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William Nicholas (officer)
William Nicholas (12 December 1785 – 14 April 1812) was an English officer and military engineer in the British Army. From 1806 to 1812, he was engaged in eleven sieges and battles in Italy, Egypt, and Spain, and died of wounds. William, third son of Robert Nicholas, by Charlotte, , was born at Ashton Keynes, Wiltshire, in 1785. Educated at a private school at Hackney, and admitted to the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, in 1799, he obtained a commission in the Royal Engineers in 1801, became first lieutenant in 1802, and worked on the naval defences at Dover until 1805. In 1806, he followed the expedition to Sicily, fought at Maida, took part in the capture of Scylla, and was promoted second captain. In 1807, in the Egyptian campaign, he distinguished himself at Rosetta by assisting to carry the wounded General Meade to safety. In 1808, he took part in the defence of Scylla, and was mentioned in despatches. He also made a report on the western country of Sicily which wa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ashton Keynes
Ashton Keynes is a village and civil parish in north Wiltshire, England which borders with Gloucestershire. The village is about south of Cirencester and west of Cricklade. At the 2011 census the population of the parish, which includes the hamlet of North End, was 1,400. The village lies within the Cotswold Water Park and is the only settlement substantially on both sides of the River Thames, which has many channels here, centred from its source at Thames Head. History A Romano-British settlement and field system was west of the present-day village, spanning the county boundary; it was investigated in 1971 before it was destroyed by gravel extraction. 'Ashton' comes from the Old English ''Æsctūn'', meaning 'place or settlement where ash trees grew'. In 1086, land at ''Essitone'' held by Cranborne Priory (Dorset) was recorded in the Domesday Book within Cricklade hundred. The land was transferred to the recently founded Tewkesbury Abbey (Gloucestershire) in 1102. Ashton ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Scilla, Calabria
Scilla ( scn, label= Calabrian, U Scigghiu; ) is a town and ''comune'' in Calabria, Italy, administratively part of the Metropolitan City of Reggio Calabria. It is the traditional site of the sea monster Scylla of Greek mythology. Description The town, from the city of Reggio, lies in front of the strait of Messina, and is composed of two parts: the downtown, where the town offices and the residence of the patron saint are situated, and ''Marina di Scilla'', the beach-front, populated by tourists and thus heavily characterized by hotels and restaurants. Its beach is the first place north of Reggio Calabria where the waters are not cooled by the strait draughts. Scilla's coastal district of Chianalea is included in the ''I Borghi più belli d'Italia'' association of small Italian towns of historical interest list. The Ruffo Castle, a fortress built by the Dukes of Calabria, overlooks the beach. On a seaward-facing terrace is Scilla Lighthouse, an important aid to ships enter ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Royal School Of Military Engineering
The Royal School of Military Engineering (RSME) Group provides a wide range of training for the British Army and Defence. This includes; Combat Engineers, Carpenters, Chartered Engineers, Musicians, Band Masters, Sniffer Dogs, Veterinary Technicians, Ammunition Experts, Bomb Disposal Operators, and Counter Chemical Warfare experts, as well as Command and Leadership. History The Peninsular War (1808–14) revealed deficiencies in the training and knowledge of officers and men in the conduct of siege operations and bridging. During this war low ranking Royal Engineers officers carried out large scale operations. They had under their command working parties of two or three battalions of infantry, two or three thousand men, who knew nothing in the art of siegeworks. Royal Engineers officers had to demonstrate the simplest tasks to the soldiers often while under enemy fire. Several officers were lost and could not be replaced and a better system of training for siege operations was r ... [...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] |
Charles Cornwallis, 1st Marquess Cornwallis
Charles Cornwallis, 1st Marquess Cornwallis, (31 December 1738 – 5 October 1805), styled Viscount Brome between 1753 and 1762 and known as the Earl Cornwallis between 1762 and 1792, was a British Army general and official. In the United States and the United Kingdom, he is best remembered as one of the leading British generals in the American War of Independence. His surrender in 1781 to a combined American and French force at the siege of Yorktown ended significant hostilities in North America. He later served as a civil and military governor in Ireland, where he helped bring about the Act of Union; and in India, where he helped enact the Cornwallis Code and the Permanent Settlement. Born into an aristocratic family and educated at Eton and Cambridge, Cornwallis joined the army in 1757, seeing action in the Seven Years' War. Upon his father's death in 1762 he became Earl Cornwallis and entered the House of Lords. From 1766 until 1805 he was Colonel of the 33rd Regimen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell (25 April 15993 September 1658) was an English politician and military officer who is widely regarded as one of the most important statesmen in English history. He came to prominence during the 1639 to 1651 Wars of the Three Kingdoms, first as a senior commander in the Parliamentarian army and then as a politician. A leading advocate of the execution of Charles I in January 1649, which led to the establishment of the Republican Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland, he ruled as Lord Protector from December 1653 until his death in September 1658. Cromwell nevertheless remains a deeply controversial figure in both Britain and Ireland, due to his use of the military to first acquire, then retain political power, and the brutality of his 1649 Irish campaign. Educated at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, Cromwell was elected MP for Huntingdon in 1628, but the first 40 years of his life were undistinguished and at one point he contemplated emigration to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Edward Nicholas
Sir Edward Nicholas (4 April 15931669) was an English officeholder and politician who served as Secretary of State to Charles I and Charles II. He also sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1621 and 1629. He served as secretary to Edward la Zouche and the Duke of Buckingham in the Admiralty and became a clerk of the Privy Council. He supported the Royalist cause in the English Civil War and accompanied the court into exile, before assuming the post of Secretary of State on the Restoration. Life Nicholas was the eldest son of John Nicholas of a Wiltshire family. He was educated at Salisbury grammar school, Winchester College, and Queen's College, Oxford. After studying law at the Middle Temple, in 1618 Nicholas became secretary to Edward la Zouche, 11th Baron Zouche, lord warden and admiral of the Cinque Ports. In 1621 he was elected as a Member of Parliament for Winchelsea. He was re-elected as one of the Members for Winchelsea in 1624 for what became known as ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sir Thomas Frankland, 5th Baronet
Admiral Sir Thomas Frankland, 5th Baronet (26 June 1718 – 21 November 1784) was a British naval officer, MP and slave trader. He was the second son of Henry Frankland and Mary Cross. Frankland was born in the East Indies (probably India), his father being a member of the East India Company and briefly Governor of Bengal. Naval career He entered the navy in 1731, serving in HMS ''York'' under Capt. Philip Vanbrugh, HMS ''Scarborough'', and HMS ''Oxford'' before becoming a lieutenant in 1737. On 23 February 1738, he was sent to HMS ''Chatham'', again under Capt. Vanbrugh, where he served for two years. He was briefly transferred to HMS ''Cumberland'' in March 1740 before promotion to captain on 15 July 1740 aboard HMS ''Rose''. He was promptly assigned to carry the newly appointed Governor of the Bahamas, John Tinker, to the islands, and remained in the Bahamas until 1746, fighting Spanish privateers and taking a number of prizes. He then returned home and was given comm ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cricklade
Cricklade is a town and civil parish on the River Thames in north Wiltshire, England, midway between Swindon and Cirencester. It is the first downstream town on the Thames. The parish population at the 2011 census was 4,227. History Cricklade was founded in the 9th century by the Anglo-Saxons, at the point where the Ermin Way Roman road crossed the River Thames. It was the home of a royal mint from 979 to 1100; there are some Cricklade coins in the town museum.Christopher Winn: ''I Never Knew That about the River Thames'' (London: Ebury Press, 2010), p. 6. The Domesday Book of 1086 records a settlement at ''Crichelade'', with a church, and at the centre of a hundred of the same name. Anglo-Saxon fortification Cricklade is one of thirty burhs (boroughs, i.e. fortresses or fortified towns) recorded in the Burghal Hidage document, which describes a system of fortresses and fortified towns built around Wessex by King Alfred. Recent research suggests these burhs were built in the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thomas Graham, 1st Baron Lynedoch
Thomas Graham, 1st Baron Lynedoch (19 October 174818 December 1843) was a Scottish aristocrat, politician and British Army officer. After his education at Oxford, he inherited a substantial estate in Scotland, married and settled down to a quiet career as a landowning gentleman. However, with the death of his wife, when he was aged 42, he immersed himself in a military (and later political) career, during the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars. Taylor described Graham as "tall, square-shouldered, and erect, his limbs sinewy and remarkably strong. His complexion was dark, with full eyebrows, firm-set lips, and an open, benevolent air. His manners and address were frank, simple, and polished". Early life and education Thomas Graham was the third and only surviving son of Thomas Græme of Balgowan, in Perthshire and Lady Christian Hope, a daughter of the first Earl of Hopetoun. He was born in 1748, and was educated at home by the Reverend Fraser, minister of Moneyd ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Siege Of Cádiz
The siege of Cádiz was a siege of the large Spanish naval base of Cádiz by a French army from 5 February 1810 to 24 August 1812 during the Peninsular War. Following the occupation of Seville, Cádiz became the Spanish seat of power, and was targeted by 70,000 French troops under the command of the Marshals Claude Victor and Nicolas Jean-de-Dieu Soult for one of the most important sieges of the war. Defending the city were 2,000 Spanish troops who, as the siege progressed, received aid from 10,000 Spanish reinforcements as well as British and Portuguese troops. During the siege, which lasted two and a half years, the Cortes of Cádizwhich served as a parliamentary Regency after Ferdinand VII was deposeddrew up a new constitution to reduce the strength of the monarchy, which was eventually revoked by Fernando VII when he returned. In October 1810 a mixed Anglo-Spanish relief force embarked on a disastrous landing at Fuengirola. A second relief attempt was made at Tarifa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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