This year marks the 80th anniversary of wartime Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s most famous speeches. Coming to power after the failure of predecessor Neville Chamberlain to secure peace, Churchill faced a titanic task, and it was through his speeches that he laid down his powerful mantra. In this blog we will take a look at public feeling around the potential for peace with Germany during the weeks that Churchill came to power, and contemporary reactions to Churchill’s speeches in the …
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This week we have added 118,516 new pages to The Archive. We have added one new title, the New Ross Standard, published in County Wexford, and we have additions to five of our existing titles, including one of the oldest continuously published periodicals in the world, Lloyd’s List, and late twentieth century additions to the Lichfield Mercury. With the help of our recently added titles, we take a look this week at the interrelation between newspapers and the Second Boer War (1899-1902). British public …
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In this special blog post, we use newspapers from The Archive to investigate how the fallen soldiers of the First World War were remembered, and consequently, how all those killed in military conflicts across the world came to be commemorated via war memorials. Upon the cessation of conflict on 11 November 1918 there was hardly a household in Great Britain that had not been impacted by the horrendous number of casualties inflicted during the past four years. And not just …
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During the First World War (1914-1918), the role of women in Britain was massively altered and the women’s sphere was enlarged in every direction. Some historians mark the First World War as a watershed moment in women’s history when women were looked at less as fragile creatures and more as robust figures. A single blog post is not enough to explore all the contributions of women during the Great War, but we have combed through The British Newspaper Archive and …
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In war, food becomes a major concern. Supplying the army and home-front with enough food is a huge logistical undertaking. With a large army abroad in hostile territory, and the home-front far from self-sufficient, ensuring that they are kept fed and healthy becomes a primary concern for government and a national obsession. As part of our focus on all things Military & Wartime during November, we have searched the newspapers to discover more about the history of food in wartime. An …
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In discussing the fashions during the Second World War, we turn to the pages of Britannia and Eve. Along with providing general news, this paper has dedicated sections on such topics as fashion, home, and knitting. Wonderful illustrations and photographs are included amongst its pages. Explore all our fashion findings here! Knitting Knitting advice and patterns are no strangers to the pages of our newspapers. It could be said that the value of such readily available information was made all the …
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War impacts every part of life, some more obvious than others. In this post, we will explore the impact of war on fashion; particularly, we will look at how the topics of economy and quality shaped war-time fashion. The article excerpts included in this post are from two recurring columns: ‘The Highway of Fashion‘, printed in The Tatler, and ‘Fashions by Jean Burnup‘, printed in Britannia and Eve. Explore knitting and fashion in the Second World War Economy With the ever-present threat …
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When you first think of the Great War, I’d wager that fashion is not the first thing to come to mind. However, it was, in fact, on the mind of many who lived through those years of war. There are several series dedicated to the topic of fashion that ran throughout the war years and that you can find in The British Newspaper Archive: (1) ‘Woman’s Sphere in War Time’, printed in The Sphere; (2) ‘Woman’s Ways’, printed in The …
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The Sphere | 29 August 1914 
The Sphere | 19 September 1914 
The Sphere | 17 October 1914 
The Sphere | 14 November 1914 
The Sphere | 2 January 1915 
The Sphere | 9 January 1915 
The Sphere | 30 January 1915 
The Sphere | 20 February 1915 
The Sphere | 27 February 1915 
The Sphere | 6 March 1915 
The Sphere | 13 March 1915 
The Sphere | 30 March 1915 
The Sphere | 27 March 1915 
The Sphere | 10 April 1915 
The Sphere | 17 April 1915 
The Sphere | 1 May 1915 
The Sphere | 8 May 1915 
The Sphere | 15 May 1915 
The Sphere | 22 May 1915 
The Sphere | 26 June 1915 
The Sphere | 3 July 1915 
The Sphere | 24 July 1915 
The Sphere | 18 September 1915 
The Sphere | 2 October 1915 
The Sphere | 16 October 1915 
The Sphere | 23 October 1915 
The Sphere | 30 October 1915 
The Sphere | 13 November 1915 
The Sphere | 20 November 1915 
The Sphere | 15 January 1916 
The Sphere | 22 January 1916 
The Sphere | 19 February 1916 
The Sphere | 26 February 1916 
The Sphere | 4 March 1916 
The Sphere | 11 March 1916 
The Sphere | 18 March 1916 
The Sphere | 8 April 1916 
The Sphere | 25 March 1916 
The Sphere | 6 May 1916 
The Sphere | 13 May 1916 
The Sphere | 20 May 1916 
The Sphere | 17 June 1916 
The Sphere | 1 July 1916 
The Sphere | 8 July 1916 
The Sphere | 29 July 1916 
The Sphere | 5 August 1916 
The Sphere | 12 August 1916 
The Sphere | 2 September 1916 
The Sphere | 9 September 1916 
The Sphere | 16 September 1916 
The Sphere | 14 November 1916 
The Sphere | 4 November 1916 
The Sphere | 11 November 1916 
The Sphere | 18 November 1916 
The Sphere | 25 November 1916 
The Sphere | 23 December 1916 
The Sphere | 23 December 1916 
The Sphere | 6 January 1917 
The Sphere | 13 January 1917 
The Sphere | 13 January 1917 
The Sphere | 27 January 1917 
The Sphere | 27 January 1917 
The Sphere | 3 February 1917 
The Sphere | 3 February 1917 
The Sphere | 10 February 1917 
The Sphere | 10 February 1917 
The Sphere | 10 March 1917 
The Sphere | 24 March 1917 
The Sphere | 7 April 1917 
The Sphere | 7 April 1917 
The Sphere | 14 April 1917 
The Sphere | 12 May 1917 
The Sphere | 12 May 1917 
The Sphere | 19 May 1917 
The Sphere | 9 June 1917 
The Sphere | 28 July 1917 
The Sphere | 18 August 1917 
The Sphere | 25 August 1917 
The Sphere | 8 September 1917 
The Sphere | 15 September 1917 
The Sphere | 29 September 1917 
The Sphere | 10 November 1917 
The Sphere | 15 July 1918 
The Sphere | 15 June 1918 
The Sphere | 13 April 1918
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Paul Roberts’ book is now available to purchase! Order your copy of History Maker here. How The British Newspaper Archive played a key role in the completion of a new book about my great-great-grandfather who had 30 grandsons serving King and Country I found the picture by pure chance – on a village history website. It was of John Roberts, a man with a bushy beard and sideburns and wearing a bowler hat and a big smile. A caption below …