Undergraduate prize winners 2026 announced

Posted: Thursday 13th August 2026

Prizes for Undergraduate Achievement in Maritime History, 2026

The British Commission awards a small number of prizes each year recognising excellence in undergraduate dissertations in the broad field of maritime history.

The Commission is delighted to announce that the following students have been awarded prizes in 2026:

Marcus Bellamy  (University of Plymouth), Whitehaven: A New Town in a Growing World, 1680-1780

Samuel Cantor (University of Plymouth), The Inner Life of ‘The Fighting “G”’: HMS Gloucester’s Lower Deck Aboard and Ashore, 1939-41

Edward Clark (Durham University), Contradictory Constitutions: Smuggling, Liberties, and the Limits of the British Fiscal-Military State in Guernsey, c. 1683-1807

Joshua Unthank  (University of the West of England), West Country Merchant Operation and Identity and the Forging of a British Global Trade Policy, 1550-1620

Yuen Sum Sophia Wong  (University of Edinburgh), Worrying Water Whisperers: Colonial Understandings of the Orang Laut through Discourses of Race, Piracy, and Civilisation

Shelley Yang  (University of Cambridge), ‘The Sea in Augustine’s Political Thought’

Find out more about previous winners and how to apply here.