In 1990, a group of African and Caribbean ex-service personnel appeared on an episode of the BBC television show ‘Hear-Say’. One woman explained why Britain’s Black citizens chose to take up arms in the Second World War. If Hitler had…
Author: Dr. Kate Law
Putting menopause on the map by Caroline Vollans
Menopause, a key aspect of most women’s lives, is no longer off limits. Much is written about it, increasing airtime on radio and TV is allocated to it, websites are dedicated to it, and support groups are burgeoning. As October…
Archival Groundings: The life of Jessica Huntley by Dr Hannah Ishmael
Over the past few months, we have all had to adjust to a life lived online. For those of us who have been using archives for research we have also had to come to terms with exclusively using digitised material…
Spirit of a Dove: The Life of Evelyn Dove by Stephen Bourne
In the 1920s and 1930s many African American expatriates settled in Europe including Josephine Baker, Adelaide Hall and Elisabeth Welch. They captivated audiences with their songs, beauty, elegance and style. Evelyn stood alone as a black Briton who joined these…
Medieval Women and Urban Justice: Commerce, Crime and Community in England c.1300-1500 by Dr Teresa Phipps
When Margery Dod brought a plea of trespass to Nottingham’s borough court in April 1324, she listed a string of accusations against many members of the de Spondon family, likely to have been her neighbours, trading contacts, or both. Margery…
Black Women in Wartime Britain 1939-45 by Stephen Bourne
At the height of the London Blitz in 1941, Esther Bruce, who was then a young woman aged 28, became part of my family. Her Guyanese father had just died, so their neighbour, 63-year-old Granny Johnson (my great-grandmother), ‘adopted’ her.…
Black Women in Britain During the Great War By Stephen Bourne
With only a few exceptions, such as the Crimean war ‘doctress’ Mary Seacole, black and dual-heritage women have been ‘written out’ of British history. This is true of the many books published about Britain and the First World War and…
Doing it Ourselves by Rosa Schling
In the late 1970s Jackie Fulton visited social services to ask how she could find childcare for her children so she could go back to work. This was apparently an unusual request. She remembers being met with incredulity and told…
I love you, my subject by Dr Jo Stanley
What’s an extrinsic joy if you’re a historian? For me it’s the simple-but-wonderful pleasure of continually finding both heroines and beloved new friends among the people whose histories I explore. They may be living, and so we can physically meet…