Man rushed to hospital with burns & smoke inhalation as over 70 firefighters tackle Hackney shops blaze
Crews working hard fighting the fire on Yorkton St in Hackney range of shops and roof alight (Image: London Fire Brigade)
Ten fire engines and 72 firefighters and officers are tackling a fire at a joinery workshop on Hackney Road in Hackney. One man was injured and taken to hospital suffering from burns and smoke inhalation.
Thick black smoke from the fire was visible for miles around and residents were advised to keep their windows and doors closed if affected.
Station Manager Keith Cunnew who is at the scene said:
“A member of the public spotted smoke and called the Brigade. On arrival crews wearing breathing apparatus helped three women and three men to leave the properties either side of the fire and two other people left the property before the Brigade arrived. The structure of the building has been seriously damaged by the blaze.
“We expect to be at scene for a number of hours. We are making good progress, but it will take some time to fully damp down the fire.”
Firefighters from Soho, Islington, Holloway, Shoreditch, Homerton, Bethnal Green, Whitechapel, Tottenham and Poplar fire stations are at the scene.
The Brigade was called at 1301. The cause of the fire is not known at this stage.
The fire on Yorkton St #Hackney is now under control although crews will be there for some time damping down. pic.twitter.com/o0emeq8d8U
A have-a-go hero plunged into the River Thames this morning to help a man who moments earlier had jumped from a bridge at the start of the capital’s rush hour.
London crew praise ‘good Samaritan’, Ben Corr, who entered river to save distressed man 07 July 2014 (Photo credit: Ben Corr via RNLI)
Lifeboat crew members from the Royal National Lifeboat Institution launched just after 7am today after reports from London Coastguard that a man was in the River Thames, drifting dangerously close to the base of the London Eye attraction
The lifeboat crew arrived just moments later to find that two men were in the water; one had entered the river to help another man who it is believed had deliberately jumped from the pedestrian footpath alongside Charing Cross rail bridge.
Ben Corr, a 36 year old statistician, had been running to work on the South Bank when he was flagged down by a woman. He took up the story: ‘The lady was quite shaken up – she was pointing to a man in the river and said she’d just seen him jump from the bridge. She was clutching a life ring but wanted some help in throwing it out to him.
‘I did try but he was quite far out and the ring missed him. Despite our efforts to coerce him towards it, he was just flailing in the water. At first I held back because I know the emergency services always advise the public not to enter the water in times like that, in case they get into danger as well. But after a moment I decided I had to – so I climbed down onto the foreshore, entered the river, and swam across to him.’
Ben said the man was very distressed and was pushing him away at first, but eventually agreed to take the life ring: ‘I pulled him back to the south bank wall but there was no way to get out. The woman who had stopped me explained that she had called the police and barely a minute later the lifeboat crew arrived.’
Tower lifeboat crew – consisting of helmsmen Craig Burn and Stuart Morrison, and volunteer Jenny Barnett – pulled both men aboard and returned to Tower
Tower RNLI Lifeboat crew – Pictured (left to right) are Stuart Morrison, Craig Burn, and Jenny Barrett (Credit: RNLI/James Oxley)
RNLI lifeboat station, situated beneath Waterloo Bridge. Craig said: ‘We got them as they were floating down by the base of the London Eye. There is some machinery there and we were concerned about them floating close to that, but we got to them in time.
‘We met with our ambulance service colleagues back at the station and they treated the man who had entered from the bridge. He was cold and shaken and still distressed, and was taken away by ambulance crews for further treatment.
‘Ben stayed with us for a short while and we gave him blankets and lots of tea and biscuits. Ben is right that we don’t advise people to go into the water to help people, but he assessed the situation and made a measured, very brave decision to go in. What he did was hugely commendable and we take our hat – or helmet – off to him: there is one man out there today in London who would surely have lost his life if it hadn’t been for Ben and the lifeboat crew.’
Running along the South Bank this morning, Ben Corr was expecting a normal Monday in the office. That changed when he was alerted to a man struggling in the Thames. After trying to throw a life ring to the casualty, Ben carefully weighed up the situation & made the decision to go in and swim to the casualty. Meanwhile, Tower lifeboat crew had been alerted & were heading up river. They found both men floating near the London Eye and safety pulled them on board. We don’t advise people to carry out rescues themselves, but Ben made a very measured and selfless decision to go in – and for that we take our hat off to him – RNLI
Tower Bridge (aerial view) Bob Collowan, CC-BY-SA-3.0, Wikimedia Commons (Click image for more about Tower Bridge)
London lifeboat crew treat injured as Thames cruiser collides with Tower Bridge
Lifeboat crew members from the RNLIs Tower lifeboat station have treated a woman with a head wound after a River Thames city cruiser collided with Tower Bridge.
The lifeboat crew, based below Waterloo Bridge, were tasked by London Coastguard shortly after midday today (Wednesday) after the City Cruises vessel Millennium Diamond was involved in the collision.
The woman, believed to be in her 60s, is believed to have fallen down a set of steel steps, sustaining a head injury and bruises to her ribs.
The lifeboat crew were the first on scene and treated the womans head wound until London Ambulance Service paramedics arrived and took her away for further treatment.
Kevin Maynard, one of the four Tower RNLI lifeboat crew members on the lifeboat, explained how the drama unfolded: We launched just after midday and when we arrived the boat had come alongside St Katherines Pier by Tower Bridge. We understand the woman had been standing at the top of some steel steps when the collision happened and the impact knocked her down.
Although the original call to us was related to that one lady, while we were on scene a further nine people came forward to say they had been injured. We treated the woman by giving her oxygen and using blankets to keep her warm, as well as dressing her wound and placing her on a board to protect her spine. We looked after her until London Ambulance Service arrived to take her away for further assessment.
The lifeboat crew consisted of helmsman Kevin Maynard as well as David Norman, Craig Burns, and volunteer life boatman Neil Withers.
The crew are currently remained on scene to assist where necessary (correct as at 1.50pm)
Tower RNLI is one of three London lifeboat stations serving the entire length of the Thames from the estuary up to Teddington Lock. The RNLI remains a charity that relies on donations and voluntary contributions for its lifesaving work. RNLI
INCIDENT AT TOWER BRIDGE
London Coastguard is coordinating the response to an incident on the Thames in which a pleasure boat, the Millennium Diamond, was in collision with Tower Bridge. 10 people are believed to be injured. Emergency services and the RNLI are on the scene.
Other Reports
A City Cruises boat collided with the south pier of Tower Bridge this lunchtime. MPS Marine Policing Unit attended the scene andreported that two people were injured.
The boat docked at St Katharines pier and one passenger was removed on a stretcher and taken to hospital while the other was treated ashore. Minor damages to the vessel are reported.
Tower Bridge remains open to pedestrians and road traffic. –http://londonist.com
There is a 90% probability of heatwave conditions between 0900 on Thursday and 2100 on Friday in southwest England, West Midlands, London and southeast England.
Southwest England and the West Midlands have been elevated from level 2 to level 3. Southeast England and London remain at level 3.
East Midlands, Yorkshire and the Humber and East of England remain at level 2. Northeast England and northwest England remain at level 1.
An update will be issued when the alert level changes in any region.
END
The very young, the elderly and the seriously ill are the groups who are particularly at risk of health problems when the weather is very hot. In particular, very hot weather can make heart and breathing problems worse.
“Londoners are used to pushing their way through crowds in the early-morning rush hour, but anybody crossing Putney Bridge yesterday morning may have been a little less familiar with their fellow pedestrians.
A pair of shepherds accompanied by a trusty sheep dog drove a herd of geese across the bridge over the Thames at 5.45am.
People waiting for buses stared in wonder at the feathered flock, who at one point waddled past a Premier Inn.
The geese were part of a PR and marketing stunt, and were presented to thrill tenants at Fulham Green, a luxury office development.
Will Kitchener, PR and marketing director for Fulham Green, explained the presence of the winged wanderers.
He said: “It was simply a celebration of the start of spring for our tenants. We’d told them to expect some special guests, but I don’t think they were expecting them to be of the feathered variety.”
Delighted tenants were treated to a captivating display by Tip, the sheep dog who had escorted the geese over Putney Bridge.
Will said: “Tip showed everyone his skills, and our tenants were also introduced to some two week old orphan lambs and a day old gosling. The reaction was fantastic, and we were so pleased that the weather was good – spring made a temporary appearance for our party.”
Turning into the office complex at the end of the video, the geese look remarkably unruffled by their early-morning expedition – more than can be said for the stunned passers-by.” – london24.com
(Photo: wikimedia.org/ en:User:Johnteslade) Putney Bridge in London.
Street art graffiti depicting Mary Wollstonecraft, mother of feminism, had mysteriously ‘manifested’ on the wall of @newunity, in Newington Green, where she worshipped in the 18th Century.
Mary Wollstonecraft street art graffiti New Unity Unitarian Church in Newington Green, London. (Photo: Penny Walker)
Humanist Unitarian minister, Andy Pakula, notes that the picture is signed by “Stewy,” he published this picture on twitter.
A closer look at Stewy street art at New Unity Unitarian Church in London (Photo: Andy Pakula)
Stewy is a renowned anonymous stencil graffiti artist based in London.
Kent News managed to get hold of the elusive man back in September 2012.
He said: “Due to Banksy’s popularity, more and more artists have been inspired to create their own work. For most people, to go out and create art is a great thing.
No one is telling them to do it . It takes effort and skill. But I feel an irony when large companies and advertisers use graffiti to promote products, while grassroots artists get arrested for creating art, especially when they’re trying to convey political injustice.
The public perception of street art or graffiti is changing and needs to change more.
However, if it takes advertising to create the image that graffiti is cool and not purely antisocial, perhaps its Ok.”
I generally choose people I like and admire. People who are different. They always appear where they lived, worked or died. I call it psycho geography. It’s educational, the people in the context of the environment combine geography, history and art.
“Ultimately, the image commemorates the person ‘like ghosts across the street’. It’s not about me. The work highlights people or eccentrics who have or had made a difference, changed how we approach art, music or writing, pushing the boundaries in Britain and shaking things up a little.
A common thread I noticed with the people is they are all very British underdogs, eccentrics, anarchists,obscure.
I seem to choose the least expected and least commercial people other street artists would not normally consider.” (Quotes from Kent News)
Mary Wollstonecraft (pron.: /ˈwʊlstən.krɑːft/; 27 April 1759 – 10 September 1797) was an eighteenth-century British writer, philosopher, and advocate of women’s rights. During her brief career, she wrote novels, treatises, a travel narrative, a history of the French Revolution, a conduct book, and a children’s book. Wollstonecraft is best known for A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792), in which she argues that women are not naturally inferior to men, but appear to be only because they lack education. She suggests that both men and women should be treated as rational beings and imagines a social order founded on reason.
Until the late 20th century, Wollstonecraft’s life, which encompassed several unconventional personal relationships, received more attention than her writing. After two ill-fated affairs, with Henry Fuseli and Gilbert Imlay (by whom she had a daughter, Fanny Imlay), Wollstonecraft married the philosopher William Godwin, one of the forefathers of the anarchist movement. Wollstonecraft died at the age of thirty-eight, ten days after giving birth to her second daughter, leaving behind several unfinished manuscripts. Her daughter Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin, later Mary Shelley, the author of Frankenstein, would become an accomplished writer herself.
After Wollstonecraft’s death, her widower published a Memoir (1798) of her life, revealing her unorthodox lifestyle, which inadvertently destroyed her reputation for almost a century. However, with the emergence of the feminist movement at the turn of the twentieth century, Wollstonecraft’s advocacy of women’s equality and critiques of conventional femininity became increasingly important. Today Wollstonecraft is regarded as one of the founding feminist philosophers, and feminists often cite both her life and work as important influences.
Contents
Biography
Early life
Wollstonecraft was born on 27 April 1759 in Spitalfields, London. She was the second of the seven children of Edward John Wollstonecraft and Elizabeth Dixon.[1] Although her family had a comfortable income when she was a child, her father gradually squandered it on speculative projects. Consequently, the family became financially unstable and they were frequently forced to move during Wollstonecraft’s youth.[2] The family’s financial situation eventually became so dire that Wollstonecraft’s father compelled her to turn over money that she would have inherited at her maturity. Moreover, he was apparently a violent man who would beat his wife in drunken rages. As a teenager, Wollstonecraft used to lie outside the door of her mother’s bedroom to protect her.[3] Wollstonecraft played a similar maternal role for her sisters, Everina and Eliza, throughout her life. For example, in a defining moment in 1784, she convinced Eliza, who was suffering from what was probably postpartum depression, to leave her husband and infant; Wollstonecraft made all of the arrangements for Eliza to flee, demonstrating her willingness to challenge social norms. The human costs, however, were severe: her sister suffered social condemnation and, because she could not remarry, was doomed to a life of poverty and hard work.[4]
Two friendships shaped Wollstonecraft’s early life. The first was with Jane Arden in Beverley. The two frequently read books together and attended lectures presented by Arden’s father, a self-styled philosopher and scientist. Wollstonecraft revelled in the intellectual atmosphere of the Arden household and valued her friendship with Arden greatly, sometimes to the point of being emotionally possessive. Wollstonecraft wrote to her: “I have formed romantic notions of friendship… I am a little singular in my thoughts of love and friendship; I must have the first place or none.”[5] In some of Wollstonecraft’s letters to Arden, she reveals the volatile and depressive emotions that would haunt her throughout her life.[6]
The second and more important friendship was with Fanny Blood, introduced to Wollstonecraft by the Clares, a couple in Hoxton who became parental figures to her; Wollstonecraft credited Blood with opening her mind.[7] Unhappy with her home life, Wollstonecraft struck out on her own in 1778 and accepted a job as a lady’s companion to Sarah Dawson, a widow living in Bath. However, Wollstonecraft had trouble getting along with the irascible woman (an experience she drew on when describing the drawbacks of such a position in Thoughts on the Education of Daughters, 1787). In 1780 she returned home, called back to care for her dying mother.[8] Rather than return to Dawson’s employ after the death of her mother, Wollstonecraft moved in with the Bloods. She realized during the two years she spent with the family that she had idealized Blood, who was more invested in traditional feminine values than was Wollstonecraft. But Wollstonecraft remained dedicated to her and her family throughout her life (she frequently gave pecuniary assistance to Blood’s brother, for example).[9]
Wollstonecraft had envisioned living in a female utopia with Blood; they made plans to rent rooms together and support each other emotionally and financially, but this dream collapsed under economic realities. In order to make a living, Wollstonecraft, her sisters, and Blood set up a school together in Newington Green, a Dissenting community. Blood soon became engaged and after their marriage her husband, Hugh Skeys, took her to Europe to improve her health, which had always been precarious.[10] Despite the change of surroundings Blood’s health further deteriorated when she became pregnant, and in 1785 Wollstonecraft left the school and followed Blood to nurse her, but to no avail.[11] Moreover, her abandonment of the school led to its failure.[12] Blood’s death devastated Wollstonecraft and was part of the inspiration for her first novel, Mary: A Fiction (1788).[13]
After Blood’s death, Wollstonecraft’s friends helped her obtain a position as governess to the daughters of the Anglo-Irish Kingsborough family in Ireland. Although she could not get along with Lady Kingsborough,[14] the children found her an inspiring instructor; Margaret King would later say she “had freed her mind from all superstitions”.[15] Some of Wollstonecraft’s experiences during this year would make their way into her only children’s book, Original Stories from Real Life (1788).[16]
Frustrated by the limited career options open to respectable yet poor women—an impediment which Wollstonecraft eloquently describes in the chapter of Thoughts on the Education of Daughters entitled “Unfortunate Situation of Females, Fashionably Educated, and Left Without a Fortune”—she decided, after only a year as a governess, to embark upon a career as an author. This was a radical choice, since, at the time, few women could support themselves by writing. As she wrote to her sister Everina in 1787, she was trying to become “the first of a new genus”.[17] She moved to London and, assisted by the liberal publisher Joseph Johnson, found a place to live and work to support herself.[18] She learned French and German and translated texts,[19] most notably Of the Importance of Religious Opinions by Jacques Necker and Elements of Morality, for the Use of Children by Christian Gotthilf Salzmann. She also wrote reviews, primarily of novels, for Johnson’s periodical, the Analytical Review. Wollstonecraft’s intellectual universe expanded during this time, not only from the reading that she did for her reviews but also from the company she kept: she attended Johnson’s famous dinners and met such luminaries as the radical pamphleteer Thomas Paine and the philosopher William Godwin. The first time Godwin and Wollstonecraft met, they were both disappointed in each other. Godwin had come to hear Paine, but Wollstonecraft assailed him all night long, disagreeing with him on nearly every subject. Johnson himself, however, became much more than a friend; she described him in her letters as a father and a brother.[20]
While in London, Wollstonecraft pursued a relationship with the artist Henry Fuseli, even though he was already married. She was, she wrote, enraptured by his genius, “the grandeur of his soul, that quickness of comprehension, and lovely sympathy”.[21] She proposed a platonic living arrangement with Fuseli and his wife, but Fuseli’s wife was appalled, and he broke off the relationship with Wollstonecraft.[22] After Fuseli’s rejection, Wollstonecraft decided to travel to France to escape the humiliation of the incident, and to participate in the revolutionary events that she had just celebrated in her recent Vindication of the Rights of Men (1790). She had written the Rights of Men in response to Edmund Burke’s conservative critique of the French Revolution in Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790) and it made her famous overnight. She was compared with such leading lights as the theologian and controversialist Joseph Priestley and Paine, whose Rights of Man (1791) would prove to be the most popular of the responses to Burke. She pursued the ideas she had outlined in Rights of Men in A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792), her most famous and influential work.[23]
Wollstonecraft left for Paris in December 1792 and arrived about a month before Louis XVI was guillotined. France was in turmoil. She sought out other British visitors such as Helen Maria Williams and joined the circle of expatriates then in the city.[24] Having just written the Rights of Woman, Wollstonecraft was determined to put her ideas to the test, and in the stimulating intellectual atmosphere of the French revolution she attempted her most experimental romantic attachment yet: she met and fell passionately in love with Gilbert Imlay, an American adventurer. Whether or not she was interested in marriage, he was not, and she appears to have fallen in love with an idealized portrait of the man. While Wollstonecraft had rejected the sexual component of relationships in the Rights of Woman, Imlay awakened her passions and her interest in sex.[25] She soon became pregnant, and on 14 May 1794 she gave birth to her first child, Fanny, naming her after perhaps her closest friend.[26] Wollstonecraft was overjoyed; she wrote to a friend: “My little Girl begins to suck so MANFULLY that her father reckons saucily on her writing the second part of the R[igh]ts of Woman” (emphasis hers).[27] She continued to write avidly, despite not only her pregnancy and the burdens of being a new mother alone in a foreign country, but also the growing tumult of the French Revolution. While at Le Havre in northern France, she wrote a history of the early revolution, An Historical and Moral View of the French Revolution, which was published in London in December 1794.[28]
As the political situation worsened, Britain declared war on France, placing all British subjects in France in considerable danger. To protect Wollstonecraft, Imlay registered her as his wife in 1793, even though they were not married.[29] Some of her friends were not so lucky; many, like Thomas Paine, were arrested, and some were even guillotined. (Wollstonecraft’s sisters believed she had been imprisoned.) After she left France, she continued to refer to herself as “Mrs Imlay”, even to her sisters, in order to bestow legitimacy upon her child.[30]
Imlay, unhappy with the domestic-minded and maternal Wollstonecraft, eventually left her. He promised that he would return to Le Havre where she went to give birth to her child, but his delays in writing to her and his long absences convinced Wollstonecraft that he had found another woman. Her letters to him are full of needy expostulations, explained by most critics as the expressions of a deeply depressed woman but by some as a result of her circumstances—alone with an infant in the middle of a revolution.[31]
England and William Godwin
Seeking Imlay, Wollstonecraft returned to London in April 1795, but he rejected her. In May 1795 she attempted to commit suicide, probably with laudanum, but Imlay saved her life (although it is unclear how).[32] In a last attempt to win back Imlay, she embarked upon some business negotiations for him in Scandinavia, trying to recoup some of his losses. Wollstonecraft undertook this hazardous trip with only her young daughter and a maid. She recounted her travels and thoughts in letters to Imlay, many of which were eventually published as Letters Written During a Short Residence in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark in 1796.[33] When she returned to England and came to the full realisation that her relationship with Imlay was over, she attempted suicide for the second time, leaving a note for Imlay:
Let my wrongs sleep with me! Soon, very soon, I shall be at peace. When you receive this, my burning head will be cold… I shall plunge into the Thames where there is least chance of my being snatched from the death I seek. God bless you! May you never know by experience what you have made me endure. Should your sensibility ever awake, remorse will find its way to your heart; and, in the midst of business and sensual pleasure, I shall appear before you, the victim of your deviation from rectitude.[34]
She then went out on a rainy night and “to make her clothes heavy with water, she walked up and down about half an hour” before jumping into the River Thames, but a stranger saw her jump and rescued her.[35] Wollstonecraft considered her suicide attempt deeply rational, writing after her rescue, “I have only to lament, that, when the bitterness of death was past, I was inhumanly brought back to life and misery. But a fixed determination is not to be baffled by disappointment; nor will I allow that to be a frantic attempt, which was one of the calmest acts of reason. In this respect, I am only accountable to myself. Did I care for what is termed reputation, it is by other circumstances that I should be dishonoured.”[36]
Gradually, Wollstonecraft returned to her literary life, becoming involved with Joseph Johnson’s circle again, in particular with Mary Hays, Elizabeth Inchbald, and Sarah Siddons through William Godwin. Godwin and Wollstonecraft’s unique courtship began slowly, but it eventually became a passionate love affair.[37] Godwin had read her Letters Written in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark and later wrote that “If ever there was a book calculated to make a man in love with its author, this appears to me to be the book. She speaks of her sorrows, in a way that fills us with melancholy, and dissolves us in tenderness, at the same time that she displays a genius which commands all our admiration.”[38] Once Wollstonecraft became pregnant, they decided to marry so that their child would be legitimate. Their marriage revealed the fact that Wollstonecraft had never been married to Imlay, and as a result she and Godwin lost many friends. Godwin received further criticism because he had advocated the abolition of marriage in his philosophical treatise Political Justice.[39] After their marriage on 29 March 1797, they moved into two adjoining houses, known as The Polygon, so that they could both still retain their independence; they often communicated by letter.[40] By all accounts, theirs was a happy and stable, though tragically brief, relationship.[41]
On 30 August 1797, Wollstonecraft gave birth to her second daughter, Mary. Although the delivery seemed to go well initially, the placenta broke apart during the birth and became infected; puerperal (childbed) fever was a common and often fatal occurrence in the eighteenth century.[42] After several days of agony, Wollstonecraft died of septicaemia on 10 September.[43] Godwin was devastated: he wrote to his friend Thomas Holcroft, “I firmly believe there does not exist her equal in the world. I know from experience we were formed to make each other happy. I have not the least expectation that I can now ever know happiness again.”[44] She was buried at Old Saint Pancras Churchyard, where her tombstone reads, “Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin, Author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman: Born 27 April 1759: Died 10 September 1797.”[45] (In 1851, her remains were moved by her grandson Percy Florence Shelley to his family tomb in Bournemouth.)[46]
In January 1798 Godwin published his Memoirs of the Author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. Although Godwin felt that he was portraying his wife with love, compassion, and sincerity, many readers were shocked that he would reveal Wollstonecraft’s illegitimate children, love affairs, and suicide attempts.[47] The Romantic poet Robert Southey accused him of “the want of all feeling in stripping his dead wife naked” and vicious satires such as The Unsex’d Females were published.[48] Godwin’s Memoirs portrays Wollstonecraft as a woman deeply invested in feeling who was balanced by his reason and as more of a religious sceptic than her own writings suggest.[49] Godwin’s views of Wollstonecraft were perpetuated throughout the nineteenth century and resulted in poems such as “Wollstonecraft and Fuseli” by British poet Robert Browning and that by William Roscoe which includes the lines:
Hard was thy fate in all the scenes of life
As daughter, sister, mother, friend, and wife;
But harder still, thy fate in death we own,
Thus mourn’d by Godwin with a heart of stone.[50]
Wollstonecraft has had what scholar Cora Kaplan labelled in 2002 a “curious” legacy: “for an author-activist adept in many genres… up until the last quarter-century Wollstonecraft’s life has been read much more closely than her writing”.[51] After the devastating effect of Godwin’s Memoirs, Wollstonecraft’s reputation lay in tatters for a century; she was pilloried by such writers as Maria Edgeworth, who patterned the “freakish” Harriet Freke in Belinda (1801) after her. Other novelists such as Mary Hays, Charlotte Turner Smith, Fanny Burney, and Jane West created similar figures, all to teach a “moral lesson” to their readers.[52] (Hays had been a close friend, and helped nurse her in her dying days.[53]) Scholar Virginia Sapiro states that few read Wollstonecraft’s works during the nineteenth century as “her attackers implied or stated that no self-respecting woman would read her work”.[54] (In fact, as Craciun points out, new editions of Rights of Woman appeared in the UK in the 1840s, and in the US in the 1830s, 1840s, and 1850s.[55]) One of those few was Elizabeth Barrett Browning, who read Rights of Woman aged 12, and whose poem Aurora Leigh reflected “Wollstonecraft’s unwavering focus on education”.[56] Another was Lucretia Mott,[57] a Quaker minister and activist against slavery who helped organize the Seneca Falls Convention, an influential women’s rights convention held in 1848. Another who read Wollstonecraft was George Eliot, a prolific writer of reviews, articles, novels, and translations. In 1855, she devoted an essay to the roles and rights of women, comparing Wollstonecraft and Margaret Fuller. Fuller was an American journalist, critic, and women’s right activist who, like Wollstonecraft, had travelled to the Continent, been involved in the struggle for reform (in this case the Roman Republic), and had a child by a man without marrying him.[58] Wollstonecraft’s children’s work was adapted by Charlotte Mary Yonge in 1870.[59]
With the rise of the movement to give women a political voice, Wollstonecraft’s work was exhumed. The first full-length biography,[55] by Elizabeth Robins Pennell, appeared in 1884 as part of a series by the Roberts Brothers on famous women.[60] This followed an attempt at rehabilitation in 1879, with the publication of Wollstonecraft’s Letters to Imlay, with prefatory memoir by C. Kegan Paul.[61]Millicent Garrett Fawcett, a suffragist and later president of the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies, wrote the introduction to the centenary edition (i.e. 1892) of the Rights of Woman, cleansing the memory of Wollstonecraft and claiming her as the foremother of the struggle for the vote.[62] With the advent of the modern feminist movement, women as politically dissimilar from each other as Virginia Woolf and Emma Goldman embraced Wollstonecraft’s life story.[63] By 1929 Woolf described Wollstonecraft—her writing, arguments, and “experiments in living”—as immortal: “she is alive and active, she argues and experiments, we hear her voice and trace her influence even now among the living”.[64] Others, however, continued to decry Wollstonecraft’s lifestyle.[65]
With the emergence of feminist criticism in academia in the 1960s and 1970s, Wollstonecraft’s works returned to prominence. Their fortunes reflected that of the second wave of the feminist movement itself; for example, in the early 1970s, six major biographies of Wollstonecraft were published that presented her “passionate life in apposition to [her] radical and rationalist agenda”.[66] In the 1980s and 1990s, yet another image of Wollstonecraft emerged, one which described her as much more a creature of her time; scholars such as Claudia Johnson, Gary Kelly, and Virginia Sapiro demonstrated the continuity between Wollstonecraft’s thought and other important eighteenth-century ideas regarding topics such as sensibility, economics, and political theory.
Wollstonecraft’s work has also had an effect on feminism outside the academy in recent years. Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a political writer and former Muslim who is critical of Islam in general and its dictates regarding women in particular, cited the Rights of Woman in her autobiography Infidel and wrote that she was “inspired by Mary Wollstonecraft, the pioneering feminist thinker who told women they had the same ability to reason as men did and deserved the same rights”.[67]
Despite a recent taste of spring, winter is not ready to relinquish its command across Europe, including in London, Paris and Berlin, as arctic cold and snow make a comeback.
Arctic air will spend this weekend and Monday pressing southward across northern Europe, erasing any signs of the springlike warmth from Tuesday and Wednesday.
Instead of thinking that the calendar jumped ahead to April or May, as was the case earlier this week, residents may actually wonder if time is being turned backwards to the dead of winter during the upcoming days.
Highs on Monday throughout northern Europe will generally be held between 5 below zero and 4 above zero C (20s and 30s F), a stark contrast to the temperatures that approached or cracked the 15-degree mark C (59 degrees F) this past Tuesday and Wednesday.
Six fire engines, four fire rescue units, a number of other specialist vehicles, 88 firefighters and officers are attending a helicopter crash near Wandsworth Road in Vauxhall. Firefighters have now brought the fire under control.
The police have confirmed that two people died at the scene. Fire crews rescued a man from a burning car. London Ambulance Service took six people to hospital and treated seven people at the scene.
Two office buildings were damaged by debris from the helicopter. Five cars and two motorbikes were also damaged in the crash.
Fifty seven firefighters and officers also attended a crane which was left in a precarious position at Saint Georges Wharf, SW8 as a result of the helicopter crash. Around 600 construction workers self evacuated and around 40 homes were evacuated by the police.
Specialist Urban Search and Rescue crews worked with specialist contractors to assess the damage and make the area safe. The incident has now been handed over to the police and an aviation accident investigation team.
The Brigade’s fire boat has also carried out a precautionary search of the river.
The Brigade was called at 0800. The fire was out within 20 minutes and the helicopter crash incident was over for the Brigade at 1137.
Helicopter thought to be an Agusta109. Pilot only aboard
Security Services say no terrorist element to the crash
Underground & Bus station at Vauxhall have been shut
South West Trains: Earlier this morning a Helicopter crashed near Vauxhall station, the police have cordoned off a significant area this includes Vauxhall Rail, Bus and Underground station. Trains are still running into and out of Waterloo but will not stop at Vauxhall station to set down or pick up passengers.
Customers requiring train services to and from Vauxhall should use London Underground services from Pimlico, Stockwell or Oval to Waterloo. We currently have no information regarding the reopening of Vauxhall Railway station, We will be advised by the MET Police as to when this will be possible.
Tower RNLI Lifeboat crew are searching Thames after poss sighting of person in river after helicopter crash
London Ambulance say they have transported and treated four people.
Police continue to clear the area and advise public to avoid area
1024z Sky News: 9 injured so far (These numbers may change)
Update 1056z: Met Police: Total 11 casulties; 2 dead, 9 injured (of which 1 critically ill)
Update 1100z – RNLI lifeboat has now been stood down from searching the River Thames
Two people have been killed and nine injured when a helicopter crashed into a crane in central London in misty conditions.
Police said it appeared the helicopter had hit the crane on top of The Tower, One St George Wharf at about 08:00 GMT.
Sixty firefighters are at the scene near Wandsworth Road in South Lambeth. Doctors said one of the dead was in the helicopter and the other on the ground.
Burning wreckage lay in the road but the fire is now under control.
A man was rescued from a burning car by firefighters.
Four people, one of them critically ill, were taken to hospital. Five others were treated at the scene.
‘Enormous bang’
The incident caused gridlock with all approaches to the Vauxhall Cross one way system closed at the height of the rush hour and Vauxhall Tube station and railway station closed.
The fire brigade was also at St George’s Wharf to secure the damaged crane.
Met Police Commissioner Bernard Hogan-Howe said: “We believe there are 11 casualties, two fatalities and nine less seriously injured but one is critically ill. People are presenting themselves to different places.”
Eyewitness Aaron Rogers: “All of a sudden the helicopter was in flames” (footage Jose Gomez)
London Fire Brigade station manager Bruce Grain said crews arrived at the scene in four minutes.
He said the helicopter crashed into Wandsworth Road hitting various vehicles and bursting into flames and there were also fires in nearby buildings.
He said the fire was under control within 25 minutes but crews would probably be at the scene for the rest of the day damping down.
Vauxhall bus station is always busy. It’s a hub where people can connect with the Underground and rail services. Helicopters flying along the river are a common sight.
This morning the rush hour was confused as well as crowded. In the aftermath of the crash, bus and other traffic had been held back on the Wandsworth Road.
It wasn’t long before there were tailbacks. The journey wasn’t any easier on foot. Pedestrians were directed away from the main road and pavements running along the Nine Elms Sainsbury’s supermarket and on to side streets.
By the time I arrived at Vauxhall bus station the police were starting to tape off many of the approach roads as well. You could still smell the smoke and it was difficult to see the top of the tower and the damaged crane.
Commuters mingled with large groups of construction workers – the crowd took time to move despite the efforts of police community support officers and bus station staff.
A lifeboat searched the Thames after a request from London Heliport at Battersea which had lost contact with one of its aircraft, an RNLI spokesman said, but the search was later called off.
Video footage shot on a mobile phone showed an entire road blocked by burning wreckage and aviation fuel.
The side of a building on one side of the street was also damaged by the flames.
Passers-by stood watching as the wreckage burned. A motorcycle was also lying on its side in the road where it was abandoned.
Mark Osbourne, from Metropolis Motorcycles, a bike shop near the scene, said he ran to try and help the injured.
“There was lots of wreckage and fire,” he said.
“I saw a woman on a motorcycle that must have missed the carnage by six feet.
“It felt like a war movie, it was surreal.
“The police arrived within minutes so the response was excellent.”
‘Clouds of smoke’
Craig Dunne, who was walking to work at the time of the accident, said: “When I got to the end of the road there was a massive explosion and the crane is obviously in pieces.
“And I looked to the left-hand side and there were cars – three cars on fire – people screaming shouting and hollering, and the next thing I know there are police, ambulances and everything everywhere and people going crazy. Its madness – absolute madness.”
Ex-BBC producer Paul Ferguson said the helicopter “plummeted straight into the ground”.
The wreckage of the helicopter landed in the road, setting cars alight
He said: “The building the helicopter hit is shrouded in mist.”
He said the crane at the top of the building was now hanging down the side of the building.
Nicky Morgan, MP for Loughborough, witnessed the crash.
“I was walking towards Vauxhall Tube station from Lambeth Palace area where I have a flat,” she said.
“There was suddenly an enormous bang – I thought something exploded.
“It was coming from beyond Vauxhall tube station.
“Then clouds and clouds of black smoke.
Part of the crane fell to the ground after the crash
“I presumed what it was I heard was the crane collapsing or the helicopter crashing into it.
“I heard the bang then saw the clouds of smoke but there was too much in the way to see much at that point.”
Quinn Murray was cycling when he saw the crash.
He said: “I saw the helicopter hit the top of the crane and come down just to the left of the station.
“There was quite a large amount of fire and a huge smoke cloud. It wasn’t on the road, but into a building site where they are building the new Nine Elms area.”
Eyewitness Chris Matthison told BBC News: “It’s possible the crane is lying across Nine Elms road.
“The top of the nearest building is steeped in mist and difficult to see.
“I heard a very unusual dull thud, then there was silence. The silence really took my imagination. Emergency services responded very quickly.”
Erin Rogers, who was waiting at a bus stop outside Vauxhall station, said: “It was a bit surreal actually. I just had a coffee in my hand, I looked up, heard a bang and saw bits of crane debris falling to the floor.
“Then the helicopter was in flames. The rest of the people at the bus station were looking on going ‘What was that?’.
“It’s something I will never forget for a long time.”
Kate Hoey, Labour MP for Vauxhall, said: “My initial thought was that it might have hit one of the many densely populated tall buildings. To hear it had hit the crane was a relief in some way.
“Police said to me that their first fear was it was the police helicopter, however, it had been grounded because of the weather.”
The Met told the BBC there was no suggestion the incident was linked to terrorism.
Under the hot Afghan winter sun, a bugler sounded the Last Post, ahead of a profound two-minute silence at the British headquarters in Lashkar Gah.
The servicemen and women here stood lost in thought, before the bugler sounded the reveille.
For those working and fighting here, this Remembrance Day is a very personal act of remembering the sacrifices made in war.
Though many of those gathered here are only in their twenties, many have already lost friends and comrades in Afghanistan, and before that in Iraq, giving the silence here a deeper resonance.
British servicemen and women on operations in Helmand work a seven-day week, and Sunday is no different. But most will be able to attend a service at even the remotest patrol bases or checkpoints across the province at different times of day, or if on guard, stand in silence as they watch over their colleagues.
So far this year, 43 British troops have died in Afghanistan – five of them from the current brigade.” – BBC News
Remembrance Day (also known as Poppy Day or Armistice Day) is a memorial day observed in Commonwealth countries since the end of World War I to remember the members of their armed forces who have died in the line of duty. This day, or alternative dates, are also recognized as special days for war remembrances in many non-Commonwealth countries. Remembrance Day is observed on 11 November to recall the end of hostilities of World War I on that date in 1918. Hostilities formally ended “at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month,” in accordance with the Armistice, signed by representatives of Germany and the Entente between 5:12 and 5:20 that morning. (“At the 11th hour” refers to the passing of the 11th hour, or 11:00 a.m.) World War I officially ended with the signing of the Treaty of Versailles on June 28, 1919. [1]
The day was specifically dedicated by King George V on 7 November 1919 as a day of remembrance for members of the armed forces who were killed during World War I. This was possibly done upon the suggestion of Edward George Honey to Wellesley Tudor Pole, who established two ceremonial periods of remembrance based on events in 1917.[2]
The red remembrance poppy has become a familiar emblem of Remembrance Day due to the poem “In Flanders Fields“. These poppies bloomed across some of the worst battlefields of Flanders in World War I, their brilliant red colour an appropriate symbol for the blood spilled in the war.
Observance in the Commonwealth
Remembrance Day, London, 2006.
The common British, Canadian, South African, and ANZAC tradition includes either one or two minutes of silence at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month (11:00 a.m., 11 November), as that marks the time (in the United Kingdom) when the armistice became effective.
The Service of Remembrance in many Commonwealth countries generally includes the sounding of the “Last Post“, followed by the period of silence, followed by the sounding of “The Rouse” (often mistakenly referred to as “Reveille“), and finished by a recitation of the “Ode of Remembrance“. The “Flowers of the Forest“, “O Valiant Hearts“, “I Vow to Thee, My Country” and “Jerusalem” are often played during the service. Services also include wreaths laid to honour the fallen, a blessing, and national anthems.[3]
The central ritual at cenotaphs throughout the Commonwealth is a stylized night vigil. The Last Post was the common bugle call at the close of the military day, and the Rouse was the first call of the morning. For military purposes, the traditional night vigil over the slain was not just to ensure they were indeed dead and not unconscious or in a coma, but also to guard them from being mutilated or despoiled by the enemy, or dragged off by scavengers. This makes the ritual more than just an act of remembrance but also a pledge to guard the honour of war dead. The act is enhanced by the use of dedicated cenotaphs (literally Greek for “empty tomb”) and the laying of wreaths—the traditional means of signalling high honours in ancient Greece and Rome.
In Australia, Remembrance Day is always observed on 11 November, regardless of the day of the week, and is not a public holiday; it is a time when people can pay their respects to the substantial number of soldiers who died in battle. Some institutions observe two minute’s silence at 11 a.m. Through a programme named Read 2 Remember,[4] children read the Pledge of Remembrance by Rupert McCall and teachers deliver specially developed resources to help children understand the significance of the day and the resilience of those who have fought for their country and call on children to also be resilient when facing difficult times. Services are held at 11 a.m. at war memorials and schools in suburbs and cities across the country, at which the “Last Post” is sounded by a bugler and a one-minute silence is observed. In recent decades, Remembrance Day has been largely eclipsed as the national day of war commemoration by ANZAC Day (25 April), which is a public holiday in all states.
Barbados
In Barbados, Remembrance Day is not a public holiday. It is recognized as November 11, but the parade and ceremonial events are carried out on Remembrance Sunday.[5] The day is celebrated to recognize the Barbadian soldiers who died fighting in the First and Second World Wars. The parade is held at National Heroes’ Square, where an interdenominational service is held.[6] The Governor-General and Barbadian Prime Minister are among those who attend, along with other government dignitaries and the heads of the police and military forces. During the main ceremony a gun salute, wreaths, and prayers are also performed at the war memorial Cenotaph at the heart of Heroes’ Square in Bridgetown.
Bermuda
Remembrance Day Parade, Hamilton, Bermuda, 1991
In Bermuda, which sent the first colonial volunteer unit to the Western Front in 1915, and which had more people per capita in uniform during the Second World War than any other part of the Empire, Remembrance Day is still an important holiday. The parade in Hamilton had historically been a large and colourful one, as contingents from the Royal Navy, British Regular Army, the local Territorial units, the Canadian Forces, the US Army, Air Force, and Navy, and various cadet corps and other services all at one time or another marched with the veterans. Since the closing of British, Canadian, and American bases in 1995, the parade has barely grown smaller. In addition to the ceremony held in the City of Hamilton on Remembrance Day itself, marching to the Cenotaph (a smaller replica of the one in London), where wreaths are laid and orations made, a smaller military parade is also held in St. George’s on the nearest Sunday to Remembrance Day.[7]
Canada
In Canada, Remembrance Day is a public holiday and federal statutory holiday, as well as a statutory holiday in all three territories and in six of the ten provinces (Nova Scotia, Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec being the exceptions).[8][9][10][11] From 1921 to 1930, the Armistice Day Act provided that Thanksgiving would be observed on Armistice Day, which was fixed by statute on the Monday of the week in which November 11 fell. In 1931, the federal parliament adopted an act to amend the Armistice Day Act, providing that the day should be observed on November 11 and that the day should be known as “Remembrance Day”.[12]
The federal department of Veterans Affairs Canada states that the date is of “remembrance for the men and women who have served, and continue to serve our country during times of war, conflict and peace”; specifically, the First and Second World Wars, the Korean War, and all conflicts since then in which members of the Canadian Forces have participated.[13] The department runs a program called Canada Remembers with the mission of helping young and new Canadians, most of whom have never known war, “come to understand and appreciate what those who have served Canada in times of war, armed conflict and peace stand for and what they have sacrificed for their country.”[14]
The arrival of the governor general is announced by a trumpeter sounding the “Alert”, whereupon the viceroy is met by the Dominion President of the RCL and escorted to a dais to receive the Viceregal Salute, after which the national anthem, “O Canada“, is played. The moment of remembrance begins with the bugling of “Last Post” immediately before 11:00 a.m., at which time the gun salute fires and the bells of the Peace Tower toll the hour. Another gun salute signals the end of the two minutes of silence, and cues the playing of a lament, the bugling of “The Rouse,” and the reading of the Act of Remembrance. A flypast of Royal Canadian Air Force craft then occurs at the start of a 21-gun salute, upon the completion of which a choir sings “In Flanders Fields”. The various parties then lay their wreaths at the base of the memorial; one wreath is set by the Silver Cross Mother, a recent recipient of the Memorial Cross, on behalf of all mothers whose children died in conflicts in which Canada participated. The viceregal and/or royal group return to the dais to receive the playing of the Royal Anthem of Canada, “God Save the Queen“, prior to the assembled Armed Forces personnel and veterans performing a march past in front of the viceroy, bringing about the end of the official ceremonies.[16] A tradition of paying more personal tribute has emerged since erection of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at the War Memorial in 2000: after the official ceremony the general public place their poppies atop the tomb.
Similar ceremonies take place in provincial capitals across the country, officiated by the relevant lieutenant governor, as well as in other cities, towns, and even hotels or corporate headquarters. Schools will usually hold special assemblies for the first half of the day, or on the school day prior, with various presentations concerning the remembrance of the war dead. The largest indoor ceremony in Canada is usually held in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, with over 9,000 gathering in Credit Union Centre in 2010;[17] the ceremony participants include old guard (veterans), new guard (current members of the CF), and sea, army, and air cadet units.
India
In India, the day is usually marked by tributes and ceremonies in army cantonments. There are memorial services in some churches such as St Mark’s Cathedral in Bangalore. At Kohima and Imphal in the remote hillsides of North East India, Services of Remembrance supported by the Indian Army are observed at Kohima and Imphal War Cemeteries (maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission). In other places in India this event is not observed.[citation needed]
Kenya
In Kenya, the Kenya Armed Forces Old Comrades Association (KAFOCA) was established in Kenya immediately in 1945 to cater for the welfare of the Ex-servicemen of the First and the Second World Wars. The KAFOCA and Kenyan government recognize Remembrance Day.
Mauritius
A number of Mauritians who participated in World War I as combattants, lost their lives. Among them were many students from the Royal College of Mauritius, who participated in the War on the French front and never got to return to their motherland. Thus, to mark the gratitude of the Mauritian people to those honourable martyrs, in 1916, even before the Remembrance Day was recognized, Governor Hesketh Bell announced that he had met in London with an eminent artist, J.A. Stevenson, who had agreed to design a bronze monument similar to that of Bernard Partidge, representing two allied soldiers: the Frenchman Poilu and the Englishman Tommy. The inauguration of this commemorative monument took place before the Royal College of Curepipe on Saturday 15 April 1922, which was decreed a public holiday. Since then, on each 11 November or as the case may be, it is at the foot of the War Memorial that Mauritians continue to celebrate Remembrance Day with all solemnity and respect due to the event.
New Zealand
New Zealand‘s national day of remembrance is Anzac Day, 25 April.[18] “Poppy Day” usually occurs on the Friday before Anzac Day.[19] The reason for the oddity of New Zealand having their remembrance on Anzac Day happened in 1921. The paper Poppies for Armistice that year arrived by ship too late for 11 November 1921, so an RSA branch distributed them at the next commemoration date (25 April 1922, which happened to be Anzac Day) and that date stuck as the new Poppy Day in New Zealand.
Armistice Day was observed in New Zealand between the World Wars, although it was always secondary to Anzac Day. As in other countries, New Zealand’s Armistice Day was converted to Remembrance Day after World War II, but this was not a success. By the mid-1950s the day was virtually ignored, even by churches and veterans’ organizations.[20]
Since the Unknown Warrior being returned to New Zealand for Armistice Day 2004, more ceremonies are now being held in New Zealand on Armistice Day and more churches are now observing Remembrance Sunday.
South Africa
In South Africa, Poppy Day is not a public holiday. It takes place on the Saturday nearest to Remembrance Day, though in Cape Town a Remembrance Service is still held on 11 November each year.[21] Commemoration ceremonies are usually held on the following Sunday, at which the “Last Post” is played by a bugler followed by the observation of a two-minute silence. The two largest commemoration ceremonies to mark the event in South Africa are held in Pretoria, at the Voortrekker Monument at the Cenotaph (where it has been held for 84 consecutive years), and at the War Memorial at the Union Buildings in Pretoria. Many high schools hold Remembrance Day services to honour the past pupils who died in the two World Wars and the Border war. In addition, the South African Legion holds a street collection to gather funds to assist in welfare work among military veterans.[21]
In the United Kingdom, although two minutes of silence are observed on 11 November itself, the main observance is on the second Sunday of November, Remembrance Sunday. Ceremonies are held at local war memorials, usually organized by local branches of the Royal British Legion, an association for ex-servicemen. Typically, poppy wreaths are laid by representatives of the Crown, the armed forces, and local civic leaders, as well as by local organizations including ex-servicemen organizations, cadet forces, the Scouts, Guides, Boys’ Brigade, St John Ambulance and the Salvation Army. The start and end of the silence is often also marked by the firing of a cannon. A minute’s or two minutes’ silence is also frequently incorporated into church services. Further wreath-laying ceremonies are observed at most war memorials across the UK at 11 a.m. on the 11th of November, led by the Royal British Legion.[22] The beginning and end of the two minutes’ silence is often marked in large towns and cities by the firing of ceremonial cannon[23] and many employers and businesses invite their staff and customers to observe the two minutes’ silence at 11:00 a.m.[24]
The First Two Minute Silence in London (11 November 1919) was reported in the Manchester Guardian on 12 November 1919:
The first stroke of eleven produced a magical effect. The tram cars glided into stillness, motors ceased to cough and fume, and stopped dead, and the mighty-limbed dray horses hunched back upon their loads and stopped also, seeming to do it of their own volition. Someone took off his hat, and with a nervous hesitancy the rest of the men bowed their heads also. Here and there an old soldier could be detected slipping unconsciously into the posture of ‘attention’. An elderly woman, not far away, wiped her eyes, and the man beside her looked white and stern. Everyone stood very still … The hush deepened. It had spread over the whole city and become so pronounced as to impress one with a sense of audibility. It was a silence which was almost pain … And the spirit of memory brooded over it all.[25]
The Cenotaph at Whitehall, London on Remembrance Day 2004
The main national commemoration is held at Whitehall, in Central London, for dignitaries, the public, and ceremonial detachments from the armed forces and civilian uniformed services such as the Merchant Navy and Her Majesty’s Coastguard. Members of the British Royal Family walk through the Foreign and Commonwealth Office towards the Cenotaph, assembling to the right of the monument to wait for Big Ben to strike 11:00 a.m., and for the King’s Troop, Royal Horse Artillery at Horse Guards Parade, to fire the cannon marking the commencement of the two minutes of silence. Following this, “Last Post” is sounded by the buglers of the Royal Marines. “The Rouse” is then sounded by the trumpeters of the Royal Air Force, after which wreaths are laid by the Queen and senior members of the Royal Family attending in military uniform and then, to “Beethoven’s Funeral March” (composed by Johann Heinrich Walch), by attendees in the following order: the Prime Minister; the leaders of the major political parties from all parts of the United Kingdom; CommonwealthHigh Commissioners to London, on behalf of their respective nations; the Foreign Secretary, on behalf of the British Dependencies; the First Sea Lord; the Chief of the General Staff; the Chief of the Air Staff; representatives of the merchant navy and Fishing Fleets and the merchant air service. Other members of the Royal Family usually watch the service from the balcony of the Foreign Office. The service is generally conducted by the Bishop of London, with a choir from the Chapels Royal, in the presence of representatives of all major faiths in the United Kingdom. Before the marching commences, the members of the Royal Family and public sing the national anthem before the Royal Delegation lead out after the main service.
In the United Kingdom, Armed Forces’ Day (formerly Veterans’ Day) is a separate commemoration, celebrated for the first time on 27 June 2009.
Northern Ireland
Remembrance Day is officially observed in Northern Ireland in the same way as in Great Britain. However, it has tended to be associated with the unionist community. Most Irish nationalists and republicans do not take part in the public commemoration of British soldiers. This is mainly due to the actions of the British Army during The Troubles. However, some moderate nationalists began to attend Remembrance Day events as a way to connect with the unionist community. In 1987 a bomb was detonated by the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) just before a Remembrance Sunday ceremony in Enniskillen, killing eleven people. The IRA said it had made a mistake and had been targeting soldiers parading to the war memorial. The bombing was widely condemned and attendance at Remembrance events, by both nationalists and unionists, rose in the following years.[26] The Republic of Ireland has a National Day of Commemoration in July for all Irish people who have died in war.
Similar observances outside the Commonwealth
France and Belgium
Bleuet de France, circa 1950
Remembrance Day (11 November) is a national holiday in France and Belgium. It commemorates the armistice signed between the Allies and Germany at Compiègne, France, for the cessation of hostilities on the Western Front, which took effect at 11:00 a.m. in the morning—the “eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month.” Armistice Day is one the most important military celebrations in France, since it was a major French victory and the French paid a heavy price in blood to achieve it. The First World War was considered in France as the “Great Patriotic War”.[27] Almost all French villages feature memorials dedicated to those fallen during the conflict.[28] In France the blue cornflower(Bleuet de France)[29] is used symbolically rather than the poppy.
Germany
The German national day of mourning is the secular public holiday of Volkstrauertag,[30] which since 1952 has been observed two Sundays before the first Sunday of Advent;[31] in practice this is the Sunday closest to 16 November. The anniversary of the Armistice itself is not observed in Germany.[32]
Each of the major German churches has its own festivals for commemorating the dead, observed in November: All Souls Day in the case of the Roman Catholic Church, Ewigkeitssonntag or “Eternity Sunday” in the case of the Lutheran church.
Though not a public holiday since July 1997, Remembrance Sunday is observed in Hong Kong, and is marked by a multi-faith memorial service at the Cenotaph in Central, Hong Kong. The service is organized by the Hong Kong ex-servicemen Association, and is attended by various Government officials and the representatives of various religious traditions such as the Anglican Church, the Roman Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Buddhist community, the Taoist community, the Muslim community and the Sikh community.
In the Republic of Ireland, Armistice or Remembrance Day is not a public holiday. In July there is a National Day of Commemoration for Irish men and women who have died in war. Nevertheless, Remembrance Sunday is marked by a ceremony in St Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin, which the President of Ireland attends.[33][34][35] During World War I, many Irishmen served in the British Army, but official commemoration of them (and other British soldiers) has been controversial. The British Army was used to suppress the Easter Rising (1916) and fought the forces of the Irish Republic during the Irish War of Independence (1919–22). A very small number of people living in the Republic still enlist in the British Army,[36][37][38] although the British Army is banned from recruiting there under the Defence Act 1954.[39][40] The Irish National War Memorial Gardens in Dublin is dedicated to the memory of the 49,400 Irish soldiers who were killed in action in World War I.[41]
Israel
In Israel there are two ceremonies, the first being in Jerusalem, at Mount Scopus Commonwealth Cemetery on the Saturday before Remembrance Sunday, organized by the British Consul in Jerusalem. The second ceremony is in Ramleh on the Sunday itself, organized by the British embassy in Tel Aviv. The Ramleh ceremony is the larger, and is also attended by veterans of the Second World War.
Italy
In Italy, soldiers who died for the nation are remembered on 4 November, when the ceasefire that followed the Armistice of Villa Giusti in 1918 began. The Day is known as the Day of National Unity Day of the Armed Forces, Giorno dell’UnitĂ Nazionale Giornata delle Forze Armate in Italian.[42] Since 1977, this day has not been a public holiday; now, many services are held on the first Sunday in November.[43]
In the Netherlands, Remembrance Day is commemorated annually on 4 May. It is not a public holiday. Throughout the country, military personnel and civilians fallen in various conflicts since World War II are remembered. The main ceremonies are at the Waalsdorpervlakte near The Hague, the Grebbeberg near Wageningen and Dam Square in Amsterdam. Two minutes of silence are observed at 8:00 p.m. Remembrance Day is followed by Liberation Day on 5 May.
11 November is a public holiday in Poland called Independence Day, as the ending of First World War allowed Polish people to regain the freedom and unity of their country after over a hundred years of partitions. Major events include laying flowers on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier by members of the government and highest authorities, other public ceremonies and church services and school celebrations.
United States
Veterans Day is observed in the United States on 11 November, and is both a federal holiday and a state holiday in all states. However, the function of the observance elsewhere is more closely matched by Memorial Day in May. In the United States, and some other allied nations, 11 November was formerly known as Armistice Day; in the United States it was given its new name in 1954 at the end of the Korean War to honor all veterans. Veterans Day is observed with memorial ceremonies, salutes at military cemeteries, and parades.
A WINCHMAN who displayed “real courage” during a “treacherous” night-time rescue has been recognised for his bravery.
Master Aircrewman Richard Taylor from RAF Valley was presented with an Individual Commendation at the Shipwrecked Mariners’ Society’s annual Skill and Gallantry Awards in London this week.
He braved high winds and seas to save the survivors of a sunken cargo vessel in November last year.
In the early hours of November 27, the crew of Rescue 122 launched a search and rescue mission after the MV Swanland broke in two and sank in stormy conditions, forcing the survivors to abandon the ship in dinghies.
Flight Lieutenant Thomas Bunn and his crew located one of the dinghies and, after scanning the wreckage and seeing that the survivors were safe, took the decision to delay their rescue and search for others who might be injured in their dinghies or adrift at sea.
The official website of The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee
The Central Weekend 2 – 5 June 2012
The Central Weekend to celebrate The Queens Diamond Jubilee takes place from Saturday 2 June to Tuesday 5 June 2012, with celebratory activities throughout the UK and across the Commonwealth
If you are considering visiting central London to join in with the celebrations, you may find it useful to visit the Transport for London website
Alternatively, you may wish to consider watching events on one of the many BBC Big Screens around the UK.
For information about the Official Diamond Jubilee Souvenir Programme click here.
Here is our run-down of events over the Diamond Jubilee weekend, including approximate timings:
Saturday 2 June, 2012 The Queen will attend the Epsom Derby.
Sunday 3 June, 2012 The Big Jubilee Lunch: Building on the already popular Big Lunch initiative, people will be encouraged to share lunch with neighbours and friends as part of the Diamond Jubilee celebrations. This may take the form of a traditional street party or a picnic lunch in small or larger groups. This event is being organised by the Big Lunch. Find out more.
The Thames Diamond Jubilee Pageant: This event will take place on the Thames and consist of up to 1,000 boats assembled from across the UK, the Commonwealth and around the world. The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh will travel in the Royal Barge which will form the centrepiece of the flotilla.Find out more
Approximate timings are as follows:
14:30BST The Queen embarks the Royal barge, the Spirit of Chartwell, near Albert Bridge
16:15BST The Royal Barge comes alongside HMS President (Royal Naval Reserve Unit), near Tower Bridge
Monday 4 June, 2012 BBC Concert at Buckingham Palace: There will be a televised Diamond Jubilee Concert at Buckingham Palace with tickets being available to UK residents by public ballot. The musical programme for the concert is still being planned and is expected to feature British and Commonwealth musicians. Details on how to apply for the concert will be available in due course. This event is being organised by the BBC. Find out more
The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Beacons: A network of 2,012 Beacons will be lit by communities and individuals throughout the United Kingdom, as well as the Channel Islands, the Isle of Man and the Commonwealth. As in 2002, The Queen will light the National Beacon. Find out more
Approximate timings are as follows:
19:30BST Diamond Jubilee Concert at Buckingham Palace begins
After 22:30BST The Queen lights the National Beacon outside Buckingham Palace
Tuesday 5 June, 2012 On Tuesday 5 June, the Diamond Jubilee weekend will culminate with a day of celebrations in central London, including a service at St Pauls Cathedral followed by two receptions, a lunch at Westminster Hall, a Carriage Procession to Buckingham Palace and finally a Balcony appearance, Flypast, and Feu de Joie. Find out more.
(Photo: universeofsound.co.uk) Click on photo to be magically transported to the Universe of Sound, well sort of! 🙂
UK virtual orchestra puts you in conductor’s stand
“LONDON (AP) A London museum is putting the conductor’s baton in visitors’ hands, allowing guests to direct a virtual orchestra using three-dimensional motion sensors.
The “Universe of Sound” installation is an effort by the British capital’s Science Museum to dissect how classical music is made, using specially shot footage, immersive sound, and 360 degree projections to give an unusually close-up view of the well-regarded Philharmonia Orchestra.
“At the end of the whole installation you become part of the entirety,” said David Whelton, the museum’s managing director. “You become part of the Philharmonia.” – philstar.com
Universe of Sound opened today (Wednesday). Admission is free.
A Metropolitan Police officer has died at a police station after suffering gunshot wounds.
The PC, who served with the Aviation Security Command at London City Airport, was found at North Woolwich police station, east London, on today (Sunday). – BBC
A blogger and tweeter – Olly Cromwell – was found guilty on Friday, 13th April, simply for swearing at a Bexley, London, councillor in a Twitter message.
The prosecution alleged he called a senior Bexley councillor a �cunt’ and are seeking a custodial sentence of 45 days for each letter of the word.
Cromwell was found guilty of a Section 127 offence under the Communications Act 2003 and will be back at court on 9th May for sentencing. He says he will appeal against the ruling after the sentencing.
Even more worryingly, Cromwell was issued with a restraining order at his pre-trial hearing on the 21st December 2011 before being found guilty of any crime. He was charged with �grossly offensive malicious communications’ for sending two tweets on the day.
The restraining order said he could not own, operate or write on a website or social media any criticisms of Bexley Council, where he is a resident. He could not even write directly or indirectly about Bexley Councillors on any site.
Olly Cromwell has a long history going back with Bexley Council. After reading multiple reports online, this is what I can make out.
In April 2010 he was slapped with a �prevention of harassment letter’ by the Metropolitan Police, which said:
It has been brought to Police attention that you have been placing blogs on the Bexley is Bonkers website and emailing Bexleyheath Councillors direct criticising them both on a personal level and the way the council is run.
It’s not clear how that is harassment, but Cromwell says he hadn’t ever blogged on the �Bexley is Bonkers’ site.
In October 2011 he was arrested for �harassment’ and �incitement to commit criminal damage’ on the basis of two Tweets.
It was alleged that he swore at a councillor and posted a picture of a councillors house on his blog and twitter (without revealing who’s house it was or the address).
I called someone a cunt without mentioning their name and it wasn’t directed directly at them.
The police also seized computer equipment belonging to him and his wife, his mobile phone, digital camera and other equipment.
Cromwell entered a �not guilty’ plea at the hearing on 7th November.
A pre-trial hearing was then set for 12th December (later moved to 21st Dec). At the pre-trial, the prosecution dropped the harassment charges for lack of evidence but charge him with �grossly offensive malicious communications’ and was hit with a restraining order.
The trial date is then set for 6th January 2012, but later moved back to 13th April. On Friday he was charged with sending that offensive tweet.
The prosecution are now seeking a total of 180 days (6 months) for that tweet.
* * * * * * * * *
This is only the latest such case. I recently wrote about the case of Azhar Ahmed – who was first charged with �racial aggravation’ over a Facebook message about British soldiers. That charge was later dropped and he was charged with writing a �grossly offensive’ message on his Facebook wall under the Communications Act 2003.
This Act is being grossly misused to lock up anyone and everyone.
I find it beyond absurd that someone can be arrested, charged, have a restraining order against them and be found guilty simple for swearing about an elected official on Twitter.
This case has set a really, really bad precedent, and Bexley Council should be thoroughly ashamed of themselves.”
Tibet: Tibet’s Buddhist leader the Dalai Lama has won the 2012 Templeton Prize worth $1.7 million for his work affirming the spiritual dimension of life, the US-based John Templeton Foundation said on Thursday.
The spiritual leader “vigorously focused on the connections between the investigative traditions of science and Buddhism as a way to better understand and advance what both disciplines might offer the world”, the foundation said in a statement.
The announcement came as Tibetan protests against Chinese rule intensify. Thirty Tibetans, mostly Buddhist monks and nuns, have set themselves on fire in the past year, according to Tibetan rights groups. At least 20 have died.
A Tibetan man died on Wednesday after setting himself on fire in New Delhi, activists said, hours before Chinese President Hu Jintao was due to arrive in India for an emerging market nations summit.
The Dalai Lama has angered the Chinese government by refusing to condemn the protests and accusing Beijing of overseeing a “cultural genocide” against Tibetans.
China has ruled Tibet since 1950 when Communist troops occupied the country. The Dalai Lama escaped to live in exile in India after a failed uprising against Chinese rule.
The Dalai Lama, 76, who his followers believe is the reincarnation of an ancient Buddhist leader, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989.
Responding to the award, he said in video for the foundation that it was “another sign of recognition about my little service to humanity, mainly nonviolence and unity around different religious traditions”.
The prize will be awarded at St Paul’s Cathedral in London on May 14.
INCIDENT AT TOWER BRIDGE
The wreckage of the helicopter landed in the road, setting cars alight
Part of the crane fell to the ground after the crash
By Caroline Wyatt Defence correspondent, BBC News
“Corporal Kirk Buck plans to have a vigil for three men from his regiment who died
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