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Corran Purdon
Major-General Corran William Brooke Purdon (4 May 1921 – 27 June 2018) was an Irish-born career soldier in the British Army, who took part in the raid on St Nazaire as a commando for which he was awarded the Military Cross. He was subsequently a prisoner in Colditz Castle. Early life Purdon was born on 4 May 1921 in Rushbrooke, Queenstown (now called Cobh), near Cork, Ireland, during the Irish War of Independence. His father Major General William Purdon worked for the army as a medical officer and his mother Myrtle, from Belfast, was a homemaker. In his autobiography he referred to the family legend that they had their own Banshee which was rumoured to shriek whenever a family member was going to die. This, apparently, led to telegrams being dispatched to family members when the Banshee was heard to find out if everyone was alright. In the early 1920s the family moved to India. In 1926, after his father completed his tour with the Indian Army, the family moved to Belfast. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Merville Battery
Merville may refer to: Communes in France * Merville, Haute-Garonne, in the Haute-Garonne ''département'' * Merville, Nord, in the Nord ''département'' * Merville-Franceville-Plage, in the Calvados ''département'' Other places * Merville Garden Village, Newtownabbey, County Antrim, Northern Ireland * Merville, British Columbia * Merville Dairy, a former Irish milk distribution company based in Finglas, Dublin that merged with other companies to form Premier Dairies *Merville, Parañaque Merville, officially Barangay Merville, is a barangay in Parañaque, is part of Parañaque's 16 barangays, and is part of District 2. It is a gated residential community in the northeast of the city, which was created on April 3, 1978 out of Baran ..., a barangay in Parañaque, Metro Manila People * Merville (playwright), French 19th-century playwright {{disambig, geo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Overseas Territories Police Medal
The Overseas Territories Police Medal (OTPM), known as the Colonial Police Medal (CPM) until April 2012, is a medal awarded for gallantry or distinguished service to all ranks of police forces and organised fire brigades in British Overseas Territories, and formerly in Crown Colonies and British Dependent Territories. Police officers in these areas can also be awarded the higher ranking King's Police Medal. The CPM was first awarded in 1938. The most common form of the CPM was the Colonial Police Medal for Meritorious Service. The equivalent for gallantry, the Colonial Police Medal for Gallantry, which could be awarded posthumously, had not been awarded since 1974 and was effectively replaced by the Queen's Gallantry Medal The Queen's Gallantry Medal (QGM) is a United Kingdom decoration awarded for exemplary acts of bravery where the services were not so outstanding as to merit the George Medal, but above the level required for the Queen's Commendation for Braver ..., which h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Campbell College
Campbell College located in Belfast, Northern Ireland and founded in 1894 comprises a preparatory school department (junior age) and a senior Northern Ireland 'Voluntary Grammar' school, the latter meaning, in terms of provision of education, a government funded, selective school. The school is one of a number of schools in the state funded grammar sector in Northern Ireland which can offer paid boarding places to some pupils, typically to be funded by the pupil, although the majority of pupils are day pupils. It is one of the eight schools of Northern Ireland represented on the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference and is a member of the Independent Schools Council. Legal Status Campbell College is one of very few voluntary grammar schools in Northern Ireland entitled to be classified as a 'Voluntary B' grammar school, where most voluntary grammars within this state sector are 'Voluntary A'. Voluntary grammar schools, though state schools by educational funding, are ea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Telegraphy
Telegraphy is the long-distance transmission of messages where the sender uses symbolic codes, known to the recipient, rather than a physical exchange of an object bearing the message. Thus flag semaphore is a method of telegraphy, whereas pigeon post is not. Ancient signalling systems, although sometimes quite extensive and sophisticated as in China, were generally not capable of transmitting arbitrary text messages. Possible messages were fixed and predetermined and such systems are thus not true telegraphs. The earliest true telegraph put into widespread use was the optical telegraph of Claude Chappe, invented in the late 18th century. The system was used extensively in France, and European nations occupied by France, during the Napoleonic era. The electric telegraph started to replace the optical telegraph in the mid-19th century. It was first taken up in Britain in the form of the Cooke and Wheatstone telegraph, initially used mostly as an aid to railway signalling. Th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Banshee
A banshee ( ; Modern Irish , from sga, ben síde , "woman of the fairy mound" or "fairy woman") is a female spirit in Irish folklore who heralds the death of a family member, usually by screaming, wailing, shrieking, or keening. Her name is connected to the mythologically important tumuli or "mounds" that dot the Irish countryside, which are known as (singular ) in Old Irish.Dictionary of the Irish Language: síd, síth': "a fairy hill or mound" and ben' Description Sometimes she has long streaming hair and wears a grey cloak over a green dress, and her eyes are red from continual weeping.Briggs, Katharine (1976). ''An Encyclopedia of Fairies''. Pantheon Books. pp. 14–16. . She may be dressed in white with red hair and a ghastly complexion, according to a firsthand account by Ann, Lady Fanshawe in her ''Memoirs''. Lady Wilde in ''Ancient Legends of Ireland'' provides another: The size of the banshee is another physical feature that differs between regional accounts. Thoug ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Belfast
Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdom and the second-largest in Ireland. It had a population of 345,418 . By the early 19th century, Belfast was a major port. It played an important role in the Industrial Revolution in Ireland, briefly becoming the biggest linen-producer in the world, earning it the nickname "Linenopolis". By the time it was granted city status in 1888, it was a major centre of Irish linen production, tobacco-processing and rope-making. Shipbuilding was also a key industry; the Harland and Wolff shipyard, which built the , was the world's largest shipyard. Industrialisation, and the resulting inward migration, made Belfast one of Ireland's biggest cities. Following the partition of Ireland in 1921, Belfast became the seat of government for Northern Ireland ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Purdon
Major-General William Brooke Purdon (28 November 1881 – 1 December 1950) was an Irish soldier, physician and medical administrator. Towards the end of his life he was a representative of the Northern Ireland Government in London and for four years was an Honorary Surgeon to the King. In his youth Purdon was a rugby footballer of some note, representing several Irish clubs and was selected to play international rugby for Ireland on three occasions in 1906. Personal career William Purdon was born in Belfast in 1881. He was educated at Royal Belfast Academical Institution and Methodist College Belfast before matriculating to Queen's College, Belfast where he studied medicine. He graduated as Bachelor of Medicine in 1906 and joined the Royal Army Medical Corps. In 1913 he took the Doctor of Public Health, and it was his specialisation in hygiene that he made his name after the war. During the First World War Purdon served the British Army with distinction. He was awarded the Distin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cork (city)
Cork ( , from , meaning 'marsh') is the second largest city in Ireland and third largest city by population on the island of Ireland. It is located in the south-west of Ireland, in the province of Munster. Following an extension to the city's boundary in 2019, its population is over 222,000. The city centre is an island positioned between two channels of the River Lee which meet downstream at the eastern end of the city centre, where the quays and docks along the river lead outwards towards Lough Mahon and Cork Harbour, one of the largest natural harbours in the world. Originally a monastic settlement, Cork was expanded by Viking invaders around 915. Its charter was granted by Prince John in 1185. Cork city was once fully walled, and the remnants of the old medieval town centre can be found around South and North Main streets. The city's cognomen of "the rebel city" originates in its support for the Yorkist cause in the Wars of the Roses. Corkonians sometimes refer to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rushbrooke
Rushbrook is a surname. The surname derives from Rushbrooke in Suffolk, England. Notable people with the surname include: * Claire Rushbrook (born 1971), English actress * Philip Rushbrook, governor of Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha * Rosalyn Rushbrook (born 1942), British author * Selina Rushbrook (1880–1907), née Selina Ann Jenkins, was a petty criminal, prostitute and brothel keeper from Swansea, Wales See also * Rushbrook Williams, a historian and civil servant * Rush Brook, a river in Pennsylvania, United States * Rushbrooke, County Cork, Ireland * Rushbrooke, West Suffolk, Suffolk, England * Rushbrooke inequality In statistical mechanics, the Rushbrooke inequality relates the critical exponents of a magnetic system which exhibits a first-order phase transition in the thermodynamic limit for non-zero temperature ''T''. Since the Helmholtz free energy is ..., the critical exponents of a magnetic system References {{surname ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Colditz Castle
Castle Colditz (or ''Schloss Colditz'' in German) is a Renaissance castle in the town of Colditz near Leipzig, Dresden and Chemnitz in the state of Saxony in Germany. The castle is between the towns of Hartha and Grimma on a hill spur over the river Zwickauer Mulde, a tributary of the River Elbe. It had the first wildlife park in Germany when, during 1523, the castle park was converted into one of the largest menageries in Europe. The castle gained international infamy as the site of Oflag IV-C, a prisoner-of-war camp during World War II for "incorrigible" Allied officers who had repeatedly attempted to escape from other camps. Original castle In 1046, Henry III of the Holy Roman Empire gave the burghers of Colditz permission to build the first documented settlement at the site. During 1083, Henry IV urged Margrave Wiprecht of Groitzsch to develop the castle site, which Colditz accepted. During 1158, Emperor Frederick Barbarossa made Thimo I "Lord of Colditz", and ma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Commando
Royal Marines from 40 Commando on patrol in the Sangin">40_Commando.html" ;"title="Royal Marines from 40 Commando">Royal Marines from 40 Commando on patrol in the Sangin area of Afghanistan are pictured A commando is a combatant, or operative of an elite light infantry or special operations force, specially trained for carrying out raids and operating in small teams behind enemy lines. Originally "a commando" was a type of combat unit, as opposed to an individual in that unit. In other languages, ''commando'' and ''kommando'' denote a "command", including the sense of a military or an elite special operations unit. In the militaries and governments of most countries, commandos are distinctive in that they specialize in unconventional assault on high-value targets. In English, to distinguish between an individual commando and a commando unit, the unit is occasionally capitalized. Etymology From an ancient lingual perspective the term commando derives from Latin ''commen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
St Nazaire Raid
The St Nazaire Raid or Operation Chariot was a British amphibious attack on the heavily defended Normandie dry dock at St Nazaire in German-occupied France during the Second World War. The operation was undertaken by the Royal Navy (RN) and British Commandos under the auspices of Combined Operations Headquarters on 28 March 1942. St Nazaire was targeted because the loss of its dry dock would force any large German warship in need of repairs, such as , sister ship of , to return to home waters by running the gauntlet of the Home Fleet of the Royal Navy and other British forces, via the English Channel or the North Sea. The obsolete destroyer , accompanied by 18 smaller craft, crossed the English Channel to the Atlantic coast of France and was rammed into the Normandie dry dock south gate. The ship had been packed with delayed-action explosives, well hidden within a steel and concrete case, that detonated later that day, putting the dock out of service until 1948. A force o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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