Seventy-two gas masks
The above photograph, and all of the following, are from Poison Gas (London: Union of Democratic Control, 1935).
1930s, Books, Civil defence, Nuclear, biological, chemical, Pictures
Pictures
Pictures, Travel 2007
St Paul’s Cathedral
One week after Westminster Abbey, I visited the other great London church, St Paul’s Cathedral. They are very different in form and function. (They are alike in not allowing photography inside, so again I’ve only got exterior shots. I took some more on an earlier excursion.) Westminster Abbey is medieval and gothic. St Paul’s is
1900s, 1910s, 1920s, 1930s, After 1950, Before 1900, Books, Contemporary, Film, Maps, Pictures
Destroying London
I recently had the somewhat guilty pleasure of watching Flood, a film (from a novel) about the sudden devastation of London by a massive storm surge — predicted by a scientist who had long been dismissed as a crank — which swamps the Thames Barrier, submerges most of the city’s landmarks, kills a couple of
Blogging, tweeting and podcasting, Pictures
Your blogosphere needs you …
[Cross-posted at Revise and Dissent.] … to send me submissions for the next Military History Carnival! This will be posted at Airminded on 14 October, one week from today. I have a few suggestions already, but need more. Any posts published in the previous month and which involve military history in some way will be
Archives, Pictures, Travel 2007
Embankment and Strand
Probably my favourite place to research in London was the Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives at King’s College London, where I spent the better part of two weeks digging through several personal archives. It’s a very pleasant environment to work in, and the staff were very helpful in accommodating this rude colonial’s requests, even
1910s, 1940s, Pictures, Travel 2007
After the battle
One of the benefits of living in London for two months is the way it helped me to understand its geography. So when I read, for example, that 500 men, women and children walked from Greenwich to Trafalgar Square on 22 July 1917 to demand ‘improved air defences for London and the adoption of a
1910s, Australia, Counterfactuals, Ephemera, Maps, Periodicals, Pictures
G’tag von Zeppelinburg!
WHAT AUSTRALIA WOULD BE LIKE UNDER HUN RULE. — An original recruiting poster which was used with great success in South Australia. Tasmania, it will be noted, becomes Kaisermania, and the idols of the Huns have provided other place-names. This is from the Daily Mail, 3 July 1917, p. 8, and would appear to be
Pictures, Travel 2007
British Museum 2
OK, it’s time to start catching up on my backlog of travel posts! The day after visiting Westminster Abbey, as it was a nice day I decided I’d go to Hampton Court Palace. Unfortunately it was too nice and I was sweating like a pig while standing in line at the ticket office at Waterloo,
Pictures, Travel 2007
Returning on a jet plane
Actually, that should read “ReturnED on a jet plane” as I’m finally back in good old Melbourne-town again, but I find it hard to resist symmetry. (Anyway, I started to write this post at Heathrow waiting for my Qantas flight home, but my laptop crashed twice so I decided that it wasn’t meant to be
Aircraft, Pictures, Travel 2007
A buzz
I’m currently at Hexham in Northumberland, where I’ve been busy touring some of the Hadrian’s Wall sites: Chesters (yesterday), Vindolanda and Housesteads (today). All of which were utterly memorable, and a write-up will eventually be forthcoming; but it was only at Vindolanda that I was buzzed by a very low- and very fast-flying Tornado! It