Following on from another debate on here yesterday on the teaching of history in schools here's a quick quiz to see how much people know about British history and in particular some of the wars we have fought
Don't give the answers but let us know if you do or don't know (without googling!) them.
1. Why do we refer to bank, such as at football grounds, as a Kop?
2. From where do we get the term Cardigan?
3. What is the Menin Gate?
4. When was the Battle of Waterloo fought?
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2. Named after the Earl of Cardigan ... not sure what war it was
3. Belgium
4. Every morning on the 8:16
Crimean..
Was it the Crimean in which one of them was involved in the infamous Light brigade incident in the battle of Balaclava, now is that where that term derives from?
May be but he came very close to death that day and the red line was very thin by midday and if the Prussians had not rocked up it would have been very different. But although not a popular man he was loved for his ability to win battles, I would rather be seen as lucky than unlucky!
Our history is not all about death and valour its also about the written word and discovery.
Jenner was small pox
Good one. I'd have to guess the stone of scone or whatever it's called or is it the Scotish crown jewels. Something like that rings a bell.
Well they do Florence Nightingale in Primary school although my wife, being a Barts nurse, laughs at her as a johnny come lately who ruined the profession.
All over the place. The Royalist oppressors dug up "God's Englishman" from his tomb in Westminster Abbey, cut it up, stuck his head on a pike and, I think, send bits of it off around country.
OK, he was nasty to the Irish but those were the rules of war at the time and he was a God botherer who repressed the levellers in the New Model Army but otherwise a good guy.
Long Live the English Commonwealth!
Supposedly Westminster Abbey but rumours that it was dumped at Tyburn
In the ground
But I'm sure Tony Blair made him do it ; -)
And it is hasn't actually left the country while it will be used when there is another coronation.
1. From the Battle of Spion Kop in the Boer War and was a rather messy away defeat for our lads. I think it was fought as part of the campaign to relieve Ladysmith. Essentially the British army thought they could do over a much smaller force that was fighting away from their lines of communication and with numerical supremacy we'd easily triumph. Spion Kop was the smaller of two peaks overlooking a plain and the British army thought they'd caputured it (having attacked in fog), when the fog lifted they discovered that that the real peak was very much in Boer hands and was heavily defended. A two day attritional battle followed with the British withdrawing. Without knowing it victory was close to hand with the smaller Boer army suffering a lot of casualties.
2. From the Earl of Cardigan and the Crimean War. The Earl of Cardigan led the charge of the light brigade at Balaclava, and was the first man to the Russian guns and he made it back with suffering a scratch. Unfortunately a good number of his men didn't. Consequently he became a great hero, mosdtly because he survived to tell his version of the Charge and history is invariably written by the survivors. If you ever get the opportunity read "The Reason Why" - written by Cecil Woodham-Smith which pretty much torpedoed his reputation albeit posthumously.
3. You'll find the Menin Gate at Ypres. The Menin Gate was on the way out of the town of Ypres towards the front and therefore most of those who fought in the battle went through it before fighting. The Menin Gate was destroyed by shellfire but was rebuilt after WWI and now lists the names of all those in the British/Commonwealth Army who have no known graves.
4. Waterloo was fought on the 18th June 1815...
He was MP for Huntingdon...
Buried in Westminster Abbey, exhumed when Charles II was restored - subjected to a mock execution. Most of his remains were dumped at Tyburn. His head was severed head was displayed on a pole outside Westminster Cathedral for several years before being buried in Cambridge.
............
He was a proto-fascist who abhored the divine right of kings (used by King Charles 1st to rule in absolution) but having won the Civil War for the Parliamentarians revealed his true colours by becoming Britain's first dictator, demanded that he be called "your highness" and signed his name Oliver P (for Protector - ie in the royal style of the era) and happily ruled without using Parliament, which demanded more radical/republican reforms than he was content to see, so he wilfully ignored it and hypocritically he also thought that God had given him a divine right to rule.
OK, he lost it a bit at the end but I'm sure a lot of that is royalist propganda. Unfortunately parliament was unwilling to maintain the principles that it (or at least the NMA) had fought for and quickly refused to govern, act or dissolve itself.
He was left with little choice to assume power but turned down the throne on more than one occasion.