At the beginning of the nineteenth century, the Cornish port of Falmouth was an important base within an ever-expanding British empire. From here, people, letters, goods and information travelled back and forth from Cornwall to the rest of the world. This thesis investigates the extent to which Falmouth was a significant part of Britain’s maritime empire during the period 1800-1850, looking specifically at four areas of interest. First, it argues that Falmouth’s Packet Service played a significant role in intelligence gathering during the Napoleonic Wars, victory in which led to major expansion of the British empire. Second, that the town developed Cornwall’s mining expertise to the extent that it could be exported to new colonies, or become instrumental in spreading the influence of informal empire. Third, that the import of plant specimens from the colonies had a direct effect on class-based hierarchies of power in and around the town. And finally, that contact between the British and foreigners in and from the port led to renegotiations of identity based on race that were inextricably tied into colonialism. The role of Cornwall in the dialogue between Britain and its colonies, and the importance of Falmouth as a port within the British empire, have previously been neglected in academic study, with attention given to larger metropolitan locations such as Liverpool and Southampton. This thesis continues work exploring imperialism within one specific locality, shifting in focus from the urban to the rural. In doing this, a diversity of written and archival sources are used to discuss how several elements of empire came together in one place. The work demonstrates that Falmouth was a site clearly affected by colonialism, and was to a certain extent influential within it due to its maritime significance.

PhD / This thesis examines the participation of British ‘soldiers of conscience’ in the Greek War of Independence, the Spanish Civil War and the Russo-Finnish War. By considering both the response of the British government to the participation of its nationals in foreign conflicts, and the perceptions and experiences of the volunteers themselves, it argues for the applicability of a legitimating ‘politics of violence’ as means for understanding the historical construction of warfare.

This dissertation explores the origin of the idea that English food is inherently “bad” and demonstrates that this perception developed in the mid-nineteenth century. While it is commonly assumed that the poor quality of English cookery developed after the Second World War, this dissertation demonstrates that English cookery was perceived poorly beginning in the nineteenth century. This dissertation brings together an analysis of Victorian values, gender, food adulteration, food technologies, and nostalgia to establish how the English criticized themselves and created the belief that English cookery is “bad.” By examining cookbooks and newspaper articles, this investigation illustrates how the English criticized their own cooking and developed a sense of anxiety about their perceived flawed cookery. In the nineteenth century, cookery was evaluated based on emerging Victorian moral values rather than taste. The emphasis on being economical, efficient, and clean meant that traditional English dishes such as roast beef and plum pudding were no longer celebrated, but instead, considered wasteful and monotonous. Increasing imports through advances in shipping, refrigeration, and canning decreased the production of English goods at home. The adaptation and absorption of new imported ingredients and dishes into English cookbooks created a cosmopolitan cookery by the twentieth century, but, at the same time, deepened confusion over what an English food identity was. By studying cookbooks, this dissertation uses an untapped resource to explore the perception of English cookery. Cookbooks, especially mass publications, helped further the belief that English cookery was wasteful and unclean, and prescribed countless remedies for readers. Cookbooks also offered another perspective for exploring gender and cookery, as middle class women found themselves multitasking as housewives, educators, and cooks. More than just a collection of recipes, cookbooks provide historians with windows to view ideas of food identity, community, and culture. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

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The following pages contain a study of the British media coverage of freemasonry in the twentieth century. They consider how and why the public image of freemasonry changed from that of a highly-respected elite organisation, at the centre of public life in 1900, to a position on the fringes, regarded by many with suspicion and disapproval in the 1990s. They focus on national newspapers only. This thesis describes how the press projected a positive message of the organisation for almost 40 years, based on a mass of news, which I believe - and show - emanated from the organisation itself (making it an unexpected pioneer in modern public relations practice). It concludes that the change of image and public regards which occurred during the twentieth century was due, mainly, to Masonic withdrawal from the public sphere. It considers - and finds wanting - the suggestion that this withdrawal was a response to Fascist persecution and it offers a number of additional explanations. Freemasonry's reluctance to engage with the media after 1939 powerfully assisted its critics, who grew in strength as a result of developments within the media and the churches. Within the media, greater competition spawned a more challenging form of journalism and accelerated the decline of deference. The rise of secularism and religious pluralism in Britain provided Christianity with increases competition and led some adherents to re-define freemasonry and treat it as a rival. "Conspiracy culture" remained strong throughout the period, rendering the secrecy of freemasonry a major handicap to public understanding. The history of freemasonry in twentieth century Britain is largely an unexplored field and, in examining the fraternity's media profile, this study also illuminates the organisation's collisions with nationalism, communism, and state welfare provision.

This research analyses the dissemination of political and ideological content through the music graphics of selected bands associated with punk and post-punk. It concentrates on the anarcho-punk movement and the neo-fascist scene in the United Kingdom between 1978 and 2008. The aim is to show how music graphics were integral to the philosophy of politically engaged bands, and acted as systems of propaganda. The research further deconstructs these systems and reveals underlying narratives, intentions, tropes and visual codes. The research presents three main novel contributions to scholarship and knowledge. The first is the creation and cataloguing of the most extensive archive to date of the material under analysis providing an instrumental resource for further research on the subject. The second is the development of a methodology for analysing the dissemination of ideological and political content through graphic design objects in a subcultural context. This methodology allows for an exploration of the heretofore neglected area of the inter-relationship between dissemination of the message and specific graphic systems. The analysis is conducted through the use of multiple research methods, drawing upon qualitative research methodologies and the development of complementary methodologies devised for the field of graphic design. The focus is on the analysis of political camps and comparisons between them, noting points of commonality and divergence between dialogues of opposition within the common subcultural context. The third contribution is the identification, analysis and interpretation of ‘extreme’ political music graphics produced by artists from the United Kingdom from 1978 to 2008. Covering an under-researched field and time span of subcultural movements that were critical for the punk subculture and the corresponding political groups, the analysis of the music graphics presents an insight into their political theory and strategies. This comparative work involved methodologies drawn from cultural studies, subcultural studies and historical studies, and can therefore be seen as a contribution to these fields as well as to that of graphic design studies.

The Corps of Marines 1755-1802 (after 1802, Royal Marines) was the smallest of the three military services of the late eighteenth century British Armed Nation. Because of this, their history has largely been marginalised - or if dealt with, only in broad three hundred year studies. However, their importance has been largely underestimated. With the rise in the late eighteenth century of a more coherent ‘Blue-Water Strategy’, classified later by some historians as a uniquely ‘British Way in Warfare’, there was a need to have an operational organisation from which to implement Britain’s grand strategy. The two other contemporary military organizations (Army and Navy) were too large, had internal resistance to, or simply had one-dimensional geographic identification which prevented the full pure operational implementation of British amphibious power. With the dawn of the Seven Years War the government gave this operational priority to the Navy, which began in earnest with the formation of the British Marine Corps. The Navy, and Marines, were able to do this by constructing an operational doctrine and identity for its new Marine Corps. With the forty-seven year construction of its operational doctrine and identity, the Marines not only assisted in the implementation of British grand strategy, but also were pivotal in the protection of the empire. This dissertation is separated into two distinct parts. The first part outlines the skeleton of the Marines; their past formations, administration and manpower construct. The second part outlines the trials and tribulations of construction and institutionalisation of the Marine Corps within the British nation of the late-eighteenth century. This part reveals the non-combat usage, operational development and imperial rapid reaction force aspects of the Marines. Marines were to carry out many protection and security related duties on land and at sea. Because of this they were given direct access to weapons which in the unfortunate event of mutiny might be used against the men. Naval and amphibious combat were the main justifications for why the Marine Corps existed to begin with. Marines were to develop their own special ‘targeted’ suppression fire and a reliance on the bayonet for both of these operations. Importantly Empire; its maintenance, expansion, and protection was an essential element of the Marines existence. Marines were to become an imperial rapid reaction force that could be sent anywhere a naval ship was and used to suppress disorders. Identity was the tool of three powers (Public, Admiralty and Marine Corps) in their construction of this body of men. Marines’ identity allowed them to be relied upon for a multitude of duties, including the basic protection of order on ship. By understanding all of these areas not only will it expand historical scholarship on how the British state constructed and implemented its policy decisions, but also how an organisation creates and validates its own purpose of existence.

This thesis examines experimental film and video in 1980s Britain through a critical reassessment, mapping histories of these practices in relation to critical writing of the period. This historiographical analysis utilises material contained in The British Artists’ Film and Video Study Collection, part of the Museum at Central Saint Martins (UAL). Close analysis of a number of selected film and video works created within the artistic, activist and experimental communities active at the time both develops the thesis’ function as a new account of the period and provides a critical means of surveying historiography within the field of artists’ moving image. This study establishes the voice as a key theme in relation to both constructed narratives in historiographical writing and in works from this time. Employment of oral, primary source accounts frames analyses of voices in preexisting written histories and acts as a means to explore aural strategies and components within film and video works. Initial analyses of ‘historical recovery’ before, during and after the 1980s is followed by first considering how stories are recounted by voices, before investigating works that responded to events at the time and exemplified the struggles of voices during this significant period in British history. Focus on the voice frames a critical exploration of lexicons related to ghosts which appears later in the thesis. Jacques Derrida’s lecture and publication Specters of Marx (1994) is referenced to develop discussion of ghosting in relation to myths and historical sources in analysis of Ken McMullen’s Ghost Dance (1983), in which Derrida muses on ghosts and recording. An exploration of recording technologies and media informs a critique of writing history in order to reflect upon British film and video of the 1980s. It identifies a cacophony of voices – political, critical, activist and artistic – as characteristic of the times and a key element in the composition of the works and historical accounts of the moving image.

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This researchc oncernss icknessa nd ill health experiencedb y the British Army during the First World War. A review of the literature has confirmed that this issue offers considerable scope for further exploration by historians, and is an issue that continues to remain in the shadow of the wounded. The focus within past research has been so successfully placed upon battle injuries, that it is difficult to uncover the situation concerning non-combat casualties. This research aims to open up debate, establish the types and extent of illness experienced by the troops and some of the causes of sickness and disease. The thesis also explores links between the health of the troops and military effectiveness. In order to undertake this assessment in any meaningful way, indicators of military effectiveness need to be determined, and six such indicators are defined within the thesis. To establish a better understanding of how far the British Army was prepared for sickness by 1914, the approach taken by the army towards illness over the years leading up to the First World War is considered. The Crimean War marks the starting point of historical context setting in this case, and this research has investigated how far experiences gained in war during the latter half of the nineteenth century, shaped army planning concerning the health of the troops by 1914. Rarely used primary sources have been consulted, including regimental archives at Fulwood Barracks Preston, press reports, professional journals, government reports, and documents held at the Public Records Office, Kew, including War Diaries of active service units, Casualty Clearing Station records, Hospital records, personal diaries and individual service records. A range of secondary sources have also been explored together with autobiographical accounts and personal letters. A further historical source of value is the content of professional medical journals, and the content of a number of contemporaneous journals also underpin the thesis. In November 1996, approximately 750,000 individual service records of men discharged by the army during the years under examination within this study were released for public scrutiny for the first time. This remarkable new archive offers to extend our knowledge regarding the health of the troops, and analysis of these records forms an important element within this study. A pilot of fifty records was undertaken which combines history with computer technology, and involved the compilation of a spreadsheet wherein discharge diagnoses, age, height, chest measurement and weight were analysed in order to arrive at a better understanding about the health of the men. Evaluation of the pilot study was informative, and as a result it was extended to include analysis of a total of five hundred and thirty-three individual service records of rank and file men serving within over one hundred various regiments, corps, and services during the First World War. This thesis represents worthwhile and original contribution to historical debate about sickness within the British Army during this time, by establishing the historical context of sickness, exploring the types and extent of illness, and by examining organisational problems directly and indirectly contributing towards rising sickness rates. The thesis also determines that two broad categories of illness beset the army from the start, and these were firstly preexisting illnesses from civilian life and secondly illnesses acquired as a result of service. The thesis further shows that a costly 'revolving door', of recruitment and discharge beleaguered the army from the outset of the war, and that neither refinements to the recruitment process or the implementation of conscription made very much difference to the overall health of the British force. Establishing links between sickness and military effectiveness is in itself both original and challenging, and relatively new primary sources have been consulted in order to offer a fresh perspectivein this case. Whilst the issue of sickness amongst the troops during the First World War remains relatively unexplored, historical debate will remain wanting.