title to our collection – Nottinghamshire’s Newark Herald – as well as introducing updates to 49 of our existing titles. So read on to find out more about the Newark Herald and the other additions we have made, as well as to learn about the Polish war graves of Newark Cemetery. Register now and …
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This week at The Archive is a particularly special one. Not only have we added 156,724 brand new pages, we are also delighted to announce the extension of our long-term partnership with the British Library. Having already worked together for over ten years, and so far digitised 42 million pages together, we look forward to bringing many more newspaper pages to our digital collection. You can find out more about the extension of our partnership here. Register now and explore the Archive Our …
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Upon the advent of the First World War a new organisation was formed – the Women Police Volunteers. Later known as the Women’s Police Service, these women played a vital role in paving the way for the establishment and acceptance of women in the police. Members of the Women’s Police Service at a Buckingham Palace Garden party | The Sphere | 2 April 1919 Although the inclusion of women in the police was discussed prior to the outbreak of the war, and …
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Nicknamed the ‘Idle Women,’ although they were about as far from idle as anybody could possibly be, the women canal workers of the Second World War performed vital war work which is all but forgotten today, some seventy years later. Some of the ‘Idle women’ arriving at a canal dock | The Sphere | 15 April 1944 The curious name of ‘Idle Women’ came from the badges that these pioneering women wore, with the initials ‘IW,’ which stood for ‘Inland Waterways’. …