Leeds Beckett University - City Campus,
Woodhouse Lane,
LS1 3HE
Researching Real Lives
When studying history, it is important to remember that the people you are learning about lived real lives. They had interests, hopes and suffered disappointments. Historians cannot recreate this complexity, but occasional glimpses can help us to appreciate it.
The latest Beckett Talks podcast – Bomb Craters and Wedding Vows – is a good example of this process. The episode features a conversation between Leanne Speight, a student on the MA Social History, and Diana Bell, whose parents got married in Leeds on 15 March 1941.
The wedding took place the day after Leeds suffered its worst bombing raid of the Second World War. In the podcast, Diana tells us about the impact the Blitz had on their wedding. She explains that her parents were determined to make the most of the situation and incorporated the air raid into their own family history.
The podcast was the result of a project carried out in 2020 by a group of BA (Hons) History students on the Public History Project module. Indeed, Diana explains that she would not have shared her story had she not seen Leanne, who was a student on the module, talking about her work on BBC Look North!
The story is also a reminder that history happens all around us. In this case, the wedding took place five minutes from our City Campus, and Leanne and Diana were able to walk to the hotel where they had their reception. There are many more stories like this included on the Leeds Blitz website.
Image: Diana’s parents on their wedding day
Dr Henry Irving
Henry is a Senior Lecturer in Public History, level lead for the MA Social History and a British Academy Innovation Fellow.
