I was just finishing The Cheese and the Worms which reminded me of one of my favourite historical figures. So here is a small list! List some of your own! We'll learn stuff!

Sappho: She's such an interesting historical person - even just as an exercise in historiography and how each generaton/era reinterprets the past. As well, she is such a strong female figure in the ancient world, which in historical terms is mostly dominated by men. And I like her poetry

Giordano Bruno If you have been burnt at the state, chances are you've done something interesting. The Miller in the The Cheese and the Worms , Michael Severetus, etc. Just really cool ideas and world views in a time where it wasn't really such a hot idea. Well...maybe just a bit too hot for comfort...Giordano Bruno - burnt at the stake for both his religous and scientific views (he believed in a heliocentric view of the earth's orbit.)

Prince Eugene of Savoy 'cause he's a frickin' military genius! i adore him to bits.

Admiral of the Fleet Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma KG, GCB, OM, GCSI, GCIE, GCVO, DSO, PC (25 June 1900–27 August 1979)



Uncle to Prince Philip, the current Duke of Edinburgh (the Queen's husband), Mountbatten is one of the most remarkable men of the twentieth century, in a number of ways.

Born to German-descended nobility in Frogmore House, Windsor, as His Serene Highness Prince Louis of Battenberg, his father was First Sea Lord (Chief of the Naval Staff) at the outbreak of the First World War, but due to intense anti-German sentiment he was removed from his position in shame, despite being loyal to the British Crown. Following the Royal Family's cue to Anglicize their name, Louis Battenberg followed suit and became the Lord Louis Mountbatten, Marquess of Milford Haven. His father's disgrace deeply affected young Louis.

He served in the Royal Navy during World War I, and in the twenties was a firm friend of Edward, Prince of Wales. His relations cooled substantially during and after Edward's abdication in 1936.

In World War II he started the war in command of the 5th Destroyer Flotilla, his flagship being HMS Kelly. He engaged in many daring exploits in the Norwegian campaign. In 1940 he invented the Mountbatten Pink naval camouflage pigment. HMS Kelly was sunk during the 1941 Crete campaign.

After a brief stint in the United States, Mountbatten was recalled in October 1941 to become the new Chief of Combined Operations, an office to help co-ordination of Navy and Army forces to launch commando raids on occupied Europe. He personally pushed for the ill-fated Dieppe raid. Mountbatten claimed the lessons learned from Dieppe were necessary for planning Operation Overlord, but historians dispute this. A generation of Canadians (who suffered many casualties at Dieppe) never forgave him.

Mountbatten's work at Combined Operations included proposing the famous 'Mulberry' harbours, the artificial harbours at D-Day which allowed the Allies forces in Normandy to be supplied in the absence of a natural harbour in their hands. Less well-known is his idea for Project Habakkuk - a pykrete supercarrier, made of ice and wood pulp. Potentially unsinkable, the project was never completed, due to its incredible cost and unecessary environmental damage. Furthermore, in October 1943, Churchill appointed Mountbatten as Supreme Allied Commander for the South East Asia Theatre.

Mountbatten was to the Allies in Burma and China what Eisenhower was to Allied Powers Europe - a great diplomat and overseer of operations. His diplomatic handling of General 'Vinegar Joe' Stilwell (deputy SAC) and Generalissimo Chiang Kai-Shek of Nationalist China, ensured that the tide turned for the Allies in 1944. Mountbatten received the Japanese surrender at Singapore in September 1945.

Although an aristocrat, Mountbatten's personal leanings were somewhat progressive, and for this reason the new Labour government of Clement Attlee appointed him as Viceroy of British India. Mountbatten oversaw the final days of the Raj and saw what previous Viceroys had not - a united independent India would destroy itself, and it had to be partitioned into Muslim and Hindu portions. His personally close friendship with Churchill was greatly strained over his recommendation to Attlee, as Churchill greatly opposed granting independence to a partitioned India.

Mountbatten developed a strong relationship with the Indian princes who he persuaded to acceded to the new states of India and Pakistan, and fosted amicable relations with Jawaharlal Nehru, Mahatma Gandhi, and Muhammad Ali Jinnah. After independence in August 1947, Mountbatten became the new Governor-General of India until June 1948 (the monarchy being abolished in 1950). His record is mixed - one view is that he hastened independence unduly, and so brought about the appalling carnage that followed partiton. Others feel this was unavoidable, and Mountbatten's decision to sanction partition ensured that there was a place for persecuted people to go for safety and so reducing the danger of outright civil war.

After India, Mountbatten served in the Royal Navy's Mediterranean Fleet, and in 1959, was appointed First Sea Lord - the position his father had been removed from. He was instrumental in pushing for reform of Britain's military institutions and was crucial in the merger of the Admiralty, and the Ministries of War and Air into the new Ministy of Defence.

It is claimed that in 1967 Mountbatten was approached by MI5 agent Cecil King about the possibility of a coup-d'etat against the crisis-stricken Labour government of Harold Wilson, and urged Mountbatten to become the leader of a Government of national salvation. Mountbatten apparently considered the idea of heading the coup but decided ultimately it would be treason, and nothing came of it. Claims of an MI5 plot have not ever been proven and no credible evidence exists.

Mountbatten became Lord Lieutenant of the Isle of Wight in 1974, and pioneered a group of international education institutions, the United World Colleges Organisation.

Mountbatten was a strong influence on the upbringing of his great-nephew, Charles, Prince of Wales. He from time to time strongly upbraided the Prince for showing tendencies towards the idle pleasure-seeking dilettantism of his predecessor as Prince of Wales, King Edward VIII.

Mountbatten was holidaying in Mullaghmore, County Sligo, Republic of Ireland in 1979. Despite security advice and warnings from the Irish police, Mountbatten went sailing in his thirty foot wooden boat, the Shadow V.

The IRA had earlier fitted a radio controlled fifty-pound bomb which was detonated when Mountbatten pushed away. He was killed instantly, along with his 14-year-old son-in-law, his eldest daughter's 83-year-old mother-in-law, and a crew member.

Sinn Féin vice-president Gerry Adams said of Mountbatten's death:

quote:

The IRA gave clear reasons for the execution. I think it is unfortunate that anyone has to be killed, but the furor created by Mountbatten's death showed up the hypocritical attitude of the media establishment. As a member of the House of Lords, Mountbatten was an emotional figure in both British and Irish politics. What the IRA did to him is what Mountbatten had been doing all his life to other people; and with his war record I don't think he could have objected to dying in what was clearly a war situation. He knew the danger involved in coming to this country. In my opinion, the IRA achieved its objective: people started paying attention to what was happening in Ireland.

So that's my first hero.

I'v had a soft spot for Eleanor of Aquitaine ever since I read A Proud Taste for Scarlet and Miniver. She may not have been an ideal person, but she knew what she wanted and she would let no one stop her. Plus, she made her husband go on crusade becuase she wanted to see the Holy Land.

Also a fan of Mary of Guise. She married her love, had children, and then he died. She was like family to the French Royal Family, and so when James V of Scotland needed a wife, she was it. Then her husband (in the stuart tradition) dies when their kid is just a baby. She worked very hard to be a good regent for Scotland, even in the reformation.

So, yeah, I tend to like strong women who know their own minds and persevere. (I'm sure I'll think f more people later...)

Wow I had no idea that Mountbatten was executed by the IRA, wtf?

Thats what I get for a peicemeal history background

Mine are some scots:

James Hutton

The father of geology

Captain James Cook

The Scottish explorer that explored and mapped NZ and Austrialia and claimed them for the UK, and pfft at wiki for calling him english!

oh and not to forget the kiwis:

Ernest Rutherford

Brilliant physicist that split the atom among other things

Richard Pearse

Flew before the Wright brothers, I just like that he was a madcap inventor living on a farm in the south island tinkering in his shed and creating designs that never saw the light of day

This message has been edited. Last edited by: halucinagenia,

Richard III (He's so dreamy!)

...and more, but I haven't had my coffee yet.

On of mine is George Orwell. And not only because of his writing .

And second:

Generaloberst Heinz Wilhelm Guderian (17 June 1888 - 14 May 1954), military theorist and innovate General of the German Army during the Second World War.



Born into a military family in West Prussia (now part of Poland), Guderian entered the Kaiser's Army in 1907 as an ensign-cadet in the (Hanoverian) Jäger Bataillon No. 10. By the outbreak of World War I he served as a Signals and General Staff officer, allowing him to get an overall view of battlefield conditions. Disagreements with his superiors saw him transferred to Intelligence, where his gained strategic skills.

With Germany's defeat Guderian remained with the truncated army in the Truppenamt (Troop Office), the office which took over the functions of the now banned General Staff. Promoted in 1927 to a major in charge of Transport and motorised tactics, Guderian was placed in the centre of the development of resources that would later come to dominate what became known as Blitzkrieg.

Fluent in both English and French Guderian read the works of eminent theorists in maneuver warfare such as the Britons JFC Fuller and BH Liddell-Hart, as well as the then-unknown Charles de Gaulle. Promoted to leiutenant-colonel in 1931 as chief of staff of the Inspectorate of Motorised Troops, and in 1933 to full colonel, in time for Hitler's appointment as Chancellor of Germany.

In this time he had written many papers on motorised warfare, based on extensive wargaming without troops, with paper tanks and finally with armoured vehicles. Hitler famously saw a demonstration of Guderian's tactics at a review in 1934 and exclaimed 'That's what I need! That's what I want to have!'. Hitler's support was essential to the advancement of Guderian's mobile warfare.

In 1937 Guderian published his theories in Achtung-Panzer!. His influence caused the Germans to establish three Panzer divisions of concentrated tanks and vehicles to lead attacking spearheads, as opposed to the conventional wisdom of having tanks spread along the line to support infantry. To this day Guderian's contributions to combined arms tactics are studied universally.

In the Second World War, Guderian first served as commander of the XIX Army Corps in the invasion of Poland. In the invasion of France, he personally led the attack through the Ardennes Forest (which was considered by the French to be impentrable by tanks), circumventing the Allies in Belgium, and racing to the sea, cutting off the British and French armies.



Guderian's forces were famously denied the chance to destroy the Allies at Dunkirk by Hitler's personal order.

In 1941 he commanded Panzergruppe 2 in Operation Barbarossa, the objective of which was to take Moscow before the year ended. In October he was poised to do this when he was ordered south to Kiev by Hitler. This bagged 750,000 Russian prisoners (the largest in history), but failed to knock the USSR out of the war.

Soon after the attack on Moscow was resumed, but it was too late - winter was coming, and German tanks lacked antifreeze, oil turned into syrup in tanks, and men suffered and died in the intense cold. The advance to Moscow faltered, and in defiance of Hitler's orders, Guderian fell back in the face of overwhelming opposition. he was relieved of his command on 25 December 1941. Guderian claimed that he told Hitler to his face that because Moscow had not been taken, the war would be lost.

Guderian spent the next two years kicking his heels in the reserve pool. Stalingrad fell in early 1943, and in March, Hitler appointed him as Inspector-General of Armoured Troops, in which he was responsible for determining armoured strategy and tank design and training.

Unfortunately by this time the megalomania of the Nazi leadership was overring all his sensible decisions. Guderian preferred large numbers of smaller tanks over heavier tanks like the Tiger, which had limited range and off-road ability.

After the failure of the Stauffenberg plot to take Hitler's life in 1944 Guderian became Army Chief of Staff. He spent most of the job having a series of violent rows with Hitler over conduct of the two-front war. Hitler finally dismissed Guderian in March 1945. Guderian surrendered to the Americans on May 10.

Despite Soviet and Polish protests, Guderian was not charged with war crimes during the Nuremberg Trials and his conduct was ruled consistent with a professional soldier.

His son, Heinz Günther Guderian, became a prominent General in the post-war German Army and NATO.

Would it be totally geeky to have a relative as a historical hero?

My great-great granddad was a librarian who advocated for open stacks (people get their own books off the shelves, rather than requesting them), and he instituted a children's story hour - right at the turn of the 19th/20th century. His second in command, and eventual successor, was a woman.

Sweet!

The 'punk will not be surprised by my first one:

Tommy Flowers

If you can boil the invention of the computer down to one man, this is he. And who knows of him? Practically no-one.

The most incredible bit of his story is that he wasn't authorised to build his first crack at Colossus, but he did it anyway, in his spare time, and with a very significant chunk of his own money, such that when he did get recognised after the war, his prize of £1000 didn't cover it.

i gotta go back to bletchley and explore more.

1. Clarence Darrow. While best known for his role advocating the teaching of evolution at the Scopes trial, the man also stood as defense attorney at several other historical cases, including landmark cases about labor unions, the death penalty, and (most impressively, in my opinion) the trial of the Sweet family. Long story short: black family is attacked by white mob, and in the process of defending themselves, kill one of the mob members. Darrow stands as their defense lawyer, and manages to have everyone involved completely acquitted by an all-white jury - in the 1920s (something more-or-less totally unheard-of). Also, a vocal agnostic, and very visible proof that religion is not a prerequisite for morality.

2. Thomas Paine. Anyone who gets exiled/forcibly driven out of three separate countries must either be doing something really wrong, or really right. In Paine's case, it was the latter - the man was politically way ahead of his time. He used his writing to help spark both the American and French revolutions, and then remained so radical that the new regimes also hated him (for example, in France he was completely in favor of overthrowing the aristocracy, but so adamantly opposed to executing them that he, too, ended up nearly losing his head). Most intriguingly of all, he didn't even begin being a revolutionary until he was 37, which gives me hope that those who claim your radical years are over by 30 have no idea what they're talking about.

p.s. If you get the opportunity to listen to the Mark Steel lecture on Paine, I highly recommend it.

Seconding Thomas Paine. He was going to be my first pick, honestly. His writing on the American colonies is just amazingly forthright, wonderfully done and revolutionary when that word actually meant something.

I have a ton of them, but it's going to take a while before I can actually write them up.

Helmer Hanssen, Olav Bjaaland, Oscar Wisting, Sverre Hassel, and Roald Fucking Amundsen, for their drama-free little round-trip to the South Pole, 1911-1912.

Nikola Tesla-the genius that Edison trashed.

quote:

Originally posted by halucinagenia:
Mine are some scots:

Captain James Cook

The Scottish explorer that explored and mapped NZ and Austrialia and claimed them for the UK, and pfft at wiki for calling him english!

It says he was born in Yorkshire to a Scottish father

quote:

Originally posted by lilith42:
Nikola Tesla-the genius that Edison trashed.

Seconded.
And also Mary Wollstonecraft

I tried reading Wollstonecraft's Vindication. I got bored. I think it's because it's all bloody obvious stuff from present day perspective. But yeah, at the time she was an utter pioneer.

quote:

Originally posted by D M:
I tried reading Wollstonecraft's Vindication. I got bored. I think it's because it's all bloody obvious stuff from present day perspective. But yeah, at the time she was an utter pioneer.

Exactly. Though I think she was a good writer anyway and also the way she conducted her personal life makes her a pioneer. It's not that she did n't make mistakes or have personal flaws; it's that she overcame them to help and inspire others.