History@Kingston

Not many people in Surrey know that the town of Guildford in the heart of the county was home to one of Britain’s most notorious anti-Semites of the interwar period. During the 1930s, the fascist ideologue and racist activist Arnold Spencer Leese (1878-1956), a former camel vet, lived in what he named the ‘White House’ on Pewley Hill, a quiet and steep road not far from ...

Why do so many people appear to believe that ‘secret’ forces are at work in the world, or that there is no ‘truth’ in the versions of the past written by academic historians? I have often pondered such questions in my research on the role and worrying popularity of conspiracy theory.

One big strand in current conspiratorial thinking remains the topic of 9/11. Indeed, i...

One of the major problems that has dogged Donald Trump’s presidency since he re-entered the White House has arguably been the huge controversy over the ‘Epstein Files’. No matter how hard Trump has tried to close the topic down, it just refuses to go away. In a delicious irony, a man who has invested so much political capital in promoting conspiracy theories may now be ultima...

I worked in my student days as a gravedigger and, while it was one of the most enjoyable jobs I have ever experienced, it was also by far and away the toughest job I have ever held. Yet, for a person fascinated by the past, it was an occupation rich in source material. As I became familiar with the grounds and the thousands of graves and plots, I would often spend time r...

In 1947 an autobiography was published entitled From Admiral to Cabin Boy. It had been penned by a former British Navy Admiral, Sir Barry Domvile, shortly after he was released from internment in 1943. However, it was not a conventional set of memoirs. The author not only reflected on his career but also set out a type of political manifesto, which included a very co...