Latest news with #BattleofWaterloo
Telegraph
8 hours ago
- General
- Telegraph
Duke of Edinburgh backs plans to restore Battle of Waterloo gardens
The Duke of Edinburgh is backing a £1.3 million campaign to restore the gardens at Hougoumont in Belgium, the chateau farm defended by the Coldstream and Scots Guards against overwhelming odds during the Battle of Waterloo. Prince Edward was due to visit the site on Friday, two days after the 210th anniversary of the battle, at which the Duke of Wellington's allied forces vanquished Napoleon's Grande Armée on June 18 1815. The Duke will arrive at the farm via the north gate, where Britain's Foot Guards repelled a French incursion led by an axe-wielding lieutenant. Wellington later declared: 'The success of the battle turned upon the closing of the gates at Hougoumont.' The farm and gardens were devastated during the battle, which left 50,000 dead and wounded. While some of the buildings at Hougoumont, a strategically vital defensive bastion on the right of Wellington's line, were restored for the bicentenary of the battle, the remains of the chateau were kept as a ruin and the gardens were never replanted. Now, the Friends of the Hougoumont Gardens group is leading a fundraising campaign to restore them to the way they would have looked in 1815. 'We're extremely pleased that the Duke of Edinburgh is coming here to back the new initiative and hope his presence will act as a multiplier for support,' Baron Alexander de Vos van Steenwijk, the group's Brussels-based Dutch chairman, told The Telegraph. The Duke, who is Colonel of the Scots Guards, will lay a wreath at the Closing the Gates memorial. The memorial was unveiled in 2015 by King Charles when he was the Prince of Wales, in the presence of Charles Wellesley, the 9th Duke of Wellington and Prince of Waterloo, together with Prince Charles Bonaparte, a descendant of Prince Jerome Bonaparte, Napoleon's younger brother. The Friends of the Hougoumont Gardens (Les Amis des Jardins d'Hougoumont) is administered by the Fondation Roi Baudouin, a royal charity in Belgium. The replanting scheme, overseen by François Goffinet, a renowned garden architect, has already received €1.1 million (£950,000) towards its €1.5 million target. This came mostly from the local Walloon regional government and guarantees that restoration work can begin next year. The project has four elements – reconstructing the French-style formal garden with its symmetrical patterns, restoring the kitchen vegetable garden on the west side of the farm, replanting the large orchard, which was the scene of some of the fiercest fighting, and creating a new, fourth garden on wetland beyond the north gate. 'We know how the gardens looked before the battle because there were many depictions of Hougoumont from the time. We've also worked with archaeologists who have carried out research which shows how and where the trees were planted in the orchard,' said Baron de Vo. 'The new garden, which we're calling a 'biosphere', will show off the wonders of the natural world. 'The idea is to experiment with new species of plants, to encourage insect life and create an educational space for schools and families to visit. 'A 'tree of peace', grown from the seeds of a sapling rescued after the bombing of Hiroshima in 1945, will also be planted during the Duke of Edinburgh's visit.' Michael Mitchell, a retired British consultant who served in the Grenadier Guards and lives near the battlefield, is among those closely involved with the planned garden restoration, due to be completed in 2027. 'We have secured around 80 per cent of the funding required and aim to raise the rest through individual donations. It's a very sustainable project,' he said. Kléber Rossillon, a French heritage company that manages the battlefield site, including the Waterloo Memorial museum, has pledged to provide four gardeners to ensure the upkeep of the gardens.
Irish Examiner
21 hours ago
- General
- Irish Examiner
Chance to be part of Cork's €1.825m Red House's history
THE owner of Cork's much-loved Red House was warned by his one-time school history teacher not to muck about with this venerable era private, Leeside residence, with its many rises, and ignominious dips, over more than 200 years of its history: it just about pre-dates the 1815 Battle of Waterloo. Could have met its Waterloo by Wellington Bridge ....but it didn't 'I met my old history teacher, Matt Foley, a few years back at a school reunion and he warned me - in the strongest possible terms - not to change its character,' says the owner, now the vendor of the c 1811 Red House. He had bought it, in a very sorry state, back in 2014 and has since very successfully reversed the ravages of time. A sorry sight and site before salvation came its way In fact, the language used by the retired CBC history teacher (whose family home was over on the Western Road across Wellington Bridge) was a lot stronger than 'the strongest possible terms….' But, the point was made, and not lost on his former pupil who assured his former teacher he had no intention of changing it, he just loved it, had always admired it, and wanted to rescue it. 'I knew the house for years, right back to college days in the 1990s when I lived across the road from it when it had been a family home,' says the Corkman who bought it intending it to be his own family home, having previously lived and worked in Hong Kong and the UK. However, his family and work life now with his US-born wife and children is in Dublin, so having bought, saved and 'lightly restyled' the Red House at very considerable expense, and having of late rented it at the very upper end of the corporate letting scale, has decided to part ways with it, ready for its next life chapter. Sitting pretty Red House has been here in these Property & Home pages before, variously called No 72, Red House, and more properly Lisheen. Red rag-order in 2006 We wrote about it back in 2006 when it was described as a 'Lady in Red, albeit more than slightly down at heel,' having had the ignominy, for a period, of being lived in by squatters who'd started chopping up some of the internal timbers for the fireplace to stay warm. Even despite its poor order of two decades back, it had carried a pre-auction guide/hope of €1.5m to €2m: this was back in roaring Celtic Tiger times when a Sunday's Well house had set a Cork home price record of c€5m and the country was awash in (borrowed) cash. High end finishes now It didn't sell, and so sat for a number of subsequent years, slowly decaying and came back for sale in 2014, all boarded up, faded (pic, top right), a shadow of once-upon a time more glorious days, and sold for €450,000 to its current owner, later described in these pages as 'a dreamer' for the scale of what was taken on. High level section links the now amalgamated home, part Georgian, part Victorian and wholly modernised The couple brought the highly regarded Pat O'Sullivan of Kiosk Architects on board, and then engaged Rose Construction for the herculean task of working with a period home inside and outside, on a challenging riverside and roadside site, in red-rag order, and one which was granted listed building status by Cork City Council after their purchase. Vaulted ceiling with ornate rose: the thorny work was done by Rose Construction Singled out for special protection were large ceiling roses in two of the reception rooms in the c3,800 sq ft 'home of two halves', part dating to the early 1800s, the other Victorian, dating to the 1860s and which at various times were used as one, and sometimes two, residences. The older Georgian/Queen Anne era 'half' also has one of the conserved plasterwork roses crowning a very fine vaulted ceiling, all in any case given due regard as was the owners' and architects' intentions in any case. (The vendors had previous experience of house renovations in older era homes in London and in West Cork.) Opportunity knocks Post the 2014 purchase, it took a few years before work could really start at Lisheen/aka No 72, also previously West View Cottage, and later West View Villa (and, 'the Red House' to the rest of us.) Its latter, finishing up staged were after a certain global pandemic hit, with covid adding to time lines, materials and build costs and restrictions. As well as using Kiosk Architects for the salvation and rebirth of Red House, the couple got full planning for a Kiosk-designed c 1,700 sq ft ultra contemporary one-off in a side garden on the property's overall c 0.25 acre site, and this was offered for sale in 2022 with a €475,000 AMV. Now, more practically, both the site with its positive planning history and the fully reborn Red House with up to six bedrooms and understated yet high-end finishes, top to bottom under a wholly-new roof down into a lower part-basement are rolled into the one package, with a €1.825m guide cited by agent Johnny O'Flynn of Sherry FitzGerald. Mr O'Flynn knows that he is selling a Cork classic, in a hallowed city suburb much valued by medics and other well-heeled professionals and where older era homes now tend to get very costly upgrades when and if selling on. The Price Register shows a half a dozen with a Sundays Well address selling for between €1m and €2.2m, with the boom time era €5m Woodlawn showing as a 2016 resale at €2.195 million. The house immediately downriver of Red House, The Hollies sold in 2016 for a recorded €800,000 and has since had a very costly makeover: the setting right on the river is what makes these one-offs of the Georgian and Victorian eras so highly prized. Red House has possibly the very best or most engaging of River Lee/Sundays Well views, not just from the grounds but from the inside as well: look west/upriver and you see Wellington Bridge/Thomas Davis Bridge and County Hall; look downriver and you see the iconic Shakey Bridge/Daly's Bridge: Cork's Red House is almost as iconic. 'At one stage during the work we had thought about changing the colour to more of a pink, but while we were doing the work the architects started getting letters from neighbours and members of the public saying they really hoped it was going to stay red, and of course it has,' say the owners who could possibly have had red blood on their hands if they veered of the original bolder lipstick red colour at this true on-off. The man behind Red House's full-blooded 21st century restoration and conservation says the first lease they got sight of was in 1804, between a Rt Hon Richard Edmund St Laurence and James Bonwell; then, a 90 year lease between the Earl of Cork and Ossery and a William Newman; next, in 1892, it was leased to a Dominick Daly by Viscount Dungarvan: 'I loved history and had a great history teacher,' says the 2025 vendor, still possibly afraid of being haunted by a certain history teacher, living locally….. Sherry FitzGerald's Johnny O'Flynn chimes in on the sale now to say 'seeped in history and known by Corkonians as 'The Red House', West View Villa is an imposing five / six bedroom detached waterside home, with so much space, it is hard to believe just how centrally located in Cork City you are.' Now includes off-street parking He says home work done here was meticulous, blending charm and originality with modern day comforts, and captivating views from just about every room, with a large double garage with remote control access for off-street parking and private garden on three sides, landscaped by designer Sean Russell. There are some pressed metal interventions in a vertical bay window treatments, one on the main river-and Mardyke facing facade, the other horizontal in the top floor span corridor, with timber sashes also, most with original window shutters. Flooring's a mix of solid timber, reclaimed and Victorian style tiles (sourced in Toledo Spain,) slate and cast iron insert fireplaces, a contemporary two- tone kitchen by Clohane Wood Products Skibbereen, and bathroom and sanitary ware from Bert & May, London. There are up to six bedrooms (two with en suites) and masses of storage on all levels, including a steady temperature lower ground level pantry/wine cellar and basement store, twin gas boilers, alarm and CCTV among the 21st century adaptations to a 220+year old Cork icon. Semi-basement pantry/wine cellar with storage access Selling agents Sherry FitzGerald add 'it's exceptionally rare that properties like this come to the market… even more so ones that have been so meticulously restored to such a high standard.' VERDICT: the only thing a new owner might want to do is change the colour…..if they want to be run out of town, before they ever get to unpack.
Boston Globe
3 days ago
- Politics
- Boston Globe
Today in History: June 18, War of 1812 begins
In 1778, American forces entered Philadelphia as the British withdrew during the Revolutionary War. Advertisement In 1812, the War of 1812 began as the United States Congress approved, and President James Madison signed, a declaration of war against Britain. In 1815, Napoleon Bonaparte was defeated in the Battle of Waterloo as British and Prussian troops defeated the French Imperial Army in Belgium. Advertisement In 1979, President Jimmy Carter and Soviet President Leonid Brezhnev signed the SALT II strategic arms limitation treaty in Vienna. In 1983, astronaut Sally Ride became America's first woman in space as she and four other NASA astronauts blasted off aboard the space shuttle Challenger on a six-day mission. In 1986, 25 people were killed when a twin-engine plane and helicopter carrying sightseers collided over the Grand Canyon. In 1992, the US Supreme Court, in Georgia v. McCollum, ruled that criminal defendants could not use race as a basis for excluding potential jurors from their trials. In 2018, President Trump announced he was directing the Pentagon to create the Space Force as an independent branch of the United States armed forces. In 2020, the Supreme Court, in the case of Department of Homeland Security v. Regents of the University of California, rejected, by a 5-4 decision, President Trump's effort to end legal protections for more than 650,000 young immigrants. In 2023, the submersible vessel Titan, on an expedition of view the wreckage of the Titanic in the North Atlantic Ocean, imploded, killing all five people aboard.
BBC News
3 days ago
- General
- BBC News
Volunteers restore grave of Napoleonic war veteran in Studland
The grave of a notable soldier who fought in the Battle of Waterloo has been restored by William Lawrence's posthumously published autobiography was one of the most famous first-hand accounts of the Napoleonic died in Studland, Dorset, in 1869 and is buried in the same plot as his French wife at St Nicholas headstone has been cleaned by the Napoleonic and Revolutionary War Graves Charity (NRWGC) to mark the 210th anniversary of Napoleon's final battle. Sgt Lawrence served in South America and fought throughout the Napoleonic Waterloo, on 18 June 1815, his 40th Regiment of Foot was in the thick of the was awarded the silver medal with 10 clasps for fighting in major battles, as well as the Waterloo medal – the first issued to soldiers of all remained in France as part of the army of occupation where he met and married Clotilde couple later returned to England and became landlords of the Wellington Inn, died in 1853 and is commemorated on the opposite side of the same headstone at St Nicholas'. The restoration was carried out by NRWGC founder Dr Zack White of Portsmouth University, Prof Ed Coss of the US Army Command and General Staff College, and retired US Army Command Sergeant Major Alexander Lawrence was born in 1791 at Briantspuddle and started out as a building apprentice before joining the chair Dr Graeme Callister described him as "an ordinary lad who went to war for his country". He said: "We hope that some will be inspired to find out more about William, the conflict he was in, or his life with Clotilde."This clean really highlights the importance of the NRWGC's work in preserving the graves and monuments of soldiers from the Napoleonic Wars." You can follow BBC Dorset on Facebook, X (Twitter), or Instagram.
IOL News
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- IOL News
Check out this calculation a young human computer did, and the OceanGate Titan disaster
This undated image courtesy of OceanGate Expeditions, shows their Titan submersible during a descent. On this Day, June 18 1815 Former French emperor Napoleon loses the Battle of Waterloo to the Duke of Wellington's allied forces, marking his final defeat and freeing Europe from his ambition. 1940 Winston Churchill delivers his 'this was their finest hour' speech, urging perseverance in the face of adversity as Nazi Germany threatens an invasion of Britain. 1942 Eric Nessler of France stays aloft in a glider for 38 hours and 21 minutes. 1959 Louisiana Governor Earl Long is committed to a state mental hospital, but has the hospital director fired and is declared sane. 1977 The Space Shuttle test model 'Enterprise' carries a crew aloft for first time, it was attached to a modified Boeing 747. 1980 Indian 'human computer' Shakuntala Devi sets a world record by mentally multiplying two random 13-digit numbers in 28 seconds. She correctly answered that 7,686,369,774,870 × 2,465,099,745,779 equalled 18,947,668,177,995,426,462,773,730. 1981 Aids epidemic is formally recognised. 1995 All Black Jonah Lomu scores the try of the Rugby World Cup in South Africa, running over South African-born fullback Mike Catt in New Zealand's 45-29 defeat of England. 2019 Two 14 year-old Irish boys are convicted of murder when found guilty of the murder and sexual assault of a 14 year-old girl in Dublin. 2022 Flooding in Bangladesh and nearby Indian states leave four million stranded and without electricity, with 41 dead as monsoon floods become more frequent and extreme. 2023 OceanGate's Titan – an experimental, five‑seat submersible built with carbon‑fiber and titanium – drops into the North Atlantic on an expedition to view the wreck of the Titanic, but implodes, killing 5 occupants. Bits of it are found four days later. The incident underscores the lethal consequences of cutting corners in high-risk environments – especially when peer review and certification are bypassed. 2024 Nvidia, which makes AI infrastructure, overtakes Microsoft to become the world's most valuable company (worth $3.34 trillion). 2024 Rema's Calm Down, already the most successful African song, becomes the first Afrobeats single to earn more than 1 billion on-demand streams in the US. DAILY NEWS
