Students from the History and Heritage Club have carried out a research project about Eugénie de Montijo, the last Empress of France and wife of Napoleon III. She lived in Farnborough for the last 40 years of her life, and is an important figure in our local history as well as European, 19th Century and women's history.

Students used portraits from a range of archives and collections alongside other sources to provide an overview of Eugénie's life as Empress in France and also as Empress-in-exile in Farnborough. There are 23 articles or creative pieces about her life that you can read on the History and Heritage website here.

We are lucky to have very rich history and heritage in our local area, and we hope that our project helps to put the college's immediate local area in its historical context. Within a 5 minute walk of Farnborough Sixth Form College are Napoleon Avenue, Empress Avenue, St Michael's Road and Pierrefondes Avenue, all of which were named for their connections to Eugénie. If you walk from College to Farnborough Main Station you will also walk past Farnborough Hill School where Eugénie lived, and can see St Michael's Abbey on the opposite hill.

We hope you enjoy reading about Eugénie and the primary sources connected with her.

This project was submitted to the Hampshire Archive Trust Schools Competition and was awarded as the winner in the Group Sixth Form Category!

Trustee, Dr Alastair Dougall, commented on behalf of the team of judges “This project is a tour de force. It is a superb project in which the sixth formers have analysed an impressive range of primary sources (including portraits, etchings, drawings, medals and photographs) to tell the story of Empress Eugenie, including her life in exile in Farnborough. It is full of historical content and excellent analysis of the sources with very good individual contributions from each of the students. It makes for a very interesting read and is extremely well presented. It demonstrates that when a group of individuals truly work as a team they are able to produce more than the sum of their parts. The breadth of sources, the range of images, and the multifaceted perspectives are all most impressive. Moreover, the attention to detail and nuance on display is also noteworthy. Not only were portraits decoded and deconstructed, but other images and objects were subject to close analysis. One example is to contextualize the presentation of symbols of ancient military victory on French medals within the claims of the Ottoman and Russian Empires to be 'Third Rome'. At the other end of the scale - we also enjoyed learning of the link between the Empress and Louis Vuitton. We would also note the attention to detail when it came to referencing sources. We love to see any future projects created by these up and coming historians.”

Very well done to everyone involved!