History societies
The History Department at Wellington College runs two very successful societies- the Pepys Junior History Society and the Newsome Senior History Society. The aim of these two societies is to attract distinguished and interesting speakers to address different groups of pupils at times throughout the academic year on as wide a range of topics as possible.
The range of topics covered is impressive with the hope being to present all of the different age groups with something that will fire the imagination. Some speakers are invited because of the value of their subject specialism to those people taking public examinations, some because their ideas will stimulate deep thinking in our Oxbridge candidates, but for the most part the aim is simply to broaden the historical education of our girls and boys, to give them a glimpse at the very least of the enormous range of fascinating areas that the subject has to offer and, hopefully, to inspire them in to a life long interest in the study of the past.
The following people have addressed the societies over the past academic year.
The Pepys Junior History Society
- Mr John Fisher of the “Mary Rose Society” spoke on the topic of Henry VIII’s famous recovered warship.
- Mr Freddie Knoller, a survivor of Auschwitz, spoke to the society on “The Holocaust”
- Mr Jonathan Taylor spoke on “Wellington and Nelson”
The Newsome Senior History Society
- Dr Jonathan Harris (Royal Holloway and Bedford New College) spoke on “The Fall of Constantinople 1453: The impact on East and West”
- Dr Ralph Houlbrooke (Reading University) spoke on “Henry VIII’s Reformation”
- Dr Felicity Heal (Jesus College, Oxford) spoke on “How Protestant was England by 1558?”
- Professor David Loades (Durham University) spoke on “Tudor Rebellions”