Carisbrooke Priory

Carisbrooke Priory was an alien priory, a dependency of Lyre Abbey in Normandy. The priory was situated on rising ground on the outskirts of Carisbrooke close to Newport on the Isle of Wight.
History.
Benedictines monks.
In 1046, William FitzOsbern, kinsman of William the Conqueror, founded Lyre Abbey in Normandy. When William became King of England, FitzOsbern was given charge of the Isle of Wight, and took up residence in Carisbrooke Castle. In the wake of the Norman conquest, FitzObern became one of the great magnates of early Norman England, acquiring extensive lands there, from which he made generous donations to Lyre Abbey. The church of Carisbrooke, and other property, had been granted to the abbey of Lire, probably by William Fitz Osborne, Earl of Hereford around 1067. By the mid-12th century, Lyre Abbey had adopted the Benedictine rule.
Around 1100, Henry I of England made Richard de Redvers, also from Normandy, Lord of the Isle of Wight. His son, Baldwin de Redvers, Earl of Exeter and Lord of the Isle of Wight, gave to the Abbey of Lyre all the churches, tithes, lands, rents and benefits that he held throughout the island. Henry II's confirmation charter to Lyre Abbey specifies its possessions throughout England. The priory of Carisbrooke was founded in 1156 by Baldwin de Redvers, to collect the dues in the Isle of Wight of the parent house in Normandy. The monks of Carisbrooke served the chapels of Newport and Northwood
In 1295, when King Edward I of England was at war with France, Carisbrooke was among the alien priories by the Crown. It happened again during the reign of Edward III and being in the king's hands was granted by Richard II to the Carthusian Mount Grace Priory in Yorkshire. Restored to Prior Thomas Val Oseul by Henry IV on condition of the "apport" or customary tribute to Lire being paid instead to the Crown, and future appointments of monks being filled by Englishmen, it was seized again by Henry V and bestowed on his new charter-house at Sheen, and the monks dispersed.
Dominican nuns.
Elizabeth Burrell, daughter of Peter Burrell, 1st Lord Gwydwyr and Lady Priscilla Bertie, "suo jure" Baroness Willoughby de Eresby, was married to John FitzGibbon, 2nd Earl of Clare, Lord Lieutenant of the City of Limerick. They lived apart, Lady Clare taking up residence at Ryde on the Isle of Wight. In 1865 she invited the Dominican Order of nuns at Stoneyhurst to move to the Isle of Wight. She provided £12000 towards the cost of a new priory at Carisbrooke on the site of the pre-Reformation priory.
In the mid-seventeenth century, Philip Howard, a Dominican friar and son of Henry Howard, 15th Earl of Arundel, founded a convent of nuns of the Second Order of Saint Dominic at Vilvoorde in Flanders. This community later relocated to Carisbrooke.
In April 1993, the recently formed Carisbrooke Priory Trust purchased the freehold of the then St Dominic's Priory, Carisbrooke on the Isle of Wight, the home of a Catholic Community of nuns since the house was first built on the medieval site in 1866.


Ernest Walter Brooks

Ernest Walter Brooks, FBA (30 August 1863 – 26 March 1955) was an English ancient historian and scholar of Syriac. The son of a priest, he was educated at Eton College (as a King's Scholar) and then at King's College, Cambridge, where he read classics and graduated in 1887. He then lived in London and Geneva (the latter from the late 1920s) as an independent scholar, before retiring to Hampshire in 1941. He became an expert in translating Syriac historical texts into English, gaining a leading reputation. His prolific output in this area was supplemented by research on Byzantine history and contributions to "The Cambridge Medieval History" (1911–23). Having received an honorary doctorate from the University of Louvain in 1927, he was elected a fellow of the British Academy in 1938 (though he resigned in 1941). His wife, Ellen, was a daughter of Major-General G. B. Mellersh.


Brynmawr Experiment

The Brynmawr Experiment was an effort led by the visionary idealist Peter Scott to address issues of poverty and unemployment in Brynmawr, South Wales between 1929 and 1939. Initially a relief project response of the Quakers in South-East England, it grew first into an effort to set up small industries and finally an ambitious utopian subsistence agriculture project for unemployed workers.
Having received large amounts of money from government and private donations, the projects barely made a profit throughout their existence and finally closed in 1939. The official reason for their closure was that unemployment was wiped out due to the opening of local armament factories in the wake of the Second World War, but credit and government loans were also not extended which meant that the projects could not continue.
Background.
The 1920s were a decade of economic decline in the South Wales Coalfield as a whole and in particular in the town of Brynmawr.
Geographically, Brynmawr sits at the northern side of the coalfield and had little industry, and so people tended to need to commute to work elsewhere. When these industries slumped, workers in Brynmawr had few alternatives.
When Hilda Jennings arrived in Brynmawr in 1929 to lead a survey that was to take 3 years to complete, she found many problems. Many jobs were dependent on neighbouring coal and ironworks, and traveling workers were often the first to be laid off. The impacts were even worse as there has been an overall migration away from the town between 1921 and 1931.
By 1932, 1669 were permanently unemployed, many of whom had been laid off since the General Strike five years before. This led to increased sickness, poor housing and strain on the local authority budgets.
There was also an impact on local shops and businesses which were forced to go bankrupt when creditors could not find work or pay their bills.
Quaker response.
In response to the increase in poverty in the South Wales coalfield after the General Strike, the Friend's Home Committee of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) set up the Coalfields Distress Committee in 1926 to consider how to respond. After receiving reports from Quakers working in other parts of the area, it was decided to raise a group of volunteers prepared to live and work in Brynmawr.
This area was identified as being particularly vulnerable, because the local coal mines were considered exhausted and there seemed little chance of traditional industries returning. Those who were able to work had to travel long distances to work and may young and older workers could find no employment at all.
In addition, the size of the town at the time (estimated as being 7000) was considered to be of a size that relief work was possible and personal.
The Quakers also had good relations with the town of Worthing which enabled and encouraged the initial work.
The Brynmawr Experiment was carried on for most of the period that it existed as a vision of Peter Scott, a former Royal Field Artillery Captain and well-known figure in Quaker circles in the South-East of England after the First World War.
There were three periods of activity which can be considered to be part of the Brynmawr Experiment and that were associated with Peter Scott. These were an initial period associated with the Quakers. A second period associated with the development of small scale factory production in Brynmawr and a final period where he tried to create a utopian society based on subsistence agriculture and unpaid volunteer labour.
Relief and social work.
In 1928 and 1929, a small group of Quakers moved to Brynmawr and began to try to address the immediate needs. This work included:
The Quakers set up a Community Council in Brynmawr with the intention that local people would be engaged in making decisions about these projects.
International volunteers.
The Brynmawr experiment came to the attention of Pierre Cérésole, founder of Service Civil International. Pierre had been made aware of the project by fellow Swiss Quaker, Jean Inebnit, a lecturer at the University of Leeds. Pierre and Jean successfully proposed to Peter Scott that the Brynmawr experiment be opened up to volunteers from mainland Europe and an International Work Camp was organised in 1931. 116 volunteers from British universities and from continental Europe worked together for three months in Brynmawr.
The inclusion of international volunteers at Brynmawr is recognised by the International Voluntary Service as the organisations founding moment.
By the end of 1931, volunteers had built a swimming pool, a children's paddling pool and a park in land donated by the Duke of Beaufort and contributed a total of 47,000 man-days of labour.
The international camp also led to a lot of publicity about the work in Brynmawr in local, national and international media.
One of those who came to Brynmawr with the work camp was Jim Forrester, the son of the Earl of Verulam, who was later to be involved in the Brynmawr Experiment.
Developing local industries.
Peter Scott's vision for the transformation of Brynmawr involved the creation of small industrial workshops which would bring sustainable work to unemployed workers.
A local unused boot factory was bought in 1930 and funding sought to attempt different ideas. Once £6000 had been raised, the factory space was adapted for new uses. At first, these included weaving Welsh tweed, knitting of socks, furniture and bootmaking. Outside of the factory, a coal level and a poultry unit were started. All of these projects were intended to be run as Co-operatives.
Eventually it was decided to only continue with boot and furniture manufacturing.
An Order of friends.
In 1934, Peter Scott reorganised a core group of people around him as "An Order of friends", ultimately cutting himself off from the Quaker central committees following disagreements about grants and funding for his projects. Scott believed that the work in Brynmawr could raise money itself and worked to apply directly for money from the Government.
The Order had ultimate ownership of projects and was intended to facilitate them, organise funds and promote the work. When the Brynmawr Furniture Makers Ltd and Brynmawr Bootmaking Ltd were set up, they were owned by Order Holdings Ltd, a not-for-profit run by the Order.
Brynmawr furniture.
In 1929, a young and skilled furniture designer called Paul Matt was brought in to the work in Brynmawr and set about developing a particular style even though the initial premises and tools were rudimentary and shared with the bootmaking business. An order of 250 oak chairs for a school in Yorkshire was the first big order and encouraged further development of the factory.
By 1937, the furniture had a showroom in London and was available in department stores, including in Cardiff.
Subsistence Production Societies.
The final part of Peter Scott's vision for work in the Brynmawr area was what he called "The Subsistence Production Societies". The concept was that in return for voluntary work for the project, members would be able to buy goods and produce at a much lower price than they could buy in the local shops.
Under an agreement made with the Government in 1936, unemployed insured workers could continue to collect "dole" payments if they volunteered for the SPS and were available for work if any came available.
Initially, Peter Scott had been asked to set up several societies, but would only commit to two. One was near Wigan and the other near Brynmawr.
Initially, suitable land could not be found close to Brynmawr so the SPS was set up in the "Eastern Valley", defined as the area between Cwmavon, Cwmbran, Brynmawr and Llandegvath.
The Old Brewery at Cwmavon was bought and became the main centre of activities. This included a bakery, butchers, factory for making clothes a canteen and the stores where members could buy goods.
Court Perrott dairy farm at Llandegveth was taken on and by 1937 had 100 Ayrshire cattle, pigs and sheep.
Land at Pontymoile was used to build glasshouses to grow vegetables and fruit trees were planted at Llwyn-y-llan farm, Trevethin.
At Beili Glas behind the old Brewery in Cwmavon pigs were kept and a small quarry opened for stone.
In Griffithstown five fields were used for poultry, pigs and vegetables and in Pontnewydd there were bee-hives and a wood-working shop.
Buildings were refurbished and new houses were built.
At the peak in 1937 there were 400 men in the society, about 9% of the unemployed men registered at the Blaenavon and Pontpool labour exchange at the time. It was decided to expand to form a second SPS with the purchase of two farms nearer Brynmawr and the opening of a coal level.
Jim Forrester.
James Grimston, the heir apparent to the title of Earl of Verulam, first came to Brynmawr with the international volunteer camp, but was later appointed to lead the SPS as Area Organiser. He continued to also work in his family business one week a month.
He was known by the courtesy family title "Lord Forrester" or, more commonly, just "Jim Forrester" in Wales.
In 1934 he was made chairman of the SPS and in 1935 director of the Brynmawr Bootmaker factory.
Criticisms and detractors.
Writing in 1980, nearly 50 years after the events, Margaret Pitt remembered that there had been opposition to the work in Brynmawr from the earliest efforts.
When she arrived in Brynmawr in 1928, Pitt found that local people distrusted the Quakers and did not want to accept charity. In 1929, a town meeting was held to discuss plans for voluntary work in the town. Some unemployed men said that working for free would weaken their position with respect to future employment leading to the Labour party and Miners' Federation declaring that they were against the plans and that all work should be paid at Union rates. This meant that those who continued to be involved in the projects risked shunning.
Later, the factories and SPS became a source of anger. Peter Scott successfully gained support and finances from government, Royalty and industrialists, including the Prince of Wales, Ramsay MacDonald and David Lloyd George.
This led to conflict with local Communists, shopkeepers, co-ops and trade unions.
In response to comments in a speech by the Prime Minister praising the work in Brynmawr, members of Brynmawr Urban Council wrote back that the praise was unwarranted, that some of the experimental work had already stopped and that the others were not very useful for the unemployed.
The Brynmawr Experiment opened and closed various enterprises causing discontent from those who had lost work and felt left behind. The Order was felt to be a "privileged", distant group. The management, in particular Jim Forrester, was seen as perfectionist and made too many decisions on their own.
Decline and end.
In 1938, the government opened an ordnance depot at Glascoed which provided work for many members of the Subsistence Production Societies and made operations more difficult for the remaining members. In the Summer of 1939, most operations stopped due to a lack of bank credit and 28 older men were taken on as paid employees but by December 1939 all operations stopped, the business was liquidated and the properties put up for auction.
The SPS had spent nearly £100,000 of government funds, together with an additional £50,000 private donations.


Liburnicus sinus


2002 Jersey general election

Elections were held in 2002 for both Senators and Deputies to the States of Jersey.
Deputy Elections.
St Helier Number One District.
Candidates (3 Elected)
St Helier Number two district.
Candidates (3 Elected)
St Helier Number three and four district.
Candidates (4 Elected)
St Saviour Number one district.
Candidate (2 elected)
St Saviour Number two district.
Candidates (2 elected)
St Saviour Number three district.
Candidates (1 elected)
St Brelade Number one district.
Candidates (One elected)
St Brelade Number two district.
Candidates (2 elected)
St Clement.
Candidates (2 elected)
Grouville.
Candidates (1 elected)
St John.
Candidates (1 elected)
St Lawrence.
Candidates (2 elected)
St Martin.
Candidates (1 elected)
St Mary.
Candidates (1 elected)
St Ouen.
Candidates (1 elected)
St Peter.
Candidates (1 elected)
Trinity.
Candidates (1 elected)


Conrad (bishop of Sodor and Man)

Conrad O.Cist. was a pre-Reformation cleric who was appointed the Bishop of Sodor and Man in the early 15th century.
A Cistercian monk, he was appointed the Bishop of Sodor and Man by Pope Boniface IX on 9 January 1402. Conrad can have only served for a few months, because his successor Theodore Bloc was appointed on 16 April 1402.
References.


Ernst Reinhold von Hofmann

Ernst Reinhold von Hofmann (, 8 January 1801 – 23 May 1871) was a Russian geologist, geographer, explorer, and lecturer. He was a geologist who accompanied Otto von Kotzebue and his crew during his travels around the world from 1823 to 1826. After that, he made several travels to regions such as the Urals and Continental Europe and made note of orography and general geography. He was also a professor at Saint Petersburg State University and an associate professor at the University of Kiev.
Early life and education.
Hofmann was born on 8 January 1801 in Paistu Parish, in the Russian Empire, located in present-day Estonia. His father, Carl, was a pastor. He grew up in Dorpat (now called Tartu) and attended a city gymnasium for primary school. He started studying medicine at the Dorpat University in 1819, but became fascinated with Moritz von Engelhardt's teaching and became a student of geology and mineralogy.
Early travels and studies.
From 1823 to 1826, Hofmann circumnavigated the world with Otto von Kotzebue and other young students, including Emil Lenz. The group departed from Kronstadt on 28 July 1823 on the sloop "Enterprise". They dropped anchor in Portsmouth on 25 August and departed on 11 September, heading for Rio de Janeiro, which they docked into on 2 November. The group went around Cape Horn on 26 December. They anchored in the Bay of Concepción on 16 January 1824. They set out again on 3 February, after evading capture by Chilean authorities. They set out for the Tuamotus and sailed through the maze of atolls there, arriving on the island of Tahiti on 14 March. They arrived at Petropavlovsk on 8 June. On 14 July, Hofmann was among a small group of travelers to make the first known ascent of the Avachinsky. The ascent was successful and they measured the summit's elevation as 7,200 feet above sea level. The group brought pieces of crystalline back to the ship to prove their ascent. They left the Kamchatka Peninsula on 20 July and set out for Novo-Arkhangelsk, where they arrived on 10 August. It was there where they received word from Matvey Muravyev, chief manager of the Russian-American Company, that they wouldn't be needed until 1 March of next year, when trading season began. After a month on the island of Sitka, they departed and set out to California, which at the time wasn't well-explored. This differed from the original plan, as the group wanted to explore the Northwest Passage but the conditions proved to be too dangerous. The group also visited Hawaii in the six-month period of free time that they had. In Hawaii, the group stocked up on fresh food and conducted scientific observations. They returned to Novo-Arkhangelsk on 24 February 1825 and dropped anchor near a fortress for five months, guarding a portion of the city. They were to move when a decree reached Alaska on 30 July, permitting American ships to come to Russian American waters. The ship left the city on 11 August and headed for Honolulu, where they stopped for four days before moving to the Marshall Islands on 19 September. On 6 October the group observed and mapped the Ralik chain, which was regarded by explorers as relatively mysterious. The group were also the first Westerners to observe the Eschscholtz Atoll on 9 October. The group stopped in Guam for three days, starting in 19 October. The group arrived in Manila on 8 November and stayed so the ship could be repaired. The group left the Philippines on 10 January 1826. They passed the Sunda Strait on 25 January and ventured through the Indian Ocean, rounding the Cape of Good Hope on 16 March and arriving at Saint Helena eleven days later. They entered Portsmouth on 3 June and reached Kronstadt on 10 July. He was awarded the Order of Saint Vladimir in 1929 for his participation in the circumnavigation. Hofmann later recorded his geological findings in his article, "Geognostische Beobachtungen auf einer Reise um die Welt in den Jahren 1823-26" ("").
With Gregor von Helmersen, Hofmann travelled to the Southern Ural region in 1828, by request of Georg Ludwig Cancrin, the Minister of Finance. While there, the pair became the first to create an orographic map of the region. In 1831, they published "Geognostische Untersuchung der Süd-Uralgebirges" ("") in Berlin. While in Europe with Helmersen, Hofmann travelled to Saxony, Bohemia, the Harz, Austria, Northern Italy, Switzerland, and the Rhineland and met such figures as Gustav Rose and Christian Gottfried Ehrenberg.
Later career and professorship.
Having returned from Berlin, Hofmann became a lecturer of geology and mineralogy at his alma mater, Dorpat University, in 1833. He also headed the department of the subject, following the resignation of Moritz von Engelhardt due to illness in 1835. He became a Master of Philosophy in 1837, with his dissertation "Geognostische Beobachtungen auf einer Reis von Dorpat bis Abo" (""). He left Dorpat that year and headed to the University of Kiev, where he taught for five years. He also conducted studies in Kiev and the surrounding area. He became a member of the Corps of Mining Engineers in 1842. In 1843, he conducted studies in Eastern Siberia and researched the gold-bearing placer deposits and collected information on its geology, vegetation, fauna, and ethnography. He wrote a work on his findings in 1847. In 1844, he conducted research around the Kemijoki. In 1845, he became a professor at Saint Petersburg State University, a position he held until 1863.
The latter part of his career was spent mainly researching the Ural region. In 1847, he led a Russian Geographical Society expedition to the Northern Urals. He won the first-ever Constantine Medal in 1849 as a result of the expedition. From 1853 until 1859 he travelled to the Middle Urals every summer. He created maps and recorded geological details of different areas in the region. He also wrote many works about his findings in the resulting years. In 1861, he became the director of the Imperial Mineralogical Society and served the position until 1865. In 1869, he became lieutenant general of the Corps of Mining Engineers.
He died on 23 May 1871, at the age of 70. Hofmann Island is claimed to be named after him.


Timeline of Kumanovo

The following is a timeline of the history of the city of Kumanovo, North Macedonia.


Jewish cemetery of Khotyn

The Jewish cemetery of Khotyn, Ukraine.
Background.
The city of Khotyn is located in the Chernivtsi oblast of Ukraine. According to the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the town was almost entirely Jewish or Russian. This created a uniformity of culture that endured throughout the different occupations of Khotyn (Bessarabia in the late 1800s, Austria during the 1910s, the Soviet Army in June 1940, Romania in 1941, and the USSR in 1944). The town in 1930 was composed of 38% Jews, and roughly the same percentage of Russians and Ukrainians. However, after the 2nd World War, the Jewish percentage of the population fell to 8%. The current Jewish population of Khotyn is small; residents estimate the community at 10 people, and the U.S. Commission for the Preservation of America's Heritage Abroad estimates the population at 11-100.
The cemetery.
The US Government organisation "Commission for the Preservation of America's Heritage Abroad," cited above, provides an excellent reference for the Jewish cemeteries of Ukraine. The International Jewish Cemetery Project cites this source for its information. The document includes the following information about Khotyn:
KHOTIN:US Commission No. UA25060101
The last known Hasidic burial was 1990. No other towns or villages used this unlandmarked cemetery. The isolated suburban flat land has no sign or marker. Reached by turning directly off a public road, access is open to all. A broken masonry wall with no gate surrounds site. 501 to 5000 stones, most in original location with less than 25% of surviving stones toppled or broken, date from 19th to 20th century. Location of any removed tombstones is unknown. Some tombstones have traces of painting on their surfaces, portraits on stones, and/or metal fences around graves. The cemetery contains no known mass graves. The municipality owns the site used for Jewish cemetery only. Adjacent properties are agricultural. The cemetery boundaries are unchanged since 1939. Rarely, Jews or non-Jews visit. The cemetery was not vandalized in the last ten years. Local/municipal authorities cleared vegetation. Now, occasionally, individuals clean or clear. Within the limits of the cemetery are no structures. Vegetation overgrowth is a constant problem, disturbing graves. Water drainage at the cemetery is a seasonal problem. Serious threat: vegetation. Moderate threat: uncontrolled access, weather erosion and pollution. Slight threat: vandalism, and existing nearby development and proposed nearby development.
The cemetery can be reached easily by taxi from the Bus Station. The report suggests that the cemetery contains no mass graves; in fact, the location includes a monument to those Jewish citizens killed in the 1941 occupation.


Helen Hanson

Helen Beatrice de Rastricke Hanson (6 January, 1874 – 6 July, 1926) was a British physician, missionary and suffragist.
Life.
Hanson was born in Dorking, Surrey, on 6 January 1874 to Caroline Anne (born Offord) and Edward Hanson and his wife, Caroline Ann. Her parents were members of the Plymouth Brethren. Her father, who managed a local bank, had been brought up in Chile. She was with her family as they moved to Richmond and then to Bognor Regis until at fourteen she was sent to a boarding school run by her cousins. She was a voracious student and she decided to take up the challenge of a career in medicine. She had a Bedford College scholarship but decided to study at the London School of Medicine for Women.
Hanson qualified in 1904 and went to work at the St Pancras Infirmary. She took at a certificate in tropical medicine in 1905. She worked at the Hospital for Women and Children at Bristol, and the Morpeth and Menston county asylums before deciding to leave the country. She had decided to take her skills to India like her role model Mary Scharlieb (who had taught her obstetrics and gynaecology). Unusually she opted to be a missionary for the Zenana Bible and Medical Missionary Society. A Zenana is an area of a house or building set aside for women.
She left from Exeter Hall in 1905 and set out for Lucknow to work at the Kinnaird Memorial Hospital which was named for Mary Jane Kinnaird. Hanson was given a level of responsibility and she was hospital's director when the usual person went on holiday. She had learnt Urdu and she worked hospitals at Benares and Jaunpur and St. Luke's Zenana Hospital at Palampur. However she left India in 1909 and chose to travel in steerage class so that she could donate the five pounds saved to the suffragette cause. She remained interested in missionary work but did not feel well enough to return.
However India had affected her spiritually she said that her experience in India of different religions and "Hinduism especially—has… left me with a far greater conception of God", stemming from the affinities she found between the incarnational theology of Charles Gore and Hinduism. She became a member of the Church of England on her return.
She had been brought up in a family who was politically active and in support of women having the vote. Unlike her parents she believed in militancy. She joined Emmeline Pankhurst's Women's Social and Political Union and she was one of those arrested on Black Friday. Two hundred suffragettes had been arrested as they tried to enter the Houses of Parliament. The event attracted wide attention. The deputation was led by Emmeline Pankhurst to petition Asquith. The delegates included Dorinda Neligan, Hertha Ayrton, Dr Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, Dr Louisa Garrett Anderson, Anne Cobden-Sanderson, and Princess Sophia Duleep Singh. Under the name, Helen Rice, she served five days in prison.
Her main efforts were directed towards the Church League for Women's Suffrage (later League of the Church Militant ) where she had been a founding member of this Anglican group in 1909. She had also been a member of the University of London Suffrage Society, the Women's Freedom League, the Industrial Christian Fellowship, the Association for Moral and Social Hygiene and the League of Nations Union. Under the auspices of the Church league she had published her own ideas of how suffragists and missionaries should combine their forces.
During the first war she served with the Red Cross before she was transferred to the Scottish Women's Hospital Unit. She was one of the few women to serve with the Royal Army Medical Corps and she was given the rank of captain. She served in France, Turkey, Malta and Serbia and was given medals to record her services. The medals were the 1914 Star with clasp, the British War and Victory Medals, the Order of St. Sava, 2nd type from Serbia, 4th Class breast badge and a Red Cross Decoration.
After the war she joined an expeditionary force at the Black Sea. She served with that group until 1920 when she returned to her pre-war job. She was one of London county council' assistant school medical officers. She continued to submit contributions to suffrage publications and the British Medical Journal.
Death and legacy.
She was run down by a motor vehicle and later died of her injuries on 6 July 1926. Her medals were sold at auction in 2012.


Ibn Amira

Ibn Amira (; 1186 - 18 December 1258 or 26 November 1260) or Abu al-Mutarrif Ahmad ibn Abd Allah ibn al-Husayn Ibn Amira al-Makhzumi () was a historian, poet, and scholar of law from al-Andalus during the reign of the Almohad Caliphate. Ibn Amira was Qadi of Mallorca and worked for the Almohad sultan in Valencia and Seville. He moved to Morocco in 1239/40 (after the fall of Valencia in 1238) and continued to work for the sultan there.
Biography.
Ibn Amira was born at Alzira in the province of Valencia. He was born into a well-known Berber family established in al-Andalus, in Shatiba (Xàtiva, Valencia), by the eleventh century. He started his studies in Alzira and focused on "hadith", "fiqh" (Islamic jurisprudence), and literature. He was taught by some of the most famous scholars of his day, such as the traditionist Abu l-Rabi Ibn Salim and the grammarian al-Shalawbin.
Works.
The theme of paradise lost ("al-firdaws al-mafqud") was expressed by the Valencian exile in his 'Letter to a Friend'. This friend was the poet Ibn al-Abbar. "An ocean of sadness rages inside us, Our hearts, desperate, burn with eternal flames. The city was so beautiful with its gardens and rivers, The nights were imbued with the sweet fragrance of narcissus."
Ibn Amira was also the author of a manuscript about the history of Mallorca, "Tarij Mayurqa". The manuscript (written between 1203 and 1232) was translated into Spanish by the historian Guillem Rosselló Bordoy.


Lord of the Isle of Wight

The Lord of the Isle of Wight was a title that began when William the Conqueror granted the Isle of Wight to William Fitz Osbern. It was a hereditary title.
The last Lord of the Island of Wight was actually not a lord but a lady. Countess Isabella de Fortibus acquired the lordship when her brother died in 1262. The countess had been widowed in 1261 and became the wealthiest female in the British Islands who was not a member of a royal family. Isabella dwelt in Carisbrooke Castle. She exercised her rights and privileges as feudal overlord of the Isle of Wight. In 1293, lying on her death bed, the countess sold the island to Edward I for 6,000 marks.
The Lordship thereafter became a royal appointment. The last Lord of the Isle of Wight was Edward Woodville, Lord Scales (d. 1488).


Third Italian War of Independence

The Third Italian War of Independence () was a war between the Kingdom of Italy and the Austrian Empire fought between June and August 1866. The conflict paralleled the Austro-Prussian War and resulted in Austria conceding the region of Venetia (present-day Veneto, Friuli and the city of Mantua, the last remnant of the "Quadrilatero") to France, which were later annexed by Italy after a plebiscite. Italy's acquisition of this wealthy and populous territory represented a major step in the process of Italian unification.
Background.
Victor Emmanuel II of Savoy had been proclaimed King of Italy on 17 March 1861 but did not control Venetia or the much-reduced Papal States. The situation of the , a later Italian term for part of the country under foreign domination that literally meaning "unredeemed", was an unceasing source of tension in the domestic politics of the new kingdom and a cornerstone of its foreign policy.
The first attempt to seize Rome was orchestrated by Giuseppe Garibaldi in 1862. Confident in the king's neutrality, he set sail from Genoa to Palermo. Collecting 1,200 volunteers, he sailed from Catania and landed at Melito, Calabria, on 24 August to reach Mount Aspromonte with the intention to travel northward up the peninsula to Rome. The Piedmontese General Enrico Cialdini, however, sent a division under Colonel Pallavicino to stop the volunteer army. Garibaldi was wounded at the Battle of Aspromonte and taken prisoner, along with his men.
The increasing discord between Austria and Prussia over the German Question turned into open war in 1866, which offered Italy an occasion to capture Venetia. On 8 April 1866, the Italian government signed a military alliance with Prussia through the mediation of French Emperor Napoleon III.
Italian armies, led by General Alfonso Ferrero La Marmora, were to engage the Austrians on the southern front. Simultaneously, taking advantage of their perceived naval superiority, the Italians planned to threaten the Dalmatian coast and to seize Trieste.
Upon the outbreak of the war, the Italian military was hampered by several factors:
The problematic amalgamation of the armies of the Kingdom of Sardinia and the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, the largest components of the new Kingdom of Italy involved disputes among the chain of command since former enemies were now serving together.
Also, the resentment and bitter resistance in Southern Italy followed the annexation of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies by Italy.
There was an even stronger rivalry between both navies that had formed the unified Italian navy, the Regia Marina.
War.
Italian invasion.
Prussia opened hostilities on 16 June 1866 by attacking several German states allied with Austria. Three days later, Italy declared war on Austria and started military operations on 23 June.
The Italian forces were divided into two armies. One, under La Marmora himself, was deployed in Lombardy, west of the Mincio River, and aimed toward the powerful Quadrilatero fortress of the Austrians. The second, under Enrico Cialdini, was deployed in Romagna, south of the Po River and aimed toward Mantua and Rovigo.
La Marmora moved first through Mantua and Peschiera del Garda but was defeated at the Battle of Custoza on 24 June and retreated in disorder back across the Mincio river. Cialdini, on the other hand, did not act offensively for the first part of the war by conducting only several shows of force and failing to besiege the Austrian fortress of Borgoforte, south of the Po.
Following the defeat at Custoza, the Italians reorganised in preparation for a presumed Austrian counter-offensive. The Austrians took that opportunity to raid Valtellina and Val Camonica (Battle of Vezza d'Oglio).
New Italian offensive.
The course of the war, however, turned to Italy's favour by Prussian victories in Bohemia, especially the decisive Battle of Königgrätz (or Sadowa) on 3 July. The Austrians were compelled to redeploy one of their three army corps from Italy to Vienna. The remaining Austrian forces in the theatre concentrated their defences around Trentino and Isonzo.
On 5 July, the Italian government received news of a mediation effort by Napoleon III for a settlement of the situation, which would allow Austria to receive favorable conditions from Prussia and, in particular, maintain Venice. The situation was embarrassing for Italy, as its forces had been beaten back in the only battle to date. As the Austrians were redeploying more and more troops to Vienna to defend it against the Prussians, La Marmora was urged to take advantage of his force's numerical superiority, score a victory and improve the situation for Italy at the bargaining table.
On 14 July, during a council of war held in Ferrara, the new Italian war plans were decided:
Cialdini crossed the Po on 8 July and advanced to Udine on 22 July without encountering the Austrian Army. In the meantime, Garibaldi's volunteers had advanced from Brescia toward Trento during the Invasion of Trentino and won the Battle of Bezzecca on 21 July. Both adances were overshadowed, however, by the unexpected defeat of the Italian Navy at the Battle of Lissa on 20 July.
On 26 July, a mixed Italian force of and cavalry defeated an Austrian force guarding the crossing of the Torre River and reached what is now Romans d'Isonzo at the Battle of Versa. That marked the maximum Italian advance into Friuli. However, with the cessation of Austro-Prussian hostilities, the Austrians seemed ready to send reinforcements to Italy. Unwilling to risk another defeat and face being heavily outnumbered by Austrian reinforcements, the Italians were compelled to come to the peace table. On 9 August, Garibaldi was ordered in a telegraph by the Army High Command to evacuate Trentino. His reply was simply "" ("I shall obey") and became famous in Italy soon after. The cessation of hostilities was agreed to at the Armistice of Cormons, signed on 12 August, followed by the Treaty of Vienna on 3 October 1866.
Aftermath.
On July 1866, after the Prussian victory over Austria, the Armistice of Nikolsburg ended the hostilities between the two countries. The Austrians withdrew to the Isonzo River and left Venice to Italian hands. France and Prussia pressured Italy to conclude an armistice on its own with Austria. The cessation of hostilities was agreed to at the Armistice of Cormons signed on 12 August, followed by the Treaty of Vienna on 3 October 1866.
The terms of the Peace of Prague included the giving of the Iron Crown of Lombardy to the Italian king and the Austrian cession of Venetia, consisting of modern Veneto, parts of Friuli and the city of Mantua. Emperor Franz Joseph had already agreed to cede Venetia to France in exchange for non-intervention in the Austro-Prussian War, but Napoleon III, who was acting as intermediary between Prussia and Austria, ceded Venetia to Italy on 19 October, as had been agreed in a secret treaty in exchange for the earlier Italian acquiescence to the French annexation of Savoy and Nice.
The Peace of Prague was followed up by the Austrian-Italian Treaty of Vienna, which confirmed the cession of the territory to Italy. However, the peace treaty stated that the annexation of Venetia and Mantua would have become effective only after a plebiscite allowed the population to express its will on its annexation to the Kingdom of Italy. The plebiscite was held on 21 and 22 October, and the result was a overwhelmingly success, with 99.9% of participants in support of joining Italy.
Meanwhile, an uprising also occurred in Sicily, The Seven and a Half Days Revolt. The unification of Italy was completed by the Capture of Rome and the annexation of Trentino, Friuli and Trieste at the end of World War I, also called in Italy the "Fourth Italian War of Independence".


Lord of Kilbride

The Lord of Kilbride was a title in the peerage of Scotland.


HMS Bullen

HMS "Bullen" (K 469) was a Captain-class frigate of the Royal Navy during World War II. She was named after Charles Bullen who was captain of at the battle of Trafalgar.
Originally laid down as DE-78, a turbo-electric (TE) type "Buckley"-class destroyer escort, she was diverted to the Royal Navy and named HMS "Bullen" before the launch.
The commanding officer was Lt Cdr A.H. Parrish RN.
Sinking.
While part of the 19th Escort Group, "Bullen" was torpedoed by the German submarine northwest of Strathy Point, Sutherland, Scotland on 6 December 1944, striking her midships. Of the crew of HMS "Bullen", 71 died and 97 survived. The wrecksite is designated as a 'protected place' under the Protection of Military Remains Act 1986.


Peloponnesian War

The Peloponnesian War (431–404 BC) was an ancient Greek war fought by the Delian League led by Athens against the Peloponnesian League led by Sparta. Historians have traditionally divided the war into three phases. In the first phase, the Archidamian War, Sparta launched repeated invasions of Attica, while Athens took advantage of its naval supremacy to raid the coast of the Peloponnese and attempt to suppress signs of unrest in its empire. This period of the war was concluded in 421 BC, with the signing of the Peace of Nicias. That treaty, however, was soon undermined by renewed fighting in the Peloponnese. In 415 BC, Athens dispatched a massive expeditionary force to attack Syracuse, Sicily; the attack failed disastrously, with the destruction of the entire force in 413 BC. This ushered in the final phase of the war, generally referred to either as the Decelean War, or the Ionian War. In this phase, Sparta, now receiving support from the Achaemenid Empire, supported rebellions in Athens's subject states in the Aegean Sea and Ionia, undermining Athens's empire, and, eventually, depriving the city of naval supremacy. The destruction of Athens's fleet in the Battle of Aegospotami effectively ended the war, and Athens surrendered in the following year. Corinth and Thebes demanded that Athens should be destroyed and all its citizens should be enslaved, but Sparta refused.
Although the term "Peloponnesian War" was never used by Thucydides, one of the conflict's most important historians, the fact that the term is all but universally used today is a reflection of the Athens-centric sympathies of modern historians. As prominent historian J. B. Bury remarks, the Peloponnesians would have considered it the "Attic War".
The Peloponnesian War reshaped the ancient Greek world. On the level of international relations, Athens, the strongest city-state in Greece prior to the war's beginning, was reduced to a state of near-complete subjection, while Sparta became established as the leading power of Greece. The economic costs of the war were felt all across Greece; poverty became widespread in the Peloponnese, while Athens was completely devastated, and never regained its pre-war prosperity. The war also wrought subtler changes to Greek society; the conflict between democratic Athens and oligarchic Sparta, each of which supported friendly political factions within other states, made war a common occurrence in the Greek world.
Ancient Greek warfare, meanwhile, originally a limited and formalized form of conflict, was transformed into an all-out struggle between city-states, complete with atrocities on a large scale. Shattering religious and cultural taboos, devastating vast swathes of countryside, and destroying whole cities, the Peloponnesian War marked the dramatic end to the fifth century BC and the golden age of Greece.
The Peloponnesian War was soon followed by the Corinthian War (394–386 BC), which, although it ended inconclusively, helped Athens regain some of its former greatness.
Prelude.
As the preeminent Athenian historian, Thucydides, wrote in his influential "History of the Peloponnesian War", "The growth of the power of Athens, and the alarm which this inspired in Lacedaemon, made war inevitable." Indeed, the nearly fifty years of Greek history that preceded the outbreak of the Peloponnesian War had been marked by the development of Athens as a major power in the Mediterranean world. Its empire began as a small group of city-states, called the Delian League – from the island of Delos, on which they kept their treasury – that came together to ensure that the Greco-Persian Wars were truly over. After defeating the Second Persian invasion of Greece in the year 480 BC, Athens led the coalition of Greek city-states that continued the Greco-Persian Wars with attacks on Persian territories in the Aegean and Ionia. What then ensued was a period, referred to as the Pentecontaetia (the name given by Thucydides), in which Athens increasingly became in fact an empire, carrying out an aggressive war against Persia and increasingly dominating other city-states. Athens proceeded to bring under its control all of Greece except for Sparta and its allies, ushering in a period which is known to history as the Athenian Empire. By the middle of the century, the Persians had been driven from the Aegean and forced to cede control of a vast range of territories to Athens. At the same time, Athens greatly increased its own power; a number of its formerly independent allies were reduced, over the course of the century, to the status of tribute-paying subject states of the Delian League. This tribute was used to support a powerful fleet and, after the middle of the century, to fund massive public works programs in Athens, causing resentment.
Friction between Athens and the Peloponnesian states, including Sparta, began early in the Pentecontaetia. In the wake of the departure of the Persians from Greece, Sparta sent ambassadors to persuade Athens not to reconstruct their walls (without the walls, Athens would have been defenseless against a land attack and subject to Spartan control), but was rebuffed. According to Thucydides, although the Spartans took no action at this time, they "secretly felt aggrieved".
Conflict between the states flared up again in 465 BC, when a helot revolt broke out in Sparta. The Spartans summoned forces from all of their allies, including Athens, to help them suppress the revolt. Athens sent out a sizable contingent (4,000 hoplites), but upon its arrival, this force was dismissed by the Spartans, while those of all the other allies were permitted to remain. According to Thucydides, the Spartans acted in this way out of fear that the Athenians would switch sides and support the helots; the offended Athenians repudiated their alliance with Sparta. When the rebellious helots were finally forced to surrender and permitted to evacuate the state, the Athenians settled them at the strategic city of Naupaktos on the Gulf of Corinth.
In 459 BC, Athens took advantage of a war between its neighbors Megara and Corinth, both Spartan allies, to conclude an alliance with Megara, giving the Athenians a critical foothold on the Isthmus of Corinth. A fifteen-year conflict, commonly known as the First Peloponnesian War, ensued, in which Athens fought intermittently against Sparta, Corinth, Aegina, and a number of other states. For a time during this conflict, Athens controlled not only Megara but also Boeotia; at its end, however, in the face of a massive Spartan invasion of Attica, the Athenians ceded the lands they had won on the Greek mainland, and Athens and Sparta recognized each other's right to control their respective alliance systems. The war was officially ended by the Thirty Years' Peace, signed in the winter of 446/5 BC.
Breakdown of the peace.
The Thirty Years' Peace was first tested in 440 BC, when Athens's powerful ally Samos rebelled from its alliance with Athens. The rebels quickly secured the support of a Persian satrap, and Athens found itself facing the prospect of revolts throughout the empire. The Spartans, whose intervention would have been the trigger for a massive war to determine the fate of the empire, called a congress of their allies to discuss the possibility of war with Athens. Sparta's powerful ally Corinth was notably opposed to intervention, and the congress voted against war with Athens. The Athenians crushed the revolt, and peace was maintained.
The more immediate events that led to war involved Athens and Corinth. After suffering a defeat at the hands of their colony of Corcyra, a sea power that was not allied to either Sparta or Athens, Corinth began to build an allied naval force. Alarmed, Corcyra sought an alliance with Athens, which after debate and input from both Corcyra and Corinth, decided to swear a defensive alliance with Corcyra. At the Battle of Sybota, a small contingent of Athenian ships played a critical role in preventing a Corinthian fleet from capturing Corcyra. In order to uphold the Thirty Years' Peace, however, the Athenians were instructed not to intervene in the battle unless it was clear that Corinth was going to press onward to invade Corcyra. However, the Athenian warships participated in the battle nevertheless, and the arrival of additional Athenian triremes was enough to dissuade the Corinthians from exploiting their victory, thus sparing much of the routed Corcyrean and Athenian fleet.
Following this, Athens instructed Potidaea in the peninsula of Chalkidiki, a tributary ally of Athens but a colony of Corinth, to tear down its walls, send hostages to Athens, dismiss the Corinthian magistrates from office, and refuse the magistrates that the city would send in the future. The Corinthians, outraged by these actions, encouraged Potidaea to revolt and assured them that they would ally with them should they revolt from Athens. During the subsequent Battle of Potidaea, the Corinthians unofficially aided Potidaea by sneaking contingents of men into the besieged city to help defend it. This was a direct violation of the Thirty Years' Peace, which had (among other things) stipulated that the Delian League and the Peloponnesian League would respect each other's autonomy and internal affairs.
A further source of provocation was an Athenian decree, issued in 433/2 BC, imposing stringent trade sanctions on Megarian citizens (once more a Spartan ally after the conclusion of the First Peloponnesian War). It was alleged that the Megarians had desecrated the "Hiera Orgas". These sanctions, known as the Megarian decree, were largely ignored by Thucydides, but some modern economic historians have noted that forbidding Megara to trade with the prosperous Athenian empire would have been disastrous for the Megarans, and have accordingly considered the decree to be a contributing factor in bringing about the war. Historians that attribute responsibility for the war to Athens cite this event as the main cause for blame.
At the request of the Corinthians, the Spartans summoned members of the Peloponnesian League to Sparta in 432 BC, especially those who had grievances with Athens to make their complaints to the Spartan assembly. This debate was attended by members of the league and an uninvited delegation from Athens, which also asked to speak, and became the scene of a debate between the Athenians and the Corinthians. Thucydides reports that the Corinthians condemned Sparta's inactivity up to that point, warning the Spartans that if they continued to remain passive while the Athenians were energetically active, they would soon find themselves outflanked and without allies. The Athenians, in response, reminded the Spartans of their record of military success and opposition to Persia, and warned them of the dangers of confronting such a powerful state, ultimately encouraging Sparta to seek arbitration as provided by the Thirty Years' Peace. Undeterred, a majority of the Spartan assembly voted to declare that the Athenians had broken the peace, essentially declaring war.
The "Archidamian War" (431–421 BC).
Sparta and its allies, with the exception of Corinth, were almost exclusively land-based powers, able to summon large land armies which were very nearly unbeatable (thanks to the legendary Spartan forces). The Athenian Empire, although based in the peninsula of Attica, spread out across the islands of the Aegean Sea; Athens drew its immense wealth from tribute paid from these islands. Athens maintained its empire through naval power. Thus, the two powers were relatively unable to fight decisive battles.
The Spartan strategy during the first war, known as the Archidamian War (431–421 BC) after Sparta's king Archidamus II, was to invade the land surrounding Athens. While this invasion deprived Athenians of the productive land around their city, Athens itself was able to maintain access to the sea, and did not suffer much. Many of the citizens of Attica abandoned their farms and moved inside the Long Walls, which connected Athens to its port of Piraeus. At the end of the first year of the war, Pericles gave his famous Funeral Oration (431 BC).
The Spartans also occupied Attica for periods of only three weeks at a time; in the tradition of earlier hoplite warfare the soldiers were expected to go home to participate in the harvest. Moreover, Spartan slaves, known as helots, needed to be kept under control, and could not be left unsupervised for long periods of time. The longest Spartan invasion, in 430 BC, lasted just forty days.
The Athenian strategy was initially guided by the "strategos," or general, Pericles, who advised the Athenians to avoid open battle with the far more numerous and better trained Spartan hoplites, relying instead on the fleet. The Athenian fleet, the most dominant in Greece, went on the offensive, winning a victory at Naupactus. In 430 BC an outbreak of a plague hit Athens. The plague ravaged the densely packed city, and in the long run, was a significant cause of its final defeat. The plague wiped out over 30,000 citizens, sailors and soldiers, including Pericles and his sons. Roughly one-third to two-thirds of the Athenian population died. Athenian manpower was correspondingly drastically reduced and even foreign mercenaries refused to hire themselves out to a city riddled with plague. The fear of plague was so widespread that the Spartan invasion of Attica was abandoned, their troops being unwilling to risk contact with the diseased enemy.
After the death of Pericles, the Athenians turned somewhat against his conservative, defensive strategy and to the more aggressive strategy of bringing the war to Sparta and its allies. Rising to particular importance in Athenian democracy at this time was Cleon, a leader of the hawkish elements of the Athenian democracy. Led militarily by a clever new general Demosthenes (not to be confused with the later Athenian orator Demosthenes), the Athenians managed some successes as they continued their naval raids on the Peloponnese. Athens stretched their military activities into Boeotia and Aetolia, quelled the Mytilenean revolt and began fortifying posts around the Peloponnese. One of these posts was near Pylos on a tiny island called Sphacteria, where the course of the first war turned in Athens's favour. The post off Pylos struck Sparta where it was weakest: its dependence on the helots, who tended the fields while its citizens trained to become soldiers. The helots made the Spartan system possible, but now the post off Pylos began attracting helot runaways. In addition, the fear of a general revolt of helots emboldened by the nearby Athenian presence drove the Spartans to action. Demosthenes, however, outmanoeuvred the Spartans in the Battle of Pylos in 425 BC and trapped a group of Spartan soldiers on Sphacteria as he waited for them to surrender. Weeks later, though, Demosthenes proved unable to finish off the Spartans. After boasting that he could put an end to the affair in the Assembly, the inexperienced Cleon won a great victory at the Battle of Sphacteria. The Athenians captured 300 Spartan hoplites. The hostages gave the Athenians a bargaining chip.
After these battles, the Spartan general Brasidas raised an army of allies and helots and marched the length of Greece to the Athenian colony of Amphipolis in Thrace, which controlled several nearby silver mines; their product supplied much of the Athenian war fund. Thucydides was dispatched with a force which arrived too late to stop Brasidas capturing Amphipolis; Thucydides was exiled for this, and, as a result, had the conversations with both sides of the war which inspired him to record its history. Both Brasidas and Cleon were killed in Athenian efforts to retake Amphipolis (see Battle of Amphipolis). The Spartans and Athenians agreed to exchange the hostages for the towns captured by Brasidas, and signed a truce.
Peace of Nicias (421 BC).
With the death of Cleon and Brasidas, zealous war hawks for both nations, the Peace of Nicias was able to last for some six years. However, it was a time of constant skirmishing in and around the Peloponnese. While the Spartans refrained from action themselves, some of their allies began to talk of revolt. They were supported in this by Argos, a powerful state within the Peloponnese that had remained independent of Lacedaemon. With the support of the Athenians, the Argives succeeded in forging a coalition of democratic states within the Peloponnese, including the powerful states of Mantinea and Elis. Early Spartan attempts to break up the coalition failed, and the leadership of the Spartan king Agis was called into question. Emboldened, the Argives and their allies, with the support of a small Athenian force under Alcibiades, moved to seize the city of Tegea, near Sparta.
The Battle of Mantinea was the largest land battle fought within Greece during the Peloponnesian War. The Lacedaemonians, with their neighbors the Tegeans, faced the combined armies of Argos, Athens, Mantinea, and Arcadia. In the battle, the allied coalition scored early successes, but failed to capitalize on them, which allowed the Spartan elite forces to defeat the forces opposite them. The result was a complete victory for the Spartans, which rescued their city from the brink of strategic defeat. The democratic alliance was broken up, and most of its members were reincorporated into the Peloponnesian League. With its victory at Mantinea, Sparta pulled itself back from the brink of utter defeat, and re-established its hegemony throughout the Peloponnese.
Sicilian Expedition (415–413 BC).
In the 17th year of the war, word came to Athens that one of their distant allies in Sicily was under attack from Syracuse. The people of Syracuse were ethnically Dorian (as were the Spartans), while the Athenians, and their ally in Sicilia, were Ionian. The Athenians felt obliged to assist their ally.
The Athenians did not act solely from altruism: rallied on by Alcibiades, the leader of the expedition, they held visions of conquering all of Sicily. Syracuse, the principal city of Sicily, was not much smaller than Athens, and conquering all of Sicily would have brought Athens an immense amount of resources. In the final stages of the preparations for departure, the hermai (religious statues) of Athens were mutilated by unknown persons, and Alcibiades was charged with religious crimes. Alcibiades demanded that he be put on trial at once, so that he might defend himself before the expedition. The Athenians however allowed Alcibiades to go on the expedition without being tried (many believed in order to better plot against him). After arriving in Sicily, Alcibiades was recalled to Athens for trial. Fearing that he would be unjustly condemned, Alcibiades defected to Sparta and Nicias was placed in charge of the mission. After his defection, Alcibiades claimed to the Spartans that the Athenians planned to use Sicily as a springboard for the conquest of all of Italy and Carthage, and to use the resources and soldiers from these new conquests to conquer the Peloponnese.
The Athenian force consisted of over 100 ships and some 5,000 infantry and light-armored troops. Cavalry was limited to about 30 horses, which proved to be no match for the large and highly trained Syracusan cavalry. Upon landing in Sicily, several cities immediately joined the Athenian cause. Instead of attacking at once, Nicias procrastinated and the campaigning season of 415 BC ended with Syracuse scarcely damaged. With winter approaching, the Athenians were then forced to withdraw into their quarters, and they spent the winter gathering allies and preparing to destroy Syracuse. The delay allowed the Syracusans to send for help from Sparta, who sent their general Gylippus to Sicily with reinforcements. Upon arriving, he raised up a force from several Sicilian cities, and went to the relief of Syracuse. He took command of the Syracusan troops, and in a series of battles defeated the Athenian forces, and prevented them from invading the city.
Nicias then sent word to Athens asking for reinforcements. Demosthenes was chosen and led another fleet to Sicily, joining his forces with those of Nicias. More battles ensued and again, the Syracusans and their allies defeated the Athenians. Demosthenes argued for a retreat to Athens, but Nicias at first refused. After additional setbacks, Nicias seemed to agree to a retreat until a bad omen, in the form of a lunar eclipse, delayed any withdrawal. The delay was costly and forced the Athenians into a major sea battle in the Great Harbor of Syracuse. The Athenians were thoroughly defeated. Nicias and Demosthenes marched their remaining forces inland in search of friendly allies. The Syracusan cavalry rode them down mercilessly, eventually killing or enslaving all who were left of the mighty Athenian fleet.
The Second War (413–404 BC).
The Lacedaemonians were not content with simply sending aid to Sicily; they also resolved to take the war to the Athenians. On the advice of Alcibiades, they fortified Decelea, near Athens, and prevented the Athenians from making use of their land year round. The fortification of Decelea prevented the shipment of supplies overland to Athens, and forced all supplies to be brought in by sea at increased expense. Perhaps worst of all, the nearby silver mines were totally disrupted, with as many as 20,000 Athenian slaves freed by the Spartan hoplites at Decelea. With the treasury and emergency reserve fund of 1,000 talents dwindling away, the Athenians were forced to demand even more tribute from her subject allies, further increasing tensions and the threat of further rebellion within the Empire.
The Corinthians, the Spartans, and others in the Peloponnesian League sent more reinforcements to Syracuse, in the hopes of driving off the Athenians; but instead of withdrawing, the Athenians sent another hundred ships and another 5,000 troops to Sicily. Under Gylippus, the Syracusans and their allies were able to decisively defeat the Athenians on land; and Gylippus encouraged the Syracusans to build a navy, which was able to defeat the Athenian fleet when they attempted to withdraw. The Athenian army, attempting to withdraw overland to other, more friendly Sicilian cities, was divided and defeated; the entire Athenian fleet was destroyed, and virtually the entire Athenian army was sold off into slavery.
Following the defeat of the Athenians in Sicily, it was widely believed that the end of the Athenian Empire was at hand. Their treasury was nearly empty, its docks were depleted, and many of the Athenian youth were dead or imprisoned in a foreign land.
Athens recovers.
Following the destruction of the Sicilian Expedition, Lacedaemon encouraged the revolt of Athens's tributary allies, and indeed, much of Ionia rose in revolt against Athens. The Syracusans sent their fleet to the Peloponnesians, and the Persians decided to support the Spartans with money and ships. Revolt and faction threatened in Athens itself.
The Athenians managed to survive for several reasons. First, their foes were lacking in initiative. Corinth and Syracuse were slow to bring their fleets into the Aegean, and Sparta's other allies were also slow to furnish troops or ships. The Ionian states that rebelled expected protection, and many rejoined the Athenian side. The Persians were slow to furnish promised funds and ships, frustrating battle plans.
At the start of the war, the Athenians had prudently put aside some money and 100 ships that were to be used only as a last resort.
These ships were then released, and served as the core of the Athenians' fleet throughout the rest of the war. An oligarchical revolution occurred in Athens, in which a group of 400 seized power. A peace with Sparta might have been possible, but the Athenian fleet, now based on the island of Samos, refused to accept the change. In 411 BC this fleet engaged the Spartans at the Battle of Syme. The fleet appointed Alcibiades their leader, and continued the war in Athens's name. Their opposition led to the reinstitution of a democratic government in Athens within two years.
Alcibiades, while condemned as a traitor, still carried weight in Athens. He prevented the Athenian fleet from attacking Athens; instead, he helped restore democracy by more subtle pressure. He also persuaded the Athenian fleet to attack the Spartans at the battle of Cyzicus in 410. In the battle, the Athenians obliterated the Spartan fleet, and succeeded in re-establishing the financial basis of the Athenian Empire.
Between 410 and 406, Athens won a continuous string of victories, and eventually recovered large portions of its empire. All of this was due, in no small part, to Alcibiades.
Achaemenid support for Sparta (414–404 BC).
From 414 BC, Darius II, ruler of the Achaemenid Empire had started to resent increasing Athenian power in the Aegean and had his satrap Tissaphernes enter into an alliance with Sparta against Athens, which in 412 BC led to the Persian reconquest of the greater part of Ionia. Tissaphernes also helped fund the Peloponnesian fleet.
Facing the resurgence of Athens, from 408 BC, Darius II decided to continue the war against Athens and give stronger support to the Spartans. He sent his son Cyrus the Younger into Asia Minor as satrap of Lydia, Phrygia Major and Cappadocia, and general commander ("Karanos", κἀρανος) of the Persian troops. There, Cyrus allied with the Spartan general Lysander. In him, Cyrus found a man who was willing to help him become king, just as Lysander himself hoped to become absolute ruler of Greece by the aid of the Persian prince. Thus, Cyrus put all his means at the disposal of Lysander in the Peloponnesian War. When Cyrus was recalled to Susa by his dying father Darius, he gave Lysander the revenues from all of his cities of Asia Minor.
Cyrus the Younger would later obtain the support of the Spartans in return, after having asked them "to show themselves as good friend to him, as he had been to them during their war against Athens", when he led his own expedition to Susa in 401 BC in order to topple his brother, Artaxerxes II.
Lysander triumphs, Athens surrenders.
The faction hostile to Alcibiades triumphed in Athens following a minor Spartan victory by their skillful general Lysander at the naval battle of Notium in 406 BC. Alcibiades was not re-elected general by the Athenians and he exiled himself from the city. He would never again lead Athenians in battle. Athens was then victorious at the naval battle of Arginusae. The Spartan fleet under Callicratidas lost 70 ships and the Athenians lost 25 ships. But, due to bad weather, the Athenians were unable to rescue their stranded crews or finish off the Spartan fleet. Despite their victory, these failures caused outrage in Athens and led to a controversial trial. The trial resulted in the execution of six of Athens's top naval commanders. Athens's naval supremacy would now be challenged without several of its most able military leaders and a demoralized navy.
Unlike some of his predecessors the new Spartan general, Lysander, was not a member of the Spartan royal families and was also formidable in naval strategy; he was an artful diplomat, who had even cultivated good personal relationships with the Achaemenid prince Cyrus the Younger, son of Emperor Darius II. Seizing its opportunity, the Spartan fleet sailed at once to the Dardanelles, the source of Athens's grain. Threatened with starvation, the Athenian fleet had no choice but to follow. Through cunning strategy, Lysander totally defeated the Athenian fleet, in 405 BC, at the Battle of Aegospotami, destroying 168 ships and capturing some three or four thousand Athenian sailors. Only twelve Athenian ships escaped, and several of these sailed to Cyprus, carrying the "strategos" (general) Conon, who was anxious not to face the judgment of the Assembly.
Facing starvation and disease from the prolonged siege, Athens surrendered in 404 BC, and its allies soon surrendered as well. The democrats at Samos, loyal to the bitter last, held on slightly longer, and were allowed to flee with their lives. The surrender stripped Athens of its walls, its fleet, and all of its overseas possessions. Corinth and Thebes demanded that Athens should be destroyed and all its citizens should be enslaved. However, the Spartans announced their refusal to destroy a city that had done a good service at a time of greatest danger to Greece, and took Athens into their own system. Athens was "to have the same friends and enemies" as Sparta.
Aftermath.
The overall effect of the war in Greece proper was to replace the Athenian Empire with a Spartan empire. After the battle of Aegospotami, Sparta took over the Athenian empire and kept all of its tribute revenues for itself; Sparta's allies, who had made greater sacrifices for the war effort than had Sparta, got nothing.
For a short period of time, Athens was ruled by the "Thirty Tyrants", and democracy was suspended. This was a reactionary regime set up by Sparta. In 403 BC, the oligarchs were overthrown and a democracy was restored by Thrasybulus.
Although the power of Athens was broken, it made something of a recovery as a result of the Corinthian War and continued to play an active role in Greek politics. Sparta was later humbled by Thebes at the Battle of Leuctra in 371 BC, but the rivalry between Athens and Sparta was brought to an end a few decades later when Philip II of Macedon conquered all of Greece except Sparta, which was later subjugated by Philip's son Alexander in 331 BC.
A symbolic peace treaty was signed by the mayors of Athens and Sparta 2,400 years after the war ended, on March 12, 1996.


Wintrange Castle

Wintrange Castle (), located in the centre of Wintrange near Schengen in south-eastern Luxembourg, is a privately owned Renaissance style castle built in 1610 and can be rented for weddings, events, film, and photo location.
Location.
The castle is a historic landmark in the Moselle valley and is surrounded by a 1.5 hectare private park. Adjacent to the estate is the Haff Remich bird sanctuary and national park with lakes and ponds stretching down to the river.
History.
Named as one of the most beautiful private castles in the Luxembourg region in Hémecht, Château de Wintrange carries a long history of Nobles and Lords.
Built in 1610 by Alexandre de Musset, Sire of Foetz, it has changed family ownership 18 times.
The name Wintrange has first been documented in writings in 987 AD, although the area has been inhabited for several millennia. The Romans were the first to cultivate vineyards in the fertile soil of the river Valley. Remains of Roman villas have been excavated in the area.
Located in the picturesque Mosel river valley, Château de Wintrange is the historic monument of the village of Wintrange.
The castle was built with its own well system, waterways, a walled park and own vineyards. The surrounding property was much larger in the 1600s than today, then being tended by servants.
The main building structure with its four towers hasn’t changed in the past four centuries.
In the 30-year war (1618-1648) some fortifications were added, as well as a gunport to protect the main entrance.
In the 18th century, the annexed barn with the 5th tower was built as an interconnected extension.
It was mainly used as horse stables.
In the 1930s, iron ore mining Industrial Nick Schlesser hunted game in the lush forests above the village and fell in love with this little jewel of a castle in the valley. Previously owned by Gisbert de Witt, who cultivated the park into an orchard, the Château de Wintrange was sold in 1938 by Notary Champagne to Nicolas Schlesser.
Today, Château de Wintrange is still privately owned and carefully restored by Nick's grandson Philippe.
The castle and park can be rented for events, weddings, film and photo shoots.
The castle today.
The castle is privately owned and can be rented for weddings, events, film, and photo location, but is not yet open to tourists or guided tours, although this may change after the completed renovation.


Lord of Arran

The Lord of Arran was a title for the lord of Arran, Scotland in High Medieval Scotland.


Otto Liiv

Otto Liiv ( in Narva – 10 December 1942 in Tartu) was an Estonian historian and archivist. He was one of the founders of Estonian archival science as well as one of the most prolific and respected historians in Estonia.
Liiv attended school in Narva and Tallinn and enrolled at the University of Tartu in 1923 and graduated in 1927. He was the head of the Estonian State Central Archives from 1929 to 1942. He also lectured at the University of Tartu and was the chief editor of the journal "Ajalooline Ajakiri". Liiv had an academic interest in the history of the 17th century Estonia and contributed to the books "The Economic History of Estonia" in 1937 and the third volume of "History of Estonia" in 1940.
In 2005, Eesti Post issued a commemorative Stamp cancellation marking the 100th anniversary of Otto Liiv's birth.


Bartholomew Ledges Wreck

The Bartholomew Ledges Wreck is a wreck found in the late 1970s at St Marys Sound, Isles of Scilly is believed to be that of a mid-sixteenth to early seventeenth century armed cargo vessel. The site was designated under the Protection of Wrecks Act on 23 September 1980. The wreck is a Protected Wreck managed by Historic England.
The wreck.
The wreck appears to be an armed cargo ship that grounded on Bartholomew Ledges and foundered. Spanish-type lead ingots likely dating to the sixteenth to early seventeenth century found within the vessel indicate that it is of Iberian origin, and possibly related to the Spanish Armada. Also found on the site were medieval bronze bell fragments that could be traced back to The Lord Nelson public house at Poole, Dorset. Further finds include breech-loading iron guns, anchors, pottery fragments, silver coins dating from 1474 to 1555, a gold seal, barrel spigots, iron and stone shot, buttons, and small lace brass objects.
Discovery and investigation.
The wreck site was found in the 1970s and was salvaged intensively until 1980 when salvage became prohibited after the designation of the wreck.
In 2003 the wreck was subject to an archaeological investigation which included the tagging of artefacts and survey of guns and anchors.
Identity.
It has been suggested that the wreck is that of the ‘Great Levantine’ "San Bartolome" which was part of the Armada fleet that left Ferrol on 8 October 1597, potentially giving the ledges their name. The fleet of 136 ships carrying 9000 troops sailed under Don Martin de Padilla to intercept an English fleet returning home. A storm sunk 28 ships around 30 miles of the Lizard on 12 October.
Some evidence supports this hypothesis; the small wrought iron breech-loading swivel guns found on the wreck are comparable with those found on sixteenth century Spanish wrecks in the Americas, and the lead ingots recovered are similar to those found on other Armada wrecks in British and Irish waters. The anchors were also consistent with Iberian construction. While archaeological evidence does suggest that the wreck may be of Spanish or Spanish Netherlands origin, no evidence has been found that confirms the wrecks identity as that of "San Bartolome".


Carl von Hoffman

Karl von Hoffman (St. Petersburg, Russia, c. 1889 – New York, New York, US, 8 July 1982) was a soldier, adventurer, author, and photographer of German ancestry. He was a descendant of Melchior Hoffman; journalist Nicholas von Hoffman is his son.
At the age of 17, von Hoffman—then a military cadet—disobeyed his mother's wishes and joined the Russian army during the Russo-Japanese War. For actions during the war he was awarded the Order of St. Anna. He participated in World War I, serving in the Russian army, and then under Admiral Kolchak on the White Russian side in the Russian Civil War. Von Hoffman is said by some sources to have been on the Roosevelt-Rondon Scientific Expedition in 1913; however, Theodore Roosevelt does not mention him in his memoir of the expedition, but footage proving von Hoffman's presence can be found here.
Von Hoffman was an explorer who once led a safari from Cape Town, South Africa, to Cairo—a walk that took him three years and was the basis of his two books, "Jungle Gods" (New York, H. Holt and Company [c1929]) and "Jerry on Safari: A 7,000 Mile Journey from Cairo to the Cape" (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Company, 1936). Von Hoffman's photographs of the Mexican Revolution and of Theodore Roosevelt were celebrated; his photographs of Roosevelt and Pancho Villa were exhibited in 2002 at the Martin & Osa Johnson Safari
Museum. He was the cinematographer for films including "The Life of General Villa," (1914,), featuring Pancho Villa himself. The movie was produced by D. W. Griffith. Von Hoffman often said his knowledge of the use of machine guns was one of the things Griffiths offered Villa to gain his participation in the movie. (In 2003, the filming of the documentary about Villa was turned into a TV movie, "And Starring Pancho Villa as Himself," directed by Bruce Beresford and written by Larry Gelbart with the minor role of von Hoffman played by Julian Sedgwick.) Von Hoffman was also cinematographer of "The Marriage Bond" (1916) directed by Lawrence Marston. He was a member of the Explorers Club. He was also an Honorary Life Member and past president (1962) of the Adventurers' Club of New York.
Early life.
Von Hoffman was born in the Baltic port city of Riga on February 13, 1890, where his father was engaged as a botanist and forester of the then vast timber holdings of the Czar. Family position enabled young Carl to enter the Third Military Academy in St. Petersburg. It was also this family position and acquaintance with many of the ship's captains plying between this port and England with their cargoes of lumber that secured for Carl an invitation to sail to England which he eagerly accepted after securing leave from the academy and having reached the age of 17.
While aboard ship in Liverpool, he developed an interest and engaged in conversations about the great ships berthed nearby that were to sail to the United States. The captain offered to arrange a free passage to New York and this opportunity was also accepted by the adventurous Carl. Having no money, he was able to borrow $300 from the captain and set sail at once for America.
Arrival in New York.
Upon arrival in New York, he briefly explored the city and shortly decided not to return but to remain in the United States. It was fortunate that a German family who had once lived on their property and had immigrated earlier were now in New York, and there he stayed. All of this activity was not easily cast aside by his family who attempted to exert pressure on him to return by way of the then American Ambassador known to the family. Having no knowledge of the English language, he secured a correspondence course in an attempt to learn and which, though difficult, began his mastery of the language.
Being low in funds, he accepted work in what could now be referred to as a sweatshop where men's shirts were manufactured, and almost all of the workers spoke Russian. The work was to unroll material on near block-long benches and prepare it for the cutters. During all of this time, his family continued efforts to secure his return by contact with the Russian Ambassador—all to no avail. His decision had been made.
Photography apprenticeship.
As the result of his amateur knowledge and interest in photography, he was fortunate to be able to secure an apprenticeship with Brown Brothers, a photographic company. At this time in our history, it was common for newspapers to give photo assignments to an independent company to complete for them. After serving an apprenticeship with Brown Brothers, he learned that the New York Globe wanted to have their own staff photographer. As the Globe was aware of some of the outstanding work he had done with Brown Brothers, he was offered the job. The year was 1910. The job, press photographer. One of his early tasks while with The Globe, was to establish a darkroom, as the photographers of that era had to do all of their own lab work. He continued to secure outstanding news photographs but was still handicapped by the language barrier, as it was also required at that time that the photographer provide captions for their work, Fortunately a noted cartoonist named Walter Davenport became friendly with the young photographer and assisted him developing the titles.
This same employer, the Globe, late in 1910, provided additional opportunity for adventure when the editor advised him he was to be assigned overseas to cover a story in the then virtually unheard of city of Timbuktu. Carl, not being sure if this was a practical joke or not, went at once to his cartoonist friend Davenport and told him the good news. It was then he learned that Timbuktu was in the grips of the bubonic plague and no one else would accept the assignment. He set sail with a group of Catholic missionaries assigned to provide medical aid. The group sailed first to England and then to Africa's west coast. The final leg of the trip overland was completed by camel caravan.
The assignment was to record on film the work of the missionaries and the burning of the huts and possessions of those who had fallen victim to the plague. They attempted to minimize the possibility of becoming victims themselves by staying out of the huts and observing the best sanitary methods they could muster, there being no protection known at the time except the torch.
Upon his return to The Globe from the Timbuktu assignment, the paper moved to new quarters and Carl made contact with a company that was to provide him with the opportunity to learn the art of moviemaking. This opportunity provided the basics to launch him on a decades-long career as a pioneer in the art of making documentary films.
Mutual Film Company.
While employed by the Mutual Film Company, Carl was chosen to accompany the Teddy Roosevelt ill-fated expedition on the River of Doubt in the Brazilian jungle. Upon arrival at the last deep forest jumping-off spot, it was learned that inadequate provision had been made to transport anyone but Colonel Roosevelt, Kermit Roosevelt, and an army general, along with their personal photographer, leaving Carl to return to the main base with the film taken up to that point. Later it was learned that as the expedition was returning down river, an overburdened canoe swamped and all the film taken was lost. The only photo record of the expedition was safely in Carl's camera.
From this activity, Carl received an assignment from D. W. Griffith to gather factual films of Pancho Villa for use in a film. For this, Poncho Villa was to be paid $25,000. This would permit Carl to travel with him to various camps and film their activity. The plans were for a one-year project, but this was cut short after about nine months when Carl became privy to the information that the go-between had pocketed $10,000 and misinformed Poncho as to the amount paid. It was learned that there was a plan afoot to have a rifleman stationed on a hillside shoot Carl while he was operating his camera, thereby eliminating the threat of his revealing this information to Poncho with whom Carl had developed a friendship and closeness. At this point in history, there were a number of persons who had the technical and mechanical knowledge of the equipment, but they were not photographers. The artistic approach was missing, such as the use of close-ups and varied camera angles. Having learned the basics, Carl applied to an independent firm for a job as a cameraman and after testing his work was given the assignment to cover the Wilson inauguration though he was still on the staff of The Globe. It was during this assignment, through friends in Washington, that he was able to photograph Mr. Taft on his last visit to church as the president was removing his hat. This had never been photographed before, as Taft expressly forbade such photos. The coverage of the inaugural parade was viewed at the ground level where he could photograph the crowd reactions, children on the curb, and vendors selling their wares, as well as the procession. This gave a human, artistic touch not heretofore found in news films---the first human interest introduced to these films.
Assignments in the East.
On the basis of the exceptional quality and technique displayed, he was given a full-time staff position by Universal. The first assignment from this company was to take the first motion pictures of the United States fleet on maneuvers.
A number of years later, while on a lecture tour of Japan, von Hoffman came upon the idea of visiting Taiwan, which was then called Formosa and under Japanese control, and had wild areas not heretofore explored or photographed. Entry was not encouraged by the government, and in fact no foreigners were permitted. This made it all the more appealing to him, and by trickery he secured a ticket for passage on a government boat, with professors en route there to service the small educational system the Japanese maintained on the island. His exploration of this region permitted him to record on film some of the rites of the tribes of headhunters still living in the remote mountain areas. This seven-month effort produced a remarkable film shown at the Explorers Club. The visit also permitted him to secure a collection of treasured artifacts relating to the lives of these people and produced a lecture series on the subject.
Earlier, with his technique improving, Carl decided to make an independent film which was an anthropological and ethnological documentary on Morocco entitled "Land of the Moors" which was later featured at the Strand Theater in New York. This effort was the beginning of his deep involvement as a pioneer of documentary and educational films of primitive people, their land, and customs. These films were produced by the Urban Institute, which Carl joined, headed by Sir Charles Urban, and it was this company that expanded the use of documentary films and later its own motion picture color process.
This visit produced a number of interesting encounters, among them being the guest of the Pasha for a dinner consisting of endless courses eaten with fingers instead of utensils. It. was after such a dinner, when the many wives of the host were gathered, that the Pasha revealed that one of the guests was originally from Russia and had a Georgian mother. This was, of course, particularly interesting to the gathering, as it was common at that time for them to buy their wives in Georgia and transport them home for the wedding ceremony on the backs of small desert donkeys, a long trip by any standard.
Shortly after this encounter, a small messenger delivered a note to Carl on the back of some wrapping paper. He was requested, in Russian, to follow the young boy, who would call for him the next morning, and subsequently meet the mystery author of the note. The following day, he did as asked, and was taken to a small hut in the village where he was instructed to remove his western-style clothing in exchange for a flowing caftan, veil, and special sandals. The footwear was of special significance to Carl as each pair bore the family identification in Arabic and he had no idea just which family name he bore. Having donned the perfect disguise, and being assured in sign language that his effects would be safe, the boy beckoned him to follow. They followed a circuitous route, finally arriving at one of the entrances to the home of the Pasha. The boy had access to the area and they walked past Arabs sitting along the passageways who did not give them a second glance. They shortly arrived at the servants' entrance, passed through, and entered the main building complex. The area had many smaller buildings and areas which were occupied by the many wives, each having her own apartment and servants. It is important to note that the servants were completely devoted to the wife they served and conspiracies against husbands were carried out with their assistance. Finally, after being settled in one of these apartments by the servants, the lady of the house appeared and addressed him in Russian. She went on to explain that her husband, the host of the previous evening's dinner, had told her about Carl and his Russian background and the fact that his mother was a Georgian from a prominent family which she recognized. It was upon hearing this that she decided she must see him and began the plot to smuggle him into the harem area. The family where the costume change occurred were the parents of one of her house servants and also loyal. Carl had managed to conceal a camera within his flowing robes and was able to take one photo of the three women sitting in the apartment while visiting. He was then told the story of the Georgian wife being sold to her husband and her donkey caravan trip to her current home in the harem. At a later date, he made a second visit, though to be exposed would have meant beheading. The film, when completed, was not only one of the prominent achievements in the making of documentary films, but provided the subject matter for a series of lectures within the United States and Europe.
A little known fact was that a considerable amount of footage was taken with cameraman Von Hoffman looking toward the' rear of the camera. By religious custom, the Moroccans frowned upon reproducing their image on film, and would hide. To overcome this, Carl devised a mirror on the camera to enable him to look backwards, quieting any suspicions the populace had that they were being photographed. Furthermore, it caused many to follow his backward gaze, thereby looking directly into the camera, producing some outstanding footage.
Trek in Africa.
During 1924, Carl was approached by a group of four businessmen from Detroit and invited to participate in an African trek from Cairo to Cape Town completely on foot, a distance of slightly over 7,000 miles, ultimately taking 11 months to complete. This was the longest trek in the history of exploration. The group, which consisted of a doctor, realtor, lawyer, and the inventor of the Packard 12-cylinder automobile, felt the need of a professional explorer, hence Carl's participation. The purpose of the trip was the sheer accomplishment of the act for all except Carl who wanted the films that such a trip could generate.
The group sailed from New York to England shortly before Christmas in 1924. Upon arrival in England, they separated with three of the group going to Paris. Carl and the doctor remained behind to secure medical information relative to protection from tropical diseases. They experienced much difficulty in reaching the doctor having the needed information, and had abandoned hope of making contact, when a last-minute call before leaving for the airport found him in his office. A forgotten Christmas gift had caused the doctor to return to his Office at the moment of their last telephone attempt. This contact caused them to cancel their air passage. The flight they cancelled caught fire in air and crashed en route with the loss of all aboard. This minor change in plans was unknown to the remainder of the group in Paris, who believing them lost, were cancelling plans to complete the expedition. Their arrival was quite a shock to the others the next morning.
The trek followed a relatively direct course with large numbers of porters engaged to move the supplies south. The porters carried only to their territorial borders. Fortunately, contacts with Colonial commissioners gave them the opportunity to have the needed manpower available at each border. Porters carried 50 pounds each on their heads and were paid in salt and calico cloth. As supplies diminished, less porters were required. While traveling in the areas having a heavy infestation of malaria, they traveled at night, as the mosquitoes and tsetse flies were not as active during this period. The only problem with this hiking technique was that while the insects slept, the leopard and lion became active.
It was not uncommon for a tribal commissioner to travel part of the distance with the safari as a show of good will. This gesture and lack of vigilance caused one commissioner to be badly mauled by a lion that pulled him from his horse and dragged him into the bush. (His head was held so tightly to the animal's body he could hear the lion's heart beat. The man's great strength enabled him to plunge a knife into the lion and kill it before being eaten. At that time, this was the only recorded case of man's survival in hand-to-hand combat with a lion.
A return visit to what was then Rhodesia provided the research data for Carl's book "Jungle Gods," which was printed in several languages. The book follows the religious rites and customs of a single African tribe for a full year. It was during this period that Carl was able to spend much time with the native population and study in depth their way of life and rituals, probably never before witnessed by a white man. He is also author of "Jerry on Safari," a book for young people.
Australian Outback.
Carl later visited the Australian Outback in an attempt to photograph the life of the Aborigines. While this produced much footage recorded for the first time, it proved extremely difficult, since the Aborigine was nomadic and with no village life at that time, only scattered glimpses were possible.
Prior to his leaving for Australia, the Bronx Zoo commissioned him to bring back a group of animals and snakes sought for display. Due to the care and planning Carl brought to the venture, none of the animals were lost on the journey home, much to the amazement of zoo officials.
The return voyage took the ship past Pitcairn Island and the captain received a telegram from the island that the people would like to see the kangaroos. As these animals were kept on deck, the ship slowed when it reached the island, and the residents paddled out in canoes to go aboard to see the kangaroos and other animals stored topside. For this gesture, Carl was presented a handsome urn carved of mahogany by the islanders.
Carl was also responsible for developing many photographic techniques and equipment. Among these was his participation in the development of the early phases of the syncro flash, which undoubtedly opened many new avenues to the photographer.
Personal life.
Carl often recalls the many colorful and prominent early Explorers Club members with whom he had a close relationship, such as Martin Johnson, Peter Freuchen, Lowell Thomas, Bernt Balchen, and others. As a friend of Martin Johnson, he attempted to prevail upon him to remain in New York for the Annual Dinner on the eve of Johnson's fateful flight. Unable to stay the extra day, he left and was aboard the flight that resulted in his death. Martin Johnson died in the crash of a Western Air Express Boeing 247 commercial flight near Newhall, California in 1937.
In addition to work in the fields of ethnology, anthropology and cinematology, that has seen him carry the Explorers Club flag into far-flung places and visits to primitive people, he was the founder of the club's Safari Dinners. These dinners were a popular feature of the lecture series for a long time. Some of the specialties at these dinners might be such items as: giant salmon (from Alaska); a variety of big game (provided by friends); cases of beer (from a Scandinavian source); and last, but not least, Carl's famous cream cheese and peanut butter spread dip. He also initiated many of the early annual dinners held at the Plaza, which were a great success.
His legendary devotion to the Explorers Club as committee chairman and board member is well known. Over the years, his untiring efforts and presence at Club functions and work projects have contributed much to the club and its members.
His friendship with Albert Einstein and the brother of the Dali (sic) Lama brought them to the Explorers Club to attend lectures, which events have been remembered by those members of long standing.
An in-depth conversation with Carl has been taped over a period of months. These tapes cover most of his activities, including a stint while still a cadet in the Russo-Japanese War in 1904, winning the medal of St. George for getting a vital message through the lines, and later his experience in the revolution and his miraculous recovery from typhus fever in the last days of the Russian revolution in Siberia. Carl had served as a lieutenant in the U. S. Signal Corp during World War I and after the Armistice had joined an American unit to fight in the White Army with Admiral Kolchak. These tapes are in greater detail than this account and will be made part of the Explorers Club Archives.
Notes.
From an article, written by George E. Duck, published in the Explorers Journal, Official Quarterly of the Explorers Club, Volume 60, No. 2, June 1982. The article appears to be primarily based on interviews with von Hoffman and so is not verified.


Zisis Sotiriou

Zisis Sotiriou () was a Greek revolutionary of the Greek War of Independence.
Biography.
He was born in Servia of Kozani in the 1800s, but his family soon moved to Budapest. He was the son of klepht captain Sotiris. He was one of the first Diaspora Greeks who returned to fight for the Greek War of Independence. He fought together with Emmanouel Pappas and his army in many operations in Macedonia, as well as in the Peloponnese and in Central Greece.
From 1830, he took part in most revolutionary movements in the Greek state and abroad. He took place in the Second Italian War of Independence on the side of Giuseppe Garibaldi as a volunteer along with Ilias Stekoulis, Spyridon Sasellas, Alexandros Dosios, Nikolaos Makris, Nikolaos Smolenskis and others. He was the author of dozens of revolutionary proclamations, as well as the "First Proclamation of Volunteer army of Garibaldi", released on 8 June 1859.
Later, he returned to Greece, and worked as a guard at the Acropolis Museum. An article in the newspaper "Eleftherotypia" refers to his great selflessness and love for his homeland: "«He was a man of labor, a patriot, selfless, full of zeal, who when was offered for a medal and salary increase for the services he offered, he denied both, stating that "I have never asked for any remuneration or increase of my salary, if I do not fulfill my duty faithfully and honestly, doing so according to my principles and the oath which I gave to my homeland..."»