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22 July
22 July 1210 - Joan of England, Queen of Scotland was born
22 July 1298 – Wars of Scottish Independence: Battle of Falkirk: King Edward I of England & his longbowmen defeat William Wallace & his Scottish schiltrons outside the town of Falkirk
22 July 1315 - Siege of Carlisle begins.
22 July 1484 – Battle of Lochmaben Fair: A 500-man raiding party led by Alexander Stewart, Duke of Albany & James Douglas, 9th Earl of Douglas are defeated by Scots forces loyal to Albany's brother James III of Scotland; Douglas is captured.
22 July 1587 – Roanoke Colony: A second group of English settlers arrives on Roanoke Island off North Carolina to re-establish the deserted colony.
Roanoke Island was the site of the Roanoke Colony, an English settlement initially established in 1585 by Sir Walter Raleigh. A group of about 120 men, women & children arrived in 1587. Shortly after arriving in this New World, colonist Eleanor Dare, daughter of Governor John White, gave birth to Virginia Dare. She was the first English child born in North America. Governor White returned to England later that year for supplies. Due to impending war with Spain, White was unable to return to Roanoke Island until 1590. When he arrived, the colony had vanished. The fate of those first colonists remains a mystery to this day & is one of America's most intriguing unsolved mysteries. Archaeologists, historians, & other researchers continue to work to resolve the mystery. Visitors to the Fort Raleigh National Historic Site can watch The Lost Colony, the second-longest-running outdoor theatre production in the United States, which presents a conjecture of the fate of Roanoke Colony. Roanoke Island is one of the three oldest surviving English place-names in the U.S. Along with the Chowan & Neuse rivers, it was named in 1584 by Captains Philip Amadas & Arthur Barlowe, sent by Sir Walter Raleigh.
22 July 1598 – William Shakespeare’s play, The Merchant of Venice, is entered on the Stationers’ Register. By decree of Queen Elizabeth, the Stationers’ Register licensed printed works, giving the Crown tight control over all published material.
22 July 1706 – The Acts of Union 1707 are agreed upon by commissioners from the Kingdom of England & the Kingdom of Scotland, which, when passed by each countries' Parliaments, led to the creation of the Kingdom of Great Britain.
22 July 1793 – Alexander Mackenzie reaches the Pacific Ocean becoming the first recorded human to complete a transcontinental crossing of North America.
Sir Alexander Mackenzie (or MacKenzie c. 1764 – 12 March 1820) was a Scottish explorer known for accomplishing the first east to west crossing of America north of Mexico in 1793, which preceded the more famous Lewis & Clark Expedition by 12 years. The Mackenzie River is named after him.
22 July 1797 – Battle of Santa Cruz de Tenerife: Battle between Spanish & British naval forces during the French Revolutionary Wars. During the Battle, Rear-Admiral Nelson is wounded in the arm & the arm had to be partially amputated.
22 July 1805 – Napoleonic Wars: War of the Third Coalition: Battle of Cape Finisterre: An inconclusive naval action is fought between a combined French & Spanish fleet under Admiral Pierre-Charles Villeneuve of Spain & a British fleet under Admiral Robert Calder.
22 July 1812 – Napoleonic Wars: Peninsular War: Battle of Salamanca: British forces led by Arthur Wellesley (later the Duke of Wellington) defeat French troops near Salamanca, Spain.
22 July 1896 - Princess Maud of wales married Prince Carl of Denmark
22 July 2013 - Prince George was born
Prince George of Cambridge is the eldest child of Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, & third in the line of succession to the British throne behind his grandfather Prince Charles & his father.
23 July
23 July 1536 – Henry FitzRoy, 1st Duke of Richmond & Somerset, English politician, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland died (b. 1519)
23 July 1883 – Alan Brooke, 1st Viscount Alanbrooke, French-English field marshal and politician, Lord Lieutenant of the County of London was born (d. 1963)
Field Marshal Alan Francis Brooke, 1st Viscount Alanbrooke, was a senior officer of the British Army. He was Chief of the Imperial General Staff (CIGS), the professional head of the British Army, during the Second World War, & was promoted to field marshal on 1 January 1944. As chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Committee, Brooke was the foremost military advisor to Winston Churchill, the British Prime Minister, & had the role of co-ordinator of the British military efforts in the Allies' victory in 1945. After retiring from the British Army, he served as Lord High Constable of England during the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953. His war diaries attracted attention for their criticism of Churchill & for Brooke's forthright views on other leading figures of the war.
23 July 1885 - Princess Beatrice married Prince Henry of Battenberg.
23 July 1914 – Austria-Hungary issues a series of demands in an ultimatum to the Kingdom of Serbia demanding Serbia to allow the Austrians to determine who assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand. Serbia accepts all but one of those demands & Austria declares war on July 28.
23 July 1916 – William Ramsay died (b. 1852)
Sir William Ramsay was a Scottish chemist who discovered the noble gases & received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1904 "in recognition of his services in the discovery of the inert gaseous elements in air" along with his collaborator, John William Strutt, 3rd Baron Rayleigh, who received the Nobel Prize in Physics that same year for their discovery of argon. After the two men identified argon, Ramsay investigated other atmospheric gases. His work in isolating argon, helium, neon, krypton & xenon led to the development of a new section of the periodic table.
23 July 1932 – Tenby Davies, Welsh runner died (b. 1884)
Frederick Charles "Tenby" Davies was a Welsh athlete who became the half-mile world professional champion in 1909 after a race against Irishman Beauchamp Day.
Frederick Charles Davies was born at South Parade in Tenby, Pembrokeshire, Wales, the son of John Gwynne Davies (1854–1910), & Sarah Phillips (1852–1935). Freddy Davies went on to achieve recognition as one of the greatest runners Wales has yet produced & was regarded as one of the finest half-milers ever seen, winning the World 880 yds championship at Pontypridd in 1909.
Fred Davies’ versatility as a world-class athlete is underlined by the fact that as well as excelling at the half-mile, he also won events throughout Britain at distances from 100 yds up to a mile. He was a regular competitor in the Welsh Powderhall 130 yds handicap sprints, organised by the Pontypridd Athletic Club & held at Taff Vale Park in the town during the early part of the twentieth-century. But ‘Tenby’ is probably best remembered for taking on his great rival, Irishman Beauchamp R. Day of Blackpool, at Pontypridd on Monday 23 August 1909 where he decisively beat him over the half-mile distance, clocking an impressive 1 min. 57.6 seconds in the process, which was one of the fastest times recorded in the World for that year.
In 1911 he married Agnes Emily Ferguson (1888–1945) at the parish church of St Mary the Virgin in Tenby, & in the years that followed the couple moved to Cardiff where they had three children. F. C. Davies died at his home of 9 Preswylfa Street in Canton, Cardiff, Glamorgan, aged only 48.
23 July 1943 – World War II: The British destroyers HMS Eclipse and HMS Laforey sink the Italian submarine Ascianghi in the Mediterranean after she torpedoes the cruiser HMS Newfoundland.
24 July
24 July 759 – Oswulf, king of Northumbria died
24 July 1304 – Wars of Scottish Independence: Fall of Stirling Castle: King Edward I of England takes the stronghold using the War Wolf.
24 July 1411 – Battle of Harlaw, one of the bloodiest battles in Scotland, takes place.
24 July 1567 – Mary, Queen of Scots, is forced to abdicate and replaced by her 1-year-old son James VI.
24 July 1689 - Prince William, Duke of Gloucester was born
24 July 1918 - HMS Pincher was sunk during an accident.
24 July 1922 – The draft of the British Mandate of Palestine was formally confirmed by the Council of the League of Nations; it came into effect on 26 September 1923.
24 July 1927 – The Menin Gate war memorial is unveiled at Ypres.
24 July 1943 – World War II: Operation Gomorrah begins: British & Canadian aeroplanes bomb Hamburg by night, & American planes bomb the city by day.
24 July 1980 – Peter Sellers died (b. 1925)
Peter Sellers CBE (born Richard Henry Sellers) was an English film actor, comedian & singer. He performed in the BBC Radio comedy series The Goon Show, featured on a number of hit comic songs & became known to a worldwide audience through his many film roles, among them Chief Inspector Clouseau in The Pink Panther series of films.
24 July 1996 - Jock Wallace died
John Martin Bokas Wallace (6 September 1935 – 24 July 1996) was a professional Scottish football player & manager. His father, Jock Wallace Sr., was a goalkeeper for Raith Rovers, Blackpool & Derby County.
He has the unique distinction of being the only player ever to play in the English, Welsh & Scottish Cups in the same season; this was set during the 1966–67 season where he played in the FA Cup & Welsh Cup for Hereford United, & in the Scottish Cup when he moved to Berwick Rangers.
A goalkeeper, Wallace was freed by his first club, Blackpool, later signing for Workington in 1952, while working in the local pit. National Service with the King's Own Scottish Borderers afforded Wallace the opportunity of signing for the local club, Berwick Rangers. After character-defining military service in Northern Ireland & – famously – the jungles of Malaya, Wallace's playing career extended to Airdrieonians, West Bromwich Albion, non-league Bedford Town & Hereford United.
During his managerial career between 1966 & 1989 he managed Berwick Rangers; Glasgow Rangers; Leicester City; Motherwell; Glasgow Rangers; Sevilla & Colchester United.
His managerial honours were;
Glasgow Rangers;
Scottish League Division One: 1974–75, 1975–76, 1977–78
Scottish Cup: 1972–73, 1975–76, 1977–78
Scottish League Cup: 1975–76, 1977–78, 1983–84, 1984–85
Leicester City;
Football League Second Division: 1979–80
25 July
25 July 1394 – James I, king of Scotland was born (d. 1437)
25 July 1554 – Mary I marries Philip II of Spain at Winchester Cathedral.
25 July 1603 – James VI of Scotland is crowned king of England (James I of England), bringing the Kingdom of England & Kingdom of Scotland into personal union. Political union would occur in 1707.
1609 – The English ship Sea Venture, en route to Virginia, is deliberately driven ashore during a storm at Bermuda to prevent its sinking; the survivors go on to found a new colony there.
25 July 1814 – War of 1812: An American attack on Canada is repulsed.
25 July 1837 – The first commercial use of an electrical telegraph is successfully demonstrated in London by William Cooke & Charles Wheatstone.
The Cooke & Wheatstone telegraph was an early electrical telegraph system dating from the 1830s invented by English inventor William Fothergill Cooke & English scientist Charles Wheatstone. It was a form of needle telegraph, & the first telegraph system to be put into commercial service. The receiver consisted of a number of needles which could be moved by electromagnetic coils to point to letters on a board. This feature was liked by early users who were unwilling to learn codes, & employers who did not want to invest in staff training.
Cooke & Wheatstone's two-needle telegraph as used on the Great Western Railway.
25 July 1843 – Charles Macintosh, Scottish chemist & engineer died (b. 1766)
Charles Macintosh FRS (29 December 1766 – 25 July 1843) was a Scottish chemist and the inventor of waterproof fabric. The Mackintosh raincoat (the variant spelling is now standard) is named after him.
25 July 1848 – Arthur Balfour, 1st Earl of Balfour was born (d. 1930)
Balfour born in Whittingehame House, East Lothian, Scotland, was a British Conservative statesman who served as Prime Minister of the UK from 1902 to 1905.
25 July 1915 – RFC Captain Lanoe Hawker becomes the first British pursuit aviator to earn the Victoria Cross.
25 July 2009 – Harry Patch, English soldier died (b. 1898)
26 July
26 July 1450 – Cecily Neville, duchess of Warwick died (b. 1424)
26 July 1469 – Wars of the Roses: The Battle of Edgcote Moor, pitting the forces of Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick against those of Edward IV of England, takes place.
26 July 1745 – The first recorded women's cricket match takes place near Guildford, England.
26 July 1758 – French & Indian War: The Siege of Louisbourg ends with British forces defeating the French & taking control of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence.
26 July 1803 – The Surrey Iron Railway, arguably the world's first public railway, opens in south London, United Kingdom.
26 July 1892 – Dadabhai Naoroji is elected as the first Indian Member of Parliament in Britain.
Dadabhai Naoroji (4 September 1825 – 30 June 1917) also known as the "Grand Old Man of India" & "Unofficial Ambassador of India" was an Indian political leader, merchant, scholar & writer who was a Liberal Party Member of Parliament in the United Kingdom House of Commons between 1892 & 1895 & the first Asian to be a British MP.
26 July 1897 – Anglo-Afghan War: The Pashtun fakir Saidullah leads an army of more than 10,000 to begin a siege of the British garrison in the Malakand Agency of the North West Frontier Province of India.
26 July 1917 - HMS Ariadne (1898) is torpedoed & sunk.
26 July 1936 – King Edward VIII, in one of his few official duties before he abdicates the throne, officially unveils the Canadian National Vimy Memorial.
The Memorial in France commemorates then names of 11,169 Canadians killed during WWI.
26 July 1942 - SAS Raid on Sidi Haneish Airfield.
26 July 1944 General Leese received his knighthood in the field from King George VI.
Lieutenant-General Sir Oliver William Hargreaves Leese, 3rd Baronet, KCB, CBE, DSO (27 October 1894 – 22 January 1978) was a senior British Army officer who saw distinguished active service during both the world wars. He is most notable during the Second World War for commanding XXX Corps in North Africa & Sicily, serving under General Sir Bernard Montgomery, before going on to command the Eighth Army in the Italian Campaign throughout most of 1944.
1945 – The Labour Party led by Clement Atlee wins the United Kingdom general election of July 5 by a landslide, removing Winston Churchill from power.
Seats won; Labour 393 Conservatives 197.
26 July 1945 – HMS Vestal (J215) was critically damaged by Japanese kamikaze aircraft in 1945 & was subsequently scuttled in waters close to Thailand. Twenty men lost their lives.
27 July
27 July 1054 – Siward, Earl of Northumbria, invades Scotland & defeats Macbeth, King of Scotland somewhere north of the Firth of Forth.
27 July 1158 – Geoffrey VI, Count of Anjou died (b. 1134)
27 July 1214 - Battle of Bouvines
27 July 1663 – The English Parliament passes the second Navigation Act requiring that all goods bound for the American colonies have to be sent in English ships from English ports. After the Acts of Union 1707, Scotland would be included in the Act.
27 July 1689 – Glorious Revolution: The Battle of Killiecrankie is a victory for the Jacobites.
27 July 1694 – A Royal charter is granted to the Bank of England.
27 July 1778 - American Revolution: First Battle of Ushant: British & French fleets fight to a standoff.
27 July 1865 – Welsh settlers arrive at Chubut in Argentina.
27 July 1880 – Second Anglo-Afghan War: Battle of Maiwand: Afghan forces led by Mohammad Ayub Khan defeat the British Army in battle near Maiwand, Afghanistan.
27 July 1916 – Captain Charles Fryatt is executed by the Germans (b. 1872)
27 July 1916 – William Jonas, English footballer & soldier died in battle.
27 July 1916 - Sergeant Albert Gill earns his VC on 27 July: 1st Battalion King's Royal Rifle Corps, 99th Brigade, 2nd Division.
27 July 1940 - HMS Wren (D88) was sunk by German aircraft. 37 of her crew were killed.
27 July 1940 - HMS Codrington (D65) was sunk by German aircraft.
27 July 1944 - WWII: Operations Wallace & Hardy I (SAS) begin
27 July 1949 – Initial flight of the de Havilland Comet, the first jet-powered airliner.
28 July
28 July 1540 – Thomas Cromwell, 1st Earl of Essex is executed at the order of Henry VIII of England on charges of treason. Henry marries his fifth wife, Catherine Howard, on the same day.
Thomas Cromwell (c. 1485 – 28 July 1540) was an English lawyer & leading statesman who served as chief minister to King Henry VIII from 1534 to 1540, when he was beheaded on orders of the king.
Cromwell was one of the strongest & most powerful proponents of the English Reformation. He helped to engineer an annulment of the king's marriage to Katharine of Aragon so that Henry could lawfully marry Anne Boleyn. Henry failed to obtain the Pope's approval for the annulment in 1534, so Parliament endorsed the king's claim to be Supreme Head of the Church of England, giving him the authority to annul his own marriage. During his rise to power, Cromwell made many enemies, including his former ally Anne Boleyn. He played a prominent role in her downfall. He later fell from power, after arranging the king's marriage to German princess Anne of Cleves. Cromwell had hoped that the marriage would breathe fresh life into the Reformation in England, but Henry found his new bride unattractive & it turned into a disaster for Cromwell, ending in an annulment six months later. The unfortunate Cromwell was arraigned under a bill of attainder & executed for treason & heresy on Tower Hill on 28 July 1540. The king later expressed regret at the loss of his chief minister.
28 July 1540 - Henry VIII marries his fifth wife Catherine Howard
28 July 1809 – Peninsular War: Battle of Talavera: Sir Arthur Wellesley's British, Portuguese & Spanish army defeats a French force led by Joseph Bonaparte.
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28 July 1866 - Beatrix Potter was born
Helen Beatrix Potter (28 July 1866 – 22 December 1943) was an English writer, illustrator, natural scientist & conservationist; she was best known for her children's books featuring animals, such as The Tale of Peter Rabbit. In her thirties, Potter self-published the highly successful children's book The Tale of Peter Rabbit. Following this, Potter began writing & illustrating children's books full-time. Potter wrote thirty books, the best known being her twenty-three children's tales.
28 July 1914 - Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia, beginning the First World War.
On 28 June 1914, Gavrilo Princip, a Bosnian Serb Yugoslav nationalist & member of the Serbian Black Hand military society, assassinated the Austro-Hungarian heir Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo, leading to the July Crisis. Austria-Hungary issued an ultimatum to Serbia on 23 July. Serbia's reply failed to satisfy the Austrians, & the two prepared for war. A network of interlocking alliances enlarged the crisis from a bilateral issue in the Balkans to one involving most of Europe. By July 1914, the great powers of Europe were divided into two coalitions: the Triple Entente, consisting of France, Russia, & Britain; & the Triple Alliance of Germany, Austria-Hungary, & Italy. The Triple Alliance was only defensive in nature, allowing Italy to stay out of the war until 26 April 1915, when it joined the Allied Powers after its relations with Austria-Hungary deteriorated. Russia felt it necessary to back Serbia, & approved partial mobilisation after Austria-Hungary shelled the Serbian capital of Belgrade, which was a few kilometres from the border, on 28 July 1914. Full Russian mobilisation was announced on the evening of 30 July; the following day, Austria-Hungary & Germany did the same, while Germany demanded Russia demobilise within twelve hours. When Russia failed to comply, Germany declared war on Russia on 1 August 1914 in support of Austria-Hungary, the latter following suit on 6 August 1914. France ordered full mobilisation in support of Russia on 2 August 1914. In the end, World War I would see the continent of Europe split into two major opposing alliances; the Allied Powers, primarily composed of the United Kingdom of Great Britain & Ireland, the United States, France, the Russian Empire, Italy, Japan, Portugal, & the many aforementioned Balkan States such as Serbia & Montenegro; & the Central Powers, primarily composed of the German Empire, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Ottoman Empire & Bulgaria.
28 July 1998 – Lenny McLean, English boxer, actor, & author died
Leonard John McLean (9 April 1949 – 28 July 1998) was an English unlicensed boxer, bouncer, bodyguard, businessman & actor. He was known as "The Guv'nor", "the King of the Cobbles" & "the hardest man in Britain".
McLean's reputation began in the East End of London in the late 1960s & was sustained through to the late 1980s. He stated in his autobiography that he had been involved in between 2,000 & 3,000 unlicensed fights. In his prime, the 6-foot-3-inch (191 cm) tall McLean weighed over 20 stone (280 lb; 130 kg) & was considered the "unofficial heavyweight champion of Great Britain". Along with being an unlicensed boxer, McLean was an enforcer in London's criminal underworld. As a respected and feared figure, he often associated with infamous criminals such as the Kray twins, Ronnie Biggs & Charles Bronson. He was also known in the London nightclub scene as a bouncer, where he often managed security.
In his later life, McLean became an actor, & received praise for playing Barry the Baptist in Guy Ritchie's 1998 gangster comedy film Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. He died from cancer in July 1998, shortly before the film's release.
LEST WE FORGET
The last section of this blog will be devoted to First World War casualties. An old soldier once told me that he reads out aloud various names at random when he visits a war memorial, as he feels that it keeps their name alive, so never forgotten, I've done that myself ever since.....
Remembering Captain Frederic William Cheere Stileman
"D" Company, 8th Battalion, Gloucestershire Regiment.
Death: 23 July 1916, wounded & missing while leading his company at the battle of Bazentin-le-Petit, Somme, Western Front. Commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial.
Remembering Second Lieutenant William Bryan Wood.
"B" Company, 8th Battalion, Gloucestershire Regiment.
Death: 23 July 1916, wounded & missing in action during a night attack near High Wood, Somme, Western Front. Commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial.
Remembering Company Sergeant Major Robert Falconer.
"D" Company, 1st/4th Battalion, Gordon Highlanders.
Death: 23 July 1916, Battle of the Somme, Western Front.
Remembering Second Lieutenant John Lyle Barr.
"C" Battery, 157th Brigade, Royal Field Artillery.
Death: 26 July 1916, Battle of the Somme, Western Front.
Remembering Private Arnold Atkins.
12th Platoon, 3rd Company, 4th Battalion, Seaforth Highlanders.
Death: 26 July 1916, the Somme, Western Front
Commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial.
Remembering Second Lieutenant John Fernan O'Halloran
2nd Battalion, Highland Light Infantry.
Death: 26 July 1916, missing in action, the Somme, Western Front.
Commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial.
Remembering Gunner C W Marchant
Royal Garrison Artillery.
Died: 26 July 1918.
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