Kevin Lockyer

Kevin Lockyer

@kevinlockyer.bsky.social

Historian, especially late Victorian military, PhD student at Wolverhampton. Rehabilitated prison governor and civil servant. Caulkhead. Father. Husband.

65 Followers 162 Following 58 Posts Joined Jan 2025
4 months ago
Preview
Weapons in Society Conference 2026 8 January 2026

I am presenting a paper to this conference, on fortifications and the illusion of protection, focusing in particular on the 1859 Royal Commission on National Defences and the fortification of Portsmouth

royalarmouries.org/fort-nelson/...

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4 months ago

Where exactly are these students who are being told what to think?

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7 months ago

I remember a time when the political left was in favour of free speech and opposed to censorship. Oh, how things change.

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7 months ago

Until 5 years ago, anything better than 1.2 was a dream for me...

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7 months ago
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Coming soon to the Redan, Journal of the Palmerston Forts Society...

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8 months ago
Cover image of the Camden volume, The Papers of Admiral George Grey, edited by Michael Taylor.

'The Papers of Admiral George Grey' is the new volume in the Society's Camden series of primary source editions: bit.ly/4kPZYYf

The collection, edited by ‪@mhtaylor.bsky.social‬, brings together the letters, journal and memoir of George Grey (1809-1891), son of Earl Grey 1/2

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8 months ago

It's 'armed with rifled guns'

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8 months ago

Yeah, the second sentence is about the clearest in the 60 odd letters I have…

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8 months ago

Factional conflict. Civil war.

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8 months ago
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Sidney Herbert is not my friend…

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9 months ago

I was listening to Achtung Bono (some of his finest work) only this morning

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9 months ago

But I’m busy with something else…

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9 months ago

Absolutely and without a doubt

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10 months ago
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A little light reading…

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10 months ago

Fortunately not

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10 months ago

Reading mid-19th century handwriting can be challenging at the best of times. Reading it in poorly reproduced images (for example where the reverse of the page has bled through) on microfilm on a reader out of the ark is even harder...

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10 months ago

I am really interested in the way in which large organisations and institutions adapt to paradigm-shifting new technology. My particular interest is in late-Victorian British military institutions, but I am looking for more general material. Any guidance on key texts I ought to be looking at?

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11 months ago

Biff looks slightly less than enthusiastic though. Come on man, give it some effort...

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11 months ago

Were you there? Did you Know?

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11 months ago

I’m half way through my first list of material I want to consult at the National Archives. I’d better buy a house in Kew…

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11 months ago

It makes me think of me and my friends going to a particular nightclub when we were 16/17 (in 1982, funnily enough). I just love it so much.

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11 months ago

I will never, ever, tire of that song. Perfection

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11 months ago

Our third Starter Pack for historians lists institutes and research centres based in the UK and Republic of Ireland go.bsky.app/RbfRrhm

This now includes over 90 centres with BlueSky accounts. We also welcome recommendations for additions to this pack.

#skystorians

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11 months ago

It's only Fascism if it comes from the Fascisti region of Italy. Otherwise it's just sparkling authoritarianism.

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11 months ago

I had totally forgotten that the EU was created solely to get one over on the US. I must re-read the Treaty of Rome…

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1 year ago

If there was any doubt about the utter futility of acting as if Trump was just a mildly eccentric character who would ultimately recognise and follow normal rules of diplomatic behaviour, it must surely now have been dispelled. That was the most shameful display by a US president in my lifetime

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1 year ago

I like my sugar with coffee and cream

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1 year ago

I didn't actually need all four volumes of Johnson and Buel's Battles and Leaders of the Civil War and it isn't that relevant to my research, but it was in the secondhand bookshop and it was a good price, so that makes it fine, right?

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1 year ago
YouTube
Gil Scott Heron "Winter In America" (1974) HIGH QUALITY YouTube video by Sound Signals

Mourning the death of American democracy...

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1 year ago

You've got it!

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