11th January 1915 (Monday)

BORN TODAY: At Newtownards, County Down, in British Ireland – Lieutenant Colonel Robert Blair (“Paddy”) Mayne, “Founder member Special Air Services (SAS), Solicitor, Rugby Union International, Champion Amateur Boxer, Polar Explorer and Freemason.” [www.irishmasonichistory.com]

http://www.irishmasonichistory.com/lt-col-robert-blair-paddy-mayne-dso-freemason.html

War!

War at Sea: In London, Churchill receives detailed plans for a massive offensive by the British Navy to storm the Dardanelles in Turkey and threaten Constantinople from the Sea of Marmara. Planners predict that the operation can be completed in around one month [Burg & Purcell].

In the Middle East: After fierce hand to hand fighting today at the Battle of Muscat, between Anglo-Indian forces (holding Muscat) and the army of Sultan Taimur of Oman, Private Nand Ram of the (Anglo-Indian) 102nd Grenadiers, is posthumously awarded an Indian Order of Merit (Second Class) with the citation: “For conspicuous courage during the operations in the vicinity of Muscat on the 11th January 1915, in staying behind alone at a picquet post in order to protect a comrade who was badly wounded.  During this plucky act, Sepoy Nand Ram was himself overpowered and killed by the enemy.” [www.kaiserscross.com]

http://www.kaiserscross.com/304501/422101.html

Peace

The stress of modern life: In the City of Exeter, a local newspaper reports on the fate of a 50 guinea horse, recently bought from the countryside by the British Army, which could not cope with the stress of modern city life and broke its neck in a panicked fall in the city streets.

http://www.exetermemories.co.uk/em/_events/1915-this-week.php

10th December 1914 (Thursday)

BORN TODAY: in New Orleans – Mary Leta Dorothy Slaton, secretary, beauty queen, “MIss New Orleans” 1931, big band singer, girlfriend of J Edgar Hoover, and hollywood star better known to the world as Dorothy Lamour.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorothy_Lamour

War!

On the Home Front: At the Crown Court in Belfast, in (British) Ireland, locally resident German businessman Paul Wentzel is acquitted of spying but detained anyway as an alien, deported and interned in a “concentration” camp on the Isle of Man with other Germans.

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-26082799

 

17th November 1914 (Tuesday)

BORN TODAY: in Londonderry in British Ireland (now sometimes referred to as Derry, a part of the UK but not a part of Great Britain) – Stephen McGonagle, plumber, trade unionist and northern ireland politician.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_McGonagle

War!

German  strategy: Following the conclusive failure of the Schlieffen plan at the Battle of Ypres, the German government begins to reassign forces from the Western front to the Eastern front. With France and the western allies undfeated, it is now forced to maintain two fronts. [Peter Chasseaud: “Mapping the First World War”].

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mapping-First-World-War-1914-1918-ebook/dp/B00D64I4O6/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1416066505&sr=1-1&keywords=mapping+the+first

14th November 1914 (Saturday)

BORN TODAY: in Belfast, Ireland – Joseph Barnes, professor of tropical medicine at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland and good samaritan in West African leper colonies in the 1940s.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Barnes_(Irish_doctor)

War!

Western Front: As the first Battle of Ypres in Belgium is drawing to a close, the dead on both sides cannot be counted. Only estimated: around a quarter of a million men killed or wounded. And each with parents… wives… siblings… children… grieving.

In Constantinople (now Istanbul) Sheikh-ul-Islam declares an Islamic holy war on behalf of the Ottoman government, urging his Muslim followers to take up arms against Britain, France, Russia, Serbia and Montenegro.

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/ottoman-empire-declares-a-holy-war

On the “home front” – The New York Times reports an “incident” in one of the “concentration camps” where the British are detaining German and Austrian immigrants.  One german detainee is killed and another injured at the camp in Surrey.

http://spartacus-educational.com/FWWconcentration.htm

13th November 1914 (Friday)

BORN TODAY: in Fulham, London – Leonard Appelbee, painter.

http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/leonard-appelbee-655

War!

~ At Khenifra in the Atlas Mountains, in the French “Protectorate” of Morocco around 5000 tribesmen from the Zayanes confederation (of Berber tribes) clash with French colonial forces at the Battle of El Herri. Over 800 men die, around 75% from the French forces. The Zayan war will continue until 1921.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_El_Herri

~ In Ploegsteert Wood in Flanders, Belgium (“Plugstreet”), it rains hard all day. The mud is 3feet deep, and movement is “difficult”.

http://somersetremembers.wordpress.com/tag/december-1914/

~ The New York Times reports that the Turkish Armenians are now “in armed revolt” and “see day of deliverance” (ie from Turkish rule) by being “ready to join Russian invaders”.

Click to access turkisharmeniansinarmedrevolt.pdf

Peace

In Dublin, businessman Martin Fitzgerald is charged with driving at speeds in excess of 30 miles per hour. He describes the charge as ‘absurd’, but is convicted of driving ‘at a speed dangerous to the public’, and fined 40 shillings.

http://www.rte.ie/centuryireland/articles/businessman-fined-for-exceeding-30-miles-per-hour

 

 

 

27th October 1914 (Tuesday)

BORN TODAY: in Swansea, Wales – Dylan Marlais Thomas, Welsh poet who wrote exclusively in English.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dylan_Thomas

War!

War at Sea:  Twenty miles fromTory Island, on Ireland’s North West coast, American tourists on the liner “Olympic” snap pictures  of the British Dreadnought class battleship “Audacious”  after it is seriously damaged by striking a mine.  Later in the day, despite efforts to tow it to safety, Audacious blows up and sinks in the Atlantic. All of the crew are safely evacuated before the explosion, but an officer on another vessel is killed by a stray piece of armour plating blown half a mile by the blast.

Today she lies on the sea bed 17 miles from Tory Island. Public announcement of her destruction was postponed for over 4 years, until shortly after the end of the war.

[Burg and Purcell, and Wikipedia].

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Audacious_(1912)

Thoughts of eternity: An anonymous French soldier writes to his mother from the front:

“Let us eat and drink to all that is eternal, for tomorrow we die to all that is of the earth. We acquire an increase of love in that moment when we renounce our mean and anxious hopes”.

[Letters of a Soldier, 1914-1915]

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Letters-Soldier-1914-1915-Centenary-Series/dp/1473314356/ref=sr_1_cc_3?s=aps&ie=UTF8&qid=1414250486&sr=1-3-catcorr&keywords=letters+of+a+soldier+1914-1915

Peace

New Zealand farmer Goerge Adkin spends a hot day at the local cattle market, including dinner (lunch) at the Jubilee Hotel and photographing the main street and Town Hall.

http://collections.tepapa.govt.nz/topic/4801

 

 

23rd September 1914 (Wednesday)

BORN TODAY: in Kampung Sultan Lama – Al-Marhum Kebawah Duli Yang Maha Mulia Maulana Paduka Seri Begawan Sultan Haji Omar Ali Saifuddien Saadul Khairi Waddien Ibni Al-Marhum Sultan Muhammad Jamalul Alam II, better known  ~ for the sake of time management ~ as Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddien III of Brunei.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omar_Ali_Saifuddien_III

 

War!

At the Sunshine Harvester Works in South Australia, the factory is busy making its contribution to the Australian war effort, as reported today in the Melbourne “Argus”:

Over a four week period, the factory produced 200 wagons, 23 ambulances and 150 water carts for the Australian Expeditionary Forces. Additional axles were created at Sunshine Harvester Works when those ordered from Sydney and Adelaide were insufficient. This was the first time that the factory had produced wagons. Proud of this achievement, McKay exhibited a sample wagon and water cart at the Melbourne Showgrounds in September 1914. The Argus praised the quality of the machinery produced by the factory. The ambulances were described as being ‘very elaborate’ as they were ‘fitted with all conveniences in the way of medical appliances’, while the water carts could carry 150 gallons. Similarly, the general service wagons were ‘sturdily built’ and included updated features such as two brakes and ‘special swingletrees encased in steel’ [museumvictoria.com.au]

http://museumvictoria.com.au/collections/themes/12510/sunshine-harvester-works-contributions-to-the-war-effort-world-war-i-1914-1920

Peace?

In the US, the early film industry releases “Ireland, a Nation”  [quote] – “The story of Ireland and her fight for Home Rule, as seen through the experiences of Father Tom Murphy, a patriot with a price on his head, and the famous Irish leader Robert Emmet.”

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0004164/

http://comeheretome.com/2013/06/30/ireland-a-nation-1914/

 

13th September 1914 (Sunday)

BORN TODAY: in London, England – Leonard Feather, jazz pianist, composer and music journalist.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonard_Feather

War!

Ireland: In Washington DC, former British diplomat Sir Roger Casement secretly meets with Franz von Papen, the German military attaché, to seek Germany’s support in the effort to win independence from British rule for Ireland.

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/irish-nationalist-seeks-german-support

Western Front: The first day of the Battle of the Aisne, with French and British troops pursuing German forces which  were turned at the Battle of the Marne, sees the start of trench warfare, which will come to characterise the war on the Western Front for the next 4 years.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Battle_of_the_Aisne

9th September 1914 (Wednesday)

BORN TODAY:

~ In Memphis, Tennessee – Marjorie Lee Browne, “one of the first Black women in the United States to obtain a Ph.D”,  and Chair of Mathematics at North Carolina Central University throughout the 1950s and 1960s.

http://www-history.mcs.st-and.ac.uk/Biographies/Browne.html

~ in Nymphenburg Castle, Munich, Bavaria – Her Imperial Highness Princess Dona Maria d’Orleans-Bragança, the widow of Prince Dom Pedro Henrique d’Orleans-Bragança, Head of the Brazilian Imperial Family and Pretender to the Brazilian Throne between 1921 and 1981.

http://www.theroyalforums.com/11157-95th-birthday-of-princess-dona-maria-d%E2%80%99orleans-braganca/

War!

Eastern Front/ Russian North West Front: – At the first Battle of the Masurian Lakes in East Prussia the German 8th Army is gradually pushing the Russian First army back, expelling it from German territory. By the end of the battle (over the coming few days) the Germans will have lost 10,000 men, killed, wounded or missing in action, and the Russians a staggering 125,000, including 45,000 taken prisoner. [Wikipedia]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Battle_of_the_Masurian_Lakes

In Dublin, Ireland, a group of revolutionary nationalists meet to discuss the circumstances arising from the outbreak of war, and agree to appeal to Germany for its support in an insurrection.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/easterrising/insurrection/in02.shtml

22nd August 1914 (Saturday)

BORN TODAY: in London – Trevor Pryce Leggett, judo teacher, author, translator, diplomat, war time internee, spy, Buddhist, 6th dan, Head of the BBC’s Japanese service for 24 years, Order of the Sacred Treasure and much, much more. [Wikipedia].

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trevor_Leggett

War!

! Austria-Hungary declares was on Belgium!

In St Petersburg, the imperial Russian government prohibits the sale of alcohol for the duration of the war!

In Le Havre, an anonymous British nursing sister, waiting with her colleagues to be moved nearer to the front, describes the day in Le Havre with almost school-girl excitement:

“There is any amount to see – miles of our [ie British forces] transport going through the town with burly old shaggy english farm-horses, taken straight from the harvest, pulling the carts; French Artillery Reservists being taught to work the guns; French soldiers passing through; and our R.E. [Royal Engineers] motor-cyclists scudding about. And one can practise talking, understanding and reading French.” [Anon: “Diary of a Nursing sister on the Western Front, 1914-1915”].

On this one day, 22nd August 1914, around 27,000 French soldiers die during the confusion of the Battles of Ardennes and Charleroi, both battles being just parts of the larger “Battle of the Frontiers”.

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/heavy-casualties-suffered-in-the-battles-of-the-frontiers

The view of the war from (Nationalist) Ireland: Meanwhile, writing under the headline “On German Militarism” the “Irish worker” newspaper shares its views:

“Finally, as a word of warning. Do not let anyone play upon your sympathies by denunciation of the German military bullies. German military bullies, like all tyrannies among civilised people need fear nothing so much as native (German) democracy. Attacks from outside only strengthen tyrants within a nation. If we had to choose between strengthening the German bully or the Russian autocrat the wise choice would be on the side of the German. For the German people are a highly civilised people, responsive to every progressive influence, and rapidly forging weapons for their own emancipation from native tyranny, whereas the Russian Empire stretches away into the depths of Asia, and relies on an army largely recruited from amongst many millions of barbarians who have not yet felt the first softening influence of civilisation. German thought is abreast of the best in the world; German influences have shaped for good the hopes of the world, but the thought and the hopes of the best in Russia was but the other day drowned in blood by Russia’s worst.

To help Britain is to help Russia to the dominance of Europe, to help the barbarian to crush the scientist. That is the reflection of the wise revolutionist of today.

Meanwhile the Orange enemy of Irish freedom wisely stays at home and conserves his forces, and the Irish Nationalist is encouraged by his leaders to rush abroad and shed his blood in a quarrel not his own, the simplest elements of which he does not understand.”

https://www.marxists.org/archive/connolly/1914/08/germmili.htm