X-Nico

72 unusual facts about British Army


1915 FA Cup Final

Vivian Woodward an amateur and England international who played for Chelsea in peacetime but was currently serving in the British Army, had been given leave to play in the final.

1915–16 Blackpool F.C. season

With a large number of British Army personnel based in the town, many of the Blackpool players during the four seasons of wartime football were soldiers.

1917–18 Manchester United F.C. season

On 9 October 1917 while Fighting in France during the First World War, United former player Arthur Beadsworth was killed while serving as a Sergeant in the Seventh Battalion of the Royal Leicestershire Regiment of the British Army.

1950 in Israel

26 March – The remains of the Hannah Szenes, a Jewish paratrooper who had fought in the British Army during World War II and was captured, tortured and executed in Hungary, are brought to Israel and buried in the cemetery on Mount Herzl, Jerusalem.

1996 in Northern Ireland

7 October - Thiepval barracks bombing: The IRA explodes two car bombs inside the British Army headquarters at Lisburn, killing one soldier and injuring 37 other people.

1st South Carolina Regiment

The regiment was captured at Charleston on May 12, 1780 together with the rest of the Southern Department by the British Army.

2nd South Carolina Regiment

The regiment was captured by the British Army at Charleston on May 12, 1780, together with the rest of the Southern Department.

Adrian Mole and the Weapons of Mass Destruction

The best friend of Adrian's son Glenn and a private in the British Army, through which he is deployed to Iraq.

Africa Star

The sand of the desert is represented by pale buff, the Royal Navy (and Merchant Navy), British Army, and Royal Air Force are represented by stripes of dark blue, red, and light blue respectively.

Arthur Guy Empey

He left the United States at the end of 1915 frustrated at its neutrality in the conflict at that point and travelled to London, England, where he joined the 1st London Regiment (Royal Fusiliers), Territorial Force, of the British Army, going on to serve with it in the 56th (London) Infantry Division on the Western Front as a bomber and a machine-gunner.

Bacon Grill

Bacon Grill was a standard element of rations in the British Army.

Battle of Morlaix

Initially, Edward III of England could do little to help the de Montforts, he had his own problems at home, but eventually he felt able to send a small force under Sir Walter Mauny to aid them.

Bere Island GFC

Bere Island's home pitch the 'Rec' was a man made pitch constructed by the British Army.

Berets of the United States Army

Although it is unusual for American units to wear distinctive headgear, it is the norm in the British Army, where most regiments wear headdress which reflects regimental history.

Bogwoman

"Bogwoman" is a play on the term of abuse shouted at a Derry woman by the British Army; the term is a play on the word used to describe those women that live in the IRA stronghold of the Bogside in Derry.

Boquet, Pennsylvania

Though his name was spelled somewhat differently, it is commonly accepted that Boquet was named after General Henry Bouquet, a British army officer of the 18th century.

Call of Cthulhu: The Wasted Land

He joins a British Army officer, Captain Hill in tracking down a secret cult while the war rages about them.

Cambridge University Association Football League

This gives Cambridge University county status (separate from Cambridgeshire), with the same voice in English football's governing body as such associations as London, the Army and Women's football.

Capel Curig

It is also home to a youth hostel, Army training camp, a camp site, several cafes and hotels and outdoor activity gear shops.

Captain William Mackintosh

Captain William Mackintosh was an Irish-born British Army officer and Canadian surveyor and engineer.

CCGS Edward Cornwallis

Named after Lieutenant General Edward Cornwallis, British Army officer and founder of Halifax, Nova Scotia (home port of this ship as well).

Charles C. Walcutt

She was born in Belfast, Ireland, and was a daughter of Hugh Neill, who had served as an officer in the British Army.

Conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman

The phrase was used as a charge in courts martial of the British Army in the 18th and early 19th centuries, although it was not defined as a specific offence in the Articles of War.

Courtney Hodges

The 21st Army Group usually consisted of divisions from the British Army and the Canadian Army.

Crossmaglen Rangers GAC

In 1971 the British Army took possession of a portion of the ground despite opposition from the club and the Irish Government, and this led to a controversy regarding the British Army's conduct.

Cyril Bassett

However, his mother, from a family with a history of service in the British Army, convinced him to enlist in the New Zealand Military Forces.

Defence College of Communications and Information Systems

It also delivers training in military skills, command and leadership management courses alongside its technical courses, and standalone packages to Royal Signals NCOs and warrant officers from the Army.

Drambuie

In 1916, Drambuie became the first liqueur to be allowed in the cellars of the House of Lords, and Drambuie began to ship world-wide to stationed British soldiers.

Drum Major General

The Drum Major General was a royal appointment in the British Army used from the mid-17th century and into the 18th century.

Eirjet

29 March 2006 - Eirjet issued an apology after a flight it operated from Liverpool John Lennon Airport to City of Derry Airport on behalf of Ryanair landed at the wrong airfield, touching down at Ballykelly Airfield, a former RAF base and more recently an Army base some 4 miles away from its intended destination.

Epistle to Dippy

The real "Dippy" was, at the time, serving in the British Army in Malaysia.

Espantoon

The word itself derives from that of a pole weapon, the spontoon, which was carried by infantry officers of the British Army during the Revolutionary period.

Exercise Cambrian Patrol

In 2006 the event which ran from 27 October to 5 November 2006, attracted 95 teams from the British Army (regular and territorial) and Royal Air Force.

Flushing Bay

On September 21, 1776, the Colonial patriot Nathan Hale was captured by the British Army near a tavern at Flushing Bay after being fingered as a spy.

Forage cap

The coloured peaked cap worn by the modern British Army for parade and other dress occasions is known as a forage cap.

Fort Severn

Americans suspected that the British Army might attack the area during the War of 1812, but no conflict occurred at the fort during the war.

Garleton Hills

The western spur is crowned by the Hopetoun Monument to John, 4th Earl of Hopetoun, who commanded the British Army in the Peninsular War, after the death of Sir John Moore at Corunna.

Garrison FM

Garrison FM is a network of radio stations in the United Kingdom serving British Army bases around the country.

George E. P. Box

During World War II, he performed for the British Army experiments exposing small animals to poison gas.

George Melachrino

He joined the Army a year later, and received training at the Corps of Military Police where he became a P.T. Instructor.

George Windle Read

After three of his divisions were transferred to take part in the Saint-Mihiel Offensive, Read continued to command the other two as a corps under the British Army in the Ypres area, participating in the September offensive that breached the Hindenberg Line.

Gremmendorf

After the Second World War, the barracks originally intended for German soldiers were taken over and utilized by British occupational forces (Following the defeat of Nazi Germany, the country was divided into 4 separate sectors: American, French, British, and Soviet, which would eventually be known as East Germany ), who ended up constructing even more barracks.

Guillemard Bridge

In December 1941, at the start of the World War II in Malaya, the British forces retreating south to Kuala Krai, destroyed the last span of the bridge to prevent the Imperial Japanese Army advancing.

Hengsberg

From 1945 to 1955, it remained part of the zone occupied by the British Army in Austria.

Henry Martyn Lazelle

After serving as an inspector for the Division of the Pacific and the Department of the Columbia, Lazelle represented the U. S. Army as an observer during the maneuvers of the British Army in India from November 1885 to March 1886.

Jean Thierry du Mont, comte de Gages

When Marshal Saxe defeated the British Army at Battle of Fontenoy in 1745 and overran the Low Countries, the Spanish Crown granted du Mont the county of Gages, near his birthplace until then occupied by the Austrians since 1713.

Johan Host Herkimer

In February 1780, at the command of the governor of Quebec, General Frederick Haldimand, Herkimer served as boat-master in the Commissariat at Coteau-du-Lac, Quebec, providing stores and supplies for the British Army posts.

John Jeremiah Bigsby

In 1816, he joined the British Army as an assistant surgeon and was stationed at the Cape of Good Hope in 1817.

King's shilling

For many years a soldier's daily pay, before stoppages, was the shilling given as an earnest payment to recruits of the British Army and the Royal Navy of the 18th and 19th centuries.

Lockheed Martin Desert Hawk

The Desert Hawk is also used by the 32nd Regiment Royal Artillery of the British Army as a tactical surveillance system, and has seen use in Afghanistan.

Loudon's Highlanders

Loudon's Highlanders, or the 64th Highlanders, or Earl of Loudon's Regiment of Foot, was an infantry regiment of the British Army.

Louis Joubert Lock

Owned by the Port authority of Nantes-Saint-Nazaire and not the ship building company Chantiers de l'Atlantique, its strategic importance as a major naval construction and maintenance asset since its completion in 1934, resulted in it becoming the main target of the British Army Commando raid of 1942, the St. Nazaire Raid, to stop German battleships such as Tirpitz from accessing maintenance facilities in the Atlantic Ocean.

Mary Ewing Outerbridge

The modern game of lawn tennis was commercialized in 1874 in England by Major Walter Clopton Wingfield of the British Army.

Mary Herring

In 1918 she had met Edmund Herring, then a young Australian captain in the British Army on leave from the Macedonian front of the Great War, and they were married on 6 April 1922 at Toorak Presbyterian Church.

Mir Hasan Vazirov

When the Commune was toppled by the Centro Caspian Dictatorship, a British-backed coalition of Dashnaks, SRs and Mensheviks, Vazirov and his comrades were captured by British troops and executed by a firing squad between the stations of Pereval and Akhcha-Kuyma of Transcaucasian Railroad.

Moses Amadu Yahaya

Moses Yahaya's relationships with the British Army with assistance from the UK based organization 58AI aided him to drill 67 boreholes for 32 communities in the Tolon-Kumbungu District.

Ntshingwayo Khoza

He outmanoeuvred Lt. Gen. Lord Chelmsford, diverting part of the British force, then defeating and annihilating the encamped British Army at the Battle of Isandlwana, after the epic battle he became Britain's biggest foe.

Old Lyme, Connecticut

John McCurdy (b.1724), whose home was the resting place for George Washington on April 10, 1776 while traveling to New York City to take on the British Army and Navy (source: Papers of George Washington, Connecticut State Library); grandfather of Connecticut Supreme Court judge Charles McCurdy

Pessie Madan

In 1943, Madan was commissioned into the British Army in India, where he commanded a field unit in the turbulent Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province.

PULHHEEMS

PULHHEEMS is tri-service, which is to say that it is used by the British Army, the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force.

RAF Brawdy

It was operational between 1944 and 1992 being used by both the Royal Air Force and the Royal Navy before the site was turned over to the British Army and was named Cawdor Barracks.

Regimental Aid Post

In the British Army, Canadian Forces and other Commonwealth militaries, the RAP is a front line military medical establishment incorporated into an infantry battalion or armoured regiment and designed for the immediate treatment and triage of battlefield casualties.

Siege of Multan

Whish's combined force amounted to 32,000, of which 15,000 were from the British Army or European (mainly Irish) troops of the Bengal and Bombay armies.

Sindhuli District

They British Army had advanced weaponry such as guns and cannons whereas the Gurkha were with bows and arrows, spears, etc.

Southern Rhodesian general election, 1980

British Army forces then set up 16 assembly points throughout Southern Rhodesia where Patriotic Front guerillas could disarm and return to civilian life; 18,300 did so by the deadline of 6 January.

Stylianos Lenas

In a battle with the British Army in the area of Potamitissa on 17 February 1957, Stylianos Lenas was seriously wounded and captured.

Tetbury Woolsack Races

Most competitors come from local rugby teams or the British Army; many of the course records are held by Tetbury Rugby Club.

The Egyptian Gazette

At the end of the war and with the departure of most of the British Army stationed in Egypt, the market for English-language newspapers shrank dramatically.

The Funniest Joke in the World

The British Army test the joke on Salisbury Plain against a rifleman (Terry Jones), who snickers and falls dead on the range, then translate it into German.

Timeline of the British Army since 2000

The Time line of the British Army since 2000, lists the conflicts and wars the British Army were involved in.

Trevor Meredith

He was conscripted into the British Army at the age of 17, and was playing semi-professional football for Kidderminster Harriers when he was scouted by Burnley.

Valley Creek

In 1777, the forge and mills were destroyed by the British Army during the American Revolutionary War.


Ancroft

Boots were also made for the British army - the Duke of Marlborough's troops marched to victory shod in Ancroft boots.

Anthony Yates

After national service with the British Army in Kenya, Egypt, and the Suez Canal, he became a member of the Royal College of Physicians of London in 1957.

Bower Manuscript

The Bower Manuscript is named after Hamilton Bower, the British Army intelligence officer who obtained it from a local inhabitant in Kucha early in 1890, while on a confidential mission for the government of British India.

C. H. Fernando

Major General C.H. Fernando, VSV, psc, SLAC (1930 - ) is a Sri Lankan general, who was the former Director of Operations, General Staff; GOC, 2 Division; Commander, Northern Command.

Continental Army

The command would be based on the 18th-century military works of Henry Bouquet, a professional Swiss soldier who served as a colonel in the British army, and French Marshal Maurice de Saxe.

Denshawai Incident

On 13 June 1906 five officers of the occupying British army, with their interpreter and a police official, visited Denshawai (AR: دنشواي) to go pigeon shooting.

Eyre Massey, 1st Baron Clarina

Eyre Massey, 1st Baron Clarina (24 May 1719–17 May 1804), was an Irish British army officer of the 18th century, known primarily for his successful action at La Belle-Famille during the French and Indian War.

Fearless Nadia

She was the daughter of Scotsman Herbertt Evans, a volunteer in the British Army, and Margret.

Frederick H. Crawford

Colonel Frederick Hugh Crawford CBE, JP (21 August 1861 – 5 November 1952) was an officer in the British Army.

George Walters

The British Army alone was an all-volunteer force, whose soldiers enlisted for an initial period of ten years in the Infantry.

The battle fought in heavy fog at Inkermann proved to be a testament to the skill and initiative of the individual men and officers of the British Army of the day.

Ike Webb

Webb retired from the game in 1910 and joined the Army, serving as a catering orderly in the West Yorkshire Regiment.

John Barrington, 1st Viscount Barrington

William, the eldest, became Chancellor of the Exchequer; John was a Major-General in the British Army; Daines was a lawyer, antiquarian and naturalist; Samuel was a Rear-Admiral in the Royal Navy; and Shute became Bishop of Salisbury and Bishop of Durham.

John Cavendish, 5th Baron Chesham

He fought in the Second World War as a Captain in the Army, also briefly serving as an Air Observation Post pilot with No. 664 Squadron RCAF.

John Folan

He was a private in the 3rd Battalion, Connaught Rangers, British Army during World War I when the following deed took place for which he was awarded the DCM.

John Killick

He served in the British Army during World War II, first in the Suffolk Regiment, later in the 1st Airborne Division in which he commanded the 89th Field Security Section (Intelligence Corps) at Arnhem.

Lads' Army

Shown on ITV, Bad Lads Army is based on the premise of subjecting today's delinquent young men to the conditions of conscripts to British Army National Service of the 1950s to see if this could rehabilitate them.

Mark Sutcliffe

Mark Sutcliffe MBE (born 29 July 1979 in Peterborough, England) joined the British Army in 1997 aged 17, enlisting into the 2nd Battalion The Royal Anglian Regiment The Poachers, initially joining C (Northamptonshire) Company.

Meggitt Banshee

Banshee entered service with the British Army in the mid-1980s as an aerial target for the Short Blowpipe and Javelin shoulder launched missiles.

Niagara, New York

The Town of Niagara was founded in 1812 (originally as the "Town of Schlosser" after the local fortification Fort Schlosser and after Captain Joseph Schlosser, a German officer in the British Army) from the Town of Cambria.

Norman Skelhorn

Prime Minister Edward Heath had banned sensory deprivation in light of the report by Sir Edmund Compton into internment and interrogation techniques used by the British Army and the Royal Ulster Constabulary.

Order of St. Patrick

Prime Minister Winston Churchill suggested reviving the Order in 1943 to recognise the services of General The Hon.

Patterson Park

The high ground at the northwest corner of Patterson Park, called Hampstead Hill, was the key defensive position for U.S. forces against British ground forces in the Battle of Baltimore during the War of 1812.

Pearl Vardon

She was arrested there when she enquired how to obtain new identity papers and she was then held by the British Army at Esterwegen Internment Camp, the former Esterwegen concentration camp, where she was interrogated.

Prize of war

This included two Agusta A109 helicopters captured by the British Army from the Argentine Army which were used by the Army Air Corps until 2007.

RAF Dishforth

The airfield opened in 1936 as use by Royal Air Force (RAF) until 1943 when the Royal Canadian Air Force took over but the airfield was returned in 1945 before the site was handed over to the British Army in 1992 and became Dishforth Airfield.

RAF Woodbridge

Royal Air Force Station Woodbridge, (now known as Woodbridge Airfield, MoD Woodbridge and Rock Barracks, informally RAF Woodbridge), situated to the east of Woodbridge in the county of Suffolk, England, is currently the home of the 23 Engineer Regiment (Air Assault) of the British Army.

Ramon Tikaram

Born in Singapore, Tikaram is the son of Fijian-Indian British Army soldier Pramod Tikaram and Sarawakian mother Fatimah Rohani.

Samuel McGaw

McGaw was about 36 years old, and a lance-sergeant in the 42nd Regiment of Foot (later The Black Watch Royal Highlanders), British Army during the First Ashanti Expedition when the following deed took place for which he was awarded the VC.

Service Prosecuting Authority

It was formed on 1 January 2009 by the merger of the separate prosecuting authorities of the British Army, Royal Navy and Royal Air Force and is headed by Andrew Cayley QC, a civil servant, as Director Service Prosecutions.

Sir Charles Monro, 1st Baronet

General Sir Charles Carmichael Monro, 1st Baronet of Bearcrofts, GCB, GCSI, GCMG, (15 June 1860 – 7 December 1929) was a British Army General during World War I and Governor of Gibraltar from 1923 to 1929.

Sophia Kingdom

Sophia Kingdom, Lady Brunel (c. 1775 – 1854) was the daughter of William Kingdom, a contracting agent for the navy and the army, born in Plymouth.

Stokes mortar

The Stokes mortar was a British trench mortar invented by Sir Wilfred Stokes KBE that was issued to the British, Commonwealth and U.S. armies, as well as the Portuguese Expeditionary Corps (CEP), during the latter half of the First World War.

The Devil in Amber

Since then he served in the British Army, specifically during action on the border of France and Switzerland which caused him to suffer a mental breakdown.

The Place of the Dead

Initially, the soldiers are shown training while a voiceover by expedition leader Lt. Col. Robert Niell (Simon Dutton) tells us that there will be five British Army soldiers, two Territorial Army soldiers and three Hong Kong Chinese soldiers on the expedition.

The Robin Flies at Dawn

"The Robin Flies at Dawn" is a special edition of the British sitcom Only Fools and Horses, filmed specifically for the British troops serving in the 1990-91 Gulf War.

Veterinary corps

Royal Army Veterinary Corps -an administrative and operational branch of the British Army

Vintage amateur radio

There is considerable interest in vintage military and commercial radio equipment among EU amateur radio operators, especially gear from British manufacturers such as Marconi, Racal, Eddystone, Pye, and a variety of Russian, German, Canadian, British RAF and British Army equipment, such as the well known Wireless Set No. 19.

Whiggism

The opposing Tory position was held by the other great families, the Church of England, and most of the landed gentry and officers of the army and the navy.

William Nicholas Willis

He had become a supplier of horses and fodder to the British Army in South Africa and he recruited Australian bushmen as scouts and sharpshooters during the Boer War.