Hertha Ayrton: The Victorian Scientist Who Refused to Be Ignored.

Hertha Ayrton: The Victorian Scientist Who Refused to Be Ignored.

Today I want to find out about Hertha Ayrton. She was a remarkable Victorian engineer, mathematician, physicist and inventor whose achievements helped to challenge attitudes towards women in science.

She was born Phoebe Sarah Marks on the 28th of April 1854 in Portsea, Portsmouth. Her father, Levi Marks, was a Jewish watchmaker who had emigrated from Poland, while her mother, Alice, worked as a seamstress.

Her father died when Sarah was only seven years old, leaving her mother to support a large family. At the age of nine, Sarah went to live with relatives in London who ran a school. There, she developed a strong interest in mathematics and science.

As a young woman, she adopted the name Hertha, inspired by a poem that questioned organised religion. She was determined to continue her education at a time when universities offered women very few opportunities.

With financial support from the campaigner Barbara Bodichon and several other supporters of women’s education, Hertha studied mathematics at Girton College, Cambridge. She passed the Mathematical Tripos examination in 1880. However, Cambridge did not award full degrees to women at the time, so she later completed an external examination through the University of London and received a Bachelor of Science degree in 1881.

Hertha supported herself by teaching, embroidery and writing mathematical problems. In 1884, she patented her first important invention: a line-divider. This instrument could divide a line into equal sections and enlarge or reduce drawings. It was useful to artists, architects and engineers.

Hertha later attended evening classes in electricity taught by Professor William Edward Ayrton. The couple married in 1885, and William encouraged her scientific work.

During the 1890s, Hertha investigated electric arc lighting, which was widely used in streets and public buildings. Arc lamps frequently flickered and produced an unpleasant hissing noise. Her research demonstrated that the problem was caused by oxygen coming into contact with the carbon rods inside the lamps.

In 1899, she became the first woman to present her own paper to the Institution of Electrical Engineers. She was later elected as its first female member.

Hertha also studied the formation of ripples in sand and water. Although the Royal Society initially refused to consider her for membership because she was married, she became the first woman to read her own scientific paper before the Society in 1904. Two years later, she received its prestigious Hughes Medal for her research into electric arcs and ripple marks.

Her achievements extended beyond the laboratory. During the First World War, she designed a hand-operated fan intended to clear poisonous gas from trenches. Although military officials initially dismissed the idea, more than 100,000 Ayrton Fans were eventually supplied to British soldiers.

Hertha was also a committed supporter of women’s suffrage. She marched with campaigners, helped women who had been imprisoned and provided support to leading suffragettes, including Christabel Pankhurst.

Hertha Ayrton died from blood poisoning following an insect bite on the 26th of August 1923. She had registered 26 patents during her lifetime and helped open scientific institutions to women.

How many other brilliant women were prevented from receiving the recognition they deserved?

Clara Kramer Part 8: Liberation and the Devastating Truth Waiting for Them Above Ground

Clara Kramer Part 8: Liberation and the Devastating Truth Waiting for Them Above Ground

Today I want to find out what happened when Clara Kramer, her family and the other people hiding beneath the Beck family’s house were finally liberated.

By the summer of 1944, they had spent around 20 months living inside the cramped underground bunker. Throughout that time, they had survived hunger, illness, fire, German soldiers visiting the house and the constant possibility that the hiding place might be discovered.

During July 1944, the Soviet Army advanced into the region and the German forces began to withdraw. Żółkiew was eventually taken by Soviet troops, ending the German occupation.

 

For those in hiding, it must have been difficult to believe that the danger that had been present for so long was truly over. They had spent so long staying silent and treating every sound as a possible threat. There must have been a concern that the German soldiers might return or whether it was finally safe to reveal themselves.

Eventually, Clara, her parents and the others climbed out of the bunker. She went in as a frightened 15-year-old girl and came out after almost two years spent largely without fresh air, daylight or freedom.

The world must have seemed enormous after so long. But liberation did not mean that Clara could return to the life she had known before the war. The town was still there, but much of the Jewish community had disappeared.

Clara and the others began the painful process of discovering who had survived. News often came slowly. Some people had been murdered in nearby mass shootings. Others had been deported to the Bełżec extermination camp or taken elsewhere. A small number had survived in hiding, in camps or after escaping further east.

Clara already knew that her sister, Mania had fled from the bunker during a fire in April 1943 and was captured and killed. Clara’s grandmother, friends, neighbours and members of her extended family had also been scattered, deported or murdered. Her grandfather was arrested during the Soviet occupation and never returned.

 

Before the war, approximately 5,000 Jewish people had lived in Żółkiew. Clara later estimated that only about 50 survived the Holocaust. The community that had once supported synagogues, Jewish schools, businesses, charities and family celebrations had been almost completely destroyed.

 

The survival of the people inside the bunker was extraordinary. They owed their lives to Valentin Beck, his wife Julia and their daughter Ala, who had continued protecting them despite the danger to themselves. Clara’s diary also became important after liberation. It helped to demonstrate to the Soviet authorities that Valentin Beck had not just worked alongside the German occupiers but he had risked his life to rescue Jewish families.

 

Liberation brought them freedom, but it also showed the true scale of everything Clara had lost. She had survived, her parents had survived. But the childhood world she remembered could never return.

After the war, Clara eventually lived in displaced persons camps in Austria and Germany. She married another Holocaust survivor, Sol Kramer, and began rebuilding her life. However, she continued to preserve the memory of Żółkiew’s destroyed Jewish community and of the Beck family, whose courage had made her survival possible.

 

How could survivors begin rebuilding their lives when almost everyone and everything they had known had been taken from them?

The Home Guard Part One: Why the Home Guard Was Created in 1940: Britain Prepares for Invasion

The Home Guard Part One: Why the Home Guard Was Created in 1940: Britain Prepares for Invasion

Today I want to start a short series about the Home Guard by looking at why it was created in 1940. The Home Guard today are often seen by many people as older men carrying rifles and standing watch in their local communities. But we forget that the story began during one of the most frightening periods in Britain's history, when many people genuinely believed that an enemy invasion could happen at any moment.

In the spring of 1940, the Second World War had been going on for several months. Britain had not yet experienced the full force of the German aggression. That changed dramatically when Germany launched a series of rapid attacks across Western Europe. Using fast-moving troops, tanks and aircraft, German forces swept through country after country. News of these victories shocked the British people.

The situation became even more alarming in May and June of 1940 when France, Britain's most important ally on the continent, formally requested an armistice on the 17th of June 1940, and the armistice took effect on the 25th of June 1940. The fall of France was difficult to comprehend. France had one of the largest armies in Europe, but it had been defeated in a matter of weeks. Families listened for updates on the radio. Newspapers were putting out even more worrying headlines. Many people must have thought Britain might be next.

As the threat and fear of a German invasion grew. Rumours started to circulate about enemy parachutists landing in fields or spies hiding in amongst them. Coastal communities were obviously worried, they knew that if there was an invasion, they could be among the first to face it.

The government realised that the country needed to prepare. On the 14th of May 1940, the Secretary of State for War, Anthony Eden, made a radio broadcast calling for people to volunteer in a new force called the Local Defence Volunteers, usually known as the LDV. Winston Churchill, the Prime Minister, strongly supported the idea. The aim was simple: if an invasion came, local volunteers would help to defend their towns, villages and vital installations.

The response was extraordinary. Within only hours, men were queuing outside police stations and recruitment centres. Many were too old for regular military service, while others worked in jobs that were considered essential to the war effort. Some had fought during the First World War and had a sense of duty to serve once again. Some of the men had never served before but wanted to play their part. They may have been frightened about what lay ahead, but they were determined. Doing nothing was not an option for many of them.

More and more men joined up. Within only weeks, hundreds of thousands had volunteered, eventually exceeded 1.5 million members. They came from every walk of life, but they shared a common goal. They were determined to protect their homes and loved ones.

The organisation would renamed as the Home Guard on the 22nd of July 1940.

If you had been living in Britain during the summer of 1940, would you have joined the Local Defence Volunteers?

Norwich Cathedral Part 6: What Happened to Norwich Cathedral During the Reformation?

Norwich Cathedral Part 6: What Happened to Norwich Cathedral During the Reformation?

Today I want to finish up my series on Norwich Cathedral, a topic that I definitely plan to return to. So I want to find out what happened to Norwich Cathedral and its Benedictine monks during the English Reformation.

For more than four centuries, Norwich Cathedral had been a cathedral and a Benedictine monastery. Generations of monks had lived there, they followed the Rule of St Benedict and organising their days around prayer, study, work and caring for the community and travellers.

However, their way of life came to an end during the reign of Henry VIII.

During the 1530s, Henry broke from the Pope in Rome and declared himself Supreme Head of the Church of England. His government then started to close monasteries, priories and other religious houses across the country.

This became known as the Dissolution of the Monasteries.

Norwich Cathedral was in a slightly different position from many other ordinary monasteries. It was not only a Benedictine priory but it was also the seat of the Bishop of Norwich. The cathedral church was still needed, even if the monastery that was attached to it was dissolved.

In 1538, Henry VIII issued a new charter that replaced the prior and monks with a dean and chapter. However, the formal dissolution of the Benedictine monastery is recorded as the 6th of April 1539.

William Castleton, the last Prior of Norwich, became the first Dean of Norwich Cathedral under the new system.

This meant the transition at Norwich was more orderly than it was at many of the smaller monasteries. Some of the former monks actually stayed at the cathedral as clergy. But, they were no longer members of a Benedictine community, and they no longer followed the old monastic rule.

The traditional way of life that had continued at Norwich for hundreds of years came to an end.

Daily worship did continue but it was now led by cathedral clergy rather than Benedictine monks.

Some of the buildings surrounding the cathedral were also affected. Rooms and halls that had once supported the monks’ lives were no longer needed in the same way.

Buildings that were used for sleeping, eating, studying and receiving visitors were changed, neglected or eventually demolished.

But, the enormous medieval cloister managed to survive.

During the monastery’s history, the covered walkways of the cloister had connected the cathedral with important buildings such as the chapter house, refectory, library and guest accommodation. Although some of these buildings were lost, the cloister remains a wonderful reminder of the cathedral’s monastic past.

Changes inside the cathedral happened gradually.

Henry VIII had rejected the authority of the Pope, but many traditional forms of worship continued during his reign. More openly Protestant reforms were introduced after Henry died in 1547 and his young son, Edward VI, became king.

In 1549, the first Book of Common Prayer was introduced. Church services increasingly took place in English rather than following the old Latin forms of worship.

Altars, shrines, statues, stained glass and objects connected with saints were removed or destroyed in churches across England. Norwich Cathedral sadly lost many of its medieval religious objects during this period, while much of its surviving medieval stained glass was probably destroyed during the Civil War.

One of these was the cathedral’s bronze pelican lectern. It is believed to have been buried in the Bishop’s garden to protect it. It was later rediscovered and is still used for Bible readings today.

Another survivor was the Despenser Reredos, a painted medieval altarpiece dating from around 1380.

It seems that it was turned face down and used as part of a table so was not destroyed. The paintings remained hidden until the reredos was rediscovered in 1847.

The Reformation did not destroy Norwich Cathedral, but it completely changed the community that lived and worshipped there.

Many medieval treasures were lost, and some of the monastic buildings gradually disappeared.

But thankfully, the stunning cathedral church itself managed to survive.

Its Norman architecture, medieval cloister, roof bosses and surviving religious objects still provide us with glimpses of the world that existed before the Reformation.

When we walk through Norwich Cathedral today, we are not only entering a place of worship. We are also walking through the remains of the Benedictine monastery that shaped the cathedral and cared for it for more than four hundred years.

Do you think Norwich Cathedral was fortunate to survive, even though its ancient monastic community was brought to an end?

Clara Kramer Part 7: The Close Calls, Secret Escapes and Constant Danger That Nearly Exposed Everyone

Clara Kramer Part 7: The Close Calls, Secret Escapes and Constant Danger That Nearly Exposed Everyone

Today I want to find out about some of the terrifying moments that almost brought Clara Kramer and the other people hiding in the bunkers time in hiding to an end.

Not the actual bunker

Eighteen Jewish people had been living for months in the underground bunker under Valentin Beck’s house. Every single day depended on the bravery of Valentin Beck, his wife Julia, and their daughter Ala. If they had been discovered, they all faced severe punishment.

At first, trusting Valentin Beck cannot have been easy. As a Volksdeutsche (an ethnic German living in occupied Poland), he had contact with the German occupation authorities, and the people in hiding could not afford for any mistakes. Beck was also known to drink heavily, this made his behaviour seem unpredictable sometimes. But as time went on Beck, with his wife Julia and their daughter Ala, repeatedly proved that they were completely committed to protecting the people hidden under their home, and a deep trust gradually built up.

One of the biggest dangers came from visitors. German soldiers and officials sometimes visited the house. Whenever this happened, everyone had to stay completely silent. Even the smallest sound, a cough, a creaking floorboard or dropping something could alert the Germans were to the fact that Jews were hiding under their feet.

There were also constant rumours that houses were being searched or that someone had betrayed people who were in hiding. Every rumour would have increased the tension. Nobody in the bunker knew whether the next knock at the door would be  the moment they were found.

 

One of the most complicated points   was Valentin Beck’s affair with one of the women hiding in the bunker. The relationship caused terrible pain to his wife, Julia, who found herself in an almost impossible position. Although she was hurt, she chose not to force the woman to leave, knowing that doing so would have placed her life in danger and could have jeopardised the safety of everyone else. Julia continued to help protect them all. A decision that reflects her extraordinary courage, compassion and self-sacrifice.

Despite all of the danger, Ala Beck also formed a very close friendship with Clara. On a few very rare occasions, Ala secretly helped Clara to leave the house disguised as a young Polish girl. These brief trips out let Clara feel fresh air and see the outside world for the first time in many months, but every time they went out carried enormous risk. If Clara’s true identity had been discovered, it would have almost certainly endangered not only her own life but also everyone hiding in the bunker and the Beck family.

The emotional strain must have been relentless. Every creak of the house, every unfamiliar voice outside, and every unexpected visitor could have meant the end of their hiding place. But Valentin, Julia and Ala Beck continued to help them despite knowing exactly what they were risking.

 

 

Elizabeth I: Who Were the Puritans and Why Did They Want More Reform?

Elizabeth I: Who Were the Puritans and Why Did They Want More Reform?

Today I want to find out about one of the biggest religious challenges that Elizabeth I faced during her reign.

When we think about the Puritans, many of us think of Oliver Cromwell or the settlers who travelled to North America. But the Puritan movement actually started much earlier than you would think. It began during the reign of Elizabeth I.

When Elizabeth became Queen in 1558, she introduced the Religious Settlement of 1559, which ae talked about a few days ago. It established the Church of England as a Protestant church. But importantly it still kept some traditional practices of the Catholic church that many people were more familiar with. Elizabeth hoped that the compromise would bring some stability after many years of religious conflict.

For many people it did. But, not everyone was satisfied.

A group of people who became known as the Puritans were among those who were not satisfied. They believed that the Church of England had not gone far enough in its reforms. They wanted to remove anything that they thought resembled the Roman Catholic church or worship. They pushed hard for the introduction of simpler church services with fewer ceremonies. They wanted plain clothing for the clergy and a greater emphasis on preaching and studying the Bible. Some also wanted to replace bishops with a different form of church government.

Image info:

Thomas Cartwright

Elizabeth did not share their views. Although she was a Protestant, she believed that her Religious Settlement struck the right balance. She wanted one national church that most of her subjects could accept and she feared that making any further changes would divide the country again.

Throughout her reign, Elizabeth insisted that the clergy follow the rules of the Church of England. As time went on, some Puritans even criticised the Queen’s authority over the Church, something Elizabeth would not tolerate.

Elizabeth was prepared to take action against any Puritans who openly challenged her Religious Settlement or who refused to obey the rules of the Church of England. Some ministers who would not wear the required clerical clothing were suspended or removed from their positions, while others who published attacks on the Church or called for further reforms were arrested and imprisoned. Elizabeth thought that if she allowed these challenges to go unpunished it could undermine the Church and even her own authority as Queen, so she insisted that her religious settlement must be obeyed.

Some of those who were punished were the Puritan ministers John Field and Thomas Wilcox. They were imprisoned at Newgate Prison in 1572 after they had published An Admonition to the Parliament, which was a book that called for major changes to the Church of England. They were released after about a year. Thomas Cartwright was one of the leading Puritan thinkers of the time. He also faced repeated dismissal from his university and church positions because of his views. This shows that while Elizabeth accepted moderate differences of opinion, she would not tolerate anyone who openly challenged the authority of the Church or her role as its Supreme Governor.

The Puritans remained part of English religious life throughout Elizabeth’s reign. They didn’t stop calling for more reform.

After Elizabeth I died in 1603, many Puritans had hoped that James I would introduce further reforms. But he largely kept the Church of England as Elizabeth had left it. During Charles I reign, religious tensions sharply increased, which influenced some Puritans to leave England and emigrate to North America in search of greater religious freedom. Others that stayed behind became involved in the conflicts that led to the English Civil War. Puritan influence reached its height under Oliver Cromwell in the 1650s before declining after the monarchy was restored in 1660.

How different do you think English history might have been if Elizabeth had agreed to the Puritans' demands?

Clara Kramer Part 6: What Was Life Like Inside the Underground Bunker?

Clara Kramer Part 6: What Was Life Like Inside the Underground Bunker?

Today I want to find out a little bit about what life was really like for Clara Kramer and the seventeen other Jewish people who were forced to spend almost twenty months hiding under the home of Valentin Beck in Żółkiew.

By December 1942, Clara, who was only fifteen years old, her family and others had gone into hiding in an existing underground bunker under Valentin Beck's house. The space had been adapted to hide them from the German authorities and any local collaborators. It was dark, cramped and had almost no fresh air. There were no windows, very little room to move, and eventually eighteen people were forced to share the tiny underground space.

Not the actual bunker just a representation

Living conditions were incredibly difficult. Everyone slept close together with almost no privacy. Every movement and every conversation had to be kept as quiet as possible. Even an accidental noise could have revealed their hiding place and may have led to the deaths of everyone inside, as well as Valentin Beck, his wife Julia Beck and their daughter Ala, who all knowingly risked their lives to keep the people in the bunker hidden.

Food and water depended entirely on what Valentin Beck could secretly bring to them. Supplies were very limited, and meals were usually little more than bread, potatoes or thin soup. Hunger and fear must have been constant. Water was lowered through the trapdoor, usually in containers or buckets. The people below had to ration every drop because fresh water was not always available.

Their toilet buckets could only be emptied when the house was empty and it was safe for the Becks to open the trapdoor.

Washing was almost impossible and the lack of proper sanitation made the bunker damp, uncomfortable and unsanitary. Illness must have been a worry because medical help would have been almost impossible to get.

Each day followed much the same routine. They spent hours sitting or lying in silence, only whispering when it was safe and listening to the sounds from above.

Time seemed to pass incredibly slowly. The threat of discovery was always there.

The emotional strain was just as difficult as the physical conditions. Fear, uncertainty and grief cast an overwhelming shadow over all of them. Living with seventeen other people in such a confined space inevitably caused disagreements, but they relied on one another.

 

Valentin Beck may have deliberately entertained German personnel- including Wehrmacht soldiers and, at times, SS officers- in his home. He seems to have used this as a way of deflecting any suspicion. When rumours started to spread that he was hiding Jews, inviting German personnel into his house helped to make him seem above suspicion. Very few people would have expected someone hosting them would be hiding Jews under the floor.

This must have been so scary for the people in the bunker. Knowing that German soldiers were only a few feet above them must have been terrifying.

Clara kept a diary and although it is not as famous as the Anne Frank diary it recorded the daily struggles of life underground, the fear of discovery, the tensions and the moments of hope that helped them to cope and inevitably to survive. Her diary remains one of the most important first-hand accounts of what it was like to survive in hiding during the Holocaust.

After almost twenty months underground, they finally escaped the bunker in July 1944 when Soviet forces liberated the area. When Valentin Beck finally told them it was safe to leave the bunker, it must have been almost impossible to believe. Although they had survived, they had no idea what awaited them outside. The joy of freedom was mixed with the painful realisation that many of their loved ones would never return.

Tomorrow, we will look closer into just how close Clara Kramer and the others came to being discovered, and the extraordinary risks Valentin Beck took to keep them alive.

What do you think would have been the hardest part of living underground for almost twenty months without knowing if you would ever see freedom again?