British scientists and soldiers in the First World War with special reference to ballistics and chemical warfare

This thesis asks how the Great War affected physical science in Britain. It examines how graduate scientists and army officers worked together in the War, concentrating on the two fields of ballistics and chemical warfare. In these fields many previous accounts have discussed only the civilians. This study gives an outline of the various military institutions where soldiers in the technical corps (Artillery and Engineers) were trained, and where the state made, tested and stored arms. It argues that these corps had a characteristic technical culture, in which science was not studied for its own sake, but always with an end in view that would benefit the state: mathematics, astronomy and geodesy for survey, geology for public works, and so on. This was quite different from the professional values of pure science and mathematics. The thesis sees the effects of the War on science on two levels, the personal and the structural. Those engaged in war-work responded very variously: some had the directions of their interests greatly changed, so that the ballistics work accelerated the growth in numerical analysis; for others the War was simply an interruption, either a destructive one, or one that was rewarding but little related to the scientist’s academic career. Several of those who had done war-work maintained their links with the military for the rest of their lives. Structurally, the state increased its support for applied science with military applications, at the National Physical Laboratory, Famborough, Porton, and Woolwich. The scale of academic experiments, however, did not grow correspondingly after the War. After the War, the Army significantly increased its research activities (though constrained by limited budgets), and incorporated university teaching in the training of its engineering personnel, initially as a stop-gap, but then by choice.Open acces

The history, theatrical performance work and achievements of Talawa Theatre Company 1986-2001

The central aims of this thesis is to provide a work that may be used to start a serious archive that documents the contemporary theatrical work of Britain's individuals and companies that have an Afro-Caribbean cultural background. Such an archive will allow later writers on aspects of modern British theatre the opportunity to move ahead where past generations have had to spend time reinventing themselves as documented resources have been lacking. The thesis documents and discusses the history and achievements of Talawa Theatre Company. Prior to this discussion the main theories, original research and methodologies used to complete this study are presented in Chapter One. The historical aspect of the work is divided into two sections. The first section is Chapter Two and provides a historical context for Talawa's performance work. This is done by presenting a chronology of Talawa's performance roots that are shown to begin in Africa, develop in Jamaica, and end in England. The second section is Chapter Three and looks at Talawa's history between 1986 and 2001. Analysis includes discussion of definitions of black British theatre, Talawa's mission statement and the company's residency in the West End. Talawa's achievements are discussed in the body of the thesis. The notion of achievement is understood within the contemporary British theatrical context highlighting the originality of Talawa's work, and by extension the company's commitment to its mission statement. To this end aspects of Talawa's performance work are discussed thematically in the following three chapters: Chapter Four: Caribbean Plays; Chapter Five: American Plays; Chapter Six: English Plays. Although Talawa has also performed African plays these performances are not part of the present study. The decision to omit this genre was due to the lack of archival evidence in this area