This podcast from the National Archives contains a look back at the year in which Neil Armstrong took his ‘giant leap for mankind’, Concorde continued its flight test programme and the hippy culture reached its zenith with the age of the pop festival. However, the summer of ’69 also saw Harold Wilson’s government wrestling with difficult issues such as the sending of British troops to Northern Ireland. This illustrated talk explores the British take on the summer of ’69, using examples from public records to shed light on this eventful time.
This podcast from the National Archives discusses the Royal Naval medal rolls held by The National Archives in record series ADM 171, and explains how to interpret the most commonly used codes and abbreviations found in them. It also demonstrates how the medal rolls can be used to locate other records relating to an individual’s Royal Naval service.
This podcast from the National Archives is an introduction, using case studies, to the records of British government departments responsible for the administration of colonial affairs from about 1801 to 1968.
Friendly Societies were popular in the 19th Century, and were regulated by law. Surprisingly, burial clubs, which offered a form of life insurance, didn’t always fall into this category, and provided many incentives to commit fraud – and even murder! Learn more in this podcast from the National Archives
Much has been written about RMS Titanic, but this has tended to concentrate on the ship and its passengers. Using sources such as crew lists, local newspapers, Titanic Fund minute books and the newly released 1911 census, this podcast from the National Archives traces the lives of a crewmen and his family and seeks to answer the question: What was life like for families in Southampton in the aftermath of the tragedy?
This podcast from the National Archives is an investigation into the real reasons behind the celebrated voyage of HMS Beagle (1831-1836) and the momentous decision by Captain Robert FitzRoy to choose Charles Darwin to accompany him.
This podcast from the National Archives takes look at the changing nature of imprisonment over the centuries and the experiences of those who endured it, charting the growth of the national prison system in England and Wales from castle dungeons to purpose-built concrete gaols.
On May 21, 2009 The United Kingdom National Archives announced a study into how archived websites are collected and made available to users. The study is funded by the Joint Information Systems Committee and will take place in collaboration with the UK Web Archiving Consortium.
During the night of 24 March 1944, 76 airmen escaped from the Prisoner of War camp Stalag Luft III. Only three made it home and, of the remainder, 50 were murdered on Hitler’s orders. This talk from the National Archives will explain what actually happened in the so-called Great Escape, one of the Second World War’s most infamous incidents.
The problem of serious habitual criminals and how to keep track of them greatly exercised the minds of our Victorian and Edwardian forebears. This lecture from the National Archives focuses on the methods utilised by police and government to record and monitor such offenders, and how the surviving records can beused by present-day historians to investigate both historical and contemporary questions concerning serious and persistent crime.
