Drinking in Victorian and Edwardian Britain: Beyond the Spectre of the Drunkard

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She became the face of Sweetheart Stout in 1958, inspiring the Lovelies, with Tennent’s acquiring the brand through a merger with Caledonian Breweries in the 1960s. There was another attempt to expand its market. Tennent’s unveiled its 1965 Housewives’ Choice campaign after the relaxation of off-licence laws saw a boost in at-home drinking in Scotland.

One keen collector interviewed by the Sunday Mail newspaper even described this rare tinnie as the “Ming vase of Tennent’s Lager Lovelies”. Megan Smitley, Pamela Sharpe, Penny Summerfield, Lynn Abrams, and Cordelia Beattie (2009), The Feminine Public Sphere : Middle-Class Women and Civic Life in Scotland, C. 1870-1914 Dr Hands believes the can campaign was problematic in perpetuating sexist stereotypes, though she stresses that the models she spoke to shared with her fond memories of a bygone era of advertising. This ‘common agreement’ was evident in hospital records which show that up until the First World War alcohol was still used in large urban voluntary hospitals and asylums. Although its use may have courted controversy among medical men and temperance organisations, the continued use of alcohol indicates that it was still widely regarded as a reliable therapeutic drug. There were very few prescription drugs that offered the same degree of versatility to treat fevers, disease, debility and provide a degree of comfort for patients during the course of illness. Alcohol was the rational drug of choice because it was relatively cheap, widely available and came in a variety of different forms that suited the needs of a wide range of patients.He is particularly interested in the way individuals construct personal values about their health and the implications of this for treatment, particularly in the management of chronic medical conditions. Mila Daskalova

A Thousand Flowers, ‘Govanhill: how a square mile of Glasgow was weaponised by the right’, 11 February 2018: This research follows on from her Masters dissertation which concentrated on the history of dietary advice pertaining to sugar in the United States in the 20th century. Her main interests include the history of food and nutrition, in particular the ways in which diet has been perceived in health and disease throughout the 20th century. Recent studies of the temperance movement and the medicalization of alcoholism focus on the ‘devi... more Recent studies of the temperance movement and the medicalization of alcoholism focus on the ‘deviant’ drinking habits of the Victorian working classes. However most people in Victorian Britain were not viewed as ‘deviant’ drinkers or alcoholics. People of all social classes were in fact classed as moderate drinkers. Yet we know very little about the drinking habits of this 'silent majority'. Concepts of moderate drinking were as vague and controversial in the late Victorian period, as they are now. However, certain social groups were considered to be more ‘naturally disposed’ towards moderate consumption than others. Iain earned his doctorate in Health History from the University of Strathclyde. Funded by the Wellcome Trust, he wrote the first medical history of acne. His thesis focussed particularly on the post war period when the escalating cultural and economic significance of adoescence made spotty skin a marketing opportunity for pharmaceutical companies, a professional opportunity for dermatologists and an issue that spurred popular debate about the causes of and treatments for acne. Eva completed a bachelor’s degree in History and Spanish at Wake Forest University in North Carolina. She was a recipient of a 2016-2017 Fulbright Student Research Award, which funded a master’s degree in Politics at the University of Strathclyde. She is currently enrolled at the University of Strathclyde as a first year PhD student in History.Her PhD comprises part of Professor James Mills Wellcome Trust Award Investigation ‘The Asian Cocaine Crisis: Pharmaceuticals, Consumers and Control in South & East Asia c1900-1945’. Her research focuses on the consumption of psychoactive substances in the colonial Philippines during the first half of the twentieth century.Her research interests include public policy and substate nationalism, early modern and modern colonial history in the Americas and Asia, and drugs history and politics. Jasmine WoodBoth articles aimed to educate doctors on the composition and therapeutic value of various types of French wines. This was achieved by providing chemical analyses of the four basic constituents of wines, namely alcohol, sugar, acid and tannin. The articles claimed that differing levels of each of these constituents not only altered the taste and quality of the wine but also its therapeutic value. 38 In the case of claret it was noted that there were huge differences in the quality and chemical composition of this particular type of wine but it was still believed to have medicinal applications Independently identify historical questions that are not adequately answered in the historiography; or that are still part of unresolved historiographical controversy; or have been left unanswered altogether up to this point. Venetia Stevenson was born in London in 1938, to a film director father and an actress mother. She was voted the most photogenic girl in the world in a magazine poll in 1957, just one year before her Sweetheart Stout cans were unveiled. Some of the 'Lager Lovelies' (Image: Glasgow Women's Library/Thora Hands) Nicholls J. 2011 . The Politics of Alcohol: A History of the Drink Question in England: Manchester: Manchester University Press. Thora explained that around that time they also began their “Housewives Choice” series, a 20 can set, which featured models and also some very intriguing recipes using Tennent’s beer.

Mitchell T. 2004 . Intoxicated Identities: Alcohol Power in Mexican History and Culture: London: Routledge: p. 6. Reading List 1. Thora Hands (2018), Drinking in Victorian and Edwardian Britain: Beyond the Spectre of the Drunkard Briggs A. 1985. Wine For Sale: Victoria Wine and the Liquor Trade 1860–1984: London: B.T. Batsford Ltd. Mila is a first year PhD student at the University of Strathclyde supervised by Prof Kirstie Blair and Prof Matt Smith. She holds a Master of Science in Book History and Material Culture from the University of Edinburgh. Her AHRC funded doctoral project adopts a book-historical approach to trace the origins, production and dissemination of periodicals published in nineteenth-century asylums and to examine the use of letterpress printing as therapy in Scotland and abroad. Mara Dougall

Occupying the Govanhill Pool Building

From the 1960s until the early 1990s, Scottish brewer Tennent Caledonian sold cans of lager featu... more From the 1960s until the early 1990s, Scottish brewer Tennent Caledonian sold cans of lager featuring provocative photographs of women dressed in skimpy outfits or swimwear. These women were branded the ‘Lager Lovelies’ and as a marketing strategy, the women and the cans were hugely successful. However from a feminist standpoint, the cans symbolised sexual objectification and exploitation. The dispute centres on a real terms pay cut offered by the pay body - College Employers Scotland, and the potential threat of compulsory redundancies. Brian Howard Harrison (1994) Drink and the Victorians: the temperance question in England, 1815-1872 She is interested in social and public policy, disability and education history and the development of early social enterprises. Erin Lux

Supervisors: Dr Liam Bell (Creative Writing, University of Stirling), Dr Laura Kelly (History of Medicine, University of Strathclyde) Jennifer Farquharson In an article in The British Medical Journal in 1898, Dr F. C. Coley argued that doctors should warn patients and the general population to be wary when buying meat and malt wines. The problem with tonic wines was that they made bold therapeutic claims about the health-giving properties of alcohol based on flimsy medical evidence. Although the therapeutic use of alcohol was generally supported and propagated by doctors who wrote prescriptions for alcohol, it was important that its therapeutic use remains within the boundaries of medical control and not be thrown open to ‘the medically uneducated public.’ In other words, alcohol still had a place in medicine but the general public could not be trusted to use it wisely or responsibly. Yet despite the reservations of the medical profession, tonic wines were a commercial success and the idea of drinking for health was popular among alcohol consumers. As part of my doctoral research into alcohol consumption in late Victorian and Edwardian Britain,... more As part of my doctoral research into alcohol consumption in late Victorian and Edwardian Britain, I endeavoured to find historical sources that offer insights into the drinking habits and uses of alcohol among the majority of consumers. It was important to find sources that provided glimpses into ‘ordinary’ people’s drinking practices and attitudes towards alcohol consumption, as many of the historical sources such as parliamentary papers, offer a biased and moralistic ‘top down’ account of alcohol consumption. The use of oral history transcripts therefore offered a solution to this problem and provided an ideal opportunity to explore the social and cultural meanings of alcohol in the lives of consumers. Colin is a second-year PhD student at the University of Strathclyde and the University of Edinburgh. Broadly speaking, his interests are the history of medicine, LGBTQ+ history, gender history and Middle Eastern history. His SGSAH-funded PhDwill examine the story of the AIDS crisis in Scotland, with a particular focus on health education, media and lived experience. Using archival materials and oral history, he will reconstruct how individuals, organisations, local authorities and the government responded to and were educated about HIV/AIDS in Scotland during the 1980s and 1990. Chloe Shields Around 100 members across four colleges have also walked out in a separate dispute over pay. Workers in Ayrshire College, Dumfries and Galloway College, and West College Scotland are striking on varying days this week (see notes to editor). New College Lanarkshire members took strike action on 7 and 11 September.Weir R. B. 1984. ‘Obsessed with Moderation: The Drink Trades and the Drink Question 1870–1930’: British Journal of Addiction: Volume 79: pp. 93–107. Greenaway J. 2003. Drink and British Politics Since 1830: A Study in Policy Making: Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.