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John Parr (British Army Soldier)
Private John Parr (30 July 1897 – 21 August 1914) was an English soldier. He is believed to be the first soldier of the British Empire to fall in action during the First World War. Early life Parr was born to Edward and Alice Parr at Lichfield Grove, Finchley, now in the London Borough of Barnet but still in the historic County of Middlesex. His father was a milkman. He lived most of his life at 52 Lodge Lane, North Finchley. Many of his siblings died before their fourth birthday. Upon leaving school, he took a job working as a butcher's boy, and then as a caddie at North Middlesex Golf Club. Then, like many other young men at the time; he was attracted to the British Army as a potentially better way of life, and one where he would at least get two meals a day and a chance to see the world.Reboul, Percy & Heathfield, John"First casualty of the war". URL accessed 5 April 2006 Parr, who was only tall, joined the 4th Battalion of the Middlesex Regiment as a professional sold ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Church End, Finchley
Church End (often known as "Finchley Central") is a locality within Finchley in the London Borough of Barnet in London, England. Aside from its church it centres on Finchley Central Underground station. Church End is an old village, now a suburban development, centred north-northwest of Charing Cross. Toponymy Church End was named in 1683. The name is formed from Middle English 'churche' and 'ende' and means 'district by the church'. The name refers to the parish church of Finchley, St Mary. Finchley Church End is the name of a ward in Barnet. Geography The main road runs on a south–north axis, and is called Regents Park Road (previously Ducksetters Lane) from the North Circular Road until it reaches the road bridge at Finchley Central station (Northern line), where the name changes to Ballards Lane. Its heart is the ancient district around St Mary's Church, where the imposing brick tower of Pardes House Primary School (formerly Christ's College Finchley) is a landmark. Am ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
British Expeditionary Force (World War I)
The British Expeditionary Force (BEF) was the six-divisions the British Army sent to the Western Front during the First World War. Planning for a British Expeditionary Force began with the 1906–1912 Haldane reforms of the British Army carried out by the Secretary of State for War Richard Haldane following the Second Boer War (1899–1902). The term ''British Expeditionary Force'' is often used to refer only to the forces present in France prior to the end of the First Battle of Ypres on 22 November 1914. By the end of 1914—after the battles of Mons, Le Cateau, the Aisne and Ypres—the existent BEF had been almost exhausted, although it helped stop the German advance.Chandler (2003), p. 211 An alternative endpoint of the BEF was 26 December 1914, when it was divided into the First and Second Armies (a Third, Fourth and Fifth being created later in the war). "British Expeditionary Force" remained the official name of the British armies in France and Flanders thro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Walhalla Cemetery
The Wahala Cemetery is a cemetery near Atakpame in Togo. The cemetery contains a single Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) gravestone, that of Lieutenant George Masterman Thompson of the 1st Battalion Royal Scots. Thompson's death in the Togoland Campaign made him the first British officer killed in the First World War. Thompson was killed on 22 August 1914 aged 24 while trying to storm the German trenches while in command of French Senegalese troops at Chra Village. He was posthumously awarded the Croix de Guerre with Palms. A film about the cemetery, ''A Place Called Wahala'' was made in 2021, directed by Jürgen Ellinghaus. It covers the annual Armistice Day Armistice Day, later known as Remembrance Day in the Commonwealth and Veterans Day in the United States, is commemorated every year on 11 November to mark Armistice of 11 November 1918, the armistice signed between the Allies of World War I a ... commemoration at the cemetery. References External links * ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Henry Hadley (died 1914)
Henry Hadley (27 March 1863 – 5 August 1914) was an English civilian who was fatally shot in Germany, allegedly while resisting arrest, on 3 August 1914, the day before the United Kingdom's entry into the First World War. He is sometimes described as the "first British casualty" of the Great War. Early life and family Hadley was born in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire. His father, also Henry Hadley (1812–1874), had been a senior doctor in the British Army, serving as a surgeon with the 40th Foot and the Rifle Brigade, in Australia with the 11th Foot and 99th Foot, at the Castle Hospital at Balaklava in the Crimean War, before retiring in 1861 with the honorary rank of Deputy Inspector-General of Hospitals. His mother, Alpha Clementia Dunn, was from Hobart, Tasmania. His paternal grandfather, also Henry Hadley (1762–1830), was the physician of Erasmus Darwin and married Darwin's illegitimate daughter Susannah Parker (1772–1856) in 1809. He was educated at Cheltenham College, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against France. The modern Royal Navy traces its origins to the early 16th century; the oldest of the UK's armed services, it is consequently known as the Senior Service. From the middle decades of the 17th century, and through the 18th century, the Royal Navy vied with the Dutch Navy and later with the French Navy for maritime supremacy. From the mid 18th century, it was the world's most powerful navy until the Second World War. The Royal Navy played a key part in establishing and defending the British Empire, and four Imperial fortress colonies and a string of imperial bases and coaling stations secured the Royal Navy's ability to assert naval superiority globally. Owing to this historical prominence, it is common, even among non-Britons, to ref ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Independent
''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was published on Saturday 26 March 2016, leaving only the online edition. The newspaper was controlled by Tony O'Reilly's Irish Independent News & Media from 1997 until it was sold to the Russian oligarch and former KGB Officer Alexander Lebedev in 2010. In 2017, Sultan Muhammad Abuljadayel bought a 30% stake in it. The daily edition was named National Newspaper of the Year at the 2004 British Press Awards. The website and mobile app had a combined monthly reach of 19,826,000 in 2021. History 1986 to 1990 Launched in 1986, the first issue of ''The Independent'' was published on 7 October in broadsheet format.Dennis Griffiths (ed.) ''The Encyclopedia of the British Press, 1422–1992'', London & Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1992, p. 330 It was produc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
George Edwin Ellison
Private George Edwin Ellison (10 August 1878 – 11 November 1918) was the last British soldier to be killed in action during the First World War. He died at 09:30 am (90 minutes before the armistice came into effect), shot by a sniper while on a patrol in woodland on the outskirts of Mons, Belgium. Biography Ellison was born in York and later lived in Leeds Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by popula ..., England. He first joined the British Army as a regular soldier in 1902 – but had left by 1912, by which time he had become a coal miner, and when he married Hannah Maria Burgan in Nottingham. Sometime just before the outbreak of war he was recalled to the army, joining the 5th Royal Irish Lancers and serving in the army from the very start of the war. He fought in the Bat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) is an intergovernmental organisation of six independent member states whose principal function is to mark, record and maintain the graves and places of commemoration of Commonwealth of Nations military service members who died in the two World Wars. The commission is also responsible for commemorating Commonwealth civilians who died as a result of enemy action during the Second World War. The commission was founded by Fabian Ware, Sir Fabian Ware and constituted through Royal Charter in 1917 as the Imperial War Graves Commission. The change to the present name took place in 1960. The commission, as part of its mandate, is responsible for commemorating all Commonwealth war dead individually and equally. To this end, the war dead are commemorated by a name on a headstone, at an identified site of a burial, or on a memorial. War dead are commemorated uniformly and equally, irrespective of military or civil rank, race or creed. The co ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Battle Of Mons
A battle is an occurrence of combat in warfare between opposing military units of any number or size. A war usually consists of multiple battles. In general, a battle is a military engagement that is well defined in duration, area, and force commitment. An engagement with only limited commitment between the forces and without decisive results is sometimes called a skirmish. The word "battle" can also be used infrequently to refer to an entire operational campaign, although this usage greatly diverges from its conventional or customary meaning. Generally, the word "battle" is used for such campaigns if referring to a protracted combat encounter in which either one or both of the combatants had the same methods, resources, and strategic objectives throughout the encounter. Some prominent examples of this would be the Battle of the Atlantic, Battle of Britain, and Battle of Stalingrad, all in World War II. Wars and military campaigns are guided by military strategy, wherea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1st Army (German Empire)
The 1st Army (german: 1. Armee / Armeeoberkommando 1 / A.O.K. 1) was an army level command of the German Army in World War I. It was formed on mobilization in August 1914 from the VIII Army Inspectorate. The army was dissolved on 17 September 1915, but reformed on 19 July 1916 during the Battle of the Somme. It was finally disbanded in 1919 during demobilization after the war. History First formation The 1st Army during World War I, fought on the Western Front and took part in the Schlieffen Plan offensive against France and Belgium in August 1914. Commanded by General Alexander von Kluck, the 1st Army's job was to command the extreme right of the German forces in attacking the left flank of the French Army and encircling Paris, bringing a rapid conclusion to the war. His army had the greatest striking power of the offensive, a density of about 18,000 men per mile of front (about 10 per metre). The First Army captured Brussels on 20 August and was almost successful in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Uhlan
Uhlans (; ; ; ; ) were a type of light cavalry, primarily armed with a lance. While first appearing in the cavalry of Lithuania and then Poland, Uhlans were quickly adopted by the mounted forces of other countries, including France, Russia, Prussia, Saxony and Austria-Hungary. Uhlans traditionally wore a double-breasted short-tailed jacket with a coloured 'plastron' panel at the front, a coloured sash, and a square-topped Polish lancer cap (, also called ). This cap or cavalry helmet was derived from a traditional design of Polish cap, formalised and stylised for military use. Their lances were traditionally topped with a small, swallow-tailed flag ('' pennon'') just below the spearhead. Etymology There are several suggested etymologies for the word uhlan. In the Turkic languages, ''oğlan'' means ''young man'' or ''boy''. It is probable that this entered Polish via Tatar or Turkish and was styled as ''ułan''. The Polish spelling was then adopted by German, French and oth ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mons
Mons (; German and nl, Bergen, ; Walloon and pcd, Mont) is a city and municipality of Wallonia, and the capital of the province of Hainaut, Belgium. Mons was made into a fortified city by Count Baldwin IV of Hainaut in the 12th century. The population grew quickly, trade flourished, and several commercial buildings were erected near the ''Grand’Place''. In 1814, King William I of the Netherlands increased the fortifications, following the fall of the First French Empire. The Industrial Revolution and coal mining made Mons a centre of heavy industry. In 1830, Belgium gained its independence and the decision was made to dismantle the fortifications, allowing the creation of large boulevards and other urban projects. On 2324 August 1914, Mons was the location of the Battle of Mons. The British were forced to retreat and the town remained occupied by the Germans until its liberation by the Canadian Corps during the final days of the war. There are several memorial placard ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
