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As students digest their GCSE and A-Level results, they might be surprised to learn that the origins of the examination system date back 150 years to the 'Locals' set for the first time by Oxford University in June 1858, and by Cambridge University in December of the same year. Cambridge Assessment, as the University of Cambridge examinations syndicate is now called, still sets secondary examinations for students in the UK as well as more than 150 countries around the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on the use of the ancient craft of the quill to teach history to British students. History of the craft; Description of the illuminated manuscript and copied books produced by medieval monks in Cheshire, England.

The article discusses the history of the House of Commons in Great Britain, focusing on members Rhodes Boyson and Gwnfor Evans, who wrote so-called Black Paper policy statements for their political parties when in opposition in the 1960s and 1970s.

Presents an update on several issues concerning British education as of July 12, 2002. Controversies regarding the private tuition of the children of British Prime Minister Tony Blair; Observations on the increase in the interest of university students in history courses.

The article discusses the British newspaper entitled "The Daily Mail" during World War I, focusing on the newspaper's anti-German bias as a reflection of the political beliefs of its publisher Lord Northcliffe, Viscount Alfred Harmsworth Northcliffe. Topics include the Mail's pre-war anti-German sentiment, the newspaper's role as a cause of the War, and patriotism in journalism. The newspaper's role in the replacement of Prime Minister Herbert Asquith by David Lloyd George is explored.

The article discusses the power of populism in British politics in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, focusing on British newspaper proprietor Horatio Bottomley. Other topics include the launching of Bottomley's newspaper "John Bull" in the early 20th century and its features, information on Bottomley's political career after being elected in 1906, and how his career was impacted by World War I.

Opinion. Focuses on the consultation process advocated by the British government as exemplified in the 1988 Education Reform Act. History of nonconsultation in the legislative process; Inner London Education Authority; Six stages of the consultative process; Former Education secretary Kenneth Baker.

This article presents information regarding manuscripts relating to the history of America which are preserved in the British Museum. The list of manuscripts includes extract from a letter respecting the discoveries by the Russians on the northwest coast of America, a general description of the American coasts and seas, with bearings and distance of capes and headlands, observations on currents, etc., translated from a Spanish manuscript and memoirs, etc., relating to the English and French possessions in America and the West Indies.

The article discusses the English wool trading family the Celys in the late fifteenth century, drawing on the family's papers and correspondence. It particularly comments on Richard Cely and his wife Agnes and their sons Robert, Richard, and George. The author reflects on the life of George while running family business activities in Calais, France, noting that he took music and dancing classes and was interested in hawks and horses. The author also addresses the sons' courtship activities and marriages.

The article presents a history of newspapers. The author discusses how the newspaper industry is being pronounced dead by many individuals and recalls another time in history when this sentiment struck the news print industry. The author discusses how the Stamp Act of 1765 had many Americans believing that the newspaper would soon die because of increased costs. The author traces the history of newspapers in Europe and examines how they took root in the United States.

The article presents excerpts from two British governmental documents from 1852, the first called House of Commons (H.C.) Paper 499, which presented evidence from an inquiry into education in Salford and Manchester, England, and H.C. Paper 265, which documented epidemic eye disease in Ireland's Kanturk Union workhouses.

The article profiles the life and career of Beryl Baxter who served the Women's Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF) in 1930s and 1940s through archived photographs. It highlights news paper photographs of her time as the Cleethorpes Carnival Queen and also along with servicemen. It includes photos from 1950s of her time in Korea, of her letters from Japan and her passport.

The article focuses on the significance of malaria and other fevers on the victory of the U.S. against British. It says that the fevers deteriorated the health of British army and has reduced their fighting capacity more effectively sending their forces outside the towns. It states that the sickness delays British advancement into North Carolina to secure wagons. It mentions that if the British forces has been mindful of their health, they might have not lost to their American colonies.

Looks at how Victorian morality drove the pleasures of betting on horses and other gambling pasttimes underground, and relates the various devices that enabled the working-classes to sustain the reputation of a nation of gamblers. History of betting; How it had changed since the early nineteenth century; How ready-money betting became commercialized at a time of prohibition; The ready-money system; The societal circle of those who bet.

A biography of French spy, diplomat, and soldier Chevalier Charles Geneviève Louis Auguste André Timothée D'Eon de Beaumont, born in 1728, is presented. It comments on his service in the French secret diplomacy system Le Secret du Roi, noting that he dressed as a woman for espionage purposes. The author considers D'Eon's postings in Russia and in England and examines his rivalry with Comte Claude Louis François Régnier de Guerchy. The controversy of D'Eon's anatomical sex is also explored.

An essay is presented on country gentlemen in the British Parliament from 1750 to 1783. It comments on the independence of the country gentlemen from the government administration and factions. The author considers the Whigs and Tories and the identification of Tories with the independent country gentlemen over time. The views of the country gentlemen on the crisis leading up to the American Revolutionary War are addressed. Gentlemen discussed include Sir Roger Newdigate and John Phillips.

This article seeks to investigate the history of recycling and reuse of household cast-offs in Great Britain. The characteristic forms of recycling in early modern Britain are mentioned. The most notorious of the nineteenth-century waste trades are cited. The impact of the First World War on the British perception of waste is noted.

The article discusses "The History of the Times," vol. 4, "The 150th Anniversary and Beyond, 1912-1948." "The Times," published continuously at Printing House Square, London since 1785, is more than a newspaper. It is a national institution that has long played a role, sometimes a highly creditable one, sometimes reverse, in the shaping of British policy and even in its implementation. Consequently the history of the Times provides the student of modern Great Britain and indeed of the modern world, with an indispensable supplement to the history of its times.

Excerpts from the 1854 government report entitled "Northcote-Trevelyan Report on the Organization of the Permanent Civil Service" by Sir Stafford Northcote and Sir Charles Trevelyan, detailing the scope of civil service duties in the administration of Great Britain's government, are presented.

The article presents excerpts of several British Parliamentary papers from 1851, including "Report on the Present State of Certain Parts of the Metropolis," printed by Order of the House of Commons as H.C. 388 on intermittent fever, also called ague or malaria, in London, England, letters between the British Secretary of the Admiralty and the P. & O. Steam Navigation Company, and a return of head money paid out for pirates killed in Borneo.

The article explores the membership, meetings, publications and issues of the British Psychological Society in Great Britain in 1908. In the said year, the Society had 54 members, only four of whom are known to have been women. In 1908, four meetings were held, all in London, England. Two major changes in the Society over the last 100 years are its size and gender composition.

The article presents information on the history of coastal trade in Great Britain during Roman period, and talks of role of detectorists in finding historical artifacts, remains of wooden jetties at Arnside, England, and images of antiquities including Medieval bronze St. Andrew oval seal matrix.

The article focuses on history of Quakers of Europe and Great Britain from Eighteenth century. Topics discussed include embracement of European and Asian style furnitures by Quakers, marriage of architect Benjamin Henry Latrobe with Mary Elizabeth Hazlehurst which resulted in his establishment in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; commissioning of Latrobe for house designs, his preference to American design of houses, and selection of furnitures by house owners William and Mary Waln.

The article discusses the history of the use of nuclear energy in Western countries, including in Great Britain and nuclear power as clean energy. An overview of the challenges nuclear plants pose, including their decommissioning, the constructing of nuclear reactors on the sea, or floating plants, and the duration of time required to construct nuclear power plants, is provided.

The article discusses the establishment of the Methodist Church in England by John Wesley, an ordained Anglican who maintained his status as a member of the Church of England until his death in 1791, and his brother Charles Wesley, and George Whitefield. It considers the impact of Methodism on the Church of England. Topics include Evangelicalism in the 18th century, the establishment of the dissenting Methodist Church in 1795, and religion as a cause of madness.

The article discusses the series of courses and textbooks known as the "Mathematical Series" developed by mid-19th century Trinity College Dublin (TCD) fellows Joseph Allen Galbraith and Samuel Haughton (G&H). According to the article, the "Mathematical Series" was developed in order to provide Irish youth the opportunity enter the organization the Indian Civil Service (ICS) and military schools. The article discusses Irish patriotism, the market for the series, and military education.

This paper will discuss the history of the College of St Francis Xavier, the Welsh territorial district of the English Province of the Society of Jesus, and the history of Jesuit association with its headquarters, the Cwm farms at Llanrothal, near Hereford. One of 12 territorial divisions created by the Society of Jesus upon the creation of the English Province by 1623, the College of St Francis Xavier and its extensive surviving library, now housed at Hereford Cathedral, is being analysed as part of a three-year project funded by the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council [AHRC]. The article argues for a re-evaluation of the Welsh District and its importance to the successes of the English Jesuit Province, concluding that, far from being a small, local missionary outpost of the English Province of the Society of Jesus, the College of St Francis Xavier, or the Welsh District, was in fact a diverse, vibrant and crucially important lynchpin in the successes of the Jesuits in England and Wales. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the lives and careers of two Welsh Catholics, David Stradling and Hugh Owen, who sought refuge on the Continent during the reign of Elizabeth I. Whereas something about Hugh Owen's life is known, particularly of his career as the creator of an intelligence service which countered that of Sir Francis Walsingham, David Stradling's life has, in contrast, remained somewhat obscure. Little is known of him other than some details of his family background and his education. My recent research at the Simancas Archive and at the Archives Royales de Bruxelles, however, has revealed hitherto unknown sources that now provide further information on both men. In describing the events of their flight from England to the Continent and their establishment there, I re-examine the circle of well-known English Catholic refugees in the Spanish Low Countries and in Spain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents quotes about British politics, government, and foreign affairs from British politicians, including Sir William Harcourt, Sir Robert Inglis, and Sir M. Hicks Beach.

This paper challenges the idea that harmonious relations prevailed amongst Bath's various religious denominations during the 'Age of Reform', from the 1820s to the 1860s. It reveals instead that the public expression of anti-Catholic opinion was a regular feature of the city's political scene in this period. An anti-Catholic 'crusade', directed against such local targets as Prior Park and Downside colleges, and 'Popery' in general, was sustained by a variety of local organizations and national organizations that had branches in Bath, as well as prominent Tory activists resident in the city. Many Irish-born evangelical clergymen played a prominent role in this crusade. It is not surprising, given the prominence of Irish clergymen in Bath's anti-Catholic movement, that protests against the state endowment of Maynooth College were popular with the city's anti-Popery activists; furthermore, several proselytizing organizations whose principal aim was the conversion of Ireland's Catholics to the Protestant faith had a permanent base in Bath. The perceived iniquitous effects of 'Popery' in Ireland formed part of the anti-Catholic crusade's propaganda message. While the anti-Popery cause appealed particularly to the city's Church of England community, with many of its clergymen and prominent lay Anglicans to the fore of the anti-Catholic agitation, it attracted support from all sections of Protestant society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Elizabeth Inchbald's A Simple Story (1791) was the first novel written by an English Catholic with Catholic characters. It was set in the world of the Catholic gentry, a world that Inchbald knew well from her upbringing in Suffolk on a farm adjacent to the estate of an ancient Catholic family. Inchbald herself acknowledged that one of the book's characters, the ex-Jesuit Sandford, was based on an individual from her childhood, and some effort has been made by Inchbald scholars (notably Patricia Sigl and Michael Tomko) to research her Catholic background and the Gage and Rookwood families whose history may have inspired aspects of the novel. However, the Gage family's papers have not been considered for the light they can throw on Inchbald and the eighteenth-century Catholic community in Suffolk. These sources contain references to the Simpson family and have the potential to enliven our understanding of the immediate environment of Inchbald's youth. This article corrects misconceptions transmitted by James Boaden and other biographers of Inchbald, proposes a new identity for the man who became the model for Sandford, and draws attention to possible correspondences between the circumstances and relationships of the Gage family and the characters in A Simple Story. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The career of John Carmel Heenan (1905-1975) tends to be remembered for the period of his tenure as Archbishop of Westminster. This was a difficult time for Heenan, who having lived and ministered in an unchanging Church for over sixty years, took up the appointment in September 1963, at a time of rapid and unprecedented change in the Catholic Church in England and Wales following Vatican II. Contemporary commentators naturally gravitated to to the problems he faced in Westminster. Inevitably, in reviews rather than full-scale biographies, historians have concentrated on this later phase of his life. This paper examines one of Heenan's earlier achievements, that of his role of Superior of the Catholic Missionary Society from 1947 to 1951, and shows how his talents were placed at the disposal of the post-war Catholic community in an attempt to recover lapsed Catholics and attract converts to the faith. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Stuart artefacts described in this article have not previously been examined as an entity, and many are relatively unfamiliar to scholars. This paper will consider this unique collection of relics and discuss their significance within the personal as well as national and international contexts of their origins. That significance rests largely in their royal provenance, which was valued by the custodians at the English Jesuit College of St Omers, the predecessor of Stonyhurst College, founded to educate English Catholic boys in 1593. The Stuart cause, from Mary Queen of Scots to Charles Edward Stuart represented the best hope of English Catholics for a formal restoration of the faith. Relics, such as Mary Queen of Scott' Thom, were powerful symbols of tenacity and hope, providing an unbroken thread from the Passion of Christ to the martyred Queen, the more valued as the College gained its own seventeenth-century martyrs. Artefacts which arrived at Stonyhurst College after 1794 were valued for their romantic association wish the failed Stuart cause. The creation of the Stuart Parlour in 1911 and the adoption of the Borrodsle tartan as part of the girls' uniform in the I 990s demonstrate the significance these objects possess well into the twentieth century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the goals of Jewish and Christian sponsored orphanages in late nineteenth and early twentieth century England and identifies ways that religious institutions served the needy, constructed their self-identify, and that of their 'inmates'. Christian charities, especially evangelical institutions such as Barnardo's and the National Children's Homes (NCH), focused not only on the rescue of children, but their salvation. Policy at Norwood, the Jewish orphanage, reflected a combination of Jewish charitable tradition, alongside a self- consciousness about reputation and anxiety over anti-Semitism, and anti-alienism. In response, Norwood developed an extensive programme designed to raise respectable, anglicised Jews who would remain members of Britain's Jewish community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines furniture in 18th century country house guide books. These guide books indicate a relatively rapid change in attitudes to furniture drawn from a primary source with a secondary gloss. Some people are delighted with moldering chairs and a faded tapestry according to a paper published by Richard Joseph Sullivan in 1778 which indicate his British tour at Berkeley Castle.

The author explores the introduction of the Christmas tree tradition in Great Britain. She asserts that while Prince Albert, Queen Victoria's consort, is usually credited for doing so, it was actually "good Queen Charlotte," the German wife of King George III, who set up the first known English Christmas tree at Queen's Lodge in Windsor, England in December 1800. Details regarding this particular tree and the tradition it began are presented.

Presents information on the history books written by Great Britain Prime Minister Winston Churchill. Details on the writing career of Churchill; "Lord Randolph Churchill"; "The World Crisis"; "The Second World War"; Reputation of Churchill as a historian; Views of Churchill about history and his place in it; Leadership of Churchill during World War II.

The article focuses on the roughly 500 years of history of the Gypsy in Great Britain. It considers differences between the historical accounts by Gypsies compared to those forwarded by academic historians. Topics include Romani language, the folklore of the Travellers, the Gypsy Lore Society, and social history.

The article discusses the use of the term shell shock, invented by psychologist Charles S. Myers, who served in Great Britain's Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC) in France during the First World War. The diagnoses were further delineated by social classes with officers determined to have neurasthenia, while common soldiers were deemed to have hysteria or trauma. Social attitudes to shell shock during the period are explored.

Presents a calendar of history-related lectures and exhibitions in Great Britain from November 2004 through April 2005. Yankees in King George's Court lecture presented by Allen Staley; Misinterpreting Renaissance Portraits lecture hosted by Nicholas Penny; "Buried Treasure: Finding our Past" exhibition at the Manchester Museum.

The article discusses the economic mission by British agent John Cadbury to assess the needs of the Belgian and French Congo in making war supplies during the Second World War. Emphasis is given to topics such as cooperation with U.S. diplomat Sam Day, the transportation of imports, and demand for bicycles and sewing machines.

The article explores the history of corruption and anti-corruption in Great Britain. Emphasis is given to topics such as the development of state offices and large-scale imperial warfare, the difference between a gift and a bribe, and instances of bribery as recorded by diarist Samuel Pepys. Other topics include the boundaries between informal social practices and the public sphere, the creation of impeachment trials in Parliament, and the development of anti-corruption in the press.

The article discusses Russian-born British intellectual Sir Isaiah Berlin, a notable twentieth-century liberal philosopher. It focuses particularly on his activities in the intelligence service including his intelligence gathering from the Soviet Union, his activities on behalf of the Zionist movement, and his work as a propagandist for British Security Coordination.

The article discusses the history of activists against racism in Great Britain in the 1930s and 1940s, focusing on how their actions led to both the 1939 Conference on African Peoples, Democracy and World Peace in London, England and the Pan-African Congress of 1945 held in Manchester, England. Topics include the activist groups known as the League of Coloured Peoples and the West African Students Union, the political activists groups International African Friends of Abyssinia and the International African Friends of Ethiopia, and relations between civil rights activists with those associated with the communist and labour political parties.