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Colin: Posted on 27 February 2015 05:05
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Colin: Posted on 26 February 2015 05:23
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Colin: Posted on 25 February 2015 07:04
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Colin: Posted on 24 February 2015 07:01
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Colin: Posted on 23 February 2015 06:25
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Colin: Posted on 22 February 2015 08:04
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Colin: Posted on 20 February 2015 07:35
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Colin: Posted on 19 February 2015 07:32
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Colin: Posted on 18 February 2015 07:34
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Colin: Posted on 17 February 2015 07:23
Sir Herbert Raphael was born in 1859 the second son of Henry
Louis Raphael, banker, of Raphaels Bank. A carreer politician he entered the
House of Commons in the 1906 general election as MP for South Derbyshire. In
1910 he joined with two other Liberal M.P.s, Charles McCurdy and (Sir) Tudor
Walters, and formed Gidea Park Ltd., for the purpose of building a garden suburb
on the remainder of the Gidea Hall estate. Now known as Romford Garden
Suburb", it was constructed in 1910–11 as an exhibition of town planning.
Small cottages and houses were designed by more than 100 architects. A competition was held to select the best town
planning scheme for the suburb – the best designs for houses resulted in those
sold at a well-above average £500 and cottages at £375. the project included a
new railway station. Soon after the outbreak of the First World War, Raphael
enlisted as a private in the 24th Sportsman's Battalion, Royal Fusiliers. For
some six months he did duty in the ranks, during which time he was made a
lance-corporal. In June 1915 he was granted a commission as a major and raised
the 18th (Service) Battalion (Arts & Crafts), the King's Royal Rifle Corps.
Recruiting centres were opened in London, Derby, and various places in
Yorkshire and the Midlands. Recruits came in fast, and a depot was formed at
Gidea Park, Essex, a part of Sir Herbert's estate, where the men were billeted
in empty houses. Later in the same year he raised the 23rd (Reserve) Battalion
of the regiment from the depot companies of the 18th Battalion, and served in
turn as second-in-command of each unit. He left the battalion on 1st May 1916
when he was appointed Assistant Provost Marshal at Folkestone. He did not serve
overseas due to his age and survived the Great War, he died suddenly from heart
failure while out shooting on his estate in September 1924 aged 64. He had no
children, and the baronetcy became extinct on his death. |
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Colin: Posted on 16 February 2015 06:40
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Colin: Posted on 15 February 2015 11:13
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Colin: Posted on 13 February 2015 06:48
Charles Rumney Samson joined the Royal Navy in 1898 and was selected
as one of the first four Royal Navy officers to receive pilot training and
became the first British pilot to take off from a ship in 912, When World War I
broke out, Samson took the Eastchurch RNAS Squadron to France, where it
supported Allied ground forces along the French and Belgian frontiers, due to a
shortage of planes he improvised these patrols by commandeering pilot officers privately
owned cars which had been taken to France
and armouring them with a machine gun. This was the start of the RNAS Armoured
Car Section. Samson's aircraft also bombed the Zeppelin sheds at Düsseldorf and
Cologne and by the end of 1914, when mobile warfare on the Western Front ended
and trench warfare took its place, his squadron had been awarded four
Distinguished Service Orders, among them his own, and he was given a special
promotion and the rank of Commander. He spent the next few months bombing gun
positions, submarine depots, and seaplane sheds on the Belgian coast. He joined
the Dardanelles campaign in March 1915.
Air Commodore Charles Rumney Samson CMG, DSO & Bar, was
one of the few pilots who survived the entire duration of the Great War he died
of heart failure at his home near Salisbury, Wiltshire on 5 February 1931.
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Colin: Posted on 12 February 2015 07:07
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Colin: Posted on 11 February 2015 07:28
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Colin: Posted on 10 February 2015 07:26
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Colin: Posted on 09 February 2015 08:13
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Mike Palmer: Posted on 08 February 2015 07:57
Good Morning
The bottom half of today’s pictorial paper is the work of
one of the twentieth century’s greatest pioneering photographers the Australian
Frank Hurley. Ernest Shackleton's Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition was
Franks second trip having spent nearly three years on Australian explorer
Douglas Mawson Antarctic Expedition. Hurley would be stranded with Shackleton until
1916. In 1917, Hurley joins the Australian Imperial Force taking considerable
risks to photograph the Third Battle of Ypres. It was his commitment "to
illustrate to the public the things our fellows do and how war is
conducted" that brought his work into conflict with the AIF and being labelled
as fake by many war historians. Frank Hurley was an artist and his technique of
stacking negatives to create a composite image is just as valid as any painters.
His work is of such brilliance it will survive the test of time, and yes I am a
fan.
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Colin: Posted on 06 February 2015 08:10
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Colin: Posted on 05 February 2015 06:22
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Mike Palmer: Posted on 04 February 2015 08:05
Today Germany will announce its first sustained U-boat
(submarine) campaign against merchant and passenger ships approaching Britain.
Ships will be sunk without warning, including neutral vessels. this willContinue until
September:
Sligsby Baby Case: The Sligsby baby case so intrigued a nation that its verdict
made the front page. The basic premise to the case was on the death of Rev.
Charles Slingsby the bulk of the ancient estate around Knaresborough was left to Lieutenant Charles Henry Raymond Slingsby
and the remainder was to go to Lieutenant Slingsby’s son Teddy, this was challenged
by Charles younger brother who contested that Teddy was a substitute for his
real son who was stillborn and that while the couple were in San Francisco they
had put an advert in the ‘’San Francisco Examiner'’ for a child to adopt, although
this was denied. Justice Bargrave Deane who was presiding over the legal proceedings
called upon the services of Sir George Frampton (a famous sculptor) who noticed
a peculiarity about the boy's ear that was shared by Mrs. Slingsby, and claimed
that a child could not have this peculiarity unless it was congenital. No DNA
back in the day!, The Judge found in favour of Charles Henry Raymond Slingsby.
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Mike Palmer: Posted on 03 February 2015 09:11
278 men are lost to the sea when the armed merchant cruiser H.M.S.
Clan MacNaughton goes missing off the north coast of Ireland. A pre-war merchant
ship requisitioned in November 1914 whose disappearance created controversy at
the time and conspiracy theories ever since. Officially listed as lost due to
hitting a mine, questions were raised at the time of Clan MacNaughton seaworthiness;
the alterations to her superstructure making her top heavy and liable to founder
was refuted in an admiralty report presented to parliament. 60 of the ships
company nearly a quarter of her crew were young lads agedbetween 16 and 18.
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Mike Palmer: Posted on 02 February 2015 07:11
U21 was under the command of Kapitänleutnant (Captain
Lieutenant) Otto Hersing, who in Septemper 1914 torpedoed and sank the British
cruiser HMS Pathfinder the first warship to be sunk by a German U-boat during
the Great War. Hersing and U21 came to prominence in late January 1915 after
having shelled the airfield on Walney Island, scuttled the collier SS Ben
Cruachan and sank the steamers SS Linda Blanche and SS Kilcuan, all within a
forty eight hour period. Otto Hersing survived the Great War.
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Colin: Posted on 01 February 2015 08:17
 
On the 31st January the Germans launched an audacious
attack capturing British trenches at Cuinchy, which were being held by the
Coldstream guards. On the 1st February a counter attack was proposed
to retake the trenches so that the broken line could be re-established. After
the initial British bombardment of the Trenches the Coldstream Guards charged the
position being met with fierce resistance, they were supplemented by a second wave
of attack by the Irish Guards. Step forward Lance-Corporal Michael O’Leary who
on his own initiative was attacking a machine gun post which He knew would have
been dismantled during the bombardment to save from being destroyed, and that
it was a matter of life and death to perhaps hundreds that it was eliminated
before it could be redeployed. Having reached the corner of the German trench
he accounted for five German defenders but still had over eighty yards to cover
in order to reach the machine gun mound, “. At every moment he expected to hear
the sharp burr of the gun in action. A patch of boggy ground prevented a direct
approach to the barricade, and it was with veritable anguish that he realized
the necessity of a detour by the railway line. Quick as thought he was off
again. A few seconds passed, and then the Germans, working feverishly to
remount their machine gun and bring it into action against the oncoming Irish,
perceived the figure of fate in the shape of Lance-Corporal O’Leary, a few
yards away on their right with his rifle levelled at them.  The officer in charge had no time to realize that his finger
was on the button before death squared his account. Two other reports followed
in quick succession and two other figures fell to the ground with barely a
sound. The two survivors had no mind to test O’Leary’s shooting powers further
and threw up their hands. With his two captives before him the gallant Irishman
returned in triumph”
For his actions he was promoted to sergeant before the day
was over and was award the Victoria Cross.
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