The Society resumed its 2025 events programme on Friday 12 September with a lecture by Professor Yasmin Khan on ‘Mars and Britannia: the Imperial Way of Warfare’. Our thanks to Yasmin for her presentation, recordings of which will be available shortly.
Forthcoming RHS lectures, to December 2025, are now open for booking and take place in Aberdeen and Ipswich (as part of the Society’s visits programme to historians across the UK) and in London, with online access also available
On Wednesday 17 September, we host a sponsored lecture at the University of Aberdeen, by Professor Matthew J. Smith (Director of the Centre for the Legacies of British Slave Ownership at University College London). Matthew’s subject is ‘Twice Removed: Slavery, Big Data, and the Cultures of Caribbean Ancestral Histories’, a study of the impact of digital humanities on the histories of the Caribbean and enslavement, and the growing prominence and importance of Black family history as one outcome of the growing prominence of digitised resources.
Booking for Matthew’s lecture, which takes place at the University of Aberdeen, is now open and we hope to welcome as many RHS Fellows and Members in the region to attend and join us for a reception. The lecture is part of the Society’s visit to historians at the University of Aberdeen on 17-18 September.
Our third autumn lecture also accompanies an RHS Visit, this time to the University of Ipswich at Suffolk. Our guest lecturer on this occasion (Wednesday 22 October) is Professor Tim Grady (University of Chester) who will speak on ‘Unravelling the Tapestry of Death: Britain and the Memory of the Two World Wars’.
This lecture — which takes place at The Hold, home to Suffolk Archives — considers the practice of war burial which saw British soldiers buried alongside Americans, French and Belgians who in turn mingled with the graves of enemy servicemen: Germans, Austrians and Italians.
Booking to attend is now open to all and, again, we look forward to welcoming RHS Fellows and Members from the region to the lecture and reception which follows. Visits will be attended by the Society’s President, Professor Lucy Noakes, and members of the RHS Council.
On Tuesday 4 November, the Society hosts its annual Public History Lecture in association with Gresham College London. Our speaker this year is the journalist and historian, Lord Daniel Finkelstein, who will speak on ‘Minor Criminal: The Trial of the Man Who Murdered My Grandmother’.
The lecture takes place at 6.00pm at Gresham College, Barnard’s Inn Hall, Holborn, London and also online. Online booking for this event is now available. Booking for in-person attendance will open on 5 October.
This year’s RHS Anniversary Lecture is given, at 6pm on Friday 21 November, by Professor Jane Ohlmeyer MRIA, FBA (Trinity College Dublin). Jane’s lecture is entitled ‘Visible | Invisible: Voices of Women in Early Modern Ireland’. It presents her current research to recover – via new digital methodologies – the lived experiences of non-elite women in Ireland, between 1550 and 1700, who have largely been ignored by scholars more interested in privileging the stories of men of power and influence.
The 2025 Anniversary Lecture takes place at Mary Ward House, London, WC1H 9SN and online. Booking for in-person and online attendance of this event is now available.
Our final lecture of 2025 takes place, at 6pm on Wednesday 10 December, at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Keppel Street, London. Our speaker on this occasion is Dr Heather Ellis (University of Sheffield) who will speak on ‘Hunger, Health and Hope: A History of School Meals in Britain’.
Heather’s lecture explores how policy, practice, and lived experience have shaped school dining across the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. At stake is more than what children eat. School meals open a window onto questions of inequality, poverty, community, and the politics of care. By tracing the past and present of school food, the lecture shows how historical perspectives can illuminate contemporary debates about fairness, health, and childhood in Britain.
Heather’s lecture is part of the Society’s joint visit to historians at the Institute of Education, UCL, and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine on 10 December. Booking is now open.
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