Readers become confused by the essential differences between dominions and colonies and protectorates. The British Empire, when it existed, embraced all three. ‘Dominions’ was the name used for…
Category: History of New Zealand
England versus New Zealand (1842)
At all international rugger matches played by the ‘All-Blacks’ (New Zealand) against an arguably apprehensive adversary, the fifteen big men perform a war dance especially designed to terrify…
War in the air Part II: Per Ardua Ad Astra
The Blizkrieg from Nazi Germany that opened the Second War in 1939 showed that apart from tank power, air power was a vital component of…
(Thomas) Woodrow Wilson
The twenty-seventh President of the United States was born in 1856 in Virginia, son of a Presbyterian minister. The family were slave-owners. Thirty-four years later Woodrow was made…
The campaign in North-West Europe (September 1944 – May 1945)
This campaign was the advance of the Allies through France following the successful invasion of D-Day. It is important because it contains the blindest and most incomprehensible…
A brief history of spectator sports
Most (but not all) of the sports which are super-popular with the public today were invented, improved and regulated in the independent private schools of Victorian Britain;…
The end of the British Empire and imperialism
It is barely seventy-two years since a quarter of the human race lived, toiled, danced and finally died under the Union Jack. It is a very short…
The twelve basic tenses in English (British or American)
Present: I work = I work hard all day Past: I worked = I worked hard all last year. Future: I will work = I will…
Antarctica
This is one of the planet’s biggest and most unknown continents. It surrounds the South Pole, and lies almost entirely to the south of latitude 66º 33’ S….
These sports: where do they come from?
Spectator sports they are called, presumably because they are designed for watching by spectators. Soccer, cricket, boxing, tennis, rugby and athletics were nursed, improved and nurtured in hundreds…