1.
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
2.
Privy Council of the United Kingdom
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Her Majestys Most Honourable Privy Council, usually known simply as the Privy Council, is a formal body of advisers to the Sovereign of the United Kingdom. Its membership mainly comprises senior politicians, who are present or former members of either the House of Commons or the House of Lords, the Council also holds the delegated authority to issue Orders of Council, mostly used to regulate certain public institutions. The Council advises the sovereign on the issuing of Royal Charters, which are used to grant special status to incorporated bodies, otherwise, the Privy Councils powers have now been largely replaced by the Cabinet of the United Kingdom. The Judicial Committee consists of judges appointed as Privy Counsellors, predominantly Justices of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom. The Privy Council of the United Kingdom was preceded by the Privy Council of Scotland, the key events in the formation of the modern Privy Council are given below, Witenagemot was an early equivalent to the Privy Council of England. During the reigns of the Norman monarchs, the English Crown was advised by a court or curia regis. The body originally concerned itself with advising the sovereign on legislation, administration, later, different bodies assuming distinct functions evolved from the court. The courts of law took over the business of dispensing justice, nevertheless, the Council retained the power to hear legal disputes, either in the first instance or on appeal. Furthermore, laws made by the sovereign on the advice of the Council, powerful sovereigns often used the body to circumvent the Courts and Parliament. During Henry VIIIs reign, the sovereign, on the advice of the Council, was allowed to enact laws by mere proclamation, the legislative pre-eminence of Parliament was not restored until after Henry VIIIs death. Though the royal Council retained legislative and judicial responsibilities, it became an administrative body. The Council consisted of forty members in 1553, but the sovereign relied on a smaller committee, by the end of the English Civil War, the monarchy, House of Lords, and Privy Council had been abolished. The remaining parliamentary chamber, the House of Commons, instituted a Council of State to execute laws, the forty-one members of the Council were elected by the House of Commons, the body was headed by Oliver Cromwell, de facto military dictator of the nation. In 1653, however, Cromwell became Lord Protector, and the Council was reduced to thirteen and twenty-one members, all elected by the Commons. In 1657, the Commons granted Cromwell even greater powers, some of which were reminiscent of those enjoyed by monarchs, the Council became known as the Protectors Privy Council, its members were appointed by the Lord Protector, subject to Parliaments approval. In 1659, shortly before the restoration of the monarchy, the Protectors Council was abolished, Charles II restored the Royal Privy Council, but he, like previous Stuart monarchs, chose to rely on a small group of advisers. Under George I even more power transferred to this committee and it now began to meet in the absence of the sovereign, communicating its decisions to him after the fact. Thus, the British Privy Council, as a whole, ceased to be a body of important confidential advisers to the sovereign and it is closely related to the word private, and derives from the French word privé
3.
Secretary of State for War
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The position of Secretary of State for War, commonly called War Secretary, was a British cabinet-level position, first held by Henry Dundas. In 1801 the post became that of Secretary of State for War, the position was re-instated in 1854. In 1946, with the creation of a cabinet-level Minister of Defence separate from the Prime Minister, the Secretary of State for War ceased to be a cabinet position. On 1 April 1964, with the creation of the Secretary of State for Defence position, in charge of a new united Ministry of Defence, for 1801–1854 see Secretary of State for War and the Colonies
4.
George V
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George V was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 until his death in 1936. He was the son of Albert Edward, Prince of Wales. From the time of his birth, he was third in the line of succession behind his father and his own brother, Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence. From 1877 to 1891, George served in the Royal Navy, on the death of his grandmother in 1901, Georges father became King-Emperor of the British Empire, and George was created Prince of Wales. He succeeded his father in 1910 and he was the only Emperor of India to be present at his own Delhi Durbar. His reign saw the rise of socialism, communism, fascism, Irish republicanism, the Parliament Act 1911 established the supremacy of the elected British House of Commons over the unelected House of Lords. In 1917, George became the first monarch of the House of Windsor, in 1924 he appointed the first Labour ministry and in 1931 the Statute of Westminster recognised the dominions of the Empire as separate, independent states within the Commonwealth of Nations. He had health problems throughout much of his reign and at his death was succeeded by his eldest son. George was born on 3 June 1865, in Marlborough House and he was the second son of the Prince and Princess of Wales, Albert Edward and Alexandra. His father was the eldest son of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert and he was baptised at Windsor Castle on 7 July 1865 by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Charles Longley. As a younger son of the Prince of Wales, there was expectation that George would become king. He was third in line to the throne, after his father and elder brother, George was only 17 months younger than Albert Victor, and the two princes were educated together. John Neale Dalton was appointed as their tutor in 1871, neither Albert Victor nor George excelled intellectually. For three years from 1879, the brothers served on HMS Bacchante, accompanied by Dalton. They toured the colonies of the British Empire in the Caribbean, South Africa and Australia, and visited Norfolk, Virginia, as well as South America, the Mediterranean, Egypt, Dalton wrote an account of their journey entitled The Cruise of HMS Bacchante. Between Melbourne and Sydney, Dalton recorded a sighting of the Flying Dutchman, after Lausanne, the brothers were separated, Albert Victor attended Trinity College, Cambridge, while George continued in the Royal Navy. He travelled the world, visiting many areas of the British Empire, during his naval career he commanded Torpedo Boat 79 in home waters then HMS Thrush on the North America station, before his last active service in command of HMS Melampus in 1891–92. From then on, his rank was largely honorary
5.
Edward VIII
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Edward VIII was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Empire, and Emperor of India, from 20 January 1936 until his abdication on 11 December the same year. Edward was the eldest son of George V and Mary of Teck and he was named Prince of Wales on his sixteenth birthday, nine weeks after his father succeeded as king. As a young man, he served in the British Army during the First World War, Edward became king on his fathers death in early 1936. However, he showed impatience with court protocol, and caused concern among politicians by his apparent disregard for established constitutional conventions. Only months into his reign, he caused a crisis by proposing marriage to Wallis Simpson. When it became apparent that he could not marry Wallis and remain on the throne and he was succeeded by his younger brother, George VI. With a reign of 326 days, Edward was one of the monarchs in British history. After his abdication, he was created Duke of Windsor and he married Wallis in France on 3 June 1937, after her second divorce became final. Later that year, the couple toured Germany, after the war, Edward spent the rest of his life in retirement in France. Edward was born on 23 June 1894 at White Lodge, Richmond Park and he was the eldest son of the Duke and Duchess of York. His father was the son of the Prince and Princess of Wales and his mother was the eldest daughter of Francis and Mary Adelaide, Duke and Duchess of Teck. At the time of his birth, he was third in the line of succession to the throne and he was baptised Edward Albert Christian George Andrew Patrick David in the Green Drawing Room of White Lodge on 16 July 1894 by Edward White Benson, Archbishop of Canterbury. The names were chosen in honour of Edwards late uncle, who was known to his family as Eddy or Edward and he was always known to his family and close friends by his last given name, David. As was common practice with children of the time, Edward. One of Edwards early nannies often abused him by pinching him before he was due to be presented to his parents and his subsequent crying and wailing would lead the Duke and Duchess to send him and the nanny away. The nanny was discharged after her mistreatment of the children was discovered, Edwards father, though a harsh disciplinarian, was demonstrably affectionate, and his mother displayed a frolicsome side with her children that belied her austere public image. She was amused by the children making tadpoles on toast for their French master, initially Edward was tutored at home by Helen Bricka. Upon his parents return, Edward was placed under the care of two men, Frederick Finch and Henry Hansell, who brought up Edward and his brothers
6.
George VI
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George VI was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth from 11 December 1936 until his death. He was the last Emperor of India and the first Head of the Commonwealth, known as Albert until his accession, George VI was born in the reign of his great-grandmother Queen Victoria, and was named after his great-grandfather Albert, Prince Consort. As the second son of King George V, he was not expected to inherit the throne and spent his life in the shadow of his elder brother. He attended naval college as a teenager, and served in the Royal Navy, in 1920, he was made Duke of York. He married Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon in 1923 and they had two daughters, Elizabeth and Margaret, in the mid-1920s, he had speech therapy for a stammer, which he never fully overcame. Georges elder brother ascended the throne as Edward VIII upon the death of their father in 1936, however, later that year Edward revealed his desire to marry divorced American socialite Wallis Simpson. British Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin advised Edward that for political and religious reasons he could not marry a divorced woman, Edward abdicated in order to marry, and George ascended the throne as the third monarch of the House of Windsor. During Georges reign, the break-up of the British Empire and its transition into the Commonwealth of Nations accelerated, the parliament of the Irish Free State removed direct mention of the monarch from the countrys constitution on the day of his accession. The following year, a new Irish constitution changed the name of the state to Ireland, from 1939, the Empire and Commonwealth – except Ireland – was at war with Nazi Germany. War with Italy and Japan followed in 1940 and 1941, respectively, though Britain and its allies were ultimately victorious in 1945, the United States and the Soviet Union rose as pre-eminent world powers and the British Empire declined. After the independence of India and Pakistan in 1947, George remained king of countries, but relinquished the title of Emperor of India in June 1948. Ireland formally declared itself a republic and left the Commonwealth in 1949, George adopted the new title of Head of the Commonwealth. He was beset by problems in the later years of his reign. He was succeeded by his eldest daughter, Elizabeth II, George was born at York Cottage, on the Sandringham Estate in Norfolk, during the reign of his great-grandmother Queen Victoria. His father was Prince George, Duke of York, the second and eldest-surviving son of the Prince and his mother was the Duchess of York, the eldest child and only daughter of the Duke and Duchess of Teck. His birthday was the 34th anniversary of the death of his great-grandfather, Albert, uncertain of how the Prince Consorts widow, Queen Victoria, would take the news of the birth, the Prince of Wales wrote to the Duke of York that the Queen had been rather distressed. Two days later, he again, I really think it would gratify her if you yourself proposed the name Albert to her. Consequently, he was baptised Albert Frederick Arthur George at St. Mary Magdalenes Church near Sandringham three months later, within the family, he was known informally as Bertie
7.
Stanley Baldwin
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Stanley Baldwin, 1st Earl Baldwin of Bewdley, KG, PC, JP, FRS was a British Conservative politician, who dominated the government in his country between the two world wars. Three times Prime Minister, he is the premier to have served under three monarchs. Baldwin first entered the House of Commons in 1908 as the Member of Parliament for Bewdley and he held government office in the coalition ministry of David Lloyd George. Upon Bonar Laws resignation due to reasons in May 1923, Baldwin became Prime Minister. He called an election on the issue of tariffs and lost the Conservatives majority, after winning the 1924 General Election Baldwin formed his second government, which saw important tenures of office by Sir Austen Chamberlain, Winston Churchill and Neville Chamberlain. The latter two ministers strengthened Conservative appeal by reforms in areas associated with the Liberal Party. They included industrial conciliation, unemployment insurance, a more extensive old-age pension system, slum clearance, more private housing, Baldwin narrowly lost the 1929 General Election and his continued leadership of the party was subject to extensive criticism by the press barons Lord Rothermere and Lord Beaverbrook. In 1931, Labour Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald formed a National Government, most of whose ministers were Conservatives and which won an enormous majority at the 1931 General Election. As Lord President of the Council, and one of four Conservatives among the small ten-member Cabinet and this government saw an Act delivering increased self-government for India, a measure opposed by Churchill and by many rank-and-file Conservatives. The Statute of Westminster 1931 gave Dominion status to Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, as party leader, Baldwin made many striking innovations, such as clever use of radio and film, that made him highly visible to the public and strengthened Conservative appeal. During this time, he oversaw the beginning of the rearmament process of the British military, Baldwin retired in 1937 and was succeeded by Neville Chamberlain. By 2004, however, historians generally painted a positive portrait of his governments. Less equivocal was his rediscovery as a moderate and inclusive Conservative for the modern age, Modern scholars generally rank him in the upper half of British Prime Ministers. The family was prosperous, and owned the eponymous iron and steel making business that in later became part of Richard Thomas. Baldwin then went on to the University of Cambridge, where he studied history at Trinity College. His time at university was blighted by the presence, as Master of Trinity, of Montagu Butler, his former headmaster who had punished him at Harrow for writing a piece of schoolboy smut. He was asked to resign from the Magpie & Stump for never speaking and his father sent him to Mason College for one session of technical training in metallurgy as preparation. As a young man he served briefly as a Second Lieutenant in the Artillery Volunteers at Malvern, Baldwin married Lucy Ridsdale on 12 September 1892
8.
Edward Wood, 1st Earl of Halifax
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He held several senior ministerial posts during this time, most notably those of Viceroy of India from 1925 to 1931 and of Foreign Secretary between 1938 and 1940. From 1941 to 1946, he served as British Ambassador in Washington, Halifax was born into a Yorkshire family, the fourth son of Charles Wood, 2nd Viscount Halifax. He and his siblings were all sickly, his three brothers died young, leaving him as heir to his fathers fortune and seat in the House of Lords. He was born with no left hand and a left arm. That, and his religiosity as a devout Anglo-Catholic like his father, in 2009, the familys roots were traced back to the Viking warrior, Magnus Irwinsson, who arrived in England in 1066 with the army of Harold Hardrada. Woods childhood was divided mainly between two houses in Yorkshire, Hickleton Hall, near Doncaster, and Garrowby and he was educated at Eton College and Christ Church, Oxford, then became a Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford. In 1910 he was elected Member of Parliament for Ripon, holding the seat until his elevation to the Lords in 1925. In 1918, he and George Ambrose Lloyd wrote The Great Opportunity and he held this position until 1924, when he was apparently equally undistinguished as Minister for Agriculture under Stanley Baldwin. Woods career had become bogged down. Wood was Viceroy of India from 1926 to 1931, proposed in 1925 at the suggestion of King George V, created Baron Irwin, he arrived in Bombay on 1 April 1926, hoping to improve Anglo-Indian relations and calm interfaith tensions in the country. His rule was marked by a period of political turmoil. He had all the Congress leaders put behind bars and then opened negotiations with Gandhi, some criticism of Irwin may have been unfair, but he had made an error and the consequences were serious and unrest grew. Irwins attempts to mediate with Indian leaders were stymied by Londons refusal to make concessions, Gandhis detention, however, only made matters worse. The fortnight-long discussions resulted in the Gandhi-Irwin Pact, after which the Civil Disobedience Movement was suspended, the agreement between Gandhi and Irwin was signed on 5 March 1931. The salient points were, The Congress would discontinue the Civil Disobedience Movement, the Congress would participate in the Round Table Conference. The Government would withdraw all ordinances issued to curb the Congress, the Government would withdraw all prosecutions relating to offences not involving violence. The Government would release all persons serving sentences of imprisonment for their activities in the civil disobedience movement and it was also agreed that Gandhi would join the Second Round Table Conference as the sole representative of the Congress. On 20 March 1931, Irwin paid tribute to Gandhis honesty, sincerity, a month following the Gandhi-Irwin Pact, Lord Irwins term ended and he left India
9.
Leslie Hore-Belisha
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Leslie Hore-Belisha, 1st Baron Hore-Belisha, PC was a British Liberal, then National Liberal Member of Parliament and Cabinet Minister. He later joined the Conservative Party and he proved highly successful in modernizing the British road system in 1934 –37 as Minister of Transport. As Secretary of War,1937 –1940, he feuded with the generals and was removed in 1940. Anti-semitism played a role in blocking his appointment as Minister of Information and he was extremely self-centred and had a fine conceit of himself. At times he was accused of sharp practice, sharp practitioner or not, quickness of mind and tongue, and transparent ambition to be seen to succeed, made him vulnerable to smears. His over-assertiveness. led him to appear inconsiderate of the feelings and his name is still widely associated in the UK with the amber Belisha beacons which were installed at pedestrian crossings while he was Minister for Transport. Hore-Belisha was born Isaac Leslie Belisha probably in Devonport, Plymouth, his birth, however, was registered in Hampstead and he was the only son of the Jewish family of Jacob Isaac Belisha, manager of an insurance company, and his wife, Elizabeth Miriam Miers. His father died when he was less one year old. In 1912, in Kensington, his mother married Sir Charles F. Adair Hore. Leslie Belisha then adopted the double-barrelled surname, Hore-Belisha was educated at Clifton College where he was in Polacks house. He continued his studies in Paris and Heidelberg, before attending St Johns College, Oxford, while in Heidelberg, he became a member of die Burschenschaft Frankonia Heidelberg in 1912. During the First World War, he served in France, Flanders and Salonika, after the war, he returned to Oxford and, in 1923, qualified as a barrister. In the 1922 general election, Hore-Belisha was a candidate for the Liberal Party in his birthplace constituency of Plymouth Devonport. However, thanks to his new agent, Benjamin Musgrave he won the seat in the general election the following year. After the general election of that year, Hore-Belisha was appointed a minister at the Board of Trade. He remained in government when the official Liberals withdrew in September 1932 over the issue of trade and was promoted to Financial Secretary to the Treasury. Hore-Belisha showed considerable intelligence and drive in government, although his intense energy tended to alienate traditionalist elements who resented his status as an outsider, Hore-Belisha was appointed Minister of Transport in 1934 coming to public prominence at a time when motoring was becoming available to the masses. All UK speed limits for cars had controversially been removed by the Road Traffic Act 1930 during the previous administration
10.
Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
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The Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster is appointed by the Sovereign on the advice of the Prime Minister. The Chancellor is answerable to Parliament for the governance of the Duchy, however, the involvement of the Chancellor in the running of the day-to-day affairs of the Duchy is slight, and the office is held by a senior politician whose main role is usually quite different. The position is held by Patrick McLoughlin. The position has often given to a junior Cabinet minister with responsibilities in a particular area of policy for which there is no department with an appropriate portfolio. In 1491, the office of Vice-Chancellor of the County Palatine of Lancaster was created, in recent times, the Chancellors duties have been said to occupy an average of one day a week. Under the Promissory Oaths Act 1868, the Chancellor is required to take the oath of allegiance, the Office of the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster is part of the Cabinet Office. From 1997 until 2009, the holder of the title served as the Minister for the Cabinet Office. This was true of Alan Milburn, who was given the title by Prime Minister Tony Blair in 2004, however, in the reshuffle of 5 June 2009, the Chancellorship went to the Leader of the House of Lords, the Baroness Royall. In David Camerons first cabinet, announced on 12 May 2010, the position is currently held by Patrick McLoughlin, who is also Chairman of the Conservative Party, following Theresa Mays appointment as Prime Minister. The last holder of the post was Oliver Letwin, having been appointed in July 2014 when he was also Minister for Government Policy, following the 2015 general election, he was also given overall responsibility for the Cabinet Office and made a full member of the Cabinet. He has also been the Member of Parliament for West Dorset since 1997, list of Chancellors of the Duchy of Lancaster County Palatine of Lancaster
11.
Winston Churchill
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Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill KG OM CH TD PC DL FRS RA was a British statesman who was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945 and again from 1951 to 1955. Churchill was also an officer in the British Army, a historian. He won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1953 for his overall, in 1963, he was the first of only eight people to be made an honorary citizen of the United States. Churchill was born into the family of the Dukes of Marlborough and his father, Lord Randolph Churchill, was a charismatic politician who served as Chancellor of the Exchequer, his mother, Jennie Jerome, was an American socialite. As a young officer, he saw action in British India, the Anglo–Sudan War. He gained fame as a war correspondent and wrote books about his campaigns, at the forefront of politics for fifty years, he held many political and cabinet positions. Before the First World War, he served as President of the Board of Trade, Home Secretary, during the war, he continued as First Lord of the Admiralty until the disastrous Gallipoli Campaign caused his departure from government. He then briefly resumed active service on the Western Front as commander of the 6th Battalion of the Royal Scots Fusiliers. He returned to government under Lloyd George as Minister of Munitions, Secretary of State for War, Secretary of State for Air, at the outbreak of the Second World War, he was again appointed First Lord of the Admiralty. Following the resignation of Neville Chamberlain on 10 May 1940, Churchill became Prime Minister and he led Britain as Prime Minister until victory over Nazi Germany had been secured. After the Conservative Party suffered a defeat in the 1945 general election. He publicly warned of an Iron Curtain of Soviet influence in Europe, after winning the 1951 election, Churchill again became Prime Minister. His second term was preoccupied by foreign affairs, including the Malayan Emergency, Mau Mau Uprising, Korean War, domestically his government laid great emphasis on house-building. Churchill suffered a stroke in 1953 and retired as Prime Minister in 1955. Upon his death aged ninety in 1965, Elizabeth II granted him the honour of a state funeral and his highly complex legacy continues to stimulate intense debate amongst writers and historians. Born into the family of the Dukes of Marlborough, a branch of the noble Spencer family, Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, like his father. His ancestor George Spencer had changed his surname to Spencer-Churchill in 1817 when he became Duke of Marlborough, to highlight his descent from John Churchill, Churchill was born on 30 November 1874, two months prematurely, in a bedroom in Blenheim Palace, Woodstock, Oxfordshire. From age two to six, he lived in Dublin, where his grandfather had been appointed Viceroy, Churchills brother, John Strange Spencer-Churchill, was born during this time in Ireland
12.
Maurice Hankey, 1st Baron Hankey
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He is best known as the highly efficient top aide to Prime Minister David Lloyd George and the War Cabinet that directed Britain in the First World War. His patriotism stands inviolable, but his sensitivity to processes of historical change proved limited, naylor finds that Hankey did not altogether grasp the virulence of fascism. Except as a threat to Britain, nor did he ever quite comprehend the changing face of domestic politics which Labours emergence as a party of government entailed. In these shortcomings Hankey was typical of his generation and background, the third son of R. A. Hankey, Maurice Hankey was born at Biarritz in 1877 and educated at Rugby School. He joined the Royal Marine Artillery, was promoted captain and served in roles including as coastal defence analyst in the War Division of the Naval Intelligence Department. In 1908 he was appointed Naval Assistant Secretary to the Committee of Imperial Defence and became Secretary to the Committee in 1912, in November 1914 he took on the additional duty of Secretary of the War Council. In December 1916 David Lloyd George became Prime Minister and shook up the way the government was run, a small War Cabinet was instigated and Hankey was appointed as its Secretary. In 1923 he acquired the position of Clerk of the Privy Council. During his long tenure he would often serve as British Secretary to many international conferences. In August 1938 Hankey retired from government and became a British Government Director of the Suez Canal Company, in the 1939 New Year Honours, he was ennobled as Baron Hankey, of The Chart in the County of Surrey. Lord Hankey remained a figure and was often consulted by ministers. Hankey was personally reluctant to take on this task but agreed to do so and he became Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster when Chamberlain was succeeded by Winston Churchill in May 1940, but was left out of Churchills War Cabinet. In July 1941 Lord Hankey was moved to the position of Paymaster-General and he continued to hold other positions in both the public and private sector until his death. These diaries are held at the Churchill Archives Centre in Cambridge UK. Maurice Hankeys youngest brother Donald Hankey was a soldier best known for a series of essays he wrote while serving on the front in World War I. Donald died in action at the Somme, Lord Hankey died in 1963, aged 85, and was succeeded in his barony by his eldest son, Robert. In the 1912 Birthday Honours, Hankey was appointed to the Order of the Bath as a Companion and he was then promoted within the same Order as a Knight Commander in 1916 and as a Knight Grand Cross in 1919. In the 1929 Birthday Honours, Sir Maurice was appointed to the Order of St Michael, in the 1934 New Year Honours, Sir Maurice was appointed to the Royal Victorian Order as a Knight Grand Cross
13.
Ernest Brown (British politician)
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Alfred Ernest Brown CH MC PC was a British politician who served as leader of the Liberal Nationals from 1940 until 1945. Born in Torquay, Devon, Brown was the son of a fisherman and prominent Baptist and it was following his father that he came to preach. He soon came to the attention of the local Liberals and became a prominent public speaker at political meetings, Brown served in the First World War, in 1914 he joined the Sportsmans Battalion and in 1916 was commissioned as an officer in the Somerset Light Infantry. He was mentioned in dispatches and was awarded the Military Cross, after three unsuccessful attempts in other constituencies, he was elected as a Liberal Member of Parliament for Rugby in the 1923 general election but lost his seat in the 1924 general election. In 1927 he returned to Parliament in a by-election at Leith, in 1931 he followed Simon in resigning the Liberal party whip and then subsequently in setting up the Liberal Nationals. In the National Government of Ramsay MacDonald, Brown became Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Health in November 1931, the following year the official Liberals resigned from the government and Brown was promoted to become Secretary for Mines. In 1935 when MacDonald was succeeded as Prime Minister by Stanley Baldwin and he held the post for the next five years under both Baldwin and his successor, Neville Chamberlain. One of his most prominent achievements was the Unemployment Insurance Act,1936 which extended social security to all workers in agriculture, forestry. In another sphere he oversaw the formation of the National Joint Advisory Committee which assisted in wage control, compulsory arbitration and he also helped workers in distributing to organise and took great pride when in 1937 the Trades Union Congress passed a unanimous resolution thanking him for this. In 1939 his department was expanded to incorporate overseeing National Service, at the same time Brown became the leader of the Liberal Nationals after Sir John Simon was transferred to the House of Lords. Brown served as Secretary of State for Scotland for a year before becoming Minister of Health for two years and finally Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, Browns tenure as leader of the Liberal Nationals was one of decline, as the party saw its influence diminish. Brown was instead appointed Minister of Aircraft Production, in the 1945 general election Brown lost his seat. After the war Brown devoted his attention to the church, often visiting other parts of the Commonwealth, Brown had a reputation for being a fast speaker and many contemporary political commentators estimated that he could deliver a statement to the House of Commons faster than any other minister. The size of his voice was also noted, Baldwin once saw Brown in a phonebox at the House of Commons and is said to have remarked, I didnt think he needed a phone to communicate with his constituents. Another more famous story reflecting on Browns strong voice, is told of when Stanley Baldwin was living at 11 Downing Street he was startled by a great shouting in the building. When informed that it was Ernest Brown talking to Scotland, Baldwin said Why doesnt he use the telephone, torrance, David, The Scottish Secretaries Hansard 1803–2005, contributions in Parliament by Ernest Brown
14.
British people
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British people, or Britons, are the citizens of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown dependencies, and their descendants. British nationality law governs modern British citizenship and nationality, which can be acquired, for instance, although early assertions of being British date from the Late Middle Ages, the creation of the united Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707 triggered a sense of British national identity. The notion of Britishness was forged during the Napoleonic Wars between Britain and the First French Empire, and developed further during the Victorian era, because of longstanding ethno-sectarian divisions, British identity in Northern Ireland is controversial, but it is held with strong conviction by unionists. Modern Britons are descended mainly from the ethnic groups that settled in the British Isles in and before the 11th century, Prehistoric, Celtic, Roman, Anglo-Saxon, Norse. The British are a diverse, multi-national and multicultural society, with regional accents, expressions. Although none of his own writings remain, writers during the time of the Roman Empire made much reference to them, the group included Ireland, which was referred to as Ierne inhabited by the different race of Hiberni, and Britain as insula Albionum, island of the Albions. The term Pritani may have reached Pytheas from the Gauls, who used it as their term for the inhabitants of the islands. Greek and Roman writers, in the 1st century BC and the 1st century AD, name the inhabitants of Great Britain and Ireland as the Priteni, the origin of the Latin word Britanni. It has been suggested that name derives from a Gaulish description translated as people of the forms. By 50 BC Greek geographers were using equivalents of Prettanikē as a name for the British Isles. However, the term Britannia persisted as the Latin name for the island, during the Middle Ages, and particularly in the Tudor period, the term British was used to refer to the Welsh people and Cornish people. At that time, it was the held belief that these were the remaining descendants of the ancient Britons. This notion was supported by such as the Historia Regum Britanniae. Wales and Cornwall, and north, i. e. Cumbria, Strathclyde and this legendary Celtic history of Great Britain is known as the Matter of Britain. The indigenous people of the British Isles have a combination of Celtic, Norse, Anglo-Saxon, oppenheimer continues that the majority of the people of the British Isles share genetic commonalities with the Basques, ranging from highs of 90% in Wales to lows of 66% in East Anglia. Oppenheimers opinion is that. by far the majority of male gene types in the British Isles derive from Iberia, ranging from a low of 59% in Fakenham, Norfolk to highs of 96% in Llangefni, north Wales. The English had been unified under a single state in 937 by King Athelstan of Wessex after the Battle of Brunanburh. However, historian Simon Schama suggested that it was Edward I of England who was responsible for provoking the peoples of Britain into an awareness of their nationhood in the 13th century
15.
Conservative Party (UK)
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The Conservative Party, officially the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a political party in the United Kingdom. It is currently the party, having won a majority of seats in the House of Commons at the 2015 general election. The partys leader, Theresa May, is serving as Prime Minister. It is the largest party in government with 8,702 councillors. The Conservative Party is one of the two major political parties in the United Kingdom, the other being its modern rival. The Conservative Partys platform involves support for market capitalism, free enterprise, fiscal conservatism, a strong national defence, deregulation. In the 1920s, the Liberal vote greatly diminished and the Labour Party became the Conservatives main rivals, Conservative Prime Ministers led governments for 57 years of the twentieth century, including Winston Churchill and Margaret Thatcher. Thatchers tenure led to wide-ranging economic liberalisation, the Conservative Partys domination of British politics throughout the twentieth century has led to them being referred to as one of the most successful political parties in the Western world. The Conservatives are the joint-second largest British party in the European Parliament, with twenty MEPs, the party is a member of the Alliance of Conservatives and Reformists in Europe Europarty and the International Democrat Union. The party is the second-largest in the Scottish Parliament and the second-largest in the Welsh Assembly, the party is also organised in the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar. The Conservative Party traces its origins to a faction, rooted in the 18th century Whig Party and they were known as Independent Whigs, Friends of Mr Pitt, or Pittites. After Pitts death the term Tory came into use and this was an allusion to the Tories, a political grouping that had existed from 1678, but which had no organisational continuity with the Pittite party. From about 1812 on the name Tory was commonly used for the newer party, the term Conservative was suggested as a title for the party by a magazine article by J. Wilson Croker in the Quarterly Review in 1830. The name immediately caught on and was adopted under the aegis of Sir Robert Peel around 1834. Peel is acknowledged as the founder of the Conservative Party, which he created with the announcement of the Tamworth Manifesto, the term Conservative Party rather than Tory was the dominant usage by 1845. In 1912, the Liberal Unionists merged with the Conservative Party, in Ireland, the Irish Unionist Alliance had been formed in 1891 which merged anti-Home Rule Unionists into one political movement. Its MPs took the Conservative whip at Westminster, and in essence formed the Irish wing of the party until 1922. The Conservatives served with the Liberals in an all-party coalition government during World War I, keohane finds that the Conservatives were bitterly divided before 1914, especially on the issue of Irish Unionism and the experience of three consecutive election losses
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Lady Diana Cooper
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Diana Olivia Winifred Maud Cooper, Viscountess Norwich, was a famously glamorous social figure in London and Paris. As a young woman, she moved in a group of intellectuals known as the Coterie. She married one of the few survivors, Duff Cooper, later British Ambassador to France, after his death, she wrote three volumes of memoirs which reveal much about early 20th-century upper-class life. She was officially the youngest daughter of the 8th Duke of Rutland and his wife, the former Violet Lindsay, but Lady Dianas real father was the writer Henry Cust. As early as 1908, various pamphlets were being circulated by a former governess claiming that Cust fathered Diana Manners, and Lord Crawford noted in his diary that the resemblance was striking. In her prime, she had the reputation as the most beautiful young woman in England. She became active in The Coterie, an group of young English aristocrats and intellectuals of the 1910s whose prominence. Some see them as people ahead of their time, precursors of the Jazz Age, Lady Diana was the most famous of the group, which included Raymond Asquith, Patrick Shaw-Stewart, Edward Horner, Sir Denis Anson and Duff Cooper. It was not a choice in the Manners household, since the brides parents had hoped for a marriage to the Prince of Wales. As for Cooper, he impulsively wrote a letter to Lady Diana, before their marriage, declaring. In 1929 she gave birth to her child, John Julius. The play achieved outstanding success, and she toured for two years with the cast. Lady Diana subsequently starred in silent films, including the first British colour films. In 1924, Duff Cooper gained election to Parliament, while his wife continued as a society celebrity, during this period, Lady Dianas popularity as a hostess remained undimmed, even after allegations that the embassy guest list included pederasts and collaborators. Following Duff Coopers retirement in 1947, they continued to live in France at Chantilly and he was created Viscount Norwich in 1952, for services to the nation, but Lady Diana refused to be called Viscountess Norwich, claiming that it sounded like porridge. Following her husbands death, she made an announcement in The Times to this effect, stating that she had reverted to the name and title of Lady Diana Cooper. Lady Diana sharply reduced her activities in the late 1950s but did produce three volumes of memoirs, The Rainbow Comes and Goes, The Light of Common Day, the three volumes are included in a compilation called Autobiography. She died in 1986, aged 93, philip Ziegler wrote Diana Cooper, A Biography in 1981, it was published by Hamish Hamilton
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Alma mater
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Alma mater is an allegorical Latin phrase for a university or college. In modern usage, it is a school or university which an individual has attended, the phrase is variously translated as nourishing mother, nursing mother, or fostering mother, suggesting that a school provides intellectual nourishment to its students. Before its modern usage, Alma mater was a title in Latin for various mother goddesses, especially Ceres or Cybele. The source of its current use is the motto, Alma Mater Studiorum, of the oldest university in continuous operation in the Western world and it is related to the term alumnus, denoting a university graduate, which literally means a nursling or one who is nourished. The phrase can also denote a song or hymn associated with a school, although alma was a common epithet for Ceres, Cybele, Venus, and other mother goddesses, it was not frequently used in conjunction with mater in classical Latin. Alma Redemptoris Mater is a well-known 11th century antiphon devoted to Mary, the earliest documented English use of the term to refer to a university is in 1600, when University of Cambridge printer John Legate began using an emblem for the universitys press. In English etymological reference works, the first university-related usage is often cited in 1710, many historic European universities have adopted Alma Mater as part of the Latin translation of their official name. The University of Bologna Latin name, Alma Mater Studiorum, refers to its status as the oldest continuously operating university in the world. At least one, the Alma Mater Europaea in Salzburg, Austria, the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, has been called the Alma Mater of the Nation because of its ties to the founding of the United States. At Queens University in Kingston, Ontario, and the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, British Columbia, the ancient Roman world had many statues of the Alma Mater, some still extant. Modern sculptures are found in prominent locations on several American university campuses, outside the United States, there is an Alma Mater sculpture on the steps of the monumental entrance to the Universidad de La Habana, in Havana, Cuba. Media related to Alma mater at Wikimedia Commons The dictionary definition of alma mater at Wiktionary Alma Mater Europaea website
18.
New College, Oxford
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New College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1379 by William of Wykeham, the name of the college is The Warden. The name New College, however, soon came to be used following its completion in 1386 to distinguish it from the existing college of St. Mary. In 2013, the college ranked second in the Norrington Table, having been ranked third in the 2011-12 tables, maintaining its place from 2010 to 2011, New College jumped to 1st after the 2012-13 academic year. The college is between Holywell Street and New College Lane, next to All Souls College, Harris Manchester College, Hertford College, The Queens College, the colleges sister college is Kings College, Cambridge. The college is one of the main foundations of the University of Oxford. The college choir is regarded as one of the choirs of the world. New College is one of the wealthiest colleges in Oxford University, as of June 2015, it had a financial endowment in excess of £190 million, and net assets of over £220 million. In 1379 William of Wykeham had purchased land in Oxford and was able to apply to King Richard II for a charter to allow the foundation of a de novo. In his own charter of foundation, Wykeham declared the college to consist of a warden, the site on which the college would be built was acquired from several sources, including the City of Oxford, Merton College and Queens College. This land had been the City Ditch, a haunt of thieves, on 5 March 1380, the first stone of New College was laid. By 14 April 1386, the college entered formal possession of the buildings, Wykeham set to drawing up the statutes of the college, with a first draft presented in 1390. The statutes were not completed until the year before Wykeham died, the coat of arms of the college is one adopted by William Wykeham. It features two black chevrons, one said to have been added when he became a bishop and the other representing his skill with architecture, Winchester College uses the same arms. The grand collection of buildings is a testament to Williams experience in administering both ecclesiastical and civil institutions as the Bishop of Winchester and High Chancellor of England. Both Winchester College and New College were originally established for the education of priests, William of Wykeham ordained that there were to be ten chaplains, three clerks and 16 choristers on the foundation of the college. The original choristers were accommodated within the walls of the college under one schoolmaster, since then the school has expanded and in 1903 moved to New College School in Savile Road. In August 1651, New College was fortified by the Parliamentarian forces, in 1685, Monmouths rebellion involved Robert Sewster, a fellow of the college, who commanded a company of university volunteers
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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
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British Army
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The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom. As of 2017 the British Army comprises just over 80,000 trained Regular, or full-time, personnel and just over 26,500 trained Reserve, or part-time personnel. Therefore, the UK Parliament approves the continued existence of the Army by passing an Armed Forces Act at least once every five years, day to day the Army comes under administration of the Ministry of Defence and is commanded by the Chief of the General Staff. Repeatedly emerging victorious from these decisive wars allowed Britain to influence world events with its policies and establish itself as one of the leading military. In 1660 the English, Scottish and Irish monarchies were restored under Charles II, Charles favoured the foundation of a new army under royal control and began work towards its establishment by August 1660. The Royal Scots Army and the Irish Army were financed by the Parliament of Scotland, the order of seniority of the most senior line regiments in the British Army is based on the order of seniority in the English army. At that time there was only one English regiment of dragoons, after William and Marys accession to the throne, England involved itself in the War of the Grand Alliance, primarily to prevent a French invasion restoring Marys father, James II. Spain, in the two centuries, had been the dominant global power, and the chief threat to Englands early transatlantic ambitions. The territorial ambitions of the French, however, led to the War of the Spanish Succession and the Napoleonic Wars. From the time of the end of the Seven Years War in 1763, Great Britain was the naval power. As had its predecessor, the English Army, the British Army fought the Kingdoms of Spain, France, and the Netherlands for supremacy in North America and the West Indies. With native and provincial assistance, the Army conquered New France in the North American theatre of the Seven Years War, the British Army suffered defeat in the American War of Independence, losing the Thirteen Colonies but holding on to Canada. The British Army was heavily involved in the Napoleonic Wars and served in campaigns across Europe. The war between the British and the First French Empire of Napoleon Bonaparte stretched around the world and at its peak, in 1813, the regular army contained over 250,000 men. A Coalition of Anglo-Dutch and Prussian Armies under the Duke of Wellington, the English had been involved, both politically and militarily, in Ireland since being given the Lordship of Ireland by the Pope in 1171. The campaign of the English republican Protector, Oliver Cromwell, involved uncompromising treatment of the Irish towns that had supported the Royalists during the English Civil War, the English Army stayed in Ireland primarily to suppress numerous Irish revolts and campaigns for independence. Having learnt from their experience in America, the British government sought a political solution, the British Army found itself fighting Irish rebels, both Protestant and Catholic, primarily in Ulster and Leinster in the 1798 rebellion. The Haldane Reforms of 1907 formally created the Territorial Force as the Armys volunteer reserve component by merging and reorganising the Volunteer Force, Militia, Great Britains dominance of the world had been challenged by numerous other powers, in the 20th century, most notably Germany
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Lieutenant
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A lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer in many nations armed forces, fire service or police. The meaning of lieutenant differs in different military formations, but is often subdivided into senior and junior ranks, in navies it is often equivalent to the army rank of captain, it may also indicate a particular post rather than a rank. The rank is used in fire services, emergency medical services, security services. Lieutenant may also appear as part of a used in various other organisations with a codified command structure. It often designates someone who is second-in-command, and as such, for example, a lieutenant master is likely to be second-in-command to the master in an organisation using both ranks. Political uses include lieutenant governor in various governments, and Quebec lieutenant in Canadian politics, in the United Kingdom, a lord lieutenant is the sovereigns representative in a county or lieutenancy area, while a deputy lieutenant is one of the lord lieutenants deputies. However, their efforts failed, and the French word is used, along with its many variations. The early history of the pronunciation is unclear, Middle English spellings suggest that the /luː-/ and /lɛf-/ pronunciations may have existed even then. The rare Old French variant spelling luef for Modern French lieu supports the suggestion that a final of the Old French word was in certain environments perceived as an, in Royal Naval tradition—and other English-speaking navies outside the United States—a reduced pronunciation /ləˈtɛnənt/ is used. This is not recognised as current by recent editions of the OED, conventionally, armies and other services or branches which use army-style rank titles have two grades of lieutenant, but a few also use a third, more junior, rank. Where more junior officers were employed as deputies to the lieutenant, they went by names, including second lieutenant, sub-lieutenant, ensign. The senior grade of lieutenant is known as first lieutenant in the United States, and as lieutenant in the United Kingdom, in countries which do not speak English, the rank title usually translates as lieutenant, but may also translate as first lieutenant or senior lieutenant. The Israel Defense Forces rank segen literally translates as deputy, which is equivalent to a lieutenant, there is great variation in the insignia used worldwide. In most English-speaking and Arabic-speaking countries, as well as a number of European and South American nations, an example of an exception is the United States, whose armed forces distinguish their lieutenant ranks with one silver bar for first lieutenant and one gold bar for second lieutenant. Second lieutenant is usually the most junior grade of commissioned officer, in non-English-speaking countries, the equivalent rank title may translate as second lieutenant, lieutenant, sub-lieutenant or junior lieutenant. Non-English terms include alferes, alférez, fänrik, ensign, Leutnant, letnan, poručík, a few non-English-speaking militaries maintain a lower rank, frequently translated as third lieutenant OF1c. The rank title may translate as second lieutenant, junior lieutenant, sub-lieutenant or ensign. Warsaw Pact countries standardised their ranking systems on the Soviet system, some of the former Soviet and Warsaw Pact nations have now discarded the third rank while many retain it like Bulgaria
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Grenadier Guards
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The Grenadier Guards is an infantry regiment of the British Army. It is the most senior regiment of the Guards Division and and it is not, however, the most senior regiment of the Army, this position being attributed to The Life Guards. The grouping of buttons on the tunic is a way to distinguish among the regiments of Foot Guards. Grenadier Guards buttons are equally spaced and embossed with the Royal Cypher reversed and interlaced surrounded by the Royal Garter bearing the royal motto Honi soit qui mal y pense and their Buff Belt brass clasps also carry the Royal Cypher. Modern Grenadier Guardsmen wear a cap badge of a grenade fired proper with seventeen flames and this cap badge has to be cleaned twice a day – once in the morning, and once in the afternoon. A tarnished grenade is severely frowned upon and can be punished by disciplinary action within the Regiment, a few years later, a similar regiment known as John Russells Regiment of Guards was formed. In 1665, these two regiments were combined to form the 1st Regiment of Foot Guards, consisting of 24 companies of men, since then the Grenadier Guards have served ten Kings and four Queens, including the current Queen Elizabeth II. Throughout the 18th century, the regiment took part in a number of campaigns including the War of Spanish Succession, the War of Austrian Succession, at the end of the Napoleonic Wars, the regiment gained the name Grenadier in July 1815 following a Royal Proclamation. During the Victorian era, the regiment took part in the Crimean War, participating in the fighting at the Alma river, Inkerman, for their involvement in the Crimean War, four members of the 3rd Battalion received the Victoria Cross. In 1900,75 men from the regiment were used to raise a fourth Guards regiment, at the outbreak of the First World War in August 1914, the regiment consisted of three battalions. The 2nd Battalion of the regiment was sent to France in August, and they took part in the early stages of the fighting during the period known as Race to the Sea, during which time they were involved significantly at the First Battle of Ypres. In February 1915, a fifth Guards regiment was raised, known as The Welsh Guards, in recognition of the significant contribution Welshmen had made to The Grenadier Guards, the regiment transferred five officers and 634 other ranks to the newly formed unit. Following this the four battalions of the regiment fought in a number of significant battles including Loos, the Somme, Cambrai, Arras. Seven members of the regiment received the Victoria Cross during the war, during the Second World War, the regiment was expanded to six service battalions, with the re-raising of the 4th Battalion, and the establishment of the 5th and 6th Battalions. The 3rd Battalion was in the 1st Guards Brigade attached to the 1st Infantry Division, after this, they returned to the United Kingdom, where they undertook defensive duties in anticipation of a possible German invasion. Between October 1940 and October 1941, the regiment raised the 4th, 5th, the 1st and 2nd Battalions were part of the 5th Guards Armoured Brigade, attached to the Guards Armoured Division, and the 4th Battalion was part of the 6th Guards Tank Brigade Group. The battalions took part in the Italian Campaign at Salerno, Monte Camino, Anzio, Monte Cassino, the 5th Battalion was part of 24th Guards Brigade and served with the 1st Division during the Battle of Anzio. After suffering devastating casualties, the brigade was relieved in March 1944, the 6th Battalion served with the 22nd Guards Brigade, later redesignated 201st Guards Motor Brigade, until late 1944 when the battalion was disbanded due to an acute shortage of Guards replacements
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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
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Western Front (World War I)
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The Western Front or Western Theater was the main theatre of war during World War I. Following the outbreak of war in August 1914, the German Army opened the Western Front by invading Luxembourg and Belgium, the tide of the advance was dramatically turned with the Battle of the Marne. Following the Race to the Sea, both sides dug in along a line of fortified trenches, stretching from the North Sea to the Swiss frontier with France. This line remained unchanged for most of the war. Between 1915 and 1917 there were several major offensives along this front, the attacks employed massive artillery bombardments and massed infantry advances. However, a combination of entrenchments, machine gun emplacements, barbed wire, as a result, no significant advances were made. In an effort to break the deadlock, this front saw the introduction of new technology, including poison gas, aircraft. But it was only after the adoption of improved tactics that some degree of mobility was restored, the German Armys Spring Offensive of 1918 was made possible by the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk that marked the end of the conflict on the Eastern Front. In spite of the stagnant nature of this front, this theatre would prove decisive. The terms of peace were agreed upon with the signing of the Treaty of Versailles in 1919, belgiums neutrality was guaranteed by Britain under the 1839 Treaty of London, this caused Britain to join the war at the expiration of its ultimatum at 11 pm GMT on 4 August. Armies under German generals Alexander von Kluck and Karl von Bülow attacked Belgium on 4 August 1914, Luxembourg had been occupied without opposition on 2 August. The first battle in Belgium was the Siege of Liège, which lasted from 5–16 August, Liège was well fortified and surprised the German Army under von Bülow with its level of resistance. German heavy artillery was able to demolish the main forts within a few days. Following the fall of Liège, most of the Belgian field army retreated to Antwerp, leaving the garrison of Namur isolated, with the Belgian capital, Brussels, although the German army bypassed Antwerp, it remained a threat to their flank. Another siege followed at Namur, lasting from about 20–23 August, for their part, the French had five armies deployed on their borders. The pre-war French offensive plan, Plan XVII, was intended to capture Alsace-Lorraine following the outbreak of hostilities, on 7 August the VII Corps attacked Alsace with its objectives being to capture Mulhouse and Colmar. The main offensive was launched on 14 August with 1st and 2nd Armies attacking toward Sarrebourg-Morhange in Lorraine, in keeping with the Schlieffen Plan, the Germans withdrew slowly while inflicting severe losses upon the French. The French advanced the 3rd and 4th Armies toward the Saar River and attempted to capture Saarburg, attacking Briey and Neufchateau, before being driven back
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Mentioned in dispatches
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In a number of countries, a servicemembers name must be mentioned in dispatches as a condition for receiving certain decorations. In the British Armed Forces, the despatch is published in the London Gazette, for 1914–1918 and up to 10 August 1920, the decoration consisted of a spray of oak leaves in bronze. This decoration was established in 1919, but it had retroactive effect. From 1920 to 1993, the decoration consisted of a bronze oak leaf. In a change introduced in 2014 to the British Armed Forces, prior to this change, even if the soldier was mentioned in dispatches more than once, only a single such decoration was worn. In Britain, since 1993, the decoration is a silver oak leaf. In each case the decoration is pinned or sewn diagonally on to the campaign medal ribbon. If no campaign medal is awarded, the oak leaf is worn on the left breast of the dress uniform, prior to 1979, a mention in dispatches was one of the three awards that could be made posthumously, the others being the Victoria Cross and George Cross. The 1979 reform removed the all or nothing lottery, soldiers can be mentioned multiple times. The British First World War Victoria Cross recipient John Vereker, later Field Marshal Viscount Gort, was mentioned in dispatches nine times, the Australian general Gordon Bennett was mentioned in dispatches a total of eight times during the First World War, as was Field Marshal Sir John Dill. Similarly, the equivalents of the MiD for acts of bravery by civilians, the reformed and comprehensive system is now as follows, The Commendation for Gallantry is now the fourth level decoration for gallantry. The Commendation for Brave Conduct recognises acts of bravery carried by soldiers not directly fighting the enemy, a mention in dispatches – in French, Citation à lordre du jour – gives recognition from a senior commander for acts of brave or meritorious service, normally in the field. The Mention in dispatches is among the list of awards presented by the Governor General of Canada, personnel can be mentioned in dispatches posthumously and multiple awards are also possible. A recipient of a mention in a dispatch is entitled to wear an emblem and they are also issued with an official certificate from the Ministry of Defence. The emblem, which was regarded as a decoration, was worn on the ribbon of the Victory Medal, only one emblem was worn, irrespective of the number of times a recipient had been mentioned. The Afrikaans rendition of mentioned in dispatches is Eervolle Vermelding in Berigte, the mention in dispatches was one of only four awards which could be made posthumously. The others were the Victoria Cross, the George Cross, the oak leaf emblem was worn on the ribbon of the War Medal 1939–1945. The Kings Commendation was denoted by a bronze King Protea flower emblem worn on the ribbon of the Africa Service Medal and it could be awarded posthumously and was the equivalent of a mention in dispatches for services rendered away from the battlefield
26.
Appeasement
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Appeasement in a political context is a diplomatic policy of making political or material concessions to an enemy power in order to avoid conflict. Their policies have been the subject of debate for more than seventy years among academics, politicians. Chamberlains policy of appeasement emerged from the failure of the League of Nations, the League of Nations was set up in the aftermath of World War I in the hope that international cooperation and collective resistance to aggression might prevent another war. Members of the League were entitled to the assistance of other members if they came under attack, the policy of collective security ran in parallel with measures to achieve international disarmament and where possible was to be based on economic sanctions against an aggressor. It appeared to be ineffectual when confronted by the aggression of dictators, notably Germanys Remilitarization of the Rhineland, in September 1931, Japan, a member of the League of Nations, invaded northeast China, claiming it as not only Chinese but a multiple ethnic Manchuria region. China appealed to the League and the United States for assistance, the Council of the League asked the parties to withdraw to their original positions to permit a peaceful settlement. The United States reminded them of their duty under the Kellogg-Briand Pact to settle matters peacefully, Japan was undeterred and went on to occupy the whole of Manchuria. The League set up a commission of inquiry that condemned Japan, Japan resigned from the League and continued its advance into China. Neither the League nor the United States took any action and their inactivity and ineffectualness in the Far East lent every encouragement to European aggressors who planned similar acts of defiance. However the U. S. issued the Stimson Doctrine and refused to recognize Japans conquest, Italian Prime Minister Benito Mussolini had imperial ambitions in Abyssinia. Italy was already in possession of neighboring Eritrea and Somalia, when Italy demanded apologies and compensation from Abyssinia, Abyssinia appealed to the League, Emperor Haile Selassie famously appealing in person to the assembly in Geneva. The League persuaded both sides to seek a settlement under the Italo-Ethiopian Treaty of 1928 but Italy continued troop movements, in October 1935 Mussolini launched an attack on Abyssinia. The League declared Italy to be the aggressor and imposed sanctions, albania, Austria and Hungary refused to apply sanctions, Germany and the United States were not in the League. The League considered closing off the Suez Canal also, which would have stopped arms to Abyssinia, earlier, in April 1935, Italy had joined Britain and France in protesting against Germanys rearmament. France was anxious to placate Mussolini so as to him away from an alliance with Germany. Britain was less hostile to Germany and set the pace in imposing sanctions, however, the press leaked the content of the discussions and a public outcry forced Hoare and Laval to resign. In May 1936, undeterred by sanctions, Italy captured Addis Ababa, the Abyssinian capital, in July the League abandoned sanctions. This episode, in which sanctions were incomplete and appeared to be given up
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League of Nations
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The League of Nations was an intergovernmental organisation founded on 10 January 1920 as a result of the Paris Peace Conference that ended the First World War. It was the first international organisation whose mission was to maintain world peace. Its primary goals, as stated in its Covenant, included preventing wars through collective security and disarmament, at its greatest extent from 28 September 1934 to 23 February 1935, it had 58 members. The diplomatic philosophy behind the League represented a shift from the preceding hundred years. The League lacked its own armed force and depended on the Great Powers to enforce its resolutions, keep to its economic sanctions, however, the Great Powers were often reluctant to do so. Sanctions could hurt League members, so they were reluctant to comply with them, after a number of notable successes and some early failures in the 1920s, the League ultimately proved incapable of preventing aggression by the Axis powers in the 1930s. Germany withdrew from the League, as did Japan, Italy, Spain, the onset of the Second World War showed that the League had failed its primary purpose, which was to prevent any future world war. The League lasted for 26 years, the United Nations replaced it after the end of the Second World War on 20 April 1946 and inherited a number of agencies and organisations founded by the League. As historians William H. Harbaugh and Ronald E. Powaski point out, the organisation was international in scope, with a third of the members of parliaments serving as members of the IPU by 1914. Its aims were to encourage governments to solve disputes by peaceful means. Annual conferences were held to help refine the process of international arbitration. Its structure consisted of a council headed by a president, which would later be reflected in the structure of the League, at the start of the 20th century, two power blocs emerged from alliances between the European Great Powers. It was these alliances that, at the start of the First World War in 1914 and this was the first major war in Europe between industrialised countries, and the first time in Western Europe that the results of industrialisation had been dedicated to war. By the time the fighting ended in November 1918, the war had had an impact, affecting the social, political and economic systems of Europe. Anti-war sentiment rose across the world, the First World War was described as the war to end all wars, the causes identified included arms races, alliances, militaristic nationalism, secret diplomacy, and the freedom of sovereign states to enter into war for their own benefit. Goldsworthy Lowes Dickinson, a British political scientist, coined the term League of Nations in 1914, together with Lord Bryce, he played a leading role in the founding of the group of internationalist pacifists known as the Bryce Group, later the League of Nations Union. The group became more influential among the public and as a pressure group within the then governing Liberal Party. In Dickinsons 1915 pamphlet After the War he wrote of his League of Peace as being essentially an organisation for arbitration and conciliation
28.
Munich Agreement
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The agreement was signed in the early hours of 30 September 1938 after being negotiated at a conference held in Munich, Germany, among the major powers of Europe, excluding the Soviet Union. Today, it is regarded as a failed act of appeasement toward Germany. The purpose of the conference was to discuss the future of the Sudetenland in the face of demands made by Adolf Hitler. The agreement was signed by Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Sudetenland was of immense strategic importance to Czechoslovakia, as most of its border defenses, and banks were situated there, as well as heavy industrial districts. Part of the borderland was invaded and annexed by Poland, the phrase Munich Betrayal is also used because the military alliance Czechoslovakia had with France and Britain proved useless and also known because of the phrase About us, without us. This phrase is most hurtful for people of Czechoslovakia, Today the document is typically referred to simply as the Munich Pact. In Germany the Sudeten crisis led to the so-called Oster Conspiracy, from 1918 to 1938, after the breakup of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, more than 3 million ethnic Germans were living in the Czech part of the newly created state of Czechoslovakia. Sudeten German pro-Nazi leader Konrad Henlein founded the Sudeten German Party that served as the branch of the Nazi Party for the Sudetenland. By 1935, the SdP was the second largest political party in Czechoslovakia as German votes concentrated on this party while Czech, on 24 April, the SdP issued a series of demands upon the government of Czechoslovakia, that were known as the Carlsbad Program. Among the demands, Henlein demanded autonomy for Germans living in Czechoslovakia, the Czechoslovakian government responded by saying that it was willing to provide more minority rights to the German minority but it refused to grant them autonomy. As the previous appeasement of Hitler had shown, the governments of both France and Britain were intent on avoiding war, the French government did not wish to face Germany alone and took its lead from the British government of Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain. Chamberlain considered the Sudeten German grievances justified and believed Hitlers intentions were limited, both Britain and France, therefore, advised Czechoslovakia to concede to Germanys demands. Beneš resisted and on 19 May initiated a partial mobilization in response to possible German invasion, while recognizing that this would still be insufficient for a full-scale naval war with Britain, Hitler hoped it would be a sufficient deterrent. Ten days later, Hitler signed a directive for war against Czechoslovakia. On 22 May, Juliusz Łukasiewicz, the Polish ambassador to France, told the French Foreign Minister Georges Bonnet that if France moved against Germany in defense of Czechoslovakia, Łukasiewicz also told Bonnet that Poland would oppose any attempt by Soviet forces to defend Czechoslovakia from Germany. Daladier told Jakob Surits, the Soviet ambassador to France, Not only can we not count on Polish support but we have no faith that Poland will not strike us in the back. Hitlers adjutant, Fritz Wiedemann, recalled after the war that he was shocked by Hitlers new plans to attack Britain. In the meantime, the British government demanded that Beneš request a mediator, Not wishing to sever his governments ties with Western Europe, Beneš reluctantly accepted
29.
Ministry of Information (United Kingdom)
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The Ministry of Information, headed by the Minister of Information, was a United Kingdom government department created briefly at the end of the First World War and again during the Second World War. Located in Senate House at the University of London during the 1940s, it was the government department responsible for publicity. In the Great War, several different agencies had been responsible for propaganda, except for a period when there had been a Department of Information. The Ministry’s function was ‘To promote the case to the public at home and abroad in time of war’ by issuing ‘National Propaganda’ and controlling news. It was initially responsible for censorship, issuing official news, home publicity and overseas publicity in Allied and these functions were matched by a responsibility for monitoring public opinion through a network of Regional Information Offices. Responsibility for publicity in enemy territories was organized by Department EH, secret planning for a Ministry of Information had started in October 1935 under the auspices of the Committee of Imperial Defence. Draft proposals were accepted on 27 July 1936 and Sir Stephen Tallents was appointed as Director General Designate, Tallents drew together a small group of planners from existing government departments, public bodies and specialist outside organizations. The MOI’s planners sought to experience gained during the First World War with new communications technology. Their work reflected a concern that a future war would exert huge strain on the civilian population. The shadow Ministry of Information came into being briefly between 26 September-3 October 1938 after the Nazi annexation of the Sudetenland heightened international tensions, the seventy one officials who were assembled in temporary accommodation had responsibility for censoring press reports surrounding the Munich Agreement. The week-long experiment was not regarded as a success, instead it highlighted the extent to which questions over appointments, accommodation, links to the media and the relationship with other government departments had been left unresolved. The confusion had been made worse by tensions between the shadow MOI and the Foreign Office News Department and this tension spilled over into the Committee for Imperial Defence which considered proposals to abandon plans for the Ministry of Information. Tallents left his post as Director General Designate on 2 January 1939, planning efforts would increase again after Nazi troops moved into Prague on 15 March 1939. The British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain publicly announced his government’s intentions for the MOI in a speech on 15 June 1939. Home Office officials were given until 31 December 1939 to complete their plans. The Ministry of Information was formed on 4 September 1939, the day after Britains declaration of war, the MOI’s headquarters were housed within the University of Londons Senate House and would remain in place until the end of the war. The MOI was initially organized in four groups, a ‘Press Relations’ group was responsible for both the issue of news and censorship. A ‘Publicity Users’ group was responsible for propaganda policy, a ‘Publicity Producers’ group was responsible for design and production
30.
Charles de Gaulle
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Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle was a French general and statesman. He was the leader of Free France and the head of the Provisional Government of the French Republic, in 1958, he founded the Fifth Republic and was elected as the 18th President of France, a position he held until his resignation in 1969. He was the dominant figure of France during the Cold War era, born in Lille, he graduated from Saint-Cyr in 1912. He was an officer of the First World War, wounded several times. During the interwar period, he advocated mobile armoured divisions, during the German invasion of May 1940, he led an armoured division which counterattacked the invaders, he was then appointed Under-Secretary for War. Refusing to accept his governments armistice with Nazi Germany, de Gaulle exhorted the French population to resist occupation and he led a government in exile and the Free French Forces against the Axis. Despite frosty relations with Britain and especially the United States, he emerged as the leader of the French resistance. He became Head of the Provisional Government of the French Republic in June 1944, frustrated by the return of petty partisanship in the new Fourth Republic, he resigned in early 1946 but continued to be politically active as founder of the RPF party. He retired in the early 1950s and wrote his War Memoirs, when the Algerian War was ripping apart the unstable Fourth Republic, the National Assembly brought him back to power during the May 1958 crisis. De Gaulle founded the Fifth Republic with a presidency. He granted independence to Algeria and progressively to other French colonies and he restored cordial Franco-German relations to create a European counterweight between the Anglo-American and Soviet spheres of influence. However, he opposed any development of a supranational Europe, favouring a Europe of sovereign nations, De Gaulle openly criticised the US intervention in Vietnam and the exorbitant privilege of the US dollar. In his later years, his support for an independent Quebec, De Gaulle resigned in 1969 after losing a referendum in which he proposed more decentralization. He died a year later at his residence in Colombey-les-Deux-Églises, leaving his Presidential memoirs unfinished, many French political parties and figures claim the Gaullist legacy. De Gaulle was ranked as Le Plus Grand Français de tous les temps, De Gaulle was born in the industrial region of Lille in the Nord departement, the third of five children. He was raised in a devoutly Catholic and traditional family and his father, Henri de Gaulle, was a professor of history and literature at a Jesuit college who eventually founded his own school. Henri de Gaulle came from a line of parliamentary gentry from Normandy and Burgundy. De Gaulles mother, Jeanne, descended from a family of entrepreneurs from Lille
31.
Free France
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It was set up in London in June 1940 and also organised and supported the Resistance in occupied France. On 27 October 1940, the Empire Defense Council was constituted to organise the rule of the territories in central Africa and it was replaced on 24 September 1941 by the French National Committee. After the reconquest of North Africa, this was in turn merged with de Gaulles rival general Henri Girauds command in Algiers to form the French Committee of National Liberation. Exile officially ended with the capture of Paris by the 2nd Armoured Free French Division and Resistance forces on 25 August 1944, the Free French fought Axis and Vichy regime troops and served on battlefronts everywhere from the Middle East to Indochina and North Africa. The Free French Navy operated as a force to the Royal Navy and, in the North Atlantic. Free French units also served in the Royal Air Force, Soviet Air Force, the French Army of Africa switched allegiance to Free France, and this caused the Axis to occupy Vichy in reaction. On 1 August 1943, LArmée dAfrique was formally united with the Free French Forces to form LArmée française de la Liberation. By mid-1944, the forces of this army numbered more than 400,000, and they participated in the Normandy landings, the Free French government re-established a provisional republic after the liberation, preparing the ground for the Fourth Republic in 1946. Historically, an individual became Free French by enlisting in the military units organised by the CFN or by employment by the arm of the Committee. In many sources, Free French describes any French individual or unit that fought against Axis forces after the June 1940 armistice, postwar, to settle disputes over the Free French heritage, the French government issued an official definition of the term. Under this ministerial instruction of July 1953, only those who served with the Allies after the Franco-German armistice in 1940, between 27 May and 4 June, around 200,000 British soldiers and 140,000 French troops were evacuated from the beaches to safety in England. General Charles de Gaulle was a minister in the French cabinet during the Battle of France, as France was overwhelmed by the stunning German victory, he found himself part of a small group of politicians who argued against a negotiated surrender to Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. That same day, the new French President of the Council, former First World War Marshal Philippe Pétain, De Gaulle briefly travelled to Bordeaux to continue the fight but, realising that Pétain would surrender, he returned to London on 17 June. On 18 June, General de Gaulle spoke to the French people via BBC radio, urging French soldiers, sailors and airmen to join in the fight against the Nazis and she has a great empire behind her. Together with the British Empire, she can form a bloc that controls the seas and she may, like England, draw upon the limitless industrial resources of the United States. In Vichys case those reasons were compounded with ideas of a Révolution nationale about stamping out Frances republican heritage. On 22 June 1940, Marshall Pétain signed an armistice with Germany, followed by a one with Italy on 24 June. After a parliamentary vote on 10 July, Pétain became leader of the newly established authoritarian regime known as Vichy France, despite de Gaulles call to continue the struggle, few French forces, at least initially, pledged their support
32.
Alfred Cooper
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Sir Alfred Cooper was a fashionable English surgeon and clubman of the late 19th century whose patients included Edward, Prince of Wales. He is an ancestor of David Cameron, Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Cooper was born in Bracondale, Norfolk, England, the son of William Cooper, barrister, by his wife Anna, née Marsh. He was educated at Merchant Taylors School, as a doctor and surgeon, his speciality was in venereal disease, which gave him an unusual degree of access to, and perspective on, late Victorian aristocrats and their notions of morality. Cooper became the husband of Lady Agnes Duff, and was devoted to her all his life. Lady Agnes Duffs first husband, Vicount Dupplin, had been the eldest son of the 12th Earl of Kinnoull, Lady Agnes Duffs brother, Alexander Duff, 1st Duke of Fife, was the husband of Louise, Princess Royal, the eldest daughter of King Edward VII. Cooper and his wife had four children together, the youngest being Duff Cooper, 1st Viscount Norwich, knighted in 1902 for his services to medicine, Cooper died in Menton, France, in 1908
33.
Alexander Duff, 1st Duke of Fife
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Fife was born in Edinburgh, the son of James Duff and his wife, the former Lady Agnes Hay, second daughter of the 18th Earl of Erroll and the former Lady Elizabeth FitzClarence. When his father succeeded as 5th Earl Fife in 1857, he acquired the courtesy title Viscount Macduff and he attended Eton from 1863 to 1866. Fife served as Member of Parliament for the Elginshire and Nairnshire constituency, in Scotland, on 7 August 1879, he succeeded his father as 6th Earl Fife in the Peerage of Ireland. He served under William Ewart Gladstone as Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms from 1880 to 1881 and he was also Lord-Lieutenant Elginshire from 1872 to 1902, and Lord Lieutenant of the County of London from February 1900 until his death in 1912. In 1885, Queen Victoria created him Earl of Fife in the Peerage of the United Kingdom and he helped found the Chartered Company of South Africa, and served as one of its vice presidents until the 1896 Jameson Raid. On Saturday 27 July 1889, Lord Fife married Princess Louise, the couple were third cousins in descent from George III. The wedding marked the time a descendant of Queen Victoria married a British subject. Two days after the wedding, the Queen elevated Lord Fife to the dignity of Duke of Fife and Marquess of Macduff, in the County of Banff. The marriage of the Duke of Fife and Princess Louise produced three children, Alastair Duff, Lady Alexandra Duff married her first cousin once removed Prince Arthur of Connaught, and had issue. Lady Maud Duff married the 11th Earl of Southesk, and had issue, in December 1911, while sailing to Egypt on the SS Delhi, the Duke and his family were shipwrecked off the coast of Morocco. They spent some time in the water before being rescued and then had to walk 4 miles to accommodation, although they escaped unharmed, the Duke fell ill with pleurisy, probably contracted as a result of the shipwreck. He died at Aswan in Egypt on 29 January 1912, and his daughter, Princess Alexandra, succeeded to the 1900 dukedom, becoming Duchess of Fife. The Dukes other titles, including the 1889 Dukedom, became extinct, the Dukes body was repatriated to the United Kingdom on ship, in a lead coffin. The result was that he held two Dukedoms of Fife, the 1889 creation would become extinct in the absence of a son, Queen Victoria created the future Duke of Fife a Knight of the Thistle, George V created him an Extra Knight of the Garter. He was also sworn a Privy Counsellor in 1880, at the coronation of his father-in-law, King Edward VII, in August 1902, and again at King George Vs coronation in June 1911, the Duke of Fife acted as Lord High Constable. In addition to his London residence,15 Portman Square, the Duke owned two estates in Scotland, Mar Lodge, Aberdeenshire, and Mountcoffer House, Banff, the Earl Fife The Rt Hon. The Earl Fife, PC The Rt Hon, the Earl Fife, KT, PC The Rt Hon.8
34.
Louise, Princess Royal
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Louise, Princess Royal and Duchess of Fife was the third child and the eldest daughter of King Edward VII of the United Kingdom and Queen Alexandra, she was a younger sister of King George V. She was the daughter of a British monarch to be styled Princess Royal. Princess Louise was born at Marlborough House, the London residence of her parents, then The Prince and she spent much of her childhood at Sandringham House, her parents country estate in Norfolk. Like her sisters, Princesses Maud and Victoria, she received limited formal education and she was christened at Marlborough House on 10 May 1867 by Charles Longley, Archbishop of Canterbury. With her sisters Maud and Victoria, she was a bridesmaid at the 1885 wedding of their paternal aunt Princess Beatrice, on Saturday 27 July 1889, Princess Louise married the 6th Earl Fife, at the Private Chapel in Buckingham Palace. Two days after the wedding, Queen Victoria created him Duke of Fife, the letters patent creating this dukedom contained the standard remainder to male heirs of the body lawfully begotten. However, it became apparent that the Duke and Duchess would not have a son and her Highness Princess Maud of Fife married the 11th Earl of Southesk, and had issue. On 9 November 1905, King Edward VII created Princess Louise the Princess Royal, in December 1911, while sailing to Egypt, the Princess Royal and her family were shipwrecked off the coast of Morocco. Although they escaped unharmed, the Duke of Fife fell ill with pleurisy and he died at Assuan, Egypt in January 1912, and Princess Alexandra succeeded to his dukedom, becoming Duchess of Fife in her own right. Princess Alexandra later married Prince Arthur of Connaught, a first cousin of Princess Louise, Princess Louise of Wales received the Royal Order of Victoria and Albert in 1885 and the Imperial Order of the Crown of India in 1887. She became a Lady of the Venerable Order of St John of Jerusalem in 1888 and she became colonel-in-chief of the 7th Dragoon Guards in 1914. She later served as colonel-in-chief of the 4th and 7th Dragoon Guards when it was formed in 1921, in the autumn of 1929 at Mar Lodge she was taken ill with gastric hemorrhage and was brought back to London. The Princess Royal died fifteen months later in January 1931, at her home in Portman Square, London and was buried in St. Georges Chapel and her remains were later removed to the Private Chapel, Mar Lodge, Braemar, Aberdeenshire. The inescutcheon was dropped by royal warrant in 1917
35.
Wixenford School
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Wixenford School, also known as Wixenford Preparatory School and Wixenford-Eversley, was an independent preparatory school for boys near Wokingham, founded in 1869. A feeder school for Eton, after it closed in 1934 its former buildings were taken over by the present-day Ludgrove School, among the schools first intake of boys, in May 1869, was George Nathaniel Curzon, a future Viceroy of India. Before being attached to the school, Wixenford was the name of its first home, a new house built for Powles at Eversley in 1868–69. Powles, who in his youth had been a fellow of Exeter College, Oxford, had operated a school at Blackheath. After Kingsleys death in 1875, Powles became less active in the school and he moved to Chichester in 1881, where he became a prebendary of the cathedral. Powles was succeeded in 1879 by Ernest Penrose Arnold, a graduate of Balliol College, Oxford, and a nephew of Thomas Arnold of Rugby School. Arnold remained as master of the school until 1903. At six feet, five inches, in height, Arnold has been described by Rupert Croft-Cooke as a kindly. Wixenford was still small, as most such schools were at the time, the school moved to Luckley Park, Wokingham, Berkshire, in the late 19th century. Throughout its history, it had a connection with Eton. A few boys stayed longer, and at least one, Peter Anson, was almost fifteen when he left the school in the summer of 1904. In 1910, Morton was joined by two joint headmasters, who were partners, Harold Wallis and Ernest Garnett, forming a triumvirate. By 1920, Morton had retired and had replaced by Charles Mansfield. By 1924, Mansfield was acting as the head master. In September 1931 Garnett withdrew from the partnership, amid the Great Depression of the 1930s, Wixenford suffered a decline in numbers and finally closed in 1934. With its demise, its former buildings presented an opportunity for another fashionable prep school, Ludgrove, until then based at Cockfosters, while retaining its existing school name, Ludgrove kept Wixenford as the name of its new premises. Old boys of the school are called Old Wixenfordians, the following, in chronological order, are among the most notable
36.
Eton College
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Eton College /iːtən/ is an English independent boarding school for boys in Eton, Berkshire, near Windsor. It educates more than 1,300 pupils, aged 13 to 18 years and it was founded in 1440 by King Henry VI as The Kings College of Our Lady of Eton besides Wyndsor, making it the 18th oldest Headmasters and Headmistresses Conference school. Eton is one of the seven public schools as defined by the Public Schools Act 1868. Eton has educated 19 British prime ministers and generations of the aristocracy and has referred to as the chief nurse of Englands statesmen. The school is headed by a Provost and Fellows, who appoint the Head Master and it contains 25 boys houses, each headed by a housemaster, selected from the more senior members of the teaching staff, which numbers some 155. Almost all of the pupils go on to universities, about a third of them to Oxford or Cambridge. The Head Master is a member of the Headmasters and Headmistresses Conference, Eton has a long list of distinguished former pupils. David Cameron was the 19th British prime minister to have attended the school, about 20% of pupils at Eton receive financial support, through a range of bursaries and scholarships. In early 2014, this figure had risen to 263 pupils receiving the equivalent of around 60% of school fee assistance, Eton has been described as the most famous public school in the world, and been referred to as the chief nurse of Englands statesmen. The Good Schools Guide called the school the number one public school, adding that The teaching. The school is a member of the G20 Schools Group, Eton today is a larger school than it has been for much of its history. In 1678, there were 207 boys, in the late 18th century, there were about 300, while today, the total has risen to over 1,300. Eton College was founded by King Henry VI as a charity school to free education to 70 poor boys who would then go on to Kings College, Cambridge. Henry took Winchester College as his model, visiting on many occasions, borrowing its Statutes and removing its Headmaster, when Henry VI founded the school, he granted it a large number of endowments, including much valuable land. He persuaded the then Pope, Eugene IV, to grant him a privilege unparalleled anywhere in England, the school also came into possession of one of Englands Apocalypse manuscripts. Legend has it that Edwards mistress, Jane Shore, intervened on the schools behalf and she was able to save a good part of the school, although the royal bequest and the number of staff were much reduced. Construction of the chapel, originally intended to be slightly over twice as long, only the Quire of the intended building was completed. Etons first Headmaster, William Waynflete, founder of Magdalen College, Oxford and previously Head Master of Winchester College, as the school suffered reduced income while still under construction, the completion and further development of the school has since depended to some extent on wealthy benefactors
37.
University of Oxford
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The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university located in Oxford, England. It grew rapidly from 1167 when Henry II banned English students from attending the University of Paris, after disputes between students and Oxford townsfolk in 1209, some academics fled north-east to Cambridge where they established what became the University of Cambridge. The two ancient universities are frequently referred to as Oxbridge. The university is made up of a variety of institutions, including 38 constituent colleges, All the colleges are self-governing institutions within the university, each controlling its own membership and with its own internal structure and activities. Being a city university, it not have a main campus, instead, its buildings. Oxford is the home of the Rhodes Scholarship, one of the worlds oldest and most prestigious scholarships, the university operates the worlds oldest university museum, as well as the largest university press in the world and the largest academic library system in Britain. Oxford has educated many notable alumni, including 28 Nobel laureates,27 Prime Ministers of the United Kingdom, the University of Oxford has no known foundation date. Teaching at Oxford existed in form as early as 1096. It grew quickly in 1167 when English students returned from the University of Paris, the historian Gerald of Wales lectured to such scholars in 1188 and the first known foreign scholar, Emo of Friesland, arrived in 1190. The head of the university had the title of chancellor from at least 1201, the university was granted a royal charter in 1248 during the reign of King Henry III. After disputes between students and Oxford townsfolk in 1209, some academics fled from the violence to Cambridge, the students associated together on the basis of geographical origins, into two nations, representing the North and the South. In later centuries, geographical origins continued to many students affiliations when membership of a college or hall became customary in Oxford. At about the time, private benefactors established colleges as self-contained scholarly communities. Among the earliest such founders were William of Durham, who in 1249 endowed University College, thereafter, an increasing number of students lived in colleges rather than in halls and religious houses. In 1333–34, an attempt by some dissatisfied Oxford scholars to found a new university at Stamford, Lincolnshire was blocked by the universities of Oxford and Cambridge petitioning King Edward III. Thereafter, until the 1820s, no new universities were allowed to be founded in England, even in London, thus, Oxford and Cambridge had a duopoly, the new learning of the Renaissance greatly influenced Oxford from the late 15th century onwards. Among university scholars of the period were William Grocyn, who contributed to the revival of Greek language studies, and John Colet, the noted biblical scholar. With the English Reformation and the breaking of communion with the Roman Catholic Church, recusant scholars from Oxford fled to continental Europe, as a centre of learning and scholarship, Oxfords reputation declined in the Age of Enlightenment, enrolments fell and teaching was neglected
38.
Raymond Asquith
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Raymond Asquith was an English barrister and son of British Prime Minister H. H. Asquith. A distinguished Oxford scholar, he was a member of a group of intellectuals known as The Coterie, notable for unconventional lifestyles. Like several of them, Asquith was killed in action in World War I. Asquith was the eldest son and he was educated at Winchester, from where he won a scholarship to Balliol in 1896, taking with him a reputation for brilliance. He won the Ireland, Derby, and Craven scholarships, elected a fellow of All Souls in 1902, he was called to the bar in 1904. The tall, handsome Asquith was a member of the Coterie, Asquith was junior counsel in the North Atlantic Fisheries Arbitration and the investigation of the sinking of the Titanic, and was considered a putative Liberal candidate for Derby. However, his rise was interrupted by the outbreak of the First World War and he was initially commissioned, on 17 December 1914, as a second lieutenant into the 16th Battalion, London Regiment. As a result, he died while being carried back to British lines, the writer John Buchan devoted several pages of his autobiography Memory Hold-the-Door to his memories of Raymond Asquith and their friendship. A memorial tablet to Asquith was erected in Amiens Cathedral, the inscription, in French and Latin, states, Priez pour lâme de RAYMOND ASQUITH Lieutenant aux Grenadiers de la Garde Royale. Fils ainé de Herbert Henry Asquith premier ministre du Royaume Uni, tombé au champ dhonneur près de Guinchy le 15 Sept.1916. O ORIENS SPLENDOR LUCIS AETERNAE VENI ET ILLUMINA SEDENTES IN TENEBRIS ET UMBRA MORTIS, the St Andrews Church memorial wording is, In piam memoriam Raymondi Asquith Coll. Her mother, Lady Horner, was the former Frances Jane Graham, elder daughter of William Graham, a merchant, passionate art collector. Lady Horner was a hostess and patron of the arts, especially the Pre-Raphaelites. The Horners had four children – Cicely, Katharine, Mark, the new baby was reputedly named Trim in honour of the Roman gourmand Trimalchio, after his father saw his newborn son for the first time while on leave from the war. Asquith died nearly ten years before his father was raised to the House of Lords in 1925 as Earl of Oxford, Katharine eventually inherited Mells Manor because her younger and only surviving brother, Edward Horner, was also killed in the war. He was buried in France, but his memorial in St Andrews Church, Mells was designed by his mothers friend Edwin Lutyens, Katharine converted to Roman Catholicism after being widowed and became a friend of Siegfried Sassoon, who also converted, following her example. She also remained in touch with Evelyn Waugh, another convert, All three of her children were brought up as Roman Catholics. K. D. Reynolds, ‘Horner, Frances Jane, Lady Horner ’, first published September 2004,580 words, Oxford DNB, Frances Horner, full article available via subscription only. Photographs of Raymond Asquith and his wife at the NPG taken by Lady Ottoline Morrell, a fuller profile of Raymond Asquith including text of his Times obituary
39.
Charles James Fox
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His father Henry, a leading Whig of his day, had similarly been the great rival of Pitts famous father. He rose to prominence in the House of Commons as a forceful and eloquent speaker with a notorious and colourful life, though his opinions were rather conservative. Fox became a prominent and staunch opponent of George III, whom he regarded as a tyrant, he supported the American Patriots. Briefly serving as Britains first Foreign Secretary in the ministry of the Marquess of Rockingham in 1782, he returned to the post in a coalition government with his old enemy Lord North in 1783. After Pitts death in January 1806, Fox served briefly as Foreign Secretary in the Ministry of All the Talents of William Grenville, before he died on 13 September 1806, aged 57. Fox was born at 9 Conduit Street, London, the surviving son of Henry Fox, 1st Baron Holland, and Lady Caroline Lennox. Henry Fox was an ally of Robert Walpole and rival of Pitt the Elder and he had amassed a considerable fortune by exploiting his position as Paymaster General of the forces. Foxs elder brother, Stephen became 2nd Baron Holland and his younger brother, Henry, had a distinguished military career. The stories of Charless over-indulgence by his father are legendary. It was said that Charles once expressed a desire to break his fathers watch and was not restrained or punished when he duly smashed it on the floor. In later life he was always to have carried a copy of Horace in his coat pocket. On this trip, Charles was given an amount of money with which to learn to gamble by his father. These three pursuits – gambling, womanising and the love of things and fashions foreign – would become, once inculcated in his adolescence, Fox entered Hertford College, Oxford, in October 1764, although he would later leave without taking a degree, rather contemptuous of its nonsenses. For the 1768 general election, Henry Fox bought his son a seat in Parliament for the West Sussex constituency of Midhurst, though Charles was still nineteen, thus he spent much of his early years unwittingly manufacturing ammunition for his later critics and their accusations of hypocrisy. A supporter of the Grafton and North ministries, Fox was prominent in the campaign to punish the radical John Wilkes for challenging the Commons and he thus opened his career by speaking in behalf of the Commons against the people and their elected representative. Consequently, both Fox and his brother, Stephen, were insulted and pelted with mud in the street by the pro-Wilkes London crowds, however, between 1770 and 1774, Foxs seemingly promising career in the political establishment was spoiled. Behind these incidents lay his familys resentment towards Lord North for refusing to elevate the Holland barony to an earldom, but the fact that such a young man could seemingly treat ministerial office so lightly was noted at court. George III, also observing Foxs licentious private behaviour, took it to be presumption and he drifted from his rather unideological family-oriented politics into the orbit of the Rockingham Whig party
40.
Her Majesty's Diplomatic Service
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It employs around 14,000 people, roughly one third of whom are UK-based Civil Servants working directly for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, either in London or abroad. The remaining two thirds of staff are employed locally by one of 240 British Diplomatic Missions abroad, the Permanent Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs is also the Head of the Diplomatic Service. The Foreign Service, which originally provided civil servants to staff the Foreign Office, was once a separate service, the Diplomatic Service also absorbed the Colonial Service in the late 1960s. Women were not allowed to join the Diplomatic Service until 1946, until 1973, they were required to leave when they married. The first female ambassador to be appointed was Barbara Salt, to Israel in 1962, the first woman to serve as an ambassador was Anne Warburton, appointed to Denmark in 1976. Diplomatic ranks in the British Diplomatic Service List of diplomatic missions of the United Kingdom Her Majestys Home Civil Service Colonial Service Foreign and Commonwealth Office website
41.
ITV (TV network)
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ITV is a commercial TV network in the United Kingdom. Since the passing of the Broadcasting Act 1990 its legal name has been Channel 3, to distinguish it from the analogue channels at the time, namely BBC1, BBC2. ITV is a network of channels that operate regional television services as well as sharing programmes between each other to be displayed on the entire network. In recent years, several of companies have merged so currently the fifteen franchises are in the hands of two companies. With the exception of Northern Ireland, the ITV brand is the used by ITV plc for the Channel 3 service in these areas. In Northern Ireland, ITV plc uses the brand name UTV, STV Group plc, uses the STV brand for its two franchises of central and northern Scotland. The origins of ITV lie in the passing of the Television Act 1954, the act created the Independent Television Authority to heavily regulate the industry and to award franchises. The first six franchises were awarded in 1954 for London, the Midlands, the first ITV network to launch was Londons Associated-Rediffusion on 22 September 1955, with the Midlands and North services launching in February 1956 and May 1956 respectively. Following these launches, the ITA awarded more franchises until the country was covered by fourteen regional stations. Following the 1993 changes, ITV as a network began to consolidate with several companies doing so to save money by ceasing the duplication of services present when they were all separate companies. The ITV Network is not owned or operated by one company, since 2016 the fifteen licences are held by two companies, with the majority held by ITV Broadcasting Limited, part of ITV plc. The network is regulated by the media regulator Ofcom who is responsible for awarding the broadcast licences, the last major review of the Channel 3 franchises was in 1991, with all operators licences having been renewed between 1999 and 2002 and again from 2014 without a further contest. However, due to amalgamation of several of companies since the creation of ITV Network Limited. Approved by Ofcom, this results in ITV plc commissioning and funding the network schedule, all licensees have the right to opt out of network programming, however many do not due to pressures from the parent company or because of limited resources. The network also needs to produce accessible output containing subtitles, signing, in exchange for this programming, the ITV network is available on all platforms free to air and can be found at the top of the EPG of all providers. Since the launch of the platform in 1998, all of the ITV licensees have received gifted capacity on the terrestrial television platform. At present, the companies are able to broadcast additional channels and all choose to broadcast the ITV plc owned ITV2, ITV3, ITV4 and CITV in their region. UTV and STV previously broadcast their own services – UTV2 in Northern Ireland and S2 in central and northern Scotland – until 2002, the broadcasters all make use of the Digital 3&4 multiplex, shared with Channel 4
42.
Henry Cust
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For his father, see Henry Cockayne-Cust. Henry John Harry Cockayne-Cust, MP, JP, DL was an English politician, Cust was born to Sara Jane Cookson and Henry Cockayne-Cust, and was educated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge. While at Trinity, he was elected to the Apostles and graduated with honours in the Classical Tripos with a Bachelor of Arts. Initially pursuing a career, Cust was admitted to the Inner Temple in 1888 but was not called. Instead he decided to enter Parliament, and won a by-election in 1890 for Stamford and he left Parliament at the general election of 1895, but returned five years later in 1900 when he won a seat in the constituency of Bermondsey, remaining until 1906. Meanwhile, he served as Justice of the Peace for Bedfordshire and as Deputy Lieutenant of Bedfordshire, Cust was one of The Souls and was attached to Pamela Wyndham, who later married Edward Tennant. Others in the clique were Margot Asquith, Arthur Balfour, George Nathaniel Curzon, Alfred Lyttelton, Godfrey Webb. In 1892, Cust met William Waldorf Astor, who invited him to edit the Pall Mall Gazette, despite lacking any background in journalism, Cust immediately accepted. He soon transformed the newspaper into the best evening journal of the period, thanks in part to his securing contributors including Rudyard Kipling and H. G. Wells. Yet Cust rejected contributions submitted by Astor himself, who had literary aspirations, after leaving the Pall Mall Gazette, Cust continued his career as an author. He wrote several poems, most notably Non nobis domine, during World War I Cust was active in propaganda on behalf of the British Government. In August 1914, he founded the Central Committee for National Patriotic Organizations and he died in 1917 of a heart attack at his home in Hyde Park Gate, London. He was heir to the barony of Brownlow, a position which at his death fell to his brother, the pregnancy was either false or a misrepresentation, and the couple, whose marriage was thereafter contentious, did not have any children. Nina Cust was a translator and editor of her mothers papers and she and her husband are buried together in Belton, Lincolnshire, with a monument designed by her. His best-known lovechild was Lady Diana Manners, legally the daughter of Henry Manners, internationally famous for her beauty, she married the politician Duff Cooper in 1919. In the 1980s, the very elderly Diana Cooper referred to Thatcher as my niece, anita Leslie, in her book Marlborough House Set, implies that Cust had many more children with aristocratic lovers than just Diana Cooper. An annual Cust Lecture on some important current topic relating to the British Empire was endowed in Nottingham University to commemorate his work and his Occasional Poems appeared in 1918, printed in Jerusalem
United Kingdom
