April 30, 2026|Reports

“Southampton: A War Winning City” – Andrew Negus

Another splendid talk from Andrew Negus, concluding his trilogy on the history of Southampton took place on Tuesday 24th March. Over 70 members of the History Society met at Wickham Community Centre – our first ‘face to face’ meeting of the New Year following our two Zoom talks in January and February.

You don’t think of aeroplanes first when you are thinking of Southampton but four companies: Avro, Fairey, Sopwith and Supermarine were all building planes here before the First World War. Some of those planes entered service in the First World War when Southampton was a key port – eight million troops and one million wounded passed through the port during the war. Despite some mechanisation, huge numbers of horses were still needed – many shipped over from America and held at depots in Southampton before being shipped to France.

Southampton docks continued to expand into the 1930s with the development of the western docks on reclaimed land, including the largest dry dock then in the world. Although Southampton was a major target in the Second World War the medieval wine cellars saved the lives of many families. Surprisingly Southampton did not get city status until 1964 and unlike Portsmouth does not have a cathedral but to make up for that it was the birthplace of both Benny Hill and Ken Russell!

There was a lively discussion at the end including on Southampton’s early adoption of  ‘green’ energy: the Southampton Geothermal Heating Company Ltd. based in the western docks area.

For those who would like more of Andrew’s entertaining and knowledgeable talks, do join him on his guided walk around Hambledon as part of our members summer visits this year.