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William Ewart Fairbairn
Lieutenant-Colonel William Ewart Fairbairn (; 28 February 1885 – 20 June 1960) was a British Royal Marine and police officer. He developed hand-to-hand combat methods for the Shanghai Police during the interwar period, as well as for the allied special forces during World War II. He created his own fighting system known as Defendu. Notably, this included innovative pistol shooting techniques and the development of the Fairbairn–Sykes fighting knife. The television series '' Secrets of War'' suggested him as a possible inspiration for Q Branch in the James Bond series. Military career Fairbairn served with the Royal Marine Light Infantry starting in 1901, and joined the Shanghai Municipal Police (SMP) in 1907. He served in one of the red light districts. During his service with the International Police in Shanghai, Fairbairn reportedly engaged in hundreds of street fights in the course of his duties over a twenty-year career, where he organised and headed a special anti-r ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rickmansworth
Rickmansworth () is a town in southwest Hertfordshire, England, about northwest of central London and inside the perimeter of the M25 motorway. The town is mainly to the north of the Grand Union Canal (formerly the Grand Junction Canal) and the River Colne. The town of Watford is to the northeast. Rickmansworth is the administrative seat of the Three Rivers District Council. The confluence of the River Chess and the River Gade with the Colne in Rickmansworth inspired the district's name. The enlarged Colne flows south to form a major tributary of the River Thames. The town is served by the Metropolitan line of the London Underground and Chiltern Railways from London Marylebone to Aylesbury railway station. Toponymy The name Rickmansworth comes from the Saxon name ''Ryckmer'', the local landowner, and ''worth'' meaning a farm or stockade. In the Domesday Book of 1086 it was recorded as the Manor of Prichemaresworde. Other spellings include Rykemarwurthe (1119–46), Richema ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Red Light District
A red-light district or pleasure district is a part of an urban area where a concentration of prostitution and sex-oriented businesses, such as sex shops, strip clubs, and adult theaters, are found. In most cases, red-light districts are particularly associated with female street prostitution, though in some cities, these areas may coincide with spaces of male prostitution and gay venues. Areas in many big cities around the world have acquired an international reputation as red-light districts. The term ''red-light district'' originates from the red lights that were used as signs for brothels. Origins of term Red-light districts are mentioned in the 1882 minutes of a Woman's Christian Temperance Union meeting in the United States. The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' records the earliest known appearance of the term "red light district" in print as an 1894 article from the '' Sandusky Register'', a newspaper in Sandusky, Ohio. Author Paul Wellman suggests that this and other t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Burma
Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explains, the English spellings of both Myanmar and Burma assume a non-rhotic variety of English, in which the letter r before a consonant or finally serves merely to indicate a long vowel: mjænmɑː, ˈbɜːmə So the pronunciation of the last syllable of Myanmar as ɑːror of Burma as ɜːrməby some speakers in the UK and most speakers in North America is in fact a spelling pronunciation based on a misunderstanding of non-rhotic spelling conventions. The final ''r'' in ''Myanmar'' was not intended for pronunciation and is there to ensure that the final a is pronounced with the broad ''ah'' () in "father". If the Burmese name my, မြန်မာ, label=none were spelled "Myanma" in English, this would be pronounced at the end by all ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Raymond Westerling
Raymond Pierre Paul Westerling (31 August 1919 – 26 November 1987) was a Greek-Dutch military officer of the Royal Netherlands East Indies Army. He orchestrated a contraguerrilla in Sulawesi during the Indonesian National Revolution after World War II and participated in a coup attempt against the Indonesian government in January 1950, a month after the official transfer of sovereignty. Both actions were denounced as war crimes by the Indonesian authorities. Born in the Ottoman Empire, his nickname was "The Turk", however Westerling was actually of Greek ethnic background. Early life Raymond Westerling was born on 31 August 1919 in Istanbul. He was the son of a Greek mother and a Dutch father, whose family had lived there for three generations. He grew up speaking Greek, Turkish, French and English, and later wrote: "One of the few Western European languages that I didn’t speak a word of was my mother tongue: Dutch." When World War II engulfed Europe in 1941, he went to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
