Latest news with #OxfordDictionaryofNationalBiography
Yahoo
12-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
'This development is welcome news for Welsh jobs and transport'
The United Kingdom Government's spending review included an additional £445 million rail plan for Wales. This plan will encompass the construction of new railway stations at the following locations: Newport West, Somerton, Llanwern, Magor & Undy and Cardiff East. This development is welcome news for Welsh jobs and transport. The railway line and service connecting Ebbw Vale to Newport and Cardiff has been recognised as crucial rail infrastructure for Southeast Wales. This expansion will further enhance this infrastructure, providing more individuals with the opportunity to utilise rail services. In addition to rectifying the inadequacy of HS2 consequential funding, this investment will significantly enhance transport options in Southeast Wales. This is particularly pertinent given the congestion experienced on the M4 and escalating demands on the local transport infrastructure because of much-needed housing. This significant development has the potential to influence employment opportunities and provide increased avenues for skill acquisition. This is imperative for Gwent communities. It was critically important news that the United Kingdom Government announced it was restoring winter fuel allowance payments to more than nine million pensioners across Wales and England. The payment worth £300 will be restored. Anyone with an income of under £35,000 a year will receive it automatically. Those with an income of above the £35,000 threshold will also receive the payment, but it will then be reclaimed from them in tax. The right thing to do. Rachel Reeves has announced that the United Kingdom Government will deliver to Wales £118 million over the next three financial years to keep coal tips safe across Wales. This is a particular issue for post-industrial communities throughout Islwyn. Coal tips remediated (as coal mining ended) face maintenance issues impacted by climate change. The Welsh Government has previously stated £600 million is needed to remediate and remove Wales's coal tips. Currently, Wales has around £221 million allocated to this endeavour, and it is a challenge that will take decades to address. My position though, remains clear. Whilst we aim to remediate and remove historic Welsh coal tips, this can NOT be achieved at the expense of Islwyn communities. I stand with the people of Cwmfelinfach in expressing my strong opposition to the removal of coal at Mynydd Y Grug in Bedwas. No private company should seek to make a financial gain at the detriment of the public usage of the much-loved and valued Sirhowy County Park. Finally, I was delighted to see a famous son of Islwyn recognised. Rugby legend John Dawes, a son of Abercarn, is among 288 people who have been added to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. John Dawes died in 2021, but his name will live forever, and his inclusion in this prestige publication acknowledges his impact within the history of the United Kingdom. Rhianon Passmore, Member of the Senedd for Islwyn.
South Wales Argus
12-06-2025
- Business
- South Wales Argus
Rhianon Passmore MS welcomes rail funding from UK Government
This plan will encompass the construction of new railway stations at the following locations: Newport West, Somerton, Llanwern, Magor & Undy and Cardiff East. This development is welcome news for Welsh jobs and transport. The railway line and service connecting Ebbw Vale to Newport and Cardiff has been recognised as crucial rail infrastructure for Southeast Wales. This expansion will further enhance this infrastructure, providing more individuals with the opportunity to utilise rail services. In addition to rectifying the inadequacy of HS2 consequential funding, this investment will significantly enhance transport options in Southeast Wales. This is particularly pertinent given the congestion experienced on the M4 and escalating demands on the local transport infrastructure because of much-needed housing. This significant development has the potential to influence employment opportunities and provide increased avenues for skill acquisition. This is imperative for Gwent communities. It was critically important news that the United Kingdom Government announced it was restoring winter fuel allowance payments to more than nine million pensioners across Wales and England. The payment worth £300 will be restored. Anyone with an income of under £35,000 a year will receive it automatically. Those with an income of above the £35,000 threshold will also receive the payment, but it will then be reclaimed from them in tax. The right thing to do. Rachel Reeves has announced that the United Kingdom Government will deliver to Wales £118 million over the next three financial years to keep coal tips safe across Wales. This is a particular issue for post-industrial communities throughout Islwyn. Coal tips remediated (as coal mining ended) face maintenance issues impacted by climate change. The Welsh Government has previously stated £600 million is needed to remediate and remove Wales's coal tips. Currently, Wales has around £221 million allocated to this endeavour, and it is a challenge that will take decades to address. My position though, remains clear. Whilst we aim to remediate and remove historic Welsh coal tips, this can NOT be achieved at the expense of Islwyn communities. I stand with the people of Cwmfelinfach in expressing my strong opposition to the removal of coal at Mynydd Y Grug in Bedwas. No private company should seek to make a financial gain at the detriment of the public usage of the much-loved and valued Sirhowy County Park. Finally, I was delighted to see a famous son of Islwyn recognised. Rugby legend John Dawes, a son of Abercarn, is among 288 people who have been added to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. John Dawes died in 2021, but his name will live forever, and his inclusion in this prestige publication acknowledges his impact within the history of the United Kingdom. Rhianon Passmore, Member of the Senedd for Islwyn.
South Wales Argus
12-06-2025
- Sport
- South Wales Argus
National Biography adds John Dawes and Michael Peckham
The Gwent pair are among 238 people added to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography after they died in 2021. Dawes is the only man to have led the British and Irish Lions to a series victory in New Zealand after being skipper on the 1971 tour. The Abercarn-born centre won 22 caps for Wales after his debut in 1964 and was captain for the Grand Slam triumph in 1971 before heading off to face the All Blacks. Dawes became national coach and won the Five Nations title four times, two of them Grand Slams, and won four triple crowns. He coached the Lions in New Zealand in 1977. He played for Newbridge and went on to become a London Welsh captain and coach. Panteg-born Peckham was the son of a railway locomotive fireman and won a scholarship from Monmouth Grammar School to Cambridge. That started a career as a distinguished oncologist whose multidisciplinary treatment programmes improved survival rates and led to the wider acceptance of holistic care models for cancer patients. A strong believer in the application of evidence-based medicine, he was the first NHS director of research and development. The Oxford DNB is a national record of people who have shaped British history. From June 2025, the dictionary includes biographies of more than 63,000 individuals, written by more than 14,000 contributors, and with more than 12,000 portrait images. Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, is included in the new edition with Queen Elizabeth II's entry to be published next year. Other prominent figures added include politicians Shirley Williams, Austin Mitchell and Sir David Amess, entrepreneurs Sir Clive Sinclair and Sir David Barclay, Nobel prize-winner Antony Hewish, actors Sir Antony Sher and Helen McCrory, footballers Jimmy Greaves and Ian St John, journalist Katharine Whitehorn, broadcaster Janice Long, anti-deportation activist Anwar Ditta and charity fundraiser Captain Sir Tom Moore.
BBC News
21-04-2025
- General
- BBC News
Thetford gold ring find remembers 'rackety' baronet
A gold mourning ring that was made in memory of a dead baronet has been found in a 20mm (0.7in)-round jewel was discovered by a metal detectorist near Thetford, Norfolk, in Helen Geake was able to connect it to landowner Sir Bassingbourne Gawdy thanks to its inscription. He was a "notable sportsman" who researchers said liked "rackety exploits".The ring is the subject of a treasure inquest and Norwich Castle Museum hopes to acquire it. A coroner at a treasure inquest typically decides whether the discovery is treasure, and therefore whether a museum should have first refusal over Bassingbourne died in a hunting accident in 1723.A baronet was a title in the British aristocracy that was passed down through families. Dr Geake, who is the finds liaison officer for Norfolk, said mourning rings were made to remember a person who had would leave money in their wills for rings to be created and distributed to family and friends in their politician Samuel Pepys wrote about being given one in his 1660s diary. This find was inscribed in Latin B.G. Bart. ob: 10. Oct: 1723. aet: 56, which translates as B.G. Baronet, died 10th October 1723, aged Geake's investigations revealed Sir Bassingbourne lived at West Harling, east of never married and was described as a "notable sportsman" who enjoyed "rackety exploits" by the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. "What is also interesting is he was the grandson of the celebrated painter Sir John Gawdy, who was born deaf," Dr Geake said. He and his brother Framlingham, who was also deaf, were the first known deaf people in Britain to be educated through the use of sign language, according to the British Deaf History Society. Dr Geake said the ring would not have been classed as treasure if it had been found a year is because the Treasure Act 1996 categorises a find as treasure if it is at least 300 years old and made at least in part of precious metal, like gold or if the ring had been found in August 2023 - not August 2024 - the detectorist and landowner would not have had to declare it. Follow Norfolk news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.
The Guardian
08-04-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Emily Hobhouse's effect on the 1906 election
There will be great rejoicing in Cornwall and beyond at the opening up of the home of the courageous pacifist and human rights activist Emily Hobhouse, who campaigned so nobly against British atrocities on the veldt, in their concentration camps, during the Anglo-Boer war of 1899-1902 (Anglo-Boer war whistleblower Emily Hobhouse celebrated in Cornish home, 8 April). She was strangely absent from the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography but the then editor, Colin Matthew, readily agreed to include her when I suggested it. She is certainly a figure of national importance, whose articles had a profound impact on radical opinion during the 1906 general election. David Lloyd George introduced her to the then Liberal leader Henry Campbell-Bannerman, who spoke of the 'methods of barbarism' used on the veldt. Hobhouse's record of British army barbarities in South Africa shifted national opinion, and I have a card of one of her pictures of the Transvaal in my home (she was also a skilled artist). It is a constant O MorganLabour, House of Lords Have an opinion on anything you've read in the Guardian today? Please email us your letter and it will be considered for publication in our letters section.
