Pen & Sword Books Ltd strana 5 z 41

While Gill Blanchard's previous book, Tracing your House History, serves as an indispensable resource for house history enthusiasts of all dwellings, this new and comprehensive guide seamlessly blends those traditional research methods with the vast expanse of online resources. Whether your home is a grand manor, a cosy cottage, or a Victorian terrace, this book equips you with the tools and knowledge to navigate the ever-growing digital archives and databases with ease. From deciphering historical documents to unraveling the lives of past inhabitants, every chapter is filled with invaluable insights and practical advice. Join the author on an enlightening journey as she demystifies the complexities of online research, making the process not only accessible but also enjoyable. Whether you're a seasoned researcher or a novice explorer, this blend of traditional and digital research will guide you to illuminate the history of your beloved home and its previous inhabitants.

At the outbreak of the Second World War, a young Scottish professional athlete competing in the Highland Games circuit enlisted in the Army. As he was able to drive a truck, Bill Gillanders was assigned to a blood transfusion unit in the Royal Army Medical Corps. He was taught how to give a transfusion and, in time, sent on a solo journey to deliver blood and plasma to a Casualty Clearing Station in Dieppe, France. War became horrifyingly real for Bill as German Panzer divisions unleashed Hitler’s Blitzkrieg and swept through northern France. His fraught journey home ended in a dramatic escape under fire and his return to Britain aboard a Royal Navy destroyer. Bill’s war had, however, only just begun. When the tide turned against the Axis in North Africa, Bill was unexpectedly recruited by the Special Operations Executive, or SOE, for a clandestine mission in the Balkans. Having undergone a period of intensive training, with the rank of Sergeant he was then parachuted into Yugoslavia as part of a team led by Major Dr Lindsay Rogers, a New Zealand surgeon he had served alongside in the desert. In this rough and brutal environment, as part of Mission Dafoe Lindsay’s SOE team infiltrated enemy-occupied territory to support Tito’s Partisans. In makeshift hospitals in the mountains, with minimal supplies, his small unit treat the wounded, while political tensions simmered beneath the surface. Bill recounts many dramatic and now historically fascinating incidents he witnessed, such as a massive air assault by the Germans to destroy Tito. With their hospital bombed mid-surgery, undeterred they pushed into besieged Drvar to try to help wounded partisans and British SOE operatives. For his actions in these events, Bill was awarded the Military Medal. As Bill reveals in this book, he also led a group of around 100 downed American airmen on a 100-mile winter trek through German-controlled territory to a hidden airfield for evacuation to Italy. This is not just a soldier’s account of his war, or a riveting adventure story – it is both.

When Theoderic the Great entered the city of Rome in 500, as an Ostrogothic king, the citizens in Rome could have been forgiven for thinking an Emperor had returned. Everything he did, from his journey, to his arrival, and actions in the city itself, were in imitation of Roman expressions of imperial power. The role of the Emperor, however, remains complex and multifaceted, and the very powers Theoderic was seeking to emulate had complex histories of their own. It was only when Augustus, Rome’s first Emperor, died in 14 AD that Rome at last admitted the truth that a Princeps now ruled, where the Senate had once held power.Anthony Smart provides a new study of the Roman Emperor, from Augustus through the late fifth century AD, with interwoven studies on later medieval imperial rulers. The book is divided into three. The first section looks at sources (e.g. coins, speeches, histories). The second looks at themes (such as war, peace, religious unity and emotional control). The final section looks at specific examples of imperial power, and how these figures altered or modified the very nature of imperial rule. Throughout the book the author returns to the following questions: what did it mean to be an Emperor in this world? How did they govern? Were they proactive, or reactive? Is it right to say that an Emperor is what an Emperor does, or is the reality rather more complex than that? And crucially, who creates the image of the Emperor? The court, the senate, or the people of Rome?

Old photographs without names. Family heirlooms with unknown origins. Objects whispering stories lost to time. In this fascinating journey of historical detective work, experienced genealogist Simon Wills pieces together the mysteries behind everyday artefacts, from portraits and tobacco jars to diaries, and even a simple silver cigarette case, allowing us to create a complete picture of the lives of those lost to history and time. Through meticulous research, many examples and case studies, this book delves into incomplete histories, revealing the identities and achievements of people once on the brink of anonymity. If you’ve ever wondered about the past behind an old family possession, this book will inspire you to look closer, search deeper, and discover the extraordinary tales sometimes hidden in the seemingly ordinary, allowing us to know and understand our ancestors from a different perspective.

Barry Appleton investigated some of the most notable crimes of the twentieth century, from multi-million pound robberies to cold-blooded killings that shook the world. Walking the beat of the crime-ridden East End under the rule of the Krays, Barry went toe-to-toe with the underworld, earning multiple commendations for his courage. Following a series of high-profile murder cases, he was assigned to the Flying Squad and went undercover to investigate the assassination of Martin Luther King. Life in the ‘Sweeney’ was dangerous and the detective’s dedication to the job saw him injured in the line of duty, pushing him and his family to the limit. After 20 years’ exemplary service with the Met, Barry’s crimefighting adventures continued when he achieved overnight success as the lead scriptwriter of The Bill, adding gritty realism to 50 episodes of the groundbreaking drama. Now Barry has taken on one final case to unravel his own incredible life story. How did a boy from the Welsh valleys end up in a shootout on the streets of London? What made a hard-nosed cop swap his snub-nosed Smith & Wesson for a second-hand typewriter? And who was the angel always by his sid? eaturing dramatic flashback sequences and never-before-told behind-the-scenes stories from Britain’s longest-running police procedural drama, Twentieth Century Cop is an extraordinary true crime memoir that vividly captures life as an old school copper, on the streets and on the screen.

In the early weeks of 1849, a devastating outbreak of cholera tore through Surrey Hall, a residential school for workhouse children in Lower Tooting. It was a tragedy on a terrible scale, and the loss of life owed much to the appalling conditions in the school, where half-starved boys and girls wearing threadbare clothes were crammed into filthy premises, and were kept in line by tyrannical adults. The owner, Bartholomew Peter Drouet, had been busily turning human misery into handsome profit, but now, in the wake of the tragedy, he found himself on trial at the Old Bailey on a charge of manslaughter. In this book, the first full-length history of the Surrey Hall scandal, the reader is given access to the children’s experiences before, during and after the outbreak of cholera. The stories they told of cruelties perpetrated behind closed doors shocked the nation, and Drouet quickly became a despised household name, a process that was helped significantly by the journalism of an outraged Charles Dickens. However, change was in the air, and the events in Tooting, far from being just a local affair, had important consequences for the future management of the children of the poor.

Barbra Streisand sang about people needing people. Our sixteenth and seventeenth century monarchs needed trusted friends more than most in such uncertain times. Among the people you will meet in this book is John Morton, so accomplished at gathering taxes for Henry VII; some pubs are named after him. Physician William Butts, trusted by Henry VIII, and sent to Hever when Anne Boleyn caught the sweating sickness. Barnaby Fitzpatrick, closest friend of Edward VI. Susan Clarencius, Mistress of the Robes to Mary I and her closest friend. Blanche Parry who rocked Elizabeth I’s cradle and stayed in her service until she died, causing Elizabeth ‘enormous sorrow’. Christopher Hatton, so devoted to Elizabeth, he never married. George Villiers, loved by James I ‘more than any other man’. Jane Whorwood, who did her utmost to help the imprisoned Charles I escape. Henry Jermyn, who became known as ‘the founder of the West End’. John Wilmot, an exceptionally clever man who ended life as a dissolute disgrace. Robert Harley, who built an incomparable collection of Saxon and Medieval texts now in the British Library. And not forgetting an accurate account of the life of Abigail Masham, devoted servant to Queen Anne.

The American Revolution was one of the events which shaped the modern world. It has been celebrated as a struggle for liberty and the origin of the growth of the US as a great world power. Without underplaying the achievements of the Revolution, this book takes a critical look at the myths and legends that grew up about this key event. It also gives a voice to those who suffered from opposing the Revolution and whose stories are not always remembered. It investigates the nature of what was fundamentally a civil war and looks closely at whether the ideals of the Revolution were a reality for all those caught up in what was a deadly and violent conflict. It challenges the reputation of some leading figures and the usual way that dramatic events have been portrayed, and takes a hard look at some accepted ideas about the colonial past. As well as explaining the causes and course of the war of independence, the book considers its impact on different groups, including women, Black Americans and native Americans. There are some surprising and sometimes disturbing events here, but these add to a picture of a vibrant and exciting period of history.

As Anthony Tucker-Jones shows in this highly illustrated, wide-ranging history, for most of the Cold War the tank retained its pre-eminence on the battlefield. The Arab-Israeli wars witnessed some of the biggest tank battles of all time, and tanks played key roles in conflicts in Korea, Vietnam and Afghanistan as well as in the Iran-Iraq War and the wars fought between India and Pakistan. But then in the mid-1960s anti-tank weapons became ever deadlier and the Mechanised Infantry Fighting Vehicle (MIFV), which was designed to support infantry and fight tanks, emerged and the heyday of the tank was over.Chapters cover each major phase in the evolution of the tank and of tank warfare during the period, from the battles fought in the late 1940s and 1950s with Second World War armoured vehicles like the T-34 and the Sherman, through to the designs common in the 1960s and 1970s like the T-55, Centurion, Challenger and M60 Patton, to the confrontation between the M1 Abrams and the T-72 during the Gulf War in 1991. Technical and design developments are important elements throughout the story, but so are dramatic changes in tactics and armaments which mean the tank has an increasingly uncertain role in modern warfare.

Daughters of kings were often used to seal treaty alliances and forge peace with England’s enemies. Princesses of the Early Middle Ages: Royal Daughters from the Conquest will explore the lives of these young women, how they followed the stereotype, and how they sometimes managed to escape it. It will look at the world they lived in, and how their lives and marriages were affected by political necessity and the events of the time. Almost as interesting as the marriages these girls made are the ones that were never realised. Many English princesses were betrothed, or proposed as brides, three or more times before they were married. Their failed marriage proposals demonstrated their influence and worth on the international royal marriage market, as well as the changing allegiances between countries and the making and breaking of international friendships. Princesses of the Early Middle Ages will also examine how these girls, who were often political pawns, were able to control their own lives and fates. Whilst they were expected to obey their parents in their marriage choices, several princesses were able to exert their own influence on these choices, with some outright refusing the husbands offered to them. Their stories are touching, inspiring and, at times, heartbreaking.

This book explores the remarkable careers of George, Henry and John Lawrence and Robert Montgomery (Field Marshall Montgomery of Alamein's grandfather) who served in the East India Company during the first half of the nineteenth century. From modest backgrounds in the north of Ireland, all four men would assume leading roles in the colonial administration of India. After initial training in England and in Calcutta, they served their apprenticeships in the Delhi Territory and in the North-Western Provinces (modern day Uttar Pradesh) as military officers (George and Henry) and Collectors (of revenue) and District Magistrates (John and Robert). Henry would later make the move from military to civilian employment when he became a land revenue surveyor. As this book reveals, these years were incredibly important in the formation of their administrative style. Ruling large swathes of northern India in paternal fashion, John and Robert became highly knowledgeable on local agrarian affairs. Likewise, Henry’s role as a revenue surveyor gave him a worm’s eye view of village life that was far removed from the cloistered environment of the military cantonment. Such experiences would cultivate an ethos of respecting local culture and institutions while exercising a high standard of public service and personal devotion to duty. The book assesses the Lawrences and Montgomery’s efforts in the challenging fields of land revenue surveying and assessment, as well as their campaigns against female infanticide, thuggee and other forms of criminality. Beyond India, the part played by George and Henry in the disastrous First Anglo-Afghan War is followed in detail, while the latter’s time as British Resident at the Court of Nepal explores his passion for writing on important Anglo-Indian topics. This study will argue that the knowledge and skills developed by this talented quartet of Irishmen provided the crucial foundations for their later careers in the Punjab and beyond.

Saab has gone, but its cars and its loyal band of owners remain. In this photographic album, internationally known Saab author and commentator Lance Cole celebrates all things Saab. In a collection of over 200 photographic images accompanied by a detailed yet engaging commentary, the book delivers a record of Saab from its first car to its last. The engineering, design, and ethos of Saab's cars across the generations are captured in all their glory. The author of many Saab articles and several Saab books, this is Lance Cole’s new view on Sweden's other car maker – one that really did build cars to a different standard. Saab Celebration is designed to be a memorial companion for the Saab fan. If you like Saabs, then enjoy this tribute to all things Saab.

Discover the men, women, and children who called the Roman province of Britannia home through the most final ? and often only ? evidence they left behind: their tombstones. What can we learn from these lasting monuments to the dead? This book brings together a selection of surviving tombstones from Roman Britain for the first time in an easy-to-access collection, accompanied by useful contextual information on ancient burial practices, funerary symbolism, and afterlife beliefs. Explore the lives and deaths of people from every walk of life who came from all over the vast Roman Empire: from the devoted wives and playful children living along Hadrian's Wall, to the experienced soldiers stationed at forts across the province, and even the enslaved as they are commemorated for all eternity on these ancient inscribed stones. New clear translations of the inscriptions introduce these memorials to modern readers, and a handy guide at the end also equips readers with the tools for decoding common Latin funerary abbreviations for themselves. Each tombstone is accompanied by background information on the deceased, while accompanying illustrations and photographs of the tombstones bring these ancients back to life. AUTHOR: Dr Stephanie Holton is Staff Tutor and Lecturer in Classical Studies at the Open University. Her teaching and research explore ancient ideas about death, the body, and the soul across the Greek and Roman worlds. She was previously Senior Lecturer in Classics at Newcastle University, where she led several outreach projects based on ancient languages including the award-winning 'Romans on the Tyne' for schools in the North East. She is dedicated to making the ancient world accessible to modern audiences of all ages and frequently collaborates with museums, schools, and charities on a wide variety of projects. 30 b/w illustrations

The four volumes of The Complete Medal of Honor present the full citations of the 3,537 awards granted to 3,517 men (nineteen were double recipients) and one woman between the start of the Civil War in 1861 and the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan in 2021. This second volume covers the six and a half decades between the end of the Civil War and America's entry into World War Two. In that period the Medal of Honor was awarded to US combatants and non-combatants for conspicuous bravery in a series of small wars—some lasting a matter of weeks like the Korean Expedition of 1871, others drawn over decades like the Indian Wars of 1861–98—and some much larger conflicts like World War One. The full citation for every recipient of the USA's highest award for bravery during that period is listed here.

The vast majority of Britain’s railways were built between 1825 and 1900. By the turn of the nineteenth/twentieth century, over one-hundred different railway companies were operating in Britain on more than 22,000 miles of railway track. Although these new railways brought prosperity to the nation, and enabled goods and passengers to be speedily transported the length and breadth of the country for the first time, this remarkable feat of engineering brought with it some unwelcome side-effects, one of which was crime. A vast number of passengers travel on Britain’s railway network each day, and unfortunately, a considerable amount of crime does occur on our railways. The types of crime committed on Britain’s railways varies considerably from petty or minor crime, to more serious crimes. Most people would consider that the crimes of “murder” and “attempted murder” are amongst the most serious crimes committed in our country, irrespective of where these appalling acts take place. A substantial number of murders and attempted murders have taken place on the railway network of Britain, during its two-hundred years of operation, and details surrounding the vast majority of these cases are revealed in this book, some for the first time. The author has spent many months of research, mainly through old newspaper archives, in order to obtain establish and publish historical information about murders committed on Britain’s railways, many of which have been long forgotten, or lost in the annals of time.

No other twentieth-century political figure endured so many precipitous falls followed by unlikely resurrection. Across fifty turbulent years he enjoyed – if that is the correct term - at least four separate, high-level, political careers interspersed with periods in the doldrums. As one of his numerous enemies and detractors, of whom there was never a shortage, was to write: Winston is never down, or rather will never allow that he is down.’Whilst much has been written about Churchill at the Admiralty, and even more concerning his wartime premiership, the ups and downs in-between have received somewhat less attention. Hence this volume, which seeks to tell the tale of the period beginning with him being unceremoniously sacked in 1915. As Lloyd George’s mistress and confidante wrote: ‘It seems strange that Churchill should have been in politics all these years, & yet not have won the confidence of a single party in the country, or a single colleague in the Cabinet.’She was mistaken. One politician still valued Churchill’s gifts: the Prime Minister from 1916, David Lloyd George himself. But he had to act cautiously. Only in July 1917, during a broader reshuffle, did he dare risk appointing Churchill as Minister of Munitions. This was a courageous move. As one Tory grandee put it: ‘some of us myself included only joined L[loyd] G[eorge] on the distinct understanding that W[inston] Ch[urchill] was not to be a member of the Gov[ernmen]t.’Lloyd George got away with it however, and few would dispute that his judgement was vindicated. As the man responsible for providing the British and wider Allied cause with the munitions of war, a vast undertaking by any standards, Churchill proved both competent and effective. Indeed, he was still in post at the end of the conflict in 1918, which is where this book ends.