Historical figures we should know about but don't

For the week that is in it, James Hoban, Kilkenny man (from Callan) who designed the White House and was the supervising architect on the building of the Capital building in DC.

Chaim Herzog, from Portobello in Dublin who became President of Israel. His father spoke fluent Irish and was known as the "Sinn Fein Rabbi"

and lastly, Margaret Eager from Limerick, governess to the children of Tsar Nicholas the second who were all executed by the Communists (she was back in Ireland at that stage)
 
For the week that is in it, James Hoban, Kilkenny man (from Callan) who designed the White House and was the supervising architect on the building of the Capital building in DC.

Chaim Herzog, from Portobello in Dublin who became President of Israel. His father spoke fluent Irish and was known as the "Sinn Fein Rabbi"

and lastly, Margaret Eager from Limerick, governess to the children of Tsar Nicholas the second who were all executed by the Communists (she was back in Ireland at that stage)
Excellent Peanuts. I hadn't heard of Margaret Eager.
 
For the week that is in it, James Hoban, Kilkenny man (from Callan) who designed the White House and was the supervising architect on the building of the Capital building in DC.

And for a nice bit of symmetry on the day that's in it, I nominate Robert Ross. Major-General in the British Army in the 1812 war against the United States, native of Rostrevor, County Down, he was the second last man to lead an invasion of Capitol Hill in Washington. Ross commanded the forces that captured Washington DC, and burned both the White House and the Capitol Building.

Later in the same war, he kept Francis Scott Key as an overnight hostage/prisoner/guest on board HMS Tonnant during the bombardment of Fort McHenry by the crown forces. "By the dawn's early light," Key saw the stars and stripes still flying over the fort, put pen to paper and, well, the rest is history.

Quite a serendipitous turn of events. In a further twist, Ross is commemorated with a portrait in the Capitol Rotunda. I'm sure few, if any, of the insurgents would have recognized him or known that the man looking down on them made a rather better fist of attacking the place than they did and also played a Key (see what I did there) part in giving them their national anthem.
 
And for a nice bit of symmetry on the day that's in it, I nominate Robert Ross. Major-General in the British Army in the 1812 war against the United States, native of Rostrevor, County Down, he was the second last man to lead an invasion of Capitol Hill in Washington. Ross commanded the forces that captured Washington DC, and burned both the White House and the Capitol Building.
Later in the same war, he kept Francis Scott Key as an overnight hostage/prisoner/guest on board HMS Tonnant during the bombardment of Fort McHenry by the crown forces. "By the dawn's early light," Key saw the stars and stripes still flying over the fort, put pen to paper and, well, the rest is history.
Quite a serendipitous turn of events. In a further twist, Ross is commemorated with a portrait in the Capitol Rotunda. I'm sure few, if any, of the insurgents would have recognized him or known that the man looking down on them made a rather better fist of attacking the place than they did and also played a Key (see what I did there) part in giving them their national anthem.

I'd never heard of him but was passing through Rostrevor last summer and there's a fine obelisk dedicated to the General.
The plaque made for fascinating reading... and the view from the look out point out towards Carlingford Lough is beautiful.
 
I'd never heard of him but was passing through Rostrevor last summer and there's a fine obelisk dedicated to the General.
The plaque made for fascinating reading... and the view from the look out point out towards Carlingford Lough is beautiful.
Yes, gorgeous views alright. According to this website Ross had planned to build his retirement home on that spot. http://themanwhocapturedwashington.com/ross-monuments/
 
A 98-year-old woman living in Co Mayo, has been given a special US House of Representatives honour in Belmullet this evening, for the role she played in changing the course of world history with her weather reports. Maureen Sweeney, who is originally from Co Kerry, forecast an impending storm from Blacksod station in 1944 which changed the timing of the D-Day landings and ultimately secured victory for the Allies.

 
Brigadier General James Wolfe Ripley - the Union Army’s chief of the Ordnance Bureau in the American Civil War.

"It was largely due to his efforts that the over 2 million Union soldiers who served during the war were consistently well armed with standard muzzle-loading rifle-muskets and supplied with plenty of ammunition. Yet Ripley’s failure to ride the wave of new technology meant that the war dragged on longer than it should have, thereby producing a higher cost in lives."

This is one story about him:
President Lincoln had to go to Ripley’s office and give his ordnance chief direct orders to buy the new weapons. Although Ripley grudgingly complied, he then did his best to sabotage the purchase contracts by inserting an egregious “fine print” clause that would cancel any order that was even one day late in delivery.This proved to be especially effective obstructionism considering the inevitable delays the new companies experienced as they wrestled with unfamiliar technologies. Ripley’s correspondence reveals his continual effort to cancel all orders for repeating weapons by unfairly exaggerating a few delivery failures or development problems. Yet field commanders were so desperate for the new rapid-fire weapons that some of them armed their units with repeaters personally purchased by their troops or officers.

 
Bumping this thread as didn't know where else to put this trivia tidbit...

He was played by Kenneth More in "A Night To Remember" & the Mark Rylance character in 2017 Dunkirk film was inspired by him.

In the midst of observances of Dunkirk, OTD in 1940, my mind turns to Charles Lightoller (1874-1952), senior surviving officer of the Titanic. Not content with an active #WW1 (DSC & bar), aged 66 he took his motor yacht, Sundowner, to Dunkirk, rescuing 130 troops in a single trip

 
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