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Sophie Moss
Sophie Moss (Zofia Roza Maria Jadwiga Elzbieta Katarzyna Aniela Tarnowska, 16 March 1917 - 22 November 2009) was a Polish noblewoman and World War II organiser. At the request of General Władysław Sikorski, Poland's wartime leader, she ended up at the Cairo branch of the Polish Red Cross. Early life Moss was born during the First World War, near Tarnobrzeg, a town in South-eastern Poland which her Tarnowski family founded in 1593. She was the daughter of Hieronim, a politician and a writer. Her grandfather was Count Stanislaw Tarnowski (1837–1917), who was a professor and rector at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow. His home, also known as the Szlak, had been the resting place of deceased Polish kings on the night before the kings' burial at Wawel. Moss was also a possible direct descendant of Catherine the Great of Russia and her family had held some of the highest offices in Poland. In 1937, she married Andrew Tarnowski, a member of the senior branch of the famil ...
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Sophie Moss
Sophie Moss (Zofia Roza Maria Jadwiga Elzbieta Katarzyna Aniela Tarnowska, 16 March 1917 - 22 November 2009) was a Polish noblewoman and World War II organiser. At the request of General Władysław Sikorski, Poland's wartime leader, she ended up at the Cairo branch of the Polish Red Cross. Early life Moss was born during the First World War, near Tarnobrzeg, a town in South-eastern Poland which her Tarnowski family founded in 1593. She was the daughter of Hieronim, a politician and a writer. Her grandfather was Count Stanislaw Tarnowski (1837–1917), who was a professor and rector at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow. His home, also known as the Szlak, had been the resting place of deceased Polish kings on the night before the kings' burial at Wawel. Moss was also a possible direct descendant of Catherine the Great of Russia and her family had held some of the highest offices in Poland. In 1937, she married Andrew Tarnowski, a member of the senior branch of the famil ...
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Farida Of Egypt
Farida, born Safinaz Zulficar (5 September 1921 – 16 October 1988) (Arabic: صافيناز ذوالفقار), was the queen of Egypt for nearly eleven years as the first wife of King Farouk. She was the first queen of Egypt since antiquity to have left seclusion and played a public representational role, attending public functions and acting as honorary protector of charities, in accordance with the modern image the monarchy wished to represent at the time. The marriage was dissolved by divorce in 1948. Early life and education Queen Farida was born "Safinaz Zulficar" on 5 September 1921 to an Egyptian noble family in Janaklis, Alexandria. Her father, Youssef Zulficar Pasha, was a judge of Turkish origin; he was also vice president of the Alexandria Mixed Court of Appeals. Her mother, Zainab Sa'id, was a lady-in-waiting of Queen Nazli Sabri. On her mother's side, Farida's uncle was the artist and lawyer Mahmoud Sa'id, and her grandfather was the former prime minister of E ...
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Hill Of Tara
The Hill of Tara ( ga, Teamhair or ) is a hill and ancient ceremonial and burial site near Skryne in County Meath, Ireland. Tradition identifies the hill as the inauguration place and seat of the High Kings of Ireland; it also appears in Irish mythology. Tara consists of numerous monuments and earthworks—dating from the Neolithic to the Iron Age—including a passage tomb (the "Mound of the Hostages"), burial mounds, round enclosures, a standing stone (believed to be the '' Lia Fáil'' or "Stone of Destiny"), and a ceremonial avenue. There is also a church and graveyard on the hill. Tara forms part of a larger ancient landscape and Tara itself is a protected national monument under the care of the Office of Public Works, an agency of the Irish Government. Name The name ''Tara'' is an anglicization of the Irish name or ('hill of Tara'). It is also known as ('Tara of the kings'), and formerly also ('the grey ridge'). The Old Irish form is . It is believed this co ...
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Rowland Winn, 4th Baron St Oswald
Rowland Denys Guy Winn, 4th Baron St Oswald, (19 September 1916 – 19 December 1984), was a British soldier and Conservative politician. Biography St Oswald was the eldest son of Rowland George Winn, 3rd Baron St Oswald, and his wife Eve Carew, daughter of Charles Greene. He was a major in the 8th King's Royal Irish Hussars and served in the Middle East from 1940 to 1944 and South-East Asia from 1944 to 1945 in the Second World War, where he was wounded and mentioned in dispatches. He later fought in the Korean War from 1950 to 1952 where he was awarded the Military Cross (MC). St Oswald succeeded his father in the barony in 1957 and took his seat on the Conservative benches in the House of Lords. He served under Harold Macmillan and Sir Alec Douglas-Home as a Lord-in-waiting (government whip in the House of Lords) from 1959 to 1962 and as Joint Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food from 1962 to 1964. From 1973 to 1979 he was an appointed Memb ...
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David Smiley
Colonel David de Crespigny Smiley, (11 April 1916 – 9 January 2009) was a British special forces and intelligence officer. He fought in the Second World War in Palestine, Iraq, Persia, Syria, the Western Desert and with Special Operations Executive (SOE) in Albania and Thailand. Biography Early life Smiley was the 4th and youngest son of Sir John Smiley, 2nd Baronet and Valerie Champion de Crespigny, youngest daughter of Sir Claude Champion de Crespigny, who was a noted jockey, balloonist, sportsman and adventurer. His father fought in the Second Boer War between 1899 and 1900 with 4th Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders before joining the North of Ireland Imperial Yeomanry (redesignated the North Irish Horse in 1908). He gained the rank of major in the service of the Carabiniers (6th Dragoon Guards) and fought in the First World War. David Smiley was educated at the Nautical College, Pangbourne, Berkshire, England, where he was a noted sportsman. Some have suggested t ...
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Neil McLean (politician)
Lieutenant-Colonel Neil Loudon Desmond McLean, DSO** (28 November 1918 – 17 November 1986), known as Billy McLean, was a Scottish politician and intelligence officer in the British Army. During World War II, he worked for the Special Operations Executive and was involved in clandestine missions in Ethiopia, China, and particularly Albania. In 1954 he served as a Unionist Member of Parliament for Inverness. Family and education McLean was born in Sutherland, the elder son of Neil Gillean McLean, who had made a great deal of money trading with India and owned an estate at Glencalvie. The family called him "Billy". He was educated at Eton College, where he excelled in fencing,"Fencing", ''The Times'', 8 April 1936. becoming Captain of the school team."Eton College", ''The Times'', 4 May 1936. He was then sent to the Royal Military College, Sandhurst to train to become an officer. Having spent his holiday periods fox hunting, he was a keen sportsman and won many point to point r ...
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Patrick Leigh Fermor
Sir Patrick Michael Leigh Fermor (11 February 1915 – 10 June 2011) was an English writer, scholar, soldier and polyglot. He played a prominent role in the Cretan resistance during the Second World War, and was widely seen as Britain's greatest living travel writer, on the basis of books such as '' A Time of Gifts'' (1977).Smith, Helen"Literary legend learning to type at 92" ''The Guardian'' (2 March 2007). A BBC journalist once termed him "a cross between Indiana Jones, James Bond and Graham Greene". Early life and education Leigh Fermor was born in London, the son of Sir Lewis Leigh Fermor, a distinguished geologist, and Muriel Aeyleen (Eileen), daughter of Charles Taafe Ambler. Shortly after his birth, his mother and sister left to join his father in India, leaving the infant Patrick in England with a family in Northamptonshire: first in the village of Weedon, and later in nearby Dodford. He did not meet his parents or his sister again until he was four years old. As a c ...
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Xan Fielding
Alexander Wallace Fielding (26 November 1918 – 19 August 1991) was a British author, translator, journalist and traveller, who served as a Special Operations Executive (SOE) agent in Crete, France and the East Asia during World War II. The purpose of SOE was to conduct espionage, sabotage and reconnaissance in occupied Europe and Asia against the Axis powers, especially Nazi Germany. Biography Early life Fielding was born at Ootacamund, India, where his father, Alexander James Lumsden Wallace, served in the Indian Army, as a major in the 52nd Sikhs (Frontier Force). Fielding's mother Mary Gertrude (née Feilmann) died soon after his birth, on 13 December 1918, and he was largely brought up in Nice, France, by his maternal grandparents who adopted the name Fielding. He was educated at Charterhouse School, and then studied briefly at the Universities of Bonn, Munich and Freiburg in Germany. In the late 1930s Fielding moved to Cyprus, where he worked as a sub-editor on ''The Cyp ...
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Special Operations Executive
The Special Operations Executive (SOE) was a secret British World War II organisation. It was officially formed on 22 July 1940 under Minister of Economic Warfare Hugh Dalton, from the amalgamation of three existing secret organisations. Its purpose was to conduct espionage, sabotage and reconnaissance in occupied Europe (and later, also in occupied Southeast Asia) against the Axis powers, and to aid local resistance movements. Few people were aware of SOE's existence. Those who were part of it or liaised with it were sometimes referred to as the "Baker Street Irregulars", after the location of its London headquarters. It was also known as "Churchill's Secret Army" or the "Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare". Its various branches, and sometimes the organisation as a whole, were concealed for security purposes behind names such as the "Joint Technical Board" or the "Inter-Service Research Bureau", or fictitious branches of the Air Ministry, Admiralty or War Office. SOE operated ...
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Gezira Island
Gezira is an island in the Nile, in central Cairo, Egypt. The southern portion of the island contains the Gezira district, and the northern third contains the Zamalek district. Gezira is west of downtown Cairo and Tahrir Square, connected across the Nile by four bridges each on the east and west sides, the Qasr El Nil Bridge, 15 May Bridge, Al-Gala'a Bridge and 6th October Bridge. Under 19th century ruler Khedive Ismail the island was first called "Jardin des Plantes" (French for "Garden of Plants"), because of its great collection of exotic plants shipped from all over the world. Landmarks * Cairo Tower (1960), the tallest concrete structure in Egypt, built near the Gezira Sporting Club. * Egyptian Opera House (1988), built near the Cairo Tower. * El Sawy Culture Wheel Centre (2003) ( ar, ساقية الصاوى), located beneath 15 May Bridge in Zamalek, one of the most important cultural venues in Egypt. * Gezira Sporting Club (1882), the oldest club in Egypt. * Al Ah ...
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Squatting
Squatting is the action of occupying an abandoned or unoccupied area of land or a building, usually residential, that the squatter does not own, rent or otherwise have lawful permission to use. The United Nations estimated in 2003 that there were one billion slum residents and squatters globally. Squatting occurs worldwide and tends to occur when people who are poor and homeless find empty buildings or land to occupy for housing. It has a long history, broken down by country below. In developing countries and least developed countries, shanty towns often begin as squatted settlements. In African cities such as Lagos much of the population lives in slums. There are pavement dwellers in India and in Hong Kong as well as rooftop slums. Informal settlements in Latin America are known by names such as villa miseria (Argentina), pueblos jóvenes (Peru) and asentamientos irregulares (Guatemala, Uruguay). In Brazil, there are favelas in the major cities and land-based movements. ...
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James Holland (author)
James Holland (born 27 June 1970) is an English author and broadcaster who specializes in the history of World War II. His most recently published written work is 2021's ''Brothers in Arms: One Legendary Tank Regiment's Bloody War from D-Day to VE-Day'', which follows the Sherwood Rangers, a British tank regiment, throughout multiple battles. Early life and education Holland was born in Salisbury, Wiltshire. He was educated at Chafyn Grove School, Salisbury, and King's School, Bruton, and in 1992 attained a BA degree in History from St Chad's College, Durham. His elder brother Tom Holland is also a writer and historian. Career Holland has written both novels and non-fiction history books focusing on the Second World War, and has presented documentary programming about WWII for television and radio. He is also the co-founder, co-chair and programme director of the annual Chalke Valley History Festival, which is the largest festival dedicated entirely to history in the UK. H ...
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