Today in history

April 25th 1915: Gallipoli campaign begins
On this day in 1915, during World War One, the doomed Gallipoli campaign began on the Gallipoli peninsula in the Ottoman Empire. The plan was the brainchild of British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, who intended to weaken the Ottoman war effort by opening another front in the Dardanelles, forcing Germany to split their army and send troops to aid their Turkish allies. Churchill’s proposal was risky, underestimating the ability of the Turkish army, and was hastily pushed through the War Office. The initial naval attack in the Dardanelles in February had some success, but British and ANZAC (Australian and New Zealand Army Corps) troops were soon called in to push inland and capture Constantinople. The landings began on April 25th, with Allied troops deployed at separate beaches. One of the most famous landings were the ANZAC forces at Anzac Cove, where they faced fierce resistance from the Turks. The British fared little better at Cape Helles, and by May, 20,000 of the 70,000 men deployed suffered causalities. The campaign continued for months, with Allied soldiers living under Turkish fire and shelling, and suffering poor conditions in the trenches. Eventually, fierce critics of the operation began to speak out, and in December and January the Allied forces were evacuated from Gallipoli. The campaign was a disaster for the Allies, who lost around 45,000 men, and failed to make any strategic gains. While the Turkish successfully and bravely defended their country, it proved a Pyrrhic victory as they lost 86,000 soldiers in the campaign. This day is commemorated in Australia and New Zealand as Anzac Day, in honour of the over 10,000 soldiers who died during the Gallipoli campaign representing their countries as independent nations.

“Those heroes that shed their blood and lost their lives…you are now lying in the soil of a friendly country. Therefore rest in peace. There is no difference between the Johnnies and the Mehmets to us where they lie side by side here in this country of ours.”
- Turkish leader Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, who fought at Gallipoli, on the ANZAC dead in 1934

Monday, April 30, 1945, when Ludovic, aged 67, of May Street, Abram, was shunting wagons at Bickershaw Lane sidings, Abram. His engine Dolly was a familiar sight working the line between Maypole Junction and Main Pits. As it chugged past his daughter Martha’s house, Ludovic blew the engine whistle and waved. Martha, who was taking her 11-month-old son for a walk, waved back and paused to watch the string of loaded coal wagons.
She little knew that it was the last time she would see her father alive. As Dolly pushed her trucks into No 8 siding, brakeman John Ward walked alongside. Then to his horror he saw a gaping hole had opened under the rail. Amazingly, some wagons had already gone over the growing chasm. He frantically signalled Ludovic to stop the train but even as the brakes were being applied, the weight of the loaded wagons buckled the unsupported lines and the trucks plunged into darkness.
John Ward ran along the side of the engine screaming at Ludovic to jump clear. Another brakeman, Joe Hindley, who thought there had been a derailment, also called to Ludovic. But Ludovic, still at his controls, tried to save his train. Then inevitably the first wagons to topple began to drag the remainder faster and faster towards the crater. Within seconds it was all over.
Dolly and her courageous driver disappeared


https://lancashireminingmuseum.org/2017/08/13/dolly-disappears-strange-disaster-at-abram-colliery/

3 May 1951
Festival of Britain is opened by George VI
The Festival sought to sustain a mood of post-war optimism and confidence - or at least interest - in new solutions. The site chosen for the Festival, on the South Bank of the Thames, London, had been extensively bombed in World War Two. The dominant artistic mood of the Festival was neo-Romantic, apt for the traditionalist 1950s, although the Royal Festival Hall itself was a Modernistic work.

Richard Cavendish describes the maiden voyage of the Queen Mary on May 27th, 1936.



The Queen Mary boasted a top speed of more than 30 knots and a crew of 1,100, which was more than one for every two of her full complement of 2,100 passengers. With a stylish Art Deco interior, she had an indoor swimming pool, a library, a children’s nursery and a kennel for the passengers’ dogs. By May 1936 she was at last in Southampton ready for her maiden voyage to Cherbourg and then across the Atlantic. Supplies loaded included 50,000 lbs of fresh meat, 50,000 eggs, 14,500 bottles of wine and 25,000 packets of cigarettes.

https://www.historytoday.com/archive/maiden-voyage-queen-mary

Graceland is a mansion on a 13.8-acre (5.6-hectare) estate in Memphis, Tennessee, United States, once owned by singer and actor Elvis Presley. His daughter, Lisa Marie Presley, inherited Graceland after his death in 1977. Graceland is located at 3764 Elvis Presley Boulevard in the Whitehaven neighborhood, about nine miles (14 kilometers) south of central Memphis and fewer than four miles (6.4 km) north of the Mississippi border.

It was opened to the public as a museum on June 7, 1982. The site was listed in the National Register of Historic Places on November 7, 1991, becoming the first site related to rock and roll to be entered therein. Graceland was declared a National Historic Landmark on March 27, 2006, also a first for such a site. Graceland is the most-visited privately owned home in America with over 650,000 visitors a year, rivaling publicly owned houses such as Biltmore Estate, Hearst Castle and the White House.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graceland

On the 40th anniversary of the Falklands War, we will remember all those impacted by the conflict.
Veterans of the campaign and their families, bereaved family members, and civilians who supported the Armed Forces will come together for a commemorative event at the National Memorial Arboretum on Tuesday 14 June.

For those unable to attend the event in person, watch the event live on our website or Facebook from 2.45pm.


This will include a live link to the Falkland Islands at 3pm so our Act of Remembrance can coincide with the Act of Remembrance taking place at the 1982 Cemetery in Port Stanley (11am Falklands local time).

https://www.britishlegion.org.uk/get-involved/remembrance/remembrance-events/falklands

Queen Victoria

Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20th June 1837 until her death in 1901.

She inherited the throne at the age of 18 and became a national icon. Her reign of 63 years and seven months, was longer than that of any other British monarch before her, until overtaken by her great-great granddaughter Elizabeth II in 2015. Her reign is known as the Victorian era.

It was a period of industrial, cultural, political, scientific, and military change within the United Kingdom and was marked by a great expansion of the British Empire.

After the German surrender in World War I, the High Seas Fleet of the Imperial German Navy was interned at Scapa Flow, a naval base in the Orkney Islands in Scotland. At the time the ships arrived in Scotland, more than 20,000 German sailors were onboard, though this number was reduceed in the ensuing months.

The 74 ships arrived during negotiations between the Allies and Germany over a peace treaty that would become Versailles. Up for debate was what to do with them - the French and Italians wanted a portion; the British wanted them destroyed as any distribution to other countries would be detrimental to their naval superiority.

Admiral Ludwig von Reuter began to prepare the scuttling in May 1919 after hearing the potential terms of the Versailles Treaty. Shortly before the treaty was signed in 21 June, Reuter sent the signal to his men, who began opening flood valves, smashing water pipes and opening sewage tanks. Nine German crew members who abandoned ship and attempted to come ashore were shot by British forces. In all, 52 ships were sunk.

Privately, British Admiral Wemyss was delighted that the ships were sunk, ending the question of how to redistribute them. Many ships have been refloated and salvaged in the years since, but some remain in the seas at Scapa Flow.

https://www.onthisday.com/photos/scuttling-at-scapa-flow

1900www.beautifulbritain.co.uk Lord Louis Mountbatten of Burma was born. He was Commander-in-Chief of the Royal Navy in South East Asia during the Second World War, and later Viceroy of India during the transfer of power from Britain to India. Mountbatten was assassinated in 1979 by the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA), who planted a bomb in his fishing boat, the Shadow V, at Mullaghmore, County Sligo, in the Republic of Ireland. His tomb  is in Romsey Abbey, Hampshire along with the family Coat of Arms. S

4th July

Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, better known under his pseudonym Lewis Carroll, told Alice Liddell a story as they were rowing on the Isis through Oxford, that, three years later, would grow into Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its sequels. Alice's Shop  83 St Aldates in Oxford is part of the original story and is situated across the road from Alice's childhood home, the Oxford University College of Christ Church. An entire episode in the story takes place in the shop.

John Lennon meets Paul McCartney

Although McCartney had previously seen and noticed Lennon in the local area without knowing who he was, the pair first met on 6 July 1957, at a local church fête, where 16-year-old Lennon was playing with his skiffle group the Quarrymen. The 15-year-old McCartney, brought along by a mutual friend, Ivan Vaughan, impressed Lennon with his ability on the guitar and his version of Eddie Cochran's "Twenty Flight Rock". Soon afterward, Lennon asked McCartney if he would join the Quarrymen; McCartney accepted.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lennon%E2%80%93McCartney

Frank Randle (born Arthur Hughes, also known as Arthur McEvoy or Arthur Twist; Died 7th July, 1957

Randle was born in Aspull, near Wigan, Lancashire, to an unmarried Rhoda Heathcoate Hughes. He left school aged 13 and worked in a variety of menial jobs until two years later when he joined an acrobatic troupe. He took the name Arthur McEvoy after his mother married Richard McEvoy. In 1928 Randle began to tour as a comedian, principally in Lancashire and Northern England.Randle appeared on stage carrying a red warning lamp, similar to the type found around road works, declaring "Look what some dam'd fool left in’t road". He developed his own show, Randle's Scandals, which in the 1950s featured Roy Castle.

https://military-history.fandom.com/wiki/Frank_Randle#:~:text=Frank%20Randle%27s%20grave%20With%20the%20decline%20of%20Variety,1957%20and%20is%20buried%20in%20Carleton%20Cemetery%2C%20Blackpool.

And Blackpool was safe from being bombed by Randle's toilet rolls after his death

1940
July 10
The Battle of Britain begins

The Battle of Britain in World War II was between Britain’s Royal Air Force (RAF) and the Luftwaffe, Nazi Germany’s air force, and was the first battle in history fought solely in the air. From July 10 through October 31, 1940, pilots and support crews on both sides took to the skies and battled for control of airspace over Great Britain, Germany and the English Channel. The powerful, combat-experienced Luftwaffe hoped to conquer Britain easily, but the RAF proved a formidable enemy.

https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/battle-of-britain-1

God bless those lads. Long live the RAF.

My uncle was in the RAF in the fifties and stationed in Germany, with the occupying forces.



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