Welcome to my first newsletter of 2024… it takes the theme of unheard voices and unsung heroes…. Old Bill Old Bill (left) and Thomas Rafferty (right) He was one of the best-known British characters from World War One. Artist Bruce… Read More ›
history on the web
The prisoners of war who made it back home
Think twice about throwing out that old book – the one you picked up yonks ago in a library sale. It can have its uses….in this case shedding light on the leader of the first Luftwaffe raid over Britain. The… Read More ›
In search of the real Margaret Fairlie
Fresh research has cast new light on the identity of Margaret Fairlie, an orderly in the original Scottish Women’s Hospitals group which established a hospital at Royaumont Abbey in northern France in 1914. Like others, I had assumed this was… Read More ›
Women’s golf 125 years ago
Gullane is currently hosting the 2022 Women’s Open. These are the competitors for the Ladies Open in 1897. They’re gathered outside the Old Clubhouse – since extended and now a very fine pub. Women’s golf was in the ascendancy then… Read More ›
The last impeachment… Henry Dundas
A wave of scandals at the heart of government, strenuous denials, blaming others, flagrant misuse of public funds, and insouciance bordering on contempt. Sounds familiar? It happened more than 200 years ago, and ended with the last impeachment in Parliament… Read More ›
History Company newsletter (3)
TB sources This is a special edition of the newsletter with a few short films and other source material on tuberculosis. I prepared this for a talk before Gullane and Dirleton History Society – a terrific group (annual membership is… Read More ›
History Company newsletter (2)
Welcome to my second newsletter which has a film theme to it. 1942 Emily Munro, the estimable heid film buff at the National Library of Scotland, has raised an interesting question about digitally enhancing archive film. It’s all about a… Read More ›
Can anything good come out of Aberdeen?
Even editors of the British Medical Journal can drop a clanger. Ernest Hart ranks among the most successful in the journal’s history. Over his 32 years in charge, BMA membership increased tenfold as he transformed the BMJ from relative obscurity… Read More ›
History Company newsletter
Good morning folks Welcome to my first newsletter. I am very grateful to those of you who have taken the time to comment on my History Company posts over the last ten years. A newsletter is good way of keeping… Read More ›
Speaking the Unspeakable
It struck on October 23, 1942.There was no warning. For families across Britain it was like any other Friday night settling around a cosy coal fire listening to the BBC Home Service with its cheery wartime distractions: a concert from… Read More ›
The History Company 