Andrew Williams
LightNews LightNews
anilliams.bsky.social
Andrew Williams
@anilliams.bsky.social
110 followers 390 following 23 posts
PhD History student at the University of the West Indies, Mona; researching early Kingston, Jamaica
Posts Replies Media Videos
Reposted by Andrew Williams
1812andallthat.bsky.social
Just published a new piece for The Lion & the Dragon, the magazine of Cumbria’s Museum of Military Life. It dives into some colourful episodes of officer misconduct during the Napoleonic Wars. If duelling, disorder, and general drama are your thing, have a look:
eamonnokeeffe1812.com/2026/01/28/a...
A Most Rascally Corps? Duelling and Disorder in the 55th Foot
I was recently asked to write a short article about the 55th Regiment of Foot for The Lion & the Dragon, the magazine of Cumbria’s Museum of Military Life. Located in Carlisle Castle in n…
eamonnokeeffe1812.com
January 28, 2026 at 3:31 PM
Reposted by Andrew Williams
heatherfro.bsky.social
The Library Company of Philadelphia will become part of Temple Libraries
now.temple.edu/news/2025-12...
Temple University Board of Trustees vote to approve merger with Library Company of Philadelphia
Upon completion of the merger, the Library Company will become part of Temple Libraries, helping to further enrich one of the top university research libraries in North America.
now.temple.edu
December 12, 2025 at 7:43 PM
Reposted by Andrew Williams
evansmithhist.bsky.social
In our recent volume, 'Forced Migration: Exiles and Refugees in the UK and the British Empire', @anilliams.bsky.social contributed a chapter on the forced deportation of Liverpool's Chinese seamen at the end of WWII.

@andrekosvarnava.bsky.social @yiannicart.bsky.social

brill.com/display/book...
chapter 7 Liverpool’s Chinese Community: the Second World War, Exile, and Repatriation Andrew Williams The forced repatriation of Chinese seamen at the end of the Second World War from Liverpool, in Northwest England, was the subject of a long- form journalistic investigation in 2021, published in The Guardian newspaper.1 A few weeks later, Liverpool Labour mp Kim Johnson raised it in Parliament. She called on the Conservative government to launch an inquiry into the affair and to acknowledge that in the case of these men, and the families they left behind, ‘justice delayed’ was ‘justice denied.’2 In response, the Home Office – the department responsible for immigration – pledged to investigate the actions of its antecedents in conspiring to repatriate hundreds of Chinese men after Britain had defeated fascism in Europe and Asia. Liverpool’s Chinese community has always been centred in its Chinatown, which is claimed to be the oldest in Europe, although substantive historical investigations into this community are few and far between. Perhaps the best account has been written by Maria Lin Wong, whom in 1989 published a history based primarily on oral testimony.3 Gregory B. Lee, a Chinese studies scholar, has published other research, approaching the history of the community from a postcolonial studies perspective.4 Even fewer publications directly address the forced repatriation of Chinese seamen after the Second World War. Wong made only brief mention of it based on what she was told and would have been unable to explore it any further as the archival sources had not been released to the public at the time. John Belchem, in his valuable history of race relations in twentieth- century Liverpool, did provide an account of the repatriation, but..
October 20, 2025 at 8:35 AM
anilliams.bsky.social
Working on early 1700s Jamaica, what is the best and clearest phrase to use to succinctly refer to the 11-ish continental colonies of British America? Just "continental British America"? Any other ideas?
July 10, 2025 at 5:23 PM
anilliams.bsky.social
Some excellent merchants' marks at the Library Company of Philadelphia
May 16, 2025 at 3:36 PM
Reposted by Andrew Williams
livingwithwater.bsky.social
Hello new followers! (Except the bots, no hello for you.) Reminder that our Living With Water online event series (conference, festival, multiday extravaganza, call it what you will) starts next Thursday! Details here livingwithwater.hcommons.org
Living With Water: Agency, Materiality, Narratives – International online seminar series, May 2025
livingwithwater.hcommons.org
April 28, 2025 at 9:44 AM
Reposted by Andrew Williams
pbhellawell.bsky.social
I'm very pleased to share news of a new project I am leading at The National Archives. PASSAGE combines archival research on the transatlantic trade of enslaved people with an international programme that centres the research of West African & Caribbean scholars.

Read more here: shorturl.at/XLyC8
Major grant to fund research into the history of transatlantic slavery - The National Archives
The National Archives has been awarded a £1 million grant by Lloyd’s Register Foundation for a new, collaborative research programme on the history of the transatlantic trade in enslaved people. PASSA...
www.nationalarchives.gov.uk
February 26, 2025 at 11:40 AM
anilliams.bsky.social
The sad loss of Trevor Burnard, Karl Watson, Roy Augier, and Pedro Welch in the past few months has been a real blow to Caribbean history
February 22, 2025 at 1:26 PM
Reposted by Andrew Williams
evansmithhist.bsky.social
The new edited volume “Forced Migration: Exiles and Refugees in the UK and the British Empire, 1815–1949”, co-edited by @andrekosvarnava.bsky.social, @yiannicart.bsky.social and myself, is out in April and now has a website/cover. Pre-order available soon!

brill.com/display/titl...
Forced Migration: Exiles and Refugees in the UK and the British Empire, 1815–1949
"Forced Migration: Exiles and Refugees in the UK and the British Empire, 1815–1949" published on 24 Apr 2025 by Brill.
brill.com
January 6, 2025 at 9:49 AM
Reposted by Andrew Williams
ystadaucymru.bsky.social
Delighted that, together with Bangor University Archives, we’ve been awarded Welsh Government funding to digitise Jamaica papers within the Penrhyn estate archive:

www.bangor.ac.uk/iswe/news/ba...
Bangor University Archives awarded Welsh Government grant for Digitisation of Penrhyn Jamaica Papers | Bangor University
www.bangor.ac.uk
December 19, 2024 at 12:42 PM
anilliams.bsky.social
Gravestone of Archibald Monteath, the author of one of the few surviving Caribbean slave testimonies. Carmel Moravian Church, Westmoreland, Jamaica.
December 8, 2024 at 7:25 PM
Reposted by Andrew Williams
lrb.co.uk
‘If the painting was nothing more than a realistic portrait of an 18th-century Black scholar in his study, that would be extraordinary enough. It’s the earliest such image in Western art, the first self-presentation of a Black person as an intellectual.’

www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Fara Dabhoiwala · A Man of Parts and Learning: Francis Williams Gets His Due
The only certainty about the picture is that it shows Francis Williams. No one has ever been able to discover who...
www.lrb.co.uk
November 19, 2024 at 5:10 PM