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THE McLENNAN ARCH - In 1796 the Assembly Rooms were built on the north side of Ingram Street Glasgow to the design of Robert (1728-92) and James Adam (1732-94). In its original form without the later wings, it was an imposing classical building with a central bay featuring projecting paired Ionic columns framing a triumphal arch. The Rooms provided a social gathering place for dances, music and other cultural pursuits. In 1847 it became a club, the Atheneum. When the building was demolished in about 1892 to make way for the new General Post Office, the central arch was preserved and moved first to Greendyke Street and then in 1922, to Glasgow Green where it was arranged as a freestanding triumphal arch.
THE NELSON MONUMENT - The 44m high obelisk was designed by David Hamilton, one of Scotland’s leading architects. It was the first of the many public monuments erected to Lord Nelson, victor of the Battle of Trafalgar. Erected only a year after the battle, the funds were raised by public subscription during the countrywide outpouring of grief which followed the death of the victorious admiral.
GLASGOW GREEN is one of the most ancient public parks in Scotland. Over many centuries it provided a welcome escape from the crowded tenements of the old town.
In 1450 James II gave the land at Glasgow Green to the Bishop of Glasgow for public grazing. Eventually it became a public space protected by the city fathers.
The park has been used as a washing, bleaching and drying area by local people, as a rallying point for Jacobite troops in 1745, a site of public executions until 1865, and for political rallies and public festivals.
Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rizal_Monument
The Rizal Monument (original title: Motto Stella, Latin, "guiding star") is a memorial in Rizal Park in Manila, Philippines built to commemorate the executed Filipino nationalist, José Rizal. The monument consists of a standing bronze sculpture of Rizal, with an obelisk, set on a stone base within which his remains are interred. A plaque on the pedestal's front reads: "To the memory of José Rizal, patriot and martyr, executed on Bagumbayan Field December Thirtieth 1896. This monument is dedicated by the people of the Philippine Islands".
The perimeter of the monument is guarded continuously by the Philippine Marine Corps’ Marine Security and Escort Group, the changing of the guard having become a daily ritual. About 100 m (330 ft) north-northwest of the monument is the exact location where Rizal was executed, marked by life-size dioramas depicting his final moments.
An exact replica of the Rizal Monument can be found in Madrid, Spain at the junction of Avenida de Las Islas Filipinas and Calle Santander.
St Albans is in southern Hertfordshire, England, around 22 miles (35 km) north of London, beside the site of a Catuvellauni settlement and the Roman town of Verulamium and on the River Ver. St Albans is Hertfordshire's oldest town, a modern city shaped by over 2000 years of continuous human occupation.
Pre-Roman and Roman times
The town is first recorded as Verulamium, a Celtic British Iron Agesettlement whose name means 'the settlement above the marsh'. After the Roman conquest of Britain in AD 43, it developed as Verulamium and became one of the largest towns in Roman Britain and the capital city . Built mainly of wood, it was destroyed during the revolt of Boudica in AD 60-61, but was rebuilt and grew to feature many impressive town houses and public buildings. It was encircled by gated walls in AD 275.
The Romans leave
The Roman City of Verulamium slowly declined and fell into decay after the departure of the Roman Army in AD 410. However, its ruined buildings provided building materials to build the new monastic and market settlement of St Albans which was growing on the hill above, close to the site of Saint Alban's execution. In the Norman Abbey tower, you can still see the Roman bricks removed from Verulamium.
Much of the post-Roman development of St Albans was in memorial to Saint Alban, the earliest known British Christian martyr, executed in AD 250 (the exact date is unknown, with scholars suggesting dates of 209, 254 and 304). The town itself was known for some time by the Saxon name 'Verlamchester'. A shrine was built on the site of his death following Emperor Constantine's adoption of Christianity as the religion of the Roman Empire. In the 5th century a Benedictine monastic church was constructed.
The Abbey is founded
Another abbey was founded by King Offa of Mercia in 793. The settlement grew up around the precincts of another It was 350 feet (110 m) long with a tower and seven apses.
A nunnery, Sopwell Priory, was founded nearby in 1140 by Abbot Geoffrey de Gorham.
The head of the abbey was confirmed as the premier abbot in England in 1154. The abbey was extended by John of Wallingford (also known as John de Cella) in the 1190s, and again between 1257 and 1320 but financial constraints limited the effectiveness of these later additions.
In August 1213 the first draft of Magna Carta was drawn up in St Albans Abbey.
The Liberty of St Albans was given palatine status by Edward I. In 1290 the funeral procession of Eleanor of Castile stopped overnight in the town and an Eleanor cross was put up at a cost of £100 in the Market Place. The cross, which stood for many years in front of the 15th century Clock Tower, was demolished in 1701.
A market was running outside the abbey from the 10th century; it was confirmed by King John of England in 1202 and by a Royal Charter of Edward VI in 1553.
Conflict
Abbey Gateway from the 1360s
During the 14th century the Abbey came into increasing conflict with the townsfolk of St Albans, who demanded rights of their own. This led, among other things, to the construction of a large wall and gate surrounding the Abbey (for instance, the Great Gatehouse, the "Abbey Gateway", which is the only surviving monastic building other than the Abbey Church, dates from 1365).
Richard of Wallingford, a local landowner, who had presented demands to Richard II on behalf of Wat Tyler in London, brought news of this to St Albans and argued with the abbot over the charter. However, this was short lived. Once the 14-year-old king had regained control of the capital and then the whole country, Grindcobbe was tried in the Moot Hall (on the site of the present-day W H Smith stationery shop, where a plaque commemorates the event) and adjudged a 'traitor' alongside John Ball('the mad priest of Kent', one of the rebel leaders who had escaped from Smithfield, London to Coventry) and more than a dozen others. He was hanged, drawn and quartered in July 1381.
Another notable building dating from around this time, the Clockhouse belfy or Clock Tower, built between 1403 and 1412, seems to have been intended both as a visible and audible statement of the town's continuing civic ambitions against the power of the Abbot.
During the Wars of the Roses two battles were fought in and around St Albans. The First Battle of St Albans on 22 May 1455 was a Lancastriandefeat that opened the war. The Lancastrian army occupied the town but the Yorkist forces broke in and a battle took place in the streets of the town. On 17 February 1461 the Second Battle of St Albans on Bernards Heath north of the town centre resulted in a Lancastrian victory.
Following the Reformation, the Abbey was dissolved in 1539 and the Abbey Church sold to the town in 1553 for £400: it became a Protestant parish church for the borough and the Lady Chapel was used as a school. The Great Gatehouse was used as a prison until the 19th century, when it was taken over by St Albans School. In May 1553, in response to a public petition, the first royal charter for the town was issued by King Edward VI, granting it the status of borough. The charter defined the powers of the mayor and councillors, then known as burgesses, as well as specifying the Wednesday and Saturday market days which continue to this day.
In 1555, during the reign of Queen Mary I, a Protestant Yorkshire baker, George Tankerfield, was brought from London and burnt to death on Romeland because of his refusal to accept the Roman Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation.
During the English Civil War (1642–45) the town sided with parliament but was largely unaffected by the conflict.
An early transport hub
Three main roads date from the medieval period - Holywell Hill, St Peter's Street, and Fishpool Street. These remained the only major streets until around 1800 when London Road was constructed, to be followed by Hatfield Road in 1824 and Verulam Road in 1826.
Verulam Road was created specifically to aid the movement of stage coaches, since St Albans was the first major stop on the coaching route north from London. The large number of coaching inns is, in turn, one reason why the City has so many pubs today (another being that it was, and remains, a major centre for Christian pilgrimage).
The railway arrived in 1868, off-setting the decline in coaching since the 1840s.
Growth was always slow and steady, with no sudden burst: in 1801 there were 6,000 people living in St Albans; in 1850 11,000; in 1931 29,000; and in 1950 44,000.
The City Charter
In 1877, in response to a public petition, Queen Victoria issued the second royal charter, which granted city status to the borough and Cathedral status to the former Abbey Church. The new diocese was established in the main from parts of the large Diocese of Rochester. Lord Grimthorpe financed a £130,000 renovation and rebuilding of the then dilapidated cathedral, which is most apparent in his generally poorly regarded Neo-Gothic rebuild of the west front (1880–1883). However, without Grimthorpe's money, it seems reasonable to assume that the Abbey Church would now almost certainly be a ruin, like many other former monastic churches, despite the work performed under Sir George Gilbert Scott in the years 1860 to 1877.
The city's football club (St Albans City F.C.) was founded in 1880.
Ralph Chubb, the poet and printer, lived on College Street in St Albans from 1892 to 1913, and attended St Albans School. His work frequently references the Abbey of St Albans, and he ascribed mystical significance to the geography and history of the town.
World War I
In September 1916, following an attack on St Albans, the German Airship SL 11 became the first airship to be brought down over England. But when London Colney was attacked, the nation was so angered it became united in its battle.
Modern growth
Between the wars
In the inter-war years St Albans, in common with much of the surrounding area, became a centre for emerging high-technology industries, most notably aerospace. Nearby Radlett was the base for Handley Page Aircraft Company, while Hatfield became home to de Havilland. St Albans itself became a centre for the Marconi plc company, specifically, Marconi Instruments. Marconi (later part of the General Electric Company) remained the city's largest employer (with two main plants) until the 1990s. A third plant - working on top secret defence work - also existed. Even Marconi staff only found out about this when it closed down. All of these industries are now gone from the area.
In 1936 St Albans was the last but one stop for the Jarrow Crusade.
Post-war growth
The City was expanded significantly after World War II, as government policy promoted the creation of New Towns and the expansion of existing towns. Substantial amounts of local authority housing were built at Cottonmill (to the south), Mile House (to the south-east) and New Greens (to the north). The Marshalswick area to the north-east was also expanded, completing a pre-war programme.
In 1974 St Albans City Council, St Albans Rural District Council and Harpenden Town Council were merged to form St Albans District Council(part of a much wider local government reorganisation).
The 2001 census returns show a population of 129,000 for St Albans City and District, which had risen to 140,664 at the 2011 census.
Detail van het beeld ‘Fusillade – De gevallen hoornblazer’ van Gerrit Bolhuis. Ter nagedachtenis aan dertig mannen die hier op 12 maart 1945 op deze plek zijn gefusilleerd door de Duitse bezetter. Vele andere mensen, waaronder ook kinderen, werden door Duitse soldaten gedwongen de fusillade te aanschouwen, het hoofd afwenden werd bestraft.
De gezichtsuitdrukking vind ik bijzonder treffend: van een man die sterft terwijl het hoorngeschal van de bevrijding in aantocht is, hoewel de bevrijding van Amsterdam nog bijna twee lange maanden op zich liet wachten.
nos.nl/75jaarbevrijding/bericht/2326789-zoektocht-naar-co...
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Detail of the sculpture ‘Execution – The fallen hornblower’ by Gerrit Bolhuis. In remembrance of thirty men who were executed by a firing squad of the German occupier on 12 March 1945 at this location. Many other people, including children, were forced by German soldiers to witness the execution. Turning the head away was punished.
The expression of the face I find very poignant: that of a man who is dying while the horn scalding of the liberation is underway, although it would take nearly two long months before Amsterdam was liberated.
nos.nl/75jaarbevrijding/bericht/2326789-zoektocht-naar-co...
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Dank voor het bekijken, commentaren, favorieten en kritiek.
Geen verder gebruik zonder mijn uitdrukkelijke toestemming. ·
Thanks for watching, comments, favourites and critique.
No further use without my explicit consent.
I feel like this sign literally sets the tone for everything you do during your day at either the Magic Kingdom in Florida, or at Disneyland in California. Absolute brilliance.
That said, it is executed far, far better in California. At Disneyland, these signs are out in the open, and you always see them before you pass under the railroad track. It is a constant reminder of what is to come, for new and old guests. In Florida, for some odd reason, they always have theirs covered by some stupid banner that goes along with their current promotion. Whether it is "What Will You Celebrate?" or "Let the Memories Begin", these staples of Disney storytelling are hidden from view from Magic Kingdom guests, unless you actively search them out.
Hopping off my soapbox now. This was shot with Ryan's favorite lens, the Canon 135mm f/2. Thanks for lookin', and have a great day!
@ Tate Modern, London
Hrair Sarkissian’s Execution Squares 2008 comprises a series of photographs depicting the sites of public executions in Syria, the artist’s country of birth. The images were taken in three different cities – Damascus, Aleppo and Lattakia – in places where public executions have taken place, for civil rather than political crimes. Sarkissian took these photographs early in the morning when the streets were quiet, around the time when executions are carried out. The subject of an execution will usually be brought to the square at 4.30 a.m., but their body is routinely left there in full view of passers-by until around 9.00 a.m. Sarkissian’s first personal experience of an execution was as a child when he passed one of these squares on his journey to school and saw three bodies hanging in the street.
Si apre sulla sinistra del corpo longitudinale della basilica (pressoché a metà altezza di questo) proprio sul lato opposto rispetto alla Cappella di San Domenico. Fu voluta inizialmente dal nobile Giovanni Guidotti, come cappella per la sua famiglia (1460-1465) e della sua realizzazione furono incaricati Francesco Abaco ed il comasco Giovanni di Pietro. Nella seconda metà del XVI secolo la cappella venne ottenuta dalla Confraternita del Santo Rosario, nata in seno all'Ordine domenicano nel secolo precedente (la pratica della Preghiera del Rosario venne introdotta proprio da Domenico). In quell'occasione la cappella mutò il nome in “Cappella del Rosario”, in onore alla “Madonna del Rosario”. A tale scopo fu rifatto l'altare da Floriano Ambrosini (1589). Questo accoglie al centro la veneratissima immagine della “Beata Vergine del Rosario” e ai lati quindici formelle dipinte raffiguranti i “Quindici Misteri del Rosario”, terminate nel 1601 da vari artisti di scuola perlopiù bolognese. Dopo la metà del XVII secolo la volta della cappella fu ristrutturata. In quell'occasione furono aggiunti gli affreschi sulla volta e sulla conca absidale da parte di Angelo Michele Colonna e Agostino Mitelli (1655-1657). Questi raffigurano, rispettivamente, l'Assunta e il Cielo e la terra che rendono gloria alla Madonna del Rosario. I due artisti decorarono anche le pareti laterali, anche se i loro lavori vennero rifatti nel XVIII e XIX secolo. Le due cantorie furono realizzate da Carlo Francesco Dotti (1736). A destra dell'altare si trova l'organo su cui Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart studiò nel periodo in cui fu ospite a Bologna come allievo di padre Giovanni Battista Martini per sostenere l'esame per l'aggregazione all'Accademia Filarmonica di Bologna. L'organo è stato costruito da G. Giovagnoni nel 1760 e restaurato nel 2003 da Seri e Ungarelli. Ha una tastiera di 45 tasti con prima ottava scavezza e pedaliera di 18 pedali anch'essa con prima ottava scavezza ed è composto da 10 registri.
It opens to the left of the longitudinal body of the basilica (almost halfway up this) right on the opposite side from the Chapel of San Domenico. It was initially commissioned by the nobleman Giovanni Guidotti, as a chapel for his family (1460-1465) and his execution was commissioned by Francesco Abaco and Giovanni di Pietro. In the second half of the sixteenth century the chapel was obtained from the Confraternity of the Holy Rosary, born within the Dominican Order in the previous century (the practice of the Rosary Prayer was introduced by Dominic). On that occasion the chapel changed its name to "Chapel of the Rosary", in honor of the "Madonna del Rosario". For this purpose the altar was redone by Floriano Ambrosini (1589). This center welcomes the venerated image of the "Beata Vergine del Rosario" and on the sides fifteen painted panels depicting the "Fifteen Mysteries of the Rosary", finished in 1601 by various school artists mostly Bolognese. After the middle of the seventeenth century the vault of the chapel was restored. On that occasion the frescoes on the vault and on the apsidal basin were added by Angelo Michele Colonna and Agostino Mitelli (1655-1657). These represent, respectively, the Assumption and the Heaven and the earth that give glory to Our Lady of the Rosary. The two artists also decorated the side walls, although their work was redone in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The two choirs were made by Carlo Francesco Dotti (1736). On the right of the altar is the organ on which Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart studied in the period in which he was a guest in Bologna as a pupil of Father Giovanni Battista Martini to take the examination for aggregation at the Accademia Filarmonica di Bologna. The organ was built by G. Giovagnoni in 1760 and restored in 2003 by Seri and Ungarelli. It has a 45-key keyboard with first eighth steps and a pedal board with 18 pedals, also with first eighth steps and consists of 10 registers.
Five women fall victim to a firing squad, they were among 100 Slovenians shot in the village of Celje in 1942.
One method the Nazis used to discourage rebellion was the shooting of hostages, especially women and children, in retaliation for acts of resistance. Five women, about to fall victims to a firing squad, were among 100 Slovenians shot in the village of Celje in 1942. The Nazis believed that the shooting of women and children would be especially effective in discouraging resistance activity. Yet, even such atrocities did not completely halt the actions of the Yugoslavian partisans.
Photo: Lydia Chagoll / United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Photo Archive
Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rizal_Monument
The Rizal Monument (original title: Motto Stella, Latin, "guiding star") is a memorial in Rizal Park in Manila, Philippines built to commemorate the executed Filipino nationalist, José Rizal. The monument consists of a standing bronze sculpture of Rizal, with an obelisk, set on a stone base within which his remains are interred. A plaque on the pedestal's front reads: "To the memory of José Rizal, patriot and martyr, executed on Bagumbayan Field December Thirtieth 1896. This monument is dedicated by the people of the Philippine Islands".
The perimeter of the monument is guarded continuously by the Philippine Marine Corps’ Marine Security and Escort Group, the changing of the guard having become a daily ritual. About 100 m (330 ft) north-northwest of the monument is the exact location where Rizal was executed, marked by life-size dioramas depicting his final moments.
An exact replica of the Rizal Monument can be found in Madrid, Spain at the junction of Avenida de Las Islas Filipinas and Calle Santander.
A complete equipment for the execution with an axe (1:5 replicas). Used in Germany at the end of the 19-th and early 20-th century. The executions took place in the gray morning in each prison yard. The bench, as well as the block was attached to the bottom of the scaffold, in order not to endanger the safe running of the execution. Around the block was sprinkled a lot sawdust to soak up the blood. The convict was printed by the assistants of the executioner to the bank. Here, the arms of the condemned were pulled down by using the rope and shackles on the existing block rings around the block . The head was printed in the notch on the block and is fixed. The whole ceremony was "accompanied" by the ringing of the sinners' bell until the ax fell.
The Grade I Listed Peterborough Cathedral, in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire.
It has been the site of church since 655 when one of the first centres of Christianity in central England known simply as Medeshamstede was founded during the reign of the Anglo-Saxon King Peada of the Middle Angles.
In 966 a Benedictine Abbey was created out of the former church by Athelwold, Bishop of Winchester. The Abbey survived battles between local folk-hero Hereward the Wake and the Norman invaders, but was destroyed by an accidental fire in 1116. Due to this it was rebuilt into the modern building between 1118-1237 in the Norman style.
The church houses many relics including the arm of St Oswald, two pieces of swaddling clothes which wrapped the baby Jesus, pieces of Jesus' manger, a part of the five loaves which fed the 5,000, a piece of the raiment of St Mary, a piece of Aaron's rod, and relics of St Peter, St Paul and St Andrew - to whom the church is dedicated.)
In 1541, following Henry VIII's Dissolution of the Monasteries all of the church's relics were lost but the church survived by being selected as the cathedral of the new Diocese of Peterborough. This may have been related to the fact that Henry's former queen, Katherine of Aragon, had been buried there in 1536.
In 1587, the body of Mary, Queen of Scots, was also buried here after her execution at nearby Fotheringhay Castle, but it was later removed to Westminster Abbey on the orders of her son, King James I of England.
The Postcard
A carte postale that was published by Laurent-Nel of Rennes. The image is a glossy real photograph. It was posted in Quiberon on Saturday the 10th. July 1937 to:
Miss M. Reeks,
74, Elphinstone Road,
Hastings,
England.
However, Miss Reeks' address has been crossed out and the card was forwarded from Hastings on the 13th. July 1937 to:
1, Chandos Road,
Cricklewood,
London NW2.
The pencilled message on the divided back of the card was as follows:
"Saturday.
Dear Miss Reeks,
No doubt you will be
surprised to hear from
me.
I had a very nice time in
Paris, the Exhibition was
really lovely, but not near
finished yet.
Now we have moved
further on to Quiberon, a
pretty seaside, but nothing
to do.
The women dress in their
national costume and the
men go out fishing.
There is no music or lights
in the town. All you do is
watch the fishermen or go
on the beach.
Kind regards to Mrs. Taylor.
Hoping to see you soon,
V. M. Alan".
The International Exhibition in Paris
The exhibition to which the writer referred was the
Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques Dans la Vie Moderne.
The Exposition was held from the 25th. May to the 25th. November 1937 in Paris, France. It was held in the Palais de Chaillot, with 45 countries participating.
Quiberon
Quiberon is a commune in the French department of Morbihan, administrative region of Brittany, western France.
It is situated on the southern part of the Quiberon peninsula, the northern part being the commune of Saint-Pierre-Quiberon. It is primarily known as a seaside resort for French tourists during summer, and for its history of sardine production.
Quiberon is connected to the mainland by a tombolo which is a sandy isthmus.
History of Quiberon
During the Seven Years' War the bay was the site of the Battle of Quiberon Bay (1759) between the French and British fleets. Then later in July 1795 during the period of the French Revolution, Quiberon was used by French Royalist exiles, with assistance from the British, as the base for a failed invasion of Brittany (traditionally a royalist area). However the invasion was defeated by the Revolutionaries under General Lazare Hoche.
In the 19th. century, Nicolas Appert, a chemist, developed a technique that permitted the sterilisation of food. Thanks to this process, Quiberon became the leading harbour for sardine fishing and the production of canned sardines in France.
Many families from the Finistère département migrated to Quiberon for the fishing season (May to October). When the men put out to sea, the women worked in the sardine can factories.
The railway between Auray and Quiberon was inaugurated in 1882. It changed Quiberon's way of life. Fishing, canning and the exploitation of seaweed became replaced by tourism. At that time, some famous people stayed in Quiberon, including the writers Gustave Flaubert and Anatole France, and the actress Sarah Bernhardt.
The year 1924 was important for the peninsula because it was classified as health resort.
Penthièvre Fort
During the Second World War, Penthièvre Fort at the narrow isthmus was occupied by the Germans, and incorporated into the Atlantic Wall. It housed various blockhouses, but was mainly used by the infantry.
In July 1944, 59 resistance fighters were tortured and buried alive there. A Cross of Lorraine mounted on a stone pillar, with a plaque listing the names of the fighters, stands there in memory of them. Although the fort is still of military importance (as a training base), a tunnel where the bodies were discovered can be visited.
Note on the left of the photograph there is an advertisement for 'Bains Penthièvre'.
George Eliava
So what else happened on the day that the card was posted?
Well, the 10th. July 1937 was not a good day for George Eliava, because on that day he was executed at the age of 45 in Tbilisi, Georgian SSR, Soviet Union.
George, who was born on the 13th. January 1892 in Sachkhere, Kutais Governorate, Russian Empire, was a Georgian-Soviet microbiologist who worked with bacteriophages (viruses that infect bacteria).
George Eliava's Career
From 1909 to 1912 George studied medicine at Novorossiysk University and continued his studies in Geneva until 1914. He graduated at Moscow University in 1916. The same year, he became head of the bacteriological laboratory in Trabzon.
in 1917 he headed the bacteriological laboratory in Tbilisi. In 1918–1921, and again in 1926–1927, he worked at the Pasteur Institute in Paris, where he met Félix d'Hérelle, the co-discoverer of bacteriophages.
Eliava became excited about the potential of bacteriophages in medical applications, and brought the research (and, eventually, d'Hérelle), to Tbilisi.
In 1923, Eliava founded a bacteriological institute in Tbilisi to research and promote phage therapy. The institute was renamed George Eliava Institute in 1988.
From 1927, Eliava held the chair for hygiene at the medical faculty of Tbilisi, and from 1929 the chair for microbiology.
In 1934, the Tbilisi Black Death Centre was founded and headed by Eliava.
The Death of George Eliava
In 1937, Eliava was arrested and (together with his wife) executed as a "People's Enemy", either for being an intellectual or for competing for a woman with Lavrenti Beria, chief of the secret police to Joseph Stalin.
Mass Executions in Siberia
Also on that day, 24 people were executed in Siberia for sabotaging Soviet railways.
Chiang Kai-Shek
Also on the 10th. July 1937, Chiang Kai-Shek made a radio address to millions announcing the Kuomintang's policy of resistance against Japan.
zentrale Hinrichtungsstätte der DDR (von 1960 bis 1981)
[central place of execution of the GDR (from 1960 until 1981)]
www.mordort.de/morddetail/bei-eintritt-hinrichtung-260619...
Execution on the Old Town Square 21. 6. 1621
23-06-2001 | Olaf Barth, Katrin Bock
Olaf Barth and Katrin Bock now take a look at the events that took place on the Old Town Square 380 years ago.
Execution on the Old Town Square 21. 6. 1621
If you have ever been to Prague, you may have noticed the 27 crosses which have been embedded into the pavement at the foot of the Old Town Town Hall. Perhaps you have wondered about their origin. Well, in the following minutes you will learn more about the context of these crosses. First of all, listen to the Czech writer Alois Jirasek portraying the events at the end of the 19th century in one of his stories:
"In the night of 20 to 21 June 1621, fear and grief prevailed everywhere in Prague, and the roads had become like deserted, for on Prague restrictions had been imposed. Only the clash of the weapons and the heavy steps of foreign soldiers broke through the oppressive silence. On the Old Town Square there was a lot of activity, and boards and beams were unloaded from wagons and carried to the middle of the place, where a scaffold grew by the flickering light of numerous torches. By daybreak a gallows covered with red cloth was towering. At sunrise fulminated a cannon cracker showing that the execution had to begin. On the scaffold dark hooded people were visible, the assistents of the executioner and the gravedigger. Finally, the executioner, Jan Mydláø, also appeared. Immediately the imperial judges took their seats, and the names of the twenty-seven death-condemned noblemen were exclaimed. While foreign soldiers were drumming in the streets of Prague, in the houses people of Prague prayed for their faithful, the 27 men who were either beheaded or hanged at the same time. It is reported that once a year, always in the night from the 20th to the 21st of June, the noblemen and citizens appear on the Old Town Square. Silently they walk over the square to the church, where, kneeling before the altar, they receive the Last Supper in both forms. And as silently as they have come they disappear again."
The Hradschin 1618, in the year of the window-lintel (contemporary engraving)
So far the Czech writer Alois Jirasek about the events of that night 380 years ago, when the leaders of the insurrection of the Estates against the Catholic Habsburgs were judged. 27 nobles, gentlemen and citizens, Czechs and Germans, Protestants and a Catholic then left their lives. They were punished for having joined an uprising against the legal Habsburg emperor which had a religious background, for the Emperor had previously tried to restrict the freedom of religion which had been in force in the Bohemian lands since the middle of the fifteenth century. The revolt had begun on May 23, 1618, with the famous Prague defenestration, and ended with the battle Battle of White Mountain in November 1620, for the Czechs still today a national trauma. In that battle before the gates of Prague the army of the Catholic Habsburgs the Protestant Estates had utterly vanquished. What followed was a relentless persecution of all insurgents, regardless of their social position or nationality. Emperor Ferdinand II used his military victory to strengthen his position in the rebellious Bohemian lands, to suppress the Protestant faith and to break the power of the Estates once and for all.
Procession on the White Mountains (Josef Berka and A. Gustav, around 1800)
All persons who had somehow participated in the uprising of the Estates were punished. The worst punishment experienced three lords, seven knights and 17 citizens, who were executed in the early morning hours of June 21, 1621 on the Old Town Square. The execution took place conforming to the etiquette: first came the lords, then the knights, and finally the citizens. It is said the bloodthirsty torture to have lasted for four hours, while the executioner Jan Mydlar in the proces was to have beaten blunt four swords.
Joachim Andreas Graf Schlick was the first to be beheaded, whose family had grown rich thanks to the silver mines in the west Bohemian Jáchymov valley. Count Schlick had worked for many years at the Saxon court as an educator of the future ruler Johann Georg. During the Bohemian uprising of the Estates, Schlick had been quite active. Among other things, he was one of the participants of the famous 1618 defenestration. Next came Vaclav Budova from Budovec. Since the beginning of the 17th century, he had been strongly committed to the observance of the freedom of belief in the Bohemian lands and had been one of the spokesmen of the insurgents. As the third nobleman, Krystof Harant of Polzice and Bezdruzice lost his head. He had been court musician and companion of Rudolf at the court of Emperor Rudolf II. He was not very interested in politics, but he had been one of the military leaders of the insurgents, which now cost him his head. All three of them, without any doubt, belonged to the intellectual elite of the country, all three of them had been to many places, were well-educated, spoke several languages, and were Protestants.
Among the 7 knights was also the Catholic Divis Cernin of Chudenice. This one had made the fatal mistake of opening the gates of the castle to the representatives of the Estates on the 23rd of May, 1618, who then threw the three representatives of the Habsburg power out of a window in protest against the restriction of the rights of the Protestants.
Jan Jesensky
Jan Jessenius, the rector of the Charles University of Prague, was one of those who got the severest judgement. He was not only beheaded, his tongue had been cut off before, additionally he was also quartered after the execution. Emperor Ferdinand had expressed himself personally for this harsh judgment. The internationally respected scholar, who had carried out the first public autopsy in Prague in 1600, had aroused the wrath of the ruler as he had himself pronounced against the election of Ferdinand for the King of Bohemia as well as published a series of harsh writings against the Habsburgs.
The heads of twelve executed were hanged in iron baskets for deterrence and warning at the Old Town Bridge Tower. From there they were removed only 10 years later, when the Saxons 1631 occupied Prague for a short time.
Ferdinand II.
Emperor Ferdinand II took advantage of the victory over the rebellious Protestant estates, which had dethroned him, the legitimate heir, and elected another one, the "Winter King", Frederick of the Palatinate. 166 nobles Ferdinand had completely dispossessed, another 500 lost a large part of their estates. On the other hand, his faithful were rewarded. Those were given great lands in the Bohemian lands. In addition, monasteries were returned lands that they had lost during the Hussite wars in the 15th century.
The greatest winners were probably Albrecht von Waldstein, Karl von Liechtenstein, and Johann Ulrich von Eggenberg, who were now able to call great domains their own. But also other noble families then settled in the Bohemian lands, like the Trauttmansdorff, Thun, Metternich and Clary families.
Even ordinary citizens and peasants were affected: those who did not convert to the Catholic faith had to leave the country. In 1624 the Catholic faith became the only one recognized in the Bohemian lands - more and more subjects saw themselves forced to emigrate. Some 150,000 people are said to have left the Bohemian lands for religious reasons in the years after the defeat of the Protestant Estates. The probably most famous emigrant of that time is Jan Amos Komensky - Comenius. The pedagogue and bishop of the Unity of the Brotherhood settled down after a few journeys in Holland, where he died in 1670 at the age of 78.
Even in the eyes of most of today's Czechs, the "time of darkness" began with the defeat of the Protestant estates in the Battle of Weissenberg. As such, the almost 300 years of the unrestricted rule of the Habsburgs over the Bohemian countries were designated, which ended only with the independence of Czechoslovakia in 1918. The formerly proud kingdom of Bohemia had been degrated to a Habsburg province according to the new regional order of 1627, and had lost most of its rights, including the freedom of faith for which its inhabitants had fought since the death for heresy of Jan Hus in 1415. Today, not only the 27 crosses embedded on the Old Town Square, but also all the magnificent Baroque buildings in the country, are reminiscent of this historic epoch. With these the Catholic Habsburgs showed their Bohemian and Moravian subjects who is the boss in the country.
And so we are already at the end of our trip into the 17th century.
Hinrichtung auf dem Altstädter Ring 21. 6. 1621
23-06-2001 | Olaf Barth, Katrin Bock
Olaf Barth und Katrin Bock werfen heute einen Blick auf die Geschehnisse, die sich vor 380 Jahren auf dem Altstädter Ring ereigneten.
Hinrichtung auf dem Altstädter Ring 21. 6. 1621
Wer von Ihnen schon mal in Prag war, dem sind sie vielleicht aufgefallen, die 27 in das Pflaster eingelassenen Kreuze zu Füssen des Altstädter Rathausturmes. Vielleicht haben Sie sich über deren Ursprung gewundert. Nun in den folgenden Minuten erfahren Sie mehr über die Bewandtnis dieser Kreuze. Hören Sie zunächst einmal, wie der tschechische Schriftsteller Alois Jirasek die entsprechenden Ereignisse Ende des 19. Jahrhunderts in einer seiner Geschichten schilderte:
"In der Nacht vom 20. auf den 21. Juni 1621 herrschte überall in Prag Angst und Trauer. Die Strassen waren wie ausgestorben, denn über Prag war Ausgangsverbot verhängt worden. Nur das Klirren der Waffen und schwere Schritte fremder Soldaten durchbrachen die bedrückende Stille. Auf dem Altstädter Ring herrschte reger Betrieb. Bretter und Balken wurden von Wagen abgeladen und zur Platzmitte getragen, wo beim flackernden Licht zahlreicher Fackeln ein Gerüst wuchs. Als es zu dämmern begann, ragte da ein mit rotem Stoff überzogener Galgen empor. Beim Sonnenaufgang donnerte von der Prager Burg ein Kanonenschlag. Ein Zeichen dafür, dass die Exekution beginne. Auf dem Galgengerüst waren dunkle vermummte Gestalten zu sehen - die Henkershelfer und der Totengräber. Schliesslich erschien auch der Henker Jan Mydláø. Alsbald nahmen die kaiserlichen Richter ihre Sitze ein, und die Namen der 27 zum Tode verurteilten Standesherren wurden ausgerufen. Während in den Strassen Prags fremde Soldaten trommelten, beteten in den Häusern die Prager für ihre Getreuen, die 27 Herren, die zur selben Zeit geköpft oder gehängt wurden. Es wird berichtet, dass die hingerichteten Adeligen und Bürger einmal im Jahr, immer in der Nacht vom 20. auf den 21. Juni, auf dem Altstädter Ring erscheinen. Schweigend gehen sie über den Platz zur Kirche, wo sie, vor dem Altar knieend, das Abendmahl in beiderlei Gestalt empfangen. Und so lautlos wie sie gekommen verschwinden sie wieder."
Der Hradschin 1618, im Jahre des Fenstersturzes (Zeitgenössiger Stich)
Soweit der tschechische Schriftsteller Alois Jirasek über die Ereignisse jener Nacht vor 380 Jahren, als die Anführer des Ständeaufstandes gegen die katholischen Habsburger gerichtet wurden. 27 Adelige, Herren und Bürger, Tschechen und Deutsche, Protestanten und ein Katholik liessen damals ihr Leben. Bestraft wurden sie dafür, dass sie sich einem Aufstand gegen den rechtmässigen Habsburger Kaiser angeschlossen hatten, der einen religiösen Hintergrund hatte, denn der Kaiser hatte zuvor versucht, die seit Mitte des 15. Jahrhunderts in den Böhmischen Ländern geltende Religionsfreiheit einzuschränken. Der Aufstand hatte am 23. Mai 1618 mit dem berühmten Prager Fenstersturz begonnen und mit der für Tschechen noch heute ein nationales Trauma darstellenden Schlacht am Weissen Berg im November 1620 geendet. In jener Schlacht vor den Toren Prags hatte das Heer der katholischen Habsburger die protestantischen Stände vernichtend geschlagen. Was folgte war eine unbarmherzige Verfolgung aller Aufständischen, ungeachtet ihrer gesellschaftlichen Stellung oder Nationalität. Kaiser Ferdinand II. nutzte seinen militärischen Sieg, um seine Stellung in den aufständischen Böhmischen Ländern zu stärken, den protestantischen Glauben zurückzudrängen und die Macht der Stände ein für alle mal zu brechen.
Prozession am Weißen Berge (Josef Berka und A. Gustav, um 1800)
Alle Personen, die irgendwie an dem Ständeaufstand beteiligt gewesen waren, wurden bestraft. Am schlimmsten traf es dabei drei Herren, sieben Ritter und 17 Bürger, die in den frühen Morgenstunden des 21. Junis 1621 auf dem Altstädter Ring hingerichtet wurden. Bei der Hinrichtung wurde die Etike gewahrt: zuerst waren die Herren dran, dann die Ritter und schliesslich die Bürger. Vier Stunden lang soll die blutige Tortur gedauert haben, vier Schwerter soll der Henker Jan Mydlar dabei stumpf geschlagen haben.
Als erster wurde Joachim Andreas Graf Schlick geköpft, dessen Familie dank der Silberminen im westböhmischen Joachimsthal reich geworden war. Graf Schlick hatte jahrelang am sächsischen Hof als Erzieher des zukünftigen Herrschers Johann Georg gewirkt. Während des böhmischen Ständeaufstands war Schlick recht aktiv gewesen, unter anderem gehörte er zu den Teilnehmern des berühmten Fenstersturzes von 1618. Als nächstes kam Vaclav Budova von Budovec an die Reihe. Dieser hatte sich seit dem Beginn des 17. Jahrhunderts stark für die Einhaltung der Glaubensfreiheit in den Böhmischen Ländern eingesetzt und war einer der Wortführer der Aufständischen gewesen. Als dritter hochgestellter Adeliger verlor Krystof Harant von Polzice und Bezdruzice seinen Kopf. Dieser war am Hofe Kaiser Rudolfs II. Hofmusikant und Gesellschafter Rudolfs gewesen. Für Politik interessierte er sich nicht sehr, doch war er einer der Heerführer der Aufständischen gewesen, das kostete ihn nun seinen Kopf. Alle drei Herren gehörten ohne Zweifel zur geistigen Elite des Landes, alle drei waren weitgereist, hervorragend gebildet, sprachen mehrere Sprachen - und waren Protestanten.
Unter den 7 Rittern war auch der Katholik Divis Cernin von Chudenice. Dieser hatte den verhängnisvollen Fehler gemacht, am 23. Mai 1618 den Repräsentanten der Stände die Burgtore geöffnet zu haben, die dann die drei Vertreter der Habsburger Macht aus Protest gegen die Einschränkung der Rechte der Protestanten aus einem Fenster warfen.
Jan Jesensky
Eines der härtesten Urteile traf Jan Jessenius, den Rektor der Prager Karlsuniversität, der als 16. an die Reihe kam: er wurde nicht nur geköpft, zuvor wurde ihm die Zunge abgeschnitten, ausserdem wurde er nach der Hinrichtung noch geviertelt. Für dieses harte Urteil hatte sich Kaiser Ferdinand persönlich ausgesprochen. Der international angesehene Gelehrte, der 1600 in Prag die erste öffentliche Obduktion durchgeführt hatte, hatte den Zorn des Herrschers erregt, da er sich auf verschiedenen Landtagen gegen die Wahl Ferdinands zum böhmischen König ausgesprochen sowie eine Reihe von scharfen Schriften gegen die Habsburger veröffentlicht hatte.
Die Köpfe von zwölf Hingerichteten wurden in Eisenkörben zur Abschreckung und Warnung an den Altstädter Brückenturm gehängt. Von dort wurden sie erst 10 Jahre später entfernt, als die Sachsen 1631 Prag für kurze Zeit besetzten.
Ferdinand II.
Kaiser Ferdinand II. nutzte seinen Sieg über die aufständischen protestantischen Stände, die ihn, den rechtmässigen Erben, entthront hatten und einen anderen, den "Winterkönig" Friedrich von der Pfalz, gewählt hatten. 166 Adelige liess Ferdinand vollkommen enteignen, weitere 500 verloren einen Grossteil ihrer Güter. Belohnt wurden dagegen seine Getreuen. Diese erhielten grosse Ländereien in den Böhmischen Ländern. Ausserdem bekamen Klöster Ländereien zurück, die sie zur Zeit der Hussitenkriege im 15. Jahrhundert verloren hatten.
Die grössten Gewinner waren wohl Albrecht von Waldstein, Karl von Liechtenstein sowie Johann Ulrich von Eggenberg, die nun grosse Herrschaften ihr Eigen nennen konnten. Aber auch andere Adelsdfamilien setzten damals in den Böhmischen Ländern ihren Fuss, wie die Familien Trauttmansdorff, Thun, Metternich und Clary.
Auch einfache Bürger und Bauern waren betroffen: wer nicht zum katholischen Glauben übertrat, musste das Land verlassen. 1624 wurde der katholische Glaube der einzig anerkannte in den Böhmischen Ländern - immer mehr Untertanen sahen sich gezwungen, zu emigrieren. Rund 150.000 Menschen sollen in den Jahren nach der Niederlage der protestantischen Stände die Böhmischen Länder aus religiösen Gründen verlassen haben. Der wohl bekannteste Emigrant jener Zeit ist Jan Amos Komensky - Comenius. Der Pädagoge und Bischof der Brüderunität liess sich nach einigen Reisen in Holland nieder, wo er 1670 im Alter von 78 Jahren verstarb.
Auch in den Augen der meisten heutigen Tschechen begann damals mit der Niederlage der protestantischen Stände in der Schlacht am Weissen Berg die "Zeit der Finsternis". Als solche werden die knapp 300 Jahre der uneingeschränkten Herrschaft der Habsburger über die Böhmischen Länder bezeichnet, die erst mit der Unabhängigkeit der Tschechoslowakei 1918 endeten. Das einstmals stolze Königreich Böhmen war nach der neuen Landesordnung von 1627 zu einer Habsburger Provinz degradiert worden und hatte die meisten seiner Rechte verloren - auch das der Glaubensfreiheit, für das seine Bewohner seit dem Ketzertod des Jan Hus 1415 gekämpft hatten. Heute erinnern an diese Geschichtsepoche nicht nur die 27 in das Strassenpflaster eingelassenen Kreuze auf dem Altstädter Ring, sondern auch all die prächtigen Barockbauten im Lande. Mit diesen zeigten die katholischen Habsburger ihren böhmischen und mährischen Untertanen, wer der Herr im Lande ist.
Und damit sind wir bereits am Ende unseres Ausfluges in das 17. Jahrhundert.
www.radio.cz/de/rubrik/geschichte/hinrichtung-auf-dem-alt...
Accession Number: 1972:0033:0037
Maker: Unidentified
Title: Execution of the Conspirators - Springing of the Trap. [From Harpers Weekly, July 22, 1865]
Date: 1865
Medium: wood engraving
Dimensions: Image: 12.4 x 12.4 cm, Mount: 27 x 34.5 cm
George Eastman House Collection
About the Collection · Blog · Reproductions & Image Licensing
This digitally composed image is a haunting, dystopian reinterpretation of Eddie Adams’ iconic 1968 Vietnam War photograph, "Saigon Execution." In the original, South Vietnamese General Nguyễn Ngọc Loan executes a Viet Cong suspect on a Saigon street during the Tet Offensive, an image that shocked the world and shifted public perception of the war.
In my adaptation, the gunman is replaced by President Donald Trump, and the victim by a distressed, bound figure styled as the Statue of Liberty. Set against the backdrop of a ruined American city, the imagery draws a chilling parallel between historical authoritarian violence and contemporary threats to democracy, freedom of speech, and civil liberties.
The Postcard
A postcard that was printed and published by J. Salmon of Sevenoaks during the days when men's trousers were opened and closed with buttons rather than zips. The artwork was by F. G. Lewin.
The card was posted in Isleham, Cambridgeshire using a 1d. stamp on Monday the 11th. December 1922. It was sent to:
Mr. F. W. Deacon,
Fire Station,
Mitcham Lane,
Streatham,
London.
The pencilled message on the divided back of the card was as follows:
"Hope you are all well
and enjoy the Service.
Very nice don't you
think?
Love to all,
A. H."
A Transfer of Power in Poland
So what else happened on the day that the card was posted?
Well, on the 11th. December 1922, Gabriel Narutowicz was inaugurated as the first President of Poland amid violent rioting by an estimated 20,000 protesters.
The unrest arose from a speech made the previous day by General Jozef Haller, commander-in-chief of the Army of Poland.
The protesters were mostly students and school boys who were seeking to prevent the inaugural ceremony. They pelted the new President with snowballs as he was being driven to the National Assembly Chamber.
In clashes with police, four protesters were killed, and more than 100 injured, ten of them seriously.
William G. Henderson
The day also marked the death at the age of 40 of William G. Henderson. William was an American motorcycle manufacturer and inductee into the Motorcycle Hall of Fame.
He was killed in an accident while testing the latest model produced by his Ace Motor Corporation, when he collided with an automobile at an intersection in Philadelphia.
Two British Executions
Also on the 11th. December 1922, British couple Edith Thompson and Frederick Bywaters were found guilty of the murder of Edith's husband, Percy Thompson, and sentenced to death. Their case became a cause célèbre; nevertheless they were both hanged 15 days later.
(a) Edith Thompson
Edith Thompson was born Edith Jessie Graydon on the 25th. December 1893, at 97 Norfolk Road in Dalston, London, the first of the five children of William Eustace Graydon, a clerk with the Imperial Tobacco Company, and his wife Ethel Jessie Graydon (née Liles), the daughter of a police constable.
During her childhood, Edith was a happy, talented girl who excelled at dancing and acting, and was academically bright, with a natural ability in arithmetic. After leaving school in 1909 she joined a firm of clothing manufacturers near Aldgate station in London.
Then, in 1911, she was employed at Carlton & Prior, wholesale milliners, in the Barbican and later in Aldersgate. Edith quickly established a reputation as a stylish and intelligent woman, and was promoted several times, until she became the company's chief buyer and made regular trips to Paris on their behalf.
In 1909, at the age of 15, Edith met Percy Thompson who was three years her senior. After a six-year engagement, they were married at St. Barnabas, Manor Park on the 15th. January 1916.
At first, the couple lived in Retreat Road in Westcliff-on-Sea, before buying a house at 41 Kensington Gardens in the then-fashionable London suburb of Ilford in July 1920. With both their careers flourishing, they lived a comfortable life.
(b) Frederick Bywaters
In 1920, the couple became acquainted with 18-year-old Frederick Bywaters.
Frederick Bywaters had enlisted in the merchant navy. Twenty-six year-old Edith was immediately attracted to Bywaters, who was handsome and impulsive, and whose stories of his travels around the world excited Edith's love of romantic adventure.
To Edith, the youthful Bywaters represented her romantic ideal; by comparison, 29-year-old Percy seemed staid and conventional.
Percy—oblivious to the emerging romantic attraction between his wife and Bywaters—welcomed the youth into their company. Shortly thereafter, the trio—joined by Edith's sister Avis—holidayed in Shanklin on the Isle of Wight. Upon their return, Percy invited Bywaters to lodge with them.
(c) The Affair
While holidaying in the Isle of Wight in June 1921, Edith and Bywaters began an affair. Initially, Percy was unaware of this, although he gradually noticed his wife was drifting away from him.
Matters came to a head barely a month after the affair started. A trivial incident in the Thompsons’ garden triggered a violent row during which Percy Thompson struck his wife and caused her to fall over some furniture. Bywaters intervened and Thompson ordered him out of the house.
The Thompsons' sitting tenant, a Mrs. Lester, commented on Mrs Thompson's bruises in one of her statements to police.
From September 1921 until September 1922 Bywaters was at sea, and during this time Edith Thompson wrote to him frequently. After his return, they met up again.
(d) The Murder
On the 3rd. October 1922, the Thompsons attended a performance at the Criterion Theatre in Piccadilly Circus, together with Edith's uncle and aunt, Mr. and Mrs. J. Laxton. They left the theatre at 11 pm and they all went to Piccadilly Circus tube station, where they separated.
The Thompsons caught the 11:30 pm train to Ilford. As they walked along Belgrave Road, between Endsleigh and De Vere Gardens, a man jumped out from behind some bushes near their home and attacked Percy.
After a violent struggle, during which Edith Thompson was knocked to the ground, Percy was stabbed. Mortally wounded, he died before Edith could summon help. The attacker fled.
Neighbours later reported hearing a woman (assumed to have been Edith) screaming hysterically and shouting "Oh don’t, oh don’t" several times.
By the time police arrived Edith had not composed herself. At the police station the following day she was distressed. She was unaware that Bywaters was already a suspect: he was arrested that evening and taken to Ilford Police Station.
The police confronted Edith with Bywaters. One of the inspectors, Frank Hall, untruthfully told her that Bywaters had already confessed. She then admitted to the police that she knew who the assailant was, and provided the police with details of her association with Bywaters.
The police investigated further, and discovered a series of more than 60 love letters from Edith Thompson to Bywaters. The letters were the only tangible evidence linking Edith Thompson to the killer.
In the London Magistrates Court in Stratford, Edith's defence argued that the letters did not connect Mrs. Thompson to the place or manner of the murder. Accordingly they did not allow for consideration of common purpose, namely that if two people agree to achieve the death of a third, and one of these people acts on the expressed intentions of both, both are equally guilty.
The presiding magistrate decided that the letters should be admitted, and that the court at the Old Bailey would rule on it again. Edith Thompson and Frederick Bywaters were each committed for trial, charged with murder.
(e) The Old Bailey Trial
The trial began on the 6th. December 1922 at the Old Bailey, with Bywaters defended by Cecil Whiteley KC, and Thompson by Sir Henry Curtis-Bennett KC.
The prosecution for the Crown was led by the Solicitor-General Sir Thomas Inskip.
Bywaters had cooperated completely. He had led police to the murder weapon he concealed after the murder, and consistently maintained that he had acted without Edith's knowledge.
Edith Thompson's love letters were produced as evidence of incitement to murder. The letters dated from November 1921 to the end of September 1922. They ran to over 55,000 words, and afforded a day-to-day account of her life in London when her lover Bywaters was at sea.
In a few passages of these letters she writes about her longing to be free of her husband, Percy. She refers to grinding glass light bulbs to shards and feeding them to Percy mixed into mashed potato, and on another occasion feeding him poison.
She wrote about a woman who had lost three husbands and remarked:
“I can’t even lose one.”
Thompson described how she had carried out her own abortion after becoming pregnant by Bywaters.
Edith Thompson's counsel urged her not to testify, stressing that the burden of proof lay with the prosecution, and that there was nothing they could prove other than that she had been present at the murder.
However she rejected his advice. She was determined to give evidence, imagining that she could save Bywaters. As Curtis-Bennett later observed, she had no conception of the danger she was in.
She made a poor impression on the judge and the jury, particularly when she repeatedly contradicted herself. She had claimed that she had never attempted to poison her husband, and references in her letters to attempting to kill him were merely attempts to impress her paramour.
In answer to several questions relating to the meaning of some of the passages in her letters, she said:
"I have no idea."
Bywaters stated that Edith Thompson had known nothing of his plans, nor could she have, as he had not intended to murder her husband.
He claimed that his aim had been to confront Percy and to force him to deal with the situation, and that when Percy had reacted in a superior manner and threatened to shoot him, Bywaters had lost his temper.
Edith Thompson, he repeatedly claimed, had made no suggestion to him to kill Percy, nor did she know that Bywaters intended to confront him.
In discussing the letters, Bywaters stated that he had never believed Edith had attempted to harm her husband, but that he believed she had a vivid imagination, fuelled by the novels she enjoyed reading, and in her letters she viewed herself in some way as one of these fictional characters.
(f) Conviction
On the 11th. December the jury returned a verdict of guilty against both defendants. Both Thompson and Bywaters were sentenced to death by hanging.
Edith Thompson became hysterical and started screaming in the court, while Bywaters loudly protested Edith Thompson's innocence, stating:
"I say the verdict of the jury is
wrong. Edith Thompson is not
guilty."
(g) Imprisonment
Before and during the trial, Thompson and Bywaters were the subjects of highly sensationalist and critical media commentary. However after they had been sentenced to death, there was a dramatic shift in public attitudes and in media coverage.
Nearly a million people signed a petition against the death sentences. Bywaters in particular attracted admiration for his fierce loyalty and his protectiveness towards Edith Thompson, but she was widely regarded as the controlling mind that had set it all up.
It was generally considered abhorrent to hang a woman (no woman had been executed in Britain since 1907). Despite the petition and a new confession from Bywaters (in which he once again declared Thompson to be completely innocent) the Home Secretary, William Bridgeman, refused a reprieve.
A few days before their executions, Edith Thompson was told that the date of execution had been fixed, at which point she lost her composure. She spent the last few days of her life in a state of near-hysteria, crying, screaming, moaning, and unable to eat.
(h) The Executions
On the 9th. January 1923 in Holloway Prison, 29-year-old Edith Thompson collapsed in terror at the prospect of her hanging. Heavily sedated by the prison governor, almost unconscious, she was carried to the gallows by four prison warders.
The ordeal of executing Edith Thompson had a profound effect on her hangman John Ellis.
In Pentonville Prison, 20-year-old Frederick Bywaters, who had tried since his arrest to save Thompson from imprisonment and execution, was himself hanged.
The two executions occurred simultaneously at 9:00 am, only about 1⁄2 mile (800 m) apart.
(i) Burial
As was the rule, the bodies of Edith Thompson and Frederick Bywaters were initially buried within the walls of the prisons in which they had been executed.
In 1971 Holloway Prison underwent an extensive programme of rebuilding, during which the bodies of all the women executed there were exhumed for reburial outside the confines of the prison. With the exception of Ruth Ellis, the remains of the four women executed at Holloway (Edith Thompson, Styllou Christofi, Amelia Sach and Annie Walters) were reburied in a single grave at Brookwood Cemetery in Surrey.
The new grave (at plot 117) remained unmarked for over 20 years. It was acquired in the 1980's by René Weis and Audrey Russell, who had interviewed Avis Graydon (Edith Thompson's surviving sister) at length in the 1970's.
On the 13th. November 1993, a grey granite memorial was placed on plot 117, and dedicated to the memory of the four women buried there. The grave and plot were formally consecrated by the Reverend Barry Arscott of St. Barnabas, Manor Park, the church in which Edith Thompson was married in January 1916.
Edith Thompson's details appear prominently on the face of the tombstone, together with her an epitaph:
"Sleep on beloved. Her death
was a legal formality".
The names of the other three women are inscribed around the edges of the tombstone.
Representatives of the Home Office did not inform Avis Graydon of the exhumation and the fact that she had the right to take control of her sister's funeral arrangements.
The remains of Frederick Bywaters still lie in an unmarked grave within the walls of HMP Pentonville, where they were buried shortly after his execution in January 1923.
The remains of Percy Thompson are buried at the City of London Cemetery and Crematorium.
In her will, Avis Graydon expressed a wish for Mass to be said for members of the Graydon family every 9th. January, the anniversary of her sister Edith's death. This annual service of remembrance was restarted after the publication of Weis's book in 1988. Since the early 1990's, an annual service of remembrance has taken place at St. Barnabas, Manor Park (East Ham) every 9th. January at 8:30 am.
In July 2018 an exhumation order was granted by the Ministry of Justice to René Weis, Edith Thompson's executor and heir. On the 20th. November 2018 Edith Thompson's remains were exhumed from Brookwood Cemetery, and on the 22nd. November 2018 she was buried alongside her parents, in accordance with her mother's wishes, in the City of London Cemetery.
"On the morning of 27th May 1541, Margaret Pole was informed she would be dead within the hour. Henry VIII was determined to rid his realm of anyone that may pose a threat to his throne, which included a frail 67-year-old lady. Until the end, Margaret claimed her innocence before God, she stated no crime had been imputed to her and that she was wrongly judged. According to popular belief, a poem was found carved on the wall of her cell, as follows:
‘For traitors on the block should die;
I am no traitor, no, not I!
My faithfulness stands fast and so,
towards the block I shall not go!
Nor make one step, as you shall see;
Christ in Thy Mercy, save Thou me!’"
Blessed Margaret Pole was beheaded here, on East Smithfield Green, within the precincts of the Tower, on 27th May 1541, and buried in the chapel of St Peter ad Vincula.
"She died a traitor under the law, but to many others an unlawfully judged elderly woman who did not deserve her cruel end. Following the execution of his mother, Cardinal Reginald Pole said that he would ‘Never fear to call himself the son of a martyr’. And 345 years later, in 1886, Lady Salisbury became exactly that. On the 29th December 1886, she became the Blessed Margaret Pole under the Roman Catholic Church. She was beatified by Pope Leo XIII."
Today, 28 May, is her feast day.
Executions down across globe, says Amnesty International
The number of people executed by their own governments fell by 25 per cent last year, with China carrying out the most executions, Amnesty International said Friday.
The human rights organization report — the Annual Death Penalty Statistics — outlines the number of executions and death sentences carried out in the world in 2006.
According to the report, at least 1,591 people were known to be executed by their own governments in 25 countries last year.
Of those executions, 90 per cent took place in six countries:
China - 1,010
Iran - 177
Pakistan - 82
Iraq - 65
Sudan - 65
U.S.A. - 53
Amnesty International believes the Chinese figures are drastically underestimated, suggesting the real total is close to 8,000 executions, based on information from a Chinese legal expert. China keeps its prisoner executions a state secret.
Five of the executions are known to be people under 18: four in Iran and one in Pakistan
"The death penalty is the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment," said Amnesty Secretary General Irene Khan. "It must be abolished and a universal moratorium will be an important step forward."
Thousands on death row
The same year, 55 countries handed down 3,861 new death sentences, adding to the more than 20,000 people waiting on death row, said the report.
"A death penalty free world is possible if key governments are willing to show political leadership," said Khan.
Across the globe, Amnesty reports 128 countries have abolished the death penalty either by law or in practice, while 69 countries retain or use the death penalty.
Methods of execution include beheading, electrocution, hanging, lethal injection, shooting, stoning and stabbing.
While Canada abolished capital punishment in 1976, it retained the death penalty for military crimes such as treason or mutiny. All references to the death penalty were wiped from the National Defence Act in 1998.
The final execution in Canada took place in Toronto in December 1962, when two men were hanged for murder www.cbc.ca/world/story/2007/04/27/amnesty-executions.html...
*once the order is given, nothing and no one can stop it; all is done in perfect harmony;
shooters are trained to go for the heart, but frequently the bullets hit other parts of the body
The view from the side of the executioner. On the backside of the block known as blood box is mounted. This element can be easily detached and reattached.
Colouring History - WWII
German Wehrmacht General Anton Dostler is tied to a stake before his execution by a firing squad in a stockade in Aversa, Italy, on December 1, 1945. The General, Commander of the 75th Army Corps, was sentenced to death by an United States Military Commission in Rome for having ordered the shooting of 15 unarmed American prisoners of war, in La Spezia, Italy, on March 26, 1944.
Original B&W photo: cdn.theatlantic.com/static/infocus/ww2_20/s_w01_99-02957.jpg
"Soldier pointing gun at three men with hands behind their backs, standing in yard"
An obviously staged photograph with an ominous message. What appears to be a Free State officer with a revolver pointed at three prisoners with their hands behind their backs close to a wall. Taken around the time of the Irish Civil War when many such executions took place, the image was indeed no joke!
Photographer: Unknown
Collection: Irish Political Figures Photographic Collection
Date: Circa 1922?
NLI Ref: NPA POLI68
You can also view this image, and many thousands of others, on the NLI’s catalogue at catalogue.nli.ie
These photos of the aftermath of Mussolini's execution at the end of WWII were in the final pages of my Uncle Louis' WWII photo album. I know he was in North Africa and Italy, not sure where he was at the end of the war. These are actual photographs he had, not just something he ripped out of a magazine. I read somewhere that large numbers of these photos were sold to American GI's.
FAMOUS HEADS THAT ROLLED AT THE TOWER
Execution inside the Tower was a privilege reserved for those of high rank, or for those who had dangerously strong popular support, to keep them away from the gawping crowds. Ten people were beheaded on Tower Green which stretches to the west of the White Tower.
THE BEHEADED QUEENS
The most well known among those executed on or near Tower Green were three former queens of England. Two of those queens were wives of Henry VIII.
Anne Boleyn, the second wife of Henry VIII, was in her early 30s and Catherine Howard, Henry's fifth wife, was barely in her 20s. Both were accused of adultery, but neither may have been guilty.
The third queen to meet her end within the Tower was 16-year-old Lady Jane Grey. She was on the throne for just nine days, and was the innocent pawn in a failed military coup by her father-in-law, the Duke of Northumberland.
EXPERT AND BLUNDERING EXECUTIONS
Anne Boleyn was executed by the clean stroke of an expert swordsman shipped in from France especially for the occasion. On the day of her execution, she enquired, 'I heard say the executioner was very good, and I have a little neck.'
By contrast, Margaret Pole who was another victim of the axe was said to be much less lucky in her final moments. A blundering executioner was said to have ‘hacked her head and shoulders to pieces’.
THE EXECUTION SITE MEMORIAL
Today, at the very site of these executions on Tower Green you can see a memorial sculpture and quote dedicated to those who were condemned to death by order of the state.
Following the modest success of the post-WWII Ralston Tigre MkII, the Ralston company looked to a more ambitious and glamorous execution with the Tigre MkIII, released in 1961.
The basis for the new car, again came from the General Motors' premium division - Cadillac - for the architectural hardware.
The Frame & Underbody was developed from the 1959/60 GM 'C' Bodies - a short-lived production run for GM, hence the availability to the Ralston Company. Wheelbase was set at 130 in (3,302 mm) for the standard sedan, and all the specialty 2-door cars. The long-wheelbase Limousine, Town Car and Specialty models sharing the GM 'D' Body 150 in (3,805 mm) with the Cadillac Series 75 / Fleetwood.
Powertrain was also Cadillac derived, incluing the 390 CID (6.4 Litre) V8 engine. Power was rated the same 345 bhp (257 kW). Cadillac was to retire this engine, with the development of a new engine of the same capacity for 1961. For the MkIII-C of 1967 the V8 engine was enlarged to 429 CID (7.0 litre) with the new OHV Cadillac engine, but power remained the same as the 1961-67 models, while torque rose to 480 lb.ft (650 Nm).
One notable characteristic of all Ralston Tigre MkIII models are the reverse-opening doors. On all two-door cars, the doors operated on special hinges to move backwards along the body, offering easier ingress and egress for all passengers. For the four-door models, the front doors were conventionally hinged, per the originating GM 'C' and 'D' body vehicles, whilst the rear doors adopted the special hinged mechanism to allow rear passengers easier access. The adoption of GM's body-on-frame chassis permitted the omission of a conventional B-pillar on the four-door cars. A rarity at the time, but shared with the contemporary Lincoln saloons.
The real party trick appeared in 1964, with the introduction of the MkIII B. This model, though visually little changed from the MkIII of 1961, incorporated the first (and only) reintroduction of the V12 engine to the US-based motor industry.
Once more, the engine was based on that of a Cadillac.
www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2010/04/the-ohc-v12-that-cadill...
The prototype engines were produced in 7.4 and 8.2 litre forms, originally to support the fitment of the V12 to the upcoming Cadillac Eldorado - Cadillac's first front-wheel-drive vehicle. Ultimately the V12 installation in the Eldorado was cancelled, as the engineering team considered the engine to be transversely installed, until late in the development, where the V12 length would have been a significant disadvantage in terms of installing a matching transmission. Cadillac instead, continued with V8 development at the same swept capacities, even when the Eldorado was ultimately launched with the longitudinal engine installation with the gearbox alongside. As the Eldorado was to be the most premium of premium Cadillacs, the large capacity V8s filtered across to the RWD BOF models, but the V12 was not fitted to any of the division's cars.
This opened the possibility of offering the V12 to another luxury vehicle manufacturer who did not have the funding to develop such an engine on their own.
Ralston, wishing to also continue the production of the V8 models launched in 1961, renamed the V8 as the E I G H T, and offered the V12 engined as a premium model above this. In truth, the engine was the only key difference, as there were very few restriction on the use of either engine in combination with the low-volume bodystyles on offer.
Ralston remained (relatively) conservative on the engine specification, choosing not to lift the power from the original Cadillac specification, nonetheless choosing the larger 8.2 litre capacity engine at a rated 394 hp (296 kW) and 506 lb.ft (686 Nm).
Externally there was noting to differentiate between the fitment of the V8 and V12 engines to the cars, other than the subtle text spelling out or on the side engine vent ahead of the doors. The 1964 introduction coincided with a minor external facelift, key change being the fitment of a third 'X' feature in the front grille, replacing the '5th' headlamp feature fitted on 1961-early 1964 vehicles. Additionally, the modest tailfins were trimmed smaller again, and a more conservative rear licence plate treatment used in place of the 3rd rocket pod in the rear facia.
In 1967, the Tigre MkIII-C underwent further revisions. There were new front fenders, eliminating the large, round double stacked headlamps, replacing them with small corner bumperettes and small double-stacked corner lamps. the headlamps were now hidden behind louvres in the new grille. There was now a single 'X' form at the front of the grille, centrally mounted. At the rear, the existing rocket pod tail lamps were retained. The 1967 MkIII-C reverted to the MkIII 1961-64 trunklid and bumper, but with the central '+' rocket feature supplanted by the licence plate. For all SWB body styles. there were new tapered fender tops (barely fins), recalling the Tigre MkII C & D. Long wheelbase 4-door cars retained the MkIII-B rear fenders as they suited the overall vehicle lines better.
Minor changes to the side of the vehicle included deeper opening doors, and a more open front wheelarch taper. A chrome trim feature led from the front fender vent to the rear rocket pod.
The model shown here is the commonly ordered Hardtop Coupe - a very sharp looking car, despite the origins dating back eight years to 1959 for the basic architecture. The model is one of the 7.0 litre V8s, despite there being little differentiation externally to vehicles fitted with the V12.
A very similar car was used as the prototype vehicle fitted with early versions of the extremely rare V16. These cars were development mules for the proposed Ralston Centaur - to be termed , though ultimately no completed customer cars were ordered, the 21 prototype engines fitted to various Tigre MkIII vehicles were either completed as un-homologated show cars for use by the Ralston family on their various estates, later restored from their mule conditions to rare collector cars, or unfortunately, destroyed. It has been long rumoured that the 13 crushed cars all had their engines removed, so potentially there is a small pool of functioning 10 litre V16s waiting for re-fitment to Ralston chassis.
This Lego miniland-scale Ralston Tigre MkIII C Hardtop Coupe (1967) has been created for Flickr LUGNuts' 108th Build Challenge, - 'LUGNuts Turn Nine' - where all previous Challenge themes are available to chose to build from - to the theme of the 95th Build Challenge - "Designing the Ralston Legacy", - for the design of vehicles under the fictional 'Ralston' company. The models must include a 'X' design feature on the car or bike. A number of Ralston challenge vehicle concepts are possible in this challenge.
[Cadillac V12 engine information taken from 'thetruthaboutcars.com']
www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2010/04/the-ohc-v12-that-cadill...
This picture is in two different collections with completely different identifications.
Naval History & Heritage Command, Washington, DC, USA identified as “Execution Wall, Cavite, P.I.”
California State Library description “Spanish fortifications, Luneta (Manila)”
Gift to the library by Mrs. Frank Atkinson, Feb. 16, 1948
I tend to believe the Naval History & Heritage Command description is accurate but it is not verifiable that the California State Library description “Spanish fortifications, Luneta” is undeniably in error so it will remain.