School of HASS Research Seminar

For Zoom link contact Sandy Boucher aboucher@une.edu.au

This paper presents a reassessment of the coverage of Billy Hughes’ visits to Britain during the First World War by the British press. Hughes, Prime Minister from 1915 to 1923, visited Britain in 1916 and 1918.The prevailing view of historians has been that the 1916 visit was an overwhelming success, which Hughes could not repeat in 1918.

Pivotal to these assessments is the coverage Hughes received in the British press, which is usually viewed as overwhelmingly positive in 1916 and predominantly negative in 1918. With access to digital newspaper archives, it is possible to undertake a more thorough analysis of the press coverage of both visits than historians, working before the availability of digital archives, could hope to achieve. This analysis reveals the coverage of both visits was more nuanced than portrayed in the prevailing assessment

The analysis is presented through the lens of three of the issues Hughes focused on while in Britain: imperial relations, the conduct of the war, and his calls for closer fiscal integration within the Empire.

Hugh Rogers is a Ph.D. candidate in History at UNE. His thesis topic is ‘Billy Hughes and the British press 1916-1918’.

He recently contributed a podcast to the Robert Menzies Institute’s Afternoon Light podcast series, titled ‘The life and foreign policy of arch-conscriptionist Billy Hughes: “A seat at the table”’.