James Douglas (British Army officer)

General Sir James Dawes Douglas (14 January 1785 – 6 March 1862) was a British Army officer, who had a long and illustrious military career, which included commanding Portuguese troops in the Peninsular War.
Life.
Douglas was the elder son of Major James Sholto Douglas, who was first cousin of the sixth and seventh Marquises of Queensberry, by Sarah, daughter of James Dawes. He entered the army as an ensign in the 42nd regiment, or Black Watch, and was at once taken on the staff of Major-general Sir James Duff, commanding at Limerick, where he became an intimate friend of his fellow aide-de-camp, William Napier.
In 1801, he was promoted lieutenant and joined the Royal Military College at Great Marlow. He was promoted captain in 1804, and, being pronounced fit for a staff situation, was appointed deputy-assistant quartermaster-general with the force sent to South America in 1806. His conduct was praised in despatches, and in 1807 he was nominated in the same capacity to the corps proceeding to Portugal under Sir Arthur Wellesley. He was present at the battle of Roliça and battle of Vimeiro. He advanced into Spain with Sir John Moore, and served with the 2nd division through the retreat from Salamanca and at the Battle of Corunna. When William Carr Beresford was sent to Portugal in 1809 to organise the Portuguese army, Douglas was one of the officers selected to accompany him, and he was in February 1809 promoted major in the English army and appointed lieutenant-colonel of the 8th Portuguese regiment. He got his regiment fit for service, and was present at the passage of the Douro River in May 1809, and at the close of the year his regiment was attached to Thomas Picton's, the 3rd division, and brigaded with the 88th and 45th regiments. At the battle of Busaco this brigade had to bear the brunt of the French attack, and Douglas's Portuguese received praise for its conduct, mentioned in Lord Wellington's despatch.
He commanded this regiment all through the campaign of 1811, and in 1812, when the Portuguese were brigaded alone, it formed part of Sir Denis Pack's Portuguese brigade. This was the brigade which distinguished itself at the battle of Salamanca by its attempt to carry the hill of the Arapiles, and Douglas's name was again mentioned in despatches. At the beginning of 1813 Major-general Pack was removed to the command of an English brigade, and Douglas, who had been promoted lieutenant-colonel in May 1811, succeeded him in the 7th Portuguese brigade, which formed part of Sir John Hamilton's Portuguese division. At the head of this brigade, he distinguished himself at the battles of the Pyrenees, where he was wounded, of the Nivelle, the Nive, Orthes, and Toulouse, where he was again twice severely wounded and lost a leg. At the conclusion of the war he received a gold cross and three clasps for the battles in which he had been engaged with a regiment or brigade, was made K.T.S. and K.C.B. on the extension of the order of the Bath.
He was deputy quartermaster-general in Scotland (1815–22) and in Ireland (1825–30). Douglas was promoted colonel in 1819 and major-general in 1830, when he received the command of the south-western district of Ireland. From 1837 to 1842 he was Lieutenant Governor of Guernsey. He was promoted lieutenant-general in 1838, and was made a G.C.B. in 1860. He had been made colonel of the 93rd foot in 1840 and of the 42nd Highlanders in 1850, and was promoted general in 1854. After leaving Guernsey he retired to Clifton, where he died on 6 March 1862, aged 77.


Kingdom of Ormond

The Kingdom of Ormond (Modern Irish: - "East Munster") was a short-lived kingdom in medieval Ireland. It existed in 12th century AD, comprising the eastern part of Munster, in what is now County Tipperary, with parts of County Kilkenny and County Waterford.
The kingdom was formed from a partition of the preceding Kingdom of Munster. It was a fief of the O'Kennedy family, but was soon conquered by the Anglo-Normans, who created the Earldom of Ormond as part of the Lordship of Ireland, under the suzerainty of the Butler family. However, the O'Kennedys, now styled "Lords of Ormond", long struggled with the Butlers for control of the region. In 1336 a peace treaty was signed between the two families, but in 1347 the O'Kennedys were able to drive out the Butlers from Nenagh Castle and install there, keeping the manor for more than two hundred years.
Two modern Irish baronies, Ormond Upper and Ormond Lower, are named after the kingdom.


Nicholas Bennett (historian)

Nicholas Bennett (8 May 1823 – 18 August 1899) was a Welsh historian and musician. He was born in Glanrafon, Trefeglwys, Montgomeryshire. His collection of musical works included over 700 Welsh airs. His wrote the songs "Y Cerddor" and "Songs of the Four Nations". He died in August 1899 is buried in Llanfihangel, Trefeglwys.


Frances Ivens

Mary Hannah Frances Ivens (1870 – 6 February 1944) CBE FRCOG was an obstetrician and gynaecologist who was the first woman appointed to a hospital consultant post in Liverpool. During the First World War she was chief medical officer at the Scottish Women's Hospital at Royaumont, northeast of Paris. For her services to the French forces she was awarded the "Légion d'honneur" and the "Croix de Guerre".
Early life and education.
Ivens was born in Little Harborough, near Rugby, Warwickshire in 1870, the 5th child of Elizabeth (née Ashmole) (1840–1880) and her husband, William Ivens (1830–1905), farmer and timber merchant. She entered the London School of Medicine for Women in 1894 at the age of 24, doing her clinical studies at the Royal Free Hospital and qualified in 1900 with the gold medal in obstetrics and honours in medicine and forensic medicine. In 1902, she qualified MB BS (Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery) with first class honours. In 1903 she obtained the degree of Master of Surgery (MS). She had further postgraduate experience in obstetrics and gynaecology in Dublin and Vienna followed by seven years' surgical experience in London at the Royal Free Hospital, the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Hospital (New Hospital for Women) in London, and the Canning Town Mission Hospital for Women in East London.
Liverpool 1907–1914.
In 1907 she was appointed gynaecological surgeon to a new unit in the Liverpool Stanley Hospital – the first woman to hold an honorary post in a Liverpool hospital. Beds had been specially endowed on the condition that they should be in the care of a woman practitioner. Here she built up a large gynaecological out-patient department. Later she was also appointed honorary surgeon to the Liverpool Samaritan Hospital. In Liverpool she fought to have more women appointed to hospital posts, and became a leading member of the North of England Medical Women's Society. She was active in the suffrage movement and was chair of the Liverpool branch of the Conservative and Unionist Women's Suffrage Society.
Surgeon at Royaumont.
In December 1914, she volunteered to serve in France as head of the unit of the Scottish Women's Hospital, which was established in the Abbaye de Royaumont under the French Red Cross. Before the war, as her practice was confined to women and children, she had not treated men. Nor had she any experience of treating battle casualties, and read widely on the subject, as shown by the books which she later donated to the Liverpool Medical Institution. The hospital treated the French wounded from the Western Front. The excellence of her leadership and the work of the unit was recognised by the French Army. Initially 100 beds were opened but by the end of the conflict this had risen to 600. She continued as "médecin chef" until February, 1919, with only one period of leave in England, which she spent largely in lecturing to raise money for the hospital. In 1917 another hospital at Villers-Cotterêts was opened, closer to the Western Front. There she operated under shell fire during the German advance in March, 1918, until they were forced to evacuate back to Royaumont.
Over the course of the war Ivens and her team treated over 10,861 patients including 8,752 soldiers. The bulk of the major surgery was carried out by Ivens and her second in command Ruth Nicholson. The remarkably low mortality rate of 1.82% was lower than similar military hospitals. The Royaumont doctors pioneered a new approach to the treatment of gas gangrene, using X-rays and bacteriology for diagnosis, followed by extensive surgical debridement of the affected tissue. She published accounts of these in the medical literature. They were also able to use antiserum supplied by the Pasteur Institute in Paris. The hospital was inspected and approved by many French generals and government officials, and its reputation was largely due to the leadership of Frances Ivens.
Post-war career.
After the war, Ivens returned to hospital practice in Liverpool. She was closely involved with the rebuilding of the Maternity Hospital, and with the formation of the Liverpool Women's Radium League. She was also a leader in the establishment of the Crofton Recovery Hospital for Women.
During this period, Ivens was active in promoting the cause of women in medicine, and was elected president of the Medical Women's Federation from 1924 to 1926. A few years later, she was the first woman to be elected vice president of the Liverpool Medical Institution in 1929 when she became a founder fellow of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists that same year.
At the age of sixty, she married Charles Knowles, now a widower, whom she had known from student days. They moved to London where she continued a consultant practice until she and her husband retired to Truro in Cornwall. She was succeeded in her posts in Liverpool by Ruth Nicholson who had been her assistant at Royaumont.
With the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939 she acted as medical inspector for the Red Cross in Cornwall. She also played a leading role in the activities of the Royaumont and Villers Cotterêts Association and was chairman of the Cornwall committee of the Friends of the Fighting French.
Later years and death.
A fluent French speaker she made regular visits to France where she would visit former patients and many of the wounded whom she had treated at Royaumont wrote regularly to her. She kept in touch too with former staff members who would meet annually at the annual dinner of the Royaumont Association.
She died on 6 February 1944, at the age of 74, in Killagorden, St Clement, Cornwall.
Honours and awards.
In recognition of her service at Royaumont she was decorated by the French President with the Cross of the "Légion d'honneur". In December 1918 she
received the "Croix de Guerre" with palm, the citation reading: "...having ensured, day and night, the treatment of French and Allied wounded during repeated bombardment at Villers Cotterets in May 1918. On the approach of the enemy she withdrew her unit at the last moment to the Abbaye de Royaumont where she continued her humane mission with the most absolute devotion”. She was also awarded the Médaille d'honneur des épidémies. In 1926 she was elected vice president of the Liverpool Medical Institution. The University of Liverpool awarded her the honorary degree of Master of Surgery (ChM) in 1926 and in the same year she became a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE).


Lesko

Lesko (or "Lisko" until 1926; , alias "Olesco Lescovium"; ) is a town in south-eastern Poland with a population of 5,755 situated in the Bieszczady mountains. It is located in the heartland of the Doły (Pits), and its average altitude is above sea level, although there are some hills located within the confines of the city. Since 2002 it has been the capital of Lesko County.
Lesko is situated in the Subcarpathian Voivodeship (since 1999); previously it was in Krosno Voivodeship (1975–1998).
History.
Lesko was probably founded in the fourteenth century; records first mention it in 1436. It was granted its town charter in approximately 1469, when it was owned by the Kmita family. In the seventeenth century, the town was quite an important centre of trade and craftsmanship, with approximately 1,500 inhabitants. Its heyday ended in 1704, when it was looted by the Swedish troops during the Great Northern War.
In 1772, following the First Partition of Poland, the town was located in the Austrian Empire (from 1867 Austria-Hungary) until Poland regained its independence in 1918.
In 1872 a railway line passing just north of the town was built.
In 1890 the Jewish population of Lesko was 2,425.
In September 1939, following the territorial division of Poland by the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact, the border between German and Soviet occupation zones ran along the river San in the area of Lesko. Thus the town ended up in the Soviet zone, as it was located on the eastern bank of the river. In 1940 to 1941, as part of the construction of the Molotov Line along the new border, the Soviets constructed a line of bunkers along the river to defend the river crossings, some of them right in the town. During Operation Barbarossa the Germans destroyed the bunkers in the initial days of their invasion (their ruins exist to this day). The town was liberated from the Germans by the Red Army in September, 1944. In 1945 the border between Poland and the Soviet Union was moved somewhat eastwards from the San river, so Lesko ended up in Poland following the postwar territorial rearrangements. Nevertheless, it remained very close to the Soviet border until the 1951 Polish–Soviet territorial exchange which moved the border further eastward.
During the war, after the town was occupied by Nazi Germany in 1941, its Jewish community (about 60% of the town's population) perished in the Holocaust.
In the immediate postwar years the area was the scene of the fighting between Polish military forces and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army. The fighting ended after the Ukrainian population was expelled in the course of Operation Vistula in 1947. The city and its economy only started to recover in the 1950s, after a government program encouraging people from other areas of Poland to settle there.
Currently Lesko is a gateway to the Bieszczady Mountains. The city has numerous outdoor recreational clubs.
References.
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Jigginstown Castle

Jigginstown Castle is a ruined 17th-century house and National Monument near Naas, County Kildare, Ireland. It was constructed in the late 1630s when Ireland was under the reign of Charles I (1625–1649). At the time it was one of the largest buildings in Ireland, and the first to be constructed of red brick: the plans provided for a pavement and columns of Kilkenny marble.
Jigginstown Castle was built on the periphery of an area known as The Pale, which was on the outskirts of Dublin. It was an area which was guarded on its outskirts by the English plantation settlers to protect valuables and livestock. The castle has also been previously known as Siggingstown Castle.
Thomas Wentworth, Earl of Strafford and Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in the 1630s, in his time the most powerful figure in Ireland, was responsible for the construction. His intention was for the castle to be a place where the King could reside on royal visits to Ireland. The downfall and execution for treason of Lord Strafford in 1641 meant that the house was never completed, and it was largely destroyed during the civil strife of the 1640s. According to Strafford's biographer Veronica Wedgwood, the ruins were still visible in the 1950s. The basement and castle's ground floor still stand to this day.


Together Under One Sun

Together Under One Sun (Macedonian language: Заедно под едно Сонце) was the slogan for celebrating the 20th anniversary of the Independence of the Republic of Macedonia.
The Government of Macedonia organized this spectacle.
Program.
A military parade, including the Macedonian army, police and special units, passed in front of the Parliament of Macedonia. It was followed by the placement of the declaration of independence of Macedonia in the Macedonian Struggle and the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO) Museum. A small theatrical performance followed, before the president placed the declaration.
Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski opened the biggest monument in the Balkans Warrior on horseback. It was followed by fireworks and performance of Macedonian songs.
Media.
There was much criticism from media in other Balkan countries. Only the Greek media was silent for this event.
Legacy.
This was the first celebration of Macedonian Independence that reached an audience of nearly 200 000.


Mersley Park

Mersley Park, also known as Marsley Park and later as Holt Parks, was a medieval park in the township of Allington, now in the Wrexham County Borough.
Location.
Mersley Park, also known as Marsley Park, and later Holt Parks was in the Allington Township, now in the Wrexham County Borough. The exact boundaries of the park are unknown. It has been suggested that parts of the park are identifiable from local name places, for example, Parkside, and Lower Parks. Parkside was a separate estate believed to border Mersley Park.
History.
Originally, Mersley Park was under the jurisdiction of the Marford Commote whose seat of power was The Rofft, Marford. In 1282, merging of the commutes of Marford, Wrexham and Yale created the Marcher Lordship of Bromfield and Yale. Later documents record that Mersley Park came under the Lordship of Bromfield.
Documented are some of the keepers of Mersley Park. Thomas Huxley (1397), Geoffry Legy (about 1506), and William Almer (about 1519). A Henry VIII letter, dated 2 August 1536, specifically mentioned the park,
"“Hugh David, a yeoman of the guard. To be keeper of Mersley Park in the lordship of Bromefyld, marches of Wales, formerly occupied by William Almer, and afterwards by Wm. Brereton, with 2d. a day and the herbage, &c. Also farm of a tenement near the pale, formerly used as a lodge of the said park lately in the tenure of the said William Brereton and now in the King's gift. Greenwich, 2 Aug. 28 Hen. VIII. Del. Westm., same day”"
The Tewderleyes Survey, made in the time of Henry VIII, also mentioned the Park,
"“Marsley Parke in ye ffranchise of ye Holt, within one mile of ye Castle there, was then a faire Parke, being three miles about the same, being paled round with pales, w'h was more in Lawnes and plaines than Couert, the midst of ye said Paike being covered with Oakes and small Tymber, without any other Couert.""
In 1595, the Court of Augmentations heard that the Park comprised 625 acres. In the same year, Queen Elizabeth I leased the park to Sir Thomas Egerton, Master of the Rolls and his sons Thomas and John. In 1620, John Norden’s Survey, for Prince Charles, later Charles I, stated that Mersley Park was leased to the Earl of Bridgewater. It consisted of 616 acres and shown on a plan as square shaped. The park was accessible through four gateways, Broade Way, Wrexham Gate, Bellis Gate, and Probyn’s Gate.
John Egerton, later Earl of Bridgewater, succeeded his father, Sir Thomas Egerton. The Earl of Bridgewater purchased the estate from the Crown, on 3 July 1630. The Earl of Bridgewater, was a Royalist during the English Civil War (1642-1651), and sold part of the Park to Sir Edward Spencer and Sir Bevis Thelwall. The remainder of the park taken and sold by the State. Mersley Park was disparked in the 17th Century, presumably sometime after the sale.
Summary of the wardens / lessees / owners of Mersley park.
The Commute of Marford (Date: unknown)
The Lordship of Bromfield (Date: post-1282)
Thomas Huxley (Date: about 1397)
Geoffry Legy (Date about 1506)
William Almer (Date about 1519)
William Brereton (Date: likely to be around 1520s / 1530s)
Hugh David (Date: 1536)
Sir Thomas Egerton, Master of the Rolls, and his sons Thomas and John (1595)
John Egerton, as above, later Earl of Bridgewater (1630)
Sir Edward Spencer and Sir Bevis Thelwall (owned part of the park, about 1640s)
The Crown / State (Date: post 1649)


Wienrode

Wienrode is a village and a former municipality in the district of Harz, in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. Since 1 January 2010, it is part of the town Blankenburg am Harz.


Catherine of Gorizia

Catherine of Gorizia (died 1391) was a daughter of Count Meinhard VI of Gorizia and his first wife Catherine of Pfannberg.
In 1372, she married Duke John II of Bavaria-Munich. They had three children:


Gau Southern Hanover-Brunswick

Gau Southern Hanover–Brunswick (German: "Gau Südhannover–Braunschweig") was a "de facto" administrative division of Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945 in the Free State of Brunswick and part of the Free State of Prussia. Before that, from its formation on 1 October 1928 to 1933, it was the regional subdivision of the Nazi Party in that area. Gau Southern Hanover-Brunswick was abolished after Germany's defeat in 1945. The territory after the war became part of Lower Saxony in West Germany.
History.
The Nazi Gau (plural Gaue) system was originally established in a party conference on 22 May 1926, in order to improve administration of the party structure. From 1933 onward, after the Nazi seizure of power, the "Gaue" increasingly replaced the German states as administrative subdivisions in Germany.
At the head of each Gau stood a Gauleiter, a position which became increasingly more powerful, especially after the outbreak of the Second World War, with little interference from above. Local Gauleiters often held government positions as well as party ones and were in charge of, among other things, propaganda and surveillance and, from September 1944 onward, the Volkssturm and the defense of the Gau.
The position of Gauleiter in Southern Hanover-Brunswick was initially held by Bernhard Rust from October 1928 until November 1940 and then by Hartmann Lauterbacher until the end of the war.