Masculinities and the Writing of the Self before the First World War: the diaries of Sir William Bull (1863-1931)

Tue 10 March 2020

Churchill College

Myriam Boussahba-Bravard, Professor of British History at the Université de Paris, will give this lecture as part of the Churchill History Lecture Series.

The young William Bull started writing a diary when he was 13 (1876) and wrote it continuously for 55 years, until his death. He was involved in Conservative politics all his adult life as an activist, then a London Councillor and finally a Conservative MP (1900-1928) for Hammersmith. From his political diary and the letters that he received emerges a man with political ambition, a dedicated father and husband as well as a helpful relative for his extended family. As a hardworking grassroots MP, he was well liked in his Hammersmith constituency, and easily re-elected from 1900 to 1928. Unionist, he was all the same a suffragist and famously “a Channel Tunnel enthusiast”. He also made his solicitors’ firm financially secure. William Bull seemed to have had multiple lives featuring in the many separate diaries that he wrote, constructing both a complex and ordinary man that contributes to the history of masculinities before the First World War.

Myriam Boussahba-Bravard is full Professor of British History at the Université de Paris (formerly Paris Diderot) in LARCA-CNRS (UMR8225) and in the British & American Studies faculty. She lectures in 19th century British history, especially gender history to 2nd year to MA students. Her scholarly interests lie in the area of British and international feminism.

Cost: Free