|
British Home Guard
The Home Guard (initially Local Defence Volunteers or LDV) was an unpaid armed citizen militia supporting the 'Home Forces' of the British Army during the Second World War. Operational from 1940 to 1944, the Home Guard comprised more than 1.5 million local volunteers otherwise ineligible for military service, such as those who were too young, too old or medically unfit to join the regular armed services (regular military service was restricted to those aged 18 to 41) and those in reserved occupations. Excluding those already in the armed services, the civilian police or other civil defence volunteer organisations, approximately one in five men were Home Guard volunteers. Their primary role was to act as a secondary defence force in their home locality in case of invasion by the forces of Nazi Germany. The Home Guard were initially ordered to observe, and report back to General Headquarters Home Forces, any airborne or seaborne invading forces in their local area; an order exte ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Admiralty Arch
The Admiralty Arch is a historic landmark building in London, providing road and pedestrian access between The Mall, London, The Mall, which extends to the southwest, and Trafalgar Square to the northeast. Commissioned by King Edward VII in memory of his mother, Queen Victoria, it was designed by Aston Webb, and is now a Grade I listed building. Until 2011, the building housed government offices, including the residence of the First Sea Lord, and was used by the British Admiralty, Admiralty. In 2012, the government sold the building on a 125-year lease for £60m for redevelopment into the Waldorf Astoria London Admiralty Arch luxury hotel, which is scheduled to open in 2026.https://www.hospitalitynet.org/news/4125997.html History The arch was designed by Aston Webb, who also designed the Victoria Memorial, London, Victoria Memorial and the new façade of Buckingham Palace at the other end of the Mall. Admiralty Arch was constructed by Mowlem, John Mowlem & Co and completed in 19 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
International Brigades
The International Brigades () were soldiers recruited and organized by the Communist International to assist the Popular Front (Spain), Popular Front government of the Second Spanish Republic during the Spanish Civil War. The International Brigades existed for two years, from 1936 until 1938. It is estimated that during the entire war, there were some 32,000 Brigaders. Beyond the Spanish Civil War, "International Brigades" is also sometimes used interchangeably with the term List of foreign volunteers, foreign legion in reference to military units comprising foreigners who volunteer to fight in the military of another state, often in times of war. The headquarters of the brigade was located at the Gran Hotel, Albacete, Castilla-La Mancha. They participated in the battles of Battle of Madrid, Madrid, Battle of Jarama, Jarama, Battle of Guadalajara, Guadalajara, Battle of Brunete, Brunete, Battle of Belchite (1937), Belchite, Battle of Teruel, Teruel, Aragon Offensive, Aragon and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Robert Gordon-Finlayson
General Sir Robert Gordon-Finlayson, (15 April 1881 – 23 May 1956) was a senior British military officer who was appointed Adjutant-General to the Forces in 1939. Military career Finlayson entered the British Army from the Suffolk Militia and was commissioned into the Royal Artillery as second lieutenant on 17 March 1900. He was promoted to lieutenant on 3 April 1901, and was attached to 131 Battery of the Royal Artillery, stationed at Chatham. Seconded to serve with the Imperial Yeomanry during the Second Boer War in South Africa from 25 April 1902, he received the temporary rank of captain serving in the 24th battalion, Imperial Yeomanry. He vacated his appointment with the Imperial Yeomanry on 1 August 1902, and returned to the Royal Artillery. Finlayson served during the First World War, initially as a Royal Artillery officer with 7th Division from 1914 and transferring to 3rd Division in 1915. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Order in 1915. He became Deputy ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Adjutant-General To The Forces
The Adjutant-General to the Forces, commonly just referred to as the Adjutant-General (AG), was for just over 250 years one of the most senior officers in the British Army. The AG was latterly responsible for developing the Army's personnel policies and supporting its people.Army conducts Top Level Organisational Review Defence News, 9 December 2009 The Adjutant-General usually held the rank of or . Despite his administr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Legion Of Frontiersmen
The Legion of Frontiersmen is a civilian nationalist paramilitary organisation formed in Britain in 1905 by Roger Pocock, a former North-West Mounted Police constable and Boer War veteran. Prompted by fears of an impending invasion of Britain and the Empire, the organisation was founded to be a field intelligence corps that would watch over and protect the boundaries of the Empire. Headquartered in London, the Legion of Frontiersmen formed branches throughout the Empire to prepare enlistees for war and foster vigilance in peacetime. Despite their efforts, the Legion never achieved significant official recognition, in part because many Commonwealth nations' laws prohibit militia groups. Casualties in the First World War devastated the Legion of Frontiersmen, and except for a brief resurgence in the interwar period, a series of schisms and sectarianism prevented attempts to reinvigorate the movement. In the late 1930s, the Legion of Frontiersmen in Canada was formally affiliated wi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Essex
Essex ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the south, Greater London to the south-west, and Hertfordshire to the west. The largest settlement is Southend-on-Sea, and the county town is Chelmsford. The county has an area of and a population of 1,832,751. After Southend-on-Sea (182,305), the largest settlements are Colchester (130,245), Basildon (115,955) and Chelmsford (110,625). The south of the county is very densely populated, and the remainder, besides Colchester and Chelmsford, is largely rural. For local government purposes Essex comprises a non-metropolitan county, with twelve districts, and two unitary authority areas: Thurrock Council, Thurrock and Southend-on-Sea City Council, Southend-on-Sea. The districts of Chelmsford, Colchester and Southend have city status. The county H ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lord Privy Seal
The Lord Privy Seal (or, more formally, the Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal) is the fifth of the Great Officers of State (United Kingdom), Great Officers of State in the United Kingdom, ranking beneath the Lord President of the Council and above the Lord Great Chamberlain. Originally, its holder was responsible for the monarch's Privy Seal of England, personal (privy) seal (as opposed to the Great Seal of the Realm, which is in the care of the lord chancellor) until the use of such a seal became obsolete. Though one of the oldest offices in European governments, it has no particular function today because the use of a privy seal has been obsolete for centuries; it may be regarded as a traditional sinecure, but today, the holder of the office is invariably given a seat in the Cabinet of the United Kingdom, and is sometimes referred to as a Minister without portfolio (United Kingdom), minister without portfolio. Since the premiership of Clement Attlee, the position of Lord Privy S ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Samuel Hoare, 1st Viscount Templewood
Samuel John Gurney Hoare, 1st Viscount Templewood (24 February 1880 – 7 May 1959), more commonly known as Sir Samuel Hoare, was a senior British Conservative politician who served in various Cabinet posts in the Conservative and National governments of the 1920s and 1930s. He was ambitious and his expedience and flexibility gave him a reputation for being unprincipled and two-faced, being nicknamed "Slippery Sam" or "Soapy Sam". Hoare was Secretary of State for Air during most of the 1920s. As Secretary of State for India in the early 1930s, he authored the Government of India Act 1935, which granted self-government at a provincial level to India. He was most famous for serving as Foreign Secretary in 1935, when he authored the Hoare–Laval Pact with French Prime Minister Pierre Laval. This partially recognised the Italian conquest of Abyssinia (modern Ethiopia) and Hoare was forced to resign by the ensuing public outcry. In 1936 he returned to the Cabinet as Fir ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lords Commissioners Of The Admiralty
The Board of Admiralty (1628–1964) was established in 1628 when Charles I put the office of Lord High Admiral into commission. As that position was not always occupied, the purpose was to enable management of the day-to-day operational requirements of the Royal Navy; at that point administrative control of the navy was still the responsibility of the Navy Board, established in 1546. This system remained in place until 1832, when the Board of Admiralty became the sole authority charged with both administrative and operational control of the navy when the Navy Board was abolished. The term Admiralty has become synonymous with the command and control of the Royal Navy, partly personified in the Board of Admiralty and in the Admiralty buildings in London from where operations were in large part directed. It existed until 1964 when the office of First Lord of the Admiralty was finally abolished and the functions of the Lords Commissioners were transferred to the new Admiralty Boar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 1874 – 24 January 1965) was a British statesman, military officer, and writer who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945 (Winston Churchill in the Second World War, during the Second World War) and again from 1951 to 1955. For some 62 of the years between 1900 and 1964, he was a Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), member of parliament (MP) and represented a total of five Constituencies of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, constituencies over that time. Ideologically an adherent to economic liberalism and imperialism, he was for most of his career a member of the Conservative Party (UK), Conservative Party, which he led from 1940 to 1955. He was a member of the Liberal Party (UK), Liberal Party from 1904 to 1924. Of mixed English and American parentage, Churchill was born in Oxfordshire into the wealthy, aristocratic Spencer family. He joined the British Army in 1895 and saw action in British R ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Walter Kirke
General Sir Walter Mervyn St George Kirke, (19 January 1877 – 2 September 1949) was the Commander in Chief of the British Home Forces at the beginning of the Second World War. Military career Born the second son of Colonel St. George Mervyn Kirke of the Royal Engineers and his wife Sarah, Walter Kirke was commissioned into the Royal Artillery as a second lieutenant on 21 September 1896. He was promoted to lieutenant on 21 September 1899, and to captain on 4 December 1901 while serving in Waziristan on the North West Frontier of India between 1901 and 1902. From July 1902 he was seconded for service with the Burma Military Police. Kirke was instrumental in creating the Army's Intelligence Corps in 1907, and he worked for Colonel George Macdonogh in the War Office's Intelligence Department. This area of work comprised special duties, such as protective security, ciphers and censorship of post (news) and telegraphs. Starting 1 October 1909, the new Secret Service Bureau (MI ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
General (United Kingdom)
General (or full general to distinguish it from the lower general officer ranks) is the highest rank achievable by serving officers of the British Army and the Royal Marines. The rank can also be held by Royal Marines officers in tri-service posts, for example, Generals Sir Gordon Messenger and Gwyn Jenkins, Sir Gwyn Jenkins, former Vice-Chief of the Defence Staff (United Kingdom), Vice-Chiefs of the Defence Staff. It ranks above Lieutenant-general (United Kingdom), lieutenant-general and, in the Army, is subordinate to the rank of Field marshal (United Kingdom), field marshal, which is now only awarded as an honorary rank. The rank of general has a NATO-code of Ranks and insignia of NATO, OF-9, and is a four-star rank. It is equivalent to a Admiral (Royal Navy), full admiral in the Royal Navy or an air chief marshal in the Royal Air Force. Officers holding the ranks of Lieutenant-general (United Kingdom), lieutenant-general and Major-general (United Kingdom), major-general m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
