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Gerard Roope
Lieutenant Commander Gerard Broadmead Roope (13 March 1905 – 8 April 1940) was a posthumous British recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy awarded to British and Commonwealth forces. A 35-year-old Royal Navy officer, his action was the earliest awarded a Victoria Cross in the Second World War (although the award was not gazetted until after hostilities ended) and is one of very few to have the award justified, in part, from a recommendation and supporting evidence provided by the enemy. Early life, education, and early naval career Roope was born at Hillbrook, Trull, near Taunton in Somerset, son of Gerard Roope, described as a "gentleman of independent means", and Florence, daughter of Thomas Palfrey Broadmead, JP, of Enmore Castle, Somerset. The Broadmead family had owned Enmore Castle since the 1830s, becoming part of the landed gentry. From the age of 13 he was educated at the Royal Naval Colleg ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Taunton
Taunton () is the county town of Somerset, England. It is a market town and has a Minster (church), minster church. Its population in 2011 was 64,621. Its thousand-year history includes a 10th-century priory, monastic foundation, owned by the Bishop of Winchester, Bishops of Winchester, which was rebuilt as Taunton Castle by the Normans in the 12th century. Parts of the inner ward house were turned into the Museum of Somerset and Somerset Military Museum. For the Second Cornish uprising of 1497, Perkin Warbeck brought an army of 6,000; most surrendered to Henry VII on 4 October 1497. On 20 June 1685, the James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth, Duke of Monmouth crowned himself King of England in Taunton in the failed Monmouth Rebellion. Judge Jeffreys led the Bloody Assizes in the Castle's Great Hall. The Grand Western Canal reached Taunton in 1839 and the Bristol and Exeter Railway in 1842. Today it hosts Musgrove Park Hospital, Somerset County Cricket Club, is the base of 40 Comma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
