title: Worthing

text: Oscar Wilde holidayed in the town in 1893 and 1894, writing the "Importance of Being Earnest" during his second visit. The town was home to several literary figures in the 20th century, including Nobel prize-winner Harold Pinter. On 9 October 1934 violent confrontations took place in the town between protestors and Oswald Mosley's British Union of Fascists which subsequently became known as the Battle of South Street. During the Second World War, Worthing was home to several allied military divisions in preparation for the D-Day landings.


title: Worthing

text: Worthing became the world's 229th Transition Town in October 2009. The project explored the town's transition to life after oil, and was established by local residents as a way of planning the town's Energy Descent Action Plan.


title: Worthing

text: Local government for the borough of Worthing is shared between Worthing Borough Council and West Sussex County Council in a two-tier structure. Worthing Borough Council partners with neighbouring local authorities, as part of Adur and Worthing Councils and the Greater Brighton City Region. The borough is divided into 13 wards, with 11 returning three councillors and two returning two councillors to form a total council of 37 members. The borough is unparished. At the 2022 election the Labour Party won control of the council for the first time, ending 18 years of Conservative administration.


title: Worthing

text: The town currently returns nine councillors from nine single-member electoral divisions to West Sussex County Council, which is responsible for services including school education, social care and highways. The County Council has been controlled by the Conservative Party since 1974, with the exception of the period 1993—97 when the council was under no overall control.


title: Worthing

text: Since 2014, Worthing has also been within the area of the Greater Brighton City Region. The borough is represented on the City Region's Economic Board by the leader of the Borough Council.


title: Worthing

text: The town has two Members of Parliament (MPs): Tim Loughton (Conservative) for East Worthing and Shoreham, a former Under-Secretary of State for Children and Families; and Peter Bottomley (Conservative) for Worthing West, who following the 2019 general election became the Father of the House of Commons. At the 2017 general election, the East Worthing and Shoreham seat became a marginal seat for the first time, with both seats having been held by their incumbents since the seats' creation before the 1997 general election. From 1945 to 1997 Worthing returned one MP. Since 1945 Worthing has always returned Conservative MPs. Until 1945 Worthing formed part of the Horsham and Worthing parliamentary constituency.


title: Worthing

text: Worthing is situated in West Sussex in South East England, south of London and west of Brighton and Hove. Historically within Sussex, in the rape of Bramber, Worthing is built on the South Coast Plain facing the English Channel. To the north of the urban area are the chalk hills of the South Downs, which form a National Park. The suburbs of High Salvington and Findon Valley climb the lower slopes of the Downs, reaching up to the contour line, whereas the highest point in the borough reaches at Cissbury Ring. Land at Cissbury Ring and the adjacent publicly owned Worthing Downland Estate together form a area of open access land within the borough. Further high points are at West Hill (139m) north-west of High Salvington and at Highdown Hill (81m) on the boundary with Ferring. Cissbury Ring forms the only Site of Special Scientific Interest in the borough.


title: Worthing

text: With a population of about 200,000, the Centre for Cities identifies the wider primary urban area of Worthing as one of the 63 largest cities and towns in the UK. Extending from Littlehampton to Lancing, the primary urban area is roughly equivalent to the present day borough and the area administered from 1933 to 1974 as the Worthing Rural District, or the 01903 Worthing telephone code area. Worthing forms the second-largest part of the Brighton and Hove built-up area, England's 12th largest conurbation, with a population in 2011 of over 470,000. The borough of Worthing is bordered by the West Sussex local authority districts of Arun in the north and west, and Adur in the east.


title: Worthing

text: Worthing is situated on a mix of two beds of sedimentary rock. The large part of the town, including the town centre is built upon chalk (part of the Chalk Group), with a bed of London clay found in a band heading west from Lancing through Broadwater and Durrington.


title: Worthing

text: Worthing lies roughly midway between the Rivers Arun and Adur. The culverted Teville Stream and the partially-culverted Ferring Rife run through the town. One of the Ferring Rife's sources is in Titnore Wood, a Site of Nature Conservation Interest and one of the last remaining blocks of ancient woodland on the coastal plain.


title: Worthing

text: The development along the coastal strip is interrupted by strategic gaps at the borough boundaries in the east and west, referred to as the Goring Gap and the Sompting Gap. Each gap falling largely outside the borough boundaries. The borough of Worthing contains no nature reserves: the nearest is Widewater Lagoon in Lancing.


title: Worthing

text: Lying some off the coast of Worthing, the "Worthing Lumps" are a series of underwater chalk cliff faces, up to high. The lumps, described as "one of the best chalk reefs in Europe" by the Marine Conservation Society, are home to rare fish such as blennies and the lesser spotted dogfish. The site has been declared a Site of Nature Conservation Importance (SNCI) (a site of county importance) by West Sussex County Council. Since 2013 the area has also formed part of the Kingmere Marine Conservation Zone. Just south of the shoreline lies remains of what was once an extensive kelp forest which until the 1980s stretched from Bognor Regis to Brighton and covered approximately . With only remaining, the kelp forest is now being supported to recover.


title: Worthing

text: Worthing has a temperate climate: its Köppen climate classification is "Cfb". Its mean annual temperature of is similar to that experienced along the Sussex coast, and slightly warmer than nearby areas such as the Sussex Weald. On most summer afternoons a sea breeze, sometimes known as "The Worthing Effect" by the local watersports community, blows from the south-west, building throughout the morning and peaking generally mid to late afternoon.


title: Worthing

text: The naming of parts of the town reflect its growth in its formative years of the 19th century. Central parts of the town are made up of the former townships of Worthing and West Worthing, which merged in 1890 when the town gained borough status. This area comprises the town centre, East Worthing and West Worthing. To the north and west of this area are the former villages of Worthing which have old roots but only became urbanised in the 20th century. These districts sometimes share their names – although not necessarily boundaries – with local electoral wards and include the former parishes of Broadwater, Durrington, Goring and (West) Tarring, as well as Findon Valley, which was formerly part of the parish of Findon. Other areas within these parishes include High Salvington, Offington and Salvington.


title: Worthing

text: According to the Office for National Statistics, Worthing's population increased to an estimated 110,570 in 2019. Worthing is the second most densely populated local authority area in East and West Sussex, with a population density in 2011 of 33.83 people per hectare. Worthing underwent dramatic population growth both in the early 19th century as the hamlet had newly become a town and again in the 1880s. The town experienced further growth in the 1930s, and again when new estates were built, using prisoner of war labour, to the west of the town from 1948. The main driver of population growth in Worthing during the 1990s and first decade of the 21st century has been in-migration into Worthing; in particular Worthing is the most popular destination for people moving from the nearby city of Brighton and Hove, with significant numbers also moving to the borough from London.


title: Worthing

text: ONS population projections 2014 base / projections uplifted by '21-1,800/'26-2,100/'36-2,500 given underestimation at 2016 - 2,250/


title: Worthing

text: According to the UK Government's 2021 census, 91.3% of the population was White (85.0% White British, 0.8% White Irish, 0.1% Gypsy/Irish Traveller, 0.2% Roma, 5.2% Other White), 2.6% of mixed ancestry (0.9% White and Black Caribbean, 0.5% White and Black African, 0.9% White and Asian, 0.7% Other Mixed), 4.0% Asian (1.0% Indian, 0.2% Pakistani, 0.7% Bangladeshi, 0.5% Chinese, 1.5% Other Asian), 1.2% Black (0.8% African, 0.2% Caribbean, 0.1% Other Black), 0.2% Arab and 0.8% of other ethnic heritage.


title: Worthing

text: The town also has some notable communities from overseas. At the 2021 census 0.79% (864 people) were born in Poland, 0.70% of its population (778 people) were born in India, 0.68% (753 people) were born in the Philippines and 0.65% (724 people) were born in Romania.


title: Worthing

text: Worthing has a younger population than the other three districts of coastal West Sussex, albeit older than the South East average. In 2006, 26.7% of the population were between 25 and 44 years old, which is a higher proportion compared to the other districts in the coastal West Sussex area. Over the last 20 years, Worthing has seen the sharpest decline in its population aged 65 years or more with its proportion of the total population falling by 8.1% (7,000 in real terms), at a time when this age group has actually grown across the South East region and elsewhere. In contrast there have been comparatively significant increases in older families (4.5%) and family makers (4.3%) within the borough. In 2010 the estimated median age of the population of Worthing was 42.8 years, 3.2 years older than the average for the UK of 39.6 years.


title: Worthing

text: More people in Worthing identify as Christian than any other religion (43.9% in 2021) and the borough has about 50 active Christian places of worship. Worthing's Churches Together organisation encourages ecumenical work and links between the town's churches.


title: Worthing

text: Worthing's first Anglican church, St Paul's, was built in 1812; previously, worshippers had to travel to the ancient parish church of Broadwater. Residential growth in the 19th century led to several other Anglican churches opening in the town centre: Christ Church was started in 1840 and survived a closure threat in 2006; Arthur Blomfield's St Andrew's Church brought the controversial ""High Church"" form of worship to the town in the 1880s—its "Worthing Madonna" icon was particularly contentious; and Holy Trinity church opened at the same time but with less dispute.


title: Worthing

text: Other Anglican churches were built in the 20th century to serve new residential areas such as High Salvington and Maybridge; and the ancient villages which were absorbed into Worthing Borough between 1890 and 1929 each had their own church: Broadwater's had Saxon origins, St Mary's at Goring-by-Sea was Norman (although it was rebuilt in 1837), St Andrew's at West Tarring was 13th century, and St Botolph's at Heene and St Symphorian's at Durrington were rebuilt from medieval ruins. All of the borough's churches are in the Rural Deanery of Worthing and the Diocese of Chichester.


title: Worthing

text: The first Roman Catholic church in Worthing opened in 1864; the centrally located St Mary of the Angels Church has since been joined by others at East Worthing, Goring-by-Sea and High Salvington. All are in Worthing Deanery in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Arundel and Brighton. Protestant Nonconformism has a long history in Worthing: the town's first place of worship was an Independent chapel. Methodists, Baptists, the United Reformed Church and Evangelical Christian groups each have several churches in the borough, and other denominations represented include Christadelphians, Christian Scientists, Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormons and Plymouth Brethren. A Coptic Orthodox church is also present in the town. The Salvation Army have been established for more than a century, but their arrival in Worthing prompted large-scale riots involving a group called the Skeleton Army. These continued intermittently for several years in the 1880s. Other Christian organisations include Worthing Churches Homeless Projects and Street Pastors.


title: Worthing

text: In 2021, 1.7% of the population of Worthing were Muslim. Since 1994 the Muslim community has had a mosque at the Worthing Islamic Cultural Centre, also known as "Worthing Masjid" (Worthing Mosque) or "Masjid Assalam" (Mosque of Peace, or Mosque of Allah) which follows the Sunni tradition and holds prayer, education, and funeral services for the local community.


title: Worthing

text: There are also small communities of Buddhists (0.6% in 2021) in Worthing, including a community of Triratna Buddhists. There is a small Jewish community (0.2% in 2021) and the town had a synagogue in the 1930s. In 2011, 0.7% of the population were Hindu, 0.1% were Sikh and 0.7% followed another religion. A small community of the Baháʼí Faith practises in Worthing. 45.7% claimed no religious affiliation, a figure significantly higher than the average for England and Wales of 37.2%, and 6.3% did not state their religion.


title: Worthing

text: Worthing has 22 primary schools, six secondary schools, one primary and secondary special school, two independent schools, one sixth form college and one college of higher and further education. With campuses in Worthing, Shoreham Airport and Brighton, Greater Brighton Metropolitan College was formed in a merger between Worthing-based Northbrook College and City College Brighton and Hove and is an affiliate college of Brighton University. Its West Durrington campus is referred to as University Centre Worthing and it provides Higher Education to around 1,000 students, most of whom study art and design. The town's sixth form college, Worthing College, is located on a campus in Broadwater.


title: Worthing

text: West Sussex County Council provides six state secondary schools: Bohunt School Worthing in Broadwater is a coeducational academy school, Durrington High School and St Andrews High School and Worthing High School are all coeducational, with St Andrew's taking in girls from 2021. Davison High School in East Worthing is a girls' school. St Oscar Romero Catholic School in Goring is a Catholic School. Our Lady of Sion School in the town centre is an independent school for children aged 3—18.


title: Worthing

text: Worthing's economy is dominated by the service industry, particularly financial services. Major employers include GSK, LEMO electronics, Rayner Lenses, HM Revenue & Customs, the Environment Agency and Southern Water.


title: Worthing

text: In October 2009, GlaxoSmithKline confirmed that 250 employees in Worthing would lose their jobs at the factory, which makes the antibiotics co-amoxiclav (Augmentin) and amoxicillin (Amoxin) and hundreds of other products. , there were approximately 43,000 jobs in the borough.


title: Worthing

text: Although Worthing was voted the most profitable town in Britain for three consecutive years at the end of the 1990s, the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings 2009 found that Worthing residents' mean pre-tax pay is only £452 per week, compared to £487 for West Sussex and £535 for South East England as a whole.


title: Worthing

text: In 2008, Worthing was in the top 10 urban areas in England for jobs in each of three key sectors, thought to have a significant impact on economic performance: creative, high-tech industries and knowledge-intensive business services. The 2012 UK Town and City Index from Santander UK ranked Worthing as the second highest town or city in the UK for connectivity and ranked fifth in the UK overall out of 74 towns and cities.


title: Worthing

text: In June 2006, Worthing Borough Council agreed a masterplan for the town's regeneration, focused on improving the town centre and seafront. A new £150 million development is proposed for Teville Gate, between Worthing railway station and the A24 at the northern approach to the town centre. It is expected to include two residential towers, a multiplex cinema, hotel and conference and exhibition centre. The developers are expected to apply for planning permission in the summer of 2010. Redevelopment is planned for the Grafton Street car park area; and the town's major undercover shopping centre, the Guildbourne Centre, may be rebuilt entirely and extended to Union Place, covering the site of the town's former police station.


title: Worthing

text: In the longer term, the area around Worthing's museum, art gallery, library and town hall—collectively described as the "Worthing Cultural and Civic Hub"—is to be revamped to provide extra facilities and new housing. In 2009, Worthing Borough Council applied for a £5 million grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund to redevelop and enlarge the museum. A new £16 million municipal swimming pool, Splash Point Leisure Centre, has been designed by Stirling Prize-winning architects Wilkinson Eyre; it was opened by Paralympian Ellie Simmonds in June 2013. It has been proposed that Montague Place is pedestrianised to improve the link between the town centre and the seafront.


title: Worthing

text: Completed regeneration projects include the reopening of the Dome Cinema in 2007 after major investment from the Heritage Lottery Fund, and a £5.5 million mixed-use development on the site of a former hotel near Teville Gate.


title: Worthing

text: A turnpike was opened in 1803 to connect Worthing with London, and similar toll roads were built later in the 19th century to connect nearby villages. Stagecoach traffic grew rapidly until 1845, when the opening of a railway line from Brighton brought about an immediate decline. The former turnpike is now the A24, a primary route which runs northwards to London via Horsham and connects Worthing with the M25 motorway. Two east–west routes run through the borough: the A27 trunk road runs to Brighton in the east, and to Chichester, Portsmouth and the M27 motorway in the west. The A259 follows a coastal route between Hampshire and Kent.


title: Worthing

text: Most local and long-distance buses are operated by Stagecoach South which has its origins in Southdown Motor Services—founded in 1915 with one route to Pulborough. Stagecoach in the South Downs operates several routes around the town and to Midhurst, Brighton and Portsmouth. The most frequent service, between Lancing and Durrington, was branded "PULSE" in 2006. Worthing-based Compass Travel have routes to Angmering, Chichester, Henfield and Lancing; and other companies serve Horsham, Crawley, Brighton and intermediate destinations. National Express coaches run between London's Victoria Coach Station and Marine Parade. During the 1920s and 1930s, a fleet of up to 15 converted Shelvoke and Drewry dustbin lorries—the Worthing Tramocars—operated local bus services alongside more conventional vehicles.


title: Worthing

text: The borough has five railway stations: East Worthing, Worthing, West Worthing, Durrington-on-Sea and Goring-by-Sea. All are on the West Coastway Line and are managed and operated by the Southern train operating company. Worthing opened on 24 November 1845 as a temporary terminus of the line from Brighton, which was extended to Chichester the following year and electrified in the 1930s. Regular services run to destinations such as London, Gatwick Airport, Brighton, Littlehampton and Portsmouth.


title: Worthing

text: Shoreham Airport is about east of Worthing. The nearest international airport is London Gatwick, about to the northeast.


title: Worthing

text: Home Office policing in Worthing is provided by the Worthing district of the West Sussex division of Sussex Police. The district is divided into two neighbourhood policing teams—North and South—for operational purposes. The police station is in Chatsworth Road. The West Downs division's headquarters is at Centenary House in Durrington. Worthing's fire station has been in Broadwater since 1962. The borough had been in charge of fire protection since 1891, after several decades in which volunteers provided the service. A fire station was built on Worthing High Street in 1908; it was demolished after the move to Broadwater. The Worthing and Adur District Team, part of the West Sussex Fire and Rescue Service, employs 60 full-time and 18 retained firefighters.


title: Worthing

text: Worthing Hospital is administered by the University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust. The 500-bed facility on Lyndhurst Road was founded in 1881 as an 18-bed infirmary. It replaced older hospitals on Ann Street and Chapel Road. Other medical care facilities include two mental health units (Greenacres and Meadowfield Hospital) and a 38-bed private hospital in the Grade II-listed Goring Hall.


title: Worthing

text: Gas was manufactured in Worthing for nearly 100 years until 1931, but Scotia Gas Networks now supply the town through their Southern Gas Networks division. Electricity generation took place locally between 1901 and 1961; EDF Energy now supply the town. Southern Water, who have been based in Durrington since 1989, have controlled Worthing's water supply, drainage and sewerage since 1974. The town's first waterworks was built in 1852. Drainage and sewage disposal was poorly developed in the 19th century, but a fatal typhoid outbreak in 1893 prompted investment in sewage works and better pipes.


title: Worthing

text: There are a number of voluntary and community groups active in the town ranging from small volunteer-led groups to large well established charities. There is a Council for Voluntary Service and a Volunteer Centre funded by the local authority to support voluntary action. In 2003-4 registered charities in Worthing indicated a combined income of £56 million in the submitted accounts to the Charity Commission. The Place Survey conducted in all local authority districts by central government in 2009 found that up to 24,000 people in Worthing described themselves as giving volunteer time in the community.


title: Worthing

text: Salvington in Worthing was the birthplace of philosopher and scholar John Selden in 1584. Jane Austen's unfinished final novel "Sanditon" is thought to have been significantly based on experiences from her stay in Worthing in 1805. Two of Percy Bysshe Shelley's earliest works were printed in Worthing, including "The Necessity of Atheism" in 1811, which resulted in Shelley's expulsion from Oxford University and falling out with his father. Shelley's grandfather built Castle Goring and his father was the first chairman of what became Worthing Council. Oscar Wilde wrote "The Importance of Being Earnest" while staying in the town in the summer of 1894; its main character Jack/Ernest Worthing is named after it. In the 1960s, playwright Harold Pinter lived wrote "The Homecoming" at his home in Ambrose Place. Other literary figures to have lived in the town include W.E. Henley, W.H. Hudson, Stephen Spender, Dorothy Richardson, Edward Knoblock, Beatrice Hastings, Maureen Duffy, Vivien Alcock, John Oxenham and his daughter Elsie J. Oxenham.


title: Worthing

text: The history of film in Worthing dates back to exhibitions on Worthing Pier in 1896, and two years later William Kennedy Dickson—inventor of the Kinetoscope, a pioneering motion picture device—visited the town to film daily life. In the early 20th century, several cinemas were established, although most were short-lived. Other former cinemas include the Rivoli (1924–1960), the 2,000-capacity Plaza (1933–1968) and the 1,600-capacity Odeon (1934–1986). The Kursaal was built in 1910 as a combined skating rink and theatre by Swiss impresario Carl Adolf Seebold. It was renamed the Dome in 1915 in response to anti-German sentiment during World War I. Seebold opened the 950-capacity Dome Cinema in place of the skating rink in 1922; it is still open, and is one of Britain's oldest operational cinemas. The Connaught Screen 2 cinema (formerly the Ritz, and before that Connaught Hall) was established in 1995.


title: Worthing

text: Many films and television programmes have been filmed using Worthing as the backdrop including: Pinter's "The Birthday Party" (1968), directed by William Friedkin (best known for directing "The French Connection" in 1971 and "The Exorcist" in 1973), "Dance with a Stranger" (1985), "Wish You Were Here" (1987), "Stan & Ollie" (2018), "Vindication Swim" (forthcoming) and "My Policeman" (forthcoming), as well as the television drama series "Cuffs" (2015).


title: Worthing

text: Artists from Worthing include Alma Cogan, Royal Blood and The Ordinary Boys. Worthing was home in the late 1960s to the Worthing Workshop, a group of artists and musicians who included Leo Sayer, Brian James of The Damned, Billy Idol and Steamhammer, whose guitarist, Martin Quittenton, went on to co-write Rod Stewart's UK number one hits "You Wear It Well" and "Maggie May". For three days in 1970 a field on the outskirts of Worthing was the site of the Phun City music festival, the UK's first large-scale free music festival and organised by two former Worthing residents, UK underground musician and author Mick Farren and Gez Cox. In the late 1980s and early 1990s Sterns Nightclub was a major centre for rave culture in the UK and Worthing continues to have a notable electronic music scene.


title: Worthing

text: Music venues include the Assembly Hall, the Pavilion Theatre, The Venue, the Factory Live, Jungle and the Cellar Arts Club. The Assembly Hall is home to the Worthing Symphony Orchestra, the Worthing Philharmonic Orchestra and the Sussex International Piano Competition. Howarth of London, the UK's largest manufacturer of professional standard oboes are based in Worthing.


title: Worthing

text: As of 2019 Worthing has three council-owned theatres: the Art Deco Connaught Theatre (formerly called Picturdrome), the Baroque Pavilion Theatre and the Modernist, Grade II-listed Assembly Hall, which is mostly used for musical performances (including since 1950 an annual music festival). Theatre has been performed in Worthing since 1796. Thomas Trotter, the early promoter and manager at the town's temporary venues, was asked to open a permanent theatre in 1807; his Theatre Royal opened on 7 July of that year and operated until 1855. The building survived until 1870. The 1,000-capacity New Theatre Royal in Bath Place, run by Carl Adolf Seebold for several years, lasted from 1897 until 1929.


title: Worthing

text: Worthing Museum and Art Gallery hosts one of the most significant costume collections in the UK. Built in 1908 as the town's museum and library, it is expected to undergo a major redevelopment in 2020. Alfred Cortis, the first mayor of Worthing, and the international philanthropist Andrew Carnegie funded the construction.


title: Worthing

text: In the visual arts, painter Copley Fielding lived at 5 Park Crescent in the mid-18th century. and more recently Jamie Hewlett and Alan Martin created cult comic figure "Tank Girl" while at college in the town in the 1980s. The town has a famous work by sculptor Elisabeth Frink. Uniquely in England, Desert Quartet (1990), Frink's penultimate sculpture, was given Grade II* listing in 2007, less than 30 years from its creation. It may be seen on the building opposite Liverpool Gardens. Hand-painted by Gary Bevans over more than five years, English Martyrs' Catholic Church in Goring has the world's only known reproduction of Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel ceiling.


title: Worthing

text: Few structures in central Worthing predate the 19th century, these being a few buildings on Worthing High Street that are survivals from the early fishing hamlet of Worthing. There are some older buildings in the former villages outside the town centre. For example, parts of St Mary's Church in Broadwater date to the Saxon period and West Tarring has several buildings from the medieval and Tudor periods, including St Andrew's Church and the Archbishop's Palace, which date from the 13th century.


title: Worthing

text: There are 213 listed buildings in the borough of Worthing. Three of these—Castle Goring, St Mary's Church at Broadwater and the Archbishop's Palace at West Tarring—are classified at Grade I, which is used for buildings "of exceptional interest, sometimes considered to be internationally important". Worthing Pier, Park Crescent, Beach House and several churches are also listed.


title: Worthing

text: Since 1896, when Warwick House was demolished, many historic buildings have been lost and others altered. The town's first and most distinguished theatre, the Theatre Royal, and the adjacent Omega Cottage (the home of the theatre's first manager) were lost in 1970 when the Guildbourne Centre was built; Warne's Hotel and the Royal Sea House burnt down; the early bath-houses which were vital to Worthing's success as a fashionable resort were all demolished in the 20th century; Broadwater's ancient rectory rotted away after it fell out of use in 1924; and several old streets in the town centre had all their buildings demolished for postwar redevelopment.


title: Worthing

text: Pale yellow bricks have been made locally since about 1780, and are commonly encountered as a building material. Flint is the other predominant structural material: its local abundance has ensured its frequent use. The combination of flint and red brick is characteristic of Worthing. In particular, walls built alongside streets or to mark out boundaries were almost always built of flint with brick dressings, especially in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.


title: Worthing

text: Boat porches are a unique architectural feature of Worthing. These structures surround the entrance doors of some early 19th-century houses, and take the form of a stuccoed porch with an ogee-headed roof which resembles the bottom of a boat. Historians have speculated that the cottages, examples of which are in Albert Place, Warwick Place and elsewhere, may have been built by local fishermen who used their boats as a basis for the design.


title: Worthing

text: The town has a small number of residential high-rise buildings including Manor Lea at , built in 1967 and Bayside Vista at , under development and expected to be completed in 2021. The Splashpoint Leisure Centre won a World Architecture Festival award in 2013. A tall ferris wheel was opened in 2019.


title: Worthing

text: The Midsummer Tree, an oak, stands near Broadwater Green and is said to be around 300 years old. Until the 19th century, it was believed that on Midsummer's Eve skeletons would rise from the tree and dance around it until dawn, when they would sink back into the ground. The legend was first recorded by folklorist Charlotte Latham in 1868. Since 2006, when the oak was saved from development, meetings have been held on Midsummers Eve there.


title: Worthing

text: It was once believed that monsters known as knuckers lived in bottomless ponds called knuckerholes. There were several knuckerholes in Sussex, including one in Worthing by Ham Bridge (on the present Ham Road), close to East Worthing railway station and Teville Stream.


title: Worthing

text: According to legend, a tunnel several miles long led from the now-demolished medieval Offington Hall to the Neolithic flint mines and Iron Age hill fort at Cissbury. It was said to be sealed, and there was treasure at the far end; the owner of the Hall "had offered half the money to anyone who would clear out the subterranean passage and several persons had begun digging, but all had been driven back by large snakes springing at them with open mouths and angry hisses".


title: Worthing

text: The town has five miles of beach and large areas of open space on the South Downs including the Worthing Downland Estate, Cissbury Ring and Highdown Hill. The town also contains a number of parks and gardens, many laid out in the Victorian and Edwardian eras.


title: Worthing

text: Worthing Artists' Open Houses is an annual festival of arts and crafts. The Worthing Festival is held in the last two weeks each July with open-air concerts in the town centre and a fairground along the town's promenade. Worthing Pride has been celebrated in the town since 2018. From 2008 to 2015, Worthing was the home to the International Birdman competition.


title: Worthing

text: In January, the ancient custom of wassailing takes place in Tarring to bless the apple trees. A flaming torchlit procession takes place down Tarring High Street culminating in hundreds of people gathering around an apple tree to shout, chant and sing to drive away evil spirits. The apple trees are toasted with wassail, apple cider and apple cake, followed by fireworks. On May Day, a procession and dancing takes place in Worthing town centre, culminating in the crowning of the May Queen.


title: Worthing

text: In the early 19th century, Worthing was served by newspapers with a wider geographical circulation, such as the "Brighton Gazette", "Brighton Herald", "Sussex Daily News", "Sussex Weekly Advertiser" and "West Sussex Gazette". Weekly or monthly publications such as the "Worthing Visitors' List and Advertising Sheet" (notorious for its condemnation of people who had displeased its owner, Owen Breads), the "Worthing Monthly Record & District Chronicle" and the "Worthing Intelligencer" provided some local coverage from the middle of the century onwards; but the town's first regular local newspaper was the "Worthing Gazette", introduced in 1883. It favoured the Conservative Party at first, and supported the Skeleton Army's anti-Salvation Army riots later that decade.


title: Worthing

text: In 1921 its scope was extended to include Littlehampton, and it was renamed accordingly. The "Worthing Herald" was founded in 1920; it acquired the "Gazette" in 1963, but continued to publish the newspapers separately until 1981. Since then, a single newspaper has been published weekly under the "Herald" name, but it is officially known as the "Worthing Herald incorporating the Worthing Gazette". It is now owned by Johnston Press, and has been based at Cannon House in Chatsworth Road since 1991. The Brighton-based daily "The Argus", owned by Newsquest, also serves Worthing. An anarchic local newsletter called "The Porkbolter", focusing on environmental issues, has been published monthly since 1997.


title: Worthing

text: Worthing is served by the BBC South television studios based in Southampton, BBC South East from Tunbridge Wells, and by the ITV franchise Meridian Broadcasting, also with studios in Southampton. Television signals come from the Rowridge or Whitehawk Hill transmitters.


title: Worthing

text: More Radio Worthing is Worthing's local commercial radio station. Launched in 2003 it broadcasts from the Guildbourne Centre on 107.7FM. Heart Sussex, a Global Radio-owned commercial station, also covers Worthing. BBC Local Radio coverage is provided by BBC Radio Sussex.


title: Worthing

text: Worthing's of coastline provide for watersport, especially catamaran racing, windsurfing and kitesurfing. The town has held a regatta for rowing since at least 1859.


title: Worthing

text: The South Downs is commonly used for hiking and mountain-biking, with around 22 trail-heads within the borough. Both of Worthing's golf clubs, including Worthing Golf Club are on the Downs. The Three Forts Marathon is a ultramarathon from Broadwater to the three Iron Age hill forts of Cissbury Ring, Chanctonbury Ring and Devil's Dyke.


title: Worthing

text: Worthing F.C., nicknamed ""The Rebels"" or ""The Mackerel Men"", formed in 1886 is the town's main football club. The men's team play in the National League South, having won the 2021—22 Isthmian League Premier Division and the women's team play in the Premier Division of the London and South East Women's Regional Football League. Worthing United F.C. nicknamed 'the ""Mavericks"" were playing in the Division One of the Sussex County League in 2013. Nicknamed "Worthing Raiders", Worthing Rugby Football Club play in National League 2 South and since 1977 have been based in the nearby village of Angmering. Formed in 1999 Worthing Thunder play in the National Basketball League. The Worthing Bears (now defunct) won the British Basketball League in 1992—93. Worthing Hockey Club was formed in 1896 and has a number of teams. The home pitches are at Manor Sports Ground.


title: Worthing

text: The promenade is the route used by the Worthing parkrun which has been taking place since June 2016. The free, weekly timed 5 km run had 420 people attending the first event.


title: Worthing

text: Alongside Johannesburg and Adelaide, Worthing is one of only three locations in the world to have hosted the men's World Bowls Championship twice. The events were held in 1972 and 1992, both at Beach House Park, which is sometimes known as the spiritual home of bowls, and is also the venue for the annual National Championships each August. Beach House Park also hosted the Women's World Bowls Championship in 1977.


title: Battles of Narvik

text: The Battles of Narvik were fought from 9 April to 8 June 1940 as a naval battle of the Ofotfjord and as a land battle in the mountains surrounding the north Norwegian town of Narvik as part of the Norwegian Campaign of the Second World War.


title: Battles of Narvik

text: The two naval battles in the Ofotfjord on 10 April and 13 April were fought between the British Royal Navy and Nazi Germany "Kriegsmarine", while the two-month land campaign was fought between Norwegian, French, British, and Polish troops against German mountain troops, shipwrecked Kriegsmarine sailors and German paratroopers ("Fallschirmjäger") from the 7th Air Division. Although defeated at sea off Narvik, losing control of the town of Narvik and being pushed back towards the Swedish border, the Germans eventually prevailed because of the Allied evacuation from Norway in June 1940 following the Battle of France.


title: Battles of Narvik

text: Narvik provided an ice-free harbour in the North Atlantic for iron ore transported by rail from Kiruna in Sweden. Both sides in the war had an interest in securing this iron supply for themselves and denying it to the enemy, thereby setting the stage for one of the biggest battles since the Invasion of Poland.


title: Battles of Narvik

text: Prior to the German invasion, British forces had considered Narvik as a possible landing point for an expedition to help Finland in the Winter War. Such an expedition also had the potential of taking control of the Swedish mines and opening up the Baltic for the Allies.


title: Battles of Narvik

text: On 1 March 1940, Adolf Hitler ordered the invasion of Norway, codenamed "Operation Weserübung" as a preventive manoeuvre against a planned, and openly discussed, Franco-British occupation of Norway. This operation would involve most of the "Kriegsmarine". Participating units were divided into five groups, which were to occupy six of the main Norwegian ports.


title: Battles of Narvik

text: Group I departed Bremerhaven on 6 April. It consisted of 10 German destroyers of the 1934A and 1936 classes "Georg Thiele", "Wolfgang Zenker", "Bernd von Arnim", "Erich Giese", "Erich Koellner", "Diether von Roeder", "Hans Lüdemann", "Hermann Künne", "Wilhelm Heidkamp" (flagship) and "Anton Schmitt", commanded by "Kommodore" Friedrich Bonte. Each of the warships carried around 200 soldiers (a total of 1,900 mountain troops ("Gebirgsjäger") from the 139th Mountain Regiment ("Gebirgsjägerregiment") of the 3rd Mountain Division commanded by General Eduard Dietl). The troop-carrying destroyers were escorted most of the way by the battleships and .


title: Battles of Narvik

text: In the early morning of 9 April, the destroyers of Group I passed the Vestfjorden and arrived at the Ofotfjorden leading to Narvik, in fog and heavy snow. In Ofotfjord, they captured three Norwegian patrol boats ("Senja", "Michael Sars" and "Kelt"). Before capture "Kelt" managed to send a message to the coastal defence ship HNoMS "Norge", alerting the local Norwegian naval commander of the incoming vessels. The German ships "Wolfgang Zenker", "Erich Koellner" and "Hermann Künne" landed their soldiers in Herjangsfjord (a northern branch of Ofotfjorden) in order to capture a Norwegian regimental supply base at Elvegårdsmoen. "Hans Ludemann" and "Hermann Künne" also landed their troops in order to engage the nearby Norwegian forts (which turned out to be non-existent). "Diether von Roeder" remained in Ofotfjord in order to ensure German control of the sea. "Erich Giese" was delayed by engine trouble and did not join the main force for some time.


title: Battles of Narvik

text: The main defence of Narvik were the old coastal defence ships "Eidsvold" and her sister ship "Norge". Having been alerted by "Kelt", both Norwegian ships prepared for combat: the guns were loaded and life preservers issued to the crew. Around 04:15, the Germans spotted "Eidsvold", and "Eidsvold" immediately signalled the leading German destroyer with an aldis lamp. When the Germans failed to respond to the signal, a warning shot was fired across their bow.


title: Battles of Narvik

text: The Germans had orders to occupy Norway peacefully if at all possible, so the German flagship "Wilhelm Heidkamp" stopped and signalled that it would send an officer to negotiate. A small launch ferried "Korvettenkapitän" Gerlach over to "Eidsvold". Gerlach was taken to the bridge to speak to Captain Odd Isaachsen Willoch.


title: Battles of Narvik

text: Gerlach tried to convince Willoch that the Germans had arrived as friends, but that the Norwegians had to hand over their warships to the German armed forces. Captain Willoch asked for time to consult his commander, Captain Per Askim, the commander of "Norge". This request was refused by the Germans, but while Willoch had been talking to the German officer the radio officer on board "Eidsvold" had communicated the events to Askim. Askim's response to the German demands and order to Willoch came immediately; Willoch and "Eidsvold" was to open fire. Willoch responded to Askim; "I am attacking." While this was going on, the German destroyer "Wilhelm Heidkamp" had positioned herself off the port side of "Eidsvold" and trained her torpedo launchers on the Norwegian ship.


title: Battles of Narvik

text: Gerlach tried once again to convince Willoch to surrender, but Willoch refused. As Gerlach left "Eidsvold", he fired a red flare, indicating that the Norwegians intended to fight. At this point, Captain Willoch shouted: ("Man the guns. We're going to fight, boys!"). "Eidsvold" turned towards the closest destroyer and accelerated, closing the distance to "Wilhelm Heidkamp" to while the battery commander ordered the port battery (three guns) to open fire.


title: Battles of Narvik

text: The Germans, afraid that "Eidsvold" might ram the destroyer, fired four torpedoes from "Wilhelm Heidkamp" at the old ship. Two of the torpedoes hit before the port guns could fire. The Norwegian ammunition magazine was ignited and "Eidsvold" was blown in two. The forward part of the ship sank in seconds, the stern followed in minutes, propellers still turning. At around 04:37, she was gone. 175 Norwegian sailors died in the freezing water, including Captain Willoch, with just eight surviving.


title: Battles of Narvik

text: Deeper inside the fjord, the explosions were heard aboard "Norge", but nothing could be seen until two German destroyers suddenly appeared out of the darkness and Captain Per Askim of "Norge" gave orders to open fire at 04:45. Four rounds were fired from the guns (one from the fore gun and three from the aft) as well as seven or eight rounds from the starboard guns, against the German destroyer "Bernd von Arnim", at a range of about . Due to the difficult weather conditions, the guns' optical sights were ineffective: the first salvo fell short of the target and the next ones overshot it.


title: Battles of Narvik

text: The German destroyers waited until they were alongside the pier before returning fire. "Bernd von Armin" opened fire with her guns as well as with machine guns, but the weather gave the Germans problems as well. The destroyer also fired three salvoes of two torpedoes each. The first two salvoes missed, but the last struck "Norge" midships and she sank in less than one minute. Ninety of the crew were rescued, but 101 perished in the battle which had lasted less than 20 minutes. The destruction of "Norge" signalled the end of Norwegian resistance in the port.


title: Battles of Narvik

text: Much of the Norwegian garrison at Narvik awoke to the sound of gunfire and were unprepared to face the Germans. Many were surrounded and disarmed as they scrambled to occupy defensive positions. The commander-in-chief of the Narvik area, Colonel Konrad Sundlo, is often cited as the reason for the quick capitulation. Described by Kriegsmarine Admiral Erich Raeder as "an officer with reportedly pro-German feelings," he quickly withdrew from the area following the naval engagement and began negotiations with the Germans. After the initial loss of Narvik, Norwegian General Carl Gustav Fleischer sent out a communique`, part of which read:


title: Battles of Narvik

text: Sundlo was charged with treason for the surrender of Narvik after the war, but these charges were dismissed. Instead he was found guilty of negligence for failing to adequately prepare for Narvik's defence, and on charges for cooperating with the Germans during the occupation.


title: Battles of Narvik

text: The morning of the German attack four Norwegian steamers were anchored in Narvik; the "Cate B", the "Eldrid", the "Haalegg" and the "Saphir". In addition to the Norwegian vessels, four foreign, neutral ships were present; the Dutch steamer "Bernisse", and the three Swedish steamships "Boden" (), "Oxelösund" () and "Strassa" (). As well as neutral ships, the warring parties had vessels at Narvik, riding anchor in the same port. The British had five steamers in the harbour; the "Blythmoor", the "Mersington Court", the "North Cornwall", the "Riverton", and the "Romanby". As the German flotilla seized Narvik, there were 11 German merchant steamers at the port town; the "Aachen", the "Altona", the "Bockenheim", the "Hein Hoyer", the "Martha Henrich Fisser", the "Neuenfels", the "Odin", the "Lippe", the "Frielinghaus", the "Planet", and the replenishment oiler/maintenance ship . "Jan Wellem", a converted former whale factory ship, awaited the arrival of the German warships, which she was tasked to refuel. Working in the harbour were the Swedish tugs "Diana" () and "Styrbjörn" (). As the German destroyers entered the harbour, the captain of "Bockenheim", who assumed that the intruding warships were British, beached and scuttled his vessel. In total, 25 ore ships had been riding at anchor in Narvik at the outset of the fighting, 10 of which were German.


title: Battles of Narvik

text: The German destroyers were now short of fuel and had only one fuel tanker in support–the ex-whale factory ship "Jan Wellem" that had been despatched to Narvik, accordingly to some sources from the secret German naval base Basis Nord at Zapadnaya Litsa in the Soviet Union, where she had been based since 4 February 1940. Another source indicates that she departed Murmansk in the evening of the 6 April and that Basis Nord was never even established. She had arrived off Narvik from the north on 8 April, and had been stopped by the Norwegian patrol boat "Kvitøy". "Jan Wellem" was allowed entry to Narvik by the regional Norwegian naval command, where she was inspected. Her captain claimed that she was carrying of fuel oil and 8,098 crates of food provisions and that she was on her way to Germany. A second tanker, the "Kattegat" which had sailed to Norway from Wilhelmshaven, had been sunk in the Glomfjord in the evening of 9 April. "Kattegat" had been stopped by the Norwegian fishery protection ship HNoMS "Nordkapp", the Norwegian ship first trying to take the tanker as a prize, but due to the large German crew could not control it all the way to Bodø, in the end sinking "Kattegat" by firing four rounds into the tanker's water line.


title: Battles of Narvik

text: "Kattegat" had been delayed from reaching Narvik in time by the British 8 April mining operations off Norway. A third tanker—"Skagerrak"—had also been despatched to Norway, in support of the German landings at Trondheim, but she was intercepted by the British cruiser , on 14 April, after she had been redirected by German naval command to a waiting position at sea. When the British warship tried to board "Skagerrak" her crew scuttled her at . Both "Kattegat" and "Skagerrak", which were sister ships, were inspected at Kopervik by the Norwegian torpedo boat "Stegg", on 5 and 7 April respectively. The captain of "Kattegat" told the Norwegians that he was headed to Narvik for further orders, and the captain of "Skagerrak" claimed Murmansk as their destination, and inspections revealed that both tankers had a full load of fuel oil. "Skagerrak" also carried of food provisions, which was claimed as supplies for German merchant ships. The food crates were labelled ""Wehrmacht"". According to the German plan the destroyers were supposed to have been refuelled by two tankers, "Kattegat" and "Jan Wellem", each receiving some of fuel oil.


title: Battles of Narvik

text: The flotilla was then to be on its way back to Germany by the evening of 9 April. The plan failed because only "Jan Wellem" made it to Narvik. Refuelling with just one tanker was difficult; only two destroyers could be refuelled simultaneously, taking seven or eight hours. At arrival in Narvik, the destroyers were almost out of fuel. Making the refuelling more challenging was the fact that "Jan Wellem" had only improvised refuelling arrangements and inferior pumping equipment. While two destroyers were being refuelled at a time, a third was on guard in fjord, the remaining seven being spread around in the nearby area. By 04:00 on 10 April, "Jan Wellem" had managed to fully refuel three of the German destroyers, and was in the process of refuelling two more.


title: Battles of Narvik

text: In the meantime, British forces had tried to engage the "Kriegsmarine", but for the most part, unsuccessfully. On 8 April, the British G-class destroyer engaged the heavy cruiser and two destroyers, and was lost, ramming and damaging "Hipper" in the battle. On the 9 April morning, the British battlecruiser exchanged artillery salvos with the German battleships "Scharnhorst" and "Gneisenau", which were screening the destroyers. During the battle one of the artillery shells from "Renown" damaged fire control system on "Gneisenau", the British battlecruiser was also hit two times and slightly damaged. After that the German battleships withdrew from the battle at high speed. The destroyers' main mission had been completed, however, as they had succeeded in landing the invasion force.


title: Battles of Narvik

text: The day after the German invasion, the Royal Navy took an opportunity to defeat the "Kriegsmarine". The 2nd Destroyer Flotilla—under Commodore Bernard Warburton-Lee and comprising five H-class destroyers ( (flagship), , , and —moved up the fjord in the early morning. The German destroyers "Hermann Künne" and "Hans Lüdemann" were anchored alongside the tanker "Jan Wellem" and refuelling when the British destroyer attack began at 04:30. The German picket ship ("Diether von Roeder") had left its post to refuel, and as the British flotilla approached Narvik, they surprised and engaged a German force at the entrance to the harbour and sank the two destroyers "Wilhelm Heidkamp" (killing Commodore Bonte) and "Anton Schmitt", heavily damaged "Diether von Roeder" and inflicted lesser damage on two others. They also exchanged fire with German invasion troops ashore but did not have a landing force aboard and therefore turned to leave. Before the destroyers left the scene, "Hostile" fired her torpedoes at the merchant ships in the harbour. In total, eleven merchant ships (six German, one British, two Swedish and two Norwegian) were sunk during the British sortie into the harbour.


title: Battles of Narvik

text: The British flotilla was then engaged by three more German destroyers ("Wolfgang Zenker", "Erich Koellner" and "Erich Giese") emerging from the Herjangsfjord, led by Commander Erich Bey and then two more ("Georg Thiele" and "Bernd von Arnim") coming from Ballangen Bay, under Commander Fritz Berger. In the ensuing battle, two British destroyers were lost: the flotilla leader HMS "Hardy", which was beached in flames and HMS "Hunter", which was torpedoed and sunk. A third—HMS "Hotspur"—was also damaged badly by a torpedo. "Hotspur" and the remaining British destroyers left the battlefield, damaging "Georg Thiele" as they did so. The German destroyers—now short of fuel and ammunition—did not pursue and the British ships were able to sink the ammunition supply ship which they encountered on their way out of the fjord. Soon, the German naval forces were blocked in by British reinforcements, including the cruiser . During the night of 11–12 April, while manoeuvring in Narvik harbour, "Erich Koellner" and "Wolfgang Zenker" ran aground. "Wolfgang Zenker" damaged her propellers and was restricted to a speed of . "Erich Koellner" was much more badly damaged, so the Germans planned—when she was repaired enough to move—to moor her at Tårstad in the same capacity as "Diether von Roeder", as an immobile defence battery.


title: Battles of Narvik

text: As the British destroyers left the Vestfjorden outside Narvik, two German submarines— and —fired torpedoes at them but German torpedoes at the time had severe problems with their magnetic detonator systems—possibly due to the high northern latitude: all of them failed and either did not detonate at all or detonated well before their targets.


title: Battles of Narvik

text: Both the German naval commander—"Kommodore" Friedrich Bonte (on "Wilhelm Heidkamp")—and the British commander—Captain Bernard Warburton-Lee (on "Hardy")—were killed in the battle. Warburton-Lee was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross, Bonte the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross.


title: Battles of Narvik

text: The Royal Navy considered it imperative, for morale and strategic purposes, to defeat the Germans in Narvik, so Vice Admiral William Whitworth was sent with the battleship and nine destroyers; four Tribal-class (, , "Punjabi", and ) and five others (HMS "Kimberley", , , "Forester" and "Foxhound"), accompanied by aircraft from the aircraft carrier . These forces arrived in the Ofotfjord on 13 April to find that the eight remaining German destroyers—now under the command of "Fregattenkapitän" Erich Bey—were virtually stranded due to lack of fuel and were short of ammunition.


title: Battles of Narvik

text: Before the battle, "Warspite" launched its catapult plane (a float-equipped Fairey Swordfish, L 9767), which bombed and sank , anchored in the Herjangsfjord near Bjerkvik. Most of the crew survived and were rescued by German mountain troops. This was the first U-boat to be sunk by an aircraft during the Second World War and the only instance where an aircraft launched from a battleship sank a U-boat.


title: Battles of Narvik

text: In the ensuing battle, three of the German destroyers were sunk by "Warspite" and her escorts and the other five were scuttled by their crews when they ran out of fuel and ammunition. First to go was "Erich Koellner" which tried to ambush the Allied forces but was spotted by "Warspite"s Swordfish and subsequently torpedoed and shelled by the destroyers and battleship. The destroyer's commander, Alfred Schulze-Hinrichs, and the surviving members of his crew, were captured by Norwegian forces. Then "Wolfgang Zenker", "Bernd von Arnim", "Hans Ludemann" and "Hermann Künne" engaged the British forces but only managed to lightly damage HMS "Bedouin". British aircraft from "Furious" tried to engage the German destroyers but were unsuccessful; two were lost. "Wolfgang Zenker" tried to torpedo "Warspite".


title: Battles of Narvik

text: Finally, when the German destroyers were low on ammunition, they retreated, except for "Hermann Künne", which had not received the order. "Hermann Künne" was fired upon by the pursuing HMS "Eskimo", but she took no hits. Out of ammunition but undamaged, "Hermann Künne" was scuttled by her crew in "Trollvika" in the Herjangsfjord. After scuttling the ship, the crew placed demolition depth charges on the ship, attempting to sink her in Trollvika's shallow waters. "Eskimo", still in hot pursuit, launched a torpedo which hit "Hermann Künne", setting her on fire. Whether the German ship's own depth charges or the torpedo from "Eskimo" was the source of the explosion is unclear. "Eskimo" was in turn ambushed by "Georg Thiele" and "Hans Ludemann", losing her bow but surviving. "Diether von Roeder" and "Erich Giese", both suffering engine problems, fired upon the British forces while still docked, damaging "Punjabi" and "Cossack" but they were both sunk before they could cause further damage. That was the last German counter-attack.


title: Battles of Narvik

text: Shore batteries and installations were also very badly damaged by "Warspite"s guns. On the Allied side, the damage to HMS "Eskimo" kept her in Norway until 31 May 1940. German submarines again suffered torpedo failures, when and fired at the departing "Warspite" on 14 April.


title: Battles of Narvik

text: The remaining German destroyers ("Wolfgang Zenker", "Georg Thiele", "Bernd von Arnim" and "Hans Lüdemann") retreated into Rombaksfjord and were scuttled soon after. The only German ship which survived within the port area was the submarine "U-51".


title: Battles of Narvik

text: The Germans lost over 1,000 men, a U-boat, and eight destroyers. With the losses from the previous battle this constituted 50% of the Kriegsmarine's destroyer strength.


title: Battles of Narvik

text: It was reported by the Germans that shipwrecked Germans from "Erich Giese" were fired upon by British artillery and machine guns during the engagement.


title: Battles of Narvik

text: About 2,600 survivors were organised into an improvised marine infantry unit, the "Gebirgsmarine" and fought with the 139. "Gebirgsjägerregiment" in the subsequent land battle. Although unsuited for combat in the mountainous terrain around Narvik, the shipwrecked sailors manned the two "FlaK" guns and the 11 light anti-aircraft guns salvaged from the ships sunk during the naval battles and conducted defensive operations. The sailors were armed from the stocks captured at the Norwegian army base Elvegårdsmoen, more than 8,000 Krag-Jørgensen rifles and 315 machine guns intended for the mobilisation of Norwegian army units in the Narvik area.


title: Battles of Narvik

text: After the naval battles of Narvik, the port and its surroundings remained in German hands, as no Allied forces were available to be landed there. Naval operations were limited at this stage to shore bombardment, as Narvik was not a primary Allied objective.


title: Battles of Narvik

text: Among others, the Polish destroyers "Grom", "Burza" and "Błyskawica" took part in these operations, during which "Grom" was sunk by German aircraft on 4 May 1940, with the loss of 59 sailors.


title: Battles of Narvik

text: During the Norwegian Campaign, Narvik and its surrounding area saw significant fighting, initially from 9 April between German and Norwegian forces, subsequently between Allied and German forces, conducted by the Norwegian 6th Division of the Norwegian Army as well as by an Allied expeditionary corps until 9 June 1940. Unlike the campaign in southern Norway, the Allied troops in Narvik would eventually outnumber the Norwegian troops. Five nations participated in the fighting. From 5–10 May, the fighting in the Narvik area was the only active theatre of land war in the Second World War.


title: Battles of Narvik

text: At the outset, the position of the German commander—Dietl—was not good: his 2,000 troops were outnumbered. After the German destroyers had been sunk, however, about 2,600 German sailors joined in the land battle. Another 290 German specialists travelled via Sweden posing as health care workers. During the last three to four weeks, the Germans were also reinforced by about 1,000 men air dropped over Bjørnfjell, thus bringing the total number of Germans to around 5,600. Their position and outlook changed from good to dire several times. On occasions, the entire operation was controlled directly from the German High Command in Berlin; Hitler's mood was reportedly swinging heavily and he repeatedly contemplated withdrawal. Intelligence agents captured later in the war also stated that Dietl himself had been considering crossing the Swedish frontier with his troops to be interned, until the German agent Marina Lee infiltrated Auchinleck's headquarters at Tromsø and obtained the British battle plan; however, the accuracy of this allegation has been questioned. The Norwegian force—under General Carl Gustav Fleischer—eventually reached 8,000–10,000 men after a few weeks. The total number of Allied troops in the campaign—in and around Narvik—reached 24,500 men.


title: Battles of Narvik

text: The early phase of the invasion was marked by the German advantage of surprise. Norwegian troops in northern Norway had been called out on a three-month neutrality watch during the winter of 1939/1940, and so they had trained together. From 9–25 April, the Norwegian forces suffered three catastrophes. First, the forces protecting Narvik were unable to resist the Germans due to the commanding officer—the later NS "Hird" commander Colonel Konrad Sundlo—refusing to fight the invaders; second, around 200 soldiers from the Narvik garrison who had escaped capture and were blocking the railway to Sweden were caught by surprise while resting at Bjørnfjell, most of the men being captured; third, I/IR12 (1st battalion of Infantry Regiment 12) sent to hold Gratangsbotn was attacked by surprise while in camp, suffering casualties that ruined its spirit and effectively knocked it out of the remainder of the campaign.


title: Battles of Narvik

text: From Denmark, a battalion-sized detachment of the Luftwaffe's Regiment General Göring, commanded by "Hauptmann" Kluge was sent by sea to Oslo, in April, being engaged alongside the Army first in the advance to Trondheim, then north up into the Arctic Circle to take the port of Bodo and relieve the pressure on the beleaguered élite Gebirgsjäger further north at Narvik.


title: Battles of Narvik

text: Due to mounting Norwegian pressure and difficulties with bringing up supplies to the forward lying troops, the Germans abandoned Gratangsbotn and withdrew from the hill Lapphaugen and the valley Gratangsdalen, following the Battle of Gratangen. In the beginning of May, the Norwegians started an advance southwards towards Narvik. Once it became clear that the Allies would mount the main invasion of Narvik itself in mid-May, the Norwegian direction altered towards Bjørnfjell. The British arrived first and set up headquarters in Harstad on 14 April. In the following days, three battalions were deployed mainly at Sjøvegan, Skånland (where a naval base was established) and at Bogen. Later, they were deployed south of Ofotfjord, at Ballangen and Håkvik.


title: Battles of Narvik

text: The initial British detachment was reinforced on 28 April by a French expeditionary force ("Corps expéditionnaire français en Scandinavie", CEFS), led by General Antoine Béthouart and composed of mountain troops. Three battalions of Alpine troops and two battalions of 13th Demi-Brigade of the Foreign Legion were deployed both north and south of the Ofotfjord, but later, the north would be the main French area of operation. Four Polish battalions arrived on 9 May. They were first deployed north of the Ofotfjord, but later redeployed to the area south of the fjord. In early June they were formed into the Polish Podhale Independent Highland Brigade under General Zygmunt Bohusz-Szyszko and part of CEFS.


title: Battles of Narvik

text: In addition, the Allies had difficulty in deciding how best to retake Narvik and the iron ore railway. There was no unified command for the troops facing the Germans at Narvik: the Norwegians and the Allies retained separate commanders and cooperation between them was not always smooth. Even within the British forces, the Army and Navy commanders—Major-General Pierse J. Mackesy and Admiral of the Fleet Lord Cork—had difficulty cooperating: Cork advocated a swift and direct attack from the sea while Mackesy advocated a cautious approach from both sides of the Ofotfjord. Consequent to this, on 21 April, Lord Cork was given supreme command of all Allied forces.


title: Battles of Narvik

text: In the second week of May, the Norwegian advances against the Germans east of Gratangseidet were the most significant movements on the Narvik front. In addition, on the Norwegians' right flank French alpine troops advanced up the Laberg valley, supported by a company of Norwegian ski troops. In the south, the Allies did not have much success, and in the north of the Ofotfjord, they were not making any progress. The Norwegians continued their successful mountain campaign, and in mid-May the Allies took the initiative and achieved significant victories. Both Paris and London had been growing impatient with the slow progress in Narvik, and the French commander—Béthouart—had pressed for more action.


title: Battles of Narvik

text: The cautious approach on land was abandoned and an amphibious attack was launched at around midnight on 12 May. This was directed at Bjerkvik and was preceded by a naval bombardment from British warships in Herjangsfjord. Then landing craft put ashore French Foreign Legionnaires, supported by five French Hotchkiss H39 light tanks of the 342e CACC ("Compagnie Autonome de Chars de Combat/" Independent Tank Company), which successfully attacked Bjerkvik, the Elvegårdsmoen army camp and advanced northeast to where the Germans were withdrawing and south along the east side of Herjangsfjord. The plan also required Polish troops to advance toward Bjerkvik from land on the west side of the fjord, but heavy terrain delayed them and they did not arrive before Bjerkvik was taken. It had also been part of the plan for French and Norwegian troops to advance from the north in order to box the Germans in, but cooperation problems between the Norwegian and French commanders left a gap through which the Germans escaped. Despite this, the Allies had a clear path north of Narvik and planned to attack over Rombaksfjord.


title: Battles of Narvik

text: It had been anticipated in London that as the buildup of troops in Narvik slowly continued, a corps headquarters would be needed to exercise effective control. On 11 May, Lieutenant-General Claude Auchinleck arrived in Narvik, and on 13 May assumed leadership of the Allied land and air forces (under Lord Cork's overall command), which at this time was designated the North-Western Expeditionary Force. It was clear to the Allies that once Narvik was captured, its long-term retention would depend on permanently holding the town of Bodø to the south in Nordland which was on the route of the German advance from Trondheim. Consequently, Auchinleck redeployed all British troops to concentrate on this southern enterprise, and appointed French Brigadier-General Béthouart—an expert in both mountain and winter warfare—to command the French and Polish troops, which would be responsible for operations in the Narvik area in conjunction with Norwegian forces.


title: Battles of Narvik

text: Again, the attack was stalled while the Allies waited for air support to be fully established from Bardufoss. At 23:40 on 27 May, a naval bombardment commenced from the north. Two French and one Norwegian battalions would be transported across the Rombaksfjord and advance on Narvik from the north. In the south, the Polish battalions would advance toward Ankenes and inner Beisfjord. The maximum capacity of the landing barges was 290 men, and these troops could not be reinforced for 45 minutes. These first troops were able to get a foothold on Ornes by the time the rest of the French and the Norwegians were landed. The French moved west toward the city and east along the railway. The Norwegians moved toward Taraldsvik mountain, circled around and moved down toward the city. The German commander decided to evacuate before 07:00 and retired along Beisfjord. This was the first major Allied victory on land.


title: Battles of Narvik

text: It seemed now that it was only a matter of time before the Germans would have to surrender. They were pushed from the north by the Norwegians, from the west by the French and from the southwest by the Poles. It appeared that Bjørnfjell would be the Germans' last stand, but events elsewhere in Europe came to their rescue. London had already secretly decided to evacuate on 24 May and that became apparent in the following days. On the night of 24/25 May, Lord Cork received orders to retreat, but under cover so the Germans would be prevented from interfering. The Allied commanders agreed that an attack on Narvik would disguise the retreat and allow the destruction of the iron ore harbour.


title: Battles of Narvik

text: The Norwegian government and commanders were first told in early June and the news was met with disbelief and bitterness. The Norwegians still hoped to defeat the Germans alone and, as late as 5 June, one of the two Norwegian brigades was ordered to attack. The Norwegian government also explored the possibility of creating a neutral, but free Northern Norway. This plan proved futile, and on 7 June the King and government were evacuated to Britain. All Allied troops were evacuated from Narvik between 4 and 8 June.


title: Battles of Narvik

text: Three Polish passenger ships, MS "Sobieski", "Batory" and "Chrobry", took part in the evacuation operation. "Chrobry" was sunk on 14–15 May by German bombers. On 8 June, General Dietl retook Narvik, and on 10 June the last Norwegian forces in Norway surrendered.


title: Battles of Narvik

text: On 7 June, the British aircraft carrier had taken on board 10 Gloster Gladiators and eight Hawker Hurricanes from 46 Squadron and 263 Squadron Royal Air Force (RAF). These were flown off from land bases to keep them from being destroyed in the evacuation. "Glorious" left a larger convoy to proceed independently. The next day, while sailing through the Norwegian Sea to return to Scapa Flow, the carrier and her escorts—the destroyers and —were intercepted by the German battleships and . The carrier and her escorts were sunk with the loss of more than 1,500 men. "Scharnhorst" was badly damaged by a torpedo from "Acasta" and both German vessels were hit by a number of medium shells. The damage to the German ships was sufficient to cause the Germans to retire to Trondheim, which allowed the safe passage of the evacuation convoy through the area later that day.


title: Battles of Narvik

text: The Allied offensive started slowly; unlike the Germans, they did not have a clear operational objective in Norway and did not conduct their operations with as much vigour. The British had drafted plans to land in Narvik before the German invasion; troops and supplies had been loaded onto ships when they executed their mining operation on 8 April. These had been hastily unloaded when German ships were spotted northbound because the British thought that the German ships were trying to break into the Atlantic to avoid being trapped in German ports and wanted all their ships available to intercept the German fleet. The confusion dogged the troops for weeks, men and equipment were shipped to Norway separately without clear landing sites and orders were changed while en route. It became apparent that the Allies were confused by the many small and large fjords and bays and could not decide where it would be best to start; British, French and Polish units rapidly relieved each other which added to the lack of local knowledge.


title: Battles of Narvik

text: The cold and snow was a common enemy for all troops at Narvik but most of the Allies were poorly prepared for it. The Norwegians were the only ones fully equipped with skis and able to use them. The British tried skis but their troops were largely untrained and supply was scarce. German sailors faced the same problems, even within the "Gebirgsjäger" (mountain troops) and French mountain specialists, only a few units were equipped with skis and the Polish mountain brigade had no mountain training.


title: Battles of Narvik

text: Most troops were untested in battle. The "Gebirgsjäger" had participated in the invasion of Poland and some of the troops that had been air dropped over Bjørnfjell had fought in the Netherlands. Some of the French Foreign Legionnaires came directly from fighting in North Africa and most of the Polish officers and many of the soldiers had participated in the defence of Poland, some even in the Spanish Civil War and were highly motivated.


title: Battles of Narvik

text: The Allies had sea and air superiority until the very last stage of the operation, but did not take full advantage. The Germans lost the naval battle, but achieved the main goal of their operation: the successful Operation Weserübung and occupation of Norway. Around Narvik, German naval losses were high: they lost 10 destroyers (50 percent of their entire destroyer force), one submarine, and several support ships. In exchange, they sank one aircraft carrier, four Allied destroyers and damaged several others. The reason for this defeat lay in the German plans, which made it impossible for the destroyers to retire quickly, even if they had had adequate supplies. This was compounded by the design of German destroyers: despite their relatively large size and armament, they had inadequate fuel and ammunition storage. The British forces achieved an indisputable local naval victory but were unprepared to follow it up with any land operation. This allowed the Germans to consolidate their foothold in Norway and made the subsequent Allied counter-invasion more difficult.


title: Battles of Narvik

text: In 1964, a war museum opened in Narvik; since 2016, the collections have been displayed in the Narvik War Museum—located inside the Narvik War and Peace Centre.


title: Battles of Narvik

text: Parts of the bow of the German destroyer "Georg Thiele" remain visible above the water in "Rombaksbotn" to this day. The wrecks at Narvik remain popular diving spots, although some are off-limits because they still contain undetonated ammunition. Three of the German destroyers were raised in 1964 and moved to Framnesodden, near Eidsvoid, to clear the shipping lane. The destroyers "Anton Schmitt", "Diether von Roeder", and "Wilhelm Heidkamp" rest in of water there and were opened for diving. A number of other wrecks are also accessible, but most have been preserved as historic sites and it is forbidden to dive to them.


title: Battles of Narvik

text: At least 1,200 French, British, and Polish participants in the battle were awarded the Norwegian War Cross for their contribution to the battle. Among the Norwegians who took part in the battle, only the top two military leaders were awarded the medal. Norwegian media has complained about this limited award.


title: Battles of Narvik

text: All German forces (8,577 military personnel) who partook in the battles of Narvik were awarded with the Narvik Shield.


title: Mysore State

text: Mysore State, colloquially Old Mysore, was a state within the Dominion of India and the later Republic of India from 1947 until 1956. The state was formed by renaming the Kingdom of Mysore, and Bangalore replaced Mysore as the state's capital. When Parliament passed the States Reorganisation Act in 1956, Mysore State was considerably enlarged when it became a linguistically homogeneous Kannada-speaking state within the Republic of India by incorporating territories from Andhra State, Bombay State, Coorg State, Hyderabad State, and Madras State, as well as other petty fiefdoms. It was subsequently renamed Karnataka in 1973.


title: Mysore State

text: The Kingdom of Mysore was one of the three largest princely states in British India. Upon India's independence from Britain in 1947, Maharaja Jayachamarajendra Wadiyar signed the instrument of accession, incorporating his realm with the Union of India, on 15 August 1947. The territories of the erstwhile princely state of Mysore were then reconstituted into a state within the Union.


title: Mysore State

text: In 1956, the Government of India effected a comprehensive re-organisation of provincial boundaries, based upon the principle of shared language. As a result of the States Reorganisation Act on 1 November 1956, the Kannada-speaking districts of Belgaum (exclusing Chandgad Taluk), Bijapur, Dharwar, and North Canara were transferred from Bombay State to Mysore State. Bellary district was transferred from Andhra State. South Canara was transferred from Madras State and Koppal, Raichur, Kalaburagi and Bidar districts from Hyderabad State. Also, the small Coorg State was merged, becoming a district in Mysore State. The state was renamed Karnataka on 1 November 1973.


title: Ernie Banks

text: Ernest Banks (January 31, 1931 – January 23, 2015), nicknamed "Mr. Cub" and "Mr. Sunshine", was an American professional baseball player who starred in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a shortstop and first baseman for the Chicago Cubs between 1953 and 1971. He was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1977, and was named to the Major League Baseball All-Century Team in 1999.


title: Ernie Banks

text: Banks is regarded by some as one of the greatest players of all time. He began playing professional baseball in 1950 with the Kansas City Monarchs in the Negro leagues. He served in the U.S. military for two years, played for the Monarchs again, and began his National League career in September 1953. The following year, Banks was the National League Rookie of the Year runner-up. Beginning in 1955, Banks was a National League (NL) All-Star for 11 seasons, playing in 13 of the 15 All-Star Games held during those years. Banks was the Cubs' main attraction in the late 1950s, the National League Most Valuable Player in 1958 and 1959, and the Cubs' first Gold Glove winner in 1960.


title: Ernie Banks

text: In 1962, Banks became a regular first baseman for the Cubs. Between 1967 and 1971, he was a player-coach. In 1969, through a "Chicago Sun-Times" fan poll, Cubs fans voted him the greatest Cub ever. In 1970, Banks hit his 500th career home run at Wrigley Field. He retired from playing in 1971, was a coach for the Cubs in 1972, and in 1982 was the team's first player to have his uniform number retired.


title: Ernie Banks

text: Banks was active in the Chicago community during and after his tenure with the Cubs. He founded a charitable organization, became the first black Ford Motor Company dealer in the United States, and made an unsuccessful bid for a local political office. In 2013, Banks was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom for his contribution to sports. Banks lived in the Los Angeles and Chicago areas.


title: Ernie Banks

text: Banks was born in Dallas, Texas, to Eddie and Essie Banks on January 31, 1931; he was the second of twelve children. His father, who had worked in construction and was a warehouse loader for a grocery chain, played baseball for black, semi-professional teams in Texas. As a child, Banks was not very interested in baseball, preferring swimming, basketball and football. His father bought him a baseball glove for less than three dollars at a five and dime store and motivated him with nickels and dimes to play catch. While still in high school, Banks joined the Dallas Black Giants, a semi-pro baseball team, in 1949. His mother encouraged him to follow one of his grandfathers into a career as a minister.


title: Ernie Banks

text: Banks graduated from Booker T. Washington High School in 1950. He lettered in basketball, football and track. Banks' school did not have a baseball team; he played fastpitch softball for a church team during the summer. He was also a member of the Amarillo Colts, a semi-professional baseball team. History professor Timothy Gilfoyle wrote that Banks' talent for baseball was discovered by Bill Blair, a family friend who scouted for the Kansas City Monarchs of the Negro American League. Other sources say Banks was noticed by Cool Papa Bell of the Monarchs.


title: Ernie Banks

text: In 1951, Banks was drafted into the U.S. Army and served in Germany during the Korean War. He served as a flag bearer in the 45th Anti-Aircraft Artillery Battalion at Fort Bliss, where he played with the Harlem Globetrotters on a part-time basis. In 1953, he was discharged from the army and joined the Monarchs for the remainder of that season, achieving a .347 batting average. Banks later said, "Playing for the Kansas City Monarchs was like my school, my learning, my world. It was my whole life." Banks hosted a program on 1450 WHFC in the late 1950s.


title: Ernie Banks

text: Banks signed with the Chicago Cubs in late 1953, making his major league debut on September 17 at age 22 and playing in 10 games at Wrigley Field. He was the Cubs' first black player; he became one of several former Negro league players who joined MLB teams without playing in the minor leagues. Larry Moffi and Jonathan Kronstadt wrote that he "just was not the crusading type. He was so grateful to be playing baseball for a living, he did not have time to change the world, and if that meant some people called him an Uncle Tom, well, so be it."


title: Ernie Banks

text: During his first game for the Cubs, Banks received a visit from Jackie Robinson that influenced his quiet presence in baseball. Robinson told Banks, "Ernie, I'm glad to see you're up here so now just listen and learn ... For years, I didn't talk and learned a lot about people". Later, when Banks felt like becoming more vocal, he discussed the issue with teammate Billy Williams, who advised him to remain quiet. Williams drew the analogy of fish that are caught once they open their mouths. Banks said, "I kept my mouth shut but tried to make a difference. My whole life, I've just wanted to make people better".


title: Ernie Banks

text: In 1954, Banks' double play partner during his official rookie season was Gene Baker, the Cubs' second black player. Banks and Baker roomed together on road trips and became the first all-black double-play combination in major league history. When Steve Bilko played first base, Cubs announcer Bert Wilson referred to the Banks-Baker-Bilko double play combination as "Bingo to Bango to Bilko". Banks hit 19 home runs and finished second to Wally Moon in Rookie of the Year voting. Banks participated in a trend toward lighter baseball bats after he accidentally picked up a teammate's bat and liked that it was easy to generate bat speed.


title: Ernie Banks

text: In 1955, Banks hit 44 home runs, had 117 RBI and batted .295. He played and was the starting NL shortstop in his first of 13 All-Star Games that season. His home run total was a single-season record among shortstops. He also set a 30-year record of five single-season grand slam home runs. Banks finished third in 1955 in the league's Most Valuable Player (MVP) voting, behind Roy Campanella and Duke Snider. The Cubs finished with a 72–81 win–loss record, winning 29 of 77 road games. In 1956, Banks missed 18 games due to a hand infection, breaking his run of 424 consecutive games played. He finished the season with 28 home runs, 85 RBIs, and a .297 batting average. He made the All-Star selection as a reserve player but did not play in the game. In 1957, Banks finished the season with 43 home runs, 102 RBI, and a .285 batting average.


title: Ernie Banks

text: In 1958 and 1959, Banks became the first NL player to be awarded back-to-back MVP Awards, leading the league in RBI in both those seasons (with 129 and 143, respectively) . Banks hit a major-league-leading 47 home runs in 1958, while batting .313, third best in the NL. The following year, he hit .304 with 45 home runs. In 1959, the Cubs came the closest to a winning season since Banks' arrival, finishing with a 74–80 record.


title: Ernie Banks

text: Banks had a small role in an unusual play on June 30, 1959, when the St. Louis Cardinals played the Cubs at Wrigley Field. Stan Musial was at the plate facing Bob Anderson with a count of 3–1. Anderson's next pitch was errant, the ball evaded catcher Sammy Taylor and rolled all the way to the backstop. Umpire Vic Delmore called "ball four", but Anderson and Taylor contended that Musial foul tipped the ball. Because the ball was still in play and Delmore was embroiled in an argument with Anderson and Taylor, Musial tried to run for second base. Seeing that Musial was running to second, third baseman Alvin Dark ran to the backstop to retrieve the ball. The ball wound up in the hands of field announcer Pat Pieper, but Dark ended up getting it back anyway. Absentmindedly, however, Delmore pulled out a new baseball and gave it to Taylor. When Anderson noticed that Musial was trying for second, he took the new ball from Sammy Taylor and threw it towards Tony Taylor covering second base, and the ball went over Taylor's head into the outfield. At the same time that Anderson threw the new ball towards second baseman Taylor, Dark threw the original ball to shortstop Ernie Banks. Musial did not see the throw and he was declared out when the tag was made.


title: Ernie Banks

text: In 1960, Banks hit a major league and NL-leading 41 HR, had 117 RBI, and led the NL in games played for the sixth time in seven years. He was also the first Cubs player to receive an annual NL Gold Glove award (for shortstop). On the eve of the 1960 World Series, Joe Reichler, a writer for the Associated Press, reported that the Milwaukee Braves were prepared to pay cash and trade pitchers Joey Jay, Carlton Willey and Don Nottebart, outfielder Billy Bruton, shortstop Johnny Logan and first baseman Frank Torre in exchange for Banks from the Cubs.


title: Ernie Banks

text: In 1961, Banks experienced problems with a knee injury he had suffered while in the army. After 717 consecutive games, he removed himself from the Cubs lineup for at least four games, ending his pursuit of the record for playing in the most consecutive NL games of 895 games set by Stan Musial. In May, the Cubs announced that Jerry Kindall would replace Banks at shortstop and that Banks would move to left field. Banks later said, "Only a duck out of water could have shared my loneliness in left field". Banks credited center fielder Richie Ashburn with helping him learn to play left field; in 23 games Banks committed only one error. In June, he was moved to first base, learning that position from former first baseman and Cubs coach Charlie Grimm. He was not selected to be an All-Star for the first of two All-Star games that season since 1959, when MLB started having two All-Star Games per season through 1962, but was selected as a reserve player. Banks was a pinch hitter in the second All-Star game.


title: Ernie Banks

text: The Cubs began playing under the College of Coaches in 1961, a system in which decisions were made by a group of 12 coaches rather than by one manager. By the 1962 season, Banks hoped to return to shortstop but the College of Coaches had determined that he would remain at first base indefinitely. In May 1962, Banks was hit in the head by a fastball from former Cubs pitcher Moe Drabowsky and was taken off the field unconscious. He sustained a concussion, spent two nights in a hospital, sat out a Monday game, and hit three home runs and a double on Tuesday.


title: Ernie Banks

text: In May 1963, Banks set a single-game record of 22 putouts by a first baseman. However, he caught mumps that year and finished the season with 18 home runs, 64 RBI, and a .227 batting average. Despite Banks' struggles that season, the Cubs had their first winning record since the 1940s. Banks, following his doctor's orders, avoided his usual off-season participation in handball and basketball, and began the 1964 season weighing more than the previous year. Banks finished the season with 23 home runs, 95 RBI, and a .264 batting average. The Cubs finished in eighth place in 1964, losing over $315,000. In 1965, Banks hit 28 home runs, had 107 RBI, a .265 batting average, and played and started at first base in the All-Star Game. On September 2, he hit his 400th home run. The Cubs finished the season with a baseball operations deficit of $1.2 million, though this was largely offset by television and radio revenue, and the rental of Wrigley Field to the Chicago Bears football team.


title: Ernie Banks

text: The Cubs hired Leo Durocher as manager in 1966, hoping he could inspire renewed interest in the team's fan base. Banks hit only 15 home runs; Cubs finished the 1966 season in last place with a 59–103 win–loss record, the worst season of Durocher's career. From the time Durocher arrived in Chicago, he was frustrated at his inability to trade or bench the aging Banks. In Durocher's autobiography, he says: ... [Banks] was a great player in his time. Unfortunately, his time wasn't my time. Even more unfortunately, there was not a thing I could do about it. He couldn't run, he couldn't field; toward the end, he couldn't even hit. There are some players who instinctively do the right thing on the base paths. Ernie had an unfailing instinct for doing the wrong thing. But I had to play him. Had to play the man or there would have been a revolution in the street."


title: Ernie Banks

text: Banks said of Durocher, "I wish there had been someone around like him early in my career ... He's made me go for that little extra needed to win". Durocher served as Cubs manager until mid-1972, the season after Banks retired. In his memoir "Mr. Cub", published around the time that Banks retired, Banks said too much had been made of the racial implications in his relationship with Durocher:


title: Ernie Banks

text: My philosophy about race relations is that I'm the man and I'll set my own patterns in life. I don't rely on anyone else's opinions. I look at a man as a human being; I don't care about his color. Some people feel that because you are black you will never be treated fairly, and that you should voice your opinions, be militant about them. I don't feel this way. You can't convince a fool against his will ... If a man doesn't like me because I'm black, that's fine. I'll just go elsewhere, but I'm not going to let him change my life.


title: Ernie Banks

text: The Cubs appointed Banks a player-coach for the 1967 season. Banks competed with John Boccabella for a starting position at first base. Shortly after, Durocher named Banks the outright starter at first base. Banks hit 23 home runs and drove in 95 runs, and went to the All-Star Game that year. After the 1967 season, an article in "Ebony" said Banks was not thought to have made more than $65,000 (equal to $ today) in any season. He had received a pay increase from $33,000 to $50,000 between his MVP seasons in 1958 and 1959, but "Ebony" said several MLB players were making $100,000 at the time.


title: Ernie Banks

text: Banks won the Lou Gehrig Memorial Award in 1968, an honor recognizing playing ability and personal character. The 37-year-old Banks hit 32 home runs, had 83 RBI, and finished that season with a .246 batting average. In 1969, he came the closest to helping the Cubs win the NL pennant; the Cubs fell from first place after holding an -game lead in August. Banks made his 11th and final All-Star season appearance as a pinch hitter; it was his 14th All-Star Game appearance overall. Banks hit his 500th home run on May 12, 1970, at Chicago's Wrigley Field. On December 1, 1971, Banks retired as a player but continued to coach for the Cubs until 1973. He was an instructor in the minor leagues for the next three seasons and also worked in the Cubs' front office.


title: Ernie Banks

text: Banks finished his career with 512 home runs; his 277 home runs as a shortstop were a career record at the time of his retirement. (Cal Ripken Jr. now holds the record for most home runs as a shortstop with 345.) Banks holds Cubs records for games played (2,528), at-bats (9,421), extra-base hits (1,009) and total bases (4,706). Banks also excelled as an infielder; he won an NL Gold Glove Award for shortstop in 1960. He led the NL in putouts five times and was the NL leader in fielding percentage as shortstop three times, and once as first baseman.


title: Ernie Banks

text: Banks holds the major league record for most games played without a postseason appearance (2,528). In his memoir, citing his fondness for the Cubs and owner Philip K. Wrigley, Banks said he did not regret signing with the Cubs rather than one of the more successful baseball franchises. Banks' popularity and positive attitude led to the nicknames "Mr. Cub" and "Mr. Sunshine". Banks was known for his catchphrase, "It's a beautiful day for a ballgame ... Let's play two!", expressing his wish to play a doubleheader every day out of his love of baseball.


title: Ernie Banks

text: In 1953, after returning from military service in Germany, Banks married his first wife Mollye Ector. He proposed to her in a letter from Germany. Although he filed for divorce two years later, the couple briefly reconciled in early 1959. By that summer, they agreed on a divorce settlement that would pay $65,000 to Ector in lieu of alimony. Shortly thereafter, Banks eloped with Eloyce Johnson. The couple had twin sons within a year and a daughter four years after that. Ector filed suit against Banks in 1963 for failure to make payments on a life insurance policy agreed upon in their divorce settlement.


title: Ernie Banks

text: Banks was a lifelong Republican – and he also once stated that "I'm not goin' anywhere I'm not wanted" – prompting critics to claim that he was "soft" on Jim Crow; he ran for alderman in Chicago in 1963. He ran in the 8th Ward against Democratic incumbent James A. Condon. In the Feb. 26 primary, Banks finished a distant third, garnering just 12% of the vote (Condon won re-election with 55%; Gerald Gibbons drew 25%). He later said, "People knew me only as a baseball player. They didn't think I qualified as a government official and no matter what I did I couldn't change my image ... What I learned, was that it was going to be hard for me to disengage myself from my baseball life and I would have to compensate for it after my playing days were over." Banks endorsed George W. Bush for president in 2004.


title: Ernie Banks

text: In 1966, Banks worked for Seaway National Bank in the off-season and enrolled in a banking correspondence course. He bought into several business ventures, including a gas station, during his playing career. Though he had been paid modestly in comparison to other baseball stars, Banks had taken the advice of Wrigley and invested much of his earnings. He later spent time working for an insurance company and for New World Van Lines. Banks began building assets that would be worth an estimated $4 million by the time he was 55 years old.


title: Ernie Banks

text: Banks and Bob Nelson became the first black owners of a U.S. Ford Motor Company dealership in 1967, Ernie Banks Ford on Chicago's south side. Nelson had been the first non-white commissioned officer in the United States Army Air Forces during World War II; he operated an import car dealership before the venture with Banks. Banks was appointed to the board of directors of the Chicago Transit Authority in 1969. On a trip to Europe, Banks visited the Pope, who presented him with a medal that became a prized possession.


title: Ernie Banks

text: Banks was divorced from Eloyce in 1981. She received several valuable items from his playing career as part of their divorce settlement, including his 500th home run ball. She sold the items not long after the divorce. He remarried in 1984. In 1993, his third wife Marjorie was part of a group that met with MLB executives to discuss race relations in baseball after allegations of racial slurs surfaced against Cincinnati Reds owner Marge Schott. Banks married Liz Ellzey in 1997 and Hank Aaron served as his best man. In late 2008, Banks and Ellzey adopted an infant daughter.


title: Ernie Banks

text: Banks's nephew, Bob Johnson, was a major league catcher and first baseman for the Texas Rangers between 1981 and 1983. His great nephew, Acie Law, is a professional basketball player who attended Texas A&M University before playing in the National Basketball Association (NBA).


title: Ernie Banks

text: Banks had been appointed to the Chicago Transit Board (the Chicago Transit Authority's governing and administrative body) in 1969 by the governor of Illinois. He would continue to serve on the board until 1981.


title: Ernie Banks

text: Banks was voted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in , his first year of eligibility. He received votes on 321 of the 383 ballots. Though several players were selected through the Veterans Committee and the Special Committee on the Negro Leagues that year, Banks was the only player elected by the Baseball Writers' Association of America. He was inducted on August 8 of that year. During his induction speech, Banks said, "We've got the setting – sunshine, fresh air, the team behind us. So let's play two!"


title: Ernie Banks

text: The Cubs retired Banks' uniform number 14 in 1982. He was the first player to have his number retired by the team. At the time of the ceremony, Banks was employed as the Cubs' corporate sales representative. The team did not retire any more numbers for another five years, when Billy Williams received the honor. Through the 2022 season, only six former Cubs, along with Brooklyn Dodger Jackie Robinson, have had their numbers retired by the organization.


title: Ernie Banks

text: Banks served as a team ambassador after his retirement, though author Phil Rogers says the team had never placed Banks in a position of authority or significant influence. In 1983, shortly after Wrigley sold the team to the Tribune Company, Banks and the Cubs briefly severed ties. Rogers wrote that after the sale, Banks was viewed as "something of a crazy uncle who hung around the house for no apparent reason", and that team officials anonymously told the press that Banks had been fired because he was unreliable. Soon Banks and the Cubs reconciled and he resumed making appearances on behalf of the team.