Aiysha Sheth – a student on this year’s History Internship module – investigates the historical presence of women doctors in the Royal College of Physicians records, and discovers the first woman-of-colour fellow and other hidden female physicians. This task however proved to be a challenge. Why did creating a display on the history of women at the College prove to be such a difficult task? How hidden really is the history of women in medicine?

Many of us are familiar with the timeline of World War Two, but how much do we actually know about the experiences of living through such a catastrophic and momentous event? Delving into the personal documents held by Oxford House Community Centre provides a closer look at the effects of World War Two on a local scale, ultimately enabling the construction of a retrospective time capsule of the Bethnal Green community hub between 1939 and 1945.  Talibah Miah, one of our first cohort of History Internship students this year, tells the story.

Hollywood has always presented World War Two as a story of British heroism. Yet in local archives a very different perspective of the British Homefront is being uncovered. At Newham Archives and Local Studies Library its Air Raid Precaution documents show the grim sacrifices and long hours of planning of one community. It is a far cry from Hollywood’s ideas.  This post is one in a series from students who took the History Internship module in 2018/19, and was first submitted as part of the assessment for that module.