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Mata Hari
Margaretha Zelle was born in Leeuwarden, the Netherlands. She was the eldest of four children of Adam Zelle and Antje van der Meulen. Her father was a successful hatter. She attended a teachers’ college in Leiden. In 1895 she married a Scottish officer named Captain Rudolph MacLeod, and from 1897 to 1902 they lived in Java and Sumatra. The couple returned to Europe but later separated, and she began to dance professionally in Paris in 1905. She soon began touring all over Europe, telling the story of how she was born in a sacred Indian temple and taught ancient dances by a priestess who gave her the name Mata Hari,…
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The Wipers Times
It was Ypres, early 1916, and the Sherwood Foresters were stationed near the front line. An abandoned printing press was discovered virtually intact in a hedge. With a little bit of tinkering, a couple of hastily thrown together replacement letters that were missing, and some scrounging for ink and paper, Captain Fred Roberts was about to undertake one of the most famous icons of the Great War… The Wipers Times. The Wipers Times has become synonymous with that great British tradition, humour in the face of adversity. The press was set up in one of the town casements, which Roberts had appropriated for his “Officer’s dug-out” and with the rapid…
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Victoria Cross Recipients – Keeping it in the Family Part 2
Part Two – Brothers in arms So we discussed in part one, father and son awards of the Victoria Cross. Now I’m going to turn your attention to brothers who both received the Cross for their acts of valour. To begin with, I would ask that you cast your mind back to Charles Gough, and his son John, who were both awarded the Victoria Cross. Charles received his in part for an action which saved the life of his brother Sir Hugh Gough during the India Mutiny of 1857/8. But the story doesn’t end there. Just a few months after Charles saved Hugh’s life in the action for which he…
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The Black Tom Explosion
An American munitions depot that supplied artillery for allies in World War I on July 30, 1916, in New Jersey was sabotaged. It would take investigators years to determine that operatives working for Germany were to blame. The depot was located on Black Tom Island, which jutted into New York Harbor. Around three-quarters of the ammunition manufactured in the United States and destined for the Allied armies on the Western Front shipped from there. Which made it a top priority for Germans to destroy. A series of small fires were discovered on the pier and at 2:08 AM, a large explosion sent fragments in all directions. Some would lodged in…
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Armistice (And for Veterans Day USA)
As the guns fell silent on the Armistice, and the true cost of the previous four years was added up, it fell to a silent few to realise that it was a price that too many had paid for no particular gain. It is estimated that somewhere between 15 and 23 MILLION people, both military and civilian died as a direct result of the hostilities, including casualties, POWs (disease and wounded whilst imprisoned), and civilians through war effort related accidents, collateral damage and as a result of associated acts of genocide. These figures include those for example drowned during German Naval strikes on shipping, starvation as a result of food…
