Trevor Lummis

Trevor Lummis is an English writer and historian.

He spent ten years as an Able Seaman in the Merchant Navy before resuming studies as a mature age student at the New Battle Abbey College. He subsequently graduated from the University of Edinburgh, University of London and University of Essex. He specialises in 19th and 20th century social and oral history.

Bibliography

* "Life and Death in Eden - Pitcairn Island and the Bounty Mutineers", Phoenix Books, London 1999 ISBN 0-7538-1014-X
* "The Labour Aristocracy 1851-1914"

CURRICULUM VITAE

Trevor Lummis spent ten years as an able seaman in the Merchant navy. After some further years as a manual worker he resumed his education as a mature student at Newbattle Abbey College and is a graduate of the universities of Edinburgh, London, and Essex. He was a senior research officer at the University of Essex, where he specialised in nineteenth- and twentieth-century social and oral history. He is a past Honorary Treasurer of the Oral History Society and held an Honorary Fellowship in the Department of Sociology at Essex. He has now committed himself to writing for a wider readership.

Publications.

Books.

Pacific Paradises: The Discovery of Tahiti and Hawaii, Sutton Publishing, Stroud, 2005.

Pitcairn Island: Life and Death in Eden, Ashgate. London. 1997.

Re-issued as:- Life and Death in Eden:Pitcairn Island and the Bounty mutineers, Victor Gollancz, London.1999. Life and Death in Eden:Pitcairn Island and the Bounty mutineers, Orion Books:Phoenix Paperback. London. 2000

[and in translation.] Italian. L’Ultimo uomo del Bounty, Piemme. 2000. Dutch Leven en dood in het paradijs, Uitgeverij Atlas. 2001.

The Labour Aristocracy 1851 - 1914, Scolar Press, 1994.

The Woman's Domain, co-author Jan Marsh, Viking/National Trust, 1990.

Listening to History: The authenticity of oral evidence, Hutchinson, 1987. Also Barnes and Noble Books, New Jersey, USA, 1988.

Occupation and Society: the East Anglian fishermen 1880-1914, Cambridge University Press, 1985. Living the Fishing, with Paul Thompson and Tony Wailey, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1983.

Articles and essays.

'Structure and Validity in Oral Evidence', The Oral History Reader (eds) Robert Perks and Alistair Thomson, Routledge. 1998

‘Oral History’ Reprinted in Folklore, Cultural Performances, and Popular Entertainments, Richard Bauman (ed.), Oxford University Press, 1992.

'Oral History', International Encyclopaedia of Communications, Erik Barnouw (ed.), Oxford University Press, 1986.

Contributor to the Open University's East Anglian Studies Resource Pack, and presenter of the Oral History Cassette which is part of it. 1984

'The Historical Dimension of Fatherhood: a case study 1890-1914', in L. McKee and M. O'Brien (eds), The Father Figure, Tavistock, 1982

'Structure and Validity in Oral Evidence', International Journal of Oral History, June, 1981, U.S.A.

'The Class Perceptions of East Anglian Fishermen: an historical dimension through oral evidence', British Journal of Sociology, March, 1979

'Historical Data and the Social Sciences', Open University Cassettes, D301.06 to D301.11, 1974.

'Charles Booth: Social Scientist or Moralist?', Economic History Review, February, 1971.

OtherHistorical consultant to the The ‘Bounty’ Hunters a television documentary on the work of a team from James Cook University, Queensland which was diving on the wreck of the Bounty and other archeological work on Pitcairn Island. This was transmitted March 1999 on Channel 4. British Television.

Education.

1935-44 Primary and Secondary Schools

1963- 5 Newbattle Abbey College of Adult Education

1965- 9 University of Edinburgh

1969-70 University of London Institute of Education

1971-81 University of Essex.

Qualifications

1969 M.A.(Hons) British History (2:1).

1970 Graduate Certificate in Education (Merit).

1973 M.A. Sociology.

1981 Ph.D. Social History.

Distinctions

1982-86 Hon. Treasurer of the Oral History Society.

1984-86 Hon. Fellow of the Department of Sociology, University of Essex.

Career history.

1944-48 Factory worker

1948-57 Able Seaman: Merchant Navy

1957-63 Manual worker: mainly in the building industry

1963-70 Full-time education detailed above

1971-73 Research Assistant (part-time) and M.A. student at the University of Essex, Department of Sociology.

1974-84 Senior Research Officer (part-time) and lecturer (part-time) University of Essex.

1976-81 Tutor-counsellor for the Open University D101 Social Science Foundation Course

1980-88 Lecturer for the London Programme of Drew University, Madison, New Jersey, U.S.A. Research Experience.

At the University of Essex his research work has been in social history through oral history methods. After working as research assistant on Family Life and Work Experience before 1918 he was senior research officer on The Family and Community Life of East Anglian Fishermen (Social Science Research Council grant HR 2656/1) which focused in particular on the working environment and its effect on industrial and community relations, and subsequently on The Systematic Analysis of Life Histories (Social Science Research Council grant HR 7841) which coded the oral interviews for computer archiving and analysis. All projects were directed by Paul Thompson and Lummis was the sole researcher on the two numbered projects.

During the above period he taught on the Social History courses both at undergraduate and graduate level. He also worked as a tutor-counsellor for the Open University Social ScienceCourse. Other teaching was with the London Programme of Drew University, USA.

the Universities of Edinburgh, London, and Essex. He was a senior research officer at the University of Essex, where he specialised in nineteenth and twentieth century social and oral history. He is a past Honorary Treasurer of the Oral History Society and held an Honorary Fellowship in the Department of Sociology at Essex. He is now committed writing for a wider readership.

Publications.

Academic.

Living the Fishing, with Paul Thompson and Tony Wailey, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1983.

Occupation and Society: the East Anglian fishermen 1880-1914, Cambridge University Press, 1985.

Listening to History: The authenticity of oral evidence, Hutchinson, 1987. Also Barnes and Noble Books, New Jersey, USA, 1988.

The Labour Aristocracy 1851 - 1914, Scolar Press, 1994.

Pitcairn Island: Life and Death in Eden, Ashgate. 1997. [Reissued: see below]

Plus numerous articles and contributions to journals, encyclopaedia and compilations.

Popular history.

The Woman's Domain, co-author Jan Marsh, Viking/National Trust, 1990.

* Life and Death in Eden: Pitcairn Island and the Bounty mutineers, Victor Gollancz, London. 1999.

* Reissued as:-

Life and Death in Eden: Pitcairn Island and the Bounty mutineers. Phoenix Paperback. Orion Books. London. 2000

In translation:

Italian. L’Ultimo Uomo del Bounty, Piemme Hardback. 2000. Dutch. Forthcoming. 2001.

Two other scripts are in first draft.

Admiral Nelson’s Coat: and the curious history of his lost sword.

Admiral Nelson’s career and his death at the Battle of Trafalgar, his affair with Emma Hamilton and his friendship with Sir William Hamilton are well-known. This script presents a unique approach to a popular subject. The coat in which Nelson died is now a major exhibit of the Greenwich Maritime Museum. It disappeared from public view for some forty years after his death before being brought to light and presented to Greenwich Hospital in the mid-1840s. The antique dealer - Thomas Evans - who discovered it was cheated of the honour of bringing to the nation by the underhand actions of Sir Nicholas Nicolas, ex-naval officer, scholar and biographer of Nelson. He enlisted to support of Nelson’s illegitimate daughter Horatia (then Mrs Ward) who used her influence with the widow of Alderman Smith of London who had acquired many of Emma Hamilton’s possessions when she was in poverty. Mrs Smith believed that she was selling it to Horatia and gave her preference. The money came from Queen Victoria’s consort Prince Albert. Thomas Evans then published a pamphlet exposing the ungentlemany behaviour of Sir Nicholas.

Having been cheated of the coat Thomas Evans brought the sword and, through a wealthy client, presented it to the Museum. Sir Nicholas Nicolas (expert on all things Nelsonian) promptly branded the sword a fake and accused the antique dealer of manufacturing Nelsonian relics in a letter to The Times This correspondence resulted in Thomas Evans suing for libel. The ensuing court case and the enmity between Thomas Evans and Sir Nicholas Nicolas, and the fate of his coat an sword, provide the unusual angle from which to view Nelson’s career and relationships.

In spite of the doubt cast on the sword Admiral Stopford the governor of Greenwich Hospital (as the Maritime Museum then was), who had served with Nelson, displayed it as genuine. Here it is argued that Admiral Stopford, of all people, should have known an admiral’s sword when he saw one. It was on display for decades as genuine, but at present the Museum curators dismiss the sword as a fake and leave it languishing in a store cupboard. We suggest that it is time to reassess such an important national relic. Nelson’s bi-centenary falls in 2005 and the Maritime Museum and others will be making much of the anniversary. The controversy should ensure widespread exposure for the book.

LATITUDE: rings around the Earth.

The five major latitudes, - Equator, Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn, and the Arctic and Antarctic Circles - are actual phenomena established by the movements of the sun and gave the world its first parallel lines from which to commence mapping the world. This book relates the conquest of latitude from the astronomers of the Ancient World until European man finally set foot at the Poles. Ever since the Portuguese overcame the fear of dropping over the edge of the world and crossed the Equator men had the urge every to set foot on degree of latitude Sir Francis Drake leaned over a cliff at Cape Horn in order to boast that he had been further south than any man - a boast repeated by Captain Cook and many others.

As an ex-seaman I am aware that Latitude is the main concern of the sailor. At whatever longitude the experience is much the same, but the experience of latitude in, for example, ‘The Doldrums’ or the ‘Roaring Forties’ is extreme. Because of this the contract of employment signed by sailors limited the degrees of latitude beyond which they are not obliged to sail: there was no such limit to longitude. Ever since the first European crossed the Equator sailors of all nations have been obliged undergo the ceremony of Crossing the Line - although why Neptune and the classical gods should have been invoked by Christian ships remains a mystery.

This script concentrates on the experience of latitude and how mariners used it circle and explore the globe through and their experiences from the Equator to the Arctic Oceans through to the final explorers who planted their flags at the Poles.

Proposed Subjects. [These are at various levels of completion]

PACIFIC PARADISES. Tahiti, Hawaii and the Europeans.Not discovered until 1767 and 1776 respectively these two island groups were two of the most populous and highly developed Polynesian civilisations. They burst upon the European consciousness as epitomising Rousseau’s ‘noble savage’ , yet by the 1840s their populations had been reduced to a quarter and their way of life destroyed. Explorers and traders were followed by missionaries who were appalled at their free sexuality, open homosexuality, and abortion; values then condemned but which the West has now accepted. During a period when British children were working twelve hours a day from infancy, Polynesian children lead carefree lives: it was even taboo for their parents to chastise them. This clash of cultures is a continuous thread of the story and is given contemporary relevance through the gradual acceptance of Polynesian sexual mores and the culture of birth control and environmental protection which enabled them to balance their population to limited resources. The lives and experiences of the motley collection of explorers, traders, deserters and escaped convicts who played a role in these events provide adventurous material that one might hesitate to include in a novel.