Cholera was the scourge of nineteenth century Britain, with four devastating epidemics sweeping the country from the 1830s to the 1860s. David McLean provides a detailed study of the efforts of local and national government efforts to combat the disease. Based on a unique cache of documents, McLean's account exposes the struggles between local and national government as they grappled with the enormity of the problem and the conflict between policies of laissez-faire and state intervention. Describing the efforts of public health reformer Edwin Chadwick in conjunction with among others, Prime Minister Lord Russell, Admiral Lord Cochrane and local Plymouth leader Joseph Beer, McLean brings to life a vital period in British social and political history with policy consequences that reverberate today.

Horatio Nelson did not enjoy robust good health. From his childhood he was prone to many of the ailments so common in the eighteenth century, and after he joined the Navy he contracted fevers that further undermined his strength: he was even seasick whenever he first put to sea. Nevertheless, he saw more action than most officers, and was often wounded the loss of the sight in one eye and a shattered arm were the most public, but by no means his only injuries. This personal experience of sickness made him uniquely aware of the importance of health and fitness to the efficient running of a fleet, and this new book investigates Nelson's personal contribution to improving the welfare of the men he commanded.It ranges from issues of diet, through hygiene to improved medical practices. Believing prevention was better than cure, Nelson went to great lengths to obtain fresh provisions, insisted on cleanliness in his ships, and even understood the relationship between mental and physical health, working tirelessly to keep up the morale of his men. Many other people contributed to what became a revolution in naval health but because of his heroic status Nelson's influence was hugely significant, a role which this book reveals in detail for the first time.

This book offers the first in-depth enquiry into the origins of 135 Indigenous Australian objects acquired by the Royal Navy between 1795 and 1855 and held now by the British Museum. In response to increasing calls for the ‘decolonisation’ of museums and the restitution of ethnographic collections, the book seeks to return knowledge of the moments, methods, and motivations whereby Indigenous Australian objects were first collected and sent to Britain. By structuring its discussion in terms of three key ‘stages’ of a typical naval voyage to Australia—departure from British shores, arrival on the continent’s coasts, and eventual return to port—the book offers a nuanced and multifaceted understanding of the pathways followed by these 135 objects into the British Museum. The book offers important new understandings of Indigenous Australian peoples’ reactions to naval visitors, and contains a wealth of original research on the provenance and meaning of some of the world’s oldest extant Indigenous Australian object collections.

This WWII naval history examines the Royal Navy’s health and fitness policies, initiatives and innovations. ‘Fittest of the fit’ was the Royal Navy’s boast about its personnel, a claim based on a strict recruitment process. This book examines the reality behind the motto through the difficult years of the Second World War. Beginning with the medical aspects of recruitment, historian Kevin Brown examines how health and fitness were maintained at sea, including in the onerous extremes of Arctic and Tropical conditions. Beyond physical health, Brown also examines the importance of psychological factors and the maintenance of morale, covering everything from entertainment to tolerance of onboard pets. Inevitably, the effects of battle, injury and stress dominated naval medicine, and wartime led to rapid changes in everything from basic preparations to protective clothing. With revealing comparisons to other British services as well as US Navy practices, Fittest of the Fit offers a unique look at life for the Royal Navy, covering submariners and airmen as well as those in the surface fleet.