X-Nico

53 unusual facts about Portsmouth


27th Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry

New Berne was the regiment's headquarters until Oct. 10, 1863, when it was ordered to Newport News and was for a time occupied with routine duties at Norfolk and Portsmouth.

807 Naval Air Squadron

After 7 months in the Middle and Far East 807 NAS disbanded aboard Centaur in Portsmouth on 17 May 1962.

811 Naval Air Squadron

811 Squadron was reformed in July 1941 at RNAS Lee-on-Solent (HMS Daedalus), near Portsmouth, as a torpedo-bomber reconnaissance squadron, and was equipped with two Sea Hurricanes and fourteen American Vought SB2U Vindicators, which the British called the "Chesapeake".

Andrew Rollo, 5th Lord Rollo

His name was also given to Rollo Street in what was to be the British capital of Dominica at Portsmouth, and this street name still survives.

Athelstan Rendall

In 1897 he married Amy, daughter of J J Young JP of Northend, Portsmouth.

Billy Richardson

At the end of that season, he represented Ireland in the Olympic Games against Holland at Portsmouth.

Brian Stone

Brian Scott Stone is a native of the small town of Portsmouth, Rhode Island, located near Newport, Rhode Island.

Cabrits National Park

Cabrits National Park is on a peninsula at the north end of the Caribbean island of Dominica, north of Portsmouth.

Chubb detector lock

In 1817, a burglary in Portsmouth Dockyard which had been carried out using false keys to gain entry prompted the British Government to announce a competition to produce a lock that could be opened only with its own key.

The first detector lock was produced in 1818 by Jeremiah Chubb of Portsmouth, England, as the result of a Government competition to create an unpickable lock.

Jeremiah Chubb, who was working with his brother, Charles, as a ship's outfitter and ironmonger in Portsmouth, invented and patented his detector lock in 1818.

Citizens' Hall

(The Artillery began organizing the event in the 1930s.) The post also procured a cannon which had been used at Fort Constitution in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, during the Civil War.

Crossman, Western Australia

After serving as colonial magistrate, he returned to England in 1856 and later was promoted to captain and served as a British Member of Parliament for Portsmouth.

E. Warren Clark

Clark was born in Portsmouth, New Hampshire and graduated from what is now Rutgers University in New Jersey in 1869 with a degree in Chemistry and Biology.

Edward Henry Durell

Born in the "Governor Wentworth House" in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, Durell was the third son and sixth child from his parents.

Eric Jolliffe

Born in Portsmouth, England, he was the youngest boy in a family of 12 children.

Ernie Wasson

From 1985 to 1990 he was the Superintendent of the Green Animals Topiary Gardens in Portsmouth, Rhode Island.

Far North Line

The line did become strategically important during World War I and World War II as part of a supply route for Scapa Flow, Orkney: Jellicoe's Express linked Thurso directly with London (Euston) and Portsmouth.

George Moulton Carpenter, Jr.

Carpenter was born in Portsmouth, Newport county, Rhode Island on April 22, 1844 and is a descendant of the immigrant William Carpenter (1605 England - 1658/1659 Rehoboth, Massachusetts) the founder of the Rehoboth Carpenter family who came to America in the mid-1630s.

GoGoDigital

GoGoDigital Ltd operates from warehouse units in the centre of Portsmouth with previous warehousing facilities based in Fordingbridge, Hampshire.

Invasion of Dominica

The next day de Bouillé sent one of his officers to Dominica to see whether a Royal Navy frigate was still anchored in Prince Rupert's Bay (near present-day Portsmouth).

Ironton–Russell Bridge

Soon, the Ironton-Russell bridge was followed by numerous others at Ashland, Portsmouth, and Huntington.

Jean de Gisors

Sometime between 1170 and 1180 he purchased the manor of Buckland, Hampshire from the de Port family.

Jim Harrington

He is a graduate of Portsmouth High School in Portsmouth, Rhode Island and Thomas Edison State College of New Jersey, where he received a Bachelors of Art degree in Communications.

John de Mestre Hutchison

The young Hutchison attended Eastman's Naval Academy in Southsea, Portsmouth before he joined the Royal Navy as a cadet in 1876.

John Hegnauer

In 1979 Hegnauer left the shop and set up his own shop in Portsmouth, Rhode Island.

Joseph Kam

They were then sent to Gosport, near Portsmouth to receive further educational preparation, while serving churches there.

Lawrence Kolb

During World War II, he went into the Navy and was stationed aboard hospital ships and then put in charge of a clinic for "battle fatigue" in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

Lennox Honychurch

Lennox Honychurch (born on December 27, 1952 in Portsmouth, Dominica) is Dominica's most noted historian and a politician.

Live 1961–2000: Thirty-Nine Years of Great Concert Performances

# "Somebody Touched Me" (traditional) – 2000, Portsmouth, England

Nathaniel Meserve

Meserve was born in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, to Clement Maserve and his wife Elizabeth Jones.

NTelos Wireless Pavilion

The nTelos Wireless Pavilion is an outdoor amphitheater in Portsmouth, Virginia, United States.

Philip Egan

His episcopal ordination took place at St John’s Cathedral, Portsmouth on 24 September 2012, the feast of Our Lady of Walsingham.

Picard River

It rises on the northern slopes of Morne Diablotins, flowing northwest to reach the Caribbean Sea at Prince Rupert Bay on the country's northwestern coast, close to the town of Portsmouth.

Pierre Charles

For the next 15 years, Pierre Charles remained in that position, as irremovable from Grand Bay as Rosie Douglas was from Portsmouth.

Portsmouth Rovers F.C.

Portsmouth Rovers F.C. was an English association football club based in the village of Portsmouth, which was then in Lancashire.

Portsmouth, Kingston

The shoreline was soon home to numerous tanneries, numerous breweries including Molson and Labatt, shipyards, sawmills, and the nearby penitentiary and asylum.

Possible results of a German victory at the Battle of Britain

From July 1940, coastal shipping convoys and shipping centres, such as Portsmouth, were the main targets; one month later the Luftwaffe shifted its attacks to RAF airfields and infrastructure.

Ralph Sharman

Born in Cleveland, Ohio, Sharman was a right-handed batter who began his professional baseball career in 1915, at the age of 20, for the Portsmouth Cobblers of the class-D Ohio State League.

Randolph Zane

Detached from New Hampshire in the summer of 1911, Zane next served ashore at the Naval Prison, Portsmouth, New Hampshire, until December.

Robert de Ayberville

He was responsible for the general security of the ports between Sandwich and Portsmouth.

Ronald Ridout

From 1939 to 1950 he worked as a teacher at schools in Bolton, Luton, Nuneaton, Portsmouth, Shrewsbury and Woking.

Rosie Douglas

After only eight months in the office Douglas was found on 1 October 2000 dead in his house in Portsmouth.

Royal Navy surface fleet

At present it consists of two flotillas based at Portsmouth and Devonport, both on the south coast of England, and a flotilla based at the Clyde Naval Base at Faslane in Scotland.

Ryan Westmoreland

Westmoreland attended Portsmouth High School in Portsmouth, Rhode Island.

Samuel Penhallow

Removing to Portsmouth, New Hampshire, he there married Mary Cutt, a daughter of John Cutt (1625–1681), president of the province of New Hampshire in 1679, a successful merchant and mill-owner, and thus came into possession of considerable property (including much of the present site of Portsmouth).

Seaboard Air Line Railroad

The complex corporate history of SAL began on March 8, 1832, when its earliest predecessor, the Portsmouth and Roanoke Railroad was chartered by the legislatures of Virginia and North Carolina to build a railroad from Portsmouth, Virginia to the Roanoke River port of Weldon, North Carolina, shortcutting a long, three-sided water route.

Seaboard and Roanoke Railroad

The Seaboard and Roanoke Railroad was organized in 1833 (as the Portsmouth and Roanoke Railroad) to extend from the area of the rapids of the Roanoke River at its fall line near Weldon, North Carolina to Portsmouth, Virginia, across the Elizabeth River from Norfolk on the harbor of Hampton Roads.

Springfield School

Springfield School, Portsmouth, a secondary school in Portsmouth, Hampshire, England

Stamshaw

The area includes a greyhound racing stadium (closed 2010 April), Alexandra Park, with the Mountbatten Sports Centre, and Portsmouth Ferry Terminal.

STS Mir

STS Mir from Russia is pictured at anchor with its sister ship Dar Mlodziezy from Poland and the training ship Mercedes from the Netherlands in the Solent Portsmouth during the Trafalgar 200 International Fleet Review.

Uranium hexafluoride

In 2005, 686,500 tonnes in 57,122 storage cylinders were located near Portsmouth, Ohio, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and Paducah, Kentucky.

Zierbena

The Ferry Port in Zierbena (which is known to some as Bilbao Ferry Port) has two arrivals and departures per week of the MV Cap Finistère (for Brittany Ferries), the sailings have either come from Portsmouth (Portsmouth International Port) or are bound for Portsmouth (Portsmouth International Port).


Andrew Best Semple

He graduated in medicine from the University of Glasgow in 1934 and specialised in public health, serving as an assistant Medical Officer of Health in Paisley, Portsmouth and Blackburn.

Arjan de Zeeuw

In the summer 2005, after falling out with then-Portsmouth manager Alain Perrin, he returned to Wigan Athletic for the nominal fee of £90,000.

Basil Hall Chamberlain

Chamberlain was born in Southsea (a part of Portsmouth) on the south coast of England, the son of an Admiral William Charles Chamberlain and his wife Eliza Hall, the daughter of the travel writer Basil Hall.

Ben Burrell

He has previously presented Drive time on Play Radio and worked at a number of stations across the South including The Quay, Spirit FM and Galaxy FM.

Bitterne Manor

The area is bounded on the North, West and South by the River Itchen, and on the East by the railway line linking Southampton to Portsmouth.

Brett Fancy

Born and raised in Portsmouth, he is the son of Brian Fancy, a HMNB Portsmouth dockyard worker, and is the grandson of Ralph Newson, who was a designer on the WWII Horsa Glider.

Brittany Ferries

In the winter, during refit season, this route is used so that both MV Armorique and MV Bretagne can be moved between the Portsmouth to St Malo route and also the Plymouth to Roscoff route.

Carol Shea-Porter

Shea-Porter, like several of her colleagues, found herself on the defensive at two such events held in Portsmouth and Bedford.

Catherine Barton

Their only daughter and heir Catherine married John Wallop, Viscount Lymington, the eldest son of the first Earl of Portsmouth, and their son, John Wallop, succeeded as second Earl of Portsmouth.

César Chávez School

Formerly known as Portsmouth Middle School, it was renamed in honor of Cesar Chavez in 2010.

Charles Tersolo

Subject matter covered by this artist includes Provincetown, Boston, Paris, the Grand Canyon, Santa Fe, Monument Valley, Valley of the Gods, New York City, San Francisco, Portland, Cape Elizabeth, and Mount Desert Island, Maine, and Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

Charles Wager

Following the death of Queen Anne, Wager was still listed as a Rear Admiral and he was ordered to take charge of the ships at Portsmouth, and in later to go out to the Strait of Gibraltar and assume command of the Mediterranean Fleet.

Chevalier D'Aux

Chevalier D'Aux was a senior French commander who, while leading a foraging party into the Isle of Wight to search for sources of clean water to replenish the stocks of a French fleet, which had just been forced to retire from Portsmouth, was attacked and killed in July 1545 by a group of the local Isle of Wight militia, at Bonchurch.

Denzil

Over the next year or so, Denzil played far and wide in the UK, first picking up alternating drummers Andy Place and Jeremy Stacey and later finding guitarist Craig Boyd in nearby Portsmouth.

Dorking railway station

In 1845-6, the "Direct London and Portsmouth Railway" was authorised by parliament to run south from Epsom to Dorking on to Godalming, Havant and Portsmouth.

Dreadnaught USA

In 2005, the group began a prominent stint as house band for the New Hampshire Public Radio series Writers On A New England Stage at the Music Hall in Portsmouth NH, where it has performed with Dan Brown (The Da Vinci Code), Alan Alda, Doris Kearns Goodwin, John Updike, Elmore Leonard, Anita Diamant, and Mitch Albom.

Henry Trelawny

Made a freeman of Portsmouth in 1683 and East Looe in 1685, he was returned to Parliament in the latter year for West Looe as a Tory on the interest of his eldest brother, Bishop Trelawny.

JANET

The core point of presence (Backbone) sites in SuperJanet4 were Edinburgh, Glasgow, Warrington, Reading, Bristol, Portsmouth, London and Leeds.

Jennie Gow

In 2001, she became Traffic and Travel presenter on BBC Radio Solent, and then moved to the sports team as a journalist covering Southampton, Portsmouth and Bournemouth.

Jorge Jesus

Highlights in the latter competition included a 3–0 home win against Portsmouth and a last-minute 0–1 defeat to A.C. Milan at the San Siro.

Louise Casey

Casey grew up in Portsmouth, and began her career with the Department of Health and Social Security (DHSS), administrating the benefit payments of homeless people.

Mary Bruce, Countess of Elgin

Following a short stint in London the couple left England on 3 September 1799 so that Bruce could take up his Ambassadorial position; sailing from Portsmouth on the HMS Phaeton.

MS Pride of Winchester

European Ferries Group was purchased by P&O and became P&O European Ferries and the ship was renamed Pride of Winchester in 1989 and remained on the Portsmouth to Cherbourg route until 1994 when she was replaced by a bigger ship, the original Pride of Le Havre.

Nadir Belhadj

He also started in Portsmouth's first ever European match, a 2–0 win over Vitória de Guimarães and set Jermain Defoe up with a cross.

Northwood Headquarters

In 2002, following a rationalisation, the Commander-in-Chief Fleet moved the majority of his staff to Portsmouth and handed over the Northwood site to the Chief of Joint Operations.

Old Portsmouth

Areas and buildings within Old Portsmouth include: Portsmouth Cathedral, Royal Garrison Church/Domus Dei, The John Pounds Memorial Church (Unitarian), the Square Tower and Round Tower and Point Barracks, Portsmouth Point and the entrance to the Harbour.

Paul Gilchrist

By the end of the 1977-78 season, Gilchrist had been joined at Portsmouth by his fellow ex-Saint, Bobby Stokes and St. John had been replaced as manager by Jimmy Dickinson, but he could not prevent Portsmouth being relegated into Division 4.

Pony Turf Club

In 1929, a dedicated racetrack was opened in Northolt, Middlesex and during the 1930s pony races are recorded as being held throughout the South West of England, as well as at Portsmouth Park (Paulsgrove), Worthing, Chelmsford, Southend, Sketty Park near Swansea and Lilleshall Hall, Shropshire.

Portsdown and Horndean Light Railway

Authorised in 1899 by an Order of the 1896 Light Railway Commission under the Light Railway Act, it opened on 3 March 1903 and started from a junction with the Portsmouth Corporation Transport street tramway system on the Portsmouth Road, south of Cosham Station.

Portsmouth Airport

Portsmouth International Airport at Pease (IATA: PSM, ICAO: KPSM), near Portsmouth, New Hampshire

Provo Wallis

Admiral Wallis died in 1892 at his country home in Funtington, England, not far from Portsmouth and was buried in the village church yard.

Richard Norton

Richard Norton of Southwick Park (1615–1691), British colonel in the parliamentary army in the English Civil War; MP and Governor of Portsmouth

RQW Cruiserweight Championship

The first-ever champion, Bubblegum won a nine man elimination match at Summer Brawl 2006 in Horndean, Portsmouth to become #1 contender for the title.

Saint John Parish, Dominica

Via Portsmouth, the parish is the birthplace of local historian Lennox Honychurch, and former Prime Minister Rosie Douglas.

Siege of La Rochelle

The second one, led by William Feilding, Earl of Denbigh, left on April 1628, but returned without a fight to Portsmouth, as Denbigh "said that he had no commission to hazard the king's ships in a fight and returned shamefully to Portsmouth".

Siege of Portsmouth

The Siege of Portsmouth was the siege of a Royalist garrison in Portsmouth by a Parliamentarian force conducted in the early part of the English Civil War.

Southern Co-operative

Head office was previously located at Fareham in Hampshire, but since July 2011, is now located at 1000 Lakeside, a business park in North Harbour, Portsmouth.

Spaulding Turnpike

Exit 1, on the border between Portsmouth and Newington, was previously an at-grade crossing with traffic lights, most likely due to the proximity of the entrance to Pease Air Force Base.

Steve Agnew

His spell at Blackburn was unsuccessful, only making four appearances before he joined Portsmouth on loan and then Leicester City permanently in the 1992–93 season.

The Way to the Sea

This is prefaced with an historical representation of Portsmouth and the London to Portsmouth road (known in the Roman era as Ermin Street and Stane Street).

Walter Cowan

Memorials to the 110 men of the Royal Navy and Royal Air Force killed in the Baltic action of 1919 are now in the Estonian capital Tallinn, the Latvian capital Riga and Portsmouth cathedral.

WYAH

WGNT, a television station (channel 27 analog/50 digital) licensed to Portsmouth, Virginia, United States, which used the WYAH-TV call sign from January 1961 to September 1989

Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi

Kawaguchi lost his place to veteran Dave Beasant after being held responsible for Portsmouth's 4-1 home defeat to underdogs Leyton Orient in the FA Cup.