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James Langley
Lieutenant-Colonel James Maydon Langley (12 March 1916 – 10 April 1983) was an officer in the British Army, who served during World War II. Wounded and captured at the battle of Dunkirk in mid-1940, he later returned to Britain and served in MI9. Biography Langley was born in Wolverhampton, the son of Francis Oswald Langley (1884–1947), a stipendiary magistrate, recorder and chancellor. He was educated at Uppingham School and Trinity Hall, Cambridge. Having served as a cadet under officer in the Uppingham School Contingent of the Junior Division of the Officers' Training Corps, he was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Coldstream Guards (Supplementary Reserve) on 4 July 1936, and promoted to lieutenant on 4 July 1939. Langley was mobilised on 24 August 1939 to serve in the 2nd Battalion, Coldstream Guards, part of the 7th Infantry Brigade (Guards) of the 3rd Infantry Division, then commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Lionel Bootle-Wilbraham, in the British Expedition ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wolverhampton
Wolverhampton () is a city, metropolitan borough and administrative centre in the West Midlands, England. The population size has increased by 5.7%, from around 249,500 in 2011 to 263,700 in 2021. People from the city are called "Wulfrunians". Historically part of Staffordshire, the city grew initially as a market town specialising in the wool trade. In the Industrial Revolution, it became a major centre for coal mining, steel production, lock making, and the manufacture of cars and motorcycles. The economy of the city is still based on engineering, including a large aerospace industry, as well as the service sector. Toponym The city is named after Wulfrun, who founded the town in 985, from the Anglo-Saxon ''Wulfrūnehēantūn'' ("Wulfrūn's high or principal enclosure or farm"). Before the Norman Conquest, the area's name appears only as variants of ''Heantune'' or ''Hamtun'', the prefix ''Wulfrun'' or similar appearing in 1070 and thereafter. Alternatively, the city ma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Under Officer
Under officer is an appointment held by the most senior cadets at some Commonwealth officer training establishments and in University Officers' Training Corps in the United Kingdom, and also a rank used in some Commonwealth cadet forces. Australia The Royal Military College, Duntroon uses the appointments of senior under officer and under officer for senior Staff Cadets. In the Australian Army Cadets and Australian Air Force Cadets, the rank of Cadet Under Officer (abbreviated in writing to 'CUO') is the highest cadet rank. They are saluted and addressed as "Sir" or "Ma'am" by their subordinates but not by adult officers or instructors or members of the Australian Defence Force. AAC cadet under officers may be assigned as national, regional, or battalion under officer, as quartermaster, or as the commander of a company or platoon. The rank badge is a lozenge, which contains 27½ chevrons. The national cadet under officer has red in the centre of the lozenge. Regional cadet ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
George Rodocanachi
George Rodocanachi (27 February 1875 – 1944) was a British-born physician of Greek descent who helped Allied escapees and Jewish refugees in Vichy France. Biography Rodocanachi was born in Liverpool, England, to a Greek family. He studied in Marseille, received his medical degree in Paris in 1903, and opened a pediatric practice in Marseille. In 1907 he married Fanny Vlasto in London and they settled in Marseille. Their only child Constantine was born in 1908. At the outbreak of World War I, Rodocanachi was working in a children's hospital in Marseille. In 1915 he gained French citizenship and joined the ''Chasseurs Alpins''. He served in Alsace and at the Somme, was once gassed and twice wounded, and received the Croix de Guerre and the Legion d'Honneur. After the war he returned to his practice. During World War II, after Vichy France had accepted an armistice with Nazi Germany, Rodocanachi made contact with the British Seaman's Mission in Marseille and treated Britis ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Donald Caskie
Donald Currie Caskie DD OBE OCF (22 May 190227 December 1983) was a minister in the Church of Scotland, best known for his work in France during World War II. He was a member of the Pat O'Leary escape line which helped up to 500 Allied sailors, soldiers and airmen to escape from occupied France (mainly through Spain). The 'Fasti' – the record of all Church of Scotland ministers since the Reformation – simply mentions that he was "engaged in church and patriotic duties in France, 1939–1945". In his autobiography ''The Tartan Pimpernel'' he states that 'he had been called to Paris in 1935.' Biography The son of a crofter, he was born in Bowmore on Islay in 1902. He was educated at Bowmore School and then Dunoon Grammar School before studying arts and divinity at the University of Edinburgh. His first charge was at Gretna, before becoming the minister of the Scots Kirk in Paris in 1938. A 2001 Gaelic-language documentary aired on BBC2 stated that Caskie was a homosexua ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ian Garrow
Lieutenant-Colonel Ian Grant Garrow DSO (24 August 1908 - 28 March 1976) was a British army officer with the Highland Light Infantry. He was the founder of the Pat O'Leary Line in Marseilles which helped Allied soldiers and airmen escape Nazi-occupied France. Early career Garrow attended the Glasgow Academy, where he rose to the rank of cadet sergeant in the academy's officer training corps. He was commissioned a second lieutenant in the 9th Battalion of the Highland Light Infantry in the Territorial Army on 21 May 1930. He was promoted to lieutenant on 21 May 1933 and entered active service on 9 June 1937. Second World War Following the surrender of the Highland 51st Division at Saint-Valéry-en-Caux on the Normandy coast on 12 June 1940, Garrow, then a lieutenant, managed to avoid being taken prisoner. On hearing that France had surrendered, Garrow and other British personnel tried unsuccessfully to escape to the Channel Islands. In August, after walking to Marseilles, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fort Saint-Jean (Marseille)
Fort Saint-Jean () is a fortification in Marseille, built in 1660 by Louis XIV at the entrance to the Old Port. Since 2013 it has been linked by two foot-bridges to the historical district ''Le Panier'' and to the Museum of European and Mediterranean Civilisations; the latter being the first French national museum to be located outside Paris. History Fort Saint-Jean was built on a site earlier occupied by the Military Order of the Knights Hospitaller of Saint John, from which the new building derived its name. Fort Saint-Nicolas was constructed at the same time on the opposite side of the harbour. Commenting on their construction, Louis XIV said, "We noticed that the inhabitants of Marseille were extremely fond of nice fortresses. We wanted to have our own at the entrance to this great port." In fact, the two new forts were built in response to a local uprising against the governor, rather than for the defence of the city: their cannons pointed inwards towards the town, not outw ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Zone Libre
The ''zone libre'' (, ''free zone'') was a partition of the French metropolitan territory during World War II, established at the Second Armistice at Compiègne on 22 June 1940. It lay to the south of the demarcation line and was administered by the French government of Marshal Philippe Pétain based in Vichy, in a relatively unrestricted fashion. To the north lay the ''zone occupée'' (" occupied zone") in which the powers of Vichy France were severely limited. In November 1942, the ''zone libre'' was invaded by the German and Italian armies in ''Case Anton'', as a response to Operation Torch, the Allied landings in North Africa. Thenceforth, the ''zone libre'' and ''zone occupée'' were renamed the ''zone sud'' (southern zone) and ''zone nord'' (northern zone) respectively. From then on both were under German military administration. Origins of the ''zone libre'' On 22 June 1940, after the Battle of France, Marshal Wilhelm Keitel, representing Nazi Germany, and General Char ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Marseille
Marseille ( , , ; also spelled in English as Marseilles; oc, Marselha ) is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the camargue region of southern France, it is located on the coast of the Gulf of Lion, part of the Mediterranean Sea, near the mouth of the Rhône river. Its inhabitants are called ''Marseillais''. Marseille is the second most populous city in France, with 870,731 inhabitants in 2019 (Jan. census) over a municipal territory of . Together with its suburbs and exurbs, the Marseille metropolitan area, which extends over , had a population of 1,873,270 at the Jan. 2019 census, the third most populated in France after those of Paris and Lyon. The cities of Marseille, Aix-en-Provence, and 90 suburban municipalities have formed since 2016 the Aix-Marseille-Provence Metropolis, an Indirect election, indirectly elected Métropole, metropolitan authority now in charge of wider metropo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lille
Lille ( , ; nl, Rijsel ; pcd, Lile; vls, Rysel) is a city in the northern part of France, in French Flanders. On the river Deûle, near France's border with Belgium, it is the capital of the Hauts-de-France Regions of France, region, the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Nord (French department), Nord Departments of France, department, and the main city of the Métropole Européenne de Lille, European Metropolis of Lille. The city of Lille proper had a population of 234,475 in 2019 within its small municipal territory of , but together with its French suburbs and exurbs the Lille metropolitan area (French part only), which extends over , had a population of 1,510,079 that same year (Jan. 2019 census), the fourth most populated in France after Paris, Lyon, and Marseille. The city of Lille and 94 suburban French municipalities have formed since 2015 the Métropole Européenne de Lille, European Metropolis of Lille, an Indirect election, indirectly elected Métropole, metr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Casualty Clearing Station
In the British Army and other Commonwealth militaries, a Casualty Clearing Station (CCS) is a military medical facility behind the front lines that is used to treat wounded soldiers. A CCS would usually be located just beyond the range of enemy artillery and often near transportation facilities (e.g., a railway). The CCS receives battlefield casualties from regimental aid posts located in the combat zone. Casualties that cannot be adequately treated in the CCS are stabilized there before being transported to a field hospital or military hospital. History On 1 March 1970, the Royal Army Medical Corps went through an internal reorganisation which saw the old medical designations replaced by modern terms. The old casualty clearing stations became field hospitals (a term which will disappear in the British Army in 2022), and the old field dressing stations became field ambulances. The new field hospitals were non-mobile units designed to take care of, run, and maintain rear h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
British Expeditionary Force (World War II)
The British Expeditionary Force (BEF) was the name of the contingent of the British Army sent to France in 1939 after Britain and France declared war on Nazi Germany on 3 September, beginning the Second World War. The BEF existed from 2 September 1939 when the BEF GHQ was formed until 31 May 1940, when GHQ closed down and its troops reverted to the command of Home Forces. During the 1930s, the British government had planned to deter war by abolishing the Ten Year Rule and rearming from the very low level of readiness of the early 1930s. The bulk of the extra money went to the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force but plans were made to re-equip a small number of Army and Territorial Army divisions for service overseas. General Lord Gort was appointed to the command of the BEF on 3 September 1939 and the BEF began moving to France on 4 September 1939. The BEF assembled along the Belgian–French border. The BEF took their post to the left of the French First Army under the com ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lionel Bootle-Wilbraham, 6th Baron Skelmersdale
Brigadier (United Kingdom), Brigadier Lionel Bootle-Wilbraham, 6th Baron Skelmersdale, (23 September 1896 – 21 July 1973) was a British Army officer and peer who served in both the First World War, First and Second World War. Early life Lionel Bootle-Wilbraham was born on 23 September 1896, the son of Major Lionel Bootle-Wilbraham, Royal Irish Fusiliers, and Lavinia, daughter of Abraham Wilson. The older Lionel was himself a grandson of Edward Bootle-Wilbraham, 1st Baron Skelmersdale. The younger Lionel was educated at Wellington College, Berkshire, Wellington College and Cheltenham College.''Burke's'': 'Skelmersdale'.''Who was Who''. Military career On the outbreak of the First World War in August 1914, Bootle-Wilbraham joined the 3rd (Special Reserve) Battalion of the Hampshire Regiment. He then entered the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, as a wartime cadet in 1915 and passed out the same year, being commissioned into the Coldstream Guards. He served with the regiment for ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
