British History – Page 72

On this day in history….2nd April 1801

On this day in history : 2nd April 1801 – The Battle of Copenhagen takes place – Admiral Horatio Nelson ignores orders to withdraw his forces and proceeds to sink the pro-French Danish fleet….

Christian August Lorentzen – Public domain

It was in early 1801, during the Napoleonic Wars, that Denmark, Sweden, Russia and Prussia formed a coalition to ensure free trade with France…. By joining forces to protect their own shipping against Britain they cut Britain’s vital supply of timber and other associated goods needed to sustain the Royal Navy…. Britain responded by sending a fleet to break the coalition….

The fleet, under the command of Admiral Hyde Parker with Vice-Admiral Horatio Nelson as his second-in-command, reached Denmark on the 21st of March…. It had been essential to get there before the Baltic Sea thawed, allowing the Russian fleet to leave its bases in order to assist its Scandinavian allies….

Britain began negotiations with the Danes to try and come to an agreement – but the talks proved fruitless…. So, it was Nelson, onboard 74-gun HMS Elephant, who led 12 ships in an effort to gain entry into Copenhagen Harbour…. The Danes formed a blockade and so battle commenced – with a British attack on the Danish ships and land defences….

It was a bold plan…. The waters being shallow and the British having no detailed charts of the area – it did not take long for three of the British ships to run aground….

Parker, observing from a far – with his view obscured by all the smoke – felt that Nelson was taking unnecessary risks…. At 1.30pm he ordered Nelson to retreat – his words to his flag captain… “I will make the signal to recall for Nelson’s sake…. If he is in condition to continue the action, he will disregard it; if he is not, it will be an excuse for his retreat and no blame can be imputed to him”….

Nelson on seeing the signal flag joked to his own flag captain…. “You know, Foley, I only have one eye – I have the right to be blind sometimes”…. He then held his telescope up to his blind eye – the result of an old injury – and said…. “I really do not see the signal”…. He then ignored Parker’s command and carried on with the task in hand….

By late afternoon the British had the upper-hand in the battle and the Danes were taking a thorough battering…. By the end of the fighting 12 Danish ships had been captured or destroyed, with 1,700 men dead or wounded; a further 2000 were captured…. Several British ships were grounded (but later re-floated) with 1,000 men dead or wounded….

Negotiations were reopened – helped by the fact that Russia’s Czar Paul had been assassinated and his successor Czar Alexander was known to be far more sympathetic to the British…. Eventually an agreement was secured with the Danes….

British History, Uncategorized

On this day in history….1st April 2000

On this day in history : 1st April 2000 – An Enigma machine, used by the Germans in WW2 to encode messages, is stolen from Bletchley Park Museum in broad daylight….

Bletchley Park – image credit: Magnus Manske CC BY-SA via Wikimedia

Bletchley Park, the stately home in Buckinghamshire that was known as Station X in the war, was where British agents managed to crack the Enigma code…. The Germans had thought the code unbreakable but 10,000 mathematicians, linguists and even chess champions had worked at Bletchley decoding up to 18,000 messages per day….

Women dutifully working in Bletchley Park – image: UK Government CC BY-SA 4.0

Station X remained a secret until 1967 but nowadays it is a popular tourist attraction…. The day the Enigma machine was stolen was a day that Bletchley was open to the public; it disappeared from a secure, alarmed glass case, which showed no signs of forced entry….

The machine’s whereabouts remained a complete mystery until September 2000…. Police began to receive letters from a person saying that they were acting on behalf of someone who had bought it…. A £25K ransom was demanded for its return, which the museum agreed to pay…. The machine is special in that it is one of only three in the World of a higher standard than the everyday Enigma machines used in the field – as it had been used by the SS…. The value of this particular machine being over £100,000…. However, the 6th of October deadline for the ransom payment was not met….

ENIGMA machine at Bletcley Park – image credit: _dChris via flickr

Two weeks later TV presenter Jeremy Paxman received a parcel at his BBC Television Centre office….inside was the missing machine…. Three of its four encryption rotor wheels were missing but these too were later returned safely….

In November 2000 Dennis Yates, a 58-year-old antiques dealer from Derbyshire, was arrested. He admitted sending the letters to the police and the machine to Paxman…. It appears he had got himself caught up in something and found himself out of his depth…. He had received death threats from those he was working for – and never revealed who the mystery buyer was…. Those that had originally stolen the Enigma machine were never caught; Dennis Yates was sentenced to ten months in prison for his part….

British History, Uncategorized

On this day in history….31st March 1855

On this day in history : 31st March 1855 – English novelist Charlotte Brontë, author of Jane Eyre, dies during her pregnancy – three weeks before her 39th birthday….

Charlotte Bronte – George Richmond Public domain

Charlotte, the daughter of an Irish-Anglican priest, had received an unexpected marriage proposal from her father’s curate, Arthur Bell Nichols…. Arthur had loved her from a far for a long time….but Charlotte’s father thought it an unsuitable match, partly due to Arthur’s financial status – and so Charlotte declined the proposal….

However, her good friend, fellow writer Elizabeth Gaskell (who was later to become Charlotte’s biographer) urged her to reconsider….pointing out the advantages of being married….

Charlotte found herself becoming more and more attracted to Arthur – and in January 1854 she agreed to become his wife…. It took until April to finally get her father’s begrudging approval but once he had reluctantly agreed plans were made and the couple married in June. Charlotte’s father had been due to give his daughter away – but at the last minute decided he was unable to do it, leaving Charlotte to walk down the aisle alone….

She became pregnant soon after the wedding – but her health was quickly to decline…. Elizabeth Gaskell described the symptoms of her illness as “sensations of perpetual nausea and ever-recurring faintness”…. Charlotte became weaker and weaker and eventually she and her unborn child passed away….

Portrait by J.H. Thompson at the Bronte Parsonage Museum – Public domain

The cause of death stated upon her death certificate is that of tuberculosis…. However, there are several other possibilities as to the illness that claimed her life…. Typhoid is one such possibility – servant to the Brontë family, Tabitha Ackroyd, had died from the disease a few weeks before – so this could have been very likely…. Another thought is that Charlotte may have contracted pneumonia after getting soaked on a moorland walk – at the time pneumonia was almost impossible to recover from…. ‘Jail Fever’ – or Epidemic Typhus – has been another suggestion put forward; a bacterial infection very common in those more unsanitary times and passed to humans by fleas or lice…. Or it could have been an infection from contaminated water….

But one of the possible causes most favoured by the experts is that she died from dehydration and malnutrition brought on by Hyperemesis Gravidarum – or chronic morning sickness….

Charlotte is buried in the family vault in the church of St. Michael and All Angels in Haworth, West Yorkshire….

Via Wikimedia

British History, Uncategorized

On this day in history….30th March 1964

On this day in history : 30th March 1964 – Pitched battles are fought in the seaside resort of Clacton-on-Sea, Essex – between gangs of rival ‘Mods’ and ‘Rockers’….

‘Clacton Disturbances’. A photograph of a group of Mods near the seafront at Clacton-on-Sea, Essex on 30 March 1964 – Image Credit: National Science and Media Museum – Photographer: C. Smith – Mirrorpix

At least that is how the Press conveyed it at the time…. All out rioting and warfare between two groups hell-bent on killing each other…. The Mods, in their sharp suits and parkas, riding on their scooters against the leather-clad Rockers, roaring around on their motorbikes…. But just how bad was it really…?

It was the Easter weekend – Clacton Council had gone to great lengths to attract the youngsters – who had money in their pockets to burn…. They laid on attractions – Freddy and the Dreamers were playing the Blue Lagoon on the Pier, Shane Fenton and the Fentones were booked for the Princess Theatre and the Westcliff Hotel was the venue for Johnny Pilgrim and the Classics….

Freddie and the Dreamers performing in the film ‘Seaside Swingers’ – Public domain

Large campsites had been organised in anticipation of the vast crowds expected to descend on the town for the weekend….

Good Friday….and a trickle of young people began to arrive…. It wasn’t long before word got out that Clacton was the place to be…. By Saturday afternoon a steady stream was arriving from all around, including London…. On Saturday evening around 1,200 watched Freddie and the Dreamers – it was then that the first ‘aggro’ kicked off…. Fists flew, bottles were thrown, batons swung and the boot put in…. But the police were on hand and soon stepped in to separate the two groups….only for themselves to become the target…. No matter how much the two warring tribes detested each other – they were both united in that they hated the police more….

1960s Scooter Mania! – Image credit: Paul Townsend via Flickr

The fighting continued into the night but stopped around dawn…. However, just after breakfast-time things erupted again when someone decided to smash the windows of the Pavilion…. Extra police had to be drafted in….

During Sunday afternoon a crowd of around 1,000 gathered in the Pier area….dozens of arrests were made but the police maintained control and the crowd began to disperse…. By Monday there was still the odd skirmish but on the whole things had calmed down….

This was not quite how the National Press portrayed it…. Some reports suggested the town had been practically obliterated…. An enquiry was held by the Council; out of the thousands of youths who had descended on Clacton for the weekend there were just 60 arrests….only 12 of these ended in prosecution – with fines amounting to a combined £243…. The damage inflicted on the town by the rampaging ‘yobs’ totalled up to £213….and the police emphasised that they were never out of control of the situation….

(Hastings) – Image credit: Phil Sellens via Flickr

British History, Uncategorized

On this day in history….29th March 1871

On this day in history : 29th March 1871 – The Royal Albert Hall in London is opened by Queen Victoria…. Originally it was to be called The Central Hall of Arts and Sciences….

Prince Albert, husband of Queen Victoria, had a vision borne from the success of the Great Exhibition of 1851 – a venue to promote the understanding and appreciation of the arts and sciences…. After his death from typhoid fever in 1861 the plans were shelved – but later revived by his collaborator on the Great Exhibition, Henry Cole…. Inspired by the ancient Roman amphitheatres Cole’s original intention had been for an establishment to hold 30,000 people – but this was revised to 7,000 for financial and practicality reasons; nowadays, due to safety regulations it has a capacity of 5,500….

On the 20th of May 1867 Queen Victoria laid the foundation stone…. A special marquee designed to accommodate 7,000 was erected – but it was more like 10,000 who packed in to witness Her Majesty lay the red Aberdeen granite block…. Beneath the stone was placed a time capsule which has lain undisturbed ever since…. Inside we know are some gold and silver coins and an inscription from Prime Minister Edward Smith-Stanley…. Of what else lies in the capsule little is known; the foundation stone is now located in the K stalls, row 11, under seat 87 in the main auditorium….

Queen Victoria, who was still in mourning and wearing all black, was rarely seen in public…. As the stone was laid she said “It is my wish that this Hall should bear his name to whom it will have owed its existence and be called The Royal Albert Hall of Arts and Science”…. The Archbishop of Canterbury gave the benediction and a composition by Prince Albert ‘Invocation to Harmony’ was performed by an orchestra…. The ceremony was closed by a 21 gun salute from Hyde Park and a trumpet fanfare by Her Majesty’s Life Guards….

The Hall at the opening ceremony, seen from Kensington Gardens. Public domain

At the opening ceremony of the Royal Albert Hall, some four years later, Queen Victoria was so overcome with emotion that her son, Edward Prince of Wales, had to make a speech on her behalf…. Her only recorded words of the day being that it reminded her of the British constitution….