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Old school barber shop in Camden. The guy who runs this is close to retirement age, I wonder what it will become when he leaves.
British postcard in the Rotary Photographic Series by Rotary Photo EC., no. 125 G. Sent by mail in 1906.
George Robey (1869-1954) was an English comedian, singer and actor in musical theatre, who became known as one of the greatest music hall performers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. As a comedian, Robey mixed everyday situations and observations with comic absurdity. Apart from his music hall acts, he was a popular Christmas pantomime performer in the English provinces, where he excelled in the dame roles. He only had modest success in the cinema.
George Robey was born as George Edward Wade in London in 1869. He came from a middle-class family. His father, Charles Wade, was a civil engineer who spent much of his career on tramline design and construction. Robey's mother, Elizabeth Mary Wade née Keene, was a housewife. After schooling in England and Germany and a series of office jobs, he made his debut on the London stage, at the age of 21, as the straight man to a comic hypnotist. He soon developed his act and appeared at the Oxford Music Hall in 1890, where he earned favourable notices singing The Simple Pimple and He'll Get It Where He's Gone to Now. In 1892, Robey appeared in his first pantomime, Whittington Up-to-date in Brighton, which brought him to a wider audience. With Robey's popularity came an eagerness to differentiate himself from his music hall rivals, and so he devised a signature costume when appearing as himself: an oversized black coat fastened from the neck down with large, wooden buttons; black, unkempt, baggy trousers and a partially bald wig with black, whispery strands of unbrushed, dirty-looking hair that poked below a large, dishevelled top-hat. He applied thick white face paint and exaggerated the redness on his cheeks and nose with bright red makeup; his eye line and eyebrows were also enhanced with thick, black grease paint. He held a short, misshaped, wooden walking stick, which was curved at the top. Robey later used the costume for his character, The Prime Minister of Mirth. The outfit helped Robey become instantly recognisable on the London music hall circuit. More provincial engagements followed in Manchester, Birmingham and Liverpool, and he soon became a mainstay of the popular Christmas pantomime scene. By the start of the new century, Robey was a big name in pantomime, and he was able to choose his roles. Pantomime enjoyed wide popularity until the 1890s, but by the time Robey had reached his peak, interest in it was on the wane. A type of character he particularly enjoyed taking on was the pantomime dame, which historically was played by comedians from the music hall. Robey was inspired by the older comedians Herbert Campbell and Dan Leno, and, although post-dating them, he rivalled their eccentricity and popularity, earning the festive entertainment a new audience. Robey's music hall act matured in the first decade of the 1900s, and he undertook several foreign tours. He starred in the Royal Command Performance in 1912 and regularly entertained before the aristocracy. Robery had made his film debut in 1900, according to IMDb. The short comedy The Rats (N.N., 1900) offered a brief glimpse of some of the greatest entertainers from the late Victorian and early Edwardian stage, Dan Leno, Herbert Campbell and George Robey. In 1913, Robey appeared in two early sound shorts: And Very Nice Too (Walter R. Boots, 1913) and Good Queen Bess (Walter R. Boots, 1913), made in the Kinoplasticon process, where the film was synchronised with phonograph records. The next year, he tried to emulate his music hall colleagues Billy Merson and Charlie Austin, who had set up Homeland Films and found success with the Squibs series of films starring Betty Balfour. Robey met filmmakers from the Burns Film Company, who engaged him in a silent short entitled George Robey Turns Anarchist, in which he played a character who fails to blow up the Houses of Parliament. George Robey's Day Off (1919) showed the comedian acting out his daily domestic routines to comic effect, but the picture failed at the box office. Producers did not know how best to apply Robey's stage talents to the film. He continued to appear sporadically in film throughout the rest of his career, never achieving more than a modest amount of success. By the First World War, music hall entertainment had fallen out of favour with audiences. Revue appealed to wartime audiences, and Robey decided to capitalise on the medium's popularity. He achieved great success in The Bing Boys Are Here (1916). He was cast as Lucius Bing opposite Violet Loraine, who played his love interest Emma. The couple duetted in the show's signature song If You Were the Only Girl (In the World), which became an international success. Robey raised money for many war charities and was appointed a CBE in 1919. From 1918, he created sketches based on his Prime Minister of Mirth character and used a costume he had designed in the 1890s as a basis for the character's attire.
George Robey starred in the revue Round in Fifty in 1922, which earned him still wider notice. He returned to the cinema a further four times during 1923. The first two films were written to showcase his pantomime talents: One Arabian Night (Sinclair Hall, 1923) was a reworking of Aladdin and co-starred Lionelle Howard and Edward O'Neill. Harlequinade (A.E. Coleby, 1923) visited the roots of pantomime. One of Robey's more notable film roles was Sancho Panza in Don Quixote (Maurice Elvey, 1923), for which he received a fee of £700 a week. The amount of time he spent working away from home led to the breakdown of his marriage, and he separated from Ethel in 1923. Except for his performances in revue and pantomime, he appeared as his Prime Minister of Mirth character in all the other entertainment media including variety, music hall and radio. In the late 1920s Robey wrote and starred in two Phonofilm sound-on-film productions, Safety First (Hugh Croise, 1928) and Mrs. Mephistopheles (Hugh Croise, 1929). In 1932 Robey appeared in his first sound film, The Temperance Fête (Graham Cutts, 1932). It was followed by Marry Me (Wilhelm Thiele, 1932), starring German actress Renate Müller, which was one of the most successful musical films of his career. The film tells the story of a sound recordist in a gramophone company who romances a colleague when she becomes the family housekeeper. Robey continued to perform in variety theatre in the inter-war years and, in 1932, he starred in Helen!, his first straight theatre role. His appearance brought him to the attention of many influential directors, including Sydney Carroll, who signed him to appear on stage as Falstaff in Henry IV, Part 1 in 1935, a role that he later repeated in Laurence Olivier's film, Henry V (1944). Robey starred opposite Fritz Kortner, and Anna May Wong in a film version of the hit musical Chu Chin Chow (Walter Forde, 1934)). The New York Times called him 'a lovable and laughable Ali Baba'. In the summer of 1938, Robey appeared in the film A Girl Must Live (Carol Reed, 1939) in which he played the role of Horace Blount. A journalist for The Times opined that Robey's performance as an elderly furrier, the love interest of both Margaret Lockwood and Lilli Palmer, was 'a perfect study in bewildered embarrassment'. During the Second World War, Robey raised money for charities and promoted recruitment into the forces. Robey starred in the film Salute John Citizen (Maurice Elvey, 1942), co-starring Edward Rigby and Stanley Holloway, about the effects that the war had on a normal British family. A further four films followed in 1943, one of which promoted war propaganda while the other two displayed the popular medium of cine-variety. By the 1950s, his health had deteriorated, and he entered semi-retirement. George Robey was knighted a few months before his death at his home in Saltdean, East Sussex, in 1954. He was 85. Robey was married Twice. In 1898, Robey married his first wife, Ethel Hayden, the Australian-born musical theatre actress. Ethel accompanied him on his tours and frequently starred alongside him. They had two children, a son Edward (1900) and a daughter Eileen. After his divorce from Ethel in 1938, he married Blanche Littler, who was more than two decades his junior.
Sources: Wikipedia and IMDb.
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Name: NISBET, GEORGE DAVID
Initials: G D
Nationality: Canadian
Rank: Sergeant (Air Gnr.)
Regiment/Service: Royal Canadian Air Force
Unit Text: 10 (R.A.F.) Sqdn
Age: 27
Date of Death: 24/05/1943
Service No: R/155845
Additional information: Son of Charles and Hazelena Nisbet, of Conquest, Saskatchewan, Canada.
Casualty Type: Commonwealth War Dead
Grave/Memorial Reference: Plot M. Grave 35.
Cemetery: WONSERADEEL (MAKKUM) PROTESTANT CHURCHYARD
Visit Christopher George Salon online at www.christophergeorgesalon.com
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Pictures taken by Stinky Feet Photo
In Newton, Massachusetts, we caught up with espresso pioneer George Howell of George Howell Coffee. Keep a watch for our Mug Shots video on George coming out soon.
The George H.W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum is the presidential library and burial site of George H. W. Bush, the 41st President of the United States, and his wife Barbara Bush.
George Morrison, Traversal, 1958, oil on canvas, 64.8 x 118.4 cm (Art Bridges Foundation) © George Morrison Estate
What a cute little guy! Scamper scamper scamper...
He actually flaps his ears to gain elevation, I think.
George Watsky performing at VidCon 2012 at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, California.
Please attribute to Gage Skidmore if used elsewhere.
The lighthouse on Georges Island, in Halifax harbour, Halifax Nova Scotia, Canada. Built in 1919 to replace an earlier lighthouse destroyed by fire. Some more information:
In 1856, following a number of ship collisions with Georges Island at night or in heavy fog, Halifax merchants began lobbying the local government to have a lighthouse erected on the island. Twenty years later, in 1876, the first lighthouse was constructed on the western slope of Georges Island to serve as a navigational aid for vessels in the harbour. Made of wood and with a residence for the lighthouse keeper attached, it operated for 40 years before being destroyed by fire in 1916.
Finished in 1919, the current lighthouse was built of concrete to reduce the threat of fire. Today, the lighthouse is owned and operated by the Canadian Coast Guard as is the remote radar tower, disguised as a signal mast within Fort Charlotte. The radar was first installed in 1974 to assist with harbour traffic control.
For nearly 100 years, a lighthouse keeper lived on Georges Island. Originally, the residence was attached to the lighthouse but, following the 1916 fire which destroyed the first lighthouse, a separate dwelling was constructed. In 1972, the last lightkeeper left the island with his family after the lighthouse was converted to one of the first fully automated lighthouses in Canada.
Born 40 years after the signing of the Declaration of Independence, George A. Dickel was an established Nashville merchant. In 1867, he visited Tullahoma with his wife, Augusta. Three years later, Cascade Hollow would be home to the Dickel Distillery. Declaring his whisky of equal quality to the finest scotch, George Dickel followed in the Scottish tradition of spelling whisky without an “e.”
George Dickel discovered that whisky made in the winter was smoother than whisky made in the summer. That’s why our whisky is chilled before charcoal-mellowing. This extra step filters out oils and acids, and to this day, we’re the only Tennessee distiller to do it.
George Strait, The Cowboy Rides Away concert at the MODA center in Portland, 4/11/14. My birthday gift.
George Hay was an 18-year-old youth when he enlisted as a soldier in the 101st Battalion CEF at Winnipeg in January 1916. How did his war experience shape the young hockey player?
I've seen a lot of good ones, but none who had more stuff than George. He was one of the easiest players to handle I ever had, always in condition, always on the job, always willing to play any position. He never got into trouble on the ice and was rarely sent to the penalty box.
--Jack Adams, Detroit Red Wings Coach, 1932-47, and member, HHoF
George Demetrios Papadopoulos, aka George Papadopoulos, is a former member of the foreign policy advisory panel to Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign.
This caricature of George Papadopoulos was adapted from a Creative Commons licensed photo from Wikimedia. The body was adapted from a photo in the public domain from The White House Flickr photostream.
Lieutenant George Arthur Knowland VC Grave no. 10170/Z1
The Royal Norfolk Regiment, attached No 1 Commando.
George was only 11 years of age when his mother died, and she is recorded on this set of memorial kerbs. It also appears that he had a younger brother who also died three years later. It is not known where his father was buried, as he is not in this grave with his wife and child.
George was born on the 16 Aug 1922 in Catford, Kent. He was educated at Elmwood Road School, Croydon where he won, in 1939, a scholarship to the Technical School. From there he went to the School of Fellowship of St Christopher, joined the R Norfolk Regt as a Pte in 1941 and was Commissioned later that year.
In Burma on 31st January, 1945, near Kangaw, Lieutenant Knowland was commanding the forward platoon of a Troop positioned on the extreme North of a hill which was subjected to very heavy and repeated enemy attacks throughout the whole day. Before the first attack started, Lieutenant Knowland's platoon was heavily mortared and machine gunned, yet he moved about among his men keeping them alert and encouraging them, though under fire himself at the time. When the enemy, some 300 strong in all, made their first assault they concentrated all their effects on his platoon of 24 men but in spite of the ferocity of the attack, he moved about from trench to trench distributing ammunition, and firing his rifle and throwing grenades at the enemy, often from completely exposed positions. Later, when the crew of one of his forward Bren guns had all been wounded, he sent back to troop Headquarters for another crew and ran forward to man the gun himself until they arrived. The enemy was then less than 10 yards from him in dead ground down the hill so in order to get a better field of fire, he stood on top of the trench, firing the light machine gun from his hip and successfully keeping them at a distance until a Medical Orderly had dressed and evacuated the wounded men behind him. The new Bren Gun team also became casualties on the way up and Lieutenant Knowland continued to fire the gun until another team took over. Later, when a fresh attack came in he took over a 2 inch Mortar and in spire of heavy fire and the closeness of the enemy, he stood up in the open to face them, firing the mortar from his hip and killing six of them with his first bomb. When all bombs were expended he went back through heavy grenade, mortar and machine gun fire to get more, which he fired in the same way from the open in front of his platoon positions. When those bombs were finished he went back to his own trench and still standing up fired his rifle at them. Being hard pressed and with the enemy closing in on him from only 10 yards away, he had no time to re-charge his magazine. Snatching up the Tommy gun of a casualty, he sprayed the enemy and was mortally wounded stemming this assault, though not before he had killed and wounded many of the enemy. Such was the inspiration of his magnificent heroism, that, though fourteen out of twenty-four of his platoon became casualties at an early stage, and six of his positions were over-run by the enemy, his men held on through twelve hours of continuous and fierce fighting until reinforcements arrived. If this Northern end of the hill had fallen the rest of the hill would have been endangered, the beach-head dominated by the enemy and other units farther inland cut off from their source of supplies. As it was, the final successful counter-attack was later launched from the vital ground which Lieutenant Knowland had taken such a gallant part in holding.
This Officer's action is remarkable in that a mortar fired from the hip produces significant recoil. His grave is in Taukkyan War Cemetery, Burma.
Overlooking the Niagara River, Fort George was built between 1796 and 1802. This fortification served as the headquarters for the Centre Division of the British Army during the War of 1812, and played a pivotal role in the defence of Upper Canada. Fort George saw action during the Battle of Queenston Heights, was destroyed and captured by the Americans during the Battle of Fort George, and was reclaimed by the British seven months later.
History of the 41st Regiment of Foot Fife & Drum Corps
The young men who served the English Crown during the 18th and 19th century as fifers and drummers were disciplined, courageous and held positions of responsibility. Sons of soldiers, they were old enough to take on a role in the regiment and its daily functions. It was up to these professional musicians to act as a communication system and as musical entertainment for the army. They played music to inspire the men, remind them of home, and to help them deal with the hardships of military life.
As duty drummers (a name used both for fifers and drummers), they took turns on a 24-hour guard shift and were expected to know and be able to beat play any Order at any time. Incompetence was not tolerated. They beat performed their duty calls every day, starting with Reveille to wake the garrison, and ending with the Taptoo to warn that the gates of the garrison were to close for the night.
41st Regiment of Foot Band of Music s a unique musical program , which focuses on the more popular, social music of the 18th and early 19th centuries. A Band of Music could be made up of officers, soldiers or civilian musicians, who provided entertainment for the upper classes through concerts, plays and dances. This music was quite different from the repertoire of the Fife and Drum Corps, whose main purpose was to act as a form of communication on the battlefields.
Look at the disgusting shop frontage on the shop to the left and the inadequate design of the extension to the holel on the right.. Couple that with the clear change of frontage to the building half way up the right.. I ask my self what silly member of the council allowed those plans to pass.. It is nothing short of architectural vandalism on this historic world heritage protected site.. I have had my say.. I am, furious..... This is what it should look like...........
www.flickr.com/photos/jimjdunn/7300367270/in/photostream/
Prosperity in Scotland during the 1700's, combined with wealth consequent to considerable political power now enjoyed by Scots in Parliament in London, led to an explosion of new building. At that time the Old Town was overcrowded, noisy and dirty. Visitors said they could smell Edinburgh as they approached Dalkeith some 8 miles to the South. Lack of proper drainage and generally insanitary conditions caused ill-health. It is no wonder that plans were made to build a new Edinburgh, and the site that was chosen was just to the North on a long low ridge of land running from East to West.. Lord Provost Drummond led the initiative. In 1752 Proposals were published outlining his plans. A year later an Act of Parliament ratified the proposals and by 1759 the initial project of draining the North Loch (now the site of the Waverley Rail Station) was begun.. In 1766 a competition for the best architectural scheme was held. 6 plans were considered, and James Craig's scheme was chosen.... Although nowadays Princes Street is commonly regarded as the main street of this scheme, it was not so originally. George Street on the top of the ridge was the backbone of the plan; it was built, at 100 feet wide, 20 feet wider than either Princes Street or Queen Street (parallel to the south and north respectively).. At either end of George Street are two spacious garden squares. The buildings on the North side of one, Charlotte Square, the last part to be built, were designed by Robert Adam, and building began in 1795, three years after his death. Today it remains one of the most harmonious and unified architectural schemes of the 18th Century. The interior of one of its houses, No. 7, has been restored to how it would have been in the 1790's when it was owned by the Lamont family.
Single Quatum flash shot through 1200mm umbrella top right. Check our www.speedlighters.com for small flash courses
George Watsky performing at VidCon 2012 at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, California.
Please attribute to Gage Skidmore if used elsewhere.
Georges Parent after riding 100km in 1 hour, 19 minutes and 35 seconds while riding stayer. Le Vie Au Grand Air 1908-06-08
George Henry Thomas (July 31, 1816 – March 28, 1870) was a career United States Army officer and a Union General during the American Civil War, one of the principal commanders in the Western Theater.
Thomas served in the Mexican-American War and later chose to remain with the United States Army for the Civil War, despite his heritage as a Virginian.
He won one of the first Union victories in the war, at Mill Springs in Kentucky, and served in important subordinate commands at Perryville and Stones River. His stout defense at the Battle of Chickamauga in 1863 saved the Union Army from being completely routed, earning him his most famous nickname, the "Rock of Chickamauga." He followed soon after with a dramatic breakthrough on Missionary Ridge in the Battle of Chattanooga. In the Franklin-Nashville Campaign of 1864, he achieved one of the most decisive victories of the war, destroying the army of Confederate General John Bell Hood, at the Battle of Nashville.
Thomas had a successful record in the Civil War, but he failed to achieve the historical acclaim of some of his contemporaries, such as Ulysses S. Grant and William T. Sherman. He developed a reputation as a slow, deliberate general who shunned self-promotion and who turned down advancements in position when he did not think they were justified. After the war, he did not write memoirs to advance his legacy. He also had an uncomfortable personal relationship with Grant, which served him poorly as Grant advanced in rank and eventually to the presidency.
Thomas was born at Newsom's Depot, five miles (8 km) from North Carolina, in Southampton County, Virginia. His father, John Thomas, of Welsh descent, and his mother, Elizabeth Rochelle Thomas, a descendant of French Huguenot immigrants, had nine children. George was a middle child and the youngest of the three boys. The family led an upper-class plantation lifestyle. By 1829, they owned 685 acres (2.77 km2) and 24 slaves.
John died in a farm accident when George was 13, leaving the family in financial difficulties. George Thomas, his sisters, and his widowed mother were forced to flee from their home and hide in the nearby woods during Nat Turner's 1831 slave rebellion. Benson Bobrick has suggested that while some repressive acts were enforced following the crushing of the revolt, Thomas took the lesson another way, seeing that slavery was so vile an institution that it had forced the slaves to act in violence. This was a major event in the formation of his views on slavery; that the idea of the contented slave in the care of a benevolent overlord was a sentimental myth.
Christopher Einholf, in contrast wrote "For George Thomas, the view that slavery was needed as a way of controlling blacks was supported by his personal experience of Nat Turner's Rebellion. ... Thomas left no written record of his opinion on slavery, but the fact that he owned slaves during much of his life indicates that he was not opposed to it." A traditional story is that Thomas taught as many as 15 of his family's slaves to read, violating a Virginia law that prohibited this, and despite the wishes of his father.
Thomas was appointed to the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, in 1836 by Congressman John Y. Mason, who warned Thomas that no nominee from his district had ever graduated successfully. Entering at age 20, Thomas was known to his fellow cadets as "Old Tom" and he became instant friends with his roommates, William T. Sherman and Stewart Van Vliet. He made steady academic progress, was appointed a cadet officer in his second year, and graduated 12th in a class of 42 in 1840. He was appointed a second lieutenant in Company D, 3rd U.S. Artillery.
Thomas's first assignment with his artillery regiment began in late 1840 at the primitive outpost of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, in the Seminole Wars, where his troops performed infantry duty. He led them in successful patrols and was appointed a brevet first lieutenant on November 6, 1841. From 1842 until 1845, he served in posts at New Orleans, Fort Moultrie in Charleston Harbor, and Fort McHenry in Baltimore. With the Mexican-American War looming, his regiment was ordered to Texas in June 1845.
Thomas was reassigned to Florida in 1849–50. In 1851, he returned to West Point as a cavalry and artillery instructor, where he established a close professional and personal relationship with another Virginia officer, Lt. Col. Robert E. Lee, the Academy superintendent. Two of Thomas's students who received his recommendation for assignment to the cavalry, J.E.B. Stuart and Fitzhugh Lee, became prominent Confederate cavalry generals. Another Civil War connection was a cadet expelled for disciplinary reasons on Thomas's recommendation, John Schofield, who would excoriate Thomas in postbellum writings about his service as a corps commander under Thomas in the Franklin-Nashville Campaign.
On November 17, 1852, Thomas married Frances Lucretia Kellogg, age 31, from Troy, New York. The couple remained at West Point until 1854.
In the spring of 1854, Thomas's artillery regiment was transferred to California and he led two companies to San Francisco via the Isthmus of Panama, and then on a grueling overland march to Fort Yuma.
There was a suspicion as the Civil War drew closer that Davis had been assembling and training a combat unit of elite U.S. Army officers who harbored Southern sympathies, and Thomas's appointment to this regiment implied his colleagues assumed that he would support his native state of Virginia in a future conflict. Thomas resumed his close ties with the second-in-command of the regiment, Robert E. Lee, and the two officers traveled extensively together on detached service for court-martial duty.
In October 1857, Major Thomas assumed acting command of the cavalry regiment, an assignment he would retain for 2½ years. On August 26, 1860, during a clash with a Comanche warrior, Thomas was wounded by an arrow passing through the flesh near his chin area and sticking into his chest at Clear Fork, Brazos River, Texas. Thomas pulled the arrow out and, after a surgeon dressed the wound, continued to lead the expedition. This was the only combat wound that Thomas suffered throughout his long military career.
In November 1860, Thomas requested a one-year leave of absence. His antebellum career had been distinguished and productive, and he was one of the rare officers with field experience in all three combat arms—infantry, cavalry, and artillery. On his way home to southern Virginia, he suffered a mishap in Lynchburg, Virginia, falling from a train platform and severely injuring his back. This accident led him to contemplate leaving military service and caused him pain for the rest of his life. Continuing to New York to visit with his wife's family, Thomas stopped in Washington, D.C., and conferred with general-in-chief Winfield Scott, advising Scott that Maj. Gen. David E. Twiggs, the commander of the Department of Texas, harbored secessionist sympathies and could not be trusted in his post.
At the outbreak of the Civil War, 19 of the 36 officers in the 2nd U.S. Cavalry resigned, including three of Thomas's superiors—Albert Sidney Johnston, Robert E. Lee, and William J. Hardee. Many Southern-born officers were torn between loyalty to their states and loyalty to their country. Thomas struggled with the decision but opted to remain with the United States. His Northern-born wife probably helped influence his decision.
In response, his family turned his picture against the wall, destroyed his letters, and never spoke to him again. (During the economic hard times in the South after the war, Thomas sent some money to his sisters, who angrily refused to accept it, declaring they had no brother.)
Nevertheless, Thomas stayed in the Union Army with some degree of suspicion surrounding him. On January 18, 1861, a few months before Fort Sumter, he had applied for a job as the commandant of cadets at the Virginia Military Institute. Any real tendency to the secessionist cause, however, could be refuted when he turned down Virginia Governor John Letcher's offer to become chief of ordnance for the Virginia Provisional Army. On June 18, his former student and fellow Virginian, Confederate Col. J.E.B. Stuart, wrote to his wife, "Old George H. Thomas is in command of the cavalry of the enemy. I would like to hang, hang him as a traitor to his native state."
In the First Bull Run Campaign, he commanded a brigade under Maj. Gen. Robert Patterson in the Shenandoah Valley, but all of his subsequent assignments were in the Western Theater.
At the Battle of Chickamauga on September 19, 1863, now commanding the XIV Corps, he held a desperate position against Bragg's onslaught while the Union line on his right collapsed. Thomas rallied broken and scattered units together on Horseshoe Ridge to prevent a significant Union defeat from becoming a hopeless rout. Future president James Garfield, a field officer for the Army of the Cumberland, visited Thomas during the battle, carrying orders from Rosecrans to retreat; when Thomas said he would have to stay behind to ensure the Army's safety, Garfield told Rosecrans that Thomas was "standing like a rock." After the battle he became widely known by the nickname "The Rock of Chickamauga", representing his determination to hold a vital position against strong odds.
During the Reconstruction period, Thomas acted to protect freedmen from white abuses. He set up military commissions to enforce labor contracts since the local courts had either ceased to operate or were biased against blacks. Thomas also used troops to protect places threatened by violence from the Ku Klux Klan.
In 1869 he requested assignment to command the Military Division of the Pacific with headquarters at the Presidio of San Francisco. He died there of a stroke while writing an answer to an article criticizing his military career by his wartime rival John Schofield. None of his blood relatives attended his funeral as they had never forgiven him for his loyalty to the Union and not Virginia.
He was buried in Oakwood Cemetery, in Troy, New York.
Thomas has generally been held in high esteem by Civil War historians; Bruce Catton and Carl Sandburg wrote glowingly of him, and many consider Thomas one of the top three Union generals of the war, after Grant and William Tecumseh Sherman. But Thomas never entered the popular consciousness like those men.
The general destroyed his private papers, saying he did not want "his life hawked in print for the eyes of the curious." Beginning in the 1870s, many Civil War generals published memoirs, justifying their decisions or refighting old battles, but Thomas, who died in 1870, did not publish his own memoirs. In addition, most of his campaigns were in the Western theater of the war, which received less attention both in the press of the day and in contemporary historical accounts.
A fort south of Newport, Kentucky was named in his honor, and the city of Fort Thomas now stands there and carries his name as well.