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In the sixty years that followed the end of the Napoleonic Wars, the Royal Navy underwent the transition from wood and sail to steam and iron. The impact that this had on the health of workers in the Royal Dockyards has been neglected by historians. In this article, records from the medical department at Portsmouth Royal Dockyard are used to demonstrate that the nature and causes of physical injuries sustained by dockworkers changed as a result of this transition. It is also shown that the environment of the dockyards became more hazardous to health. More broadly, this study suggests that the Royal Dockyards warrant inclusion in historical debates about industrialisation and the formation of welfare states; and in analyses concerned with the development of local healthcare provision in the nineteenth century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author reflects on the psychological and physical impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. These include distress, grief and dying, struggles of the British National Health Service in dealing with the crisis as well as the anticipation of dealing with its aftermath, and the previous and upcoming conferences of the British Association of Urological Nurses.