Artist, Sir Stanley Spencer RA CBE, worked at the Beaufort Military hospital in Bristol during the First World War. Paul Gough retells Spencer’s experience at the hospital (now UWE’s Glenside Campus), through his diary entries and other primary sources. During his time in service, Spencer recorded in his diary a personal revelation which transformed his outlook and attitude to his work. This revelation would inform his later artwork which came to be celebrated at Newbury.
Tag: medicine
Archaeology’s Best Known Skeleton
Brian Edwards explores the mystery of the barber-surgeon, the fourteenth-century skeleton found beneath a stone at Avebury megalith. Edwards recounts the discovery by archaeologist Alexander Keiller and considers how Keiller’s background may have influenced what would become the dominant narrative about the identity of this mysterious character. The article introduces other potential identities of the barber-surgeon, based on texts about the Avebury Stones that were not available when the original conclusion was drawn. Even with this new evidence, the story of the skeleton is no less tantalizing.