Somerset Playne
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Somerset Playne
Somerset Playne (1875 – 10 August 1944) was a British explorer and a manager for Lloyd's Greater Britain Publishing Company who travelled the British Empire and wrote books about it. Playne was born in Mapledurham, Oxfordshire. He studied at Clifton College and St Edward's School, Oxford. He travelled to the United States spending time on ranches and then travelled to South Africa shortly after the Matabele Rebellion. In 1899 he joined an expedition into German East Africa. He worked for Lloyd's Press compiling information on Africa and later, in order to publish his travelogues, Playne started a publishing house "The Foreign and Colonial Compiling and Publishing Company" in 1908. His travels included to British East Africa and wrote a book about it. Later he wrote books about Ceylon, the Federated Malay States, Hong Kong and Shanghai, and visited Java, Labuan, Borneo, and Formosa, Cape Colony, the Orange Free State, and New Zealand between 1908 and 1913. Playne arrived in Ind ...
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Explorer
Exploration refers to the historical practice of discovering remote lands. It is studied by geographers and historians. Two major eras of exploration occurred in human history: one of convergence, and one of divergence. The first, covering most of ''Homo sapiens'' history, saw humans moving out of Africa, settling in new lands, and developing distinct cultures in relative isolation. Early explorers settled in Europe and Asia; 14,000 years ago, some crossed the Ice Age land bridge from Siberia to Alaska, and moved southbound to settle in the Americas. For the most part, these cultures were ignorant of each other's existence. The second period of exploration, occurring over the last 10,000 years, saw increased cross-cultural exchange through trade and exploration, and marked a new era of cultural intermingling, and more recently, convergence. Early writings about exploration date back to the 4th millennium B.C. in ancient Egypt. One of the earliest and most impactful thinkers of ...
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British Empire
The British Empire was composed of the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the overseas possessions and trading posts established by England between the late 16th and early 18th centuries. At its height it was the largest empire in history and, for over a century, was the foremost global power. By 1913, the British Empire held sway over 412 million people, of the world population at the time, and by 1920, it covered , of the Earth's total land area. As a result, its constitutional, legal, linguistic, and cultural legacy is widespread. At the peak of its power, it was described as "the empire on which the sun never sets", as the Sun was always shining on at least one of its territories. During the Age of Discovery in the 15th and 16th centuries, Portugal and Spain pioneered European exploration of the globe, and in the process established large overse ...
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Mapledurham
Mapledurham is a small village, civil parish and country estate beside the River Thames in southern Oxfordshire. The large parish borders Caversham, the most affluent major district of Reading, Berkshire. Historic buildings in the area include the Church of England parish church of St. Margaret, Mapledurham Watermill and Mapledurham House. Village The village is on the north bank of the River Thames about northwest of Reading. Road access is by a narrow and steep lane from Trench Green on the rural road from Caversham to Goring Heath, Goring-on-Thames and other places. The village is closer geodesically (as the crow flies) to Reading's centre than some parts of its districts but it is highly conserved, traffic-calm and rural. The access lane becomes the main street of the village and terminates on the bank of the River Thames, where it is surrounded by a cluster of three significant buildings. The Church of England parish church of St. Margaret was mainly built in the 14th an ...
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Oxfordshire
Oxfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the north west of South East England. It is a mainly rural county, with its largest settlement being the city of Oxford. The county is a centre of research and development, primarily due to the work of the University of Oxford and several notable science parks. These include the Harwell Science and Innovation Campus and Milton Park, both situated around the towns of Didcot and Abingdon-on-Thames. It is a landlocked county, bordered by six counties: Berkshire to the south, Buckinghamshire to the east, Wiltshire to the south west, Gloucestershire to the west, Warwickshire to the north west, and Northamptonshire to the north east. Oxfordshire is locally governed by Oxfordshire County Council, together with local councils of its five non-metropolitan districts: City of Oxford, Cherwell, South Oxfordshire, Vale of White Horse, and West Oxfordshire. Present-day Oxfordshire spanning the area south of the Thames was h ...
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Clifton College
''The spirit nourishes within'' , established = 160 years ago , closed = , type = Public schoolIndependent boarding and day school , religion = Christian , president = , head_label = Head of College , head = Dr Tim Greene , r_head_label = , r_head = , chair_label = , chair = , founder = John Percival , address = College Road , city = Bristol , county = , country = England , postcode = BS8 3JH , local_authority = , dfeno = , urn = 109334 , ofsted = , capacity = 1,200 , enrolment = 1,171 , gender = Mixed , lower_age = 2 , upper_age = 18 , houses = 12 (in the Upper School) , colours = Blue, Green, Navy , publication = , free_label_1 = Former pupils , free_1 = Old Cliftonians , free_label_2 = , free_2 = , free_label_3 = , free_3 = , websit ...
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St Edward's School, Oxford
St Edward's School is a public school (English independent day and boarding school) in Oxford, England. It is known informally as 'Teddies'. Approximately sixty pupils live in each of its thirteen houses. The school is a member of the Rugby Group, the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference, and the Oxfordshire Independent and State School Partnership. Termly fees in 2021/2022 are £13,489 for boarding and £10,794 for day pupils. The school is also affiliated to the Church of England. The school teaches the GCSE, A Level and International Baccalaureate (IB) qualifications. The sixth form is split evenly between pupils studying A Levels and the IB Diploma. History The school was founded in 1863 by Thomas Chamberlain, student of Christ Church, Oxford and vicar of St Thomas the Martyr's Church, Oxford. The original school building was Mackworth Hall, which then stood on New Inn Hall Street in central Oxford. In 1873, after a storm damaged the school buildings and in antic ...
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Second Matabele War
The Second Matabele War, also known as the Matabeleland Rebellion or part of what is now known in Zimbabwe as the First ''Chimurenga'', was fought between 1896 and 1897 in the region later known as Southern Rhodesia, now modern-day Zimbabwe. It pitted the British South Africa Company against the Matabele people, which led to conflict with the Shona people in the rest of Southern Rhodesia. In March 1896, the Matabele revolted against the authority of the British South Africa Company. The ''Mlimo'' (or ''M'limo'', or ''Umlimo'') the Matabele spiritual leader, was credited with fomenting much of the anger that led to this confrontation. He convinced the Matabele and the Shona that the settlers (almost 4,000-strong by then) were responsible for the drought, locust plagues and the cattle disease rinderpest ravaging the country at the time. The Mlimo's call to battle was well-timed. Only a few months earlier, the British South Africa Company's Administrator General for Matabelelan ...
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British East Africa
East Africa Protectorate (also known as British East Africa) was an area in the African Great Lakes occupying roughly the same terrain as present-day Kenya from the Indian Ocean inland to the border with Uganda in the west. Controlled by Britain in the late 19th century, it grew out of British commercial interests in the area in the 1880s and remained a protectorate until 1920 when it became the Colony of Kenya, save for an independent coastal strip that became the Kenya Protectorate.Kenya Protectorate Order in Council, 1920 S.R.O. 1920 No. 2343, S.R.O. & S.I. Rev. VIII, 258, State Pp., Vol. 87 p. 968 Administration European missionaries began settling in the area from Mombasa to Mount Kilimanjaro in the 1840s, nominally under the protection of the Sultanate of Zanzibar. In 1886, the British government encouraged William Mackinnon, who already had an agreement with the Sultan and whose shipping company traded extensively in the African Great Lakes, to establish British inf ...
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Express Avenue
Express Avenue (Tamil: எக்ஸ்ப்ரெஸ் அவென்யூ) is a shopping mall in Chennai promoted by Express Infrastructure, A division of Express Newspapers Pvt. Ltd. It is home to the largest gaming arcade in South India. Built at a cost of , the mall is spread over , including of leasable (retail) area. The mall has 10 anchor tenants and 150 vanilla tenants. Description The mall is situated near the Royapettah Clock Tower. The mall is built on an 8-acre site inside the historic Indian Express Estate and has four floors of retail space, a building for corporate offices and a hotel. Out of 10 acres, about 3.57 acres have been taken up by buildings. The rest have been used for car parking, drive-ways and landscaping. In all, the mall has 26 lifts, 34 escalators and 4 travelators. Express Avenue hosts a mixture of shopping, business and leisure. The mall is bounded by Whites Road, Woods Road and Patullos Road and has a three-level basement parking space for ...
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World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fighting occurring throughout Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Pacific, and parts of Asia. An estimated 9 million soldiers were killed in combat, plus another 23 million wounded, while 5 million civilians died as a result of military action, hunger, and disease. Millions more died in genocides within the Ottoman Empire and in the 1918 influenza pandemic, which was exacerbated by the movement of combatants during the war. Prior to 1914, the European great powers were divided between the Triple Entente (comprising France, Russia, and Britain) and the Triple Alliance (containing Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy). Tensions in the Balkans came to a head on 28 June 1914, following the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdin ...
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Royal Geographical Society
The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers), often shortened to RGS, is a learned society and professional body for geography based in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1830 for the advancement of geographical sciences, the Society has 16,000 members, with its work reaching the public through publications, research groups and lectures. The Society was founded in 1830 under the name ''Geographical Society of London'' as an institution to promote the 'advancement of geographical science'. It later absorbed the older African Association, which had been founded by Sir Joseph Banks in 1788, as well as the Raleigh Club and the Palestine Association. In 1995 it merged with the Institute of British Geographers, a body for academic geographers, to officially become the Royal Geographical Society ''with IBG''. The society is governed by its Council, which is chaired by the Society's President, according to a set of statutes and standing orders. The members ...
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Lake Ōkareka
Lake Ōkāreka (also spelled Okareka) is one of four small lakes lying between Lake Rotorua and Lake Tarawera, in the Bay of Plenty Region of New Zealand's North Island. The others are Lake Rotokakahi (Green Lake), Lake Tikitapu (Blue Lake), and Lake Okataina. All lie within the Okataina caldera, along its western edge. Geography The lake has a circumference of and lies about above Lake Tarawera. Its outlet flows underground for half a mile and forms the Waitangi waterfall. In fact, the Ōkāreka lake seems to be connected with Tarawera by underground channels. History This small and little-visited lake is surrounded by hills nearly everywhere, and is a heavy hunting area. It is quite near, but out of sight from the tourist motor route of Rotorua and Tarawera. A side road, Tarawera Road, gives access to it. During the late 19th century, settlers acquired some of the land around it, and built houses on Ōkāreka. Some of the frontage is still in private hands, but the greate ...
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