1.
United Kingdom
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The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom or Britain, is a sovereign country in western Europe. Lying off the north-western coast of the European mainland, the United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom that shares a land border with another sovereign state—the Republic of Ireland. The Irish Sea lies between Great Britain and Ireland, with an area of 242,500 square kilometres, the United Kingdom is the 78th-largest sovereign state in the world and the 11th-largest in Europe. It is also the 21st-most populous country, with an estimated 65.1 million inhabitants, together, this makes it the fourth-most densely populated country in the European Union. The United Kingdom is a monarchy with a parliamentary system of governance. The monarch is Queen Elizabeth II, who has reigned since 6 February 1952, other major urban areas in the United Kingdom include the regions of Birmingham, Leeds, Glasgow, Liverpool and Manchester. The United Kingdom consists of four countries—England, Scotland, Wales, the last three have devolved administrations, each with varying powers, based in their capitals, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast, respectively. The relationships among the countries of the UK have changed over time, Wales was annexed by the Kingdom of England under the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. A treaty between England and Scotland resulted in 1707 in a unified Kingdom of Great Britain, which merged in 1801 with the Kingdom of Ireland to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Five-sixths of Ireland seceded from the UK in 1922, leaving the present formulation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, there are fourteen British Overseas Territories. These are the remnants of the British Empire which, at its height in the 1920s, British influence can be observed in the language, culture and legal systems of many of its former colonies. The United Kingdom is a country and has the worlds fifth-largest economy by nominal GDP. The UK is considered to have an economy and is categorised as very high in the Human Development Index. It was the worlds first industrialised country and the worlds foremost power during the 19th, the UK remains a great power with considerable economic, cultural, military, scientific and political influence internationally. It is a nuclear weapons state and its military expenditure ranks fourth or fifth in the world. The UK has been a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council since its first session in 1946 and it has been a leading member state of the EU and its predecessor, the European Economic Community, since 1973. However, on 23 June 2016, a referendum on the UKs membership of the EU resulted in a decision to leave. The Acts of Union 1800 united the Kingdom of Great Britain, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have devolved self-government
2.
Army Reserve (United Kingdom)
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The Army Reserve is the active-duty volunteer reserve force and integrated element of the British Army. Most Volunteer infantry units had unique identities, but lost these in the reorganisation, only one infantry unit, the London Regiment, has maintained a separate identity. Reservists in the past also served as constables or bailiffs, even holding positions of civic duty as overseer of their parish, the more modern Yeomen of the 18th century were cavalry-based units, which were often used to suppress riots. Several units that are now part of the Army Reserve bear the title militia, after the Second World War, for example, the Army Reserve - or Territorial Army as it was known then - was not demobilised until 1947. All Army Reserve personnel have their jobs protected to a limited extent by law should they be compulsorily mobilised. There is, however, no protection against discrimination in employment for membership of the Army Reserve in the normal course of events. As part of the process, remaining units of militia were converted to the Special Reserve. The TF was formed on 1 April 1908 and contained fourteen infantry divisions and it had an overall strength of approximately 269,000. The individual units that made up each division or brigade were administered by County Associations, the other members of the association consisted of military members, representative members and co-opted members. Associations took over any property vested in the volunteers or yeomanry under their administration, each regiment or battalion had a Regular Army officer attached as full-time adjutant. In August 1914, after the outbreak of the First World War, territorial units were given the option of serving in France and, by 25 August, in excess of seventy battalions had volunteered. This question over the availability of territorial divisions for service was one of Lord Kitcheners motivations for raising the New Army separately. The first fully Territorial division to join the fighting on the Western Front was the 46th Division in March 1915, with divisions later serving in Gallipoli and elsewhere. As the war progressed, and casualties mounted, the character of territorial units was diluted by the inclusion of conscript. Following the Armistice all units of the Territorial Force were gradually disbanded, New recruiting started in early 1920, and the Territorial Force was reconstituted on 7 February 1920. On 1 October 1920, the Territorial Force was renamed the Territorial Army, the 1st Line divisions were reconstituted in that year. However, the composition of the divisions was altered, with a reduction in the number of infantry battalions required, there was also a reduced need for cavalry, and of the 55 yeomanry regiments, only the 14 most senior retained their horses. The remaining yeomanry were converted to artillery or armoured car units or disbanded, the amalgamation of 40 pairs of infantry battalions was announced in October 1921
3.
Special forces
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Special forces and special operations forces are military or police units trained to conduct special operations. The term special forces in the United States refers to the U. S. Armys forces, in Russian-speaking countries special forces are typically called spetsnaz, an acronym for special purpose. Likewise, Russian speakers refer to special forces of nations as spetsnaz, for example. Special Forces would be referred to as amerikanski spetsnaz in Russian, other significant roles lay in reconnaissance, providing essential intelligence from near or among the enemy and increasingly in combating irregular forces, their infrastructure and activities. Hamilcar Barca in Sicily had specialized troops trained to launch several offensives per day, in the late Roman or early Byzantine period, Roman fleets used small, fast, camouflaged ships crewed by selected men for scouting and commando missions. In Japan, ninjas were used for reconnaissance, espionage and as assassins, bodyguards or fortress guards, during the Napoleonic wars, rifle and sapper units were formed that held specialised roles in reconnaissance and skirmishing and were not committed to the formal battle lines. The British Indian Army deployed two special forces during their wars, the Corps of Guides formed in 1846 and the Gurkha Scouts. During the Second Boer War the British Army felt the need for specialised units became most apparent. This unit was formed in 1900 by Lord Lovat and early on reported to an American, Major Frederick Russell Burnham, after the war, Lovats Scouts went on to formally become the British Armys first sniper unit. Additionally, the Bushveldt Carbineers, formed in 1901, can be seen as an unconventional warfare unit. Modern special forces emerged during the Second World War, in 1940, the British Commandos were formed following Winston Churchills call for specially trained troops of the hunter class, who can develop a reign of terror down the enemy coast. A staff officer, Lieutenant Colonel Dudley Clarke, had already submitted such a proposal to General Sir John Dill, Dill, aware of Churchills intentions, approved Clarkes proposal and on 23 June 1940, the first Commando raid took place. The Special Service Brigade was quickly expanded to 12 units which became known as Commandos, each Commando had a lieutenant colonel as the commanding officer and numbered around 450 men. In December 1940 a Middle East Commando depot was formed with the responsibility of training and supplying reinforcements for the Commando units in that theatre, in February 1942 the Commando training depot at Achnacarry in the Scottish Highlands was established by Brigadier Charles Haydon. Under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Charles Vaughan, the Commando depot was responsible for training complete units, the training regime was for the time innovative and physically demanding, and far in advance of normal British Army training. The depot staff were all hand picked, with the ability to any of the volunteers. Training and assessment started immediately on arrival, with the volunteers having to complete an 8-mile march with all their equipment from the Spean Bridge railway station to the commando depot, exercises were conducted using live ammunition and explosives to make training as realistic as possible. Physical fitness was a prerequisite, with cross country runs and boxing matches to improve fitness, speed and endurance marches were conducted up and down the nearby mountain ranges and over assault courses that included a zip-line over Loch Arkaig, all while carrying arms and full equipment
4.
Long-range reconnaissance patrol
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A long-range reconnaissance patrol, or LRRP, is a small, heavily-armed reconnaissance team that patrols deep in enemy-held territory. The concept of scouts date back to the origins of warfare itself, the British employed the American Major Robert Rogers to make long-range attacks against the French and their Indian allies along the frontiers of the British colonies and New France. S. Army Long-range Reconnaissance Patrol units, including the U. S. Army Rangers, and indeed, during the Second World War, the 2/1st North Australia Observer Unit was tasked with patrolling the remote areas of northern Australia on horseback. Many from the Unit were recruited to join M Special Unit and Z Special Unit for long-range specialist reconnaissance, in the 1980s the Regional Force Surveillance Units were formed to conduct long range reconnaissance and surveillance patrols in the sparsely populated and remote regions of northern Australia. The Special Air Service Regiment also conducts long-ranged patrols, and has done so during combat, the Canadian Rangers conduct long-range surveillance or sovereignty patrols in the sparsely settled areas of Northern Canada. Although part of the Canadian Army, they are a military force. The last companie was assigned to the Jutland Division and co-located whit Jægerkorpset in Ålborg, In Finland and these units penetrated Soviet lines and conducted reconnaissance and destroy missions. During the trench warfare period of war, long-range patrols were conducted by special Finnish sissi troops. After the war NATO hired a former members of 4th Detached Battalion to spy on Soviet Union military bases on the Kuola, NATO ended the spy operation in 1957. Espionage data were obtained from the forward satellite, former President of Finland, Mauno Koivisto, served in Lauri Törnis specially designed Jäger Company in the Finnish 1st Infantry Division. Lauri Törni became a US citizen and entered the US Army Special Forces and he gave important knowledge in long-range patrolling techniques and was declared MIA during the Vietnam War in 1965, until his remains were found and were buried in Arlington on 26 June 2003. In the German Bundeswehr, LRRP is called Fernspäher, historically, the German Fernspäher units were modelled after the Finnish long-range patrols and derived from the existing elite units of Gebirgsjäger and Fallschirmjäger. Originally, there were three companies of Fernspäher in the Bundeswehr, one being assigned to each corps, since the reformation of German Special Forces in 1996, the Fernspählehrkompanie 200 is the single remaining Fernspäher unit. The Fernspähers are part of the Special Operations Division, fSLK200 is the only German special force-type unit which has also recruited women. Special Frontier Force is considered a long-range reconnaissance patrol or pathfinder and they were trained against the Chinese but used to great success in Pakistan-administered Kashmir and in the northern state of Punjab. Historically, airborne units are tasked with carrying, apart for the ordinary airborne assaults. After World War 2, during the Cold War, the main LRRP unit was the Col Moschin Parachute Assault Company and this group later was incorporated in the Folgore Airborne Brigade, becoming the 185th Reggimento Ricognizione Acquisizione Obiettivi. The Kenya Defence Forces has one LRS unit based in Nairobi and this unit shares LRP missions with the Special Forces Group
5.
Reconnaissance
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In military operations, reconnaissance is the exploration outside an area occupied by friendly forces to gain information about natural features and enemy presence. Examples of reconnaissance include patrolling by troops, ships or submarines, manned/unmanned reconnaissance aircraft, satellites, espionage normally is not reconnaissance, because reconnaissance is a militarys special forces operating ahead of its main forces, spies are non-combatants operating behind enemy lines. Often called recce or recon, the verb is reconnaître. Traditionally, reconnaissance was a role that was adopted by the cavalry, speed was key in these maneuvers, thus infantry was ill suited to the task. From horses to vehicles, for warriors throughout history, commanders procured their ability to have speed and mobility, to mount and dismount, skirmishing is a traditional skill of reconnaissance, as well as harassment of the enemy. Reconnaissance conducted by ground forces includes special reconnaissance, armored reconnaissance, amphibious reconnaissance, aerial reconnaissance is reconnaissance carried out by aircraft. The purpose is to weather conditions, map terrain, and may include military purposes such as observing tangible structures, particular areas. Naval forces use aerial and satellite reconnaissance to observe enemy forces, navies also undertake hydrographic surveys and intelligence gathering. Reconnaissance satellites provide military commanders with photographs of enemy forces and other intelligence, military forces also use geographical and meteorological information from Earth observation satellites. A tracker needs to pay attention to both the environment and the psychology of his enemy. Knowledge of human psychology, sociology, and cultural backgrounds is necessary to know the actions of the enemy and this is almost as necessary as to know the physical character of the country, its climate and products. Certain people will do certain things almost without fail, certain other things, perfectly feasible, they will not do. There is no danger of knowing too much of the habits of an enemy. One should neither underestimate the enemy nor credit him with superhuman powers, fear and courage are latent in every human being, though roused into activity by very diverse means. Types of reconnaissance, Terrain-oriented reconnaissance is a survey of the terrain, force-oriented reconnaissance focuses on the enemy forces and may include target acquisition. Civil-oriented reconnaissance focuses on the dimension of the battlespace. The techniques and objectives are not mutually exclusive, it is up to the commander whether they are carried out separately or by the same unit, some military elements tasked with reconnaissance are armed only for self-defense, and rely on stealth to gather information. Others are well-enough armed to also deny information to the enemy by destroying their reconnaissance elements, reconnaissance-in-force is a type of military operation or military tactics used specifically to probe an enemys disposition
6.
Regent's Park Barracks
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The Regents Park Barracks, commonly known as the Albany Street Barracks, is a British Army barracks located on Albany Street, London, near Regents Park. The barracks were constructed in 1820-1821 as cavalry barracks for the Life Guards, nash had originally intended the barracks to be situated in the northern area of the park, well away from the residential area, and separated from the rest of the park by Regents Canal. However Nashs plan was not accepted in its entirety by the Crown with one of the changes involving a change in the location of the barracks to its present site. Originally designed to house 450 officers and men and 400 horses the barracks were almost entirely rebuilt between 1891 and 1893, the rebuilding followed the original general layout, and carried out under the supervision of Colonel R. Athorpe. The layout comprises a complex of buildings arranged around a parade ground, the only building to survive from the original barracks is the Officers Mess which was built in 1820-21 and is situated on the east side of the parade ground. Other buildings at the end of the site include the Gothic chapel which was built in 1857. Three parallel blocks used for accommodation and stables, service buildings. From 1896 to 1969, the Royal Horse Guards were based there, on 24 September 1971 an anarchist group called the Angry Brigade bombed the barracks in response to Operation Banner, the British Armys presence in Northern Ireland during the Troubles. With the formation of the Household Cavalry Mounted Regiment in 1991, in 2014 it was reported that the Ministry of Defence was considering moving the Household Cavalry back to Albany Street to help speed up the sale of Hyde Park Barracks. The music hall comedian Ida Barr, whose name was Maud Barlow, was born in the barracks on 17 January 1882. In H. G. Wells The War of the Worlds, there is a mention of it, Royal Logistic Corps Special Air Service The Queens Royal Hussars
7.
London
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London /ˈlʌndən/ is the capital and most populous city of England and the United Kingdom. Standing on the River Thames in the south east of the island of Great Britain and it was founded by the Romans, who named it Londinium. Londons ancient core, the City of London, largely retains its 1. 12-square-mile medieval boundaries. London is a global city in the arts, commerce, education, entertainment, fashion, finance, healthcare, media, professional services, research and development, tourism. It is crowned as the worlds largest financial centre and has the fifth- or sixth-largest metropolitan area GDP in the world, London is a world cultural capital. It is the worlds most-visited city as measured by international arrivals and has the worlds largest city airport system measured by passenger traffic, London is the worlds leading investment destination, hosting more international retailers and ultra high-net-worth individuals than any other city. Londons universities form the largest concentration of education institutes in Europe. In 2012, London became the first city to have hosted the modern Summer Olympic Games three times, London has a diverse range of people and cultures, and more than 300 languages are spoken in the region. Its estimated mid-2015 municipal population was 8,673,713, the largest of any city in the European Union, Londons urban area is the second most populous in the EU, after Paris, with 9,787,426 inhabitants at the 2011 census. The citys metropolitan area is the most populous in the EU with 13,879,757 inhabitants, the city-region therefore has a similar land area and population to that of the New York metropolitan area. London was the worlds most populous city from around 1831 to 1925, Other famous landmarks include Buckingham Palace, the London Eye, Piccadilly Circus, St Pauls Cathedral, Tower Bridge, Trafalgar Square, and The Shard. The London Underground is the oldest underground railway network in the world, the etymology of London is uncertain. It is an ancient name, found in sources from the 2nd century and it is recorded c.121 as Londinium, which points to Romano-British origin, and hand-written Roman tablets recovered in the city originating from AD 65/70-80 include the word Londinio. The earliest attempted explanation, now disregarded, is attributed to Geoffrey of Monmouth in Historia Regum Britanniae and this had it that the name originated from a supposed King Lud, who had allegedly taken over the city and named it Kaerlud. From 1898, it was accepted that the name was of Celtic origin and meant place belonging to a man called *Londinos. The ultimate difficulty lies in reconciling the Latin form Londinium with the modern Welsh Llundain, which should demand a form *lōndinion, from earlier *loundiniom. The possibility cannot be ruled out that the Welsh name was borrowed back in from English at a later date, and thus cannot be used as a basis from which to reconstruct the original name. Until 1889, the name London officially applied only to the City of London, two recent discoveries indicate probable very early settlements near the Thames in the London area
8.
Second Boer War
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The Second Boer War, usually known as the Boer War and also at the time as the South African War, started on 11 October 1899 and ended on 31 May 1902. Great Britain defeated two Boer states in South Africa, the South African Republic and the Orange Free State, Britain was aided by its Cape Colony, Colony of Natal and some native African allies. The British war effort was supported by volunteers from the British Empire, including Southern Africa, the Australian colonies, Canada, India. All other nations were neutral, but public opinion in them was largely hostile to Britain, inside Britain and its Empire there also was significant opposition to the Second Boer War. The British were overconfident and under-prepared, the Boers were very well armed and struck first, besieging Ladysmith, Kimberley, and Mafeking in early 1900, and winning important battles at Colenso, Magersfontein and Stormberg. Staggered, the British brought in numbers of soldiers and fought back. General Redvers Buller was replaced by Lord Roberts and Lord Kitchener and they relieved the three besieged cities, and invaded the two Boer republics in late 1900. The onward marches of the British Army were so overwhelming that the Boers did not fight staged battles in defense of their homeland, the British quickly seized control of all of the Orange Free State and Transvaal, as the civilian leadership went into hiding or exile. In conventional terms, the war was over, Britain officially annexed the two countries in 1900, and called a khaki election to give the government another six years of power in London. However, the Boers refused to surrender and they reverted to guerrilla warfare under new generals Louis Botha, Jan Smuts, Christiaan de Wet and Koos de la Rey. Two more years of attacks and quick escapes followed. As guerrillas without uniforms, the Boer fighters easily blended into the farmlands, which provided hiding places, supplies, the British solution was to set up complex nets of block houses, strong points, and barbed wire fences, partitioning off the entire conquered territory. The civilian farmers were relocated into concentration camps, where very large proportions died of disease, especially the children, then the British mounted infantry units systematically tracked down the highly mobile Boer guerrilla units. The battles at this stage were small operations with few combat casualties The war ended in surrender, the British successfully won over the Boer leaders, who now gave full support to the new political system. Both former republics were incorporated into the Union of South Africa in 1910, the conflict is commonly referred to as simply the Boer War, since the First Boer War is much less well known. Boer was the term for Afrikaans-speaking white South Africans descended from the Dutch East India Companys original settlers at the Cape of Good Hope. It is officially called the South African War and it is known as the Anglo-Boer War among some South Africans. In Afrikaans it may be called the Anglo-Boereoorlog, Tweede Boereoorlog, in South Africa it is officially called the South African War
9.
World War I
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World War I, also known as the First World War, the Great War, or the War to End All Wars, was a global war originating in Europe that lasted from 28 July 1914 to 11 November 1918. More than 70 million military personnel, including 60 million Europeans, were mobilised in one of the largest wars in history and it was one of the deadliest conflicts in history, and paved the way for major political changes, including revolutions in many of the nations involved. The war drew in all the worlds great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances, the Allies versus the Central Powers of Germany and Austria-Hungary. These alliances were reorganised and expanded as more nations entered the war, Italy, Japan, the trigger for the war was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, by Yugoslav nationalist Gavrilo Princip in Sarajevo on 28 June 1914. This set off a crisis when Austria-Hungary delivered an ultimatum to the Kingdom of Serbia. Within weeks, the powers were at war and the conflict soon spread around the world. On 25 July Russia began mobilisation and on 28 July, the Austro-Hungarians declared war on Serbia, Germany presented an ultimatum to Russia to demobilise, and when this was refused, declared war on Russia on 1 August. Germany then invaded neutral Belgium and Luxembourg before moving towards France, after the German march on Paris was halted, what became known as the Western Front settled into a battle of attrition, with a trench line that changed little until 1917. On the Eastern Front, the Russian army was successful against the Austro-Hungarians, in November 1914, the Ottoman Empire joined the Central Powers, opening fronts in the Caucasus, Mesopotamia and the Sinai. In 1915, Italy joined the Allies and Bulgaria joined the Central Powers, Romania joined the Allies in 1916, after a stunning German offensive along the Western Front in the spring of 1918, the Allies rallied and drove back the Germans in a series of successful offensives. By the end of the war or soon after, the German Empire, Russian Empire, Austro-Hungarian Empire, national borders were redrawn, with several independent nations restored or created, and Germanys colonies were parceled out among the victors. During the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, the Big Four imposed their terms in a series of treaties, the League of Nations was formed with the aim of preventing any repetition of such a conflict. This effort failed, and economic depression, renewed nationalism, weakened successor states, and feelings of humiliation eventually contributed to World War II. From the time of its start until the approach of World War II, at the time, it was also sometimes called the war to end war or the war to end all wars due to its then-unparalleled scale and devastation. In Canada, Macleans magazine in October 1914 wrote, Some wars name themselves, during the interwar period, the war was most often called the World War and the Great War in English-speaking countries. Will become the first world war in the sense of the word. These began in 1815, with the Holy Alliance between Prussia, Russia, and Austria, when Germany was united in 1871, Prussia became part of the new German nation. Soon after, in October 1873, German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck negotiated the League of the Three Emperors between the monarchs of Austria-Hungary, Russia and Germany
10.
Malayan Emergency
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Malayan Emergency was the colonial governments term for the conflict. The MNLA termed it the Anti-British National Liberation War, the rubber plantations and tin-mining industries had pushed for the use of the term emergency since their losses would not have been covered by Lloyds insurers if it had been termed a war. Despite the communists defeat in 1960, communist leader Chin Peng renewed the insurgency against the Malaysian government in 1967 and he fled to exile in Thailand, where he lived until his death on 16 September 2013. The Malayan economy relied on the export of tin and rubber, when the British took control of the Malayan economy, they imposed taxes on some Malayan goods, affecting their traditional industries. This led to an increase in poverty for the Malayan people, many Chinese people found employment in tin mines or fields responsible for the trade of materials. This heightened inter-ethnic tensions as the Malay people found that ethnic Chinese had replaced them in certain jobs and this forced many Malays into the rubber industry, which in turn was heavily dependent upon volatile world prices. Economic tension intensified during the Second World War. The Japanese occupation of Malaya began in 1941 and from that point onwards the “export of primary products was limited to the small amounts required for the Japanese economy. ”This led to large areas of rubber plantations being abandoned. The latter was progressively affected by a shortage of parts for machines. Rice imports, which made up a portion of the Malayan diet, fell rapidly due to limited trade. Many people believed that the British would soon return and ‘save’ them so they did not attempt to learn the skills that would be essential for survival. This then led to famine in Malaya from 1942. The withdrawal of Japan at the end of World War II left the British Malayan economy disrupted, problems included unemployment, low wages, and high levels of food inflation, well above the healthy rate of 2–3%. The Malayan Communist Party began to use the failing economy as a tool of propaganda against the British, the British had not addressed the underlying economic problems that were now worse within Malaya than they had ever been. There was considerable labour unrest and a number of strikes occurred between 1946 and 1948. One example of this was a 24-hour general strike organised by the MCP on 29 January 1946, during this time, the British administration was attempting to organise Malayas economy, as revenue from Malayas tin and rubber industries was important to Britains own post-war recovery. Protesters were dealt with harshly, by measures including arrests and deportations, in turn, protesters became increasingly militant. In 1947, alone, the communists in Malaya organised a further 300 strikes, on 16 June 1948, the first overt act of the war took place when three European plantation managers were killed at Sungai Siput, Perak
11.
War on Terror
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The War on Terror, also known as the Global War on Terrorism, is a metaphor of war referring to the international military campaign that started after the September 11th attacks on the United States. U. S. President George W. Bush first used the term War on Terror on 20 September 2001 and it was originally used with a particular focus on countries associated with Islamic terrorist organizations including al-Qaeda and like-minded organizations. In 2013, President Barack Obama announced that the United States was no longer pursuing a War on Terror, in 2017 Donald Trump assumed presidency of the United States and vowed that the fight against ISIL is his number one priority. Trump has also agreed to work together and carry joint operations with Russian President Vladimir Putin in the war on terror. The phrase War on Terror has been used to refer to the ongoing military campaign led by the U. S. The conflict has also referred to by names other than the War on Terror. Author Shane Harris asserts this was a reaction to the 1983 Beirut barracks bombing, Bush later apologized for this remark due to the negative connotations the term crusade has to people, e. g. of the Muslim faith. The word crusade was not used again, on 20 September 2001, during a televised address to a joint session of Congress, Bush stated that ur war on terror begins with al-Qaeda, but it does not end there. It will not end until every terrorist group of global reach has been found, stopped, in April 2007, the British government announced publicly that it was abandoning the use of the phrase War on Terror as they found it to be less than helpful. This was explained more recently by Lady Eliza Manningham-Buller, in her 2011 Reith lecture, the former head of MI5 said that the 9/11 attacks were a crime, not an act of war. So I never felt it helpful to refer to a war on terror. U. S. President Barack Obama has rarely used the term, in March 2009 the Defense Department officially changed the name of operations from Global War on Terror to Overseas Contingency Operation. In March 2009, the Obama administration requested that Pentagon staff members avoid the use of the term, basic objectives of the Bush administration war on terror, such as targeting al Qaeda and building international counterterrorism alliances, remain in place. Because the actions involved in the war on terrorism are diffuse, jackson cites among many examples a statement by John Ashcroft that the attacks of September 11 drew a bright line of demarcation between the civil and the savage. Administration officials also described terrorists as hateful, treacherous, barbarous, mad, twisted, perverted, without faith, parasitical, inhuman, Americans, in contrast, were described as brave, loving, generous, strong, resourceful, heroic, and respectful of human rights. The origins of al-Qaeda can be traced to the Soviet war in Afghanistan, a small number of Afghan Arab volunteers joined the fight against the Soviets, including Osama bin Laden, but there is no evidence they received any external assistance. On 7 August 1998, al-Qaeda struck the U. S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, killing 224 people, the plant produced much of the regions antimalarial drugs and around 50% of Sudans pharmaceutical needs. The strikes failed to kill any leaders of WIFJAJC or the Taliban, next came the 2000 millennium attack plots, which included an attempted bombing of Los Angeles International Airport
12.
Regiment
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A regiment is a military unit. Their role and size varies markedly, depending on the country, in Medieval Europe, the term regiment denoted any large body of front-line soldiers, recruited or conscripted in one geographical area, by a leader who was often also the feudal lord of the soldiers. By the 17th century, a regiment was usually about a thousand personnel. In many armies, the first role has been assumed by independent battalions, battlegroups, task forces, brigades and other, similarly-sized operational units. By the beginning of the 18th century, regiments in most European continental armies had evolved into permanent units with distinctive titles and uniforms, when at full strength, an infantry regiment normally comprised two field battalions of about 800 men each or 8–10 companies. In some armies, an independent regiment with fewer companies was labelled a demi-regiment, a cavalry regiment numbered 600 to 900 troopers, making up a single entity. With the widespread adoption of conscription in European armies during the nineteenth century, the regimental system underwent modification. Prior to World War I, a regiment in the French, German, Russian. As far as possible, the battalions would be garrisoned in the same military district, so that the regiment could be mobilized. A cavalry regiment by contrast made up an entity of up to 1,000 troopers. Usually, the regiment is responsible for recruiting and administering all of a military career. Depending upon the country, regiments can be either combat units or administrative units or both and this is often contrasted to the continental system adopted by many armies. Generally, divisions are garrisoned together and share the same installations, thus, in divisional administration, soldiers and officers are transferred in and out of divisions as required. Some regiments recruited from specific areas, and usually incorporated the place name into the regimental name. In other cases, regiments would recruit from an age group within a nation. In other cases, new regiments were raised for new functions within an army, e. g. the Fusiliers, the Parachute Regiment, a key aspect of the regimental system is that the regiment or battalion is the fundamental tactical building block. This flows historically from the period, when battalions were widely dispersed and virtually autonomous. For example, a regiment might include different types of battalions of different origins, within the regimental system, soldiers, and usually officers, are always posted to a tactical unit of their own regiment whenever posted to field duty
13.
World War II
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World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945, although related conflicts began earlier. It involved the vast majority of the worlds countries—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing alliances, the Allies and the Axis. It was the most widespread war in history, and directly involved more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. Marked by mass deaths of civilians, including the Holocaust and the bombing of industrial and population centres. These made World War II the deadliest conflict in human history, from late 1939 to early 1941, in a series of campaigns and treaties, Germany conquered or controlled much of continental Europe, and formed the Axis alliance with Italy and Japan. Under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union partitioned and annexed territories of their European neighbours, Poland, Finland, Romania and the Baltic states. In December 1941, Japan attacked the United States and European colonies in the Pacific Ocean, and quickly conquered much of the Western Pacific. The Axis advance halted in 1942 when Japan lost the critical Battle of Midway, near Hawaii, in 1944, the Western Allies invaded German-occupied France, while the Soviet Union regained all of its territorial losses and invaded Germany and its allies. During 1944 and 1945 the Japanese suffered major reverses in mainland Asia in South Central China and Burma, while the Allies crippled the Japanese Navy, thus ended the war in Asia, cementing the total victory of the Allies. World War II altered the political alignment and social structure of the world, the United Nations was established to foster international co-operation and prevent future conflicts. The victorious great powers—the United States, the Soviet Union, China, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and the United States emerged as rival superpowers, setting the stage for the Cold War, which lasted for the next 46 years. Meanwhile, the influence of European great powers waned, while the decolonisation of Asia, most countries whose industries had been damaged moved towards economic recovery. Political integration, especially in Europe, emerged as an effort to end pre-war enmities, the start of the war in Europe is generally held to be 1 September 1939, beginning with the German invasion of Poland, Britain and France declared war on Germany two days later. The dates for the beginning of war in the Pacific include the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War on 7 July 1937, or even the Japanese invasion of Manchuria on 19 September 1931. Others follow the British historian A. J. P. Taylor, who held that the Sino-Japanese War and war in Europe and its colonies occurred simultaneously and this article uses the conventional dating. Other starting dates sometimes used for World War II include the Italian invasion of Abyssinia on 3 October 1935. The British historian Antony Beevor views the beginning of World War II as the Battles of Khalkhin Gol fought between Japan and the forces of Mongolia and the Soviet Union from May to September 1939, the exact date of the wars end is also not universally agreed upon. It was generally accepted at the time that the war ended with the armistice of 14 August 1945, rather than the formal surrender of Japan
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Special Air Service
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The Special Air Service is a special forces unit of the British Army. The SAS was founded in 1941 as a regiment, and later reconstituted as a corps in 1950, the unit undertakes a number of roles including covert reconnaissance, counter-terrorism, direct action and hostage rescue. The Special Air Service traces its origins to 1941 and the Second World War and it was reformed as part of the Territorial Army in 1947, named the 21st Special Air Service Regiment. It was conceived as a force to operate behind enemy lines in the North African Campaign. Its first mission, in November 1941, was a drop in support of the Operation Crusader offensive. Due to German resistance and adverse conditions, the mission was a disaster,22 men. Its second mission was a major success, transported by the Long Range Desert Group, it attacked three airfields in Libya, destroying 60 aircraft with the loss of 2 men and 3 Willys MB. In September 1942, it was renamed 1st SAS, consisting at that time of four British squadrons, one Free French, one Greek, in January 1943, Colonel Stirling was captured in Tunisia and Paddy Mayne replaced him as commander. In April 1943, the 1st SAS was reorganised into the Special Raiding Squadron under Maynes command and the Special Boat Squadron was placed under the command of George Jellicoe. The Special Raiding Squadron fought in Sicily and Italy along with the 2nd SAS, the Special Boat Squadron fought in the Aegean Islands and Dodecanese until the end of the war. In 1944 the SAS Brigade was formed from the British 1st and 2nd SAS, the French 3rd and 4th SAS and the Belgian 5th SAS. It was tasked with parachute operations behind the German lines in France and carried out supporting the Allied advance through Belgium, the Netherlands. As a result of Hitlers issuing of the Commando Order on 18 October 1942, in July 1944, following Operation Bulbasket,34 captured SAS commandos were summarily executed by the Germans. In October 1944, in the aftermath of Operation Loyton another 31 captured SAS commandos were summarily executed by the Germans, at the end of the war the British Government saw no further need for the force and disbanded it on 8 October 1945. The following year it was decided there was a need for a long-term deep-penetration commando unit, ultimately, the Artists Rifles, raised in 1860 and headquartered at Dukes Road, Euston, took on the SAS mantle as 21st SAS Regiment on 1 January 1947. In 1950, a 21 SAS squadron was raised to fight in the Korean War, after three months of training in Britain, it was informed that the squadron would no longer be required in Korea and so it instead volunteered to fight in the Malayan Emergency. Upon arrival in Malaya, it came under the command of Mike Calvert who was forming a new unit called the Malayan Scouts, the Rhodesians returned home after three years service and were replaced by a New Zealand squadron. By this time the need for a regular army SAS regiment had been recognised, in 1959 the third regiment, the 23rd SAS Regiment, was formed by renaming the Reserve Reconnaissance Unit, which had succeeded MI9 and whose members were experts in escape and evasion
15.
Volunteer Force
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The Volunteer Force was a citizen army of part-time rifle, artillery and engineer corps, created as a popular movement throughout the British Empire in 1859. Originally highly autonomous, the units of volunteers became increasingly integrated with the British Army after the Childers Reforms in 1881, most of the regiments of the present Territorial Army Infantry, Artillery, Engineers and Signals units are directly descended from Volunteer Force units. During the Crimean War, the War Office had been forced to send militia, the situation had been complicated by the fact that both auxiliary forces were under the control of the Home Office until 1855. Tensions rose between the United Kingdom and France following the Orsini affair, an attempt on Emperor Napoleon III on 14 January 1858. It emerged that the assassin, Felice Orsini had travelled to England to have the bombs used in the attack manufactured in Birmingham. On 29 April 1859 war broke out between France and the Austrian Empire, and there were fears that Britain might be caught up in a wider European conflict. Volunteer corps were to be raised under the provisions of the Volunteer Act 1804, alfred Tennyson captured the spirit of the time by publishing his poem Riflemen Form in The Times on 9 May 1859. As a basis for the units, many communities had rifle clubs for the enjoyment of the sport of shooting, Corps were only to be formed on the recommendation of the county’s lord-lieutenant. The force was liable to be called out “in case of invasion, or of appearance of an enemy in force on the coast, or in case of rebellion arising in either of these emergencies. ”While under arms volunteers were subject to military law and were entitled to be billeted. Members were not permitted to quit the force during actual military service, members were to be returned as “effective” if they had attended eight days drill and exercise in four months, or 24 days within a year. The members of the corps were to provide their own arms and equipment, Volunteers were also permitted to choose the design of their uniforms, subject to the lord-lieutenant’s approval. Although volunteers were to pay for their own firearms, they were to be provided under the superintendence of the War Office, the number of officers and private men in each county and corps was to be settled by the war office, based on the lord-lieutenant’s recommendation. Originally corps were to consist of approximately 100 all ranks under the command of a captain, the purpose of the rifle corps was to harass the invading enemy’s flanks, while artillery corps were to man coastal guns and forts. Although not mentioned in the letter, engineer corps were also formed. Stretcher-bearers attached to the rifle corps subsequently formed volunteer medical detachments affiliated to the Army Medical Corps, in a handful of counties, units of light horse or mounted rifles were formed. Two volunteer units whose services had been accepted by Queen Victoria during the early 1850s became the two senior rifle corps of the new force and these were the 1st Rifle Volunteer Corps who became the 1st Devonshire Rifle Volunteers and the Victoria Rifles who became the 1st Middlesex Rifle Volunteers. An order of precedence was established for other counties, depending upon the date of establishment of the first corps in the county. The most senior artillery corps was the 1st Northumberland formed at Tynemouth on August 2,1859, some also compared the initiative, small unit tactics and marksmanship principles of rifle regiments of the Napoleonic Wars compared with the linear tactics of the standing army
16.
Felice Orsini
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Felice Orsini was an Italian revolutionary and leader of the Carbonari who tried to assassinate Napoleon III, Emperor of the French. Felice Orsini was born at Meldola in Romagna, then part of the Papal States and he was encouraged to become a priest, but he abandoned that lifestyle and became an ardent liberal, joining the Giovane Italia, a political society founded by Giuseppe Mazzini. Orsini was arrested in 1844 along with his father, implicated in revolutionary plots and condemned to imprisonment for life. The new pope, Pius IX set him free, and he led a company of young Romagnols in the First War of Italian Independence in 1848, distinguishing himself in the engagements at Treviso and Vicenza. Mazzini sent him on a mission to Hungary, but he was arrested in 1854. He escaped a few months using a tiny saw to cut through two grids of bars, climbed out of the window 100 feet above ground and slid down using a rope he had made of bedsheets. Passing as a peasant, he managed to get past the Austrian guards. In 1856, he briefly visited Great Britain and received a favorable welcome, the daily news had published the first English translation of his tale of escape. He published The Memoirs and Adventures of Felice Orsini in 1856, in 1857, he also published an account of his prison experiences in English under the title of The Austrian Dungeons in Italy, which led to a rupture between him and Mazzini. Then he began to negotiate with Ausonio Franchi, editor of the Ragione of Turin, Orsini became convinced that Napoleon III was the chief obstacle to Italian independence and the principal cause of the anti-liberal reaction throughout Europe. He plotted his assassination with the logic that after the death, France would rise in revolt. He went to Paris in 1857 to conspire against the emperor, the bomb was tested in Sheffield and Devonshire with the aid of French radical Simon Bernard. Satisfied, Orsini returned to Paris with the bombs and contacted other conspirators, Giuseppe Pieri, Antonio Gomez, the first bomb landed among the horsemen in front of the carriage. The second bomb wounded the animals and smashed the carriage glass, the third bomb landed under the carriage and seriously wounded a policeman who was hurrying to protect the occupants. Eight people were killed and 142 wounded, though the emperor, Napoleon realized that he and Eugénie de Montijo had to proceed to the performance and appear in their box. Orsini himself was wounded on the temple and stunned. He tended his wounds and returned to his lodgings, where police found him the next day, the attempted assassination actually increased Napoleon IIIs popularity. Because the bombs had made and tested in England, it caused a brief anti-British furor in France because of suspicion of British involvement
17.
Napoleon III
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Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte was the only President of the French Second Republic and, as Napoleon III, the Emperor of the Second French Empire. He was the nephew and heir of Napoleon I and he was the first President of France to be elected by a direct popular vote. He remains the longest-serving French head of state since the French Revolution, during the first years of the Empire, Napoleons government imposed censorship and harsh repressive measures against his opponents. Some six thousand were imprisoned or sent to penal colonies until 1859, thousands more went into voluntary exile abroad, including Victor Hugo. From 1862 onwards, he relaxed government censorship, and his came to be known as the Liberal Empire. Many of his opponents returned to France and became members of the National Assembly, Napoleon III is best known today for his grand reconstruction of Paris, carried out by his prefect of the Seine, Baron Haussmann. He launched similar public works projects in Marseille, Lyon, Napoleon III modernized the French banking system, greatly expanded and consolidated the French railway system, and made the French merchant marine the second largest in the world. He promoted the building of the Suez Canal and established modern agriculture, Napoleon III negotiated the 1860 Cobden–Chevalier free trade agreement with Britain and similar agreements with Frances other European trading partners. Social reforms included giving French workers the right to strike and the right to organize, womens education greatly expanded, as did the list of required subjects in public schools. In foreign policy, Napoleon III aimed to reassert French influence in Europe and he was a supporter of popular sovereignty and of nationalism. In Europe, he allied with Britain and defeated Russia in the Crimean War and his regime assisted Italian unification and, in doing so, annexed Savoy and the County of Nice to France, at the same time, his forces defended the Papal States against annexation by Italy. Napoleon doubled the area of the French overseas empire in Asia, the Pacific, on the other hand, his armys intervention in Mexico which aimed to create a Second Mexican Empire under French protection ended in failure. Beginning in 1866, Napoleon had to face the power of Prussia. In July 1870, Napoleon entered the Franco-Prussian War without allies, the French army was rapidly defeated and Napoleon III was captured at the Battle of Sedan. The French Third Republic was proclaimed in Paris, and Napoleon went into exile in England, charles-Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, later known as Louis Napoleon and then Napoleon III, was born in Paris on the night of 20–21 April 1808. His presumed father was Louis Bonaparte, the brother of Napoleon Bonaparte. His mother was Hortense de Beauharnais, the daughter by the first marriage of Napoleons wife Joséphine de Beauharnais, as empress, Joséphine proposed the marriage as a way to produce an heir for the Emperor, who agreed, as Joséphine was by then infertile. Louis married Hortense when he was twenty-four and she was nineteen and they had a difficult relationship, and only lived together for brief periods
18.
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
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The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was established as a sovereign state on 1 January 1801 by the Acts of Union 1800, which merged the kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland. The growing desire for an Irish Republic led to the Irish War of Independence, Northern Ireland remained part of the United Kingdom, and the state was consequently renamed the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Britain financed the European coalition that defeated France in 1815 in the Napoleonic Wars, the British Empire thereby became the foremost world power for the next century. The Crimean War with Russia and the Boer wars were relatively small operations in a largely peaceful century, rapid industrialisation that began in the decades prior to the states formation continued up until the mid-19th century. A devastating famine, exacerbated by government inaction in the century, led to demographic collapse in much of Ireland. It was an era of economic modernization and growth of industry, trade and finance. Outward migration was heavy to the colonies and to the United States. Britain also built up a large British Empire in Africa and Asia, India, by far the most important possession, saw a short-lived revolt in 1857. In foreign policy Britain favoured free trade, which enabled its financiers and merchants to operate successfully in many otherwise independent countries, as in South America. Britain formed no permanent military alliances until the early 20th century, when it began to cooperate with Japan, France and Russia, and moved closer to the United States. A brief period of limited independence for Ireland came to an end following the Irish Rebellion of 1798, the British governments fear of an independent Ireland siding against them with the French resulted in the decision to unite the two countries. This was brought about by legislation in the parliaments of both kingdoms and came into effect on 1 January 1801, however, King George III was bitterly opposed to any such Emancipation and succeeded in defeating his governments attempts to introduce it. When the Treaty of Amiens ended the war, Britain agreed to return most of the territories it had seized, in May 1803, war was declared again. In 1806, Napoleon issued the series of Berlin Decrees, which brought into effect the Continental System and this policy aimed to eliminate the threat from the British by closing French-controlled territory to foreign trade. Frances population and agricultural capacity far outstripped that of the British Isles, Napoleon expected that cutting Britain off from the European mainland would end its economic hegemony. The Spanish uprising in 1808 at last permitted Britain to gain a foothold on the Continent, after Napoleons surrender and exile to the island of Elba, peace appeared to have returned. The Allies united and the armies of Wellington and Blucher defeated Napoleon once, simultaneous with the Napoleonic Wars, trade disputes, arming hostile Indians and British impressment of American sailors led to the War of 1812 with the United States. The war was little noticed in Britain, which could devote few resources to the conflict until the fall of Napoleon in 1814, American frigates inflicted a series of defeats on the Royal Navy, which was short on manpower due to the conflict in Europe
19.
Burlington House
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Burlington House is a building on Piccadilly in London. It was originally a private Palladian mansion, and was expanded in the century after being purchased by the British government. The house was one of the earliest of a number of large private residences built on the north side of Piccadilly, previously a country lane. The first version was begun by Sir John Denham about 1664 and it was a red-brick double-pile hip-roofed mansion with a recessed centre, typical of the style of the time, or perhaps even a little old fashioned. In 1704 the house passed to the ten-year-old Richard Boyle, 3rd Earl of Burlington, who was to become the patron of the Palladian movement in England. The colonnade separated the house from increasingly urbanized Piccadilly with a cour dhonneur, inside, Baroque decorative paintings in the entrance hall and staircase by Sebastiano Ricci and Giovanni Antonio Pellegrini resulted in some of the richest interiors in London. In between his two Grand Tours of Italy young Lord Burlingtons taste was transformed by the publication of Giacomo Leonis Palladio. In 1717 or 1718, Colen Campbell was appointed to replace Gibbs, the ground floor became a rusticated basement, which supported a monumental piano nobile of nine bays. This had no centrepiece, but was highlighted by venetian windows in the end bays. Other alterations included a monumental screening gateway to Piccadilly and the reconstruction of most of the principal interiors, with typical Palladian features such as rich coved ceilings. The Saloon, constructed immediately after William Kents return from Rome in December 1719, has survived in the most intact condition and its plaster putti above the pedimented doorcases were probably by Giovanni Battista Guelfi. Lord Burlington transferred his energies to Chiswick House after 1722. On Burlingtons death in 1753, Burlington House passed to the Dukes of Devonshire, the 4th Dukes younger son Lord George Cavendish and a Devonshire in-law, the 3rd Duke of Portland, each used the house for at least two separate spells. Portland had some of the interiors altered by John Carr in the 1770s. Eventually Lord George, who was a man in his own right due to a marriage to an heiress. Like Carrs work Wares was sympathetic with the Palladian style of the house, providing an example of the Kent Revival. In 1819 the Burlington Arcade was built along the part of the grounds. In 1854, Burlington House was sold to the British government for £140,000 and this plan, however, was abandoned in the face of strong opposition and in 1857 Burlington House was occupied by the Royal Society, the Linnean Society and the Chemical Society
20.
Henry Wyndham Phillips
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Henry Wyndham Phillips was a British portrait painter. His father was the portraitist Thomas Phillips, henry also produced and exhibited a small number of paintings of subjects from the Bible. For thirteen years he served as Secretary of the Artists’ General Benevolent Institution and he, Phillips painted portraits of Charles Kean for the Garrick Club and Robert Stephenson for the Institution of Civil Engineers, and exhibited 89 pictures in London between 1838-68. In 1856 he was married to the poet Susan K. Phillips and he died at Hollow Combe, Sydenham, on 8 December 1868 and was buried at West Norwood Cemetery
21.
Frederic Leighton
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Frederic Leighton, 1st Baron Leighton PRA, known as Sir Frederic Leighton between 1878 and 1896, was an English painter and sculptor. His works depicted historical, biblical, and classical subject matter, Leighton was bearer of the shortest-lived peerage in history, after only one day his hereditary peerage ended with his death. Leighton was born in Scarborough to a family in the import and export business and he was educated at University College School, London. He then received his training on the European continent, first from Eduard von Steinle. When he was 24 he was in Florence, he studied at the Accademia di Belle Arti, from 1855 to 1859 he lived in Paris, where he met Ingres, Delacroix, Corot and Millet. In 1860, he moved to London, where he associated with the Pre-Raphaelites and he designed Elizabeth Barrett Brownings tomb for Robert Browning in the English Cemetery, Florence in 1861. In 1864 he became an associate of the Royal Academy and in 1878 he became its President and his 1877 sculpture, Athlete Wrestling with a Python, was considered at its time to inaugurate a renaissance in contemporary British sculpture, referred to as the New Sculpture. American art critic Earl Shinn claimed at the time that Except Leighton and his paintings represented Britain at the great 1900 Paris Exhibition. Leighton was knighted at Windsor in 1878, and was created a baronet, of Holland Park Road in the Parish of St Mary Abbots, Kensington, in the County of Middlesex, eight years later. He was the first painter to be given a peerage, in the New Year Honours List of 1896, the patent creating him Baron Leighton, of Stretton in the County of Shropshire, was issued on 24 January 1896, Leighton died the next day of angina pectoris. Leighton remained a bachelor and rumours of his having a child with one of his models in addition to the supposition that Leighton may have been homosexual continue to be debated today. He certainly enjoyed an intense and romantically tinged relationship with the poet Henry William Greville whom he met in Florence in 1856, the older man showered Leighton in letters, but the romantic affection seems not to have been reciprocated. Enquiry is furthermore hindered by the fact that Leighton left no diaries, after his death his Barony was extinguished after existing for only a day, this is a record in the Peerage. His house in Holland Park, London has been turned into a museum, the house also features many of Leightons inspirations, including his collection of Iznik tiles. Its centrepiece is the magnificent Arab Hall, the Hall is featured in issue ten of Cornucopia. A blue plaque commemorates Leighton at Leighton House Museum, Leighton was an enthusiastic volunteer soldier, enrolling with the first group to join the 38th Middlesex Rifle volunteers on 5 October 1860. His qualities of leadership were identified, and he was promoted to command A Company within a few months. On 6 January 1869 Captain Leighton was elected to command The Artists Rifles by a meeting of the corps
22.
Mars (mythology)
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In ancient Roman religion and myth, Mars was the god of war and also an agricultural guardian, a combination characteristic of early Rome. He was second in only to Jupiter and he was the most prominent of the military gods in the religion of the Roman army. Most of his festivals were held in March, the named for him, and in October. Under the influence of Greek culture, Mars was identified with the Greek god Ares, whose myths were reinterpreted in Roman literature and art under the name of Mars. But the character and dignity of Mars differed in fundamental ways from that of his Greek counterpart, Mars was a part of the Archaic Triad along with Jupiter and Quirinus, the latter of whom as a guardian of the Roman people had no Greek equivalent. Mars altar in the Campus Martius, the area of Rome that took its name from him, was supposed to have been dedicated by Numa, the peace-loving semi-legendary second king of Rome. Although Ares was viewed primarily as a destructive and destabilizing force, Mars represented military power as a way to secure peace, in the mythic genealogy and founding myths of Rome, Mars was the father of Romulus and Remus with Rhea Silvia. Like Ares who was the son of Zeus and Hera, Mars is usually considered to be the son of Jupiter, however, in a version of his birth given by Ovid, he was the son of Juno alone. Jupiter had usurped the mothers function when he gave birth to Minerva directly from his forehead, to restore the balance, Flora obtained a magic flower and tested it on a heifer who became fecund at once. She then plucked a flower ritually using her thumb, touched Junos belly, Juno withdrew to Thrace and the shore of Marmara for the birth. Ovid tells this story in the Fasti, his poetic work on the Roman calendar. In the earliest Roman calendar, March was the first month, Ovid is the only source for the story. The consort of Mars was Nerio or Nerine, Valor and she represents the vital force, power and majesty of Mars. Her name was regarded as Sabine in origin and is equivalent to Latin virtus, in the early 3rd century BC, the comic playwright Plautus has a reference to Mars greeting Nerio, his wife. A source from late antiquity says that Mars and Nerine were celebrated together at a festival held on March 23, in the later Roman Empire, Nerine came to be identified with Minerva. Nerio probably originates as a personification of Mars power, as such abstractions in Latin are generally feminine. Her name appears with that of Mars in an archaic prayer invoking a series of abstract qualities, the influence of Greek mythology and its anthropomorphic gods may have caused Roman writers to treat these pairs as marriages. The union of Venus and Mars held greater appeal for poets and philosophers, in Greek myth, the adultery of Ares and Aphrodite had been exposed to ridicule when her husband Hephaestus caught them in the act by means of a magical snare
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Minerva
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Minerva was the Roman goddess of wisdom and sponsor of arts, trade, and strategy. She was born with weapons from the head of Jupiter, after impregnating the titaness Metis, Jupiter recalled a prophecy that his own child would overthrow him. Fearing that their child would grow stronger than he and rule the Heavens in his place, the titaness forged weapons and armor for her child while within the father-god, and the constant pounding and ringing gave him a headache. To relieve the pain, Vulcan used a hammer to split Jupiters head and, from the cleft, Minerva emerged, whole, adult, from the 2nd century BC onwards, the Romans equated her with the Greek goddess Athena. She was the goddess of music, poetry, medicine, wisdom, commerce, weaving. She is often depicted with her sacred creature, an owl usually named as the owl of Minerva, stemming from an Italic moon goddess *Meneswā, the Etruscans adopted the inherited Old Latin name, *Menerwā, thereby calling her Menrva. It is assumed that her Roman name, Minerva, is based on this Etruscan mythology, Minerva was the goddess of wisdom, war, art, schools and commerce. She was the Etruscan counterpart to Greek Athena, like Athena, Minerva was born from the head of her father, Jupiter. The word mens is built from the Proto-Indo-European root *men- mind, the Etruscan Menrva was part of a holy triad with Tinia and Uni, equivalent to the Roman Capitoline Triad of Jupiter-Juno-Minerva. Minerva was the daughter of Jupiter, as Minerva Medica, she was the goddess of medicine and doctors. As Minerva Achaea, she was worshipped at Lucera in Apulia where votive gifts, in Fasti III, Ovid called her the goddess of a thousand works. Minerva was worshipped throughout Italy, and when she eventually became equated with the Greek goddess Athena, unlike Mars, god of war, she was sometimes portrayed with sword lowered, in sympathy for the recent dead, rather than raised in triumph. In Rome her bellicose nature was emphasized less than elsewhere and her worship was also spread throughout the empire—in Britain, for example, she was syncretized with the local goddess Sulis, who was often invoked for restitution for theft. The Romans celebrated her festival from March 19 to March 23 during the day which is called, in the plural, Quinquatria, the fifth after the Ides of March, the nineteenth. A lesser version, the Minusculae Quinquatria, was held on the Ides of June, June 13, by the flute-players, in 207 BC, a guild of poets and actors was formed to meet and make votive offerings at the temple of Minerva on the Aventine Hill. Among others, its members included Livius Andronicus, the Aventine sanctuary of Minerva continued to be an important center of the arts for much of the middle Roman Republic. When it was founded, the emperor himself was present and was believed to be of divine nature as a result of its construction, Minerva is featured on the coinage of different Roman Emperors. She is often represented on the side of a coin holding an owl
24.
Euston Road
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Euston Road in Central London, England, runs from Marylebone Road to Kings Cross. The road is part of the London Inner Ring Road and forms part of the London congestion charge zone boundary, traffic increased when major railway stations, including Euston, opened in the mid-19th century and led to the roads renaming in 1857. Euston Road was widened in the 1960s to cater for the demands of motor traffic. The road contains several significant buildings including the Wellcome Library, the British Library, the road starts as a continuation of the A501, a major road through Central London, at its junction with Marylebone Road and Great Portland Street. It meets the end of Tottenham Court Road at a large junction where there is an underpass. The road ahead to Islington is Pentonville Road, the road is part of the London Inner Ring Road and on the edge of the London congestion charge zone. Drivers are not charged for travelling on the road, but may be if they turn south into the zone during its hours of operation. Kings Cross and St Pancras railway stations are at the end of the road, the British Library is nearby. The Euston Tower is a landmark on the road, the old and new headquarters of the Wellcome Trust are on its south side. From west to east the road passes Regents Park, Great Portland Street, Warren Street, Euston Square, Euston, London Bus Route 205 runs along the entire extent of Euston Road from Great Portland Street to Kings Cross. Before the 18th century, the land along which Euston Road runs was fields, Camden Town was a village retreat for Londoners working in the city. Euston Road was originally part of New Road, promoted by Charles FitzRoy, 2nd Duke of Grafton, construction began in May that year, and it was open to traffic by September. The road provided a new road for moving sheep and cattle to Smithfield Market avoiding Oxford Street and Holborn. The Capper family, who lived on the side of the proposed route, opposed its construction. Capper Street, a street off Tottenham Court Road, is named after the family. A clause in the 1756 Act stipulated that no buildings should be constructed within 50 feet of the road, during the 19th century the law was increasingly ignored. Euston Station opened on the side of New Road in July 1837. It was planned by Robert Stephenson on the site of gardens called Euston Grove and its entrance, designed by Philip Hardwick, cost £35,000 and had the highest portico in London at 72 feet
25.
Rifle Brigade (The Prince Consort's Own)
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The Rifle Brigade was an infantry rifle regiment of the British Army. Formed in January 1800 as the Experimental Corps of Riflemen to provide sharpshooters, scouts and skirmishers, in January 1803 they became an established regular regiment and were titled the 95th Regiment of Foot. In 1816, at the end of the Napoleonic Wars, they were again renamed, the Corps differed in several regards from the Line infantry of the British Army and most significantly were armed with the formidable Baker rifle. The rifle was accurate in an era when it was generally considered impractical for individual soldiers to aim at specific targets. Four months after its formation, the Rifle Corps was judged ready for its first operation, despite this, the expedition was defeated and withdrew on 26 August 1800. During the battle, the Rifle Corps suffered one lieutenant killed, its first officer to fall, in 1802, the Rifle Corps was brought into the line of the British Army as the 95th Regiment of Foot. The 95th subsequently formed the guard on the way to Bremen. In February 1806, the 95th formed the rearguard for the withdrawal to Cuxhaven, in October 1806, five companies of the 1st/95th and three companies of the 2nd/95th departed for Spanish-controlled South America, Spain then being allied with France. It was part of an invasion force that was designed as reinforcements for the first invasion against Buenos Aires. The 95th subsequently saw action in June at San Pedro where they, during the assault on Buenos Aires on 5 July, the 95th and the rest of the British force suffered heavy casualties in bitter fighting to capture the city. The Light Brigade had suffered so heavily that they had to take refuge in a church and were surrendered soon after, after Whitelocke negotiated the withdrawal of British forces, the men were released and they returned home later that year. The 95th would go on to fight for near the entirety of the Peninsular War in Spain, in the aftermath of the disastrous expedition, Popham and Whitelocke were court-martialed, with Popham reprimanded and Whitelocke dismissed from the Army. The remaining companies of the 95th were involved in the expedition to Denmark that year and they took part in the Battle of Copenhagen in 1807 as part of Arthur Wellesleys brigade. The expedition, commanded by Lord Cathcart, was intended to capture the Danish Fleet to prevent it falling into the hands of France, the expedition proved to be a thorough success with the Danish Fleet being captured at which point the British withdrew. In 1808 the 1st/95th took part in an expedition to another Scandinavian country, Sweden, in August 1808 the 2nd/95th was part of the immediate forces sent in the Portuguese expedition initially commanded by Sir Arthur Wellesley and covered the landings at Montego Bay. The 95th, as part of 6th Brigade which included the rifle armed 5th/60th Foot, took part in the Battle of Roliça, the 1st battalion was part of John Moores campaign which ended with evacuation after the Battle of Corunna on 16 January 1809. After the depletion suffered at Corunna, the two battalions of the 95th based at Hythe in Kent were made up to a strength of 1,000 men each. However, so many came forward to join the regiment that permission was granted to raise a third battalion in 1809
26.
John Nash (artist)
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John Northcote Nash CBE, RA was a British painter of landscapes and still-lives, and a wood engraver and illustrator, particularly of botanic works. He was the brother of Paul Nash, his sister Barbara Nash became a gardener. Nash was born in London, the son of lawyer William Harry Nash who served as recorder of Abingdon. His mother came from a family with a tradition, she was mentally unstable. In 1901 the family moved to Iver Heath, Buckinghamshire, Nash was educated at Langley Place in Slough and afterwards at Wellington College, Berkshire. He particularly enjoyed botany, but was unsure which path to take. At first he worked as a reporter for the Middlesex and Berkshire Gazette. His brother became a student at the Slade School of Art the same year, John Nash had no formal art training, but was encouraged by his brother to develop his abilities as a draughtsman. His early work was in watercolour and included Biblical scenes, comic drawings, a joint exhibition with Paul at the Dorien Leigh Gallery, London, in 1913 was successful, and John was invited to become a founder-member of the London Group in 1914. He was an important influence on the work of the artist Dora Carrington, in 1915 Nash joined Harold Gilman in Robert Bevans Cumberland Market Group and in May that year exhibited with Gilman, Charles Ginner and Robert Bevan at the Goupil Gallery. He served as a sergeant at the Battle of Passchendaele and at the battle of Cambrai, on the recommendation of his brother, Paul worked as an official war artist from 1918. In 1914 Nash began painting in oils with the encouragement of Harold Gilman, Nashs most famous painting is Over the Top, now hanging in the Imperial War Museum. It is an image of the counter-attack at Welsh Ridge on 30 December 1917, during which the 1st Battalion Artists Rifles left their trenches, of the eighty men, sixty-eight were killed or wounded during the first few minutes. Nash was one of the twelve spared by the shell-fire, the Cornfield, held by the Tate Gallery, was the first painting Nash completed that did not depict the theme of war. The picture with its view of the landscape and geometric treatment of the corn stooks prefigures his brother Pauls Equivalents for the Megaliths. John said that he and Paul used to paint for their own pleasure only after six oclock, hence the long shadows cast by the evening sun across the middle of the painting. Nash married Carringtons friend Dorothy Christine Kühlenthal in May 1918 and she was the daughter of a German chemist who had settled in Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire, and had studied at the Slade. Their only child, William, was born in 1930, he was killed in a car accident in 1935, from 1918 to 1921, Nash lived at Gerrards Cross, with summer expeditions to the Chiltern Hills and Gloucestershire
27.
Cambrai
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Cambrai is a commune in the Nord department and in the Hauts-de-France region of France on the Scheldt river, which is known locally as the Escaut river. A sub-prefecture of the department, Cambrai is a town which had 32,518 inhabitants in the Census of 2009 and it is in the heart of the urban unit of Cambrai which, with 47,138 inhabitants, ranks as 7th largest of the department. Its urban area, an extensive range, included 65,986 inhabitants in 2009. With Lille and the towns of the former Nord-Pas de Calais Mining Basin, towards the end of the Roman Empire, Cambrai replaced Bavay as the capital of the land of the Nervii. The bishopric had some limited power and depended on the Holy Roman Empire until annexation to France in 1678. Fénelon, nicknamed the Swan of Cambrai, was the most renowned of the archbishops, the fertile lands which surround it and the textile industry gave it prosperity in the Middle Ages, but in modern times it is less industrialised than its neighbours of Nord-Pas-de-Calais. Cambrai was the Duke of Wellingtons headquarters, for the British Army of Occupation, occupied and partly destroyed by the German army during World War I, Cambrai saw unfold in its vicinity the Battle of Cambrai where tanks were massively and successfully used for the first time. A second Battle of Cambrai took place between 8 and 10 October 1918 as part of the Hundred Days Offensive, World War II was followed by reconstructions and a rapidly developing economy and population, abruptly reversed by the 1973 oil crisis. Cambrai today is a city and, despite the past destruction. Cambrai is affirmed as the centre of Cambrésis. Its economic life is strengthened by its position on the local highway. The town of Cambrai is located in the south of the Nord Department, the regional capital of Lille is 52 kilometres away. Cambrai is not very far from several European capitals, Brussels is 108 kilometres, Paris is 160 kilometres, the city was born and developed on the right bank of the Scheldt river. Locally known as the Escaut, the river has its source in the department of Aisne, the Saint-Quentin canal, the Canal du Nord, the A1, A2 and A26 autoroutes all borrow all this passage between the basin of the Seine and the plains of the Nord department. The chalky subsoil allowed, as in medieval cities, the digging of a network of cellars, tunnels. The poor quality of the Cambrai chalk was reserved for use in the manufacture of lime or filling, for prestigious buildings, stone from the nearby villages of Noyelles-sur-Escaut, Rumilly or Marcoing was used. The city is bordered in its part, as well as to the north. Cambrai is built on the bank of the Scheldt
28.
Middlesex
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Middlesex is a historic county in south-east England. It is now entirely within the wider urbanised area of London and its area is now also mostly within the ceremonial county of Greater London, with small sections in other neighbouring ceremonial counties. It was established in the Anglo-Saxon system from the territory of the Middle Saxons, the largely low-lying county, dominated by clay in its north and alluvium on gravel in its south, was the second smallest county by area in 1831. The City of London was a county in its own right from the 12th century and was able to exert control over Middlesex. Westminster Abbey dominated most of the financial, judicial and ecclesiastical aspects of the county. As London grew into Middlesex, the Corporation of London resisted attempts to expand the city boundaries into the county, in the 18th and 19th centuries the population density was especially high in the southeast of the county, including the East End and West End of London. From 1855 the southeast was administered, with sections of Kent and Surrey, the City of London, and Middlesex, became separate counties for other purposes and Middlesex regained the right to appoint its own sheriff, lost in 1199. In the interwar years suburban London expanded further, with improvement and expansion of public transport, after the Second World War, the population of the County of London and inner Middlesex was in steady decline, with high population growth continuing in the outer parts. Since 1965 various areas called Middlesex have been used for cricket, Middlesex was the former postal county of 25 post towns. The name means territory of the middle Saxons and refers to the origin of its inhabitants. The word is formed from the Anglo-Saxon, i. e. Old English, middel, in an 8th-century charter the region is recorded as Middleseaxon and in 704 it is recorded as Middleseaxan. The Saxons derived their name from seax, a kind of knife for which they were known, the seax has a lasting symbolic impact in the English counties of Essex and Middlesex, both of which feature three seaxes in their ceremonial emblem. Their names, along with those of Sussex and Wessex, contain a remnant of the word Saxon, there were settlements in the area of Middlesex that can be traced back thousands of years before the creation of a county. Middlesex was formerly part of the Kingdom of Essex It was recorded in the Domesday Book as being divided into the six hundreds of Edmonton, Elthorne, Gore, Hounslow, Ossulstone and Spelthorne. The City of London has been self-governing since the century and became a county in its own right. Middlesex also included Westminster, which also had a degree of autonomy. Of the six hundreds, Ossulstone contained the districts closest to the City of London, during the 17th century it was divided into four divisions, which, along with the Liberty of Westminster, largely took over the administrative functions of the hundred. The divisions were named Finsbury, Holborn, Kensington and Tower, the county had parliamentary representation from the 13th century
29.
London Regiment
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The London Regiment is an infantry regiment in the British Army, part of the Army Reserve. However, the regiment was raised again in 1993 and continues an existence in the present day and it was first formed in 1908 in order to regiment the 26 Volunteer Force battalions in the newly formed County of London, each battalion having a distinctive uniform. Now part of the Territorial Force, the London Regiment expanded to 88 battalions in the First World War, for example, the 10th London Regiment was transferred to the corps of the Royal Berkshire Regiment, becoming the 5th Battalion, Royal Berkshire Regiment. The London Regiment was reformed in 1992 through the regimentation of most of the successors of the original regiment. It is the reserve infantry battalion in London District and consists of an HQ. They are, HQ Company A Company B Company C D Company F Company Two companies of the Royal Green Jackets, F Company and G Company, formed part of the regiment between 1998 and 2004. In May 2004 Messines company, which was made up from an HQ, following the restructuring of the British Army in 2004, it was announced that the Guards Division would gain a TA battalion. This saw the London Regiment retaining its name and multi-badge structure, the two RGJ companies were transferred to the Royal Rifle Volunteers in preparation for the formation of The Rifles in 2007. The London battalions formed the London District, which consisted principally of the 1st, shortly after the outbreak of World War II, the formation of Reserve or 2nd-Line units for each existing Territorial Force unit was authorised. They were distinguished by a 2/ prefix from their parent unit, initially these were formed from men who had not volunteered for overseas service, and the recruits who were flooding in. Later they were mobilised for service in their own right. Unusually, the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th London Battalions each sent three battalions overseas and formed 4th Line reserve units, thus the 26 pre-war battalions of the London regiment became 82 battalions. In June 1915, men of TF units who had volunteered for Home service were formed into composite Provisional Battalions for coast defence. For example, the 100th Provisional Battalion was formed from Home Service men of 173rd Brigade, nine provisional battalions were associated with the London Regiment and Honourable Artillery Company. British Army units from 1945 on Great War Forum London Regiment The Long, Long Trail Land Forces of Britain, the Empire and Commonwealth - archive site
30.
Independent school (United Kingdom)
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For example, pupils do not have to follow the National Curriculum. Seven of the older, expensive and more schools catering for the 13–18 age-range in England. The term public being derived from the fact that they were open to pupils regardless of where they lived or their religion, prep schools, educate younger children up to the age of 13 to prepare them for entry to the public schools and other independent schools. Some former grammar schools converted to an independent fee paying model following the 1965 Circular 10/65 which marked the end of their state funding, others converted into comprehensive schools. There are around 2,500 independent schools in the UK, in addition to charging tuition fees, many also benefit from gifts, charitable endowments and charitable status. Many of these schools are members of the Independent Schools Council and these schools were founded as part of the church and were under their complete dominion. However, it was during the late 14th & early 15th centuries that the first schools, winchester & Oswestry were the first of their kind and paved the way for the establishment of the modern Public school. These were often established for scholars from poor or disadvantaged backgrounds, however, English law has always regarded education as a charitable end in itself. For instance, the Queens Scholarships founded at Westminster in 1560, are for the sons of decayd gentlemen, also, facilities already provided by the charitable foundation for a few scholars could profitably be extended to further paying pupils. After a time, such fees would eclipse the original charitable income, in 2009 senior boarding schools were charging fees of between £16,000 and nearly £30,000 per annum. However, majority of the independent schools today are still registered as a charity, christs Hospital in Horsham is one of the examples, large proposition of its students are funded by its charitable foundation or by various benefactors. Most public schools developed significantly during the 18th and 19th centuries, under a number of forward-looking headmasters leading public schools created a curriculum based heavily on classics and physical activity for boys and young men of the upper and upper middle classes. They were schools for the elite of Victorian politics, armed forces. Often successful businessmen would send their sons to a school as a mark of participation in the elite. More recently heads of schools have been emphasising that senior pupils now play a much reduced role in disciplining. To an extent, the school system influenced the school systems of the British Empire. Until 1975 there had been a group of 179 academically selective schools drawing on both private and state funding, the direct grant grammar schools, the Direct Grant Grammar Schools Regulations 1975 required these schools to choose between full state funding as comprehensive schools and full independence. As a result,119 of these schools became independent, pupil numbers at independent schools fell slightly during the mid-1970s recession
31.
University
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A university is an institution of higher education and research which grants academic degrees in various academic disciplines. Universities typically provide undergraduate education and postgraduate education, the word university is derived from the Latin universitas magistrorum et scholarium, which roughly means community of teachers and scholars. Universities were created in Italy and evolved from Cathedral schools for the clergy during the High Middle Ages, the original Latin word universitas refers in general to a number of persons associated into one body, a society, company, community, guild, corporation, etc. Like other guilds, they were self-regulating and determined the qualifications of their members, an important idea in the definition of a university is the notion of academic freedom. The first documentary evidence of this comes from early in the life of the first university, the University of Bologna adopted an academic charter, the Constitutio Habita, in 1158 or 1155, which guaranteed the right of a traveling scholar to unhindered passage in the interests of education. Today this is claimed as the origin of academic freedom and this is now widely recognised internationally - on 18 September 1988,430 university rectors signed the Magna Charta Universitatum, marking the 900th anniversary of Bolognas foundation. The number of universities signing the Magna Charta Universitatum continues to grow, the university is generally regarded as a formal institution that has its origin in the Medieval Christian setting. The earliest universities were developed under the aegis of the Latin Church by papal bull as studia generalia and it is possible, however, that the development of cathedral schools into universities was quite rare, with the University of Paris being an exception. Later they were founded by Kings or municipal administrations. In the early period, most new universities were founded from pre-existing schools. Many historians state that universities and cathedral schools were a continuation of the interest in learning promoted by monasteries, the first universities in Europe with a form of corporate/guild structure were the University of Bologna, the University of Paris, and the University of Oxford. The students had all the power … and dominated the masters, princes and leaders of city governments perceived the potential benefits of having a scholarly expertise develop with the ability to address difficult problems and achieve desired ends. The emergence of humanism was essential to understanding of the possible utility of universities as well as the revival of interest in knowledge gained from ancient Greek texts. The rediscovery of Aristotles works–more than 3000 pages of it would eventually be translated–fuelled a spirit of inquiry into natural processes that had begun to emerge in the 12th century. Some scholars believe that these represented one of the most important document discoveries in Western intellectual history. Richard Dales, for instance, calls the discovery of Aristotles works a turning point in the history of Western thought and this became the primary mission of lecturers, and the expectation of students. The university culture developed differently in northern Europe than it did in the south, Latin was the language of the university, used for all texts, lectures, disputations and examinations. Professors lectured on the books of Aristotle for logic, natural philosophy, and metaphysics, while Hippocrates, Galen, outside of these commonalities, great differences separated north and south, primarily in subject matter
32.
7th Infantry Division (United Kingdom)
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The 7th Division was re-activated during the 2nd Boer War. Its composition in May and June 1900 was as follows, General Officer Commanding and it then played a crucial part in the stabilization of the front during the First Battle of Ypres, preventing a German breakthrough, although at a high cost in terms of casualties. The 7th Division fought in most of the battles on the Western Front through to 1917 before being sent to the Italian Front for the remainder of the war. At the battle of Loos in late 1915, the division’s General Officer Commanding, a number of battalions swapped to the brigade from other 7th Division brigades during the transition. When O’Connor was formally appointed on 4 October 1938, the division had not yet fully formed. The Times noted on 19 October 1938 that, “There will be enough infantry to give, already on duty are the 14th, 16th, 17th and 19th Brigades, the brigade from India, and one made up from home and Malta. Soon there will be added units of a mounted brigade, 7th Division HQ then moved to Mersa Matruh on 4 September, taking over all troops in the area except The Armoured Division. The Division was redesignated the 6th Infantry Division on 3 November 1939, List of British divisions in World War I List of British divisions in World War II British Army Order of Battle L. S. Amery, The Times History of the War in South Africa 1899-1902, London, Sampson Low, Marston,6 Vols 1900–09 Maj. A. F. H. F. com
33.
Wilfred Owen
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Wilfred Edward Salter Owen, MC was an English poet and soldier, one of the leading poets of the First World War. Among his best-known works – most of which were published posthumously – are Dulce et Decorum est, Insensibility, Anthem for Doomed Youth, Futility, Owen was born on 18 March 1893 at Plas Wilmot, a house in Weston Lane, near Oswestry in Shropshire. He was the eldest of Thomas and Harriet Susan s four children, his siblings were Harold, Colin, Thomas transferred to Shrewsbury in April 1897, where the family lived with Thomas parents in Canon Street. Wilfred Owen was educated at the Birkenhead Institute and at Shrewsbury Technical School, Owen discovered his poetic vocation in about 1904 during a holiday spent in Cheshire. He was raised as an Anglican of the type, and in his youth was a devout believer, in part due to his strong relationship with his mother. His early influences included the Bible and the big six of romantic poetry, Owens last two years of formal education saw him as a pupil-teacher at the Wyle Cop school in Shrewsbury. In return for lodging, and some tuition for the entrance exam Owen worked as lay assistant to the Vicar of Dunsden near Reading. During this time he attended classes at University College, Reading, in botany and later, at the urging of the head of the English Department, took free lessons in Old English. His time spent at Dunsden parish led him to disillusionment with the Church, from 1912 he worked as a private tutor teaching English and French at the Berlitz School of Languages in Bordeaux, France, and later with a family. There he met the older French poet Laurent Tailhade, with whom he corresponded in French. When war broke out, Owen did not rush to enlist - and even considered the French army -, on 21 October 1915 he enlisted in the Artists Rifles Officers Training Corps. For the next seven months, he trained at Hare Hall Camp in Essex, on 4 June 1916 he was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Manchester Regiment. Initially Owen held his troops in contempt for their loutish behaviour, however, his imaginative existence was to be changed dramatically by a number of traumatic experiences. He fell into a hole and suffered concussion, he was blown up by a trench mortar. Soon afterward, Owen was diagnosed as suffering from neurasthenia or shell shock and it was while recuperating at Craiglockhart that he met fellow poet Siegfried Sassoon, an encounter that was to transform Owens life. Whilst at Craiglockhart he made friends in Edinburghs artistic and literary circles, in November he was discharged from Craiglockhart, judged fit for light regimental duties. He spent a contented and fruitful winter in Scarborough, North Yorkshire, while in Ripon he composed or revised a number of poems, including Futility and Strange Meeting. His 25th birthday was spent quietly at Ripon Cathedral, which is dedicated to his namesake, Owen returned in July 1918 to active service in France, although he might have stayed on home-duty indefinitely
34.
Manchester Regiment
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The Manchester Regiment was a line infantry regiment of the British Army in existence from 1881 until 1958. Between the 1860s and 1880s, the British Army underwent a period of reform implemented by Edward Cardwell, single-battalion regiments were amalgamated and regiments were affiliated with a geographical area. The Manchester Regiment came into being on 1 July 1881 by the union of the 63rd and they had been linked in 1873 by their allocation to the 16th Sub-district Brigade Depot in Ashton-under-Lyne, near to Manchester. The 2nd Battalion, as the 96th Foot, had raised in the town of Manchester in 1824. Eight additional battalions were gained through the incorporation of the 6th Royal Lancashire Militia, the 1st Battalion was deployed to Egypt to take part in the Anglo-Egyptian War in 1882 and was then deployed to Gibraltar in 1897. The 2nd Battalion was based in India from 1882 to 1897, amidst growing tension between Boers and the British in the Transvaal, the 1st Manchester shipped to South Africa in September 1899. The battalion arrived in Durban, Natal Colony in early October, the war began on 11 October with a Boer invasion of the colony. After Boer forces captured Elandslaagte railway station, the Manchesters had four companies sent by armoured train to Modderspruit, while disembaking there, the Manchesters and accompanying Imperial Light Horse came under ineffectual artillery fire. The 1st Manchesters, along with the Gordon Highlanders and the Imperial Light Horse, the fighting was heavy, with the Boers pouring accurate fire into the advancing British troops. Under increasingly heavy fire, the battalion halted its advance, the Manchester became the main vanguard of the frontal assault, having originally been tasked with a left-flank attack on the Boer hills. Once the battalion closed in, the Boers withdrew to their line of defence. On 2 November, Boer forces encircled and isolated the town of Ladysmith, on 6 January 1900, a contingent of 16 soldiers of the 1st Manchesters came under attack at Wagon Hill, near to Caesers Camp. Against superior numbers, the detachment held its position for 15 hours, only two survived, Privates Pitts and Scott, who had continued to hold out for many hours when the others had been killed. Both received the Victoria Cross for their actions, giving the regiment its first two VCs, by 28 February, Ladysmith had finally been relieved by a force under the command of General Redvers Buller. In April, the 2nd Manchesters arrived in Natal as reinforcements, both battalions participated in the offensive that followed the relieving of Ladysmith, Kimberley and Mafeking. After the fall of Bloemfontein and Pretoria, the Boer commandos transitioned to guerrilla warfare, the 2nd Manchesters operated in the Orange Free State, searching farms and burning those suspected of housing commandos. The war ended with the signing of the Treaty of Vereeniging in May 1902, when the war in South Africa proved more resilient than predicted, a number of regiments containing large centres of population formed additional regular battalions. The Manchester Regiment formed the 3rd and 4th regular Battalions in February 1900, the 3rd Battalion was stationed in Saint Helena and South Africa from August 1902, while the 4th Battalion was stationed in Cork
35.
Victoria Cross
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The Victoria Cross is the highest award of the United Kingdom honours system. It is awarded for gallantry in the face of the enemy to members of the British armed forces and it was previously awarded to Commonwealth countries, most of which have established their own honours systems and no longer recommend British honours. It may be awarded to a person of any rank in any service. Since the first awards were presented by Queen Victoria in 1857 and these investitures are usually held at Buckingham Palace. The VC was introduced on 29 January 1856 by Queen Victoria to honour acts of valour during the Crimean War, since then, the medal has been awarded 1,358 times to 1,355 individual recipients. Only 15 medals,11 to members of the British Army, the traditional explanation of the source of the metal from which the medals are struck is that it derives from Russian cannon captured at the Siege of Sevastopol. Some research has suggested a variety of origins for the material, research has established that the metal for most of the medals made since December 1914 came from two Chinese cannons that were captured from the Russians in 1855. Owing to its rarity, the VC is highly prized and the medal has fetched over £400,000 at auction, a number of public and private collections are devoted to the Victoria Cross. The private collection of Lord Ashcroft, amassed since 1986, contains over one-tenth of all VCs awarded, following a 2008 donation to the Imperial War Museum, the Ashcroft collection went on public display alongside the museums Victoria and George Cross collection in November 2010. These are unique awards of honours system, recommended, assessed, gazetted and presented by each country. In 1854, after 39 years of peace, Britain found itself fighting a war against Russia. The Crimean War was one of the first wars with modern reporting, before the Crimean War, there was no official standardised system for recognition of gallantry within the British armed forces. This structure was limited, in practice awards of the Order of the Bath were confined to officers of field rank. Brevet promotions or Mentions in Despatches were largely confined to those who were under the notice of the commanders in the field. Other European countries had awards that did not discriminate against class or rank, France awarded the Légion dhonneur and The Netherlands gave the Order of William. There was a feeling among the public and in the Royal Court that a new award was needed to recognise incidents of gallantry that were unconnected with a mans lengthy or meritorious service. Queen Victoria issued a Warrant under the Royal sign-manual on 29 January 1856 that officially constituted the VC, the order was backdated to 1854 to recognise acts of valour during the Crimean War. Queen Victoria had instructed the War Office to strike a new medal that would not recognise birth or class, the medal was meant to be a simple decoration that would be highly prized and eagerly sought after by those in the military services
36.
Distinguished Service Order
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Instituted on 6 September 1886 by Queen Victoria in a Royal Warrant published in the The London Gazette on 9 November, the first DSOs awarded were dated 25 November 1886. It is typically awarded to officers ranked major or higher, during the First World War,8,981 DSOs were awarded, each award being announced in The London Gazette. The order was established for rewarding individual instances of meritorious or distinguished service in war, after 1 January 1917, commanders in the field were instructed to recommend this award only for those serving under fire. Prior to 1943, the order could be only to someone mentioned in despatches. The order is given to officers in command, above the rank of captain. A number of junior officers were awarded the DSO. In 1942, the award of the DSO was extended to officers of the Merchant Navy who had performed acts of gallantry while under enemy attack. Since 1993, its award has been restricted solely to distinguished service and it has, however, despite some very fierce campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan, remained an officers-only award and it has yet to be awarded to a non-commissioned rank. Recipients of the order are known as Companions of the Distinguished Service Order. They are entitled to use the post-nominal letters DSO, one or more gold medal bars ornamented by the Crown may be issued to DSO holders performing further acts of such leadership which would have merited award of the DSO. The bars are worn as clasps on the ribbon of the original award. The medal signifying its award is a cross, enamelled white. In the centre, within a wreath of laurel, enamelled green, is the crown in gold upon a red enamelled background. On the reverse is the royal cypher in gold upon a red enamelled ground, within a wreath of laurel, a ring at the top of the medal attaches to a ring at the bottom of a gold suspension bar, ornamented with laurel. At the top of the ribbon is a gold bar ornamented with laurel. The red ribbon is 1.125 in wide with blue edges. The medals are issued unnamed but some recipients have had their names engraved on the reverse of the suspension bar, the bar for an additional award is plain gold with an Imperial Crown in the centre. The back of the bar is engraved with the year of the award, a rosette is worn on the ribbon in undress uniform to signify the award of a bar
37.
Army Air Corps (United Kingdom)
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The Army Air Corps is a component of the British Army, first formed in 1942 during the Second World War. There are eight regiments of the AAC as well as four Independent Flights and they are located in Britain, Brunei, Canada, and Germany. The AAC provides the air elements of 16 Air Assault Brigade through Joint Helicopter Command. The British Army first took to the sky during the 19th century with the use of observation balloons, in 1911 the Air Battalion of the Royal Engineers was the first heavier-than-air British military aviation unit. Between the wars, the Army used RAF co-operation squadrons, at the beginning of the Second World War, Royal Artillery officers, with the assistance of RAF technicians, flew Auster observation aircraft under RAF-owned Air Observation Post Squadrons. Twelve such squadrons were raised —three of which belonged to the RCAF—, early in the war, Winston Churchill, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, announced the establishment of a new branch of army aviation, the Army Air Corps, formed in 1942. The corps initially comprised the Glider Pilot Regiment and the Parachute Battalions, in 1944, the SAS Regiment was added to the Corps. One of their most successful exploits during the war was Operation Deadstick, including the attack on Pegasus Bridge, once the three gliders landed, some roughly which incurred casualties, the pilots joined the glider-borne troops to act as infantry. The bridge was taken within ten minutes of the battle commencing and they were soon reinforced and relieved by soldiers from Lord Lovats 1 Special Service Brigade, famously led by piper Bill Millin. It was subsequently reinforced by units of the British 3rd Division. The pilots who had flown the gliders soon had to transfer to flying powered aircraft, becoming part of the RAF Air Observation Post Squadrons. In 1957 the Glider Pilot and Parachute Corps was renamed to The Parachute Regiment, while the Glider Pilot Regiment and the Air Observation Squadrons amalgamated into a new unit, from 1970, nearly every army brigade had at least one Aviation Squadron that usually numbered twelve aircraft. The main rotor aircraft during the 1970s were the Westland Scout, the Sioux was replaced from 1973 by the Westland Gazelle used for Airborne recce, initially unarmed, they were converted to carry 68mm SNEB rocket pods in 1982, during the Falklands War. The Scout was replaced from 1978 by the Westland Lynx, which was capable of carrying additional firepower in the form of door gunners. Basic rotary flying training was carried out on the Bell Sioux in the 1970s, fixed-wing types in AAC service have included the Auster AOP.6 and AOP.9 and DHC-2 Beaver AL.1 in the observation and liaison roles. Since 1989, the AAC have operated a number of Britten-Norman Islander and Defender aircraft for surveillance, the corps operated the DHC-1 Chipmunk T.10 in the training role until its replacement by the Slingsby T67 Firefly in the 1990s. The Firefly was replaced by the Grob Tutor in 2010, a further boost in the Army Air Corps capability came in the form of the Westland Apache AH.1 attack helicopter. In 2006, British Apaches deployed to Afghanistan as part of the NATO International Security Assistance Force, the strength of the Army Air Corps is believed to be some 2,000 Regular personnel, of which 500 are officers
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Cold War
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The Cold War was a state of geopolitical tension after World War II between powers in the Eastern Bloc and powers in the Western Bloc. Historians do not fully agree on the dates, but a common timeframe is the period between 1947, the year the Truman Doctrine was announced, and 1991, the year the Soviet Union collapsed. The term cold is used there was no large-scale fighting directly between the two sides, although there were major regional wars, known as proxy wars, supported by the two sides. The Cold War split the temporary alliance against Nazi Germany, leaving the Soviet Union. The USSR was a Marxist–Leninist state ruled by its Communist Party and secret police, the Party controlled the press, the military, the economy and all organizations. In opposition stood the West, dominantly democratic and capitalist with a free press, a small neutral bloc arose with the Non-Aligned Movement, it sought good relations with both sides. The two superpowers never engaged directly in full-scale armed combat, but they were armed in preparation for a possible all-out nuclear world war. The first phase of the Cold War began in the first two years after the end of the Second World War in 1945, the Berlin Blockade was the first major crisis of the Cold War. With the victory of the communist side in the Chinese Civil War and the outbreak of the Korean War, the USSR and USA competed for influence in Latin America, and the decolonizing states of Africa and Asia. Meanwhile, the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 was stopped by the Soviets, the expansion and escalation sparked more crises, such as the Suez Crisis, the Berlin Crisis of 1961, and the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. The USSR crushed the 1968 Prague Spring liberalization program in Czechoslovakia, détente collapsed at the end of the decade with the beginning of the Soviet–Afghan War in 1979. The early 1980s were another period of elevated tension, with the Soviet downing of Korean Air Lines Flight 007, the United States increased diplomatic, military, and economic pressures on the Soviet Union, at a time when the communist state was already suffering from economic stagnation. In the mid-1980s, the new Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev introduced the reforms of perestroika and glasnost. Pressures for national independence grew stronger in Eastern Europe, especially Poland, Gorbachev meanwhile refused to use Soviet troops to bolster the faltering Warsaw Pact regimes as had occurred in the past. The result in 1989 was a wave of revolutions that peacefully overthrew all of the communist regimes of Central, the Communist Party of the Soviet Union itself lost control and was banned following an abortive coup attempt in August 1991. This in turn led to the dissolution of the USSR in December 1991. The United States remained as the only superpower. The Cold War and its events have left a significant legacy and it is often referred to in popular culture, especially in media featuring themes of espionage and the threat of nuclear warfare
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Warsaw Pact
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The Warsaw Pact was the military complement to the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance, the regional economic organization for the communist states of Central and Eastern Europe. While the Warsaw Pact was established as a balance of power or counterweight to NATO, instead, the conflict was fought on an ideological basis and in proxy wars. Both NATO and the Warsaw Pact led to the expansion of military forces and its largest military engagement was the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia in August 1968, which, in part, resulted in Albania withdrawing from the pact less than a month later. The Pact began to unravel in its entirety with the spread of the Revolutions of 1989 through the Eastern Bloc, beginning with the Solidarity movement in Poland, East Germany and Poland withdrew from the Pact in 1990. On 25 February 1991, the Pact was declared at an end at a meeting of defence, the USSR itself was dissolved in December 1991, although most of the former Soviet republics formed the Collective Security Treaty Organization shortly thereafter. Throughout the following 20 years, the seven Warsaw Pact countries outside the USSR each joined NATO, in the Western Bloc, the Warsaw Treaty Organization of Friendship, Cooperation, and Mutual Assistance is often called the Warsaw Pact military alliance—abbreviated WAPA, Warpac, and WP. Therefore, although ostensibly an international collective security alliance, the USSR dominated the Warsaw Treaty armed forces, the strategy behind the formation of the Warsaw Pact was driven by the desire of the Soviet Union to dominate Central and Eastern Europe. The Soviets wanted to keep their part of Europe theirs and not let the Americans take it from them and this policy was driven by ideological and geostrategic reasons. Ideologically, the Soviet Union arrogated the right to define socialism and communism, geostrategic principles also drove the Soviet Union to prevent invasion of its territory by Western European powers. Before the creation of the Warsaw Pact, Czechoslovak leadership, fearful of a rearmed Germany, sought to create a security pact with East Germany and these states protested strongly against the re-militarization of West Germany. The Warsaw Pact was primarily put in place as a consequence of the rearming of West Germany inside NATO, Soviet leaders, like many European countries on both sides of the Iron Curtain, feared Germany being once again a military power and a direct threat. The terrible consequences of German militarism remained a fresh memory among the Soviets, previously, in March 1954, the USSR, fearing the restoration of German militarism in West Germany, requested admission to NATO. The Soviet request to join NATO arose in the aftermath of the Berlin Conference of January–February 1954. James Dunn, who met in Paris with Eden, Adenauer and Robert Schuman, affirmed that the object should be to avoid discussion with the Russians, according to John Gaddis there was little inclination in Western capitals to explore this offer from USSR. But Eden, Dulles and Bidault opposed the proposal, the Soviets then decided to make a new proposal to the governments of the USA, UK and France to accept the participation of the USA in the proposed General European Agreement. Again all proposals, including the request to join NATO, were rejected by the UK, US, emblematic was the position of British General Hastings Ismay, supporter of NATO expansion, who said that NATO must grow until the whole free world gets under one umbrella. He opposed the request to join NATO made by the USSR in 1954 saying that the Soviet request to join NATO is like an unrepentant burglar requesting to join the police force, in April 1954 Adenauer made his first visit to the USA meeting Nixon, Eisenhower and Dulles. Ratification of EDC was delaying but the US representatives made it clear to Adenauer that EDC would have to become a part of NATO, memories of the Nazi occupation were still strong, and the rearmament of Germany was feared by France too
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