My contribution to the Eurobricks collaborative - Tree of Worlds - for Brickworld Chicago 2018. Photo credit to Gideon (Jonas Wide).

Images and details of the collaborative on Eurobricks:

www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?/forums/topic/162698-t...

Tyne Cyclist and Pedestrian Tunnel runs under the River Tyne between Howdon and Jarrow in Tyne & Wear, England. Opened in 1951, heralded as a contribution to the Festival of Britain, it was Britain's first purpose-built cycling tunnel. The original cost was £833,000 and the tunnel was used by 20,000 people a day. It consists of two tunnels running in parallel, one for pedestrian use with a 3.2 m (10 ft 6 in) diameter, and a larger 3.7 m (12 ft 2 in) diameter tunnel for pedal cyclists. Both tunnels are 270 m (884 ft) in length, and lie 12 m (40 ft) below the river bed, at their deepest point. The tunnels are over 60 years old and are Grade II listed buildings.

At each end, the tunnels are connected to surface buildings by two escalators and a lift. The Waygood-Otis escalators have 306 wooden steps each, and are the original models from 1951. At the time of construction, they were the highest single-rise escalators in the UK, with a vertical rise of 85 feet (26 m) and a length of 197 feet (60 m). In 1992, escalators with a higher vertical rise of 90 feet (27.4 m) and 200 feet (61 m) in length were constructed at Angel station on the London Underground. The Tyne Tunnel escalators remain the longest wooden escalators in the world.

20,000 people a month used the pedestrian tunnel in 2013.

Refurbishment

Two arched openings lead to two sloping tunnels, heading underneath the Tyne. The lower half of the walls are tiled green, the upper half with white and the floor a dark orange.

In a refitting phase the escalators and lift shafts were due to be upgraded by October 2010 to early 2011 at a cost of £500,000. A £6,000,000 refurbishment was due to take place in 2011, but multiple delays pushed the reopening date to summer 2019.

In 2012, contractor GB Building Solutions of Balliol Business Park, Newcastle, was appointed to carry out the £4.9 million refurbishment which included the replacement of two of the original four escalators with inclined lifts and the replacement of the tunnels' ageing mechanical and electrical systems. However, GB Building Solutions went into administration in 2015, delaying the project.

The two remaining escalators, which are original and of historical significance, will be opened up to public view and illuminated with feature lighting.

New lighting, CCTV, control and communications systems were installed, in addition to carrying out repairs to the tunnel structure itself and to the historic finishes within the tunnel such as the tiling and panelling. The concrete floor sections were also refurbished or replaced. During the closure, a free, timetabled shuttle bus for pedestrians and cyclists was in operation between 6am and 8pm, seven days a week, 364 days a year.

The tunnel reopened at midday on 7 August 2019, operating initially for 14 hours a day until installation of the new inclined lifts was completed when the service would have been 24 hours. By December 2019 monthly journeys were above 20,000 with around 25% of users being cyclists. People using the tunnels can link with cycle routes at either end, namely NCN 14 and 72. The 317 bus service for Wallsend or Whitley Bay from the north end or take a short walk to the Jarrow bus and Metro station from the south end. Mobility scooters can access the tunnels and dogs on leads are allowed.

As of spring 2024, neither of the inclined lifts has been completed, and the dismantled escalator channel at each end of the tunnel remains fenced off. Pedestrians can still use the other escalator, albeit that these are permanently stopped and so function only as long staircases. The vertical lift at each end remains in operation.

The River Tyne is a river in North East England. Its length (excluding tributaries) is 73 miles (118 km). It is formed by the North Tyne and the South Tyne, which converge at Warden Rock near Hexham in Northumberland at a place dubbed 'The Meeting of the Waters'.

The Tyne Rivers Trust measure the whole Tyne catchment as 2,936 km2 (1,134 square miles), containing 4,399 km (2,733 miles) of waterways.[3]

The North Tyne rises on the Scottish border, north of Kielder Water. It flows through Kielder Forest, and in and out of the border. It then passes through the village of Bellingham before reaching Hexham.

The South Tyne rises on Alston Moor, Cumbria and flows through the towns of Haltwhistle and Haydon Bridge, in a valley often called the Tyne Gap. Hadrian's Wall lies to the north of the Tyne Gap. Coincidentally, the source of the South Tyne is very close to those of the Tees and the Wear. The South Tyne Valley falls within the North Pennines Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) – the second largest of the 40 AONBs in England and Wales.

Tyne

From the confluence of the North and South Tyne at Warden Rock just to the north west of Hexham, the river enters the county of Tyne and Wear between Clara Vale (in the Borough of Gateshead on the south bank) and Tyne Riverside Country Park (in Newcastle upon Tyne on the north bank) and continues to divide Newcastle and Gateshead for 13 miles (21 km), in the course of which it flows under ten bridges. To the east of Gateshead and Newcastle, the Tyne divides Hebburn and Jarrow on the south bank from Walker and Wallsend on the north bank. The Tyne Tunnel runs under the river to link Jarrow and Wallsend. Finally the river flows between South Shields and Tynemouth into the North Sea.

Howdon is a largely residential area in the eastern part of Wallsend, Tyne and Wear, England. It consists of High Howdon and the smaller settlement of East Howdon. Much of the High Howdon area was formerly called Willington prior to post-World War II urbanisation. The North Tyneside ward population at the 2011 Census was 11,129.

Howdon was an industrial settlement on the north bank of the River Tyne estuary, to the north of Howdon Pans (a Tyne water feature) and to the north-east of Willington Quay. In the mid-nineteenth century, it consisted of Old Howdon Pit situated on what is now the northern toll area of the Tyne Tunnel; and to the east, Howdon Bank Top, nowadays given the appellation East Howdon.

A separate area, High Howdon was built after the Second World War, as the consequence of a drive for improved, low-cost housing for working-class families. This housing was mainly in the public sector, being owned and maintained by the local council. It was built on what had been agricultural land to the north of the main railway line (from Newcastle to Tynemouth) that was to separate the new council housing from the earlier Howdon Pit, Pans and Hill Top sites locations, and from the older, industrial area of Willington Quay, where a great deal of housing had either been destroyed by wartime bombing, or by programmes of slum clearance.

Although most of the housing in High Howdon belonged to the local council, a number of privately owned and rented properties always existed in the centre of the area. Since right-to-buy legislation was introduced in the 1980s, many former council tenants have bought their homes, which has resulted in a large percentage of former council properties becoming privately owned.

Apart from the railway, High Howdon was separated from the industry of Willington Quay by Howdon Park, that featured tennis courts, bowling greens, a children's play area (including a paddling pool) and flower beds. This fell into disarray but was partly restored, due to pressure from the local community, during the 1990s.

Jarrow is a town in South Tyneside in the county of Tyne and Wear, England. It is on the south bank of the River Tyne, about 3 miles (4.8 km) from the east coast. The 2011 census area classed Hebburn and The Boldons as part of the town, it had a population of 43,431. It is home to the southern portal of the Tyne Tunnel and 5 mi (8.0 km) east of Newcastle upon Tyne.

In the eighth century, St Paul's Monastery in Jarrow (now Monkwearmouth–Jarrow Abbey) was the home of The Venerable Bede, who is regarded as the greatest Anglo-Saxon scholar and the father of English history. The town is part of the historic County Palatine of Durham. From the middle of the 19th century until 1935, Jarrow was a centre for shipbuilding, and was the starting point of the Jarrow March against unemployment in 1936.

Tyne and Wear is a ceremonial county in North East England. It borders Northumberland to the north and County Durham to the south, and the largest settlement is the city of Newcastle upon Tyne.

The county is largely urbanised. It had a population of 1.14 million in 2021. After Newcastle (300,125) the largest settlements are the city of Sunderland (170,134), Gateshead (120,046), and South Shields (75,337). Nearly all of the county's settlements belong to either the Tyneside or Wearside conurbations, the latter of which also extends into County Durham. Tyne and Wear contains five metropolitan boroughs: Gateshead, Newcastle upon Tyne, Sunderland, North Tyneside and South Tyneside, and is covered by two combined authorities, North of Tyne and North East. The county was established in 1974 and was historically part of Northumberland and County Durham, with the River Tyne forming the border between the two.

The most notable geographic features of the county are the River Tyne and River Wear, after which it is named and along which its major settlements developed. The county is also notable for its coastline to the North Sea in the east, which is characterised by tall limestone cliffs and wide beaches.

contribution for the blood becomes water zine.

the topic was to retreat some sofia postcards

(not selected)

The South Asian contribution to the province’s and the country’s shared history will be on permanent display in the BC legislature after an announcement by Premier Christy Clark that an historically symbolic flag would be installed inside the Parliament Buildings.

The 1874 version of the Red Ensign flag is one of the first Canadian flags to display the emblem of British Columbia after the province joined Confederation in 1871.

Read more: news.gov.bc.ca/releases/2015PREM0079-001786

My contribution to a baby book published by Larks called sweet booties

The Heading of an article, “All Diplomats are not Gentlemen”, that appeared in one of the issues of the Indian newspaper “The Tribune’” in February, 2002 initially shocked the entire Diplomatic Community of that country. However, their shock was short-lived, for they soon realised that the article concerned contained a praiseworthy account as to how the “Indian Lady Diplomats” were contributing to the development of India through their skills in diplomacy and international relations, which were not second or inferior to those of their counterparts, the “Gentleman Diplomats”. It is an unquestionable fact that the Indian Women Diplomats are equal to their tasks and are rendering an invaluable service to their country.

Our own women of Sri Lanka too had left indelible marks in the historical records in rendering invaluable services to our motherland and today, being the International Women’s day, I consider it as our duty to talk about our own Sri Lankan Women Diplomats and other distinguished Sri Lankan Women who had brought fame to our paradise island and some of whom are still rendering their invaluable services towards the betterment of our motherland. Purpose of this article is especially to place on record the contributions they have made in the fields of Diplomacy and International Relations.

When talking about Sri Lankan Women the name of our first Woman Prime Minister, the late Madam Sirimavo Bandaranaike, is a sine quo non. After the demise of her husband, the Oxford educated and world famous one time Prime Minister of this country, the late Hon. S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike, the mantle of the Premiership of this country quite unexpectedly fell on the late Madam Sirimavo Bandaranaike. With reluctance she accepted the responsibility and in a short period of time she was able to measure up to the very responsible position she was holding. She did not disappoint her supporters nor did she betray the confidence reposed in her by the nation. She soon became a leading world figure and was acclaimed as the “First Woman Prime Minister of the world”. The Bandaranaike Memorial International Conference Hall (BMICH) today stands tall to her memory and hosts conferences of international nature thus bringing fame to this country. The Chinese gift of the BMICH was the result of the friendly relationship she cultivated with world leaders, especially of the Non-Aligned Movement. She associated closely with world leaders of the calibre of the late Mrs. Indira Gandhi of India, the late Field Marshal Ayub Khan and Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto of Pakistan the late Hon.Chou En Lai of China, the late Hon. Anwar Sadat of Egypt, the late Marshall Tito of Yugoslavia and the like. She was a friend of the former Socialist Bloc, but was not a foe of the opposite side.

Her involvement in settling the Indo-Pakistan war in 1961 and the China-India Border issue in 1961 amply demonstrated her skills in international relations and her acceptance by the Non-Aligned Nations. It was the late Madam Sirimavo Bandaranaike who brought a resolution before the UN seeking the “Declaration of the Indian Ocean as a Peace Zone”.

She followed the footsteps of her late husband and played a prominent role in the Non- Aligned Movement. Her crowning moment was when she was elected the Chairperson of the Non-Aligned Movement and chaired the Non-Aligned Movement Conference held in 1976 at the BMICH. She was not considered as a “Politician”. She was considered as a “Stateswoman” and she fitted into that role in every respect.

A former President of Sri Lanka, Madam Chandrika Kumaranatunga, is a unique personality. She was also once the Prime Minister of this country and also was once the Chief Minister of a Provincial Council. She is the daughter of two former heads of the Government (Prime Ministers) while she herself was the head of the Government (President) for over a period of a decade. Her record, I believe, cannot be matched by anyone in the democratic world. As President of this country she participated at five SAARC Summit Meetings and chaired the SAARC Summit Meeting held in Sri Lanka in 1998. During her tenure of office as President of this country she participated at several Commonwealth Meetings and also addressed the United Nations.

After Sri Lanka (then Ceylon) gained independence from the British in 1948 several diplomatic appointments were made to represent Sri Lanka in several parts of the world and at that time the Sri Lankan diplomatic service was the “domain of the man”. It was only from the year 1963 that women were first chosen by the Sri Lanka Government to represent Sri Lanka as Ambassadors/High Commissioners in other countries.

The scenario in our neighboring countries was not the same. In 1946, Mrs. Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit she undertook her first official Diplomatic Mission as leader of the Indian delegation to the United Nations General Assembly. She also led India's delegations to the General Assembly in 1947, 1948, 1952, 1953, and 1963. She joined the Foreign Service and was appointed India's first Ambassador to the Soviet Union. In early 1949 she became Ambassador to the United States. In September 1953 she was given the honor of being the first woman and the first Asian to be elected president of the U.N. General Assembly. In December 1954, she served as Indian high commissioner to the United Kingdom

Ms. Begum Raana Liquat Ali Khan served as the Ambassador of Pakistan in the Netherlands from 1954 to 1961.

Ms Chokila Iyer became the First Indian Foreign Secretary in 2001. Ms. Nirupama Rao was the Second Foreign Secretary of India. Present Indian Lok Sabha Speaker Ms Mairra Kumar also was a prominent Indian Foreign service Diplomat. Present Pakistan Foreign Minister, Ms. Hina Rabbani Khar and the present Bangladesh Foreign Minister Ms. Dipu Moni are prominent Diplomatic personalities of South Asia.

Ms. Manel Kannangara was the first woman to be recruited to the “Ceylon Overseas Service” (now the Sri Lanka Foreign Service) in 1958 and thereafter significant numbers of the fair sex have joined the Sri Lanka Foreign Service and are serving in various parts of the world rendering invaluable services to the country

It was during the tenure of office of Madam Sirimavo Bandaranaike as the Prime Minister of this country that initial steps were taken to appoint women as Ambassadors/High Commissioners to represent Sri Lanka in other countries. The first such appointment, on the Independence Day of 1963, was that of Ms. Loraine Senaratne, a non-career appointee, to represent Sri Lanka in Accra, Ghana. She had to return to Sri Lanka with the change of the Government in 1965 and she was once again appointed as the Sri Lankan Ambassador in Italy in the year 1970.

In 1975 history appeared to have repeated itself. The second woman to be appointed to an Ambassadorial post by the Sri Lankan Government was that of Ms. Theja Gunawardena. That too was a non-career Diplomat and was also with the blessings of the then Prime Minister, Madam Sirimavo Bandaranaike. Her Ambassadorial appointment was to Pakistan and concurrently accredited to Iran to represent Sri Lanka. Mrs. Gunawardena was a very active member and the chief organizer of the Lanka Mahila Samithi Moment. She had gained considerable knowledge in International Relations as a result of her participating at many International Conferences relating to “women and development”. The ‘'Ravana Dynasty in Sri Lanka's Dance Drama” (Kohomba Kamkaariya), one of her reputed publications, illustrates her research and Authorship. After the change of the Government In 1977 she was recalled to Sri Lanka.

Ms. Sumithra Peries, the well-known film Director served as the Sri Lankan Ambassador in France from 1995 to 1997. Her artistic skills in coordinating various events made her a popular figure among the diplomatic community in Paris. She was a non-career diplomat

Ms. Rosy Senanayake was the first to be crowned as “Mrs. World” in 1984. She was appointed as the Sri Lankan High Commissioner to Malaysia in 2002. She was also a UNFPA Goodwill Ambassador for Sri Lanka since 1998. Much of her professional life has been devoted to in promoting Sri Lanka worldwide. Ms. Senanayake has taken a great interest in promoting the rights of women and adolescents in Sri Lanka. As UNFPA Goodwill Ambassador she has encouraged reproductive health services for workers, in particular for migrant women workers of Sri Lanka, the women workers of the Free Trade Zones, and for young people, through the National Youth Services Council. During her two years Diplomatic assignment in Malaysia she contributed immensely to the improvement of Trade, Economic and Cultural affairs between the two countries. She was a non-career diplomat

Ms. Jayathri Samarakone served as the Sri Lankan High commissioner to Singapore from 2008 to 2010. During her two years service in Singapore she arranged several projects to promote the image of Sri Lanka. She was a non-career diplomat.

Ms. Tamara Kunanayakam, is an illustrious non-career Diplomat. In the year 2011 she was appointed as the Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the United Nations in Geneva, where she is serving at present. In the year 2007 she held the post of First Secretary at the Sri Lanka Embassy in Brazil and in 2008 she was appointed as the Sri Lankan Ambassador to Havana (Cuba). Her splendid knowledge of the French and Spanish languages has stood in good stead for her to discharge her duties at PRUN in Geneva where French and Spanish languages are widely in use.

Ms. Farial Ashroff, a former Cabinet Minister and the widow of the former Chief of the Muslim Congress, the late Mr. Ashroff, was appointed as the Sri Lankan High Commissioner to Singapore in 2011, where she is presently serving. She is actively engaged in promotional activities on behalf of the country. She is a non-career Diplomat

On 21st December, 2010 Dr (Ms). Hiranthi Wijemanne was nominated to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child”. Prior to her present nomination to the UN Committee she has served the Sri Lanka Peace Secretariat, the National Child Protection Authority and the Department of Probation and Child Care. Dr. (Ms) Wijemanne has worked with UNICEF and other UN agencies for several years. She is a non-career Diplomat. Recently it has announced that Mrs Bharathi Wijeratne, Former Honorary Consul of Turkish Republic to Sri Lankan will be appoint as Sri Lanka Ambassador to Ankara

Ms. Radhika Coomaraswamy is the Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations, Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict. Secretary-General Kofi Annan appointed her to that position in April 2006. In this capacity, she serves as a moral voice and independent advocate to build awareness and give prominence to the rights and protection of boys and girls affected by armed conflicts. From 1996 to 2006 she also had delivered lectures annually at a summer course at New College, Oxford, on International Human Rights of Women. She has also served as a member of the Global Faculty of the New York University of Law. In May, 2003, she was appointed Chairperson of the Sri Lanka Human Rights Commission. There are several publications to her credit, including two books on constitutional law and other publications on ethnic studies and the status of women.

In recognition of her service to the country in particular and the world at large, the President of Sri Lanka conferred on her the title of Deshamanya, a prestigious national honour.

Ms. Neetha Ariyaratne Hon. Secretary Sarvodaya Suwasetha Sewa Society is also a prominent social worker who received respect from world community on her capable strength on empowerment of women through Sarvodaya Movement. She has participated at several regional and international conferences. She received number of awards.

Ms Seela Ebert, A former member of Sri Lanka Administrative Service had served as Regional Director of Commonwealth Youth Programme, Asian Centre in Chandigarh from 1994 to 2000. During her service at the Regional Centre, she had participated at many regional and International Conferences on Youth and Development as well as Women and Gender development.

Ms. Sunila Abeysekera is an award winning human rights campaigner and has worked on women's rights and human rights issues in Sri Lanka and in the South Asian region for over a period of 20 years as an activist and scholar. Secretary General Kofi Annan presented Ms. Abeysekera with a UN human rights award in 1999. She was also honoured for her work by the Human Rights Watch.

Ms Kumari Jayawardena is a leading feminist figure and academic in Sri Lanka. She is the author of several books, including “Feminism and Nationalism in the Third World”, for which she was selected for the Feminist Fortnight award in Britain in 1986 and was cited by Ms. Magazine in 1992 as “writing one of the 20 most important books of the feminist decades" (1970–1990). This text is widely used in Women's Studies programs around the world.

In “Feminism and Nationalism in the Third World”, Ms. Jayawardena reconstructs the history of women's rights movements in Asia and the Middle East from the 19th century to the 1980s, focusing on Egypt, Turkey, Iran, India, Sri Lanka, China, Indonesia, Vietnam, Japan, Korea and the Philippines.

Ms. Venetia Gamage, a Prominent Social worker of Sri Lanka and Former Commissioner of the Sri Lanka Girl Guide Moments also has participated at many International events as Commissioner of Girl Guide and Chairperson of National Youth Award Authority of Sri Lanka.

The credit of being the first Woman Career Diplomat of Sri Lanka goes to Ms. Manel Kannangara. After her appointment to the Ceylon Overseas Officer as a Cadet Officer in 1958 she received her first Ambassadorial appointment as Sri Lankan Ambassador to Thailand in 1974. Subsequently she functioned as the Sri Lankan Ambassador to Germany with accreditation to Austria and Switzerland. Her constructive contributions to the Foreign Ministry in particular and international diplomacy in general are significant. In the year 1980 she authored “The Protocol Manual of Ministry of Foreign Affairs” while serving as the Chief of Protocol of the Ministry (1974-1980). In the year 1976 she was tasked with the responsibility of organising the Non-Aligned Summit where 92 Heads of States participated at the Conference. Her capacity for work was unquestionable and she was an indefatigable worker. She planned the activities of the Summit meticulously paying attention to every detail and the 1976 Non-Aligned Summit was a complete success.

In 2011 Ms. Manel Abeysekara published her autobiography titled “Madam Sir” where she relates in chronological order the challenges she faced during her diplomatic assignments. An incident she cites in her Autobiography is the hijacking of the “Alitalia” Boeing 747 Aircraft in June 1982 by Sepala Ekanayake, who threatened to blow up the Aircraft unless his demands were met. One of his demands was for his Italian wife to bring his son to him. Ms. Manel Abeysekera’s description of that moment in her autobiography is given as follows:

“Although I am not particularly religious, I prayed fervently at that moment. His wife

Was persuaded to come, together with his son. After the child spoke

to him, I asked him to release the passengers from the plane which he did,”

She also served as the Director-General of Political Affairs in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; as the Chairperson of the Presidential Committee on Women; and also as the Chairperson of the Sri Lanka National Chapter in the Coalition for Action on South Asian Cooperation.

The Second Career Woman Diplomat was Ms. Mary Lakshmi Naganathan. She joined the Sri Lanka Foreign Service in 1960 and resigned from service in 1983 while serving as Sri Lankan Ambassador to Germany. Ms. Mary Luxkshmi Naganathan was the first woman career diplomat from the Tamil community to reach that level.

Ms. Sarala Frenando joined the Sri Lanka Foreign Service in 1975. She was the First Sri Lankan woman Permanent UN Representative in Geneva (in 2003). In addition Ms. Sarala Fernando served as Sri Lankan Ambassador to Sweden and Thailand.

The 1981 batch of the Sri Lanka Foreign Service Officers had three female officers, viz., Ms. Geetha De Silva, Ms. Chitrangani Wagieswara and Ms. Pamela Deen. Ms. Geetha De Silva served as the Sri Lankan High Commissioner to Canada. Ms. Wagiswara is presently serving as the Sri Lankan High Commissioner to Canada. Previously she served as the Sri Lankan High Commissioner to Singapore and the Sri Lankan Ambassador to France. Ms. Pamela Deen is presently the Sri Lankan Ambassador to Poland and previously she served as the Sri Lanka Ambassador to Nepal and The Netherlands.

Ms. Kshenuka Senevirathne joined the Sri Lanka Foreign Service in 1985 and the first Ambassadorial post she held was as the Sri Lankan High Commissioner to the United Kingdom in the year 2007. She also served as the Sri Lankan PRUN in Geneva during a difficult period. Currently she is attached to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as an Additional Secretary.

The two Women Diplomats, Ms. Aruni Wijewardena and Ms. Grace Asiriwatham are of the 1988 batch. Ms. Aruni Wijewardana served as the Sri Lankan Ambassador to Austria and Ms. Asiriwatham served as the Sri Lankan Ambassadors to Nepal and The Netherlands. While serving at the Sri Lankan Embassy in The Hague in the year 2011 Mrs. Asiriwatham joined the OPCW as its Deputy Director General.

Several female officers, who joined the Sri Lanka Foreign Service after 1994, are holding many prestigious posts in the Sri Lankan Missions abroad. Ms. P Shanthi Sudusinghe of the 1994 batch is currently serving as the Sri Lankan Deputy High Commissioner in the Maldives with Ambassador Rank.

Ms. Damayanthi Rajapaksa of the 1994 batch is currently serving as the Director of SAARC Secretaria in Kathmandu. In the absence of the Director General of the SAARC Secretariat Ms. Rajapaksa is presently serving as its Acting Secretary General.

Ms. Hasanthi Dissanayaka of Sri Lanka Foreign Service1996 batch is presently serving in Sri Lanka Consulate in Shanghai as Consul GeneralMs.Manisha Gunasekera of the 1996 batch is currently serving at the PRUN Office as its Deputy.

Ms. Maheshini Colonne of the 1998 batch is presently serving at the Sri Lankan High Commission in India as the Deputy High Commissioner.

The present cadre strength of the Sri Lanka Foreign Service Officers is 152. Of which 58 are females, many of whom are holding prestigious positions in Ministry of External Affairs of Sri Lankan and Sri Lankan Missions abroad.

My desire on this International Women’s Day is to highlight the above factual details with a view to encouraging the Sri Lankan young women to pursue a path in Diplomacy and International Relations so as to climb the ladder of success. (I wish to express my sincere thanks to Mr. Lionel Fernando, the former Foreign Secretary who encouraged me to keep updated records on Sri Lankan Foreign Service and Diplomacy)

The writer is a member of the Sri Lanka Foreign Service and Present Minister Counsellor of Sri Lanka High Commission in Pakistan. His email is menikb@hotmail.com

Çatalağzı, from the footbridge: a "Skyliner" 2-10-0 adds to the murk as it moves to couple to a "Middle East" 2-8-2, before heading a local for Zonguldak.

My contribution to this year's St. Patrick's Day.

© All rights reserved

WISP e-zine No X - febr.march2009 -online magazin release .

on page 9 you find my contribution "blue heart" under Ice+Frost

wisp.focusphere.net/wisp/10/ice-and-frost

~ ENJOY reading the whole brandnew e-magazine !

click

wisp.focusphere.net:80/wisp/10

and scroll thru the pages, articles and fotos !

.

My contribution to the COLORS MAGAZINE 77 (SEA) projects on the sea,

BUNKER COASTAL DEFENSIVE "CABO SILLEIRO"

Smithsonian contributions to knowledge

Washington :Smithsonian Institution,1848-1916.

biodiversitylibrary.org/page/32449350

My contribution to Febrovery 2016

Another contribution, this time a gift of Qudsia Begum, is the imposing Jama Masjid (1837). It is situated in the heart of the old city, a beautiful work of art crowned by gold spikes atop minarets.

Pink Bollworm Eradication Ceremony, on June 11, 2019, in Fabens, TX. U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Under Secretary for Marketing and Regulatory Programs Greg Ibach will participate on behalf of Secretary Sonny Perdue to mark this historic occasion and help Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) recognize partner contributions.

U.S. cotton production accounts for nearly 30 percent of global trade in raw cotton and $27 billion in products and services annually. It also provides hundreds of thousands of jobs across many sectors. Pink bollworm is a significant pest of cotton that was not successfully controlled until APHIS, the state departments of agriculture, and the cotton industry mounted a coordinated and integrated pest management program. The eradication of pink bollworm is the direct result of this cooperative effort. APHIS’ contributions include establishing domestic regulations and releasing sterile pink bollworm moths over infested areas.

Pink bollworm was first detected in Hearne, Texas, in 1917. It most likely migrated there from Mexico. Extensive efforts by Extension in coordination with individual producers eliminated the infestation in Texas and an infestation found in Louisiana in 1919. In the 1930s, the pest re-invaded the Rio Grande Valley of Texas. By the mid-1950s, the pest had spread to surrounding states and eventually reached California in 1963. Many of these infestations were suppressed through cooperative federal, state, and industry programs.

In 1955, APHIS established a domestic pink bollworm quarantine for infested states. Since 2000, APHIS has worked closely with the state departments of agriculture in Arizona, California, New Mexico, and Texas, and the cotton industry to carry out rigorous control and regulatory activities aimed at eliminating pink bollworm from these States, which were the only ones that remained under quarantine.

As a result of these cooperative efforts, APHIS lifted the domestic quarantine for pink bollworm on September 26, 2018from Arizona, California, New Mexico, and Texas. A small wild pink bollworm colony exists in the Florida Everglades where there is no commercial cotton production. The area will remain under state quarantine.

Awards were presented to the following organizations:

• Texas Boll Weevil Eradication Foundation

• South Central New Mexico Cotton Boll Weevil Control Committee

• Texas Department of Agriculture

• New Mexico Department of Agriculture

• Offices of the Texas and New Mexico State Plant Health Directors (PPQ)

Attendees:

UNDER SECRETARY Greg Ibach

APHIS Deputy Administrator Osama El-Lissy

Industry

• Mr. Jim Ed Miller, Texas Cotton Producer

• Dr. Don Parker, Manager, Integrated Pest Management, Pink Bollworm Action Committee; Pink Bollworm Technical Advisory Committee Member, National Cotton Council

• Mr. Larry E. Smith, Program Director, Pink Bollworm Technical Advisory Committee Member, Texas Boll Weevil Eradication Foundation

• Mr. Samuel Carr, Texas Cotton Producer, Pink Bollworm Action Committee Member

• Mr. Keith Deputy, New Mexico Cotton Producer, Pink Bollworm Action Committee Member

• Mr. Robert Sloan, New Mexico Cotton Producer, Pink Bollworm Action Committee Member

• Mr. Larry Turnbough, Texas Cotton Producer, Pink Bollworm Action Committee Member

• Mr. Lindy Patton, President and Chief Executive Officer, Pink Bollworm Action Committee Advisor, Texas Boll Weevil Eradication Foundation

• Mr. Patrick Sullivan, Director, Pink Bollworm Action Committee Advisor, South Central NM Cotton Boll Weevil Control Committee

• Xavier Jurado, Board Member, South Central NM Pink Boll Worm Control Committee and cotton producer

• Al Alvarez, Board Member, South Central NM Pink Boll Worm Control Committee and cotton producer

• Willie Hernandez, Board Member, South Central NM Pink Boll Worm Control Committee and cotton producer

• Dosi Alvarez, Board Member, South Central NM Pink Boll Worm Control Committee and cotton producer

• Marty Sweetser, Board Member, South Central NM Pink Boll Worm Control Committee and cotton producer

• Joe Friesen, Retired Director, South Central NM Pink Boll Worm Control Committee

TX Department of Agriculture

• Jason Fearneyhough, Deputy Commissioner of Agriculture, Texas Dept. of Agriculture

• Dale Scott, Director For Environmental and Biosecurity Program,

• Dr. Awinash Bhatkar, SPRO, Awinash Bhatkar, Awinash.

• Patrick Dudley, Coordinator For Agriculture Commodity Boards & Producer Relations, Texas Department of Agriculture, Patrick.

N.M. Department of Agriculture

• Secretary Jeff Witte, New Mexico Department of Agriculture

• Mr. Brad Lewis, State Plant Regulatory Official, New Mexico Department of Agriculture

• Ryan Hiles, New Mexico Department of Agriculture

Academia

• Dr. Charles Allen, Professor, Assoc. Dept. Head and Extension Entomologist, Chairman, Pink Bollworm Technical Advisory Committee; Pink Bollworm Action Committee Advisor, Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service

APHIS

• Osama El-Lissy

• Stuart Kuehn

• Waleska Ramirez

• Dr. Karen Maguylo, National Cotton Pests Coordinator

USDA Photo by Lance Cheung.

my contribution to Merde à la Vie / editions AlbertFoolmoon www.albertfoolmoon.com/index.php?option=com_content&v...

The courtyard at the Royal Academy of Arts in London provides the perfect setting for this fine bronze King Robbo sculpture by Team Robbo, which is their contribution to The King's Artists exhibition that is due to open at the RA at the end of this month. The piece has been supported by Prank Sky Media and is on loan from the company for the duration of the exhibition - they are likely to go down in the history books as one of the RA's great patrons, maintaining the long standing historical connection between the monarchy and the Royal Academy from its foundation in 1768 to the present day.

The technology that Team Robbo have used to create the text based metal forms simulates natural selection using a 'survival of the fittest' rule. The difference is that, instead of plants and animals competing, different versions of artistic software are battling for their place in the next generation. A Darwinian process is set up so that the better forms will have lots of copies (versions similar or identical) in the next generation and the less desirable shapes are eliminated. What makes some forms 'better' than others is determined by the artists or writers setting up the experiment (e.g., the ability to get out of mazes, drive a car without crashing, control a legged robot, etc). Over time the software gets better and better since mutations (random changes in the programs) and 'sex' (combining a portion of the code of one form with a portion of another) will occasionally produce a form that is a slight improvement over its parents. This slightly better software will thrive for a while until it too is replaced by the next slightly better software. Given enough generations, these small changes can add up to produce rats, monkeys, politicians and poets. Natural selection, plus a lot of time, produced all of the "endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful" on this planet, to quote Darwin. In a computer world, because generations can happen in microseconds, we don't need millions of Earth years to pass before interesting things begin to happen. Evolutionary computation has frequently come up with better designs than any artist.

With thanks to our photographers Herry Lawford and Stinging Eyes.

Dave, Prank Sky Media, Hackney, London

Contributions to ornithology for 1848-1853

Edinburgh :W.H. Lizars,1848-1853.

biodiversitylibrary.org/page/51978849

Remembrance Sunday

Adjutant General's Corps.

In the United Kingdom, Remembrance Sunday is held on the second Sunday in November, which is the Sunday nearest to 11 November Armistice Day, the anniversary of the end of hostilities in the First World War at 11 a.m. on 11 November 1918. Remembrance Sunday is held to commemorate the contribution of British and Commonwealth military and civilian servicemen and women in the two World Wars and later conflicts.

Remembrance Sunday is marked by ceremonies at local war memorials in most cities, towns and villages, attended by civic dignitaries, ex-servicemen and -women, members of local armed forces regular and reserve units, military cadet forces and uniformed youth organisations. Wreaths of remembrance poppies are laid on the memorials and two minutes’ silence is observed at 11 a.m.

The United Kingdom national ceremony is held in London at the Cenotaph in Whitehall. Wreaths are laid by Queen Elizabeth II, principal members of the Royal Family normally including the Duke of Edinburgh, the Prince of Wales, the Duke of Cambridge, the Duke of York, the Princess Royal, the Earl of Wessex and the Duke of Kent, the Prime Minister, leaders of the other major political parties, the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, Commonwealth High Commissioners and representatives from the Royal Navy, Army and Royal Air Force, the Merchant Navy and Fishing Fleets and the civilian services, and veterans’ groups. Two minutes' silence is held at 11 a.m., before the laying of the wreaths. This silence is marked by the firing of a field gun on Horse Guards Parade to begin and end the silence, followed by Royal Marines buglers sounding Last Post.

The parade consists mainly of an extensive march past, with military bands playing music following the list of the Traditional Music of Remembrance.

Other members of the British Royal Family watch from the balcony of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

After the ceremony, a parade of veterans and other related groups, organised by the Royal British Legion, marches past the Cenotaph, each section of which lays a wreath as it passes. Only ticketed participants can take part in the march past.

From 1919 until the Second World War remembrance observance was always marked on 11 November itself. It was then moved to Remembrance Sunday, but since the 50th anniversary of the end of the Second World War in 1995, it has become usual to hold ceremonies on both Armistice Day and Remembrance Sunday.

Each year, the programme of music at the National Ceremony remains the same, following a programme finalised in 1930:

Rule, Britannia! by Thomas Arne

Heart of Oak by William Boyce

The Minstrel Boy by Thomas Moore

Men of Harlech

The Skye Boat Song

Isle of Beauty by Thomas Haynes Bayly

David of the White Rock

Oft in the Stilly Night by John Stevenson

Flowers of the Forest

Nimrod from the Enigma Variations by Edward Elgar

Dido's lament by Henry Purcell

O Valiant Hearts by Charles Harris

Solemn Melody by Walford Davies

Last Post – a bugle call

Beethoven's Funeral March No. 1, by Johann Heinrich Walch

O God, Our Help in Ages Past – words by Isaac Watts, music by William Croft

Reveille – a bugle call

God Save The Queen

Other pieces of music are then played during the march past and wreath laying by veterans, starting with Trumpet Voluntary and followed by It's A Long Way To Tipperary, the marching song of the Connaught Rangers, a famous British Army Irish Regiment of long ago.

Cenotaph Ceremony and March Past - 10 November 2013 Order of March and Ticket Allocation

Column D [Lead Column]

Marker NumberDetachmentNo of marchers

1War Widows Association 126

2British Gurkha Welfare Society 78

3West Indian Association of Service Personnel 18

4Trucial Oman Scouts Association 18

5Bond Van Wapenbroeders 26

6Polish Ex-Combatants Association in Great Britain Trust Fund 40

7Canadian Veterans Association 10

9Hong Kong Ex-Servicemen's Association (UK Branch) 24

10Hong Kong Military Service Corps 18

11Foreign Legion Association 24

12Not Forgotten Association 54

13The Royal British Legion 348

14The Royal British Legion Poppy Factory 6 New

15The Royal British Legion Scotland 26

16Ulster Defence Regiment72

18Northern Ireland Veterans' Association 42

19Irish United Nations Veterans Association 12

20ONET UK 10

21St Helena Government UK 24

22Commando Veterans Association 30

23South Atlantic Medal Association 196

24SSAFA Forces Help 66

25First Aid Nursing Yeomanry (Princess Royal's Volunteers Corps) 12

26Association of Jewish Ex-Servicemen & Women 48

27British Nuclear Test Veterans Association 48

28British Limbless Ex-Service Men's Association 48

29British Ex-Services Wheelchair Sports Association24

30Royal Hospital Chelsea 30

31Queen Alexandra's Hospital Home for Disabled Ex-Servicemen30

32The Royal Star & Garter Homes20

33Combat Stress48

34Walking With The Wounded14

Total 1,590

Column E

1Merchant Navy Association 150

2Royal Naval Association 160

3Royal Marines Association 198

4Aircraft Handlers Association36

5Telegraphist Air Gunners Association12

6Aircrewmans Association30

7Cloud Observers Association10

8Fleet Air Arm Armourers Association36

9Fleet Air Arm Association30

10Fleet Air Arm Bucaneer Association24

11Fleet Air Arm Field Gun Association24

12Fleet Air Arm Junglie Association18

13Fleet Air Arm Officers Association40

14Fleet Air Arm Safety Equipment & Survival Association18

15Sea Harrier Association24

16Flower Class Corvette Association18

17LST & Landing Craft Association10

18HMS Andromeda Association18

19HMS Bulwark, Albion & Centaur Association22

20HMS Cumberland Association18

21HMS Ganges Association36

22HMS Glasgow Association30

23HMS St Vincent Association36

24HMS Tiger Association20

25Algerines Association25

26Ton Class Association30

27Type 42 Association35 New

28Queen Alexandra's Royal Naval Nursing Service35

29VAD RN Association18

30Association of WRENS90

31Royal Fleet Auxiliary Association10

32Royal Naval Communications Association30

33Royal Naval Medical Branch Ratings & Sick Berth Staff Association 6

34Royal Naval Benevolent Trust18

35Royal Navy School of Physical Training24

36Russian Convoy Club30

37Yangtze Incident Association24

38Special Boat Service Association 6

39Submariners Association30

40Association of Royal Yachtsmen24

41Broadsword Association36

Total 1,489

Column F

1British Korean Veterans Association 500

2National Malaya & Borneo Veterans Association98

3Normandy Veterans Association 6

4National Service Veterans Alliance 150

5Italy Star Association48

6Monte Cassino Society20

7Gallantry Medallists League36

8National Pigeon War Service30

9National Gulf Veterans & Families Association30

10Fellowship of the Services 150

11Burma Star Association50

12Far East Prisoners of War 8

14Memorable Order of Tin Hats36

15Suez Veterans Association50

16Aden Veterans Association84

171st Army Association36

18Showmens' Guild of Great Britain30

19Queen's Bodyguard of The Yeoman of The Guard18

20Popski's Private Army 4

21Pen and Sword Club18

22Black and White Club18 New

Total 1,420

Column A

2Royal Northumberland Fusiliers48

3The Duke of Lancaster's Regimental Association30

4Green Howards Association44

6Cheshire Regiment Association24

7Sherwood Foresters & Worcestershire Regiment36

8Mercian Regiment Association30

9Rifles Regimental Association48

10The Rifles & Royal Gloucestershire, Berkshire & Wiltshire Regimental Association

30

11Royal Irish Regiment Association12

12Durham Light Infantry Association60

13King's Royal Rifle Corps Association60

14Light Infantry Association48 New

151LI Association36 New

16Royal Green Jackets Association 198

17Parachute Regimental Association 174

18The Royal Regiment of Scotland Association18 New

19Royal Scots Regimental Association40

20King's Own Scottish Borderers50

21Black Watch Association45

22Gordon Highlanders Association60

23Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders Regimental Association 6

24The Cameronians (Scottish Rifles)24 New

25Grenadier Guards Association48

26Coldstream Guards Association48

27Scots Guards Association40

28Guards Parachute Association36

294 Company Association (Parachute Regiment)24

30Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment72

32Royal East Kent Regiment (The Buffs) Past & Present Association30

33Royal Sussex Regimental Association12

34Royal Hampshire Regiment Comrades Association12

Total 1,443

Column B

1Blind Veterans UK 198

2Royal Scots Dragoon Guards30

3Royal Dragoon Guards78

4Queen's Royal Hussars (The Queen's Own & Royal Irish)12

5Kings Royal Hussars Regimental Association96

6The 16/5th Queen's Royal Lancers36 New

7Gurkha Brigade Association36

8JLR RAC Old Boys' Association30

943rd Reconnaissance Regiment Old Comrades Association 6

10Army Dog Unit Northern Ireland Association48

11North Irish Horse & Irish Regiments Old Comrades Association78

12Association of Ammunition Technicians36

13Beachley Old Boys Association36

14Arborfield Old Boys Association18

15Women's Royal Army Corps Association 120

16656 Squadron Association72

17Home Guard Association12

183rd Regiment Royal Horse Artillery Association60

19Royal Artillery Association18

20Royal Engineers Association30

21Royal Engineers Bomb Disposal Association65

22Airborne Engineers Association24

23Mill Hill (Postal & Courier Services) Veterans' Association30 New

24Royal Signals Association48

25Army Air Corps Association42

26Royal Army Service Corps & Royal Corps of Transport Association40

27RAOC Association18

28Army Catering Corps Association48

29Royal Pioneer Corps Association54

30Reconnaissance Corps18

31Royal Army Medical Corps Association36

32Royal Electrical & Mechanical Engineers Association48

33Royal Military Police Association 100

34The RAEC and ETS Branch Association 6

35Royal Army Pay Corps Regimental Association36

36Royal Army Veterinary Corps & Royal Army Dental Corps18

37Intelligence Corps Association30

38Royal Army Physical Training Corps24

39Queen Alexandra's Royal Army Nursing Corps Association48

Total 1,783

Column C

1Royal Air Forces Association 125

2Royal Air Force Regiment Association 300

3Royal Air Forces Ex-Prisoner's of War Association20

4 Federation of Royal Air Force Apprentice & Boy Entrant Associations 150

5Royal Air Force Air Loadmasters Association24

6Royal Air Force Police Association90

7Princess Mary's Royal Air Force Nursing Service Association40

8Bomber Command Association20

9Royal Observer Corps Association80

10National Service (Royal Air Force) Association42

11RAFLING Association24

126 Squadron (Royal Air Force) Association18

137 Squadron Association30

14RAF Habbaniya Association30

15Royal Air Force & Defence Fire Services Association30

16Air Sea Rescue & Marine Craft Sections Club12

17Royal Air Force Mountain Rescue Association30

18Royal Air Force Butterworth & Penang Association 6

19Royal Air Force Yatesbury Association15

20Royal Air Force Airfield Construction Branch Association12

21Women's Auxiliary Air Force12

22Blenheim Society18

23Coastal Command & Maritime Air Association24

Total 1,152

Column M

1Transport For London48

2First Aid Nursing Yeomanry (Princess Royal's Volunteers Corps)24

3Munitions Workers Association18

4Children of the Far East Prisoners of War60

5Evacuees Reunion Association48

6TOC H12

7Salvation Army36

8NAAFI12

10Civil Defence Association10

11British Resistance Movement (Coleshill Auxiliary Research Team)12 New

12National Association of Retired Police Officers36

13Metropolitan Special Constabulary36

14London Ambulance Service NHS Trust36

15London Ambulance Service Retirement Association18

16St John Ambulance36

17St Andrew's Ambulance Association 6

18Firefighters Memorial Trust24

19Royal Ulster Constabulary (GC) Association36

20Ulster Special Constabulary Association30

21Commonwealth War Graves Commission12

22Daniel's Trust36

23Civilians Representing Families85

24Royal Mail Group Ltd24

25Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals24

26The Blue Cross18

27PDSA24

28HM Ships Glorious Ardent & ACASTA Association24

29Old Cryptians' Club12

30Fighting G Club18

31Malayan Volunteers Group12

32Gallipoli Association18

33Ministry of Defence30

34RBL Non Ex-Service Members 123

35Union Jack Club12

36Western Front Association11

37Shot at Dawn Pardons Campaign18

38Royal Antediluvian Order of Buffaloes24

39National Association of Round Tables24

40Lions Club International24

41Rotary International24

4241 Club 6 New

43Equity12

44Romany & Traveller Society18

45Sea Cadet Corps30

46Combined Cadet Force30

47Army Cadet Force30

48Air Training Corps30

49Scout Association30

50Girlguiding London & South East England30

51Boys Brigade30

52Girls Brigade England & Wales30

53Church Lads & Church Girls Brigade30

54Metropolitan Police Volunteer Police Cadets18

55St John Ambulance Cadets18

56British Red Cross12 New

Total 1,489

Newindicates first time participation in 2013.

Cenotaph Ceremony & March Past - 10 November 2013 Summary of Contingent Composition

Column A1,443

Column B1,783

Column C1,152

Column D1,590

Column E1,489

Column F1,420

Sub-total8,877

Column M1,489

Total 10,366

News report on 10 November 2013

Remembrance Sunday 2013: The Queen leads nation in honouring fallen heroes

Her Majesty laid the first wreath at the Cenotaph on Whitehall as the UK fell silent at 11am in tribute to those who lost their lives in conflict

The Queen was joined by Prince Philip and other members of the Royal Family as she led the nation in honouring members of the Armed Forces killed in conflict.

The monarch laid the first wreath at the Cenotaph on Whitehall to commemorate all those who have made the ultimate sacrifice in the decades since the First World War, bowing her head after paying her respects.

As Remembrance Sunday services took place around the UK to remember our war dead, the royals, politicians, military leaders, veterans and serving personnel laid wreaths of poppies at the monument.

Prince Harry was laying the wreath on behalf of his father Prince Charles, who is currently abroad on an official tour of India with the Duchess of Cornwall, and was marking the occasion there.

Kate Middleton, who dressed in a navy, military-style coat, watched from a balcony with Sophie, Countess of Wessex and Princess Anne's husband, Vice Admiral Timothy Laurence.

Troops in Afghanistan were joined by the Duke of York, who laid a wreath during a service held at Camp Bastion in Helmand Province to mark Remembrance Sunday.

Defence Secretary Philip Hammond also flew to Afghanistan last night to join servicemen and women.

Millions across the UK fell silent in tribute to those lost in war, joining the crowds gathered in central London who stood in a moment of quiet contemplation as Big Ben struck 11am.

During the two-minute silence, only the distant sounds of traffic and the rustling of leaves could be heard, despite the fact that police said Whitehall was at capacity.

The beginning and end of the silence was marked with the firing of a round by the King's Troop Royal Horse Artillery, using a 13-pounder First World War gun.

In cold but bright weather, the royals and dignitaries then laid their wreaths at the Cenotaph.

Prime Minister David Cameron was first after the royals to do so, followed by Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg and Labour leader Ed Miliband.

Former prime ministers Sir John Major, Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, and London Mayor Boris Johnson also attended the ceremony.

The Duchess of Cambridge was accompanied on the Foreign Office balcony by the Countess of Wessex and Vice Admiral Tim Laurence.

The Duke of Edinburgh, who joined the Royal Navy in 1939, wore the uniform of an Admiral of the Fleet for the ceremony. Prince Harry, who has undertaken two tours of duty in Afghanistan, wore the uniform of a Captain in the Household Cavalry. His brother William left operational service recently after more than seven years in the forces. He wore the uniform of Royal Air Force Flight Lieutenant.

Following the wreath-laying, the Bishop of London the Right Reverend Richard Chartres conducted a short service in his role as Dean of HM Chapels Royal.

More than 10,000 veterans and civilians then marched past the Cenotaph to pay their respects to their departed comrades, led this year by members of the War Widows Association, wearing black coats and red scarves.

They were all warmly applauded as they paraded past, some veterans in wheelchairs and motorised scooters as they marked the loss of their comrades.

There was a large contingent of veterans from the Korean War, the armistice of which was 60 years ago.

The 70th anniversaries of the Battle of the Atlantic and the Dambusters' Raid were also marked this year.

contribution Facebook

My contribution for Throwback Thursday. I took this photo using Kodak Ektachrome in a Pentax ME Super. Again, I found a warmth in the film that I don't get from my digital camera. I scanned the slide on an Epson Scanner. Hope you like it. From the San Francisco Dept. of Parks and Recreation website:

Coit Tower, a slender white concrete column rising from the top of Telegraph Hill, has been an emblem of San Francisco’s skyline since its completion in 1933, a welcoming beacon to visitors and residents alike. Its observation deck, reached by elevator, provides 360-degree views of the city and bay, including the Golden Gate and Bay bridges.

The simple fluted tower is named for Lillie Hitchcock Coit, a wealthy eccentric and patron of the city’s firefighters. Coit died in 1929, leaving a substantial bequest “for the purpose of adding to the beauty of the city I have always loved.” The funds were used to build both the tower and a monument to Coit’s beloved volunteer firefighters, in nearby Washington Square. The tower was designed by the firm of Arthur Brown, Jr., architect of San Francisco’s City Hall. Contrary to popular belief, Coit Tower was not designed to resemble a firehose nozzle.

The murals inside the tower’s base were painted in 1934 by a group of artists employed by the Public Works of Art Project, a precursor to the Works Progress Administration (WPA), and depict life in California during the Depression. When violence broke out during the 1934 longshoremen’s strike, controversy over the radical content in some of the panels became quite heated. Some of the most controversial elements were painted over, and the tower was padlocked for several months before the frescoes were finally opened to the public in the fall of 1934.

Telegraph Hill takes its name from a semaphore telegraph erected on its summit in 1850 to alert residents to the arrival of ships. Pioneer Park, which surrounds Coit Tower, was established in 1876 on the former site of the telegraph station. As you wander the trails that wind around the tower and down the hill, you may hear the raucous chatter of the neighborhood’s most famous (and noisiest) residents, the flock of parrots featured in the 2005 film “The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill.”

A contribution to showtime Saturday! The Hero Car is caught in mid air during the reverse direction jump. I was really stoked with the timing of this shot and how well everything lined up.

Disney's Hollywood Studios | Streets of America | Lights Motors Action Extreme Stunt Show

Thanks for looking! I appreciate feedback.

Madelyn Jones (center), chairperson of Farm Bureau's Women's Committee, presents a $250-check to PCC counselors Olivia Sutton (left) and Mecca Waller in support of the college’s on-campus food pantry. The contribution came as part of a committee service project to benefit the pantry, which PCC counseling staff utilize to keep students in need from going hungry.

This is my contribution to the Flickr group Fotosöndag and their weekly theme colour.

View On Black

Terje Hellesö once wrote that "as a photographer you shouldn't just wander around taking pictures of whatever you happen to see". Why not? It's fun. And then you could accidently stumble upon this kind of magic scene. It was next to the most ordinary road you could imagine. And I was the only person who noticed it.

This is my little contribution to those who need our help - It's our turn, so please donate.

Bellow is the list of some countries where you may donate:

Brazil - Brasil

Sociedade Brasileira de Cultura Japonesa e de Assistência Social (Bunkyo) e Templos Budistas:

BRADESCO - agência: 0131-7 - contas-corrente 112959-7 e 131.000-3

SANTANDER - agência: 4551 - conta-corrente 130900004-4

BANCO DO BRASIL - agência: 1196-7, conta-corrente 29921-9

Cruz Vermelha:

BRADESCO - agência 1.787 - conta-corrente 40.000-9

Banco do Brasil:

Residentes no Brasil: agência 1608-X - conta corrente 500.500-0

Residentes no Exterior - pessoas fora do Japão

Agência de Tóquio - conta corrente 100.449-9

Para residentes no Japão - remessa doméstica (furikomi) Banco Mitsubishi Tokyo UFJ (MUFG)

Agência : Shin Marunouchi Shiten - Tipo de conta: Touza -

Número da conta 122360-7 - Nome: Burajiru Ginkou Tokyo Shiten - Remetente do Furikomi : 100.449-9 acrescido do nome do remetente sem espaçamento

vilamulher.terra.com.br/saiba-como-ajudar-as-pessoas-afet...

Canada - Canadá

www.redcross.ca/article.asp?id=38380&tid=001

France - França

www.croix-rouge.fr/Je-donne/Don-ponctuel?elk_dc_id=159&am...

Germany - Alemanha

www.drk.de/news/meldung/5590-japan-erdbeben-bundespraside...

Great Britain

www.redcross.org.uk/

Japan - Japão

members.canpan.info/kikin/products/detail.php?product_id=1080

Luxembourg - Luxemburgo

www.croix-rouge.lu/splashpage/

Poland - Polônia (Embassy/Embaixada)

Account name : Ambasada Japonii – Pomoc

Account owner's address: ul. Szwoleżerów 8, 00-464 Warszawa

Account number: 22 2210 0009 0000 0000 0010 3956

Bank name: Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ (Polska) S.A.

Bank SWIFT code: BOTKPLPW

Romania - Romênia

www.crucearosie.ro/proiecte/apel-pentru-japonia.html

Russia (Embassy/Embaixada)

Реквизиты для перечисления в рублях (for donation in rubles):

Получатель: Посольство Японии в России, ИНН 9909058036, КПП 773860001

Расчетный счет № 40807810900000000005 в ЗАО «Мидзухо Корпорэйт Банк (Москва)».

БИК 044525107, Кор.счет 30101810900000000107.

Для юридических лиц-резидентов в графе «Назначение платежа» необходимо указать : «{VO70040} Благотворительное пожертвование» (для нерезидентов - код {VO60070})

Spain - Espanha

www.cruzroja.es/pls/portal30/portal.donante.donativo

Switzerland - Suiça

www.redcross.ch/aid/donations/international/detail-fr.php...

USA - Estados Unidos da América

www.globalgiving.org/projects/japan-earthquake-tsunami-re...

www.paypal-donations.com/pp-charity/web.us/campaign.jsp?c...

Another contribution for the 07_07_07 group. I was again running out of ideas on what else to contribute to the July 7. 2007 group. I have a lot of photos taken from the past few days, and plan to go out a few days from now on some real nice place, but then again, why cheat myself on the exact date. So I thought. After lunch today, I thought of just relaxing or taking a nap, and take some more wimbledon tv photos, then I glanced afar and saw this..

Not bad for the 07_07_07 groups, and not bad for other flickr groups as well...

Taken on July 7, 2007 (07/07/07).

Contribution to the project "Flickr Members for Japan".

~~~~~~~

Please donate for our friends in Japan :

Brazil

vilamulher.terra.com.br/saiba-como-ajudar-as-pessoas-afet...

Canada

www.redcross.ca/article.asp?id=38380&tid=001

France

www.croix-rouge.fr/Je-donne/Don-ponctuel?elk_dc_id=159&am....

www.secourspopulaire.fr/dons.0.html?affectation=583

dons.fondationdefrance.org/netful-presentation-associatio...

Germany

www.drk.de/news/meldung/5590-japan-erdbeben-bundespraside...

Great Britain

www.redcross.org.uk/

Japan

members.canpan.info/kikin/products/detail.php?product_id=...

Luxembourg

www.croix-rouge.lu/splashpage/

Poland (Embassy)

Account name : Ambasada Japonii – Pomoc

Account owner's address: ul. Szwoleżerów 8, 00-464 Warszawa

Account number: 22 2210 0009 0000 0000 0010 3956

Bank name: Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ (Polska) S.A.

Bank SWIFT code: BOTKPLPW

Romania

www.crucearosie.ro/proiecte/apel-pentru-japonia.html

Russia

www.savejapan.ru/

Spain

www.cruzroja.es/pls/portal30/portal.donante.donativo

Switzerland

www.redcross.ch/aid/donations/international/detail-fr.php...

USA

www.globalgiving.org/projects/japan-earthquake-tsunami-re...

www.paypal-donations.com/pp-charity/web.us/campaign.jsp?c...

Remembrance Sunday, 8 November 2015

In the United Kingdom, Remembrance Sunday is held on the second Sunday in November, which is the Sunday nearest to 11 November, Armistice Day, the anniversary of the end of hostilities in the First World War at 11 a.m. on 11 November 1918. Remembrance Sunday is held to commemorate the contribution of British and Commonwealth military and civilian servicemen and women in the two World Wars and later conflicts.

Remembrance Sunday is marked by ceremonies at local war memorials in most cities, towns and villages, attended by civic dignitaries, ex-servicemen and -women, members of local armed forces regular and reserve units, military cadet forces and uniformed youth organisations. Two minutes’ silence is observed at 11 a.m. and wreaths of remembrance poppies are then laid on the memorials.

The United Kingdom national ceremony is held in London at the Cenotaph in Whitehall. Wreaths are laid by Queen Elizabeth II, principal members of the Royal Family normally including the Duke of Edinburgh, the Prince of Wales, the Duke of Cambridge, the Duke of York, the Princess Royal, the Earl of Wessex and the Duke of Kent, the Prime Minister, leaders of the other major political parties, the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, Commonwealth High Commissioners and representatives from the Royal Navy, Army and Royal Air Force, the Merchant Navy and Fishing Fleets and the civilian services, and veterans’ groups. Two minutes' silence is held at 11 a.m., before the laying of the wreaths. This silence is marked by the firing of a field gun on Horse Guards Parade to begin and end the silence, followed by Royal Marines buglers sounding Last Post.

The parade consists mainly of an extensive march past by veterans, with military bands playing music following the list of the Traditional Music of Remembrance.

Other members of the British Royal Family watch from the balcony of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

After the ceremony, a parade of veterans and other related groups, organised by the Royal British Legion, marches past the Cenotaph, each section of which lays a wreath as it passes. Only ticketed participants can take part in the march past.

From 1919 until the Second World War remembrance observance was always marked on 11 November itself. It was then moved to Remembrance Sunday, but since the 50th anniversary of the end of the Second World War in 1995, it has become usual to hold ceremonies on both Armistice Day and Remembrance Sunday.

Each year, the music at the National Ceremony of Remembrance remains the same, following a programme finalised in 1930:

Rule, Britannia! by Thomas Arne

Heart of Oak by William Boyce

The Minstrel Boy by Thomas Moore

Men of Harlech

The Skye Boat Song

Isle of Beauty by Thomas Haynes Bayly

David of the White Rock

Oft in the Stilly Night by John Stevenson

Flowers of the Forest

Nimrod from the Enigma Variations by Edward Elgar

Dido's lament by Henry Purcell

O Valiant Hearts by Charles Harris

Solemn Melody by Walford Davies

Last Post – a bugle call

Beethoven's Funeral March No. 1, by Johann Heinrich Walch

O God, Our Help in Ages Past – words by Isaac Watts, music by William Croft

Reveille – a bugle call

God Save The Queen

Other pieces of music are then played during the march past and wreath laying by veterans, starting with Trumpet Voluntary and followed by It's A Long Way To Tipperary, the marching song of the Connaught Rangers, a famous British Army Irish Regiment of long ago.

The following is complied from press reports on 8 November 2015:

"The nation paid silent respect to the country's war dead today in a Remembrance Sunday service. Leading the nation in remembrance, as ever, was the Queen, who first laid a wreath at the Cenotaph in 1945 and has done so every year since, except on the four occasions when she was overseas.

Dressed in her customary all-black ensemble with a clutch of scarlet poppies pinned against her left shoulder, she stepped forward following the end of the two-minute silence marked by the sounding of Last Post by 10 Royal Marine buglers.

The Queen laid her wreath at the foot of the Sir Edwin Lutyens Portland stone monument to the Glorious Dead, then stood with her head momentarily bowed.

She was joined by King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands, who was invited to the Cenotaph for the first time to lay a wreath marking the 70th anniversary of the liberation of the Netherlands by British troops.

Watched by his wife Queen Maxima, who stood next to the Duchess of Cambridge in the Royal Box, the King laid a wreath marked with the simple message, 'In remembrance of the British men and women who gave their lives for our future.'

Wreaths were then laid by members of the Royal Family, all wearing military uniform: Prince Philip; then Prince Andrew, Prince Harry and Prince William at the same time ; then Prince Edward, Princess Anne and the Duke of Kent at the same time.

Three members of the Royal Family laying wreaths at the same time was an innovation in 2015 designed to slightly reduce the amount of time of the ceremony and thereby reduce the time that the Queen had to be standing.

Prince Charles attended a remembrance service in New Zealand.

The Prime Minister then laid a wreath. The Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Labour Party, Jeremy Corbyn, appeared at the Cenotaph for the first time. He wore both a suit and a red poppy for the occasion.

His bow as he laid a wreath marked with the words 'let us resolve to create a world of peace' was imperceptible – and not enough for some critics. Yet unlike the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Battle service earlier this year, Mr Corbyn did join in with the singing of the national anthem.

Following the end of the official service at the Cenotaph, a mammoth column more than 10,000-strong (some 9,000 of whom were veterans) began marching along Whitehall, saluting the Cenotaph as they passed, Parliament Street, Great George Street, Horse Guards Road and back to Horse Guard Parade. The Duke of Cambridge took the salute from the column on Horse Guards Parade.

Time takes its inevitable toll on even the most stoic among us, and this year only a dozen World War Two veterans marched with the Spirit of Normandy Trust, a year after the Normandy Veterans' Association disbanded.

Within their ranks was 95-year-old former Sapper Don Sheppard of the Royal Engineers. Sheppard was of the eldest on parade and was pushed in his wheelchair by his 19-year-old grandson, Sam who, in between studying at Queen Mary University, volunteers with the Normandy veterans.

'It is because of my admiration for them,' he says. 'I see them as role models and just have the utmost respect for what they did.'

While some had blankets covering their legs against the grey November day, other veterans of more recent wars had only stumps to show for their service to this country during 13 long years of war in Afghanistan.

As well as that terrible toll of personal sacrifice, the collective losses – and triumphs - of some of the country’s most historic regiments were also honoured yesterday.

The Gurkha Brigade Association - marking 200 years of service in the British Army – marched to warm ripples of applause. The King’s Royal Hussars, represented yesterday by 126 veterans, this year also celebrate 300 years since the regiment was raised.

They were led by General Sir Richard Shirreff, former Deputy Supreme Allied Commander of Nato and Colonel of the regiment who himself was marching for the first time.

'We are joined by a golden thread to all those generations who have gone before us,” he said. “We are who we are, because of those that have gone before us.' "

Cenotaph Ceremony & March Past - 8 November 2015

Summary of Contingents

Column Number of marchers

B (Lead) 1,754

C 1,298

D 1,312

E 1,497

F 1,325

A 1,551

Ex-Service Total 8,737

M (Non ex-Service) 1,621

Total 10,358

Column B

Marker Detachment Number

1 Reconnaissance Corps 18 Anniversary

2 43rd Reconnaissance Regiment Old Comrades Assoc 10

3 3rd Regiment Royal Horse Artillery Association 60

4 Royal Artillery Association 18

5 Royal Engineers Association 37

6 Royal Engineers Bomb Disposal Association 65 Anniversary

7 Airborne Engineers Association 24

8 Royal Signals Association 48

9 Army Air Corps Association 42

10 Royal Army Service Corps & Royal Corps Transport Assoc 54

11 RAOC Association 18

12 Army Catering Corps Association 48

13 Royal Pioneer Corps Association 54 Anniversary

14 Royal Army Medical Corps Association 36

15 Royal Electrical & Mechanical Engineers Association 48

16 Royal Military Police Association 100

17 The RAEC and ETS Branch Association 12

18 Royal Army Pay Corps Regimental Association 36

19 Royal Army Veterinary Corps & Royal Army Dental Corps 18

20 Royal Army Physical Training Corps 24

21 Queen Alexandra's Royal Army Nursing Corps Assoc 48

22 Royal Scots Dragoon Guards 30

23 Royal Dragoon Guards 78

24 Queen's Royal Hussars (The Queen's Own & Royal Irish) 12

25 Kings Royal Hussars Regimental Association 126

26 16/5th Queen's Royal Lancers 36

27 17/21 Lancers 30

28 The Royal Lancers 24 New for 2015

29 JLR RAC Old Boys' Association 30

30 Association of Ammunition Technicians 24

31 Beachley Old Boys Association 36

32 Arborfield Old Boys Association 25

33 Gallipoli & Dardenelles International 24

34 Special Observers Association 24

35 The Parachute Squadron Royal Armoured Corps 24 New

36 Intelligence Corps Association 48

37 Women's Royal Army Corps Association 120

38 656 Squadron Association 24

39 Home Guard Association 9

40 British Resistance Movement (Coleshill Research Team) 12

41 British Limbless Ex-Service Men's Association 48

42 British Ex-Services Wheelchair Sports Association 24

43 Royal Hospital Chelsea 30

44 Queen Alexandra's Hospital Home for Disabled Ex-Servicemen & Women 30

45 The Royal Star & Garter Homes 20

46 Combat Stress 48

Total 1,754

Column C

Marker Detachment Number

1 Royal Air Force Association 150

2 Royal Air Force Regiment Association 300

3 Royal Air Forces Ex-Prisoner's of War Association 20

4 Royal Observer Corps Association 75 Anniversary

5 National Service (Royal Air Force) Association 42

6 RAFLING Association 24

7 6 Squadron (Royal Air Force) Association 18

8 7 Squadron Association 25

9 8 Squadron Association 24

10 RAF Habbaniya Association 25

11 Royal Air Force & Defence Fire Services Association 30

12 Royal Air Force Mountain Rescue Association 30

13 Units of the Far East Air Force 28 New

14 Royal Air Force Yatesbury Association 16

15 Royal Air Force Airfield Construction Branch Association 12

16 RAFSE(s) Assoc 45 New

17 Royal Air Force Movements and Mobile Air Movements Squadron Association (RAF MAMS) 24

18 Royal Air Force Masirah & Salalah Veterans Assoc 24 New

19 WAAF/WRAF/RAF(W) 25

19 Blenheim Society 18

20 Coastal Command & Maritime Air Association 24

21 Air Sea Rescue & Marine Craft Sections Club 15

22 Federation of RAF Apprentice & Boy Entrant Assocs 150

23 Royal Air Force Air Loadmasters Association 24

24 Royal Air Force Police Association 90

25 Princess Mary's Royal Air Force Nursing Service Association 40

Total 1,298

Column D

Marker Detachment Number

1 Not Forgotten Association 54

2 Stoll 18

3 Ulster Defence Regiment 72

4 Army Dog Unit Northern Ireland Association 48

5 North Irish Horse & Irish Regiments Old Comrades Association 78

6 Northern Ireland Veterans' Association 40

7 Irish United Nations Veterans Association 12

8 ONET UK 10

9 St Helena Government UK 24

10 South Atlantic Medal Association 196

11 SSAFA 37

12 First Aid Nursing Yeomanry (Princess Royal's Volunteers Corps) 12

13 Association of Jewish Ex-Servicemen & Women 48

14 British Nuclear Test Veterans Association 48

15 War Widows Association 132

16 Gurkha Brigade Association 160 Anniversary

17 British Gurkha Welfare Society 100 Anniversary

18 West Indian Association of Service Personnel 18

19 Trucial Oman Scouts Association 18

20 Bond Van Wapenbroeders 35

21 Polish Ex-Combatants Association in Great Britain 25

22 Stowarzyszenie Polskich Kombatantów Limited 18 New

23 Royal Hong Kong Regiment Association 12

24 Canadian Veterans Association 10

25 Hong Kong Ex-Servicemen's Association (UK Branch) 24

26 Hong Kong Military Service Corps 28

27 Foreign Legion Association 24

28 Undivided Indian Army Ex Servicemen Association 11 New

Total 1,312

Column E

Marker Detachment Number

1 Royal Marines Association 198

2 Royal Naval Association 150

3 Merchant Navy Association 130

4 Sea Harrier Association 24

5 Flower Class Corvette Association 18

6 HMS Andromeda Association 18

7 HMS Argonaut Association 30

8 HMS Bulwark, Albion & Centaur Association 25

9 HMS Cumberland Association 18

10 HMS Ganges Association 48

11 HMS Glasgow Association 30

12 HMS St Vincent Association 26

13 HMS Tiger Association 25

14 Algerines Association 20

15 Ton Class Association 24

16 Type 42 Association 48

17 Queen Alexandra's Royal Naval Nursing Service 36

18 Association of WRENS 90

19 Royal Fleet Auxiliary Association 10

20 Royal Naval Communications Association 30

21 Royal Naval Medical Branch Ratings & Sick Berth Staff Association 24

22 Royal Naval Benevolent Trust 18

23 Yangtze Incident Association 24

24 Special Boat Service Association 6

25 Submariners Association 30

26 Association of Royal Yachtsmen 30

27 Broadsword Association 36

28 Aircraft Handlers Association 36

29 Aircrewmans Association 40 Anniversary

30 Cloud Observers Association 10

31 The Fisgard Association 40

32 Fleet Air Arm Armourers Association 36

33 Fleet Air Arm Association 25

34 Fleet Air Arm Bucaneer Association 24

35 Fleet Air Arm Field Gun Association 24

36 Fleet Air Arm Junglie Association 18

37 Fleet Air Arm Officers Association 30

38 Fleet Air Arm Safety Equipment & Survival Association 24

39 Royal Navy School of Physical Training 24

Total 1,497

Column F

Marker Detachment Number

1 Blind Veterans UK 198

2 Far East Prisoners of War 18

3 Burma Star Association 40

4 Monte Cassino Society20

5 Queen's Bodyguard of The Yeoman of The Guard 18

6 Pen and Sword Club 15

7 TRBL Ex-Service Members 301

8 The Royal British Legion Poppy Factory 4

9 The Royal British Legion Scotland 24

10 Officers Association 5

11 Black and White Club 18

12 National Pigeon War Service 30

13 National Service Veterans Alliance 50

14 Gallantry Medallists League 46

15 National Malaya & Borneo Veterans Association 98

16 National Gulf Veterans & Families Association 30

17 Fellowship of the Services 100

18 Memorable Order of Tin Hats 24

19 Suez Veterans Association 50

20 Aden Veterans Association 72

21 1st Army Association 36

22 Showmens' Guild of Great Britain 40

23 Special Forces Club 12

24 The Spirit of Normandy Trust 28

25 Italy Star Association, 1943-1945, 48

Total 1,325

Column A

Marker Detachment Number

1 1LI Association 36

2 Royal Green Jackets Association 198

3 Parachute Regimental Association 174

4 King's Own Scottish Borderers 60

5 Black Watch Association 45

6 Gordon Highlanders Association 60

7 Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders Regimental Association 12

8 Queen's Own Highlanders Regimental Association 48

9 London Scottish Regimental Association 30

10 Grenadier Guards Association 48

11 Coldstream Guards Association 48

12 Scots Guards Association 48

13 Guards Parachute Association 36

14 4 Company Association (Parachute Regiment) 24

15 Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment 72

16 Royal East Kent Regiment (The Buffs) Past & Present Association 30

17 Prince of Wales' Leinster Regiment (Royal Canadians) Regimental Association 24

18 Royal Hampshire Regiment Comrades Association 14

19 The Royal Hampshire Regimental Club 24 New for 2015

20 Royal Northumberland Fusiliers 48 New

21 Royal Sussex Regimental Association 12

22 Green Howards Association 24

23 Cheshire Regiment Association 24

24 Sherwood Foresters & Worcestershire Regiment 36

25 Mercian Regiment Association 30

26 Special Air Service Regimental Association 4

27 The King's Own Royal Border Regiment 100

28 The Staffordshire Regiment 48

29 Rifles Regimental Association 40

30 The Rifles & Royal Gloucestershire, Berkshire & Wiltshire Regimental Association 30

31 Durham Light Infantry Association 60

32 King's Royal Rifle Corps Association 50

33 King's African Rifles 14 New for 2015

Total 1,551

Column M

Marker Detachment Number

1 Transport For London 48

2 Children of the Far East Prisoners of War 60

3 First Aid Nursing Yeomanry (Princess Royal's Volunteers Corps) 24

4 Munitions Workers Association18

5 Evacuees Reunion Association48

6 TOC H 20

7 Salvation Army 36

8 Naval Canteen Service & Expeditionary Force Institutes Association 12 Previously NAAFI

9 Royal Voluntary Service 24

10 Civil Defence Association 8

11 National Association of Retired Police Officers 36

12 Metropolitan Special Constabulary 36

13 London Ambulance Service NHS Trust 36

14 London Ambulance Service Retirement Association 18

15 St John Ambulance 36

16 British Red Cross 12

17 St Andrew's Ambulance Association 6

18 The Firefighters Memorial Trust 24

19 Royal Ulster Constabulary (GC) Association 36

20 Ulster Special Constabulary Association 30

21 Commonwealth War Graves Commission 12

22 Daniel's Trust 36

23 Civilians Representing Families 180

24 Royal Mail Group Ltd 24

25 Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals 24

26 The Blue Cross 24

27 PDSA 24

28 HM Ships Glorious Ardent & ACASTA Association 24 Anniversary

29 Old Cryptians' Club 12

30 Fighting G Club 18 Anniversary

31 Malayan Volunteers Group 12

32 Gallipoli Association 18

33 Ministry of Defence 20

34 TRBL Non Ex-Service Members 117

35 TRBL Women's Section 20

36 Union Jack Club 12

37 Western Front Association 8

38 Shot at Dawn Pardons Campaign 18

39 Royal Antediluvian Order of Buffaloes 24

40 National Association of Round Tables 24

41 Lions Club International 24

42 Rotary International 24

43 41 Club 6

44 Equity 12

45 Romany & Traveller Society 18

46 Sea Cadet Corps 30

47 Combined Cadet Force 30

48 Army Cadet Force 30

49 Air Training Corps 30

50 Scout Association 30

51 Girlguiding London & South East England 30

52 Boys Brigade 30

53 Girls Brigade England & Wales 30

54 Church Lads & Church Girls Brigade 30

55 Metropolitan Police Volunteer Police Cadets 18

56 St John Ambulance Cadets 18

57 YMCA 12

Total 1,621

The glacial contribution to river flow varies greatly, both annually and within and between catchments. The hydrological significance of glacier runoff also depends on other components of the hydrological cycle, such as precipitation, evapo-transpiration, and groundwater flow. In consequence, the impacts of glacier mass loss will be highly variable both locally and worldwide. Some regions will undoubtedly be affected by water shortage, whereas others are unlikely to be significantly affected by glacial melt. Much detailed work remains to be done to adequately predict regional and local hydrological responses to climate change. Flood risks are expected to increase in some regions, including increased frequencies of glacier lake outburst flood (GLOFs) and weather-related flash floods in both the Hindu Kush Himalayas and in the Andes.

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This photo has been graciously provided to be used in the GRID-Arendal resources library by: Lawrence Hislop

Remembrance Sunday, 8 November 2015

In the United Kingdom, Remembrance Sunday is held on the second Sunday in November, which is the Sunday nearest to 11 November, Armistice Day, the anniversary of the end of hostilities in the First World War at 11 a.m. on 11 November 1918. Remembrance Sunday is held to commemorate the contribution of British and Commonwealth military and civilian servicemen and women in the two World Wars and later conflicts.

Remembrance Sunday is marked by ceremonies at local war memorials in most cities, towns and villages, attended by civic dignitaries, ex-servicemen and -women, members of local armed forces regular and reserve units, military cadet forces and uniformed youth organisations. Two minutes’ silence is observed at 11 a.m. and wreaths of remembrance poppies are then laid on the memorials.

The United Kingdom national ceremony is held in London at the Cenotaph in Whitehall. Wreaths are laid by Queen Elizabeth II, principal members of the Royal Family normally including the Duke of Edinburgh, the Prince of Wales, the Duke of Cambridge, the Duke of York, the Princess Royal, the Earl of Wessex and the Duke of Kent, the Prime Minister, leaders of the other major political parties, the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, Commonwealth High Commissioners and representatives from the Royal Navy, Army and Royal Air Force, the Merchant Navy and Fishing Fleets and the civilian services, and veterans’ groups. Two minutes' silence is held at 11 a.m., before the laying of the wreaths. This silence is marked by the firing of a field gun on Horse Guards Parade to begin and end the silence, followed by Royal Marines buglers sounding Last Post.

The parade consists mainly of an extensive march past by veterans, with military bands playing music following the list of the Traditional Music of Remembrance.

Other members of the British Royal Family watch from the balcony of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

After the ceremony, a parade of veterans and other related groups, organised by the Royal British Legion, marches past the Cenotaph, each section of which lays a wreath as it passes. Only ticketed participants can take part in the march past.

From 1919 until the Second World War remembrance observance was always marked on 11 November itself. It was then moved to Remembrance Sunday, but since the 50th anniversary of the end of the Second World War in 1995, it has become usual to hold ceremonies on both Armistice Day and Remembrance Sunday.

Each year, the music at the National Ceremony of Remembrance remains the same, following a programme finalised in 1930:

Rule, Britannia! by Thomas Arne

Heart of Oak by William Boyce

The Minstrel Boy by Thomas Moore

Men of Harlech

The Skye Boat Song

Isle of Beauty by Thomas Haynes Bayly

David of the White Rock

Oft in the Stilly Night by John Stevenson

Flowers of the Forest

Nimrod from the Enigma Variations by Edward Elgar

Dido's lament by Henry Purcell

O Valiant Hearts by Charles Harris

Solemn Melody by Walford Davies

Last Post – a bugle call

Beethoven's Funeral March No. 1, by Johann Heinrich Walch

O God, Our Help in Ages Past – words by Isaac Watts, music by William Croft

Reveille – a bugle call

God Save The Queen

Other pieces of music are then played during the march past and wreath laying by veterans, starting with Trumpet Voluntary and followed by It's A Long Way To Tipperary, the marching song of the Connaught Rangers, a famous British Army Irish Regiment of long ago.

The following is complied from press reports on 8 November 2015:

"The nation paid silent respect to the country's war dead today in a Remembrance Sunday service. Leading the nation in remembrance, as ever, was the Queen, who first laid a wreath at the Cenotaph in 1945 and has done so every year since, except on the four occasions when she was overseas.

Dressed in her customary all-black ensemble with a clutch of scarlet poppies pinned against her left shoulder, she stepped forward following the end of the two-minute silence marked by the sounding of Last Post by 10 Royal Marine buglers.

The Queen laid her wreath at the foot of the Sir Edwin Lutyens Portland stone monument to the Glorious Dead, then stood with her head momentarily bowed.

She was joined by King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands, who was invited to the Cenotaph for the first time to lay a wreath marking the 70th anniversary of the liberation of the Netherlands by British troops.

Watched by his wife Queen Maxima, who stood next to the Duchess of Cambridge in the Royal Box, the King laid a wreath marked with the simple message, 'In remembrance of the British men and women who gave their lives for our future.'

Wreaths were then laid by members of the Royal Family, all wearing military uniform: Prince Philip; then Prince Andrew, Prince Harry and Prince William at the same time ; then Prince Edward, Princess Anne and the Duke of Kent at the same time.

Three members of the Royal Family laying wreaths at the same time was an innovation in 2015 designed to slightly reduce the amount of time of the ceremony and thereby reduce the time that the Queen had to be standing.

Prince Charles attended a remembrance service in New Zealand.

The Prime Minister then laid a wreath. The Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Labour Party, Jeremy Corbyn, appeared at the Cenotaph for the first time. He wore both a suit and a red poppy for the occasion.

His bow as he laid a wreath marked with the words 'let us resolve to create a world of peace' was imperceptible – and not enough for some critics. Yet unlike the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Battle service earlier this year, Mr Corbyn did join in with the singing of the national anthem.

Following the end of the official service at the Cenotaph, a mammoth column more than 10,000-strong (some 9,000 of whom were veterans) began marching along Whitehall, saluting the Cenotaph as they passed, Parliament Street, Great George Street, Horse Guards Road and back to Horse Guard Parade. The Duke of Cambridge took the salute from the column on Horse Guards Parade.

Time takes its inevitable toll on even the most stoic among us, and this year only a dozen World War Two veterans marched with the Spirit of Normandy Trust, a year after the Normandy Veterans' Association disbanded.

Within their ranks was 95-year-old former Sapper Don Sheppard of the Royal Engineers. Sheppard was of the eldest on parade and was pushed in his wheelchair by his 19-year-old grandson, Sam who, in between studying at Queen Mary University, volunteers with the Normandy veterans.

'It is because of my admiration for them,' he says. 'I see them as role models and just have the utmost respect for what they did.'

While some had blankets covering their legs against the grey November day, other veterans of more recent wars had only stumps to show for their service to this country during 13 long years of war in Afghanistan.

As well as that terrible toll of personal sacrifice, the collective losses – and triumphs - of some of the country’s most historic regiments were also honoured yesterday.

The Gurkha Brigade Association - marking 200 years of service in the British Army – marched to warm ripples of applause. The King’s Royal Hussars, represented yesterday by 126 veterans, this year also celebrate 300 years since the regiment was raised.

They were led by General Sir Richard Shirreff, former Deputy Supreme Allied Commander of Nato and Colonel of the regiment who himself was marching for the first time.

'We are joined by a golden thread to all those generations who have gone before us,” he said. “We are who we are, because of those that have gone before us.' "

Cenotaph Ceremony & March Past - 8 November 2015

Summary of Contingents

Column Number of marchers

B (Lead) 1,754

C 1,298

D 1,312

E 1,497

F 1,325

A 1,551

Ex-Service Total 8,737

M (Non ex-Service) 1,621

Total 10,358

Column B

Marker Detachment Number

1 Reconnaissance Corps 18 Anniversary

2 43rd Reconnaissance Regiment Old Comrades Assoc 10

3 3rd Regiment Royal Horse Artillery Association 60

4 Royal Artillery Association 18

5 Royal Engineers Association 37

6 Royal Engineers Bomb Disposal Association 65 Anniversary

7 Airborne Engineers Association 24

8 Royal Signals Association 48

9 Army Air Corps Association 42

10 Royal Army Service Corps & Royal Corps Transport Assoc 54

11 RAOC Association 18

12 Army Catering Corps Association 48

13 Royal Pioneer Corps Association 54 Anniversary

14 Royal Army Medical Corps Association 36

15 Royal Electrical & Mechanical Engineers Association 48

16 Royal Military Police Association 100

17 The RAEC and ETS Branch Association 12

18 Royal Army Pay Corps Regimental Association 36

19 Royal Army Veterinary Corps & Royal Army Dental Corps 18

20 Royal Army Physical Training Corps 24

21 Queen Alexandra's Royal Army Nursing Corps Assoc 48

22 Royal Scots Dragoon Guards 30

23 Royal Dragoon Guards 78

24 Queen's Royal Hussars (The Queen's Own & Royal Irish) 12

25 Kings Royal Hussars Regimental Association 126

26 16/5th Queen's Royal Lancers 36

27 17/21 Lancers 30

28 The Royal Lancers 24 New for 2015

29 JLR RAC Old Boys' Association 30

30 Association of Ammunition Technicians 24

31 Beachley Old Boys Association 36

32 Arborfield Old Boys Association 25

33 Gallipoli & Dardenelles International 24

34 Special Observers Association 24

35 The Parachute Squadron Royal Armoured Corps 24 New

36 Intelligence Corps Association 48

37 Women's Royal Army Corps Association 120

38 656 Squadron Association 24

39 Home Guard Association 9

40 British Resistance Movement (Coleshill Research Team) 12

41 British Limbless Ex-Service Men's Association 48

42 British Ex-Services Wheelchair Sports Association 24

43 Royal Hospital Chelsea 30

44 Queen Alexandra's Hospital Home for Disabled Ex-Servicemen & Women 30

45 The Royal Star & Garter Homes 20

46 Combat Stress 48

Total 1,754

Column C

Marker Detachment Number

1 Royal Air Force Association 150

2 Royal Air Force Regiment Association 300

3 Royal Air Forces Ex-Prisoner's of War Association 20

4 Royal Observer Corps Association 75 Anniversary

5 National Service (Royal Air Force) Association 42

6 RAFLING Association 24

7 6 Squadron (Royal Air Force) Association 18

8 7 Squadron Association 25

9 8 Squadron Association 24

10 RAF Habbaniya Association 25

11 Royal Air Force & Defence Fire Services Association 30

12 Royal Air Force Mountain Rescue Association 30

13 Units of the Far East Air Force 28 New

14 Royal Air Force Yatesbury Association 16

15 Royal Air Force Airfield Construction Branch Association 12

16 RAFSE(s) Assoc 45 New

17 Royal Air Force Movements and Mobile Air Movements Squadron Association (RAF MAMS) 24

18 Royal Air Force Masirah & Salalah Veterans Assoc 24 New

19 WAAF/WRAF/RAF(W) 25

19 Blenheim Society 18

20 Coastal Command & Maritime Air Association 24

21 Air Sea Rescue & Marine Craft Sections Club 15

22 Federation of RAF Apprentice & Boy Entrant Assocs 150

23 Royal Air Force Air Loadmasters Association 24

24 Royal Air Force Police Association 90

25 Princess Mary's Royal Air Force Nursing Service Association 40

Total 1,298

Column D

Marker Detachment Number

1 Not Forgotten Association 54

2 Stoll 18

3 Ulster Defence Regiment 72

4 Army Dog Unit Northern Ireland Association 48

5 North Irish Horse & Irish Regiments Old Comrades Association 78

6 Northern Ireland Veterans' Association 40

7 Irish United Nations Veterans Association 12

8 ONET UK 10

9 St Helena Government UK 24

10 South Atlantic Medal Association 196

11 SSAFA 37

12 First Aid Nursing Yeomanry (Princess Royal's Volunteers Corps) 12

13 Association of Jewish Ex-Servicemen & Women 48

14 British Nuclear Test Veterans Association 48

15 War Widows Association 132

16 Gurkha Brigade Association 160 Anniversary

17 British Gurkha Welfare Society 100 Anniversary

18 West Indian Association of Service Personnel 18

19 Trucial Oman Scouts Association 18

20 Bond Van Wapenbroeders 35

21 Polish Ex-Combatants Association in Great Britain 25

22 Stowarzyszenie Polskich Kombatantów Limited 18 New

23 Royal Hong Kong Regiment Association 12

24 Canadian Veterans Association 10

25 Hong Kong Ex-Servicemen's Association (UK Branch) 24

26 Hong Kong Military Service Corps 28

27 Foreign Legion Association 24

28 Undivided Indian Army Ex Servicemen Association 11 New

Total 1,312

Column E

Marker Detachment Number

1 Royal Marines Association 198

2 Royal Naval Association 150

3 Merchant Navy Association 130

4 Sea Harrier Association 24

5 Flower Class Corvette Association 18

6 HMS Andromeda Association 18

7 HMS Argonaut Association 30

8 HMS Bulwark, Albion & Centaur Association 25

9 HMS Cumberland Association 18

10 HMS Ganges Association 48

11 HMS Glasgow Association 30

12 HMS St Vincent Association 26

13 HMS Tiger Association 25

14 Algerines Association 20

15 Ton Class Association 24

16 Type 42 Association 48

17 Queen Alexandra's Royal Naval Nursing Service 36

18 Association of WRENS 90

19 Royal Fleet Auxiliary Association 10

20 Royal Naval Communications Association 30

21 Royal Naval Medical Branch Ratings & Sick Berth Staff Association 24

22 Royal Naval Benevolent Trust 18

23 Yangtze Incident Association 24

24 Special Boat Service Association 6

25 Submariners Association 30

26 Association of Royal Yachtsmen 30

27 Broadsword Association 36

28 Aircraft Handlers Association 36

29 Aircrewmans Association 40 Anniversary

30 Cloud Observers Association 10

31 The Fisgard Association 40

32 Fleet Air Arm Armourers Association 36

33 Fleet Air Arm Association 25

34 Fleet Air Arm Bucaneer Association 24

35 Fleet Air Arm Field Gun Association 24

36 Fleet Air Arm Junglie Association 18

37 Fleet Air Arm Officers Association 30

38 Fleet Air Arm Safety Equipment & Survival Association 24

39 Royal Navy School of Physical Training 24

Total 1,497

Column F

Marker Detachment Number

1 Blind Veterans UK 198

2 Far East Prisoners of War 18

3 Burma Star Association 40

4 Monte Cassino Society20

5 Queen's Bodyguard of The Yeoman of The Guard 18

6 Pen and Sword Club 15

7 TRBL Ex-Service Members 301

8 The Royal British Legion Poppy Factory 4

9 The Royal British Legion Scotland 24

10 Officers Association 5

11 Black and White Club 18

12 National Pigeon War Service 30

13 National Service Veterans Alliance 50

14 Gallantry Medallists League 46

15 National Malaya & Borneo Veterans Association 98

16 National Gulf Veterans & Families Association 30

17 Fellowship of the Services 100

18 Memorable Order of Tin Hats 24

19 Suez Veterans Association 50

20 Aden Veterans Association 72

21 1st Army Association 36

22 Showmens' Guild of Great Britain 40

23 Special Forces Club 12

24 The Spirit of Normandy Trust 28

25 Italy Star Association, 1943-1945, 48

Total 1,325

Column A

Marker Detachment Number

1 1LI Association 36

2 Royal Green Jackets Association 198

3 Parachute Regimental Association 174

4 King's Own Scottish Borderers 60

5 Black Watch Association 45

6 Gordon Highlanders Association 60

7 Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders Regimental Association 12

8 Queen's Own Highlanders Regimental Association 48

9 London Scottish Regimental Association 30

10 Grenadier Guards Association 48

11 Coldstream Guards Association 48

12 Scots Guards Association 48

13 Guards Parachute Association 36

14 4 Company Association (Parachute Regiment) 24

15 Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment 72

16 Royal East Kent Regiment (The Buffs) Past & Present Association 30

17 Prince of Wales' Leinster Regiment (Royal Canadians) Regimental Association 24

18 Royal Hampshire Regiment Comrades Association 14

19 The Royal Hampshire Regimental Club 24 New for 2015

20 Royal Northumberland Fusiliers 48 New

21 Royal Sussex Regimental Association 12

22 Green Howards Association 24

23 Cheshire Regiment Association 24

24 Sherwood Foresters & Worcestershire Regiment 36

25 Mercian Regiment Association 30

26 Special Air Service Regimental Association 4

27 The King's Own Royal Border Regiment 100

28 The Staffordshire Regiment 48

29 Rifles Regimental Association 40

30 The Rifles & Royal Gloucestershire, Berkshire & Wiltshire Regimental Association 30

31 Durham Light Infantry Association 60

32 King's Royal Rifle Corps Association 50

33 King's African Rifles 14 New for 2015

Total 1,551

Column M

Marker Detachment Number

1 Transport For London 48

2 Children of the Far East Prisoners of War 60

3 First Aid Nursing Yeomanry (Princess Royal's Volunteers Corps) 24

4 Munitions Workers Association18

5 Evacuees Reunion Association48

6 TOC H 20

7 Salvation Army 36

8 Naval Canteen Service & Expeditionary Force Institutes Association 12 Previously NAAFI

9 Royal Voluntary Service 24

10 Civil Defence Association 8

11 National Association of Retired Police Officers 36

12 Metropolitan Special Constabulary 36

13 London Ambulance Service NHS Trust 36

14 London Ambulance Service Retirement Association 18

15 St John Ambulance 36

16 British Red Cross 12

17 St Andrew's Ambulance Association 6

18 The Firefighters Memorial Trust 24

19 Royal Ulster Constabulary (GC) Association 36

20 Ulster Special Constabulary Association 30

21 Commonwealth War Graves Commission 12

22 Daniel's Trust 36

23 Civilians Representing Families 180

24 Royal Mail Group Ltd 24

25 Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals 24

26 The Blue Cross 24

27 PDSA 24

28 HM Ships Glorious Ardent & ACASTA Association 24 Anniversary

29 Old Cryptians' Club 12

30 Fighting G Club 18 Anniversary

31 Malayan Volunteers Group 12

32 Gallipoli Association 18

33 Ministry of Defence 20

34 TRBL Non Ex-Service Members 117

35 TRBL Women's Section 20

36 Union Jack Club 12

37 Western Front Association 8

38 Shot at Dawn Pardons Campaign 18

39 Royal Antediluvian Order of Buffaloes 24

40 National Association of Round Tables 24

41 Lions Club International 24

42 Rotary International 24

43 41 Club 6

44 Equity 12

45 Romany & Traveller Society 18

46 Sea Cadet Corps 30

47 Combined Cadet Force 30

48 Army Cadet Force 30

49 Air Training Corps 30

50 Scout Association 30

51 Girlguiding London & South East England 30

52 Boys Brigade 30

53 Girls Brigade England & Wales 30

54 Church Lads & Church Girls Brigade 30

55 Metropolitan Police Volunteer Police Cadets 18

56 St John Ambulance Cadets 18

57 YMCA 12

Total 1,621

Remembrance Sunday, 8 November 2015

In the United Kingdom, Remembrance Sunday is held on the second Sunday in November, which is the Sunday nearest to 11 November, Armistice Day, the anniversary of the end of hostilities in the First World War at 11 a.m. on 11 November 1918. Remembrance Sunday is held to commemorate the contribution of British and Commonwealth military and civilian servicemen and women in the two World Wars and later conflicts.

Remembrance Sunday is marked by ceremonies at local war memorials in most cities, towns and villages, attended by civic dignitaries, ex-servicemen and -women, members of local armed forces regular and reserve units, military cadet forces and uniformed youth organisations. Two minutes’ silence is observed at 11 a.m. and wreaths of remembrance poppies are then laid on the memorials.

The United Kingdom national ceremony is held in London at the Cenotaph in Whitehall. Wreaths are laid by Queen Elizabeth II, principal members of the Royal Family normally including the Duke of Edinburgh, the Prince of Wales, the Duke of Cambridge, the Duke of York, the Princess Royal, the Earl of Wessex and the Duke of Kent, the Prime Minister, leaders of the other major political parties, the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, Commonwealth High Commissioners and representatives from the Royal Navy, Army and Royal Air Force, the Merchant Navy and Fishing Fleets and the civilian services, and veterans’ groups. Two minutes' silence is held at 11 a.m., before the laying of the wreaths. This silence is marked by the firing of a field gun on Horse Guards Parade to begin and end the silence, followed by Royal Marines buglers sounding Last Post.

The parade consists mainly of an extensive march past by veterans, with military bands playing music following the list of the Traditional Music of Remembrance.

Other members of the British Royal Family watch from the balcony of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

After the ceremony, a parade of veterans and other related groups, organised by the Royal British Legion, marches past the Cenotaph, each section of which lays a wreath as it passes. Only ticketed participants can take part in the march past.

From 1919 until the Second World War remembrance observance was always marked on 11 November itself. It was then moved to Remembrance Sunday, but since the 50th anniversary of the end of the Second World War in 1995, it has become usual to hold ceremonies on both Armistice Day and Remembrance Sunday.

Each year, the music at the National Ceremony of Remembrance remains the same, following a programme finalised in 1930:

Rule, Britannia! by Thomas Arne

Heart of Oak by William Boyce

The Minstrel Boy by Thomas Moore

Men of Harlech

The Skye Boat Song

Isle of Beauty by Thomas Haynes Bayly

David of the White Rock

Oft in the Stilly Night by John Stevenson

Flowers of the Forest

Nimrod from the Enigma Variations by Edward Elgar

Dido's lament by Henry Purcell

O Valiant Hearts by Charles Harris

Solemn Melody by Walford Davies

Last Post – a bugle call

Beethoven's Funeral March No. 1, by Johann Heinrich Walch

O God, Our Help in Ages Past – words by Isaac Watts, music by William Croft

Reveille – a bugle call

God Save The Queen

Other pieces of music are then played during the march past and wreath laying by veterans, starting with Trumpet Voluntary and followed by It's A Long Way To Tipperary, the marching song of the Connaught Rangers, a famous British Army Irish Regiment of long ago.

The following is complied from press reports on 8 November 2015:

"The nation paid silent respect to the country's war dead today in a Remembrance Sunday service. Leading the nation in remembrance, as ever, was the Queen, who first laid a wreath at the Cenotaph in 1945 and has done so every year since, except on the four occasions when she was overseas.

Dressed in her customary all-black ensemble with a clutch of scarlet poppies pinned against her left shoulder, she stepped forward following the end of the two-minute silence marked by the sounding of Last Post by 10 Royal Marine buglers.

The Queen laid her wreath at the foot of the Sir Edwin Lutyens Portland stone monument to the Glorious Dead, then stood with her head momentarily bowed.

She was joined by King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands, who was invited to the Cenotaph for the first time to lay a wreath marking the 70th anniversary of the liberation of the Netherlands by British troops.

Watched by his wife Queen Maxima, who stood next to the Duchess of Cambridge in the Royal Box, the King laid a wreath marked with the simple message, 'In remembrance of the British men and women who gave their lives for our future.'

Wreaths were then laid by members of the Royal Family, all wearing military uniform: Prince Philip; then Prince Andrew, Prince Harry and Prince William at the same time ; then Prince Edward, Princess Anne and the Duke of Kent at the same time.

Three members of the Royal Family laying wreaths at the same time was an innovation in 2015 designed to slightly reduce the amount of time of the ceremony and thereby reduce the time that the Queen had to be standing.

Prince Charles attended a remembrance service in New Zealand.

The Prime Minister then laid a wreath. The Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Labour Party, Jeremy Corbyn, appeared at the Cenotaph for the first time. He wore both a suit and a red poppy for the occasion.

His bow as he laid a wreath marked with the words 'let us resolve to create a world of peace' was imperceptible – and not enough for some critics. Yet unlike the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Battle service earlier this year, Mr Corbyn did join in with the singing of the national anthem.

Following the end of the official service at the Cenotaph, a mammoth column more than 10,000-strong (some 9,000 of whom were veterans) began marching along Whitehall, saluting the Cenotaph as they passed, Parliament Street, Great George Street, Horse Guards Road and back to Horse Guard Parade. The Duke of Cambridge took the salute from the column on Horse Guards Parade.

Time takes its inevitable toll on even the most stoic among us, and this year only a dozen World War Two veterans marched with the Spirit of Normandy Trust, a year after the Normandy Veterans' Association disbanded.

Within their ranks was 95-year-old former Sapper Don Sheppard of the Royal Engineers. Sheppard was of the eldest on parade and was pushed in his wheelchair by his 19-year-old grandson, Sam who, in between studying at Queen Mary University, volunteers with the Normandy veterans.

'It is because of my admiration for them,' he says. 'I see them as role models and just have the utmost respect for what they did.'

While some had blankets covering their legs against the grey November day, other veterans of more recent wars had only stumps to show for their service to this country during 13 long years of war in Afghanistan.

As well as that terrible toll of personal sacrifice, the collective losses – and triumphs - of some of the country’s most historic regiments were also honoured yesterday.

The Gurkha Brigade Association - marking 200 years of service in the British Army – marched to warm ripples of applause. The King’s Royal Hussars, represented yesterday by 126 veterans, this year also celebrate 300 years since the regiment was raised.

They were led by General Sir Richard Shirreff, former Deputy Supreme Allied Commander of Nato and Colonel of the regiment who himself was marching for the first time.

'We are joined by a golden thread to all those generations who have gone before us,” he said. “We are who we are, because of those that have gone before us.' "

Cenotaph Ceremony & March Past - 8 November 2015

Summary of Contingents

Column Number of marchers

B (Lead) 1,754

C 1,298

D 1,312

E 1,497

F 1,325

A 1,551

Ex-Service Total 8,737

M (Non ex-Service) 1,621

Total 10,358

Column B

Marker Detachment Number

1 Reconnaissance Corps 18 Anniversary

2 43rd Reconnaissance Regiment Old Comrades Assoc 10

3 3rd Regiment Royal Horse Artillery Association 60

4 Royal Artillery Association 18

5 Royal Engineers Association 37

6 Royal Engineers Bomb Disposal Association 65 Anniversary

7 Airborne Engineers Association 24

8 Royal Signals Association 48

9 Army Air Corps Association 42

10 Royal Army Service Corps & Royal Corps Transport Assoc 54

11 RAOC Association 18

12 Army Catering Corps Association 48

13 Royal Pioneer Corps Association 54 Anniversary

14 Royal Army Medical Corps Association 36

15 Royal Electrical & Mechanical Engineers Association 48

16 Royal Military Police Association 100

17 The RAEC and ETS Branch Association 12

18 Royal Army Pay Corps Regimental Association 36

19 Royal Army Veterinary Corps & Royal Army Dental Corps 18

20 Royal Army Physical Training Corps 24

21 Queen Alexandra's Royal Army Nursing Corps Assoc 48

22 Royal Scots Dragoon Guards 30

23 Royal Dragoon Guards 78

24 Queen's Royal Hussars (The Queen's Own & Royal Irish) 12

25 Kings Royal Hussars Regimental Association 126

26 16/5th Queen's Royal Lancers 36

27 17/21 Lancers 30

28 The Royal Lancers 24 New for 2015

29 JLR RAC Old Boys' Association 30

30 Association of Ammunition Technicians 24

31 Beachley Old Boys Association 36

32 Arborfield Old Boys Association 25

33 Gallipoli & Dardenelles International 24

34 Special Observers Association 24

35 The Parachute Squadron Royal Armoured Corps 24 New

36 Intelligence Corps Association 48

37 Women's Royal Army Corps Association 120

38 656 Squadron Association 24

39 Home Guard Association 9

40 British Resistance Movement (Coleshill Research Team) 12

41 British Limbless Ex-Service Men's Association 48

42 British Ex-Services Wheelchair Sports Association 24

43 Royal Hospital Chelsea 30

44 Queen Alexandra's Hospital Home for Disabled Ex-Servicemen & Women 30

45 The Royal Star & Garter Homes 20

46 Combat Stress 48

Total 1,754

Column C

Marker Detachment Number

1 Royal Air Force Association 150

2 Royal Air Force Regiment Association 300

3 Royal Air Forces Ex-Prisoner's of War Association 20

4 Royal Observer Corps Association 75 Anniversary

5 National Service (Royal Air Force) Association 42

6 RAFLING Association 24

7 6 Squadron (Royal Air Force) Association 18

8 7 Squadron Association 25

9 8 Squadron Association 24

10 RAF Habbaniya Association 25

11 Royal Air Force & Defence Fire Services Association 30

12 Royal Air Force Mountain Rescue Association 30

13 Units of the Far East Air Force 28 New

14 Royal Air Force Yatesbury Association 16

15 Royal Air Force Airfield Construction Branch Association 12

16 RAFSE(s) Assoc 45 New

17 Royal Air Force Movements and Mobile Air Movements Squadron Association (RAF MAMS) 24

18 Royal Air Force Masirah & Salalah Veterans Assoc 24 New

19 WAAF/WRAF/RAF(W) 25

19 Blenheim Society 18

20 Coastal Command & Maritime Air Association 24

21 Air Sea Rescue & Marine Craft Sections Club 15

22 Federation of RAF Apprentice & Boy Entrant Assocs 150

23 Royal Air Force Air Loadmasters Association 24

24 Royal Air Force Police Association 90

25 Princess Mary's Royal Air Force Nursing Service Association 40

Total 1,298

Column D

Marker Detachment Number

1 Not Forgotten Association 54

2 Stoll 18

3 Ulster Defence Regiment 72

4 Army Dog Unit Northern Ireland Association 48

5 North Irish Horse & Irish Regiments Old Comrades Association 78

6 Northern Ireland Veterans' Association 40

7 Irish United Nations Veterans Association 12

8 ONET UK 10

9 St Helena Government UK 24

10 South Atlantic Medal Association 196

11 SSAFA 37

12 First Aid Nursing Yeomanry (Princess Royal's Volunteers Corps) 12

13 Association of Jewish Ex-Servicemen & Women 48

14 British Nuclear Test Veterans Association 48

15 War Widows Association 132

16 Gurkha Brigade Association 160 Anniversary

17 British Gurkha Welfare Society 100 Anniversary

18 West Indian Association of Service Personnel 18

19 Trucial Oman Scouts Association 18

20 Bond Van Wapenbroeders 35

21 Polish Ex-Combatants Association in Great Britain 25

22 Stowarzyszenie Polskich Kombatantów Limited 18 New

23 Royal Hong Kong Regiment Association 12

24 Canadian Veterans Association 10

25 Hong Kong Ex-Servicemen's Association (UK Branch) 24

26 Hong Kong Military Service Corps 28

27 Foreign Legion Association 24

28 Undivided Indian Army Ex Servicemen Association 11 New

Total 1,312

Column E

Marker Detachment Number

1 Royal Marines Association 198

2 Royal Naval Association 150

3 Merchant Navy Association 130

4 Sea Harrier Association 24

5 Flower Class Corvette Association 18

6 HMS Andromeda Association 18

7 HMS Argonaut Association 30

8 HMS Bulwark, Albion & Centaur Association 25

9 HMS Cumberland Association 18

10 HMS Ganges Association 48

11 HMS Glasgow Association 30

12 HMS St Vincent Association 26

13 HMS Tiger Association 25

14 Algerines Association 20

15 Ton Class Association 24

16 Type 42 Association 48

17 Queen Alexandra's Royal Naval Nursing Service 36

18 Association of WRENS 90

19 Royal Fleet Auxiliary Association 10

20 Royal Naval Communications Association 30

21 Royal Naval Medical Branch Ratings & Sick Berth Staff Association 24

22 Royal Naval Benevolent Trust 18

23 Yangtze Incident Association 24

24 Special Boat Service Association 6

25 Submariners Association 30

26 Association of Royal Yachtsmen 30

27 Broadsword Association 36

28 Aircraft Handlers Association 36

29 Aircrewmans Association 40 Anniversary

30 Cloud Observers Association 10

31 The Fisgard Association 40

32 Fleet Air Arm Armourers Association 36

33 Fleet Air Arm Association 25

34 Fleet Air Arm Bucaneer Association 24

35 Fleet Air Arm Field Gun Association 24

36 Fleet Air Arm Junglie Association 18

37 Fleet Air Arm Officers Association 30

38 Fleet Air Arm Safety Equipment & Survival Association 24

39 Royal Navy School of Physical Training 24

Total 1,497

Column F

Marker Detachment Number

1 Blind Veterans UK 198

2 Far East Prisoners of War 18

3 Burma Star Association 40

4 Monte Cassino Society20

5 Queen's Bodyguard of The Yeoman of The Guard 18

6 Pen and Sword Club 15

7 TRBL Ex-Service Members 301

8 The Royal British Legion Poppy Factory 4

9 The Royal British Legion Scotland 24

10 Officers Association 5

11 Black and White Club 18

12 National Pigeon War Service 30

13 National Service Veterans Alliance 50

14 Gallantry Medallists League 46

15 National Malaya & Borneo Veterans Association 98

16 National Gulf Veterans & Families Association 30

17 Fellowship of the Services 100

18 Memorable Order of Tin Hats 24

19 Suez Veterans Association 50

20 Aden Veterans Association 72

21 1st Army Association 36

22 Showmens' Guild of Great Britain 40

23 Special Forces Club 12

24 The Spirit of Normandy Trust 28

25 Italy Star Association, 1943-1945, 48

Total 1,325

Column A

Marker Detachment Number

1 1LI Association 36

2 Royal Green Jackets Association 198

3 Parachute Regimental Association 174

4 King's Own Scottish Borderers 60

5 Black Watch Association 45

6 Gordon Highlanders Association 60

7 Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders Regimental Association 12

8 Queen's Own Highlanders Regimental Association 48

9 London Scottish Regimental Association 30

10 Grenadier Guards Association 48

11 Coldstream Guards Association 48

12 Scots Guards Association 48

13 Guards Parachute Association 36

14 4 Company Association (Parachute Regiment) 24

15 Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment 72

16 Royal East Kent Regiment (The Buffs) Past & Present Association 30

17 Prince of Wales' Leinster Regiment (Royal Canadians) Regimental Association 24

18 Royal Hampshire Regiment Comrades Association 14

19 The Royal Hampshire Regimental Club 24 New for 2015

20 Royal Northumberland Fusiliers 48 New

21 Royal Sussex Regimental Association 12

22 Green Howards Association 24

23 Cheshire Regiment Association 24

24 Sherwood Foresters & Worcestershire Regiment 36

25 Mercian Regiment Association 30

26 Special Air Service Regimental Association 4

27 The King's Own Royal Border Regiment 100

28 The Staffordshire Regiment 48

29 Rifles Regimental Association 40

30 The Rifles & Royal Gloucestershire, Berkshire & Wiltshire Regimental Association 30

31 Durham Light Infantry Association 60

32 King's Royal Rifle Corps Association 50

33 King's African Rifles 14 New for 2015

Total 1,551

Column M

Marker Detachment Number

1 Transport For London 48

2 Children of the Far East Prisoners of War 60

3 First Aid Nursing Yeomanry (Princess Royal's Volunteers Corps) 24

4 Munitions Workers Association18

5 Evacuees Reunion Association48

6 TOC H 20

7 Salvation Army 36

8 Naval Canteen Service & Expeditionary Force Institutes Association 12 Previously NAAFI

9 Royal Voluntary Service 24

10 Civil Defence Association 8

11 National Association of Retired Police Officers 36

12 Metropolitan Special Constabulary 36

13 London Ambulance Service NHS Trust 36

14 London Ambulance Service Retirement Association 18

15 St John Ambulance 36

16 British Red Cross 12

17 St Andrew's Ambulance Association 6

18 The Firefighters Memorial Trust 24

19 Royal Ulster Constabulary (GC) Association 36

20 Ulster Special Constabulary Association 30

21 Commonwealth War Graves Commission 12

22 Daniel's Trust 36

23 Civilians Representing Families 180

24 Royal Mail Group Ltd 24

25 Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals 24

26 The Blue Cross 24

27 PDSA 24

28 HM Ships Glorious Ardent & ACASTA Association 24 Anniversary

29 Old Cryptians' Club 12

30 Fighting G Club 18 Anniversary

31 Malayan Volunteers Group 12

32 Gallipoli Association 18

33 Ministry of Defence 20

34 TRBL Non Ex-Service Members 117

35 TRBL Women's Section 20

36 Union Jack Club 12

37 Western Front Association 8

38 Shot at Dawn Pardons Campaign 18

39 Royal Antediluvian Order of Buffaloes 24

40 National Association of Round Tables 24

41 Lions Club International 24

42 Rotary International 24

43 41 Club 6

44 Equity 12

45 Romany & Traveller Society 18

46 Sea Cadet Corps 30

47 Combined Cadet Force 30

48 Army Cadet Force 30

49 Air Training Corps 30

50 Scout Association 30

51 Girlguiding London & South East England 30

52 Boys Brigade 30

53 Girls Brigade England & Wales 30

54 Church Lads & Church Girls Brigade 30

55 Metropolitan Police Volunteer Police Cadets 18

56 St John Ambulance Cadets 18

57 YMCA 12

Total 1,621

This is my contribution to Photo-Heart Connection this month

My husband gave me a few macro lenses as a birthday present past December. One day, after all the Christmas celebrations, I went out with my camera, thinking of trying them. I was imagining all the wonderful photos I would take. I have always admired the botanical macros and flowers close-ups so I was ready to capture some fabulous images. However, as I walked by the park next to my home, I lost my inspiration. I wasn´t able to find nothing that fitted with what I had in mind and I felt that my camera was driving me crazy, but I walked and walked and made several attempts (...)

read more on my blog: myhealingmoments.blogspot.com.es/2013/02/day-36543.html

Here is my contribution to the PlushTeam Sept/Oct challenge on scary folk tales.

His name is Wolf Schnitzer (also nicknamed Wolfie Snaggletooth) and like any good wolf he's always hungry for a tasty kid or a nicely ripened grandma.

Wolfie here was just caught red handed.... He just had the next door neighbor's grandma for lunch and stole her nightie to hopefully eat the little red riding hood that inevitably follows...

He confided to me that while I took these shots he was wondering about why he cannot help himself... maybe this explains his pensive look ;)

All hand sewn (wold and gown!) by me, Hibou.

Statue of WC Wentworth, Department of Lands building, Bridge St, Sydney.

Each facade has 12 niches whose sculpted occupants include explorers and legislators who made a major contribution to the opening up and settlement of the nation. Although 48 men were nominated by the architect, Barnet, as being suitable subjects, most were rejected as being 'hunters or excursionists'. Only 23 statues were commissioned, the last being added in 1901 leaving 25 niches unfilled (Devine, 2011). In Nov 2010 - a new statue of colonial surveyor James Meehan (1774-1826) was created and placed in an empty niche on cnr. Loftus/Bent Streets.

Wentworth, William Charles (1790–1872)

by Michael Persse

This article was published in Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 2, (MUP), 1967

William Charles Wentworth (1790-1872), explorer, author, barrister, landowner, and statesman, was the son of Catherine Crowley, who was convicted at the Staffordshire Assizes in July 1788 of feloniously stealing 'wearing apparell', was sentenced to transportation for seven years, reached Sydney in the transport Neptune in June 1790, and in the Surprize arrived at Norfolk Island with the infant William on 7 August. Dr D'Arcy Wentworth, who also sailed in the Neptune and Surprize, acknowledged William as his son. He accompanied his parents to Sydney in 1796 and then to Parramatta, where his mother died in 1800. In 1803 he was sent with his brother D'Arcy to England. Writing home from their first school at Bletchley in 1804, he told of a visit to his father's patron and kinsman: 'We waited, one day, on Lord Fitzwilliam, at his request, he seemed glad to see us, and presented each of us with a guinea … We are going on in our Latin studies &c., to the satisfaction of our Master, and hope that we shall continue to do so, well knowing how essentially necessary a good education is to our future welfare in life'. In the holidays they stayed with their father's agent, Charles Cookney. In 1805 Mrs Cookney wrote of William to Dr Wentworth that 'a Surgeon is a very improper profession for Him as from the Cast in the Eye it leads Him differently to the object he intends'. They went on to the Greenwich school of Dr Alexander Crombie, a liberal scholar whose published works ranged over philology, politics, economics, agriculture, science, and theology.

Failing to win a place in the military academy at Woolwich or in the East India Co., Wentworth returned to Sydney in 1810 somewhat at a loose end. He was soon riding Gig, his father's grey gelding, to victory in the Hyde Park races. In October 1811 Lachlan Macquarie appointed him acting provost-marshal. He was granted 1750 acres (708 ha) on the Nepean, where his estate, Vermont, is still a Wentworth property.

He rapidly became a familiar figure around Sydney, with his tall frame, thick shoulders, Roman head, and auburn hair, his rugged and untidy person. He tended to speak in magniloquent abstractions, his harsh voice resounding with rhetoric and sarcasms and classical allusions; yet he showed a keen eye for detail. He seemed already something of a Gulliver in Lilliput. He knew that his father was slighted by the exclusives, that 'aristocratic body' who, he later wrote, 'would monopolize all situations of power, dignity, and emolument … and raise an eternal barrier of separation between their offspring and the offspring of the unfortunate convict': and the knowledge bred in him a determination to destroy their power.

Yet he was no leveller, no democrat. Men must be free, but free to rise—and his own family especially. Like his father he was a monopolist at heart. His adventurous spirit, drought, and the desire to discover new pastures led him in May 1813, in company with William Lawson, Gregory Blaxland, four servants, four horses, and five dogs, to take part in the first great feat of inland exploration, the crossing of the Blue Mountains. At the end of their twenty-one-day passage, as he later wrote,

The boundless champaign burst upon our sight

Till nearer seen the beauteous landscape grew,

Op'ning like Canaan on rapt Israel's view.

Uncertain that they had really crossed the mountains, he wrote in his journal: 'we have at all events proved that they are traversable, and that, too, by cattle'. The discovery gave impetus to great pastoral expansion in which Wentworth amply shared. He was rewarded with another 1000 acres (405 ha) . On the mountain journey, according to his father, he had developed a severe cough; to recover his health and to help his father secure valuable sandalwood from a Pacific island he joined a schooner as supercargo in 1814. He was nearly killed by natives at Rarotonga while courageously attempting to save a sailor whom they clubbed to death. The captain died, and Wentworth, with knowledge gained on his earlier voyage from England and no mean mathematical skill, brought the ship safely to Sydney.

The Sydney Gazette was then subject to official censorship. The nearest approach to a free press in Governor Macquarie's régime were the anonymous 'pipes', of which the most celebrated was the one directed, in 1816, against Colonel George Molle, the lieutenant-governor, for his hypocrisy towards Macquarie. The furore resulting from it lasted for more than a year, till Dr Wentworth revealed that William, on his way to England, had written from Cape Town admitting authorship. Other 'pipes' are in his hand. Their political importance was greater than their literary merit, though it is not fanciful to see Wentworth as a key figure in early Australian literature. The alliance between literature and politics was close, each needing freedom in which to breathe. He helped to keep satire alive in the time of Macquarie and was later to lead it from darkness into light.

In 1816 Wentworth arrived in London and enlisted Fitzwilliam's aid in persuading his father that the army was no longer a feasible career for him now that the Napoleonic wars were over. In February 1817 he entered the Middle Temple to prepare himself to be 'the instrument of procuring a free constitution for my country'. He wrote to Fitzwilliam of 'the more remote objects' of his ambition: 'It is … by no means my intention in becoming a member of the Law to abandon the Country that gave me birth … In withdrawing myself … for a time from that country I am actuated by a desire of better qualifying myself for the performance of those duties, that my Birth has imposed—and, in selecting the profession of the Law, I calculate upon acquainting myself with all the excellence of the British Constitution, and hope at some future period, to advocate successfully the right of my country to a participation in its advantages'.

This remained the master-plan, but for a time he was characteristically restless. He unsuccessfully petitioned the Colonial Office to allow him to explore Australia from east to west. He spent more than a year in Europe, chiefly in Paris, to the benefit of his French but the annoyance of Fitzwilliam. His health improved but he was very short of funds. He saw much of the Macarthurs. In 1819 he published A Statistical, Historical, and Political Description of the Colony of New South Wales and Its Dependent Settlements in Van Diemen's Land, With a Particular Enumeration of the Advantages Which These Colonies Offer for Emigration and Their Superiority in Many Respects Over Those Possessed by the United States of America. Young John Macarthur had suggested that he write it, and it owed much to conversations with old John, who with little sympathy with Wentworth's constitutional ideas later denounced the book, but whose faith in Australian wool was infectious. Wentworth hoped ardently to marry Elizabeth Macarthur. He envisaged a great Wentworth-Macarthur connexion at the head of the pastoral aristocracy dominating the New South Wales of his dreams, and he seemed about to achieve 'a union' which he described to his father as 'so essential to the happiness of your son and to the accomplishment of those projects for the future respectability and grandeur of our family, with the realisation of which I have no doubt you consider me in a great measure identified'. But his hopes were dashed by a quarrel with her father over a loan of money.

A new blow fell. In 1819 H. G. Bennet declared in his Letter to Lord Sidmouth that D'Arcy Wentworth had been sent to Sydney as a convict. Mortified by this slander, William rushed to his father's defence, ready to spill the last drop of his heart's blood in reparation. His own investigations proved disquieting. They revealed that his father was never a convict but had indeed been tried four times in England for highway robbery, though finally acquitted. Wentworth rebuked Bennet and later Commissioner John Thomas Bigge, who repeated the slander in his report, but his pride had suffered a rude shock, though not a shattering one. The greatness of his family and the glory of his country were the two almost synonymous preoccupations of his mind: and the two now became one as Wentworth, wounded in heart and pride, resolutely identified himself with the interests of the Australian-born.

His book did much to stimulate emigration and was reissued in revised and enlarged editions in 1820 and 1824. The various strands in his education are clearly seen in it: the classical, in its rhetorical style and arguments from ancient history; the mathematical, in its calculations about wool as 'the most profitable channel of investment offered in the world'; the scientific, in descriptions of the natural scene; and the legal, in the reforms proposed for New South Wales. After the 'description', he attacks the existing autocracy and presses for a nominated legislative council and an assembly elected on a small property franchise: ex-convicts are not to be denied either membership or the vote. No taxation should be imposed without parliamentary sanction. There should be trial by jury, a proper process of appeal, and free migration. Such reforms will realize the emancipists' dream: to raise Australasia 'from the abject state of poverty, slavery, and degradation, to which she is so fast sinking, and to present her with a constitution, which may gradually conduct her to freedom, prosperity, and happiness'; its future will then be theirs, and Wentworth's. Yet the book is no tract for democracy. Landed property is 'the only standard' he conceives 'by which the right either of electing, or being elected, can in any country be properly regulated'. The council 'bears many resemblances to the House of Lords': 'It forms that just equipoise between the democratic and supreme powers of the state, which has been found necessary not less to repress the licentiousness of the one, than to curb the tyranny of the other'.

He was called to the Bar in February 1822, and decided then to 'keep a few terms' at Cambridge. Soon after entering Peterhouse, he competed for the chancellor's gold medal for a poem on Australasia. His poem, placed second to W. M. Praed's, was speedily published, with a dedication to Macquarie. Rhetorical and realistic, it ends with a bold prophecy of the day when Britain is vanquished and her spirit rises again in the antipodes:

May all thy glories in another sphere

Relume, and shine more brightly still than here;

May this, thy last born infant, then arise,

To glad thy heart and greet thy parent eyes;

And Australasia float, with flag unfurl'd,

A new Britannia in another world.

He returned to Sydney in 1824, determined 'to hold no situation under government': 'As a mere private person I might lead the colony, but as a servant of the Governor I could only conform to his whims, which would neither suit my tastes nor principles'. In the third edition of the Description he had attacked the report of Commissioner Bigge as 'nauseous trash': it was hostile to Macquarie and it played into the hands of the exclusives. He had some influence on the New South Wales Act of 1823, which instituted a nominated Legislative Council and permitted trial by jury in civil actions only when demanded by both parties. With him came Dr Robert Wardell, a lawyer who had edited the Statesman. Their plan was that each in his sphere, Wardell in journalism and Wentworth at the Bar, should champion the emancipists and smaller free settlers and campaign for a free press, trial by jury, and self-government.

On 14 October 1824 the first issue of the Australian, the plant for which they had brought from London, boldly declared: 'Independent, yet consistent—free, yet not licentious—equally unmoved by favours and by fear—we shall pursue our labours without either a sycophantic approval of, or a systematic opposition to, acts of authority, merely because they emanate from government'. Audacity triumphed. They had not sought permission to publish the paper, but Governor Sir Thomas Brisbane thought it 'most expedient to try the experiment of full latitude of freedom of the Press'; despite Colonial Office objections approval continued well into the reign of his successor. The exclusives bitterly prophesied 'a nation of freebooters and pirates', but they could do nothing while the Australian retained Government House favour.

Meanwhile Wentworth seized every opportunity to attack the exclusives, and awaited a pretext for attacking autocratic government. In October 1825 he arranged a meeting for free inhabitants to consider a farewell address to Brisbane, acknowledging his emancipist sympathies. He called the first draft a 'milk and water production', and in the revised document the 'two fundamental principles of the British constitution' were demanded: trial by jury and representative government. He spoke passionately against the exclusives, the 'yellow snakes of the Colony'.

The wind turned in November 1826 with the death of Private Sudds in circumstances partly arising from the commutation by Governor (Sir) Ralph Darling of the sentence on him and Private Thompson. Wentworth seized on the alleged illegality of Darling's act and with violent invective demanded his recall. The affair rapidly developed into a bitter feud.

At a crowded meeting on Anniversary Day in 1827, which resulted in a petition calling for an elective assembly of at least a hundred members, Wentworth also called for trial by jury and taxation by consent. The newspapers inflamed public opinion against Darling, whose alleged treatment of Sudds Wentworth described as 'murder, or at least a high misdemeanour'. Convinced that Wentworth, a 'vulgar, ill-bred fellow' and a 'demagogue', was 'anxious to become the man of the people' by insulting the government, and that 'nothing short of positive coercion' would curb the licentiousness of the press, Darling submitted to the Legislative Council two bills, to regulate newspapers and to impose a stamp duty. Chief Justice (Sir) Francis Forbes refused to certify the licence clauses of one as 'not repugnant to the laws of England'. Wentworth attacked the other because blanks had been left for rates of duty to be inserted later; when they were filled in Forbes would not certify it and the Act though passed by council was suspended and later disallowed. Darling saw no alternative but to prosecute for seditious libel.

The resulting cases occupied the Supreme Court through 1828 and 1829. Wentworth surrendered his shares in the Australian and acted as defending counsel. He overwhelmed the lamentably weak Crown prosecutors with torrents of invective and brilliant marshalling of his facts. Darling wrote that he and Wardell kept 'the Court and the Bar by their effrontery and talent equally in subjection'. When Wardell was tried, he challenged the jury as nominees of the governor, who could deprive them of their commissions if they failed to convict. Finally in 1829, as a result of Wentworth's insistent demands, civilian juries were allowed in civil cases on the application of both parties and the approval of the Supreme Court.

A draft of 'impeachment' prepared by Wentworth against Darling did little damage to the governor's reputation at the Colonial Office, but it certainly undermined Wentworth's, so intemperate was its language. Darling served his six-year term, and departed in 1831 to the accompaniment of a riotous celebration at Wentworth's estate overlooking the harbour. The Australian reported: 'upward of 4,000 persons assembled at Vaucluse to partake of Mr Wentworth's hospitality and to evince joy at the approaching departure. The scene of the fête was on the lawn in front of Mr Wentworth's villa, which was thrown open for the reception of all respectable visitants, while a marquee filled with piles of loaves and casks of Cooper's gin and Wright's strong beer, was pitched a short way off. On an immense spit a bullock was roasted entire. Twelve sheep were also roasted in succession; and 4,000 loaves completed the enormous banquet. By 7 p.m. two immense bonfires were lighted on the highest hill … Rustic sports, speeches, etc., etc., whiled away the night; and morning dawned before the hospitable mansion was quitted by all its guests'.

By taking up the fight against autocracy and by his imperious courage and oratory in the defence of emancipists at the Bar Wentworth had awakened a political instinct among the smaller people of Sydney and become their hero. He had touched both journalism and the Bar with the fire of his brilliance and given them definition, direction, and the vision of greatness: he may justly be called their prophet in the Australian nation, if not the prophet of that nation itself. The larger fight remained: for the great goal of self-government. But, even as the people of Sydney were flocking out to Vaucluse to join with the popular hero in celebration of the tyrant's departure, changes in Wentworth's own life and activities were beginning to cause disillusion among many who only partially understood his aims. With the swelling tide of immigration into New South Wales, the exclusive-emancipist issue was receding into the background of politics. So fast were events moving that in 1835, when Darling was cleared of Wentworth's charges and knighted, there were few in Sydney who showed concern.

By his father's death in 1827 Wentworth added greatly to his landholdings. In that year he bought Vaucluse, about six miles (9.6 km) from Sydney on the south side of the harbour, and later enlarged it to 500 acres (202 ha) . The cottage there was rebuilt into a stately mansion which, in the years after Wentworth's marriage in 1829, provided the setting for both his family life and his activities as statesman. It was adorned with riches from the old world and became a sign of the new time, spacious and leisured, that was coming to the rich in New South Wales. With his large legal earnings, Vaucluse, his father's estate at Homebush, and one sheep station after another (he acknowledged fifteen at one time) Wentworth more and more felt himself the prototype of a new nobility, a governing class which would adapt to Australian conditions the way of life of the Whig aristocracy of eighteenth-century England. His own way of life became spacious even to the point of lapses from his marriage vows.

With Darling's successor, Governor (Sir) Richard Bourke, a kinsman of Edmund Burke, whose patron Fitzwilliam had been, Wentworth had much in common, though not even Bourke could persuade him to accept nomination to the Legislative Council, in which the governor's own liberal measures were frequently frustrated by the exclusives. In London there was growing support for Wentworth's policies: the Reform Act and events in Canada were fostering a climate of opinion favourable to constitutional change. After the murder of Wardell in 1834, William Bland stepped into his place as Wentworth's chief supporter. At the foundation-day meeting in 1833 another petition for self-government was drafted, which was presented to the Commons by Lytton Bulwer.

In 1835 the Australian Patriotic Association was formed to agitate for an amended constitution. Sir John Jamison was president, Wentworth vice-president, and Charles Buller its agent in London. With Bland's assistance Wentworth drafted two alternative bills for the consideration of the British government: one providing for a nominated council and an elected assembly on the model of Canada; the other for a single house of fifty members, one-fifth nominated and the rest elected on a property franchise similar to that of the 1832 Reform Act in Britain. With support in Sydney from Bourke and his successor, Sir George Gipps, and in London from Buller, Wentworth's second bill was adopted, with modifications, in an Act granting a degree of representative government in 1842. In an enlarged Legislative Council the proportion of nominees became one-third, and the property qualification for electors of the remaining twenty-four members was high enough to exclude two-thirds of the adult male population. Though the governor retained control of colonial revenue, he ceased to preside over the Legislative Council and was replaced by an elected Speaker.

In his book Wentworth had commended simultaneously a wide franchise and a property qualification for electors. The 1827 petition had demanded suffrage for 'the entire of the free population'. Now the eighteenth-century Whig in him was running stronger and he was more apt to equate political capacity with property and poverty with ignorance. He had given up his legal practice and was concentrating on his landed interests. Though he was still far less wealthy than James Macarthur, who had gone to England on behalf of the exclusives to oppose the demands of the Australian Patriotic Association, Wentworth's riches were increasing rapidly, and the onset of middle age, his experience of the crowd, and the shift in the balance of population caused by assisted migration all tended to strengthen his conservatism. The intention of the British government to abolish convict transportation and to raise the price of crown land drew the exclusives and Wentworth into a common opposition to any change in the condition allowing them cheap land and labour.

The leading emancipists now found themselves together with the exclusives on the side of the rich. Wentworth now belonged to the pastoral aristocracy he had envisaged in 1819 and it was faced with stern threats. When he expressed approval of the idea of importing coolie labour from Asia, he alienated many former supporters together with the radicals among the recent immigrants. In January 1842 the Australian summed up the popular feeling: 'Mr Wentworth … was an influential man. His day is gone by. His opinion is worth nothing … Certainly he first taught the natives of this colony what liberty was, but he has betrayed them since and they have withdrawn their confidence from him'.

In 1839 Wentworth was recommended for appointment to the Legislative Council by Gipps, but was soon at enmity with the new governor. In 1840, in direct opposition to declared British policy, humanely conceived, Wentworth and some associates bought from seven Maori chieftains, for a song, nearly a third of New Zealand, urging them, moreover, not to acknowledge Queen Victoria without proper safeguard. Gipps, aghast at such a 'job', blocked the scheme in the Legislative Council. But he misunderstood Wentworth. This bid was no jobbery, but Elizabethan in spirit and characteristically splendid and defiant. It would have made him the greatest landowner on earth; frustrated, he swore 'eternal vengeance'. The enmity between Wentworth and Gipps bedevilled almost every issue until the governor's departure in 1846. It was comparatively easy for Wentworth to lead others against Gipps. As with Darling, he set out to wreck his opponent's policies, but although he was frequently depicted as an unscrupulous politician his powers were bent passionately on ends that seemed to him greater than person or reputation, his own or anybody else's.

Wentworth entered the Legislative Council in 1843 at the head of the poll for Sydney. He wished to be Speaker but was passed over in favour of his enemy, Alexander McLeay. However, with his unrivalled knowledge of parliamentary procedure and colonial affairs, he immediately assumed practical leadership of the council. His achievement was already remarkable. He was an orator of immense power, whether bludgeoning an opponent, or fumbling and growling and calling for his 'extracts', or rising, with harsh and rasping voice, to a broken sublimity of language which moved and enlightened even his enemies. All were affected by the impact of his personality. Robert Lowe, mellifluously, dartingly, could mock what he had said, but the twain never really met, for they were of two different orders of being. Though he could marshal arguments brilliantly Wentworth relied little on subtlety or logic. He created a mood and stormed rather than seduced the mind. Careless and even slovenly in manners and dress (he now wore corduroys with his badly-fitting morning-coat), he had, while knowing his power, an unconscious arrogance and was in all things the observed of all observers.

He led the squatters in their demand for new land regulations and, since imperial control over crown land was an obstacle to their interest, for a surrender of that control to the Legislative Council. The squatters wanted security of tenure so that they could improve their runs without fear of displacement. Through a Pastoralists' Association, a select committee of the Legislative Council, a paid agent in the House of Commons, and in other ways they waged unceasing war against Gipps's policies. They won most of their demands in the Imperial Act of 1846, which gave them security, for varying periods in the 'settled', 'intermediate', and 'unsettled' districts, unless someone would pay £1 an acre for the land they leased, and this they could thwart by purchasing key-points on their runs, such as around the waterholes. In a sense the squatting age was now over. Henceforward the graziers could build spacious homesteads and develop the way of life of a landed, governing class, whatever political power Wentworth and his followers might win for them.

Because pastoral interests were strong in the part-elective Legislative Council Wentworth was able after 1843 to establish again a leadership of the colony as a whole. He was never again popular as he had been in 1831. At times he was distinctly unpopular but the power of his personality continued to sway even the crowd. In the 1848 election, after a public outcry over the renewal of transportation, he again headed the Sydney poll, though Bland was defeated altogether. In 1851, when his unpopularity stood at its height through his insistence on a preponderance of squatter-controlled rural representation over that of Sydney and his opposition to a wide franchise and to the 'spirit of democracy abroad', he came in third, but was still returned.

Though frequently accused of inconsistency, Wentworth followed unswervingly the same ideals throughout his career. He believed profoundly in intellect, and his fury at unintelligent officialdom, military autocracy, and the social pretensions of the unimaginative exclusives (the imaginative, such as John Macarthur, he admired) sprang from the same source as his distrust of mob rule: a hatred of anything which would prevent the human mind and spirit from developing their latent powers. He at no time denied the right of the intelligent poor to aspire to the seats of government, but they must first become 'men of substance', participating in one of the great interests on which the welfare of the community depended. Pre-eminent among these was the landed interest which, because of his realistic appraisal of the Australian economy no less than his inherited or acquired Whiggism, he believed was the one to which, as he told them in 1851, the inhabitants of Sydney 'were indebted for all their greatness, all the comforts, all the luxuries, that they possessed'. He told them, too, with no little courage, that he 'agreed with that ancient and venerable constitution that treated those who had no property as infants, or idiots, unfit to have any voice in the management of the State'. The way out of infancy, or idiocy, was through intellect and property: but essential to these, and to the management of the state, was education — and Wentworth's pioneering of both primary and university education in Australia is among the noblest of his achievements.

He played a leading part with Lowe, his erstwhile opponent, in establishing in 1848-49 the first real system of state primary education in New South Wales. Hitherto primary teaching—and most of the children of the colony had none—had been conducted predominantly by the various religious denominations, with much sectarian bitterness. New South Wales was on the brink of gaining responsible government; but this, he argued, would be workable only through national education. Should they fail to give the youth of the colony 'the education which would furnish them with the knowledge of the responsibilities they undertook, the achievement of responsible government will be not to achieve a blessing, but to achieve the greatest curse it is possible to conceive'. He went on in 1849-50 to lead the movement that resulted in the founding of the first full colonial university in the British empire, the University of Sydney. He saw this as serving two ends: 'to enlighten the mind, to refine the understanding, to elevate the soul of our fellow men'; and to train men to fill 'the high offices of state'. He deplored the religious bigotry which had obstructed education: the university should be 'open to all, though influenced by none'. But he denied vigorously that his university would promote infidelity: he believed that 'the best mode of proving the divinity of the great Christian Code was to advance the intellect of those who trusted and relied upon it … It was not by stinting the intellect that Christianity was to be promoted'. The university would leave religious education to constituent colleges which he envisaged 'in every part of the colony'. Wentworth also helped to endow the university and was a member of its first senate.

In 1844, after a collision between Gipps and the Legislative Council, Wentworth had advocated 'that control of the Ministers and the Administrators of the Colony … which can only exist where the decision of the majority can occasion the choice—as well as the removal—of the functionaries who are entrusted with the chief executive departments'. He lost enthusiasm for this kind of responsible government after Governor Sir Charles FitzRoy eased the friction between executive and legislature, and turned instead to demands for self-government with full control of crown lands and colonial revenue. These demands, expressed in the Remonstrances of 1850 and 1851, remained urgent when gold was discovered, but the pastoral ascendancy seemed likely to be seriously threatened by 'pure democracy'. Although in 1852 the Colonial Office finally agreed that New South Wales should have responsible government, only a limited form of individual responsibility of some members of the executive was provided by the select committee which drafted the constitution in 1853. With Wentworth as chairman it recommended a lower house of fifty members elected on a £10 property franchise, and a nominated upper house consisting of members of a hereditary colonial peerage. The rural bias of the proposed lower house and the idea of a peerage were vociferously opposed in Sydney, by the press and by orators representing nearly every shade of political and social opinion. Wentworth vigorously defended his peerage scheme—which was a logical outgrowth of his basic ideas and assumptions and by no means the ridiculous proposal it has been represented as, then and since—but public opinion was so strongly against it that the bill, as eventually passed, contained in its stead provisions for a legislative council shorn of the hereditary principle altogether. Wentworth, with Edward Deas Thomson, colonial secretary for New South Wales, with whom he had been much associated through the lack of interest shown by Governor FitzRoy in colonial politics, sailed for England in 1854. In July 1855 he had the satisfaction of seeing the new Constitution made law, despite the deletion of his favoured safeguard against rash amendments to it, and the early death of the General Association of the Australian Colonies which he conceived as the forerunner of a 'Federal Assembly with power to legislate on all internal subjects'.

His life's work triumphantly achieved, he spent his remaining days in England except for a brief return to Sydney in 1861-62, when he was prevailed on to accept the presidency of the Legislative Council during a crisis, and stood out for the nominative as against the elective principle. He had consolidated his fame more by staying away, and being remembered for his great achievements, than if he had returned and been drawn—as he must have been—into the political fray and tried—as he would have done—to stem the democratic tide. In England he became a member of the Conservative Club, and lived at Merly House, near Wimborne, Dorset. There he died on 20 March 1872, survived by his wife Sarah, second daughter of Francis Cox, an emancipist blacksmith, whom he had married in 1829, and by five of their seven daughters and two of their three sons. His probate was sworn at £96,000 in Sydney and £70,000 in London. As he had wished, his body was brought to Sydney, and after a state funeral on 6 May 1873 was laid to rest in a vault excavated in a rock on his estate at Vaucluse. A chapel erected over his tomb, portraits by Richard Buckner in the chamber of the Legislative Assembly in Sydney and by James Anderson in the Mitchell Library, and a statue in Carrara marble by Tenerani in the Great Hall of the University of Sydney are his tangible memorials.

His intangible, and truer, memorial is much more than can easily be estimated in present-day Australia. With all his apparent contradictions, more than any other man he secured our fundamental liberties and nationhood. He looked backward in many things to the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries; yet he built, with the strength that his sense of history gave him, for the future. He was a child both of the English past and of his own time. He was an heir to the Whig tradition, with its faith in aristocratic and classical values and in British political institutions as established, more or less, by the Glorious Revolution and the politicians of the eighteenth century, and at the same time a child of the romantic movement. The chief intellectual influence upon him was Burke's oratory, with all its rhetoric and splendour and its evocation of the greatness of Augustan Rome and England. Emotionally, however, he was more Byronic, a force of nature of the kind which blazed in the sky of his boyhood in the person of Napoleon. He had breathed the air of Liberal Toryism abroad in England in the early 1820s. The subjection of his proud and romantic nature to the classical restraints of law and politics, though sometimes imperfectly achieved, increased rather than diminished his achievement. In his determination to secure in his own country those free institutions which in eighteenth-century England bore an aristocratic form, he may have regretted that their very freedom would allow them to become democratic; but their freedom was more important to him than their form. His love of Australia was, he confessed, the 'master passion' of his life. He felt a natural kinship with the founding fathers of the United States. It is his chief claim to greatness that, more than any other, he secured in Australia, in one lifetime, the fruit of centuries—what he, in common with other men of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, revered as the fundamental liberties of the British Constitution

From:

adb.anu.edu.au/biography/wentworth-william-charles-2782

My contribution to flickr leap 2012... I will admit this was not an easy challenge - I commend everyone for their brilliant efforts! I was lucky it had finally stopped raining - but I will say that the rain is what gave me the idea to do this particular photo... & it was also my first test shoot with my new lens that I needed so desperately after breaking my lens during the philly flickr meetup - yayyyy! View On Black

Some background:

The VF-1 was developed by Stonewell/Bellcom/Shinnakasu for the U.N. Spacy by using alien Overtechnology obtained from the SDF-1 Macross alien spaceship. Its production was preceded by an aerodynamic proving version of its airframe, the VF-X. Unlike all later VF vehicles, the VF-X (sometimes referred to as VF-X1) was strictly a conventional/non-transformable jet aircraft, even though it incorporated many structural components and several key technologies that were vital for the transformable VF-1’s successful development that ran in parallel. Therefore, the VF-X was never intended as an air superiority fighter, but rather a flight-capable analogue test bed and proof of concept for the VF-1’s basic layout and major components. In this role, however, the VF-X made vital contributions to systems’ development that were later incorporated into the VF-1’s serial production and sped the program up considerably.

The fighter remained active in many second line units and continued to show its worthiness years later, e. g. through Milia Jenius who would use her old VF-1 fighter in defense of the colonization fleet - 35 years after the type's service introduction.

General characteristics:

Accommodation: One pilot in a Marty & Beck Mk-7 zero/zero ejection seat

Length 14.23 meters

Wingspan 14.78 meters (at 20° minimum sweep)

Height 3.84 meters

Empty weight: 13.25 metric tons

Standard T-O mass: 18.5 metric tons

Power Plant:

2x Shinnakasu Heavy Industry/P&W/Roice FF-2001 thermonuclear reaction turbine engines, output 650 MW each, rated at 11,500 kg in standard or in overboost (225.63 kN x 2)

4 x Shinnakasu Heavy Industry NBS-1 high-thrust vernier thrusters (1 x counter reverse vernier thruster nozzle mounted on the side of each leg nacelle/air intake, 1 x wing thruster roll control system on each wingtip);

Performance:

Top speed: Mach 2.71 at 10,000 m; Mach 3.87 at 30,000+ m

Thrust-to-weight ratio: empty 3.47; standard T-O 2.49; maximum T-O 1.24

Armament:

None installed, but the VF-X had 4x underwing hard points for a wide variety of ordnance, plus a ventral hardpoint for a Howard GU-11 55 mm three-barrel Gatling gun pod with 200 RPG, fired at 1,200 rds/min or other stores like test instruments

The model and its assembly:

Another submission to the “Prototypes” group build at whatifmodelers.com in July 2020. Being a VF-1 fan (and have built maybe twenty o these simple Arii kits), adding a VF-X was, more or less, a must – even more so because I had a suitable Valkyrie Fighter kit at hand for the conversion. As a side note, I have actually built something quite similar from a VF-1D many years ago: a fictional, non-transformable advanced trainer, without knowing about the VF-X at all.

Thanks to the “Macross - Perfect Memory” source book, the differences between the transformable VF-1 and its early testbed were easy to identify:

- Fixed legs with faired ducts from the intakes on (thighs)

- Ankle recesses disappeared

- Less and slightly different panel lines on the back and on the nose

- ventral head unit deleted and a respective fairing installed instead

- Levelled underside (shoulder fairings of the folded arms were cut down)

- Leg attachment points on the nose deleted

- No small, circular vernier thrusters all around the hull

- Some new/different venting grills (created mostly with 0.5mm black decal stripes)

Beyond the changes, the VF-1A was basically built OOB. Thankfully, the VF-X already features the later VF-1’s vectored thrust nozzles/feet, so that no changes had to be made in this respect. A pilot figure was added to the cockpit for the beauty pics, and after the flight scenes had been shot, the canopy remained open on a swing arm for static display. For the same reason, the model was built with the landing gear extended.

As a test aircraft, the underwing pylons and their AMM-1 ordnance were left away and the attachment points hidden with putty. I also omitted the ventral gun pod and left the aircraft clean. However, for the flight scene pictures, I implanted an adapter for a display holder made from wire.

In order to emphasize the test vehicle character of the VF-X, I gave the model a scratched spin recovery parachute installation between the fins, using a real world F-22 testbed as benchmark. It consists of styrene profiles, quite a delicate construction. For the same reason I gave the VF-X a long sensor boom on the nose, which changes the Valkyrie’s look, too. Finally, some small blade antennae were added to the nose and to the spine behind the cockpit.

Painting and markings:

To be honest, I have no idea if there was only a single VF-X prototype in the Macross universe, or more. Just one appears in the TV series in episode #33, and lack of suitable information and my personal lack of Japanese language proficiency prevents any deeper research. However, this would not keep me from inventing a personal interpretation of the canonical VF-X, especially because I do not really like the original livery from the TV series: an overall light grey with some simple black trim and “TEST” written on the (fixed) legs. Yamato did an 1:60 scale toy of the VF-X, but it was/is just a VF-1 with a ventral fairing; they added some shading to the basic grey – but this does not make the aircraft more attractive, IMHO.

When I looked at the original conceptual drawing of the VF-X in the “Macross - Perfect Memory” source book, however, I was immediately reminded of the F-15 prototypes from the Seventies (and this program used a total of twelve machines!). These featured originally a light grey (FS 36375?) overall base, to which bright dayglo orange markings on wings, fins and fuselage were soon added – in a very similar pattern to the VF-X. I think the VF-X livery was actually inspired by this, the time frame matches well with the production of the Macross TV series, too, and that’s what I adapted for my model.

In order to come close to the F-15 prototype livery, I gave “my” VF-X an overall basic coat of RAL 7047 “Telegrau 4”, one of German Telekom’s corporate colors and a very pale grey that can easily be mistaken for white when you do not have a contrast reference.

The cockpit received a medium grey finish, the ejection seat became black with brown cushions; the pilot figure is a 1:100 seated passenger from an architecture supplies, painted like an early VF-1 pilot in a white/blue suit. The jet nozzles/feet were painted with Revell 91 (Iron) and later treated with grinded graphite for a more metallic finish. The landing gear became classic white (I used Revell 301, which is a very pure tone, as contrast to the RAL 7047 on the hull), the air intake ducts and the internal sections of the VG wings were painted with dark grey (Revell 77).

For some diversity I took inspiration from the Yamato VF-X toy and added slightly darker (Humbrol 166, RAF Light Aircraft Grey) areas to the hull and the legs. Next, the panel lines were emphasized through a thinned black ink wash, but I did no panel post shading so that the VF-X would not look too dirty or worn.

Onto this basis I applied the orange dayglo markings. On the wings and fins, these were painted – they were applied with spray paint from a rattle can, involving lots of masking. The leading edges on wings and fins were created with grey decal sheet material, too. At this stage, some surface details and more fake panel lines were added with a soft pencil.

The orange cheatline under the cockpit is a personal addition; I found that some more orange had to be added to the nose for visual balance, and I eventually went for the simple, trimmed stripe (TL Modellbau material) instead of trying to apply decal sheet material around the jagged air intakes (F-15 prototype style). The black “TEST”, “VFX” and “U.N. Spacy” markings were designed at the computer and printed on clear inkjet decal paper. Even though the “real” VF-X does not feature the UNS “kite” insignia, I decided to add them to the model. These come from the OOB sheet, which also provided most (slightly yellowed) stencils.

Finally, the model was sealed with a coat of matt acrylic varnish (Italeri).

A rather different VF-1 project (and it is – to my astonishment – #28 in my 1:100 VF-1 Fighter mode collection!!!), with more changes to the basic model kit than one might expect at first sight. VF-X and VF-1 differ considerably from each other, despite identical outlines! However, I like the outcome, and I think that going a different route from the canonical grey/black livery paid out, the bright orange markings really make this VF-X stand out, and it looks IMHO more like a testbed than the “real” aircraft from the TV series.

My contribution to celebrate World Nutella Day. This icebox cake is made with layers of graham crackers and Nutella pudding.

Recipe is available at Dessert By Candy.

Contribution to 52½ weeks of 2009 (week #22)

CONTRIBUTIONS OF In advance SOCIOLOGICAL THEORISTS TO MODERN SOCIOLOGY t.co/wrlPliXTdN #acn (via Twitter twitter.com/AgenciaCN/status/806097372384206849)

My contribution to Friday Food Fiesta

Rojak - from Bali's famous Made's Warung.

A tropical fruit salad. The version in Bali is served with thick tamarind (assam) paste and brown sugar sauce, instead of prawn paste.

Very yummy, quite a refreshing change from the Malaysian and Singapore style rojak that I am familiar with.

It was so good, I went back to Made's Warung just to have the Rojak again the morning before I have to leave Bali.

My 2nd contribution to the Hope Meme: canarybeck.com/2014/02/18/hope-meme-losing-nelson/

This is Nelson's Memorial. All his favourite things are there to keep him company: his ball of yarn, his food dish (it'd be full of raw chicken usually), his toy mouse, his red hot water bottle, candles that he'd love to sniff (despite burning off his whiskers from time to time), and cat grass that he loved to nibble.

Sri Ranganatha Temple is situated in the historical island town of Srirangapatthana, Mandya district. Srirangapattana is 15 Km away from Mysore.The temple was built during the 9th century by kings of Vijayanagara Empire and then maintained and expanded by Hyder Ali, Ganga dynasty and Hoysala dynasty. Hyder Ali was a great devout of Lord Ranganatha and made a lot of contributions and donations to the temple.

The temple comprises of the Navaranga mantapa surrounding the sanctum sanctorum. The presiding deity Sri Ranganatha is in a sleeping posture on Adi Shesha, the seven-headed serpent. An idol of Goddess Lakshmi is installed at the foot of Lord Ranganatha.

Remembrance Sunday, 11 November 2018

In the United Kingdom, Remembrance Sunday is held on the second Sunday in November, which is the Sunday nearest to 11 November, Armistice Day, the anniversary of the end of hostilities in the First World War at 11 a.m. on 11 November 1918. Remembrance Sunday is held to commemorate the contribution of British and Commonwealth military and civilian servicemen and women in the two World Wars and later conflicts.

Remembrance Sunday is marked by ceremonies at local war memorials in most cities, towns and villages, attended by civic dignitaries, ex-servicemen and -women, members of local armed forces regular and reserve units, military cadet forces and uniformed youth organisations. Two minutes’ silence is observed at 11 a.m. and wreaths of remembrance poppies are then laid on the memorials.

The United Kingdom national ceremony is held in London at the Cenotaph in Whitehall. Wreaths are laid by principal members of the Royal Family, normally including the Prince of Wales, the Duke of Cambridge, the Duke of Sussex, the Duke of York, the Princess Royal, the Earl of Wessex and the Duke of Kent, the Prime Minister, leaders of the other major political parties, the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, Commonwealth High Commissioners and representatives from the Royal Navy, Army and Royal Air Force, the Merchant Navy and Fishing Fleets and the civilian services, and veterans’ groups.

In 2017 Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip, for the first time, did not lay wreaths themselves but viewed the parade from the Foreign and Commonwealth balcony. In 2018 the Queen again viewed the parade from the balcony whilst Prince Philip did not attend. Other members of the British Royal Family watched from the balcony of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

11 November 2018 marked the 100th anniversary of the end of the First World War. The President of the Federal Republic of Germany Frank-Walter Steinmeier laid a German wreath at the Cenotaph for the first time. Normally wreaths are only laid by British persons and organisations and Commonwealth governments. Wreaths have been laid by leaders of Commonwealth and Allied countries when they attended as guests. In 2003 the Prime Minister of Australia, in 2006 the Prime Minister of New Zealand and in 2015 the King of the Netherlands laid wreaths.

Two minutes' silence is held at 11 a.m., before the laying of the wreaths. This silence is marked by the firing of a field gun on Horse Guards Parade by the King’s Troop, Royal Horse Artillery, to begin and end the silence, followed by Royal Marines buglers sounding Last Post in Whitehall.

The parade consists mainly of an extensive march past by veterans, with military bands playing music following the list of the Traditional Music of Remembrance.

After the ceremony, a parade of veterans and other related groups, organised by the Royal British Legion, marches past the Cenotaph, each section of which lays a wreath as it passes. Only ticketed participants can take part in the march past. In 2018 this was followed by a "people's procession" of some 10,000 people who streamed past the Cenotaph in honour of the war dead.

From 1919 until the Second World War remembrance observance was always marked on 11 November itself. It was then moved to Remembrance Sunday, but since the 50th anniversary of the end of the Second World War in 1995, it has become usual to hold ceremonies on both Armistice Day and Remembrance Sunday.

Each year, the music at the National Ceremony of Remembrance remains the same, following a programme finalised in 1930:

Rule, Britannia! by Thomas Arne

Heart of Oak by William Boyce

The Minstrel Boy by Thomas Moore

Men of Harlech

The Skye Boat Song

Isle of Beauty by Thomas Haynes Bayly

David of the White Rock

Oft in the Stilly Night by John Stevenson

Flowers of the Forest

Nimrod from the Enigma Variations by Edward Elgar

Dido's lament by Henry Purcell

O Valiant Hearts by Charles Harris

Solemn Melody by Walford Davies

Last Post – a bugle call

Beethoven's Funeral March No. 1, by Johann Heinrich Walch

O God, Our Help in Ages Past – words by Isaac Watts, music by William Croft

Reveille – a bugle call

God Save The Queen

Other pieces of music are then played during the march past and wreath laying by veterans, starting with Trumpet Voluntary and followed by It's A Long Way To Tipperary, the marching song of the Connaught Rangers, a famous British Army Irish Regiment of long ago.

The following is complied from press reports on 11 November 2018:

“The Prince of Wales has led the nation in remembering those who gave their lives in the First World War as he laid the wreath at the Cenotaph.

For the first time ever he was joined the German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, marking a historic act of reconciliation between the two nations.

The Queen watched from the balcony of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office along with the Duchess of Cambridge and Duchess of Cornwall.

Remembrance services have been taking place all over Britain and Europe, which is an hour ahead, to mark the Armistice that ended the hostilities 100 years ago.

It is estimated that nine million military personnel were killed between 28 July 1914 and 11 November 1918.

The armistice, which was signed by German and Allied generals at 5am GMT, came into effect six hours later at 11am. Every year since then the country has paused at 11am for two minutes to remember the men and women who lost their lives in the conflict.

The Palace announced this morning that the Duke of Edinburgh could not attend the service and a wreath was laid on his behalf by an equerry.

Later this evening, the Queen, the Prince of Wales, the Duchess of Cornwall, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, and the Duke and Duchess of Sussex will attend a special service at Westminster Abbey, alongside Mr Steinmeier.

As part of event, two B-type buses which served as military vehicles between 1914 and 1918 - and are the last surviving models from the period - will be on The Mall. This will mark the contribution of bus drivers during the First World War and will be the first time they have appeared in an Armistice Day parade since the 1960s.

As well as the parade, civilians across the country will ring church bells in unison across the country on Sunday; it is expected that 1,700 people will take part in the event. Church bells across the UK remained restricted throughout the course of the war and only rang freely once Armistice was declared on November 11, 1918.

At that moment, bells erupted spontaneously across the country, as an outpouring of relief that four years of war had come to an end.

The French President, Emmanuel Macron, led the ceremony in Paris to mark the 100th anniversary of Armistice Day.

Around 70 world leaders were in attendance, including Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin, Angela Merkel, Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Jean-Claude Juncker, for a ceremony at the Arc de Triomphe.

President Trump and his wife Melania arrived in the French capital yesterday, and were greeted at the Elysee Palace in Paris by the French President and his wife Brigitte.

The President of Germany made history today appearing at the Cenotaph.

Following the Prince of Wales who laid a wreath on behalf of the Queen, Frank Walter-Steinmeier laid a wreath at the foot of the Cenotaph and stood with his head bowed.

He is the first German dignitary invited to the Cenotaph and was watched by his wife Elke Budenbender who accompanied the Duchess of Sussex on the Foreign Office balcony.

The Queen was accompanied by the Duchess of Cornwall and Duchess of Cambridge although the Duke of Edinburgh was absent having retired from official duties last year.

Commemorations had begun before dawn, as beach drawings and bag pipers added to the beautiful ways the centenary has been marked around the country.

In Paris, the leaders of France, Germany, Russia and the USA joined together for a special international service.”

Hasselblad 500C/M, Velvia 100, Zeiss Planar 80mm f2.8 C T*

Also featuring an extension tube, but as I can't remember which one, its contribution is anonymous.

Berenice Abbott, photographer, 1936. From the New York Public Library Collection.

Abbott, Berenice (1898-1991)

Accomplished American photographer Berenice Abbott may be best known for her photographs of New York City's changing cityscape, but she also made memorable images of lesbians, bisexuals, and gay men in Paris in the 1920s and in New York from the 1930s through 1965.

Born in Springfield, Ohio in 1898, Abbott briefly attended Ohio State University before moving to New York City in 1918. In New York, she lived in a semi-communal Greenwich Village apartment shared by Djuna Barnes and others. Man Ray and Marcel Duchamp were part of her social circle.

In 1921, Abbott moved to Europe where she studied sculpture in Paris and Berlin. Among her lovers in Paris were artists' model Tylia Perlmutter and sculptress and silverpoint artist Thelma Wood. In Paris, between 1923 and 1925, she studied photography while working as Man Ray's assistant. In 1926, she opened her own portrait studio and had a successful one-person exhibition. Two years later, she showed photographs at the Salon des Indépendants.

During Abbott's Paris years, she photographed many figures from the worlds of literature and the arts, including James Joyce, Foujita, Coco Chanel, and Max Ernst. However, her most significant contribution to queer history and aesthetics are her vivid portraits of lesbians and bisexuals. Among these are the younger expatriate lesbian writers Margaret Anderson, Jane Heap, Sylvia Beach, Bryher, Janet Flanner and Flanner's lover Solita Solano, as well as the artist Gwen Le Gallienne, with whom she frequented gay bars.

Another of Abbott's most memorable images is that of a masculine-appearing Thelma Wood, made after she and Abbott were no longer lovers. Abbott also photographed Wood's new love, Djuna Barnes, whose affair with Wood was the inspiration for the novel Nightwood (1936). Unlike her image of Wood, Abbott's photograph of her lover, Tylia Perlmutter, is delicate and dreamy.

Abbott also photographed the French bookstore owner Adrienne Monnier, Sylvia Beach's lover; the wealthy Violette Murat (Princess Eugène Murat); and artist Marie Laurencin, a bisexual who may have had an affair with Murat. Abbott made images as well of such gay or bisexual men as André Gide, Robert McAlmon, and the flamboyant Jean Cocteau. Abbott's bisexual Paris clients also included painters Margaret Sargent and Betty Parsons (later of the Betty Parsons Gallery in Manhattan) and architect/designer Eileen Gray.

Returning to New York City in 1929, Abbott photographed the rapidly changing city. She also photographed U.S. Highway 1 from Maine to Florida and created images to illustrate the laws and processes of physics. But she also continued making images of lesbian and bisexual women. In particular, she photographed such subjects as poet Edna St. Vincent Millay, Harlem Renaissance art patron A'Lelia Walker, and actress/director Eva Le Gallienne, Gwen's step-sister.

In New York, Abbott formed an alliance with critic Elizabeth McCausland, which lasted from the early 1930s until McCausland's death in 1965. Abbott's portraits of McCausland confirm the aptness of the nickname she gave her lover, "Butchy." McCausland wrote early essays about Abbott's work.

Having almost flaunted her love of women early in her life, Abbott later obscured and even lied about her lesbianism, distancing and closeting herself as thoroughly as possible. In 1968, she moved permanently to Maine.

Had her lovers been male and her lesbian and bisexual subjects been heterosexual, Abbott's work--given its quality and the accomplishments of her subjects--would have achieved earlier and greater recognition. Still, her work brought her fame and financial security. Her images of blatantly lesbian-appearing women, such as Jane Heap, for example, have been exhibited in art galleries and museums for decades. As the story of her life and the lives of her subjects become better known, her role in creating memorable images of gay, lesbian, and bisexual people finds greater appreciation.

From www.glbtq.com