Ahead of Remembrance Day, and with 2025 marking 80 years since the end of the Second World War, Dr Kathryn Rix, Assistant Editor of our House of Commons, 1832-1945 project, follows up her series on MPs and the First World War by looking at the 23 MPs commemorated in the Commons chamber who died during the Second World War. On 6 July 1943 the Speaker … Continue reading MPs and the Second World War
On the evening of the 10/11 May 1941 the House of Commons Chamber was destroyed during the Blitz. In today’s blog, 80 years on, our Public Engagement Assistant Connie Jeffery explores the event and how Parliament rebuilt and recovered from the destruction… Like much of the United Kingdom’s home front, Westminster was no stranger to the effects of the Second World War. Parliament’s recognisable home … Continue reading ‘London’s Latest Ordeal’: the Blitz and rebuilding of the House of Commons Chamber
Ahead of our conference and public lecture at Keele University on 22 November to mark the 75th anniversary of the death of History of Parliament founder, Josiah C. Wedgwood, and the 80th anniversary of the Kindertransport debate, we hear from Lesley Urbach of the Remembering Eleanor Rathbone Group about Wedgwood’s role in assisting Jews in Nazi-occupied Europe… Twenty-two days after Hitler became Chancellor of … Continue reading ‘For our honour’s sake we dare not keep them out’: Josiah Wedgwood and the Jews in Nazi Europe
On this day in 1945, a group of MPs arrived at Buchenwald concentration camp to report first hand on the atrocities perpetrated by the Nazis. Dr Myfanwy Lloyd, who has recently developed a new exhibition on the liberation of Bergen-Belsen for the Soldiers of Oxfordshire Museum, guestblogs for us on the visit and the impact it had on the MPs who went to Buchenwald… On … Continue reading The Parliamentary Delegation to Buchenwald Concentration Camp – 70 Years On
