Writing about the dead is a compelling way to remember. Capturing a person’s character, their likes and dislikes, their stories and memories on paper – or online – feels like a good way to remember them as an individual. This can take so many forms, from a notice or obituary...
Our final post in our series of blog posts from MA students turns our attention to another pioneering woman, Violet Van der Elst, in this piece from Joe. By Joe Tollington, MA Student, University of Leeds On the 16th April, 1935, a pristine black Rolls Royce pushed its way through a thick...
This week’s post turns our attention to a pioneer in changing medical treatment for the dying, Cicely Saunders, in Ruby’s contribution to our series of blog posts from MA students. By Ruby Lucas, MA Student, University of Leeds As the rather dramatic title of her biography, ‘Changing the Face of...
This week’s post focuses on death and grief in the Second World War, in Jake’s contribution to our series of blog posts from MA students. By Jake Leigh-Howarth, MA Student, University of Leeds For most civilians in World War Two, the Blitz was a horrifying reality check that brought the...
This week, we continue the focus on spiritualism, in our series of blog posts from MA students with this contribution from Yulia. By Yulia Volkovaya The late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries saw increasing interest in all things spiritual: from accounts claiming communication with ghosts, to public séance performances. The idea...
Our series of blog posts from MA students continues with a turn to spiritualism, through a blog post by Megan. By Megan Schofield, MA Student, University of Leeds Sceptics of spiritualism will ask: how can rational men and women believe in a religion that convinces them a channel of communication can...
Our series of blog posts from MA students continues to focus on the material culture of remembrance with a post from Jessica, on AIDS memorial quilts. By Jessica Heath, MA Student, University of Leeds The UK AIDS Memorial Quilt was produced to memorialise those who lost their lives during the 1980s...
Continuing our series of posts from students on module entitled ‘Death, Dying and the Dead in Twentieth-Century Britain’, Claire writes the use of poetry in memory of the Aberfan disaster. By Claire Turner, MA Student, University of Leeds Deathscapes, or landscapes associated with death and dying, are becoming a popular...
Continuing our series of posts from students on module entitled ‘Death, Dying and the Dead in Twentieth-Century Britain’, Susy writes about her own family history, and a poem she thinks captures the memory of her grandfather and his brother. By Susy Goldstone, MA Student, University of Leeds I was not fortunate...
As part of a module entitled ‘Death, Dying and the Dead in Twentieth-Century Britain’, some of my MA students have written blog posts about different aspects of death and dying in this period. I’ll be publishing these here fortnightly, and we start with Debra Kontowtt’s fascinating post about a special...
Laura King, University of Leeds Keeping items that have been worn or kept close to the person in question is a common form of remembrance. There have been many examples through this blog of items kept to remember someone – from furniture to jewellery, books to photos. These can be...
Laura King, University of Leeds Any good collaboration should be mutually beneficial – ‘which is a formal way of saying bloody lovely’. So said Ellie Harrison in a talk we gave about how we’ve worked together, at the University’s ‘Impact in 5’ evening last week, which showcased collaborations between academics...
A guest blog from Carolyn Huston, a member of our family historians group My garden here in Leeds is the place that I spend a lot of leisure time enjoying. Gardening has always given me pleasure and it has always been the place I go to drown my sorrows. An...
Laura King, University of Leeds How can we best communicate and share our research? As academic historians, our writing is always going to be crucial. Our books and essays for fellow academics are our bread and butter, increasingly peppered with blog posts, tweets and articles written with the hope of...
Following our workshop on collaboration – between family historians, academic historians, archivists, librarians and many others – on Saturday 14 July, one of our speakers, Mike Esbester (University of Portsmouth), reflects on what he got out of the day. Mike gave a talk on ‘Crowd-sourcing, family history & the British railway accident:...
A guest blog by David Selway (Cardiff University) David gave a talk on his research as part of the events programme associated with our ‘Remembrance’ exhibition at Abbey House Museum. Listen to the talk here and read more about his research below. In the winter of 2015, a week before Christmas,...
We know that the smell and taste of a slice of gingerbread, a tangy curry, or a sip of homebrew can take us back to a particular moment in our past like almost nothing else. Our senses, of smell particularly, and taste too, make food one of the most evocative...
During June, the ‘Living with Dying’ project are going on a Journey with Absent Friends with artist Ellie Harrison and ‘Team Grief’. In an ordinary, domestic caravan, we’ll be travelling from Leeds, to Oxford, Poole, Hamburg, Stockton and the Isle of Arran, to think about where the memories of the dead...
Laura King, University of Leeds What can family history tell us about how we remember? As we’ve worked with family historians over the past year, exploring their memories and research into their family’s past, we’ve learnt a lot. Through interviews, using their family ‘archives’, the sharing of research documents (such...
Laura King, University of Leeds Part of the Living with Dying project has involved working with a lovely group of family historians. They’ve been researching their family histories and we’ve been supporting them with some training – and lots of chatting over tea and biscuits! In turn, they’ve been generously...
The case of Suzie Lee and her family Laura King, University of Leeds The objects we own and keep can play a really significant role in helping us remember and keep with us loved ones who have died. But what if you were constantly on the move? For Gypsy and...
The case of the Lupton Family of Leeds Laura King, University of Leeds Across different cultures, in different places and different times, objects of various types have been used to help us remember those who have died. In some cases, this means the creation of specific things to keep that...
Photograph: Edwin Glover Bingham with the choir at St Augustine’s Wrangthorn A guest blog from Maureen Kershaw Born in 1948 I don’t have memories of family passing away until those from the 1960s onwards. However this gentleman, my great uncle, is someone I think of with affection and I would...
A guest blog from Paul Cave When I was a child, my favourite thing in the world was to draw. “I don’t know where you get it from” my parents would say as I bombarded them with sketches to critique (I’m sure they wished at times that I hadn’t got...
A guest blog from Sarah Sykes I always knew that my maternal grandfather, David Leslie Noble, was the son of a Nottinghamshire farmer, but didn’t know much about that side of the family. My grandfather joined the army as a young man and then had a long career in the...
Laura King, University of Leeds What objects do you hold on to because they remind you of someone you’ve lost? Where do those memories of the deceased live? What kind of things do we do to keep their memories alive? Last week saw the annual Mexican Día de los Muertos,...
By Imogen Gerard and Kelsie Root The Leeds General Cemetery is a former cemetery on the University of Leeds campus now known as St George’s Field. Our research has been centred around this site. Who is buried in the Leeds General Cemetery? Why were they laid to rest here, rather than...
Arthur Louis Aaron was an RAF pilot in Bomber Command during the Second World War. He was killed in action after a raid on Turin on 12 August 1943 and was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross: the only Leeds serviceman to be awarded the Victoria Cross during the conflict. Aaron’s...
A guest blog from Maureen Jessop Harold Cooper was born in Leeds on 10 November 1920, the eldest child of Tom, a railway worker, and Mary, a machinist. He was baptised at St Saviour’s Church, East Leeds on 20 November 1920 and subsequently attended St Saviour’s School. When Harold was...
By Imogen Gerard and Kelsie Root Burials can reveal a lot about a person’s life: a fact which historians like to take advantage of. The site of burial can indicate a person’s religion: most people buried in churchyards will have been members of that congregation, whilst people buried in general...
A guest blog from Eric Songhurst Who was this fine imposing looking business man? Is this where my willingness to serve on committees in various roles comes from? I was away at college in 1960 when my paternal grandparents’ house was cleared following the death of my Grandfather. At some...
A conference to explore historical and contemporary perspectives. Bringing together, artists, academics and professionals working in a range of services relating to end of life, this conference will consider how space plays a role in practices of remembrance in the past and present, and in different cultures across the world....
Hunslet Feast, 1850. Leodis Photograph Archive. A guest blog from Carolyn Huston I try to be disciplined in my family tree research, but have a butterfly mind and find it hard to resist wandering off the main trunk of my tree and onto side branches. Sarah Clarkson (1834-1908) is a good...
Image: Monument of Michael Thomas Sadler (1780-1835), paid for by voluntary subscription. This statue stands next to the cemetery chapel in St George’s Field. By Imogen Gerard and Kelsie Root Does everyone deserve a dignified burial? What impact should class and wealth have on burial rites? In our previous blog...
By Imogen Gerard and Kelsie Root A mourner first inquiring into burying their deceased loved one in the 19th century would have been faced with a plethora of decisions to make. Which burial ground should they inter their loved one in? What kind of service would the deceased have wanted?...
Since May we have been working with a group of Leeds based family historians on the ‘living with dying’ project. Some of them are already experts, others had done a bit of research before joining the group, and a few are completely new to family history. There are a number reasons why we have built family...
In his book ‘A grief observed’ C.S Lewis wrote: “Grief is like a long valley, a winding valley where any bend may reveal a totally new landscape. As I’ve already noted, not every bend does. Sometimes the surprise is the opposite one; you are presented with exactly the same sort...
Image reproduced with the permission of Special Collections, Leeds University Library. Item reference: MS 421/3/1/6, Burial Register. Access here. By Imogen Gerard and Kelsie Root If you lived in Leeds during the 19th century, how do you think you would have died? What disease, condition or accident would have been your...
Does the past matter? This research project is investigating the history of death, dying and the relationship between the living and the dead in twentieth-century Britain. It focuses on the place of death, dying and the dead in everyday and family life, asking how families think and talk about dying,...
We hope that some of the resources listed below for research and support will come in useful. If you have suggestions of resources to add or you spot a mistake please let us know using the comments box at the bottom of the page. Thanks! Support Services in Leeds for Family...