Described at the time in the pages of the Western Mail as ‘one of the most sensational events in the criminal annals of England,’ the arrest and prosecution of Oscar Wilde on charges of ‘gross indecency’ is a tragic chapter in LGBTQ history, and represents the wider persecution faced by the LGBTQ community at the time, as well as throughout the ensuing decades. Oscar Wilde | Illustrated London News | 27 February 1892 In this special blog, we will explore how newspapers at …
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For just over a month in the summer of 1934, the Caravan Club in Endell Street, Holborn, was ‘London’s Greatest Bohemian Rendezvous.’ A safe space for society’s outcasts, it was a temporary haven for London’s marginalised LGBTQ community, home to an eclectic mix of clientele, from cabaret performers to bright young things. But in the early morning of 25 August 1934, the music ended. London’s Caravan Club was raided by the Metropolitan Police, whilst both its owners and members faced …
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In 1870 Ernest ‘Stella’ Boulton and Frederick ‘Fanny’ Park were arrested, charged with ‘conspiring and inciting persons to commit an unnatural offence.’ The case caused a sensation; for, when arrested, Boulton and Park were wearing women’s clothes. From Bow Street Station to the Van, April 10th, 1870 | The Days’ Doings | 20 May 1871 In this special blog, we take a look at this landmark trial and important chapter in LGBTQ history, and how it was reported at the time in …
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On 31 July 1910, Hawley Harvey Crippen, better known as Dr Crippen, and Ethel Le Neve, his typist-turned-lover, were arrested on board the Montrose while trying to flee west to Canada. On top of being a sensational case and arrest, it was the first example of an arrest aided by wireless telegraphy. A cross-Atlantic chase of a fleeing couple is an apt ending to our July theme of travel and migration. When you ask yourself why your ancestor or the …