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What’s the Context? US Secretary of State proposes a ‘Marshall Plan’ for the...
Seventy years ago this week US Secretary of State George C. Marshall gave a speech at Harvard University in which he offered American aid to a destitute and fragile Europe if it proved willing and able...
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Rebuilding No. 10 Downing Street
'General View of Downing Street', with renovation works nearing completion, 16 August 1963 (Credit: The National Archives, WORK 59/13) Researcher in Residence: Progress Report IV My name is Jack Brown...
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Asquith, Lloyd George, and the struggle for the premiership in December 1916
On 5 December 1916 Herbert Henry Asquith, the Liberal Prime Minister who had governed Britain for more than eight years, resigned. Asquith did not relinquish office willingly. He had successfully...
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Anglo-Russian Entente 1907
On 31 August 1907, Britain and Russia signed an agreement in St Petersburg which put in place the final piece of the alliance system which has widely been considered to have been a major contributing...
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‘A Call to the Women of Great Britain’: the formation of the Women’s Land Army
To begin this blog, I am going to set the scene and ask a few hypothetical questions. Imagine it is the height of summer, 1917. The Great War has been raging for almost three years, and there is still...
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Mata Hari: the execution of an alleged international spy-mistress
Sunday 15 October marks the centenary of the execution of Madame MacLeod, neé Margaretha Zelle, best known as Mata Hari. A Dutch dancer, in the early twentieth century she was considered one of the...
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The General Register Office and the First World War
The effects of the First World War extended to every aspect of government. Throughout the Civil Service male staff left to join the armed forces, and departments coped without them in a variety of...
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What’s the Context? 18 November 1967: Devaluation of Sterling
‘Faith, hope and parity’ On Saturday, 18 November 1967, sterling was devalued by 14% from $2.80 to $2.40. Although rumours of impending devaluation had been widespread in the press, including in Europe...
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Policy advice at No.10: the Lloyd George legacy
Since this article was written, Prof. George Jones OBE has sadly passed away. He was a foremost authority on the office of Prime Minister and long-term contributor to the history of government blog....
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Homosexuality at the Foreign Office
Launching a New History Note This year marked the 50-year anniversary of the partial decriminalisation of homosexuality in Britain and 26 years since the lifting of the bar on gay men and lesbians...
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