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James Macdonald (engineer)
Major General Sir James Ronald Leslie Macdonald (8 February 1862 – 27 June 1927) was a British engineer, explorer, military officer and cartographer. Born in the Madras Presidency, he was a balloon observer as a young man, surveyed for railways in British India and East Africa, explored the upper Nile region, commanded balloon sections during the Second Boer War and Boxer Rebellion and led the British expedition to Tibet in 1903–1904. Early career Macdonald was born on 8 February 1862 in Rajahmundry in the Madras Presidency, India, the son of Surgeon-Major James Macdonald (1828–1906) of Aberdeen and Margaret Helen Leslie ''née'' Collie (1841-1876); his younger sister was the Egyptologist and archaeologist Nora Griffith. He was educated at Aberdeen Grammar School and the University of Aberdeen. He passed through the Royal Military Academy and was gazetted to the Royal Engineers in 1882. As a lieutenant, on 15 May 1885 Macdonald was appointed to the corps of Bengal Sapper ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Order Of The Star Of India
The Most Exalted Order of the Star of India is an order of chivalry founded by Queen Victoria in 1861. The Order includes members of three classes: # Knight Grand Commander (GCSI) # Knight Commander ( KCSI) # Companion ( CSI) No appointments have been made since the 1948 New Year Honours, shortly after the Partition of India in 1947. With the death in 2009 of the last surviving knight, the Maharaja of Alwar, the order became dormant. The motto of the order was "Heaven's Light Our Guide". The Star of India emblem, the insignia of order and the informal emblem of British India, was also used as the basis of a series of flags to represent the Indian Empire. The order was the fifth most senior British order of chivalry, following the Order of the Garter, Order of the Thistle, Order of St Patrick and Order of the Bath. It is the senior order of chivalry associated with the British Raj; junior to it is the Most Eminent Order of the Indian Empire, and there is also, for women ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Boxer Rebellion
The Boxer Rebellion, also known as the Boxer Uprising, the Boxer Insurrection, or the Yihetuan Movement, was an anti-foreign, anti-colonial, and anti-Christian uprising in China between 1899 and 1901, towards the end of the Qing dynasty, by the Society of Righteous and Harmonious Fists (), known as the "Boxers" in English because many of its members had practised Chinese martial arts, which at the time were referred to as "Chinese boxing". After the Sino-Japanese War of 1895, villagers in North China feared the expansion of foreign spheres of influence and resented the extension of privileges to Christian missionaries, who used them to shield their followers. In 1898 Northern China experienced several natural disasters, including the Yellow River flooding and droughts, which Boxers blamed on foreign and Christian influence. Beginning in 1899, Boxers spread violence across Shandong and the North China Plain, destroying foreign property such as railroads and attacking or ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Wallace Pringle
Colonel Sir John Wallace Pringle, CB, FRGS (23 May 1863 – 16 July 1938) was a British engineer who was Chief Inspecting Officer of the Railways Inspectorate of the Ministry of Transport from 1916 to 1929. As such he was in charge of investigations into a number of serious railway accidents in the UK. Early life Pringle was born in Madras, the son of a Scottish father, General George Pringle, and English mother, Octavia Catherine Cother.''India, Select Births and Baptisms, 1786-1947'' Early career Pringle became a lieutenant in the Royal Engineers in 1883. As an army officer, Pringle fought in the Third Anglo-Burmese War, 1885–1886. In the Uganda railway survey between 1891 and 1892, Pringle was second in command to James Macdonald. The survey's findings confirmed that the caravan route to the Great Rift Valley was the best path for the line, followed by the easiest gradient to be found over the Mau Escarpment and down to Lake Victoria. Macdonald and Pringle recommended con ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mau Escarpment
The Mau Escarpment is a fault scarp running along the western edge of the Great Rift Valley in Kenya. The top of the escarpment reaches approximately 3000 m (10,000 ft) above sea level, and is over 1000 m higher than the floor of the Rift Valley. See also *Enkapune Ya Muto Enkapune Ya Muto, also known as Twilight Cave, is a Late Stone Age site on the Mau Escarpment of Kenya. Beads made of perforated ostrich egg shells found at the site have been dated to 40,000 years ago. The beads found at the site represent the ... References External links * Article published in The East African on the Mau Escarpment and its political and environmental implications: https://web.archive.org/web/20110726142449/http://www.marsgroupkenya.org/multimedia/?StoryID=261885 Escarpments of Kenya Great Rift Valley {{Kenya-geo-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Great Rift Valley, Kenya
The Great Rift Valley is part of an intra-continental ridge system that runs through Kenya from north to south. It is part of the Gregory Rift, the eastern branch of the East African Rift, which starts in Tanzania to the south and continues northward into Ethiopia. It was formed on the "Kenyan Dome" a geographical upwelling created by the interactions of three major tectonics: the Arabian, Nubian, and Somalian plates. In the past, it was seen as part of a "Great Rift Valley" that ran from Madagascar to Syria. Most of the valley falls within the former Rift Valley Province. The valley contains the Cherangani Hills and a chain of volcanoes, some of which are still active. The climate is mild, with temperatures usually below . Most rain falls during the March–June and October–November periods. The Tugen Hills to the west of Lake Baringo contain fossils preserved in lava flows from the period 14 to 4 million years ago. The relics of many hominids, ancestors of humans, have been ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lake Victoria
Lake Victoria is one of the African Great Lakes. With a surface area of approximately , Lake Victoria is Africa's largest lake by area, the world's largest tropical lake, and the world's second-largest fresh water lake by surface area after Lake Superior in North America. In terms of volume, Lake Victoria is the world's ninth-largest continental lake, containing about of water. Lake Victoria occupies a shallow depression in Africa. The lake has an average depth of and a maximum depth of .United Nations, ''Development and Harmonisation of Environmental Laws Volume 1: Report on the Legal and Institutional Issues in the Lake Victoria Basin'', United Nations, 1999, page 17 Its catchment area covers . The lake has a shoreline of when digitized at the 1:25,000 level, with islands constituting 3.7% of this length. The lake's area is divided among three countries: Kenya occupies 6% (), Uganda 45% (), and Tanzania 49% (). Though having multiple local language names ( luo, Nam ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mombasa
Mombasa ( ; ) is a coastal city in southeastern Kenya along the Indian Ocean. It was the first capital of the British East Africa, before Nairobi was elevated to capital city status. It now serves as the capital of Mombasa County. The town is known as "the white and blue city" in Kenya. It is the country's oldest (circa 900 AD) and second-largest List of cities in Kenya, cityThe World Factbook . Cia.gov. Retrieved on 17 August 2013. after the capital Nairobi, with a population of about 1,208,333 people according to the 2019 census. Its metropolitan region is the second-largest in the country, and has a population of 3,528,940 people. Mombasa's location on the Indian Ocean made it a historical trading centre, and it has been controlled by ma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Imperial British East Africa Company
The Imperial British East Africa Company (IBEAC) was a commercial association founded to develop African trade in the areas controlled by the British Empire. The company was incorporated in London on 18 April 1888 and granted a royal charter by Queen Victoria on 6 September 1888. It was led by William Mackinnon and built upon his company's trading activities in the region, with the encouragement of the British government through the granting of an imperial charter, although it remained unclear what that actually meant. The IBEAC oversaw an area of about along the eastern coast of Africa (from modern-day Somalia to modern-day Kenya), its centre being at about 39° East longitude and 0° latitude. Mombasa and its harbour were central to its operations, with an administrative office about south in Shimoni. It granted immunity of prosecution to British subjects and allowed them the right to raise taxes, impose custom duties, administer justice, make treaties and otherwise act as ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Calcutta
Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, the official name until 2001) is the Capital city, capital of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, commercial, and financial hub of East India, Eastern India and the main port of communication for North-East India. According to the 2011 Indian census, Kolkata is the List of cities in India by population, seventh-most populous city in India, with a population of 45 lakh (4.5 million) residents within the city limits, and a population of over 1.41 crore (14.1 million) residents in the Kolkata metropolitan area, Kolkata Metropolitan Area. It is the List of metropolitan areas in India, third-most populous metropolitan area in India. In 2021, the Kolkata metropolitan area crossed 1.5 crore (15 million) registered voters. The ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Royal Engineers
The Corps of Royal Engineers, usually called the Royal Engineers (RE), and commonly known as the ''Sappers'', is a corps of the British Army. It provides military engineering and other technical support to the British Armed Forces and is headed by the Chief Royal Engineer. The Regimental Headquarters and the Royal School of Military Engineering are in Chatham in Kent, England. The corps is divided into several regiments, barracked at various places in the United Kingdom and around the world. History The Royal Engineers trace their origins back to the military engineers brought to England by William the Conqueror, specifically Bishop Gundulf of Rochester Cathedral, and claim over 900 years of unbroken service to the crown. Engineers have always served in the armies of the Crown; however, the origins of the modern corps, along with those of the Royal Artillery, lie in the Board of Ordnance established in the 15th century. In Woolwich in 1716, the Board formed the Royal Regime ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Royal Military Academy, Woolwich
The Royal Military Academy (RMA) at Woolwich, in south-east London, was a British Army military academy for the training of commissioned officers of the Royal Artillery and Royal Engineers. It later also trained officers of the Royal Corps of Signals and other technical corps. RMA Woolwich was commonly known as "The Shop" because its first building was a converted workshop of the Woolwich Arsenal. History Origins in the Royal Arsenal An attempt had been made by the Board of Ordnance in 1720 to set up an academy within its Arsenal (then known as the Warren) to provide training and education for prospective officers of its new Regiment of Artillery and Corps of Engineers (both of which had been established there in 1716). A new building was being constructed in readiness for the Academy and funds had been secured, seemingly, through investment in the South Sea Company; but the latter's collapse led to plans for the Academy being placed on hold. After this false start, the acade ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aberdeen Grammar School
Aberdeen Grammar School is a state secondary school in Aberdeen, Scotland. It is one of thirteen secondary schools run by the Aberdeen City Council educational department. It is the oldest school in the city and one of the oldest grammar schools in the United Kingdom, with a history spanning more than 750 years. Founded around 1257, the year used in official school records, it began operating as a boys' school. On Skene Street, near the centre of the city, it was originally situated on Schoolhill, near the current site of Robert Gordon's College. It moved to its current site in 1863, and became co-educational in 1973. In an annual survey run by the British broadsheet newspaper ''The Times'', Aberdeen Grammar was rated the 15th best Scottish state secondary school in 2019, and second in Aberdeen behind Cults Academy. The most notable former student is Lord Byron, the Romantic poet and writer who spent a short amount of time at the school before his move back to England as a 10 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
