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A brief history of Portsmouth

Portsmouth was England’s battlefront during the French Invasion in 1545. The English fleet sought shelter in the heavily-fortified city when the French immensely outnumbered them by the number of ships and troops.

There are various accounts behind the city’s other name, Pompey. It is said that the nickname came from Po'm.P., the contraction used by navigational charts as a log entry for Portsmouth Point. One historian stated that the nickname originated from a group of sailors who frequented Pompey’s Pillar in Egypt during the 18th century. A third claim explained that the nickname was derived from the French ship, Pompee which was given to the British following the Siege of Toulon in 1793.

The industrial Revolution ignited in Portsmouth following the establishment of the first production line in Block Mills.

In 1194, King Richard I decreed Portsmouth as a market town by virtue of a royal charter. Portsmouth earned its city status in 1926, deriving its motto “Heaven’s Light Our Guide” from its coat of arms. The city obtained its unitary authority on April 1, 1997.

The Royal Engineers built forts around Portsmouth in 1859 in response to threats of another French invasion.

Despite its strong fortifications, Portsmouth wasn’t spared from the series of bombings during the World War II. The largest bombing incident is known as the Portsmouth Blitz, wherein the city suffered damage and deaths. This attack sparked the D-Day landings on June 6, 1994.

The decline of the British Empire’s power hurt Portsmouth's economy, especially its shipbuilding industry. From 1951 to 1966, the dockyard experienced a drastic reduction in workforce. For the following years, the city council made a move to address the employment problem by creating industrial areas in Fratton, Paulsgrove, and Farlington. Corset manufacturing soon vanished along with other traditional industries in the emergence of electrical engineering as a major line of business.