Anxious Nation: Australia and the Rise of Asia 1850–1939, written by David Walker, has been described as a "landmark" analysis of the history of Australian perceptions of Asian people and their cultures. It was first published by the University of Queensland Press in 1999  and has subsequently been reprinted in an Indian edition (SSS publishing, New Delhi, 2009)  and translated into Chinese (China Renmin University Press, Beijing, 2009). Walker, who has been the professor of Australian Studies at Deakin University since 1991, is a leading authority in the field of Australian images of Asia and this work is the culmination of several years of his research and observation.

Summary
Walker's premise is that Australian culture did not develop in isolation from Asia; Australians, while often considering themselves to be living in an outpost of Britain, have always had a fascination with the nations to their near north. Walker argues that many of the perceptions that Australians  had of Asia were negative and that the Chinese, in particular, were  feared because of the size of their population and the proximity of their homeland to Australia. Australians worried that their society would be overrun by the Chinese and contaminated by their supposed vices; exotic diseases, industrial "sweating", gambling, sexual deviation and opium abuse. Japan was also feared because of its apparent imperial ambitions and the strength of its military forces. Walker illustrates these fears by analysing the neglected literary genre of invasion narratives. These novels, of which William Lane's White or Yellow? is characteristic, were popular in the 1890s and 1900s and described the enslavement of white Australians by invading Asian armies. Further images of the Chinese as a cunning but cruel race appeared in the Fu Manchu novels and films of the 1920s and 30s.

Walker argues that "Australia came to nationhood at a time when the growing power of the East was arousing increasing concern". Consequently, Anxious Nation places popular perceptions of Asia within the context of the political and cultural changes that led to the development of a distinctive Australian nationalism  and the implementation of the White Australia policy. This inevitably leads to an analysis of Australian contributions to the philosophical and scientific theories, particularly Eugenics and Social Darwinism, that underlined concepts of race during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Within this setting a peculiarly Australian concern was  whether white men could perform manual labour and prosper in the tropics. If they could not then the concept of a "White Australia" was doomed and the "Asianisation" of Australia was likely. Australian politicians and medical scientists spent significant time and resources in attempting to resolve this question.

Crucially Walker shows that Australians were fascinated by the people and cultures of Asia. He argues that, while negative perceptions of Asia were common, they were not universally held nor uncontested. The currency of the Japonisme and Chinoiserie aesthetic movements and the warm welcome given to a Japanese Naval Squadron in 1906 show that at least some Australians were willing to consider the positive aspects of Asian culture. In particular, Walker shows that Prime Minister Alfred Deakin had a comprehensive knowledge and interest in Indian religions and philosophies. Walker also argues that, despite the isolationism implied by the White Australia policy, Australia developed  trade, cultural and diplomatic ties  with the emerging Asian nations during the period studied.

Awards and prizes
Anxious Nation was awarded the 2001 Ernest Scott Prize for History for the best history of Australia or New Zealand  published in the preceding two years.

Critical response

Anxious Nation received  an extensive and positive  critical response. Al Grassby, a former Minister for Immigration who dismantled the White Australia Policy, described the book as "evocative and compelling prose …which shows how bigotry and myth making shaped the question of race which dominated the public and private discourse."  David Carter in The Journal of Australian Studies believed that Anxious Nation had an important place in Australian historiography. He argued that it "shifts Australian perceptions of Asia from the margins to the centre of any concerns with the history -- the intellectual, cultural, political or diplomatic histories -- of the nation. In something of the same way that the complex of issues around `Aboriginal Australia' has moved over the last decade to the very centre of the field of Australian studies, Anxious Nation demonstrates why, over the next decade, Australia's relations with Asia, both the Asia within and the Asia without, will also be core business....It makes the biggest single contribution to date to this shift."

By October 2011 Anxious Nation had been cited in 131 scholarly articles.

References

External links
 http://www.uqp.uq.edu.au/book.aspx/507/Anxious%20Nation-%20Australia%20And%20The%20Rise%20And%20Fall%20Of%20Asia%201850-1939

Books about Australia
History books about Australia
1999 non-fiction books

Anxious Nation


The SWIFTNet Trade Services Utility (TSU) is a banking initiative provided by the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT).

The basic concept for the TSU is a matching system for trade documents which is designed to allow banks to provide funding at various stages throughout the physical supply chain. This can be used for letter of credit business or open account transactions.

The service is available between banks and is designed to allow banks to integrate more effectively with their corporate customers and their suppliers.

The TSU provides a service that will allow the financial supply chain to mirror the physical supply chain.

References

External links
SWIFT homepage

Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication
Banking technology

Trade Services Utility


A ledger is a book or computer file that helps keep track of how much of something, usually money, that a person or group of people have. A ledger is often used in accounting to keep track of money you owe or money that is owed to you.

The three types of ledgers are the general, debtors, and creditors. The general ledger accumulates information from journals. Each month all journals are totaled and posted to the General Ledger.
Accounting

Ledger


The Antipodes Subantarctic Islands tundra ecoregion, within the tundra biome, includes five remote island groups in the Pacific Ocean south of New Zealand: the Bounty Islands, Auckland Islands, Antipodes Islands and Campbell Island groups of New Zealand, and Macquarie Island of Australia.

Location and description

The islands constituting this ecoregion share a long history of isolation, both from other landmasses and each other. The isolation, combined with harsh climates characterised by low temperatures, strong westerly winds and few hours of sunlight in winter, have resulted in the evolution of many endemic plants and animals, though species richness is relatively low. Wind speeds reach an average of  while even in summer the thick cloud cover prevents much sunlight from penetrating.

The Bounty Islands are small granite rocks (with a maximum height of ), while the small Antipodes Islands group (maximum height 366 m), the largest group the Auckland Islands () and Campbell Island () are volcanic in origin. Macquarie Island () is the furthest south and the coldest. Where present, soils are mainly boggy peats, up to  deep in flat areas. None of the islands are inhabited although there are ongoing research projects including a permanent base of the Australian Antarctic Division on Macquarie Island.

Flora

Vegetation may include low forests of Southern rātā in the more sheltered areas of the Aucklands and parts of Campbell Island, with tussock grassland, shrubland, herbfield, feldmark and cushion plants elsewhere. The islands represent a transition zone between the Antarctic to the south and temperate climates to the north. Individual species include many endemics, such as a Cyathea tree fern, which are not found any further south in the world, along with others that also occur in New Zealand and further north.  Macquarie Island, being colder (average annual temperature ), does not sustain any wooded plants, while the small Bounty Islands lack soils and their flora is largely restricted to algae and lichens on the rocks. The islands are home to a number of rare plants, including a unique genus, the Auckland Island Pleurophyllum, and the only subantarctic orchids, Corybas dienemus and Corybas sulcatus of Macquarie Island.

Fauna

There are no native land mammals, nor amphibians or reptiles.  Marine mammals include five breeding species of seal; the southern elephant seal, Australasian fur seal, subantarctic fur seal, Antarctic fur seal and the rare New Zealand sea lion, 95% of the world's population of which breed on the Auckland Islands.

There are also large numbers of breeding penguins and other seabirds, including almost half of the world's species of albatross, especially the world's only breeding colonies of the Antipodean albatross (Diomedea exulans antipodensis), southern royal albatross (Diomedea epomophora epomophora), Campbell albatross (Thalassarche impavida), white-capped albatross (Thalassarche steadi), and Salvin's albatross (Thalassarche salvini). The large colonies of Salvin's albatross on the Bounty Islands build nests of feathers as there is no vegetation to use. There are also isolated populations of land birds that have presumably settled here, having been blown off course by ocean winds. Many of these have since evolved into unique species, including two endemic parakeets on Antipodes Island; the Antipodes parakeet (Cyanoramphus unicolor) and Reischek's parakeet (Cyanoramphus hochstetteri).

Similarly, a high proportion of the Lepidoptera and other insects of the islands have evolved into unique endemic species.

A number of species have disappeared since the islands were discovered by humans, including the Macquarie Island rail and the Macquarie Island parakeet.

Threats and preservation
Although the islands have been partially occupied at various times the habitats remain largely unspoilt. However, introduced animals prey on native wildlife and graze on the plant cover while both mammals and seabirds are vulnerable to entanglement in deep-sea fishing equipment. Longline fishing for tuna and trawling for squid are particularly damaging.

Current predators on the islands include rats and cats which are being systematically removed while cautionary procedures have been implemented to prevent more alien species from establishing. All cats have now been removed from Macquarie Island and there appears to have been an immediate increase in some seabird populations. All of the islands are nature reserves, World Heritage Sites and (except for the  Bounty Islands) a Centre of Plant Diversity. Permission to land must be obtained from the Department of Conservation (New Zealand) for the New Zealand islands and the Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service for Macquarie.

References

Tundra
Australasian ecoregions
Ecoregions of New Zealand
Ecoregions of Australia
Tundra ecoregions

Antipodes Subantarctic Islands tundra


The New Iberia Cardinals were an Evangeline League baseball team that played under various names from 1934 to 1956.

From 1934 to 1942, 1946 to 1947, in 1949 and in 1953, they were known as the New Iberia Cardinals. They were based in New Iberia, Louisiana, and were affiliated with the St. Louis Cardinals from 1935 to 1941 and the Boston Red Sox in 1946. One of their home ball parks was Acadian Park. They won one league championship, in 1941 under Johnny Keane.

In 1948, from 1951 to 1952 and from 1954 to 1955, they were known as the New Iberia Pelicans. In 1948, they were affiliated with the Pittsburgh Pirates and from 1954 to 1955 they were affiliated with the Atlanta Crackers of the Southern Association. They played their home games in Acadian Park.

In 1950, they were called the New Iberia Rebels. They were managed by Sid Gautreaux, who led them to a 66–73 record. Their home ballpark was Acadian Park. In their final season, 1956, they were called the New Iberia Indians until their disbanding on May 19. The team was managed by Al Barillari and played their home games at Acadian Park. They were the last minor league baseball team to ever play in New Iberia.

References

Evangeline Baseball League teams
Baseball teams established in 1934
Defunct minor league baseball teams
Cardinals
Professional baseball teams in Louisiana
Pittsburgh Pirates minor league affiliates
St. Louis Cardinals minor league affiliates
Boston Red Sox minor league affiliates
1934 establishments in Louisiana
1955 disestablishments in Louisiana
Baseball teams disestablished in 1955
Defunct baseball teams in Louisiana

New Iberia Cardinals


Leandra Becerra Lumbreras (August 31, 1887 (claimed) – March 19, 2015) was a purported Mexican revolutionary and supercentenarian who claimed to have been born August 31, 1887, which would have made her the longest living person in history.

Biography
Becerra claimed to have been born on August 31, 1887, to parents who were singers. As The Daily Telegraph writes, this would have meant that "She was 27 when World War I erupted, 75 when John F. Kennedy was shot and over 100 when the Berlin Wall came down."

From 1910 to 1917, Becerra claimed to have fought as a leader of the Adelitas in the Mexican Revolution. The Adelitas were a group of women who joined with their husbands in battle. During the revolution, she was purportedly romantically involved with Margarito Maldonado, a revolutionary leader, who she said gave Becerra an old rifle that she still owned in 2014. Becerra recounted that Maldonado was "one of the great loves of her life."

It has been reported that Becerra outlived her five children and several of her 20 grandchildren, but, as last reported, she still had 73 great-grandchildren and 55 great-great-grandchildren.

Oldest living person
Becerra claimed to have lost her birth certificate in a move in 1974, meaning she could not conclusively prove her age. Since she did not have her birth certificate, the Guinness World Records could not verify Becerra's claim and instead recognized Misao Okawa (1898–2015) as the world's oldest living person, and Jeanne Calment (1875–1997) as the longest-lived person in history.

After her death on March 19, 2015, some media outlets reported that the Mexican government had confirmed that she was 127 at the time of her death, but no officials have so far confirmed this.

A baptism record has been found of a Leandra Becerra Lumbreras of June 4, 1904. This person was born in Joya de San Francisco, Bustamante, Tamaulipas, on March 13 of that year as the daughter of Calixto Becerra and Basilia Lumbreras and would have turned 111 six days before Becerra's death. If this was her, however, she would have been six years old when the Mexican Revolution started.

See also
List of the oldest living people
Longevity claims

References

2015 deaths
Longevity claims
Year of birth uncertain

Leandra Becerra Lumbreras


Thomas Jones (1820 – December 11, 1892) was a sailor in the U.S. Navy during the American Civil War. He received the Medal of Honor for his actions during the Second Battle of Fort Fisher on January 15, 1865.

Military service
Jones enlisted in the Navy from Maryland in 1846 and was assigned to the Union sloop-of-war . He retired in August 1885.

On January 15, 1865, the North Carolina Confederate stronghold of Fort Fisher was taken by a combined Union storming party of sailors, marines, and soldiers under the command of Admiral David Dixon Porter and General Alfred Terry.

Medal of Honor citation
Rank and organization: Coxswain, U.S. Navy. Accredited to: Maryland. G.O. No.: 59, 22 June 1865.

Jones' official Medal of Honor Citation reads:
On board the U.S.S. TICONDEROGA during attacks on Fort Fisher, North Carolina, 24 and 25 December 1864; and 13 to 15 January 1865. Despite heavy return fire by the enemy and the explosion of the 100-pounder Parrott rifle which killed eight men and wounded 12 more, Coxswain Jones, as Captain of a gun, performed his duties with skill and courage during the first two days of battle. As his ship again took position on the line on the 13th, he remained steadfast as the TICONDEROGA maintained a well-placed fire upon the batteries on shore, and thereafter, as she materially lessened the power of guns on the mound which had been turned upon our assaulting columns. During this action the flag was planted on one side of the strongest fortifications possessed by the rebels.

Death and burial
Medal of Honor recipient Thomas Jones died December 11, 1892 at Annapolis, Maryland and is buried at the United States Naval Academy Cemetery in Burial plot: Section 06, lot 1531.

Jones' death notice in the December 12, 1892 Baltimore Sun newspaper read:

(Special Dispatch to the Baltimore Sun) ANNAPOLIS, Dec. 11. - Thomas Jones, aged seventy-three years, for thirty-five years a sailor in the United States navy, died here this morning. Several years ago Jones was retired on a pension. He was a Baltimorean by birth, but has resided in Annapolis a number of years, having been stationed at the Naval Academy. During most of his long service in the Navy he held the rate of seaman.

See also

List of Medal of Honor recipients
List of American Civil War Medal of Honor recipients: G–L

References

1820 births
1892 deaths
United States Navy Medal of Honor recipients
Union Navy sailors
People of Maryland in the American Civil War
Burials at Annapolis National Cemetery
American Civil War recipients of the Medal of Honor
Burials at the United States Naval Academy Cemetery

Thomas Jones (Medal of Honor)


Ras Kwame is a British musician, record producer, radio DJ and presenter of Ghanaian heritage.

Biography
Ras Kwame was born in Hammersmith, London, and at the age of 11 moved to Ghana. He returned to London after doing his A-levels, and studied economics at City of London Polytechnic.

He started in the music industry as a club DJ playing hip hop, R&B and reggae in the early 1990s. He then moved on to promoting for Kiss100's groundbreaking Starlight Club night and the Mean Fiddler's Subterranea Club, bringing over talent from the US and promoting local talent. The Subterranea gigs saw Kwame take control of the turntables for artists such as Gang Starr, Public Enemy, Wu Tang Clan, London Posse and the Fugees.  During that time, Ras also undertook remix work for Chanté Moore, George McCrae and The 49ers.

Kwame founded West London's Sugar Shack record shop in 1993 and from 1994 to 2000 he had formed Baby Shack Recordings and his UK garage production outfit M-Dubs. As a garage producer, Kwame made several innovative underground club anthems for the flourishing UKG scene, such as "Over Here" featuring Ritchie Dan, "Bump and Grind" featuring Lady Saw and the underground smash "Body Killin" by The Vincent Alvis Project. In 2001, Kwame launched the International Rude Bwoy Recordings operation; the label maintains a UK black music output with a variety of styles ranging from hip hop to garage.

Ras Kwame joined BBC Radio 1Xtra at launch in 2002 with the 100% Homegrown show every Sunday evening. The show was dedicated to the sound of UK black music and provided a live platform for talent and gave major support to new acts like Lethal B, Skinnyman and Estelle.

In 2004, Kwame won Best Radio DJ at the Urban Music Awards and started a new music show called Showtime with Ras Kwame on Channel U.

In February 2005, Kwame was brought into BBC Radio 1 to host one of the three OneMusic shows every Sunday morning from 5am to 7am that succeeded the John Peel slot.  The other OneMusic hosts were Rob da Bank and Huw Stephens. It was later announced that Kwame was leaving Radio 1 and 1Xtra as part of schedule changes in January 2011.

In January 2013, he joined Capital Xtra and presented The Midnight Mix Tuesdays to Fridays from midnight to 3am.

However, in October 2016, as part of the station's schedule change, he now only appears on Mondays, with Reggae Recipe from midnight to 2am.

He regularly judges both Open Mic UK and Live and Unsigned.

References

External links

Ras Kwame on Capital XTRA

Living people
Year of birth missing (living people)
British radio DJs
English people of Ghanaian descent
English record producers
Black British radio presenters
Black British musicians
Place of birth missing (living people)
BBC Radio 1Xtra presenters
UK garage musicians

Ras Kwame


Chidanand Saraswati is the president and spiritual head of the Parmarth Niketan Ashram, a spiritual institution based in Rishikesh, India. He is also the founder and spiritual head of the Hindu Jain Temple in Pittsburgh.

Humanitarian and environmental work
Chidanand Saraswati is the founder or co-founder of several humanitarian and environmental organizations which serve a number of causes, including: Ganga Action Parivar, to preserve and protect the Ganga river and its tributaries; India Heritage Research Foundation (IHRF), which provides education, health care, youth welfare, and vocational training; Divine Shakti Foundation, which provides education and assistance to widowed and impoverished women and children, as well as the protection of street animals in India such as cows and dogs; the Global Interfaith WASH Alliance (GIWA) to provide access to safe drinking water, improved sanitation and proper hygiene; and Project Hope, an umbrella organization that brings together various humanitarian and environmental organizations in times of disaster to provide both emergency relief and long-term rehabilitation.

References

External links

1952 births
Living people
20th-century Hindu religious leaders
People from Rishikesh

Chidanand Saraswati


Corey McIntyre (born January 25, 1979) is a former American football fullback. He was signed by the Philadelphia Eagles as an undrafted free agent in 2002. He played college football at West Virginia. McIntyre has also played for the Cleveland Browns, New Orleans Saints, Atlanta Falcons, and the Buffalo Bills

Early years
McIntyre attended Indiantown Middle School and South Fork High School.

College career
McIntyre played in 44 games at West Virginia, primarily as a defensive end and linebacker. He rushed three times for four yards as a fullback, and returned five kickoffs for 36 yards.

Professional career

Philadelphia Eagles
McIntyre was signed by the Philadelphia Eagles as an undrafted free agent on April 26, 2002. He was waived by the Eagles on August 24, 2002. McIntyre was re-signed to the Eagles' practice squad on December 10, 2002, and allocated to the Frankfurt Galaxy to participate in the 2003 NFL Europa season on January 30, 2003. In Europe, he helped his team make it to the World Bowl and, in that game, had 12 carries for 76 yards. He was waived by the Eagles on September 1, 2003.

Cleveland Browns
McIntyre was signed by the Cleveland Browns as a free agent on June 16, 2004. He was waived by the Browns on September 5, 2004, and signed to the team's practice squad on September 6, 2004. He played in fifteen games for the Browns during the 2005 season and started one.

New Orleans Saints
The New Orleans Saints signed McIntyre in September 2006 after injuries to two of their fullbacks in the first week of play. He was waived in November.

Atlanta Falcons
McIntyre was claimed off waivers by the Atlanta Falcons on November 24, 2006. During the 2007 season he was voted as special teams captain and was third on special teams for tackles. He was released from the Falcons on September 2, 2008.

Buffalo Bills
McIntyre was signed by the Buffalo Bills on September 30, 2008, after the team released fullback Darian Barnes. McIntyre was re-signed to a two-year contract on February 26, 2009. The Bills again re-signed McIntyre to a two-year contract on September 6, 2010.

Personal life
McIntyre is from Indiantown, Florida, has 4 children, and attended school in West Virginia.

References

External links

Buffalo Bills bio
'Eers in Pros Profile

Living people
1979 births
People from Stuart, Florida
Sportspeople from Martin County, Florida
Players of American football from Florida
American football defensive ends
American football linebackers
American football fullbacks
West Virginia Mountaineers football players
Philadelphia Eagles players
Frankfurt Galaxy players
Cleveland Browns players
New Orleans Saints players
Atlanta Falcons players
Buffalo Bills players
West Virginia University alumni

Corey McIntyre


Laxdale Hall is a 1953 British romantic comedy film directed by John Eldridge and starring Ronald Squire, Kathleen Ryan, Raymond Huntley and Sebastian Shaw, with Prunella Scales and Fulton Mackay in early roles. Released in the U.S. as Scotch on the Rocks, it was adapted from the 1951 novel Laxdale Hall by Eric Linklater.

The story is one of the few to touch on the British Town Planning system – mocking the New Towns Act 1946.

Plot

The few car owners of Laxdale, a remote village near the Isle of Skye at Applecross, refuse to pay their Road Fund taxes, in protest against the poor state of the only road to the village. A series of summonses, sent out via the local police, mysteriously disappear. The government sends a delegation to investigate. It is led by Samuel Pettigrew, a pompous politician and industrialist, whose mother was born in Laxdale. He is accompanied by another MP, Hugh Marvell, and Andrew Flett from the Scottish Office.

Pettigrew presents plans to abandon the village and set up a New Town, Brumley Dumps, 100 miles away. But the villagers are unimpressed.

Flett, a former teacher, begins romancing the local schoolteacher. Marvell spends his time with the daughter of the Laird, a retired General.

The villagers see everything differently. In the middle of torrential rain, the local poacher chats casually with the undertaker saying "och, there's a bit of mist on the hill". The hearse is used to transport his poached stag. Later, in the pouring rain, they hold an open air production of Macbeth. The play is abandoned when news arrives that there are poachers from Glasgow on the estate (only local poachers are tolerated). They ambush the poachers and the police arrest them.

By the time the delegation is ready to leave, Pettigrew has accepted the viewpoint of the villagers; they must have a new road.

Production

The external scenes were shot in Applecross and "Laxdale Hall" is in fact Applecross House, an early 18th century laird's house of formal composition.

Cast
 Ronald Squire as General Matheson
 Kathleen Ryan as Catriona Matheson
 Raymond Huntley as Samuel Pettigrew, M.P.
 Sebastian Shaw as Hugh Marvell, M.P.
 Fulton Mackay as Andrew Flett of the Scottish Office
 Jean Colin as Lucy Pettigrew
 Jameson Clark as Roderick McLeod the local poacher
 Grace Gavin as Mrs. McLeod
 Keith Faulkner as Peter McLeod
 Prunella Scales as Morag McLeod
 Kynaston Reeves as Reverend Ian Macaulay
 Andrew Keir as McKellaig
 Nell Ballantyne as Nurse Connachy
 Roddy McMillan as Willie John Watt
 Rikki Fulton as First Poacher
 Eric Woodburn as Gamlie, leader of the Poachers
 Archie Duncan as Police Sergeant at Kyle of Lochalsh
 Ian MacNaughton as Police Constable
 Howard Connell as the postman

Critical reception
The Radio Times wrote, "The huge success of director Alexander Mackendrick's Whisky Galore! meant it was inevitable that film-makers would cast around for more stories of wily Scots running rings around the stiff-necked English. However, lightning didn't strike twice and this tale of the battle between Whitehall and a tiny Hebridean island, whose inhabitants won't pay a hated road tax, lacks the magic sparkle of Mackendrick's classic"; whereas TV Guide wrote, "The humor is subtle and gentle, but often very funny, in much the same way as that in Bill Forsyth's pictures (Local Hero, Comfort and Joy) three
decades later."

References

External links

1953 films
1953 romantic comedy films
British romantic comedy films
Films set in London
Films set in Scotland
British black-and-white films
Films directed by John Eldridge
1950s English-language films
1950s British films

Laxdale Hall


Camberley  is a town in northwest Surrey, England, around  south-west of central London. It is in the  Borough of Surrey Heath and is close to the county boundaries with Hampshire and Berkshire. Known originally as "Cambridge Town", it was assigned its current name by the General Post Office in 1877.

Until the start of the 19th century, the area was a sparsely populated area of infertile land, known as Bagshot or Frimley Heath. Following the construction of the Royal Military College at Sandhurst in 1812, a small settlement grew up to the south, which became known as Yorktown (also spelled York Town). A second British Army institute, the Staff College, opened to the east in 1862, and the nucleus of Cambridge Town was laid out at around the same time. The two settlements grew together over the following decades and are now contiguous. Much of the town centre dates from the late 20th and early 21st centuries, including The Atrium, a retail, entertainment and residential complex, opened in 2008.

Transport links through the area began to improve with the opening of the London-Basingstoke turnpike in 1728, now the A30 London Road. The Basingstoke Canal, which runs to the south of Camberley, was completed in 1794 and the wharf at Frimley was used to supply building materials for the Royal Military College. Blackwater station, on the Reading to Guildford line, opened to the west of Yorktown in 1849 and Camberley station, on the Ascot to Aldershot line, followed in 1878. In the second half of the 20th century, improvements to the road network in the area included the construction of the M3 motorway and the Blackwater Valley relief road.

The area has a strong links to the performing arts - Camberley Theatre was opened in 1966 and Elmhurst Ballet School was based in the town until 2004. Among the former residents are the Victorian composer, Arthur Sullivan, who attended Yorktown School as a child, the musician Rick Wakeman, who lived in Camberley during the 1980s, and the actress, Simone Ashley, who was born in the town in 1995. There are several works of public art in Camberley, including The Concrete Elephant, which was installed in 1964 on the London Road, having been commissioned for the Lord Mayor's Show of the previous year. Into Our First World, a sculpture by Ken Ford, is on display outside the borough council offices on Knoll Road.

Toponymy
Camberley was assigned its current name on 15 January 1877 by the General Post Office. Previously, the settlement had been known as "Cambridge Town" and the change was made to prevent letters and parcels being misdirected to Cambridge in the East of England. The new name is a portmanteau of "Cam" (the name of a local stream), "Amber Hill" (an area of high ground identified in a survey of 1607 by the cartographer, John Norden) and "ley" (a suffix found in local toponyms, such as Frimley and Yateley, derived from the Old English lee meaning "shelter" or lea meaning "pasture" or "meadow").

As Cambridge Town, the settlement was originally named for Prince George, Duke of Cambridge, who laid the foundation stone of the Staff College in December 1859. Similarly, Yorktown (sometimes spelled York Town), to the west of Camberley, was named for Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany, who authorised the construction of the Royal Military College in December 1802. The dukes were commanders-in-chief of the British Army at the times when the two colleges were founded. The inns, the Duke of York and The Cambridge Hotel, were among the first buildings to be constructed in Yorktown and Camberley respectively.

Several of the street names in Camberley and Yorktown are named for early local landowners, including Teckels Avenue (after John Teckel, builder of Teckels Castle), Stanhope Road (after the family of Griselda Stanhope, Teckel's wife) and Sparvell Walk (after David Sparvell, a town alderman). Watchetts Drive takes its name from a former manor field (Watchetts is derived from woad scaet, meaning land where woad grows). Osnaburgh Parade is named after Osnaburgh, an estate in Fife held by Prince Frederick.

Geography

Camberley is in the far west of Surrey, adjacent to the boundaries of Hampshire's Hart district and Berkshire's Bracknell Forest district. It lies directly between the A30 national route and M3 motorway (junction 4 exit). It is at the northern edge of the Blackwater Valley conurbation,  north of Farnborough,  south of Bracknell and  east of Basingstoke.

The town of Blackwater,  to the west is identified by the Government Statistical Service (including its ONS office) as within the Camberley Built-up-Area but is in the Hart District of Hampshire and has its own town council (both take in Hawley).

Camberley primarily lies on the Bagshot Beds, deposited in the Eocene. This sandy layer contains seams of clay and areas of pebble gravel.

History
Before the 19th century, the area now occupied by Camberley was referred to as Bagshot or Frimley Heath. An Iron Age fort, among many examples known as Caesar's Camp, was to the north of this area alongside the Roman road The Devil's Highway. The Intenarium Curiosum, published in 1724, describes a collection of Roman pottery around the area, and a further collection was discovered at Frimley Green in the late 20th century. In the Middle Ages, the area was part of Windsor Forest.

In the 17th century, the area along the turnpike road through Bagshot Heath (now the A30) was known as a haunt of highwaymen, such as William Davies – also known as the Golden Farmer – and Claude Duval. The land remained largely undeveloped and uncultivated due to a sandy topsoil making it unsuitable for farming. In A tour thro' the whole island of Great Britain, written between 1724 and 1726, Daniel Defoe described the area as barren and sterile; "a mark of the just resentment shew'd by Heaven upon the Englishmen's pride… horrid and frightful to look on, not only good for little, but good for nothing". A brick tower was built on top of The Knoll in the 1770s, by John Norris of Blackwater. It may have been used for communications but there is no firm evidence. The remains are now known as The Obelisk.

19th century
The town as it now stands has its roots in the building of The Royal Military College, which later became the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, in 1812. A settlement known as "New Town" grew in the area around the college which in 1831 was renamed Yorktown, after Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany. At this time, the population was 702. In 1848, the first parish church of St. Michael, Yorktown was built by Henry Woodyer, in an area formerly part of Frimley, itself only a chapelry of Ash. Later, the Staff College was established to the east of the academy, and a property speculator built the nearby Cambridge Hotel.

During the 19th century, Camberley grew in size. This was given added impetus with the arrival of the branch-line railway and railway station in 1878 and a reputation for healthy air, due to the vast number of pine trees, which were said to be good for those suffering from pulmonary disorders. By the end of the century the population had reached 8,400. Since then, the town has absorbed the original settlement of Yorktown, which is now regarded as part of Camberley.

20th century
The Southern Scott Scramble, the first known motorcycle scrambling event, took place on Camberley Heath on 29 March 1924. The event, won by A.B. Sparks, attracted a crowd in the thousands and is considered to be the first instance of what later developed in the sport of motocross. During the Second World War, the Old Dean common was used as an instruction camp of the Free French Forces. The Kremer prize was conceived in the Cambridge Hotel in Camberley in 1959 after Henry Kremer toured a Microcell factory.

The defunct Barossa Golf Club, on Barossa Common, was founded in 1893 and continued until the Second World War.

The Old Dean housing estate was built in the 1950s on the "Old Dean Common" for residents of heavily bombed Surrey-area's homeless after the Second World War. Many of the roads on that half of the Old Dean are named after areas of London, with the others named after places on the common.

In 1969 there was an outbreak of rabies when a dog, just released from a sixth month quarantine after returning from Germany, attacked two people on Camberley Common. The scare resulted in restriction orders for dogs and large-scale shoots to carry out the destruction of foxes and other wildlife.

21st century
After debate and delay (plans having been discussed for over half a decade), in 2006, a  mixed-use development west of Park Street named The Atrium was built of residential, leisure and retail buildings with wide pedestrianised areas and 683 public parking spaces. Its 217 mid-rise apartments split into courtyards in the Barcelona style. Fourteen new retail units face directly onto Park Street, opposite the Main Square shopping centre. Park Street has been pedestrianised and landscaped as part of the development. Leisure facilities include a nine-screen cinema, a bowling alley, a health and fitness club, cafés and restaurants. Various elements of The Atrium was opened during 2008, with the final elements, the main cinema and bowling alley, opening in October and November 2008, respectively.

In 2009, the town's households were named by Experian as having the highest carbon footprint in the UK, estimated at 28.05 tonnes per household per year (compared to 18.36 tonnes for the lowest, South Shields).

Local and national government
Camberley is in the parliamentary constituency of Surrey Heath and has been represented at Westminster since May 2005 by Conservative Michael Gove.

Surrey County Council, headquartered in Reigate, is elected every four years. Camberley is represented by three councillors - one for each of the "Camberley East", "Camberley West" and "Heatherside and Parkside" divisions.

Elections to Surrey Heath take place every four years. Three councillors represent "Heatherside" ward and two councillors are elected to each of the "Old Dean", "Parkside", "St Michael's", "St Paul's", "Town" and "Watchetts" wards. The Brough of Surrey Heath is twinned with Sucy-en-Brie, France and with Bietigheim-Bissingen, Germany.

Demography and housing

The average level of accommodation in the region composed of detached houses was 28%, the average that was apartments was 22.6%. The remaining households not accounted for above were temporary/caravans and shared households.

The proportion of households in the civil parish who owned their home outright compares to the regional average of 35.1%. The proportion who owned their home with a loan compares to the regional average of 32.5%. The remaining percentage is made up of rented dwellings (plus a negligible percentage of households living rent-free).

Economy
Camberley's town centre is host to The Square shopping centre (previously called The Mall), controversially purchased by Surrey Heath Borough Council for £110 million in 2016. This is a late 1980s development anchored by rent free stores such as Sports Direct subsidiary House of Fraser. The High Street has a number of shops as well as bars and clubs, many of the latter being more recent additions. There are a number of secondary shopping streets including Park Street, Princess Way and parts of London Road, including the  "Atrium" development. Camberley's town centre is suffering a decline in footfall and increases in vacancies as shoppers in affluent areas move their spending online and towards leisure and experience activities as opposed to traditional retail.

Major employers include Siemens, which moved its UK headquarters to the area in 2007. Burlington Group who moved into Watchmoor Park in 2009 and Sun Microsystems, until they were taken over by Oracle in 2010, whose UK headquarters was located just across the Hampshire border in Minley next to the M3 motorway at junction 4a. Krispy Kreme UK are based in Albany Park, an industrial estate just outside Camberley in nearby Frimley.

Public services

Utilities
The York Town and Blackwater Gas Company was formed in 1859 and opened its gasworks at Yorktown in November 1862. Street lighting in Camberley was initially provided by oil lamps, but gas lamps were installed from 1900. In around 1903, the works began to supply the Royal Military College at Sandhurst. In 1904, a short branch line was laid from the South Eastern Railway south of Blackwater station, enabling the coal required to be supplied by train. The works came under the control of the Southern Gas Board in 1949 and closed in 1969.

The electricity supply to the area was authorised by Act of Parliament in 1909. Unlike most towns in Surrey, Camberley did not have its own power station and instead, electricity was purchased on the wholesale market and was distributed locally. The gas and electricity companies merged in 1927.

The Frimley and Farnborough District Water Company was formed in 1893 and began to supply Camberley four years later. Water was extracted from the chalk aquifer and was piped to a filtration plant at Frimley Green, before being pumped to a service reservoir on Frith Hill. In 1893, the Basingstoke Canal company agreed that the water company could abstract up to  per day from the canal, at a cost of 1 penny per . In 2023, the drinking water supply for Camberley is provided by South East Water.

Initially, wastewater from Camberley was disposed of in cesspits or discharged to local streams. In the mid-1880s a drainage system was installed, leading to a sewage farm at Yorktown. Following a report in 1902, which condemned the state of the town sewers, new pipework was installed and a new wastewater treatment works opened in Yorktown in 1907. In 2023, Camberley Sewage Treatment Works is operated by Thames Water.

The postal service to Yorktown began in 1844 and the first postmaster was appointed in 1890. The telephone service to Camberley commenced in April 1897.

Emergency services and healthcare
The first police station was opened in 1892 on the corner of Portesbury Road and the High Street. In 1910, the local force had a total of eight officers. In 1971, the station moved to the east, but remained on Portesbury Road. The 1971 station closed in 2011.  The building was demolished in 2016 for the construction of new houses and flats. In 2023, the nearest police station to Camberley is at Aldershot, operated by Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary. The nearest counter service run by Surrey Police is at the Woking Borough Council offices.

Camberley Fire Brigade was founded in May 1889 and was initially equipped with a hand-operated Merryweather pump. In 1900, the brigade moved to The Avenue and relocated to the current station in London Road in 1967. In 2023, the local fire authority is Surrey County Council and the statutory fire service is Surrey Fire and Rescue Service.

An ambulance service is recorded in Camberley in 1898. Initially it operated with a horse-drawn vehicle, but the service was equipped with a motorised ambulance during the 1920s. Patients were charged a fee for using the service, which was affiliated to the St John Ambulance and the British Red Cross. In 2023, the nearest ambulance station to Camberley is at Farnborough.

In 2023, the nearest hospital is Frimley Park Hospital around  from Camberley. There are three GP surgeries in the town, on Upper Gordon, Park and Frimley Roads.

Transport

Camberley railway station is immediately south of the town centre and is managed by South Western Railway, which operates all services. Trains run to  via  (extended to and from London Waterloo during peak periods) and to  via  (a few trains continue to ). A 2017 infrastructure assessment commissioned by the borough council notes that rail journey times to London from Camberley are slow ( minutes) and that many local residents choose to drive to ,  and  for faster, direct services.  Blackwater railway station is immediately to the west of Yorktown and is managed by Great Western Railway, which operates all services. Trains run to  via  and to  via Guildford.

Camberley is linked by bus to local destinations in west Surrey, northeast Hampshire and southeast Berkshire. Companies operating routes through the town include: Thames Valley Buses to Bracknell; Arriva Guildford & West Surrey to Guildford via Woking; Stagecoach South to Aldershot and Farnborough; and White Bus to Ascot and Staines.

The M3 runs to the south of Camberley and is accessed via junction 4 at the southwestern corner of the town. The stretch of the motorway through the Borough of Surrey Heath was upgraded to a smart motorway in 2017. The other major roads in the town are the A30, which runs roughly parallel to the motorway between Hounslow and Basingstoke, and the A331 Blackwater Valley relief road. Yorktown and east Camberley are linked to Frimley by the B3411 and A325 respectively. Old Dean is linked to Deepcut via the B3015.

A £1.2M shared cycle and footpath between Blackwater station and Watchmoor was completed in 2017 and a new bike-parking facility opened in Princess Way in the town centre in 2021. In the same year, Surrey County Council consulted on a scheme to improve local cycling infrastructure, focused on a route between Camberley and Frimley.

Education

Early schools
The first school to open in the Camberley area, a National school, was established in 1818. Originally housed in a cottage close to the Royal Military College, one of its early pupils was the composer, Arthur Sullivan. In 1871, it moved to a site adjacent to the St Michael's Church vicarage. By 1872, there was a second school in Yorktown, which may have been a school for nonconformists, although its origins are uncertain.

The first Cordwalles School was founded in Elliot Place, Greenwich, in 1805 and one of its early pupils was the future prime minister, Benjamin Disraeli. In 1875, it moved to Cordwalls Farm, Maidenhead, from which it acquired its name. The school merged with Kingswood School, Camberley, which had been established on part of the former Collinwood Estate in 1910. In 1939, the school was evacuated to Market Drayton, but did not return to Camberley at the end of the war. The site was used by Ballard School in the 1950s.

Barossa Secondary School began teaching its first pupils in September 1963, although the official opening ceremony did not take place for another two years. The secondary modern school, on the Old Dean estate, was constructed on a site adjacent to the former Ballard School.

Frimley and Camberley Grammar School opened in 1931 on Frimley Road. The school moved to the former Ballard School, adjacent to the then new Barossa Secondary School in 1967. The original site was then used as an annex for France until 1971. The buildings have since been used for Watchetts School, now South Camberley Primary and Nursery School.

Current schools
Kings International College was opened as France Hill Secondary School in 1947. For the first eleven years, it was based at Franz Hill House, which had been built . The school moved to its current location on Watchetts Avenue in 1959 and adopted its present name in 2001.

Collingwood College was formed in 1971 from the merger of Camberley Grammar School, Barossa Secondary School and Bagshot Secondary School. It became a self-governing Technology College in September 1994 and gained Foundation status in September 1999.

The current Cordwalles School was founded in 1962 and was officially opened on 5 March 1963. Initially a primary and infants school, it became a middle school in 1971, before reverting to a junior school again in 1994.

Relocated schools
The Royal Albert Orphan Asylum was founded in Camberley in 1864 and the first 100 children were admitted in December of that year. Originally a mixed institution, girls were not admitted after 1903. It was renamed the Royal Albert School in 1942 and its management was merged with that of the Royal Alexandra School in 1948. The following year, an Act of Parliament was passed to formally amalgamate the two institutions, creating The Royal Alexandra and Albert School. Pupils from both schools were transferred in stages from their original sites to new accommodation at Gatton Park between 1848 and 1954.  The former school buildings in Camberley were damaged by fire in 1987 and were demolished in 1994. The grounds were split in two by the construction of the M3.

Elmhurst Ballet School was founded as the Mortimer School of Dancing in 1923. It adopted its current name in 1947, taken from Elmhurst House in Camberley, where it was based. During the Second World War, Sadlers Wells and Rambert Schools were evacuated to Elmhurst and the pupils of all three schools performed to entertain soldiers billeted locally and to raise money for the war effort. After the end of the war, pupil numbers began to expand (from 60 in 1933 to 240 in 1947) and a purpose-built theatre was constructed, opening in May 1960. Much of the rest of the school was rebuilt during the 1970s and the new buildings were opened by Princess Margaret in 1979. The school relocated to Birmingham in 2004, with the aim of providing professional dance training outside of the southeast of England. The former school site  in Camberley was redeveloped as Elmhurst Court.

Places of worship

Anglican churches

St Michael's Church was designed by the architect, Henry Woodyer, and is constructed in local Frimley stone. The foundation stone was laid in September 1848 and the church was consecrated in May 1851. The church was built as a nave only, but Woodyer's design incorporated masonry arches in the walls, which could be knocked through when the building was expanded. The chancel was added in 1858 by George Gilbert Scott and aisles were built to a design by Charles Buckeridge in 1864-65. The tower, in Bargate stone, was added in 1891, and is topped by a broach spire, which reaches a height of  above ground level.

St Paul's Church was designed by W. D. Caröe in 1902 and elements of the building are influenced by Swedish architectural trends of the period. The chancel is topped by a wood-shingled spire. One of the stained-glass windows is dedicated to Doveton Sturdee, a local resident who died in 1925. St Mary's Church, designed by E. E. Lofting, was consecrated in 1937 and was built as a daughter church to St Paul's. The building has a small tower and is constructed of brick and concrete with a stucco finish.

St Martin's Church, dedicated to Martin of Tours, was consecrated in 1978. The construction was paid for in part with money raised from the sale of the site of the former St George's Church, which had closed in 1966. Proceeds from the sale of copies of the John Betjeman poem, A Subaltern's love song,  which mentions Camberley, were also used to fund the building work. The congregation of Heatherside Parish Church began meeting in January 1977. Heatherside became an ecclesiastical parish in September 2000.

Other places of worship
St Tarcisius Church was built in 1923-26 as a memorial to Catholic military officers, who had died in the First World War. It was designed by Frederick Walters and is constructed of Bargate stone with Bath stone dressings. Several of the stained-glass windows were designed by Paul Woodroffe.

High Cross Church opened in Knoll Road in March 1990. It replaced the Congregational Church, which was demolished in 1990 to make way for the College Gardens shopping complex, and the Methodist Church, demolished in October of the same year.

The local Bengali Welfare Association established an Islamic centre in the former St Gregory's Roman Catholic School building in 1996. In 2010, a planning application to demolish the school and replace it with a purpose-built mosque was rejected by the borough council. The plans were rejected again the following year, following a public inquiry.

Culture

Camberley Theatre, in Knoll Road, opened as the Camberley Civic Hall on 1 October 1966. It closed in May 1995 for a £1.3M refurbishment and reopened as Camberley ArtsLink in November of the same year. In December 2001, the venue was again rebranded, adopting its current name. A second refurbishment, involving the rebuilding of the frontage, was completed in December 2021.

There are several works of public art in Camberley. The Concrete Elephant, adjacent to the London Road in Yorktown, was installed at the yard of Trollope & Colls in 1964. It had been commissioned for the Lord Mayor's Show the previous year and the artist, Barbara Jones, designed the sculpture using pipework from the company's product range. The current tenants of the site, HSS Hire, are required to maintain the artwork as part of their lease.

Into Our First World, by Ken Ford, was unveiled outside the borough council offices in March 1993. The sculpture, cast in silicon bronze, depicts a figure reclining beneath a tree. It explores the relationship between humanity and the natural world, and its form echoes the sweet chestnut tree growing behind it. The Right Way, by Rick Kirby was unveiled outside the Atrium in January 2009. It depicts three metal figures pointing in different directions along Park Street and Obelisk Way.

Sport

Venues
The London Road Recreation Ground opened in 1898 and was extended in 1931. During the early 19th century, the area had been used as a plant nursery until its purchase by the UDC in the 1890s. Watchetts Recreation Ground was part of the Watchetts House estate until 1927, when it was bought by the UDC. The ground was officially opened on 16 May 1931.

Until the 1990s, Crabtree Park was a rubbish dump. The landfill site was closed, the waste was capped and the area reopened as a recreation ground. The skate park was reopened in 2014, following a £25,000 refurbishment project.

Until the mid-1930s, Camberley residents used the Blackwater River to swim. The first purpose-built pool, the Blue Pool, was built on the London Road by a private company and opened in May 1934. The borough council took over the facility in 1973, but it closed three years later when essential repair works were found to be financially unviable. The Manor House flats were built on the site of the Blue Pool in the early 1980s.

The Arena Leisure Centre was built on the northeastern corner of the London Road Recreation Ground and opened in November 1984. The facility closed in August 2019 and was demolished. The new Arena Leisure Centre, on the same site as the previous centre, opened in July 2021. It has two swimming pools, a gym and three exercise studios. The centre is owned by the borough council and is operated by Places Leisure on a 25-year design, build, operate and maintain contract.

Organisations

Camberley Town Football Club joined the Surrey Football Association in January 1896 and is thought to have been founded the previous year. It began as part of the St Michael's Club, the social club associated with St Michael's Church. The team was initially referred to as St Michael's, Camberley and played its home games on meadow land in King's Ride. The first recorded match took place in October 1896, against a team from the Royal Military College. By late 1900, the club was under financial pressure and was refounded as Camberley and Yorktown F. C. in January 1897. After two decades of moving between temporary home grounds, the club was established at Krooner Park in 1922.

The first cycling club to be founded in the area is recorded in a local directory of 1889. By 1904, the Camberley Wheelers had been formed and was organising meetings at the London Road Recreation Ground. In 1969, the club merged with Farnborough Cycling Club to form the Farnborough & Camberley Cycling Club.

Camberley Rugby Football Club (R.F.C.) was founded in 1931 and played its first game at Watchetts Recreation Ground in October of that year. The club affiliated to the Surrey Rugby Union in 1933 and, like most other local teams, disbanded in September 1939. During the Second World War, the recreation ground was used to grow potatoes and it was not until the autumn of 1947 that club was able to resume. Initially Camberley R.F.C. had use of the cricket pavilion as tenants of the cricket club, but constructed their own clubhouse in 1970. In March 1973, the first team won the Surrey Cup.

Camberley Heath Golf Club was designed by Harry Colt and was formally opened by Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein on 1 January 1914. A project to regenerate the course, reinstating some of the original bunker designs, was undertaken in the mid-2010s. In 2020, the course was used as a location for third series of the BBC television drama, Killing Eve.

By the mid-1860s, there were two cricket teams in the area, one for Yorktown and one for Cambridge Town, and a match is recorded between the two in June 1865. They had merged by 1882, when the name "Camberley Cricket Club" was adopted. The club shut down at the start of the First World War, but was refounded in 1929 and began playing its home games at the Watchetts Recreation Ground the following year. Local cricket again ceased at the start of the Second World War, but a new club was founded in 1944 and the first match was played the following year. A new ground was leased from the Watchetts estate and the first home games were played there in 1951. The ground was officially opened in 1952 and was bought by the club the following year. Over the next three decades, the club sold off part of the land surrounding the ground to fund improvements to the pitch and pavilion. The first girls' team was launched in 2013.

The first hockey club in Camberley was formed in 1898 and, by 1907, there were two clubs in the town. The present Camberley and Farnborough Hockey Club was founded in the 1950s and plays its home games at Kings International College. There are two tennis clubs in the area: Camberley Lawn Tennis Club is based at Southcote Park, which has five all-weather courts; Frimley Tennis Club is based at Watchetts Recreation Ground and has four outdoor courts.

Notable buildings and landmarks

The Camberley Obelisk is a square brick tower in the grounds of St Tarcissius School. Local legend states that it was built by John Norris , although Historic England gives a construction date of . Originally the tower is thought to have been  tall, but only the lower third remains standing. It may have been built as a folly or as a signalling tower.

The Staff College, to the north of Camberley town centre, is part of the Joint Services Command and Staff College, which provides training and education for established officers in the British Armed Forces and civil servants in the Ministry of Defence. The institution has its origins in the Royal Military College, High Wycombe, which was founded in 1799. It moved to Farnham in 1813, relocating seven years later to the Royal Military College at Sandhurst. The Staff College building was designed by James Pennethorne and constructed in 1862. It was primarily built using London stock bricks, although the front elevation is partially faced with stone. The uppermost storey was added in 1913.

Camberley War Memorial was erected in 1922 at the southern entrance to the Royal Military Academy. It takes the form of a Latin cross, carved from granite. The names of 233 people who died in the First World War are recorded on two columns at the base of the cross and 140 who died in the Second World War are listed on four piers at the corners of the plinth. A stone, set into the pavement at the foot of the memorial, commemorates Garth Walford , who was born in Yorktown in 1882 and who died at Gallipoli in 1915.

Notable people

 John Pennycuick (18411911) engineer  died in Camberley
 Arthur Sullivan (18421900) composer  lived in Camberley between the ages of three and fifteen, and attended York Town School until the age of eight. He wrote The Golden Legend at Camberley in 1886
 Hosea Ballou Morse (18551934) historian of China  lived in Camberley from 1914 until his death
 Doveton Sturdee (18591925) lived in Camberley
 Vaughan Cornish (18621948) geographer  lived and died in Camberley
 Charles Wellington Furse (18681904) artist  lived in Camberley from 1900 until his death
 Frederick Twort (18771950) microbiologist  born, lived and died in Camberley
 Rick Wakeman (b. 1949) musician  lived in Camberley in the 1980s and was vice-president of Camberley Town F. C.
 George Saville (b. 1993) footballer  born in Camberley
 Simone Ashley (b. 1995) actress  born in Camberley

Notes

References

Bibliography

External links
 Surrey Heath Museum

Surrey Heath
Towns in Surrey

Camberley


Roland Glen Fingers (born August 25, 1946) is an American former right-handed relief pitcher in Major League Baseball who played for three teams between 1968 and 1985, when his effectiveness helped to redefine the value of relievers within baseball and to usher in the modern closer role. A seven-time All-Star, he led the major leagues in saves three times, and was named Rolaids Relief Man of the Year four times. He first gained prominence as a member of the Oakland Athletics championship teams of the early 1970s, when his flamboyant handlebar mustache made him perhaps the most identifiable member of The Mustache Gang which led Oakland to become the only non-New York Yankees team ever to win three consecutive World Series titles. Fingers was named the Most Valuable Player of the 1974 World Series after earning a win in the opener and saves in the last three games to secure the title.

Fingers joined the San Diego Padres as a free agent after the 1976 season, and led the major leagues with 35 saves in 1977 before tying the National League (NL) single-season record with 37 saves the following year. Traded to the Milwaukee Brewers after the 1980 season, he led that team to its first playoff appearance in 1981, receiving the American League (AL) Most Valuable Player Award and Cy Young Award after earning 28 saves in the strike-shortened season with an earned run average (ERA) of only 1.04, allowing just 9 runs in 78 innings pitched. He also helped them reach the World Series in 1982, the team's only appearance to date.

Having surpassed Hoyt Wilhelm's major league record for career saves in 1980, Fingers was the first pitcher to reach 300 saves, and retired after the 1985 season with 341 saves, which remained the record until surpassed by Jeff Reardon in 1992. He set franchise records for career saves for all three of his teams, holding the Athletics mark from 1973 to 1990, the Padres record from 1977 to 1997, and the Brewers record from 1984 to 1989. He is also particularly remembered for his "long saves" of two or more innings, for which he still holds the record of 135. At the end of his career he also ranked third in major league history in career games pitched (944), relief wins (107) and relief innings pitched (), and second in strikeouts in relief (1,183); he held the Padres franchise record for career games pitched from 1980 to 1989. His career ERA of 2.90 ranked eighth among pitchers with at least 1,500 innings pitched after 1930. Fingers was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1992, making him just the second reliever elected after Wilhelm. Both the Athletics and Brewers retired his uniform number following his induction.

Early life
Fingers was born in Steubenville, Ohio, to George Michael Fingers and Edna Pearl (née Stafford) Fingers. His father (who had played minor league baseball for the St. Louis Cardinals and roomed with Stan Musial), worked in a Steubenville steel mill.  One day, George Fingers came home from work fed up and said, "That's it, we're moving to California." His father then sold the house for $1,500, bought a car, and took the family to Alta Loma (San Bernardino County), a town which was later incorporated (together with 3 others) as the city of Rancho Cucamonga. They could not afford hotels, so they slept in sleeping bags beside the highway. After arriving in California, George Fingers eventually had to go back to being a steelworker at the nearby Kaiser Steel mill.

Fingers attended Upland High School in nearby Upland.

College career
Fingers attended one semester at Chaffey Junior College.-also in Upland (subsequently a new campus was built in Alta Loma).

Professional career

Minor leagues
The Los Angeles Dodgers offered Fingers a signing bonus of $20,000, but Fingers thought he had no chance to reach the major leagues for years because the Dodgers had a solid pitching staff including Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale, they were already winning pennants, and their farm system appeared to be full of talented players. He turned down the Dodgers' offer and signed with the Kansas City Athletics for less money (a $13,000 signing bonus) on Christmas Eve 1964. At first, the Athletics did not know whether to make him a pitcher or outfielder, but after deciding to play him as a pitcher, he was assigned to the Leesburg A's of the Class A Florida State League for the 1965 season. In 1966, he played for the Modesto Reds of the Class A California League, and he played for two seasons (1968 and 1969) for the Birmingham A's of the Class AA Southern League.

On minor league opening day 1967 in Birmingham—just nine days after he married his high school sweetheart Jill, the Upland High School team statistician—a hit baseball struck Fingers in the face, breaking his cheekbone, jaw, and knocking out some teeth.  His jaw was wired shut for five weeks, and when he returned to action, Fingers jumped every time the ball was hit; it took him about half the remaining season to get used to being on the mound again.

Fingers was a starting pitcher throughout his minor league career.

Oakland Athletics (1968–1976)
He joined the Athletics late in the 1968 season, their first after relocating to Oakland, and made his major league debut in relief on September 15 in a road game against the Detroit Tigers. It was a disastrous beginning, as he allowed four hits including a Bill Freehan home run, walked one batter and hit another, and threw a wild pitch, allowing four runs while getting just four outs en route to a 13–0 loss; it was his only appearance of the year. The 1969 season was a dramatic improvement; he picked up his first career win with a complete game shutout on April 22, a 7-0 road win against the Minnesota Twins, and earned his first save on May 13 against the Boston Red Sox. Fingers started 19 games in 1970; however, a May 15, 1971 road start against the Kansas City Royals was his last in regular rotation. During that game, he gave up one run on four hits in five full innings. On April 29, he recorded a career-high 10 strikeouts in a 3–2 loss to the Baltimore Orioles, a pitching duel with Jim Palmer; it was the last complete game he would pitch. Fingers was called upon as a reliever in a game on May 21, entering in the first inning against the Twins in Oakland after starter Blue Moon Odom gave up three runs and three walks in just eight batters. Fingers pitched  innings, allowing three hits and two runs. Late that month, Athletics manager Dick Williams decided that Fingers would be the late-inning closer. Beginning with that game and continuing until July 15, Fingers recorded  consecutive scoreless innings, with 11 scoreless appearances in between including a win and six saves, as well as a 7-inning relief stint on July 9 against the California Angels.

During the 1972 season, Fingers entered games in the fifth inning on four occasions, but mostly entered in the sixth inning or later. He did start two games in 1973—April 21 at home versus the Angels and May 7 on the road against the Orioles, the latter being the final start of his career. Other than those two games, for the remainder of his career, his earliest entrance into a game was in the sixth inning, which happened on three more occasions. He usually entered in the seventh, eighth, or ninth innings. During the 1973 season, Fingers broke John Wyatt's record of 73 career saves with the Athletics.

Fingers was part of the Oakland Athletics team that accomplished the first modern-day "three-peat," winning the World Series in 1972, 1973, and 1974. For the third of those championships, he won the World Series Most Valuable Player Award, earning three saves and one win during the Series.

Just prior to the start of the 1974 World Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers, Fingers and Odom got into a fight in the A's locker room after Odom made a comment about Fingers's wife. Though the incident lasted less than a minute, Fingers required six stitches on his head, and Odom sprained his ankle and had a noticeable limp.

With the end of baseball's reserve clause, all players not under a multi-year contract were set to become free agents after the 1976 season. Believing he would not be able to afford to re-sign his key players, Athletics' owner Charlie Finley attempted to sell Fingers and Joe Rudi to the Boston Red Sox for $1 million each and Vida Blue to the New York Yankees for $1.5 million in June. Bowie Kuhn, the Commissioner of Baseball, nullified the sale, saying that the transactions were "not in the best interests of baseball". Finley sued Kuhn, and he benched Fingers, Rudi and Blue, saying that they belonged to other teams. Members of the Athletics threatened to strike against Finley if they did not play, and Finley relented.

San Diego Padres (1977–1980)
After the season, Fingers signed with the San Diego Padres as a free agent.

Fingers won the Rolaids Relief Man of the Year Award in 1977, 1978, and 1980 with the Padres. In his first season with the club, he easily passed the young franchise's record of 16 career saves, shared by Vicente Romo and Butch Metzger, and in 1978 he tied Clay Carroll's NL single-season record of 37 saves; the mark was again tied the following year by Bruce Sutter, who eventually shattered the record with 45 saves in 1984. Near the end of his time with the Padres, Fingers passed teammate Randy Jones to become the club's career leader with 265 games pitched.

Milwaukee Brewers (1981–1982, 1984–1985)
After the 1980 season, on December 8, the Padres traded Fingers, Gene Tenace, Bob Shirley, and a player to be named later (later selected to be Bob Geren) to the St. Louis Cardinals for Terry Kennedy, John Littlefield, Al Olmsted, Mike Phillips, Kim Seaman, Steve Swisher, and John Urrea. A few days later, the Cardinals traded Fingers, Ted Simmons, and Pete Vuckovich to the Milwaukee Brewers for Sixto Lezcano, Lary Sorensen, David Green, and Dave LaPoint. In 1981, Fingers won the Rolaids Relief Man of the Year Award, the American League Most Valuable Player Award, and the AL Cy Young Award, as the Brewers reached the playoffs for the first time in their 13-year history. He saved 29 games for the 1982 Brewers, but pitched most of the season in pain and was forced to miss the Brewers' first (and to date, only) trip to the World Series, where they were beaten in seven games by the Cardinals. Fingers missed the 1983 season with injury, and had a laminectomy to remove a herniated disk from his back in August 1984. During the 1984 season he passed Ken Sanders' career record of 61 saves for the Brewers.

On September 4, 1985, Fingers broke Sparky Lyle's American League record of 232 career saves, retiring the side in the 9th inning of an 11-10 road win against the Twins. His last major league appearance was on September 17 against the Orioles at Memorial Stadium; he pitched in relief of Teddy Higuera in the bottom of the eighth inning, facing two batters. He allowed a home run to Gary Roenicke, but struck out Rick Dempsey to end the inning as the Orioles won 6–0.

At the end of his career, after being released by the Brewers the previous season, he was offered a contract by Pete Rose to play for the Cincinnati Reds for 1986, but owner Marge Schott had a "clean cut" policy for her players, mandating that all players must be clean shaven. Fingers's reply to Reds general manager Bill Bergesch was: "Well, you tell Marge Schott to shave her Saint Bernard, and I'll shave my moustache".

Largely because of changes in relief pitching and the increased use of closers which he had helped popularize, Fingers's various team and league records were surpassed in the years following his retirement. Dan Quisenberry broke his AL record of 233 career saves in 1987, and Jeff Reardon broke his major league mark of 341 in 1992. His team records for career saves also fell, with his 97 saves with the Brewers passed by Dan Plesac in 1989, his 136 saves with the Athletics broken by Dennis Eckersley in 1990, and his 108 saves with the Padres broken by Trevor Hoffman in 1997. Eric Show broke his Padres record of 265 games pitched in 1989.

Helping redefine modern relief pitching

When Fingers reached the major leagues, the role of relief pitchers was limited, as starting pitchers rarely left games while holding a lead; but as team offense increased following the 1968 season, and especially with the American League's introduction of the designated hitter in 1973, managers became more willing to replace starters in the late innings with a lead in order to forestall any late rallies by opponents. Through the 1960s, both leagues' annual saves leaders tended toward totals of 20–25 saves; few pitchers remained in the role more than two or three years, with significant exceptions such as Roy Face and knuckleballer Hoyt Wilhelm. But in the 1970s—in an era allowing for greater opportunities for closers than had previously been available—Fingers's excellence in relief allowed him to gradually increase his annual saves totals past 30. In 1980 he broke Wilhelm's record of 227 saves, and he eventually finished with 341—a record that stood until Jeff Reardon passed it in 1992.

Fingers is regarded as a pioneer of modern relief pitching, defining the role of the closer for years to come. As had generally been true in baseball through the 1960s, Fingers was moved to the bullpen—and eventually to his role as a closer—because of struggles with starting. Before Fingers's time, a former starter's renewed success in the bullpen led back to a spot in the starting rotation. However, with the successes of Fingers and contemporaries such as Sparky Lyle and Goose Gossage, it has been widely accepted that an excellent pitcher might actually provide a greater benefit to his team as a closer than as a third or fourth starter. (Gossage, for example, was moved to the starting rotation after first serving as a reliever for a few seasons. As a starter, he pitched 17 complete games, but was clobbered and eventually was moved back to the bullpen permanently.) As a result, later teams have been more willing to move successful starters—notably Dennis Eckersley, Dave Righetti, and John Smoltz—to the permanent role of closer, with no plans to bring them back to the rotation. (Smoltz bucked that trend by successfully returning to the rotation in 2005.) In 2006, Bruce Sutter became the first pitcher in baseball history elected to the Hall of Fame who never started a game in his major league career.

Moustache
Baseball-Reference.com ranks Fingers's moustache as the best in history. In addition to his pitching ability, Fingers was noted for his waxed handlebar moustache, which he originally grew to get a $300 bonus from Athletics owner Charles O. Finley. On the first day of spring training for the 1972 season, Reggie Jackson showed up with a beard. In protest—and believing the Athletics' management would want Jackson to shave—Fingers and a few other players started going without shaving to force Jackson to shave off his beard. Instead, Finley, ever the showman who would do almost anything to sell tickets, then offered prize money to the player who could best grow and maintain their facial hair until Opening Day—April 15 versus Minnesota. Fingers went all out for the monetary incentive offered by Finley and patterned his moustache after the images of the players of the late 19th century. Taking it even further, Finley came up with "Moustache Day" at the ballpark, where any fan with a moustache could get in free.

Catfish Hunter and Ken Holtzman also went for the bonus, but Fingers with his Snidely Whiplash took the prize. Fingers later said, "Most of us would have grown one anywhere on our bodies for $300." The players became known as the "Moustache Gang." Prior to the disbandment of the original core, many Hall of Famers acknowledged the strength of not only their arms but also their mustaches. Willie Mays, prior to his retirement, acknowledged seeing Fingers's mustache as a proper send-off for his career. Bill Buckner said, "the only thing stronger than my swing was the beauty of his mustache." Lastly, Johnny Bench noted that as a catcher, seeing Fingers's mustache prepared him en route to winning two World Series with the Cincinnati Reds. Although most former Athletics players shaved off their moustaches after the team traded most of their players in 1975–76, Fingers maintained his after signing with the Padres as a free agent in 1977, and he still has the mustache today.

Honors and later life

In 1992, Fingers was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame, joining Wilhelm to become only the second reliever inducted. Bruce Sutter, Goose Gossage, Trevor Hoffman, Mariano Rivera, and Lee Smith have since followed, as has Dennis Eckersley (who was a starter for the first half of his career and a reliever for the second half).

In 1999, Fingers ranked 96th on The Sporting News list of Baseball's Greatest Players, and was nominated as a finalist for the Major League Baseball All-Century Team. Fingers later pitched a season in the short-lived Senior Professional Baseball Association.

Fingers is one of only ten players who have had their numbers retired from more than one team.

In 2000, Fingers was inducted into the San Diego Hall of Champions, honoring that city's finest athletes both on and off the playing surface.

In December 2020, Fingers's World Series championship ring was sold at auction for $75,330.

Income tax controversy
Sports Illustrated reported on January 2, 2007, that Fingers owed the state of Wisconsin more than $1.4 million in income taxes dating back to his time with the Brewers (including $1.1 million in interest) and was at the time the seventh biggest tax delinquent in the state. Fingers disputed the claim, saying he was shocked when he learned of it in 2005 and that taxes had been properly withheld from his Brewers paychecks.

On August 15, the Associated Press reported that Fingers's name had been removed from Wisconsin's delinquent tax list the previous month. "That's all been taken care of," he told the AP. "I've had more people try to tell me, 'You know, you owe $1.4 million.' I said, 'No, I don't.' We got all that squared away. I had to go all the way back to 1981 on my income taxes. That's all been taken care of, and I did pay my taxes back then, so there's no problem. The revenue department's happy with me right now, so it's all been resolved."

In media

Books
On April 1, 2009, Rollie Fingers and co-author Christopher "Yellowstone" Ritter released:

 Rollie's Follies: A Hall of Fame Revue of Baseball Lists and Lore, Stats and Stories, Cincinnati, Ohio: Clerisy Press. .

The work is a non-fiction baseball book that combines elements of humor, anecdotal storytelling, odd lists and historical trivia.

The first book inspired a sequel, released March 16, 2010, by Fingers and Ritter:

 The Rollie Fingers Baseball Bible: Lists and Lore, Stories and Stats, Cincinnati, Ohio: Clerisy Press. .

Television appearances
Fingers and four other members of his family appeared on a 1983 episode of the game show Family Feud. After the opening theme, to honor Fingers, host Richard Dawson led the crowd in a chorus of "Take Me Out to the Ball Game". Fingers also appeared in a pair of commercials for Pepsi Max, playing himself in a Field of Dreams setting along with other legendary players. In one commercial, when the Pepsi Max delivery man replenishes an empty vending machine, Fingers appears to take his moustache off and give it to the delivery man, saying, "Great save, kid. You deserve this."

Radio
In 1994/1995 a comedy segment entitled "Rollie TV", concerning a fictitious cable television channel devoted solely to the life of Rollie Fingers and helmed by a Fingers-obsessed host named Greg Shuttlecock, aired once a week on The Steve Dahl Radio Show on WMVP 1000 AM in Chicago. The idea and segment were created and performed by Jeffery C. Johnson and Jim Toth. A "Rollie TV" skit had originally aired in 1993 on Toth and Johnson's Chicago cable TV show Color TV and was then adapted into segments for radio.

See also

 Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame
 List of Major League Baseball annual saves leaders
 List of Major League Baseball career games finished leaders

References

External links

Rollie Fingers Official Website

1946 births
Living people
Major League Baseball pitchers
Oakland Athletics players
San Diego Padres players
Milwaukee Brewers players
National Baseball Hall of Fame inductees
American League All-Stars
National League All-Stars
American League Most Valuable Player Award winners
Cy Young Award winners
World Series Most Valuable Player Award winners
Major League Baseball players with retired numbers
American League saves champions
National League saves champions
Baseball players from Ohio
Arizona League Athletics players
Birmingham A's players
Leesburg A's players
Modesto Reds players
Sun City Rays players
West Palm Beach Tropics players
Tiburones de La Guaira players
American expatriate baseball players in Venezuela
Chaffey College alumni
Chaffey Panthers baseball players
Sportspeople from Steubenville, Ohio
Baseball players from San Bernardino County, California
Sportspeople from Rancho Cucamonga, California
Upland High School alumni

Rollie Fingers