1.
Alfred Harmsworth, 1st Viscount Northcliffe
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Alfred Charles William Harmsworth, 1st Viscount Northcliffe was a British newspaper and publishing magnate. As owner of the Daily Mail and the Daily Mirror, he was a pioneer of popular journalism, Lord Beaverbrook said he was the greatest figure who ever strode down Fleet Street. The turn of the saw the rise of popular journalism aimed at the working class. P. P. Catterall and Colin Seymour-Ure conclude that, More than anyone, Northcliffe played a powerful role in the First World War, especially in attacking the government in the Shell Crisis of 1915. He headed the mission to the new ally, the United States, in 1917, although born in Chapelizod, County Dublin, Harmsworth was educated at Stamford School in Lincolnshire, England, from 1876 and at Henley House School in Kilburn, London from 1878. He was the brother of Harold Harmsworth, 1st Viscount Rothermere, Cecil Harmsworth, 1st Baron Harmsworth, Sir Leicester Harmsworth, 1st Baronet and Sir Hildebrand Harmsworth. Beginning as a freelance journalist, he founded his first newspaper, Answers, and was assisted by his brother Harold. Harmsworth had a sense for what the reading public wanted to buy, and began a series of cheap but successful periodicals, such as Comic Cuts. From these periodicals, he built what was then the largest periodical publishing empire in the world, Harmsworth was an early pioneer of popular journalism. He bought several failing newspapers and made them into an enormously profitable chain and he began with The Evening News in 1894, and then merged two Edinburgh papers to form the Edinburgh Daily Record. That same year he fitted out an expedition to Franz Joseph Land in the Arctic with the aim of making attempts on the North Pole, prime Minister Robert Cecil, Lord Salisbury, said it was written by office boys for office boys. Harmsworth then transformed a Sunday newspaper, the Weekly Dispatch, into the Sunday Dispatch and he also founded the Harmsworth Magazine, utilizing one of Britains best editors, Beckles Willson, who had been editor of many successful publications, including The Graphic. Harmsworth also founded The Daily Mirror in 1903, and rescued the financially desperate Observer and The Times in 1905 and 1908, in 1908, he also acquired The Sunday Times. Amalgamated Press subsidiary the Educational Book Company published the Harmsworth Self-Educator, The Childrens Encyclopædia, Harmsworth was created a Baronet, of Elmwood, in the parish of St Peters in the County of Kent in 1904. Alfred Harmsworth married Mary Elizabeth Milner on 11 April 1888 and she would be styled Baroness Northcliffe from 27 December 1905 and Viscountess Northcliffe from 14 January 1918. She was appointed Dame Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire and Dame of Grace, Alfred Harmsworth had four acknowledged children by two different women. The first, Alfred Benjamin Smith, was born when Harmsworth was seventeen, Smith died in 1930, allegedly in a mental home. By 1900, Harmsworth had acquired a new mistress, an Irishwoman named Kathleen Wrohan, about whom little is known but her name, she bore him two further sons and a daughter, and died in 1923
2.
England
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England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west, the Irish Sea lies northwest of England and the Celtic Sea lies to the southwest. England is separated from continental Europe by the North Sea to the east, the country covers five-eighths of the island of Great Britain in its centre and south, and includes over 100 smaller islands such as the Isles of Scilly, and the Isle of Wight. England became a state in the 10th century, and since the Age of Discovery. The Industrial Revolution began in 18th-century England, transforming its society into the worlds first industrialised nation, Englands terrain mostly comprises low hills and plains, especially in central and southern England. However, there are uplands in the north and in the southwest, the capital is London, which is the largest metropolitan area in both the United Kingdom and the European Union. In 1801, Great Britain was united with the Kingdom of Ireland through another Act of Union to become the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. In 1922 the Irish Free State seceded from the United Kingdom, leading to the latter being renamed the United Kingdom of Great Britain, the name England is derived from the Old English name Englaland, which means land of the Angles. The Angles were one of the Germanic tribes that settled in Great Britain during the Early Middle Ages, the Angles came from the Angeln peninsula in the Bay of Kiel area of the Baltic Sea. The earliest recorded use of the term, as Engla londe, is in the ninth century translation into Old English of Bedes Ecclesiastical History of the English People. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, its spelling was first used in 1538. The earliest attested reference to the Angles occurs in the 1st-century work by Tacitus, Germania, the etymology of the tribal name itself is disputed by scholars, it has been suggested that it derives from the shape of the Angeln peninsula, an angular shape. An alternative name for England is Albion, the name Albion originally referred to the entire island of Great Britain. The nominally earliest record of the name appears in the Aristotelian Corpus, specifically the 4th century BC De Mundo, in it are two very large islands called Britannia, these are Albion and Ierne. But modern scholarly consensus ascribes De Mundo not to Aristotle but to Pseudo-Aristotle, the word Albion or insula Albionum has two possible origins. Albion is now applied to England in a poetic capacity. Another romantic name for England is Loegria, related to the Welsh word for England, Lloegr, the earliest known evidence of human presence in the area now known as England was that of Homo antecessor, dating to approximately 780,000 years ago. The oldest proto-human bones discovered in England date from 500,000 years ago, Modern humans are known to have inhabited the area during the Upper Paleolithic period, though permanent settlements were only established within the last 6,000 years
3.
Dorothy Levitt
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Dorothy Elizabeth Levitt, was the first British woman racing driver, holder of the worlds first water speed record, the womens world land speed record holder, and an author. She was a pioneer of independence and female motoring, and taught Queen Alexandra. She also advised women travelling alone to carry a handgun, her recommendation was an automatic Colt, Levitt was born Elizabeth Levi, in Hackney on 5 January 1882. She was the daughter of Jacob Levi, a jeweller, tea dealer. Dorothys mother was born Julia Raphael in Aldgate on 31 October 1856, Jacob died in 1934 and Julia in 1942. Levitt had two sisters, Lilly, and Elsie Ruby, Levitt or Levit had been adopted as the anglicized family surname by 1901. Scant information is available about Levitts life except indications that she was a horse rider. She described remaining astride a horse while it negotiated jumps in a steeplechase as easier than retaining a seat in a car being driven at speed. In 1902 she was employed as a secretary at the Napier & Son works in Vine Street, Lambeth, the Napier engineering company had been purchased by Montague Napier from the executors of his fathers estate. After undertaking work for Selwyn Edge on his Panhard et Levassor racing car, when or how Levitt met Edge is unclear, as several versions and nuances are reported and both she and Edge appear to have been orientated towards self-publicity. One suggestion was that Edge was seeking an English version of du Gast to enhance the sale of British cars, jean Williams, British sports historian, hypothesises it may also have been to initiate a similar strategy to that employed by Kodak to infer even women could manage it. Later newspaper accounts paint a history for Levitt by reporting that when she was twenty her parents moved to the countryside. Unhappy about their choice of husband, she absconded. While her parents searched fruitlessly for her, she became acquainted with Edge and she is presumed to have also been his mistress for a time. Levitt had to be taught to drive and Leslie Callingham, a young salesman employed by Napiers, was instructed to undertake the task during his day off work. Fortunately Levitt was a fast learner as Callingham disliked her intensely and was affronted at having to teach a woman to drive, cars were entered in official trials to accumulate performance information for possible buyers, only the company driver and an official were permitted in the vehicle. The driver was required to undertake any necessary maintenance during the proceedings so Edge had to ensure Levitt was also proficient in mechanics. On her return to London she began teaching women how to drive, reportedly teaching Queen Alexandra, Levitts introductory experience competing in a motor race took place in April 1903, the first English woman driver ever to do so
4.
D. Napier & Son
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D. Napier & Son Limited was a British engineering company best known for its luxury motor cars in the Edwardian era and for its aero engines throughout the early to mid-20th century. Napier was founded as an engineering company in 1808 and for nearly a century produced machinery for the financial, print. In the early 20th century it moved for a time into internal combustion engines and its powerful Lion dominated the UK market in the 1920s and the World War Two era Sabre produced 3500 hp in its later versions. Many world speed records on land and water, as well as the Hawker Typhoon, during World War Two the company was taken over by English Electric and engine manufacture eventually ceased. Today, Napier Turbochargers is a subsidiary of the American company Wabtec, david Napier, second son of the blacksmith to the Duke of Argyll, was born in 1785. While cousins became shipbuilders, he took engineering training in Scotland before coming to London, there in 1808 he founded the firm that was to become D. Napier & Son in Lloyds Court, St Giles, London. He designed a printing press, some of which went to Hansard. The company moved to Lambeth, South London in 1830, between 1840 and 1860, Napier was prosperous, with a well-outfitted factory and between 200 and 300 workers. Napier made a variety of products, including a centrifuge for sugar manufacturing, lathes and drills, ammunition-making equipment for the Royal Arsenal, Woolwich. Davids younger son James Murdoch, born 1823, joined the firm in 1837 and became a partner in 1847, James proved an excellent engineer, but a poor businessman, considering salesmanship undignified. It became so bad that there were as few as seven employees in 1895, and James attempted to sell the business, James son Montague, born 1870, inherited the business in 1895, along with his fathers engineering talents. Montague was a racing cyclist, and at the Bath Road Club. Edge Edge persuaded Napier to improve his Panhard, converting from a tiller to a steering wheel, dissatisfied, Napier offered to fit an engine of his own design, an 8 hp vertical twin, with electric ignition, superior to the Panhards hot tube type. By June 1900, eight 16 hps had been ordered, and Edge entered one in the 837 mi Paris-Toulouse-Paris race, the 301.6 cu in sidevalve suffered problems with its ignition coils and cooling system, and failed to finish. For 1901, Montague designed a car not to lack speed, having a 16. 3-liter sidevalve four capable of 103 bhp at 800 rpm, on a wheelbase of 115 inches with four-speed gearbox. Called the 50 hp, only two or three were completed, including one for Rolls, in the concurrent Paris-Bordeaux rally, it retired with clutch trouble. For the 1902 Gordon Bennett, three entrants contested for France, with Edge in a Napier and two Wolseleys, the Napier was a three-speed, shaft-drive 6. 44-litre four of 44.5 hp. Piloted by Edge and his cousin, Cecil, it wore what would become known as British racing green and it was the first British victory in international motorsport, and would not be repeated until Henry Segrave took the French Grand Prix in 1923
5.
Cork Harbour
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Cork Harbour is a natural harbour and river estuary at the mouth of the River Lee in County Cork, Ireland. It is one of several which lay claim to the title of second largest natural harbour in the world by navigational area, other contenders include Halifax Harbour in Canada, and Poole Harbour in the United Kingdom. The harbour has been a port, and a strategic defensive hub, for centuries. Traditional heavy industries have waned since the late 20th century, with the likes of the closure of Irish Steel in Haulbowline and it still has major and strategic significance in energy generation, shipping, refining and pharmaceuticals. Cork City is located upstream on the River Lee on the northwest corner of Cork Harbour. Several of the suburbs, including Blackrock, Mahon, Douglas, Passage West and Rochestown lie on Lough Mahon or the Douglas Estuary. The Lower Harbour has a number of towns around its shores, Passage West, Monkstown, Ringaskiddy and the smaller village of Raffeen are found on the western shore. On the southwestern shore is Crosshaven, Great Island, which forms the northern shore of the lower harbour, houses the town of Cobh. As of 2011, Cobh had a population of about 12,500, the eastern shore is less densely populated, but has two villages Whitegate and Aghada, both home to power plants. The village of Ballinacurra is on the spur of the harbour. Due to the recent expansion of the town of Midleton, Ballinacurra has effectively become a suburb of Midleton, Cork Harbour hosts the headquarters of the Irish Naval Service. Prior to the transfer of the treaty ports in 1938, Cork Harbour was an important base for the British Royal Navy, some of the first coastal defence fortifications built in Cork Harbour date to the 17th century, and were primarily intended to protect the approaches to Cork City. In the 18th century, fortifications were built on and opposite Haulbowline Island to protect the anchorage in Cobh - including Cove Fort, Fort Camden and Fort Carlisle were built at opposite sides of the harbour entrance during the period of the American War of Independence. The harbours military significance increased during the Napoleonic Wars, when the establishment in Kinsale was transferred to Cork Harbour. The harbour became an important anchorage, which could be used to guard the entrance to the English Channel, the fortifications were developed throughout the 19th century and a further fort, Fort Templebreedy, was added to the south of Fort Camden at the beginning of the 20th century. The political uncertainty over the future of the treaty meant that the British government was not inclined to invest in their upgrade. Also, at the time of their construction, nobody had considered the possibility of air attack and as they were unable to expand, there was no possibility of adding adequate air cover. Finally, if the Irish Free State was hostile during any conflict, since being handed over to the Irish military, most of the military installations have ceased to be used for military purposes
6.
Ireland
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Ireland is an island in the North Atlantic. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel, the Irish Sea, Ireland is the second-largest island of the British Isles, the third-largest in Europe, and the twentieth-largest on Earth. Politically, Ireland is divided between the Republic of Ireland, which covers five-sixths of the island, and Northern Ireland, in 2011, the population of Ireland was about 6.4 million, ranking it the second-most populous island in Europe after Great Britain. Just under 4.6 million live in the Republic of Ireland, the islands geography comprises relatively low-lying mountains surrounding a central plain, with several navigable rivers extending inland. The island has lush vegetation, a product of its mild, thick woodlands covered the island until the Middle Ages. As of 2013, the amount of land that is wooded in Ireland is about 11% of the total, there are twenty-six extant mammal species native to Ireland. The Irish climate is moderate and classified as oceanic. As a result, winters are milder than expected for such a northerly area, however, summers are cooler than those in Continental Europe. Rainfall and cloud cover are abundant, the earliest evidence of human presence in Ireland is dated at 10,500 BC. Gaelic Ireland had emerged by the 1st century CE, the island was Christianised from the 5th century onward. Following the Norman invasion in the 12th century, England claimed sovereignty over Ireland, however, English rule did not extend over the whole island until the 16th–17th century Tudor conquest, which led to colonisation by settlers from Britain. In the 1690s, a system of Protestant English rule was designed to materially disadvantage the Catholic majority and Protestant dissenters, with the Acts of Union in 1801, Ireland became a part of the United Kingdom. Northern Ireland saw much civil unrest from the late 1960s until the 1990s and this subsided following a political agreement in 1998. In 1973 the Republic of Ireland joined the European Economic Community while the United Kingdom, Irish culture has had a significant influence on other cultures, especially in the fields of literature. Alongside mainstream Western culture, an indigenous culture exists, as expressed through Gaelic games, Irish music. The culture of the island shares many features with that of Great Britain, including the English language, and sports such as association football, rugby, horse racing. The name Ireland derives from Old Irish Eriu and this in turn derives from Proto-Celtic *Iveriu, which is also the source of Latin Hibernia. Iveriu derives from a root meaning fat, prosperous, during the last glacial period, and up until about 9000 years ago, most of Ireland was covered with ice, most of the time
7.
Selwyn Edge
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Selwyn Francis Edge was an Australian-born British businessman, racing driver, and record-breaker. He is principally associated with selling and racing De Dion-Bouton, Gladiator, Clemént-Panhard, Napier, Edge was born in Concord township, near Sydney, on 29 March 1868, his parents were Alexander Ernest Edge and Annie Charlotte Sharp. At age three, he was taken to London where in his teens he competed successfully as a bicycle racer, one of the English Team and aged 23 he came 3rd in the first Bordeaux–Paris cycle race in 1891. He worked for Rudge then Harvey Du Cros as manager of his new Dunlop offices in London, in 1892 he married Eleanor Rose Sharp who died sometime before 1917, his second wife, Myra Caroline Martin, whom he married in 1917, had two daughters by him. From 1910 until at least 1922 he resided at Gallops Homestead, Ditchling, Sussex and he died 12 February 1940 in Eastbourne, Sussex, England. In 1899, he went into partnership with pioneering motorist Charles Jarrott and Herbert Duncan to found De Dion-Bouton British and he had become friends with Montague Napier, another keen cyclist, and in 1898 asked Napier to carry out some improvements to his Panhard. Edge Ltd, to Napier in 1912, for £120,000, the sale included an agreement not to be involved in motor manufacturing for seven years. During this period he devoted himself to farming at Ditchling, Sussex, in 1917 he was appointed controller of the agricultural machinery department of the Ministry of Munitions. When the embargo on motor manufacturing expired in 1919 he started to build up a shareholding in AC Cars, about 1923 Edge was also managing director of William Cubitt & Company, who had entered the car market with the Cubitt marque, but were out of business by 1925. Edge switched the contract for purchasing engines for the AC car from Anzani, where he sat on the board, to Cubitt. Edge purchased AC cars outright for £135,000 in 1927, when AC collapsed in 1929, Edge sold his interest in the company and took no further business interest in the motor industry. He did the same at the 837 mi Paris-Toulouse-Paris rally in June, in the 1901 Gordon Bennett Cup, Edge entered a special 17-litre Napier which he was only able to test en route because it had been completed on 25 May, only four days before the event. Montague Napier was the riding mechanic, the car was too powerful for the Dunlop tyres and fitting new French tyres led to disqualification, since they were not of the same national of origin. In the concurrent Paris-Bordeaux rally, it retired with clutch trouble, for the 1902 Gordon Bennett, Edges Napier was the sole British entrant, with his cousin, Cecil Edge, as riding mechanic, he won, at an average 31.8 mph. The preparation of the car was hurried with some parts being fitted on the train to Paris, at the 1903 Gordon Bennett, Edge had an 80 hp Napier, the Type K5, but was disqualified. Edge fared no better with the K5 in the 1904 Gordon Bennett in Germany, Selwyn Edge, Director of the Napier Car Company and famous racing driver. Spotted Miss Dorothy Levitt amongst his staff, a secretary with long legs. In a bid to promote his cars, Edge decided that she should take part in a race, though first he had to teach her to drive
8.
France
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France, officially the French Republic, is a country with territory in western Europe and several overseas regions and territories. The European, or metropolitan, area of France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, Overseas France include French Guiana on the South American continent and several island territories in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. France spans 643,801 square kilometres and had a population of almost 67 million people as of January 2017. It is a unitary republic with the capital in Paris. Other major urban centres include Marseille, Lyon, Lille, Nice, Toulouse, during the Iron Age, what is now metropolitan France was inhabited by the Gauls, a Celtic people. The area was annexed in 51 BC by Rome, which held Gaul until 486, France emerged as a major European power in the Late Middle Ages, with its victory in the Hundred Years War strengthening state-building and political centralisation. During the Renaissance, French culture flourished and a colonial empire was established. The 16th century was dominated by civil wars between Catholics and Protestants. France became Europes dominant cultural, political, and military power under Louis XIV, in the 19th century Napoleon took power and established the First French Empire, whose subsequent Napoleonic Wars shaped the course of continental Europe. Following the collapse of the Empire, France endured a succession of governments culminating with the establishment of the French Third Republic in 1870. Following liberation in 1944, a Fourth Republic was established and later dissolved in the course of the Algerian War, the Fifth Republic, led by Charles de Gaulle, was formed in 1958 and remains to this day. Algeria and nearly all the colonies became independent in the 1960s with minimal controversy and typically retained close economic. France has long been a centre of art, science. It hosts Europes fourth-largest number of cultural UNESCO World Heritage Sites and receives around 83 million foreign tourists annually, France is a developed country with the worlds sixth-largest economy by nominal GDP and ninth-largest by purchasing power parity. In terms of household wealth, it ranks fourth in the world. France performs well in international rankings of education, health care, life expectancy, France remains a great power in the world, being one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council with the power to veto and an official nuclear-weapon state. It is a member state of the European Union and the Eurozone. It is also a member of the Group of 7, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the World Trade Organization, originally applied to the whole Frankish Empire, the name France comes from the Latin Francia, or country of the Franks
9.
Garfield Wood
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Garfield ‘Gar’ Arthur Wood was an American inventor, entrepreneur, motorboat builder and racer who held the world water speed record on several occasions. He was the first man to travel over 100 miles per hour on water, Gar Wood was born 4 December 1880 in Mapleton, Iowa into a family of 13 children. His father was an operator on Lake Osakis, Minnesota. In 1911 at 31, he invented a hydraulic lift for unloading coal from rail trucks and he established the Wood Hoist Co. in Detroit, Michigan and soon became a successful businessman. He had a home in Algonac, Michigan, the city as Christopher Smith. In 1916, Wood purchased a motorboat for racing called Miss Detroit, Wood set a new world record speed for a boat of 74.870 miles per hour in 1920 on the Detroit River, using a new boat called Miss America. In the following years, Wood built nine more Miss Americas and broke the record five times. In 1921, Wood raced one of his boats against the Havana Special train,1,250 miles up the Atlantic coast from Miami to New York City, Wood made the trip in 47 hours and 23 minutes and beat the train by 12 minutes. In 1925, he raced the Twentieth Century Limited train up the Hudson River between Albany and New York and won by 22 minutes, as well as being a record breaker and showman, Wood won five straight powerboat Gold Cup races between 1917 and 1921. Wood also won the prestigious Harmsworth Trophy nine times, in 1931, he lost the Trophy in dramatic circumstances to his younger brother George. The race was held on the Detroit River and was billed as a race between the Wood brothers and English racing driver and record-breaker Kaye Don, driving Miss England II. Before an estimated crowd of over a million spectators, Don won the first heat of the race, in the second heat, Wood was leading Don, when Miss England II suddenly flipped over rounding one of the turns, fortunately without injury to Don and his co-driver. Gar Wood finished the race first, but both he and Don were disqualified because they had jumped the gun by seven seconds. George Wood completed the race to win the trophy. In April,1936, Wood, along many other sports champions and stand outs, was honored at a banquet in Detroit. This banquet was the first celebration of Champions Day, in July,1936, a plaque was presented to Detroit from the White House honoring Detroit as the City of Champions. The plaque has five medallions featuring athletes, one of these medallions is of a power boat racer, representing Wood. Wood retired from racing in 1933 to concentrate on his businesses, Garwood Industries continued to build wooden racing boats until 1947
10.
Bob Hayward
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Robert D. Hayward was a Canadian powerboat racer who was a three-time winner of the Harmsworth Cup as the pilot of Miss Supertest III. From Embro, Ontario, Hayward was raised on his familys chicken farm, piloting Miss Supertest III, Hayward won the Harmsworth Cup in 1959,1960, and 1961. A month after winning his third Harmsworth Cup, Hayward was killed while racing Miss Supertest II at the Silver Cup regatta on the Detroit River, the boat flipped over at 175 mph, breaking Haywards neck. After his death, the Supertest team retired from racing, Hayward was inducted in the Canadian Motorsport Hall of Fame in 2000. A YMCA in London, Ontario, where he lived at the time of his death, is named after him. A stretch of water at the Bay of Quinte near Deseronto, canada Post issued a commemorative stamp in 2011 honouring the hydroplane racingboat Miss Supertest III, her driver Bob Hayward and businessman Jim Thompson, who designed and built her
