As a warning to female virtue, and a humbleMonument to female chastity,This stone marks the grave ofMARY ASHFORD,Who, in the 20th year of her age,Having incautiously repaired to aScene of amusement, without proper protection,Was brutally violated and murderedOn the 27th of May 1817. Mary Ashford’s gravestone, Sutton Coldfield churchyard Early one May morning in 1817 […]
Online talk: Louise Michel in South London
In 1883 the feminist anarchist Louise Michel visited a south London workhouse. Why was the opinion of this ex-convict veteran of the Paris Commune on provision for the poor in London so valued? Find out at my free online talk on Wednesday 14 April at 7pm for Vauxhall History and Friends of South Lambeth Library. […]
Watch “By her own consent”: Mary Ashford and Rape Culture in the Georgian Era
A chance to see the talk I delivered online for Vauxhall History and South Lambeth Library on 8 December 2020. I explore the story of Mary Ashford’s murder in 1817 and look at what it tells us about rape in the 18th and early 19th centuries.
Klop Ustinov
Klop Ustinov, an extraordinary personality in wartime London
Alexander Stuart MacTavish
A member of the demolition crew in Chelsea.
A.P. Herbert
June’s friend A.P. Herbert was an MP, writer and poet.