St. Albans Abbey was built about a thousand years ago by the people of the town, which was already ancient. In fact it was a Roman foundation called…
Great War Commanders: Horatio Nelson
Like so many other men of small stature throughout history, Nelson was not only a successful seaman and admiral, he was popular with his officers and men. Given…
Great War Generals: Erich Ludendorff
This dynamic and very physical soldier was born in 1865. Obviously destined for the Army, he did singularly well as a cadet, passed through the junior ranks at…
A message from Dean Swift
General-History.com has recently suffered an assault from a mentally-challenged spamist. You all you know what that means. We can only apologise for the illegal and immoral entry into…
Great War Leaders: Erich von Manstein
The future field marshal was born in 1887, destined for the Army because of his Junker background. When World War II started Manstein was Chief of Staff to…
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…
Great War Commanders: Joffre, a Victorian Frenchman
Joseph Jacques Césaire Joffre was born in 1852, at the beginning of the Victorian epoch in Britain. He eventually became a Marshal of France, but first came to…
Great War Leaders: Kitchener needs YOU!
Horatio Herbert Kitchener was born in 1850. At school in Switzerland he learned perfect French, and later went to Palestine where he picked up near-perfect Arabic. After military…
Great War Commanders: Falkenhayn the honest Junker
Eric von Falkenhayn was born in 1861, scion of a typical ‘Junker’ family, which means ‘powerful, noble, landowning, and, not infrequently, bullying and proud as well’. At school…
Let us above be politically correct . . .
Some years ago one of those correct persons who infest modern life pointed out to a bottling company that the label on one of their jams was politically…