User:Dumelow/DYK

DYK contributions
Did you know...

1-500

 * ...that the 1940 Battle of France forced 72-year-old British engineer William Binnie to work for his passage home as a cook's assistant on a collier?
 * ...that the Battle of Beaune-la-Rolande resulted in the death of the French impressionist painter Frédéric Bazille whilst leading his unit in the attack?


 * ...that Charles Inglis, past-president of the Institution of Civil Engineers was expected to die during birth and was hurriedly baptised in his father's drawing room?


 * ...that William Glanville calculated the size of explosives required for Operation Chastise and was portrayed by Colin Tapley in the 1955 film The Dam Busters?


 * ... that in 1898, the Egyptian government appointed Maurice Fitzmaurice as their chief resident engineer for the construction of the Aswan Dam?


 * ... that John Aspinall was the first recipient of the James Watt International Medal?


 * ... that, due to political pressure for quicker development, Alfred Pippard was unable to finish his report on the structural analysis of the R101 airship (pictured) before it crashed?


 * ... that Arthur Hartley developed the Fog Investigation and Dispersal Operation which is credited with safely landing 2500 aircraft during World War Two?


 * ... that civil engineer Robert Wynne-Edwards was the first president of the Institution of Civil Engineers to be elected while still working as a contractor?


 * ... that the Anglo-Zanzibar War, considered the shortest war in history, lasted around forty minutes?


 * ... that Hubert Shirley-Smith wrote the Encyclopaedia Britannica article on bridges?


 * ... that the Mulberry Harbour built at Arromanches in 1944 by John Holmes Jellett landed two million men and four million tons of supplies for the Liberation of Europe?


 * ... that Lieutenant-Colonel Jonathan Davidson used his civilian experience as a civil engineer to improve his battalion's trenches during the First World War?


 * ... that Richard Mohun was the only white survivor of a three-year expedition to lay a telegraph line from Lake Tanganyika to the River Nile?


 * ... that at the time of its sinking in the 1896 Anglo-Zanzibar War, HHS Glasgow was the only ship in the navy of Zanzibar?


 * ... that Arthur Raikes was a British army officer but received honours from Zanzibar, Austria and Portugal?


 * ... that the Texel Disaster of 1940 resulted in severe damage to HMS Express and the sinking of two other ships who went to her aid?


 * ... that an island purchased by Lloyd Mathews for use as a prison is now a conservation area for giant tortoises?


 * ... that the 1964 Zanzibar Revolution sparked army mutinies in Kenya, Uganda and Tanganyika?


 * ... that Thomas Paton worked on the construction of the Owen Falls Dam which was responsible for the first complete stoppage of the White Nile in history?


 * ... that the food shortages during the winter of 1946–1947 saw British farmers using pneumatic drills to harvest parsnips?


 * ... that Sir Kirby Laing served as Deputy Lieutenant of both London and Hertfordshire?


 * ... that William Gordon Harris ' s tenure as Director-General of Highways at the British Ministry of Transport saw the construction of 650 mi of motorways?


 * ... that Sir Douglas Fox was, with James Greathead, joint engineer of the Liverpool Overhead Railway – the first electric elevated city railway in the world?


 * ... that Operations Parthenon, Boris, Finery, Shed and Plan Giralda were all British plans for military intervention in Zanzibar following the 1964 revolution?


 * ... that Charles Hawksley was elected President of the Institution of Civil Engineers in 1901, nearly 30 years after his father, Thomas Hawksley, was elected to the position?


 * ... that John Clarke Hawkshaw was a member of the Royal Commission set up by King Edward VII to decide the British representation at the 1904 St Louis World's Fair?


 * ... that Robert Elliott-Cooper lived for 12 more years after the journal Nature described him as "among the oldest of English engineers"?


 * ... that Alexander Ross was Engineer-in-Chief of the Breydon Viaduct?


 * ... that both Charles Langbridge Morgan, a civil engineer, and his son Charles Langbridge Morgan, a playwright and novelist, served in the British Armed Forces during the First World War?


 * ... that William Henry Ellis's tenure as Master Cutler of the Company of Cutlers in Hallamshire lasted for four years instead of just one because of the First World War?


 * ..that John Duncan Watson was responsible for the construction of the first large-scale percolating filter sewage treatment plant?


 * ... that when Prince Philip first saw the stumpery at Highgrove House he asked his son, Charles, "when are you going to set fire to this lot?"?


 * ... that Sir Alan Muir Wood worked on the 80 km Orange–Fish River Tunnel, the second-longest water supply tunnel in the world?


 * ... that Sir Roger Hetherington was elected president of the Institution of Civil Engineers in 1944 after the death of the president-elect, the second successive year this had happened?


 * ... that Sir Allan Quartermaine, a former member of the British Royal Fine Art Commission, was awarded the Military Cross for gallantry in the First World War?


 * ... that John Thomas North (pictured), originally a Yorkshire mechanic, became a friend of the future King Edward VII and was worth $10 million in 1889?


 * ... that Henry Cronin won the Military Cross in the First World War for assaulting enemy positions and taking prisoners of war, despite being assigned to build field defences?


 * ... that Changuu Island, Zanzibar, houses a collection of endangered Aldabra Giant Tortoises (pictured)?


 * ... that the Abir Congo Company was once described as "the black spot on the history of Central African settlement"?


 * ... that Harold Gourley was injured by the 1951 Weedon rail crash and received £47,720 in damages?


 * ... that Alexander Milne served as an executor of Thomas Telford's last will and testament?


 * ... that Fox Brothers, established in 1772, has provided  cloth to Bob Hope,  Winston Churchill,  the Duke of Windsor  and Cary Grant?


 * ... that cross dressing and mooning have been prosecuted as conduct prejudicial to good order and discipline in the US military?


 * ... that Glen Moreno persuaded Man Group to sponsor the Man Booker Prize?


 * ... that the dum dum bullet invented by Neville Bertie-Clay was used by the British Army against African and Asian opponents but was considered "too cruel" for use against Europeans?


 * ... that Milecastle 8 of Hadrian's Wall lies beneath the A69 dual carriageway?


 * ... that Denton Hall Turret is the easternmost surviving stretch of Hadrian's Wall?


 * ... that an English Heritage investigation found that Milecastle 9, on Hadrian's Wall, was one of two milecastles damaged by farming?


 * ... that excavations of Turret 10A of Hadrian's Wall have revealed pre-historic ard marks?


 * ... that Frederick Arthur Whitaker, Civil Engineer-in-Chief to The Admiralty, was also a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath and a Commander of the French Legion of Honor?


 * ... that civil engineer George Matthew McNaughton was involved with the construction of Silent Valley Reservoir in Northern Ireland?


 * ... that the Yateley Complex in Hampshire was home to "Britain's most famous fish"?


 * ... that Moustache, a French poodle, is said to have been awarded a medal by Marshal Jean Lannes for saving a regimental flag at the Battle of Austerlitz?


 * ... that the Inland Customs Line stretched across more than 2,500 miles (4,000 km) of British India and was compared to the Great Wall of China?


 * ... that Iraqi television presenter Riad al-Saray was assassinated the same day that Reporters Without Borders announced the Iraq War had killed more journalists than any since the Second World War?


 * ... that Route Trident in Afghanistan is the first road to be built by the Royal Engineers under fire since the Dhofar Rebellion in the early 1970s?


 * ... that during the Crimean War, Captains Arthur Cumming and Astley Cooper Key took control of the town of Libau with just 110 men, without firing a shot?



















Awards etc.




  in the news

Thank you for quality articles for project Military history, such as Zaian War, and for your regular and interesting contributions to DYK and ITN with a focus on people, - you are an awesome Wikipedian!

--Gerda Arendt (talk) 09:24, 20 April 2013 (UTC)