Disease, DPs, and DDT: A Global Health Perspective on the History of Refugee Relief
October 2022
|
Journal article
|
Itinerario
At the end of the Second World War, millions of men, women, and children shared a similar experi- ence: delousing, at the hands of Allied armies and relief agencies, to prevent the spread of infectious disease. The procedure lasted seconds. In studies of displaced populations in this period, its effects upon them are commonly presented as invasive, humiliating, and, for some, reminiscent of Nazi abuse. Adopting a wider lens, this article explores how events and developments in a global range of settings shaped demands for effective delousing as well as the character of measures devised to achieve it. Harnessing fresh perspectives on how delousing was managed, delivered, and experienced, the article also advances understanding of how refugees responded to it.
The trials of Ormond Uren: A study in security and spy mania
August 2022
|
Journal article
|
International Journal of Intelligence and Counterintelligence
In 1943, Ormond Uren, an army officer employed in the London headquarters of Britain’s Special Operations Executive, was court-martialed and imprisoned after disclosing secret information to a senior member of the Communist Party of Great Britain. The episode has become a staple of writers interested in tales of espionage and questions of loyalty, with Uren’s actions routinely presented as those of a spy and traitor. Drawing on MI5 records and other sources, this article argues that those routine images lack convincing evidence to support them; but it also demonstrates that the case retains importance as an example of the risks that secret organizations run when employees’ loyalties lie elsewhere.
FFR
Ends and means: Typhus in Naples, 1943-44
June 2022
|
Journal article
|
Centaurus
In 1943, Allied forces in recently liberated Naples were confronted with an outbreak of louse-borne typhus. The established Anglo-American narrative of that epidemic is a triumphant story of effective action that controlled the disease with unprecedented speed and success, aided by the pioneering use of the pesticide DDT. Rather than retell that tale, this article discusses why the outbreak and its ending are largely absent from Italian accounts of wartime Naples. Drawing on Italian sources and contemporary Allied ones, it argues that this absence speaks powerfully to the realities of life for Neapolitans at the time. These realities included the likelihood that the epidemic left most people unscathed, and the presence of additional challenges that made survival in the city perilous. Illustrating how tangled events (and even non-events) can be fashioned into simplistic but meaningful frameworks according to the perspective and priorities of the observer, the article also demonstrates how methods (in this case, delousing with insecticide) that were later proclaimed as crucial in ending an epidemic can be viewed very differently by populations required to comply with them, especially when the disease's dangers seem remote.
DDT, epidemics, history of medicine, history of science, FFR, typhus, medical humanities
Ends and Means: Typhus in Naples, 1943–1944
June 2022
|
Journal article
|
Centaurus
In 1943, Allied forces in recently liberated Naples were confronted with an outbreak of louse-borne typhus. The established Anglo-American narrative of that epidemic is a triumphant story of effective action that controlled the disease with unprecedented speed and success, aided by the pioneering use of the pesticide DDT. Rather than retell that tale, this article discusses why the outbreak and its ending are largely absent from Italian accounts of wartime Naples. Drawing on Italian sources and contemporary Allied ones, it argues that this absence speaks powerfully to the realities of life for Neapolitans at the time. These realities included the likelihood that the epidemic left most people unscathed, and the presence of additional challenges that made survival in the city perilous. Illustrating how tangled events (and even non-events) can be fashioned into simplistic but meaningful frameworks according to the perspective and priorities of the observer, the article also demonstrates how methods (in this case, delousing with insecticide) that were later proclaimed as crucial in ending an epidemic can be viewed very differently by populations required to comply with them, especially when the disease's dangers seem remote.
‘Baby killers’ in the Balkans: airship raids on Salonika and their impact
April 2022
|
Chapter
|
The Macedonian Front, 1915-1918: Politics, Society and Culture in Time of War
<p>Well into 1916, German airships – ‘baby killers’ as they were termed in the British press – were active on most fronts and roundly feared and hated by those whom they were trying to target. Apparently invincible, airships seemed able to arrive unannounced and drop bombs at will. They also killed women and children and other noncombatants as freely as they killed servicemen.</p>
<p>This chapter offers a fresh perspective on Germany’s short-lived airship campaign on the Macedonian Front in 1916. Providing a snapshot, too, of popular attitudes to the tools and ethics of World War I warfare, it draws on a range of contemporary sources, from diaries and letters to newspaper reports and intelligence records, to discuss a range of impacts that resulted from the sudden appearance of this new technology in the skies above Salonika. Death was one of these. Others, though, included its value for Allied propagandists as an example of German barbarity, while the successful downing of a Zeppelin not only boosted Allied morale but also provided opportunities to usefully exploit its wreckage and crew.</p>
SBTMR
Hoxha's Long Shadow (review of Lia Ypi, Free: Coming of Age at the End of History, and Margo Rejmer, Mud Sweeter Than Honey: Voices of Communist Albania)
November 2021
|
Other
|
Literary Review
Commemoration, Veneration, Reflection: The Imperial War Museum and the Past
September 2021
|
Chapter
|
Kriegen gehören ins Museum! Aber wie?
History
Unlikely Coup (review of J Schneer, The Lockhart Plot: Love, betrayal, assassination and counter-revolution in Lenin’s Russia)
March 2021
|
Other
|
TLS - The Times Literary Supplement
COVID vaccines: countries have a history of acting selfishly – and when they do, everyone loses out
February 2021
|
Internet publication
<a href=""></a>
Burney [née Baseden], Yvonne Jeanne Therese de Vibraye (1922-2017)
January 2021
|
Other
British Liaison Officers’ Reports on Greek Army Officers in ELAS: A Reappraisal of the Problems of Source Value
October 2020
|
Chapter
|
Militaires en résistances en France et en Europe
During the Second World War, recruits to Elas, Greece’s communist-led guerrilla army, included several hundred officers of the country’s pre-war regular army. Today, the declassified files of Britain’s Special Operations Executive, which include the reports of British military personnel sent to Greece to work with Elas, challenge established images of the motivations, status and influence of those Greek officers. Indicating a more complex and fractured relationship between professional Greek military personnel and the Elas political leadership, these sources also suggest grounds on which to counter postwar claims that anticommunist bias is a sufficient explanation for criticisms of Elas found in British accounts.
Special operations: a hidden chapter in the histories of facial surgery and human enhancement
July 2020
|
Journal article
|
Medical Humanities
During the Second World War, Britain’s Special Operations Executive (SOE), a secret service established to encourage resistance and carry out sabotage, employed various techniques of enhancing the ability of its personnel to operate undetected in enemy territory. One of these methods was surgery. Drawing on recently declassified records, this article illuminates SOE’s reasons for commissioning this procedure, the needs and wants of those who received it, and the surgeons employed to carry it out. It also aims to underline the role of context in shaping perceptions of facial surgery, and the potential for surgery for wartime disguise to resonate with current debates about human enhancement.
FFR
Why we need the human touch in contact tracing for coronavirus
May 2020
|
Internet publication
<a href=""></a>
COVID19, Coronavirus, Contact Tracing
Written evidence to the UK Government Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy (‘UK Biological Security Strategy’)
February 2020
|
Report
<p>This submission highlights the importance of ethical, social and political dimensions to the
challenges and opportunities outlined in the UK Biological Security Strategy (2018).</p>
<p>Specifically, it aims to enhance understanding of the following three areas of acknowledged
importance: international partnerships; public trust; and private sector involvement.</p>
SBTMR
SOE and transnational resistance
January 2020
|
Chapter
|
FIGHTERS ACROSS FRONTIERS
Narrowed minds and destroyed communities: Anglo-American perceptions of Jewish heritage in Thessaloniki, 1943–46
December 2019
|
Chapter
|
Migrants: Art, Artists, Materials and Ideas Crossing Borders
War and conflict can endanger humanity and its heritage in a multitude of different ways. This paper examines the fate of the property and past of one persecuted community, the Jewish population of the Greek city of Thessaloniki, during the Second World War, and the heritage threatened and lost through its forced movement and murder. The vulnerability and destruction of that community has increasingly attracted the attention of modern scholars, but this paper adopts a new lens. Illustrating implications of considering cultural heritage as something to be measured and ranked, as well as how perceptions of value depend on the observer, it shows how the city’s rich Jewish culture fell outside official Anglo- American assessments of which forms of heritage in wartime Greece should be prioritised for preservation.
SBTMR
Toward Control? The Prospects and Challenges of Typhoid Conjugate Vaccine Introduction.
November 2019
|
Journal article
|
Clinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America
With a newly World Health Organization (WHO)-prequalified typhoid conjugate vaccine (TCV), Gavi funding for eligible countries, and a WHO policy recommendation for TCV use, now is the time for countries to introduce TCVs as part of an integrated typhoid control program, particularly in light of the increasing burden of antimicrobial resistance. Continued vaccine development efforts will lead to secure supply of low-cost vaccines, and ongoing vaccine studies will provide critical vaccine performance data and inform optimal deployment strategies, in both routine use and in outbreak settings. TCV programs should include thoughtful communication planning and community engagement to counter vaccine hesitancy.
vaccine acceptance, typhoid conjugate vaccine, typhoid control, public awareness, water and sanitation
Lufta e fshehtë në Shqipëri një histori e misioneve sekrete britanike 1940-1945
January 2019
|
Book
Albania
Review of J Peakman, Hitler's Island War: The Men Who Fought For Leros
La Missione Britannica per la resistenza Albanese: Un punto di vista degli alleati sull’esperienza degli Italiani in Albania, 1943-1944
January 2018
|
Chapter
|
Caro Nemico: Soldati Pistoiesi e Toscani nella Resistenza in Albania e Montenegro 1943-1945
Italy, Resistance, World War II, Second World War, Special Operations Executive
Macpherson, Sir (Ronald) Thomas Stewart (1920–2014)
January 2018
|
Other
Clark, Sir Robert Anthony (1924–2013)
January 2017
|
Other
Jackson, Margaret Wallace (1917–2013)
January 2017
|
Other
Salonika Fire: 18-19th August 1917
January 2017
|
Chapter
|
The Dusk of Our Old City (ΤΟ ΤΕΛΟΣ ΤΗΣ ΠΑΛΙΑΣ ΜΑΣ ΠΟΛΗΣ Θεσσαλονίκη 1870-1917)
Background to photographs taken by the Royal Flying Corps and Royal Engineers of the Great Fire of Salonika (August 1917)
Psychiatrists and Secret Agents.
December 2016
|
Journal article
|
Lancet, The
Humans, Mental Health, Psychiatry, Torture, History, 20th Century, World War II, Military Personnel
Review of B. Macintyre, SAS, Rogue Heroes: The Authorized Wartime History
October 2016
|
Other
|
Wall Street Journal (Eastern ed.)
Review of D. Brewer, 'Greece: The Decade of War'
October 2016
|
Other
|
TLS - The Times Literary Supplement
Review of U. Schmidt, 'Secret Science: A Century of Poison Warfare and Human Experiments'
February 2016
|
Other
|
Lancet, The
Review of R. Jeffreys-Jones, 'Inter-Allied Commando Intelligence and Security Training in Gwynedd: The Coates Memoir' (Article)
December 2015
|
Internet publication
<a href=""></a>
The Special Operations Executive and the Use and Abuse of Peacetime Technology
November 2015
|
Chapter
|
The Means to Kill: Essays on the Interdependence of War and Technology from Ancient Rome to the Age of Drones
This collection of new essays from specialists in military history examines the interdependence between war and technology from a number of regional perspectives.
History
Review of M. Hastings, 'The Secret War: Spies, Codes and Guerrillas 1939-1945'
November 2015
|
Other
|
TLS - The Times Literary Supplement
Wake, Nancy Grace Augusta (1912–2011)
January 2015
|
Other
Plastic Surgery for Wartime Disguise.
October 2014
|
Journal article
|
Lancet (London, England)
Face, Humans, Reconstructive Surgical Procedures, Surgery, Plastic, History, 20th Century, Military Personnel, Warfare, United Kingdom
Introduction to Patrick Leigh Fermor, Abducting a General
October 2014
|
Chapter
|
Abducting a General: The Kreipe Operation and SOE in Crete
History
The Spies Who Hunted Mussolini
May 2014
|
Journal article
|
BBC History
Review of I. Buruma, 'Year Zero: A History of 1945'
March 2014
|
Other
|
TLS - The Times Literary Supplement
Target Italy
January 2014
|
Book
Target Italy: The Secret War Against Mussolini, 1940-1943 - The Official History of SOE Operations in Fascist Italy
January 2014
|
Book
Commissioned by the UK Cabinet Office, this is the official history of the war waged by Britain's Special Operations Executive on Mussolini's Italy in the Second World War.
Review of C. Glass, Deserter
October 2013
|
Other
|
TLS - The Times Literary Supplement
SOE in Albania: the ‘conspiracy theory’ reassessed: Roderick Bailey
January 2013
|
Chapter
|
Special Operations Executive
Smiley, David de Crespigny (1916–2009)
January 2013
|
Other
Review of C. Mulley, The Spy Who Loved
August 2012
|
Other
|
Literary Review
Review of P. Batty, Hoodwinking Churchill
January 2012
|
Other
|
TLS - The Times Literary Supplement
Forgotten Voices of the Victoria Cross
October 2011
|
Book
Extraordinary accounts of heroism and the servicemen who earned the Victoria Cross
Review of N. Rankin, Ian Fleming's Commandos
October 2011
|
Other
|
Literary Review
Forgotten Voices of D-Day
May 2010
|
Book
Review of G. Elliott, The Shooting Star: Denis Rake MC
February 2010
|
Other
|
Literary Review
Forgotten Voices of the Secret War
April 2009
|
Book
Review of E. O'Halpin, Spying on Ireland
August 2008
|
Other
|
TLS - The Times Literary Supplement
The Wildest Province: SOE in the Land of the Eagle
February 2008
|
Book
Review of P. Shipman, Femme Fatale
September 2007
|
Other
|
TLS - The Times Literary Supplement
Review of P. Bishop, Bomber Boys
August 2007
|
Other
|
TLS - The Times Literary Supplement
Review of R. Ratcliff, Delusions of Intelligence
March 2007
|
Other
|
Times Higher Education Supplement
Review of B. Macintyre, Agent Zigzag
March 2007
|
Other
|
TLS - The Times Literary Supplement
Communist in SOE Explaining James Klugmann's recruitment and retention
January 2007
|
Chapter
|
POLITICS AND STRATEGY OF CLANDESTINE WAR: SPECIAL OPERATIONS EXECUTIVE, 1940-1946
Review of O. Pearson, Albania in Occupation and War
August 2006
|
Other
|
Literary Review
SOE in Albania: The Conspiracy Theory Reassessed
January 2006
|
Chapter
|
Special Operations Executive: A New Instrument of War
This unique book presents an accurate and reliable assessment of Britain's Special Operations Executive (SOE). It brings together leading authors to examine the organization from a range of key angles.
History
Communist in SOE: Explaining James Klugmann's Recruitment and Retention
March 2005
|
Journal article
|
Intelligence and National Security
Margaret Hasluck and the Special Operations Executive
January 2004
|
Chapter
|
Archaeology, Anthropology, and Heritage in the Balkans and Anatolia: The Life and Times of F.W. Hasluck, 1878-1920
Archaeology; anthropology; Balkan Peninsula; history; 1878-1920.
Biography & Autobiography
Review of R. Aldrich, 'The Hidden Hand: Britain, America and Cold War Secret Intelligence'
December 2002
|
Other
|
Defense & Security Analysis
Smoke without Fire: Albania, SOE and the Communist Conspiracy Theory
January 2002
|
Chapter
|
Albanian Identities: Myth and History
The essays in Albanian Identities, by a multinational, multidisciplinary team of scholars and non-academic specialists, deconstruct prevalent political or historiographical myths about Albania's past and present.
History
OSS‐SOE relations, Albania 1943–44
June 2000
|
Journal article
|
Intelligence and National Security
Burney [née Baseden], Yvonne Jeanne Therese de Vibraye (1922–2017), Special Operations Executive agent
