text: Lord of Galloway

text: Norse-Gaelic

text: David I, King of Scotland

text: Henry I, King of England

text: Óláfr Guðrøðarson, King of the Isles

text: Crovan dynasty

text: Guðrøðr Óláfsson

text: Isles

text: Malcolm IV, King of Scotland

text: abbey of Holyrood

text: Gilla Brigte

text: Uhtred

text: patronym

text: Galloway

text: Freskin

text: Moray

text: Roman de Fergus

text: Arthurian romance

text: knight

text: pastiche

text: parody

text: Chrétien de Troyes

text: Gallovdian

text: Dee

text: Whithorn

text: Scandinavian settlement

text: Uhtred

text: Partick

text: Urr

text: Fleet

text: Dee

text: castle of Cruggleton

text: Clairvaux

text: Ulster

text: Bernard of Clairvaux

text: castle of Carlisle

text: David I, King of Scotland

text: Wigtown Bay

text: Gilla Brigte

text: river Cree

text: Diocese of Whithorn

text: episcopal see

text: Kingdom of the Isles

text: Guðrøðr Crovan, King of the Isles

text: Óláfr

text: Henry I, King of England

text: Crovan dynasty

text: David

text: Alexander I, King of Scotland

text: Henry II, King of England

text: Roger de Hoveden

text: Donnchad, Earl of Carrick

text: John, King of England

text: Matilda

text: Sybilla

text: Solway Firth

text: Maud de Senlis

text: Honour of Huntingdon

text: only legitimate son

text: Richard d'Avranches, Earl of Chester

text: "White Ship" disaster

text: Welsh March

text: Ranulf le Meschin

text: Carlisle

text: Annandale

text: Robert de Brus

text: power vacuum

text: Norman

text: Edith

text: Richard Hexham

text: Ailred, Abbot of Rievaulx

text: Battle of the Standard

text: Northallerton

text: Gilla Aldan

text: Thurstan, Archbishop of York

text: Christian

text: Hugh d'Amiens, Archbishop of Rouen

text: Augustinians

text: Benedictines

text: Cistercians

text: Premonstratensians

text: priory

text: abbey of Holyrood

text: Knights Hospitaller

text: parishes

text: abbey of Newhouse

text: abbey of Prémontré

text: priory of Whithorn

text: the Continent

text: abbey of Dundrennan

text: John Fordun

text: Walter Bower

text: John Hexham

text: abbey of Soulseat

text: Stranraer

text: church of Cruggleton

text: William I, King of Scotland

text: Roland fitz Uhtred, Lord of Galloway

text: prior

text: abbey of Tongland

text: Alan fitz Roland, Lord of Galloway

text: rulers of England

text: the Isles

text: King of the Isles

text: former's family

text: Magnús Óláfsson, King of Norway

text: Chronicle of Mann

text: Ottar mac meic Ottair

text: Wimund, Bishop of the Isles

text: Ingi Haraldsson, King of Norway

text: high-kingship of Ireland

text: Inishowen

text: Annals of the Four Masters

text: Arran

text: Kintyre

text: Mann

text: Dublin

text: Dubgall

text: Domnall mac Máel Coluim

text: Gesta Annalia I

text: Máel Coluim mac Alasdair

text: Perth

text: Chronicle of Melrose

text: Christmas

text: Iona

text: Ferteth, Earl of Strathearn

text: father

text: Donnchad II, Earl of Fife

text: castle at Dumfries

categories: People from Dumfries and Galloway,1161 deaths,History of Galloway,12th-century Scottish people,Norse-Gaels

paragraph: Fergus of Galloway

paragraph: Fergus of Galloway (died 12 May 1161) was a twelfth-century Lord of Galloway. Although his familial origins are unknown, it is possible that he was of Norse-Gaelic ancestry. Fergus first appears on record in 1136, when he witnessed a charter of David I, King of Scotland. There is considerable evidence indicating that Fergus was married to a bastard daughter of Henry I, King of England. Although the identity of this woman is unknown, it is possible that she was the mother of Fergus' three children.

paragraph: Fergus forged a marital alliance with Óláfr Guðrøðarson, King of the Isles through the marriage of the latter to Fergus' daughter, Affraic. As a consequence of this union, the leading branch of the Crovan dynasty descended from Fergus. When Óláfr was assassinated by a rival branch of the dynasty, Galloway itself was attacked before Fergus' grandson, Guðrøðr Óláfsson, was able to seize control of Isles. Both Fergus and his grandson appear to have overseen military operations in Ireland, before the latter was overthrown by Somairle mac Gilla Brigte, Lord of Argyll. The fact that there is no record of Fergus lending Guðrøðr support against Somairle could be evidence of a slackening of Fergus' authority. Contemporary sources certainly report that Galloway was wracked by inter-dynastic strife during the decade.

paragraph: Fergus' fall from power came in 1160, after Malcolm IV, King of Scotland settled a dispute amongst his leading magnates and launched three military campaigns into Galloway. The reasons for the Scottish invasion are unknown. On one hand, it is possible that Fergus had precipitated events by preying upon Scottish territories. In the aftermath of the attack, the king came to terms with Somairle which could be evidence that he had either been allied with Fergus against the Scots or that he had aided in Fergus' destruction. In any case, Fergus himself was driven from power, and forced to retire to the abbey of Holyrood. He died the next year. The Lordship of Galloway appears to have been partitioned between his sons, Gilla Brigte and Uhtred, and Scottish influence further penetrated into Galloway.

paragraph: Section::::Origins.

paragraph: Fergus' familial origins are unknown. He is not accorded a patronym in contemporary sources, and his later descendants are traced no further than him in their charters. The fact that he tends to be styled "of Galloway" in contemporary sources suggests that he was the head of the most important family in the region. Such appears to have been the case with Fergus' contemporary Freskin, a significant settler in Moray, who was styled "de Moravia".

paragraph: One source that may possibly cast light on Fergus' familial origins is "Roman de Fergus", a mediaeval Arthurian romance, mainly set in southern Scotland, which tells the tale of a knight who may represent Fergus himself. The name of the knight's father in this source is a form of the name borne by Fergus' neighbouring contemporary Somairle mac Gilla Brigte, Lord of Argyll, and could be evidence that Fergus' father bore the same name. On the other hand, instead of being evidence of any historical relationship, the names could have been employed by the romance merely because they were regarded as stereotypically Gallovidian. In any case, there is reason to suspect that the romance is a literary pastiche or parody of the compositions of Chrétien de Troyes; and besides the coincidence of names, the tale has little to commend it as an authoritative source for the historical Fergus.

paragraph: Despite the uncertainty surrounding his origins, it is possible that Fergus was of Norse-Gaelic and native Gallovdian ancestry. Traditionally, the Gallovidians appear to have looked towards the Isles instead of Scotland, and the core of his family's lands seems to have centred in valley of the river Dee and the coastal area around Whithorn, regions of substantial Scandinavian settlement. In any case, the fact that Fergus died as an old man in 1161 suggests that he was born before 1100.

paragraph: Section::::Early career.

paragraph: Fergus first appears on record in about 1136×1141, when he and his son, Uhtred, witnessed the grant of the lands of Partick to the church of St Kentigern at Glasgow. The exact extent of the twelfth-century Lordship of Galloway is unclear. Surviving acta of Fergus and Uhtred reveal a concentration of endowments in central Galloway, between the rivers Urr and Fleet. Subsequent grants of lands by later descendants of Fergus in the Dee valley could represent the expansion of territory from this original core. There is evidence indicating the Fergus' domain extended into western Galloway as well. His descendants were certainly associated with the castle of Cruggleton and dealt with lands in the vicinity. In 1140, during the return journey of Máel Máedoc Ua Morgair, Archbishop of Armagh from Clairvaux to Ulster, the latter made landfall at Cruggleton, as evidenced by "Vita Sancti Malachiae", composed by Bernard of Clairvaux. Although this source associates the castle with the Scots, it seems unlikely that Scottish royal authority extended to the Gallovidian coast, and the statement could therefore be a result of confusion with Máel Máedoc's previous stay at the castle of Carlisle, then controlled by David I, King of Scotland. In fact, Máel Máedoc's visit to Cruggleton may have involved the local lord of the region, conceivably Fergus himself. The mid twelfth-century lordship, therefore, seems to have been centred in the region of Wigtown Bay and the mouth of the river Dee.

paragraph: The fact that Gilla Brigte, who may well have been Fergus' eldest child, later appears to have drawn his power from west of the river Cree could be evidence that this man's mother was a member of a prominent family from this region. Such an alliance could also explain Fergus' apparent westward expansion. Whatever the case, the fact that the Diocese of Whithorn was revived in about 1128, possibly at the hands of Fergus himself, could indicate that he purposely established an episcopal see that encompassed the entirety of his domain. The apparent extension of Fergus' authority into western Galloway may have been facilitated by the disintegration of the expansive nearby Kingdom of the Isles. Upon the death of the reigning Guðrøðr Crovan, King of the Isles, the Isles plunged into chaos, enduring periods of vicious dynastic kin-strife, overwhelming Norwegian overlordship, and Irish intrusion as well. By the end of the first quarter of the twelfth century, however, Guðrøðr Crovan's youngest son, Óláfr, seems to have been reinserted into the Isles by Henry I, King of England. This restoration of the Crovan dynasty appears to have formed part of the English Crown's extension of influence into the Irish Sea region. Another aspect of this expansion was the establishment of David, a younger brother of the reigning Alexander I, King of Scotland, as Henry I's vassal.

paragraph: Section::::Allied to the English.

paragraph: There is a considerable amount of evidence indicating that Fergus married a daughter of Henry I. For example, there is documentary evidence suggesting that all three of Fergus' children—Uhtred, Gilla Brigte, and Affraic—were related to the English royal family. Specifically, Uhtred was called a cousin of Henry I's grandson, Henry II, King of England, by Roger de Hoveden. Although sources specifically concerning Gilla Brigte fail to make a similar claim, potentially indicating that he had a different mother than Uhtred, Gilla Brigte's son, Donnchad, Earl of Carrick, was certainly regarded as a kinsman of Henry II's son and successor, John, King of England. In regard to Affraic, Robert de Torigni, Abbot of Mont Saint-Michel remarked that her son, Guðrøðr Óláfsson, King of Dublin and the Isles, was related to Henry II through the latter's mother, Matilda, one of Henry I's daughters.

paragraph: Henry I appears to have had about twenty-four illegitimate children. Although the name and identity of Fergus' wife is unknown, she would seem to have been one of Henry I's numerous bastard daughters through which the king forged marital alliances with neighbouring princes along the periphery of his Anglo-Norman realm. The date of Uhtred's earliest attestation suggests that he was born in about 1123/1124 at the latest, whilst the fact that Guðrøðr was old enough to render homage to the Norwegian king in 1153 suggests that Affraic herself was born no latter than about 1122. Such birth dates suggest that Fergus' marriage dates to a period when the English Crown consolidated authority in the north-west and extended its influence into the Irish Sea. From the perspective of the English, an alliance between Henry I and Fergus would have secured an understanding with the man who controlled an important part of the north western flank of the Anglo-Norman realm. In fact, one of Henry I's bastard daughters, Sybilla, was wed to the reigning Alexander, seemingly not long after the latter's accession. Fergus' own apparent marriage, therefore, appears to evidence not only his pre-eminent status in Galloway itself, but the degree of political sovereignty he possessed as its ruler. The unions of Alexander and Fergus evidence Henry I's intent of extending English authority north of the Solway Firth.

paragraph: Section::::David and Scottish consolidation.

paragraph: The early twelfth century saw the rise of Alexander's younger brother, David. The latter's close connections with the English likely contributed to his eventual acquisition of a substantial part of southern Scotland from Alexander. In about 1113, David married Maud de Senlis, a wealthy English widow, and through her came into possession of extensive lordship that came to be known as the Honour of Huntingdon. As the mid-part of the century approached, the balance of power along the northern part of the Anglo-Norman realm began to shift in favour of David. In 1120, Henry I's only legitimate son died along with Richard d'Avranches, Earl of Chester in the "White Ship" disaster. The latter's lordship in the Welsh March was a critical region of Henry I's realm, and the English king responded by transplanting Ranulf le Meschin from his lordship of Carlisle to Richard d'Avranches' former lordship along the Welsh frontier.

paragraph: Upon Alexander's death in 1124, David succeeded to the throne. The latter's subsequent endowment of Annandale to Robert de Brus appears to have not only signalled the Scottish Crown's intention of consolidating control of the region, but served as a declaration of the kingdom's claims to Cumbria. Fergus' marriage to Henry I's daughter, which appears to date to about this period, may have been arranged with such developments in mind. If so, the union could have been orchestrated as a means to not only compensate for Ranulf's removal, but to counter the dramatic rise of David and the resultant imbalance of power his ascent created. With Ranulf thus vacated from the north, Henry I had filled the power vacuum with various so-called "new men". One such incomer may have been Robert de Brus, a Norman who had previously received extensive lands from the English Crown. In fact, it is possible that it was in the wake of Ranulf's removal that Robert de Brus originally received the lordship of Annandale. If so, the latter may have been inserted into the region by Henry I, or perhaps through collaborative effort between Henry I and his then-vassal David as a means of securing the Anglo-Scottish border. The apparent rise of Fergus at about this time may have also played a part in the infeftment of Annandale.

paragraph: Henry I himself was married to David's older sister, Edith, a union which closely bound him to the Scottish royal house. For as long as Henry I lived, relations between him and David remained harmonious. When the former died in 1135, however, the peace between the neighbouring realms was shattered when his nephew, Stephen of Blois, Count of Boulogne and Mortain, successfully seized the throne. Before the end of the year, the Scots surged forth and seized Carlisle and Cumberland before peace was restored. Relations broke down the following year, and the Scots again invaded in 1137, seizing Northumberland, and pushed forth towards York. The contemporary accounts of the English chroniclers Richard Hexham and Ailred, Abbot of Rievaulx single out Gallovidian soldiers for their excessive atrocities in David's campaign. Disaster struck the Scots in 1138 at the Battle of the Standard, when David's forces were utterly overcome by the English near Northallerton.

paragraph: Although Gallovidians clearly took part in David's campaigning, there is no specific evidence connecting Fergus to the operations until after operations ceased. It is possible that Fergus' attestation of 1136 could have had bearing on Gallovidian participation in the king's campaigning. If Fergus' wife was indeed a bastard of Henry I, Fergus himself had a stake in the unfolding English succession crisis, as she would have been a half-sister of Stephen's opponent, Matilda, whom Henry I had nominated as his royal successor. Explicit confirmation of Fergus' involvement may exist in the terms of the subsequent peace treaty, as Richard Hexham recorded that one of the hostages that was handed over to the English for surety was the son of an earl named Fergus. The fact that there was no Scottish earl of that name suggests that, unless Richard Hexham was mistaken, it was Fergus himself who was referred to. In any case, after this date there is no further evidence of Fergus' involvement in Anglo-Scottish affairs.

paragraph: Section::::Ecclesiastical activities.

paragraph: In about 1128, the Diocese of Whithorn was revived after three centuries had passed since the consecration of the last diocesan bishop. The revival itself is revealed by a papal mandate dated December 1128, and the record of the oath of the bishop-elect, Gilla Aldan, to Thurstan, Archbishop of York between about 1128 and 1140. It is uncertain who was the driving force behind the revival. David's known ecclesiastical activities could suggest that he was responsible. On the other hand, the extent of David's authority in Galloway is questionable. As for Fergus himself, there is no conclusive proof that he controlled the lordship at this point in time, or that he himself established the see.

paragraph: The fact that Gilla Aldan was likely of native origin—as opposed to David's apparent preference for Anglo-Norman clergy—and the fact that Gilla Aldan professed obedience to the Archbishop of York—an ecclesiast whom David was attempting to exclude from influencing the Scottish Church—would both appear to indicate Gilla Aldan was a non-Scottish appointment. If Fergus was indeed responsible for Whithorn's revival, it would have almost certainly aided his royal aspirations since securing ecclesiastical independence could have been part of the process of ensuring political independence. Gilla Aldan's successor was Christian, a man who was consecrated in 1154 by Hugh d'Amiens, Archbishop of Rouen, who in turn may have been acting as a proxy for Roger de Pont l'Evêque, Archbishop-elect of York.

paragraph: Fergus and his family were remarkable ecclesiastical patrons, working with Augustinians, Benedictines, Cistercians, and Premonstratensians. Surviving charter evidence reveals that Fergus granted the lands of Dunrod, St Mary's Isle (upon which a priory was at some point erected), and nearby Galtway to the Augustinian abbey of Holyrood. A fifteenth-century list of properties belonging to the Knights Hospitaller reveals that Fergus had granted this order of the lands of Galtway (within the mediaeval parishes of Balmaclellan and Dalry) at some point in his career. This transaction appears to further evidence Fergus' alignment with the English Crown.

paragraph: The necrology of the abbey of Newhouse states that Fergus was the founder of a Premonstratensian house at Whithorn. Both he and Christian are stated by the necrology of the abbey of Prémontré to have founded a monastery at Whithorn. Christian's tenure as bishop (1154–1186), and Fergus' reign as lord (×1160), suggest that the priory of Whithorn was founded at some point between about 1154 and 1160. According to the annals of Maurice of Prato, this house was transformed into a Premonstratensian house by Christian in about 1177. These sources, therefore, appear to reveal that Fergus was responsible for the establishment of a possibly Augustinian house at Whithorn, whilst Christian was responsible for its later refoundation as a Premonstratensian institution. Such a switch was not an unknown occurrence in England or on the Continent.

paragraph: Either Fergus or David—or perhaps both Fergus and David—may have been responsible for the foundation of the abbey of Dundrennan, a Cistercian house situated well within the confines of Fergus' lordship. John Fordun and Walter Bower accord its foundation solely to David, although the near contemporary John Hexham failed to note the house amongst David's known foundations. The fact that Walter Daniel, a Cistercian monk from the community at Rievaulx, was highly critical of Galloway and its inhabitants may be evidence that Fergus was unlikely to have been the sole founder. David's own close connections with the Cistercians could suggest that the monastery owed its formation, as a daughter house of Rievaulx, to cooperation between David and Fergus.

paragraph: The abbey of Dundrennan appears to have been founded in about 1142, which in turn places its formation at a time when David had extended his power in the south west. Such a date also places the foundation at about the time Máel Máedoc was in the region, which in turn may hint at his own involvement. In any case, if Fergus and David were involved in the abbey's endowment, the fact that it was colonised by Cistercians from Rievaulx suggests that it was somewhat of a penitential foundation in regard to the infamous Gallovidian contribution at the Battle of the Standard four years previously. Furthermore, the fact that Thurstan himself had been responsible for the English resistance meant that Fergus had warred against his own spiritual overlord, and had almost certainly endured ecclesiastical repercussions as a result. In the eyes of the Cistercians, Fergus and David were both responsible for failing to curb atrocities committed during the campaign, and Fergus himself was held accountable by Walter Daniel's "Vita Ailredi" for thousands of deaths.

paragraph: Another religious house possibly founded by Fergus was the abbey of Soulseat, a Premonstratensian house seated near Stranraer. Walter Bower and the necrologies certainly state as such. However, the fact that this house appears to be identical to the ""Viride Stagnum"" attested by the contemporary "Vita Sancti Malachiae" seems to be evidence that Soulseat originated as a Cistercian house founded by Máel Máedoc himself. If Máel Máedoc and Fergus met during the former's apparent stay in Cruggleton, it is conceivable that Fergus granted him the lands upon which he founded a religious house at Soulseat. If Máel Máedoc indeed founded a Cistercian house on this site, it clearly was converted to a Premonstratensian monastery not long afterwards, under the advocacy of Fergus. The church of Cruggleton, near the site of the like-named castle, could have also been constructed by Fergus.

paragraph: Although the late mediaeval "Hystoria Fundacionis Prioratus Insule de Traile" claims that Fergus founded the priory of St Mary's Isle, the fantastical foundation claims preserved by this source are not corroborated by contemporary sources. According to a confirmation charter dating to within the decade after Fergus' death, Fergus granted the house to the abbey of Holyrood. A confirmation charter of William I, King of Scotland reveals that the priory of St Mary's Isle may have been in existence by the time of Fergus's grandson, Roland fitz Uhtred, Lord of Galloway, although the first recorded prior appears in the thirteenth century. Fergus' supposed links with this house, therefore, are dubious. Although Walter Bower declared that Fergus was responsible for the foundation of the abbey of Tongland, his great-grandson, Alan fitz Roland, Lord of Galloway, appears to have founded it in the thirteenth century. The erroneous attribution of Fergus to this house may be the result of an attempt to enhance the antiquity of its establishment by linking it with the progenitor of Alan's family.

paragraph: The inspiration behind Fergus' ecclesiastical patronage is uncertain. On one hand, it is conceivable that he was imitating or competing with the extensive patronage of the Scottish monarchy. On the other hand, familial connections with the rulers of England and the Isles could have played a part in his ecclesiastical interests. Contact with influential ecclesiasts like Máel Máedoc and Ailred could have also inspired Fergus' benefactions.

paragraph: Furthermore, the introduction of Augustinians and Premonstratensians into Galloway may have been part of a process of revitalising the newly reformed diocese. The construction of ecclesiastical buildings, much like castles, was often a means by which mediaeval rulers displayed their pre-eminent status, which in turn could explain Fergus' ecclesiastical activities. In effect, his religious foundations may evince attempts to assert his authority in the region. While the foundation of an episcopal see seems to have been a means by which Fergus sought to reinforce his independence from the Scots, his remarkable support of reformed religious orders may have been a way in which he attempted to legitimise his regal aspirations.

paragraph: Section::::Unravelling of the Isles.

paragraph: Section::::Unravelling of the Isles.:Alliance with Óláfr Guðrøðarson.

paragraph: Early in his career, Fergus bound himself to the Isles in the form of a marital alliance between Affraic and Óláfr, the reigning King of the Isles. Although the union itself is not dated in contemporary sources, the Scandinavian sojourn undertaken the couple's son in 1152 suggests that the marriage was arranged in the 1130s or 1140s. The alliance forged between Óláfr and Fergus gave the former's family valuable familial-connections with the English Crown, one of the most powerful monarchies in western Europe. As for Fergus, the union bound Galloway more tightly to a neighbouring kingdom from which an invasion had been launched during the overlordsship of Magnús Óláfsson, King of Norway. The alliance with Óláfr also ensured Fergus the protection of one of Britain's most formidable fleets, and further gave him a valuable ally outwith the orbit of the Scottish Crown.

paragraph: One possible reason for Fergus' apparent lack of further participation in Anglo-Scottish affairs may have been due to events in the Isles. Although the thirteenth- to fourteenth-century "Chronicle of Mann" portrays Óláfr's reign as one of tranquillity, a more accurate evaluation of his reign may be that he adeptly managed to navigate an uncertain political climate. In regard to Fergus, the acquisition of the Dublin kingship in 1142, by the Islesman Ottar mac meic Ottair, may well have represented a threat to the authority of Óláfr, and the prospects of Fergus' grandson. By the mid part of the twelfth century, however, the ageing Óláfr's realm may well have begun to buckle under the strain, as perhaps evidenced by the depredations wrought on the Scottish mainland by Óláfr's leading ecclesiast, Wimund, Bishop of the Isles. Confirmation of Óláfr's concern over the royal succession may well be preserved by the chronicle, which states that Guðrøðr journeyed to the court of Ingi Haraldsson, King of Norway in 1152, where Guðrøðr rendered homage to the Norwegian king, and seemingly secured recognition of the royal inheritance of the Isles.

paragraph: The following year marked a watershed in the history for the Kingdom of the Isles with the successive deaths of David and Óláfr. The latter was slain by three Dublin-based sons of his exiled brother, after which these men—the Haraldsonnar—partitioned Mann amongst themselves. Once in control, the chronicle reveals that the Haraldsonnar fortified themselves against forces loyal to the kingdom's legitimate heir by launching a pre-emptive strike against Fergus. Although the invasion of Galloway was repulsed with heavy casualties, once the Haraldsonnar returned to Mann the chronicle records that they slaughtered and expelled all resident Gallovidians that they could find. This ruthless reaction evidently reveals an attempt to uproot local factions adhering to Affraic and her son. Whatever the case, within months of his father's assassination, Guðrøðr executed his vengeance. Enstrengthened with Norwegian military support, Guðrøðr overcame his three kin-slaying cousins, and successfully secured the kingship for himself.

paragraph: Section::::Unravelling of the Isles.:Rise of Somairle mac Gilla Brigte.

paragraph: Midway through the twelfth-century, Muirchertach Mac Lochlainn, King of Tír nEógain pressed forth his claim to the high-kingship of Ireland, an office then held by the elderly Toirrdelbach Ua Conchobair, King of Connacht. In 1154, the forces of Toirrdelbach and Muirchertach met in a major maritime conflict off the Inishowen coast. According to the seventeenth-century "Annals of the Four Masters", Muirchertach's maritime forces were mercenaries drawn from Galloway, Arran, Kintyre, Mann, and "the territories of Scotland". This record appears to be evidence that Guðrøðr, Fergus, and perhaps Somairle, provided ships to Muirchertach's cause. Although Toirrdelbach's forces obtained a narrow victory, his northern maritime power seems to have been virtually nullified by the severity of the contest, and Muirchertach soon after marched on Dublin, gained overlordship over the Dubliners, and effectively secured himself the high-kingship of Ireland for himself.

paragraph: The defeat of forces drawn from the Isles, and Muirchertach's subsequent spread of power into Dublin, may have had severe repercussions concerning Guðrøðr's career. In 1155 or 1156, Somairle and an apparent relative of Ottar precipitated a coup against Guðrøðr, presenting Somairle's son, Dubgall, as a replacement to Guðrøðr's rule. Late in 1156, Somairle and Guðrøðr clashed and divided the Kingdom of the Isles between themselves. Two years later the former drove the latter from the kingship and into exile.

paragraph: It is uncertain why Fergus failed to support his grandson against Somairle. The record of the capture of Domnall mac Máel Coluim at Whithorn in 1156, as recorded by the twelfth- to thirteenth-century "Chronicle of Holyrood", and "Gesta Annalia I", may have bearing on Fergus. Domnall appears to have been a son of Máel Coluim mac Alasdair, who was in turn a claimant to the Scottish throne and somehow related to Somairle. Following David's death in 1153, Somairle and Máel Coluim had risen in revolt against a newly inaugurated Malcolm without much success. Domnall's later capture in western Galloway, therefore, could be evidence that the Meic Máel Coluim claimants had attempted to forcefully carve out a power base in western Galloway. However, the fact that the chronicle makes no mention of such conflict in Galloway, coupled with the fact that Whithorn was a spiritual centre rather than a secular power centre, could suggest that Domnall was in the region under less violent circumstances. If so, it is conceivable that Fergus could have originally forged an understanding with the Meic Máel Coluim before pressure from his sons forced him to desert Domnall's cause. The fact that the latter's capture preceded Somairle's coup could suggest that, although Domnall may have been in the midst of securing Gallovidian support, once Somairle's designs against Guðrøðr became apparent, the Gallovdians handed over Somairle's kinsman to the Scots.

paragraph: Section::::Scottish subjection of Galloway.

paragraph: There is evidence to suggest that Fergus struggled to maintain control of his lordship during the decade. Such a crisis could well have kept him from intervening in the Isles on Guðrøðr's behalf. As with the latter, the failure of Muirchertach's mercenary fleet could have contributed to a loss of Fergus' own authority. Disarray in the lordship is evidenced by "Vita Ailredi", which reveals that the region was wracked by inter-dynastic strife during this period.

paragraph: In 1160, Malcolm returned to Scotland having spent months campaigning in the service of the English on the Continent. After successfully dealing with a considerable number of disaffected magnates at Perth, the "Chronicle of Holyrood" and the twelfth- to thirteenth-century "Chronicle of Melrose" reveal that he launched three military expeditions into Galloway. The circumstances surrounding these invasions is unclear, although what is clear is that Fergus submitted to the Scots before the end of the year. Specifically, according to "Gesta Annalia I", once the Scots subdued the Gallovidians, the conquerors forced Fergus to retire to the abbey of Holyrood, and hand over his son, Uhtred, as a royal hostage. The "Chronicle of Holyrood" and the fifteenth-century "Ordinale of Holyrood" corroborate Fergus' monastic retirement, with the former source further recording Fergus' grant of the lands of Dunrod to the abbey.

paragraph: On one hand, it is possible that Fergus himself had precipitated Malcolm's reaction by raiding into the territory between the rivers Urr and Nith. The fact that the "Chronicle of Holyrood" describes Malcolm's Gallovidian opponents as "federate enemies", and makes no mention of his sons, suggests that Fergus was supported by other accomplices. In fact, it is possible that Malcolm had encountered an alliance between Fergus and Somairle. Evidence of such a coalition may exist in the dating clause of a royal charter that notes a formal agreement between Somairle and Malcolm that Christmas. Additionally, the fact that several churches near Kirkcudbright are recorded to have once belonged to Iona, an ancient ecclesiastical centre that Somairle attempted to revive during his reign in the Isles, could suggest some sort of concord between the rulers. If Somairle and Fergus had indeed been allies, the fall of the latter, coupled with the further advancement of Scottish authority into the Solway region, may have finally brought Somairle to terms with the Scots. An alternate possibility is that the charter clause could be evidence that Somairle supported Malcolm in his suppression and destruction of Fergus. There is also reason to suspect that Ferteth, Earl of Strathearn possessed some sort of affiliation with Fergus. Not only does Ferteth appear to be the most prominent of the disaffected magnates who confronted Malcolm in 1160, but his father is recorded to have taken a leading part in the Battle of the Standard, and Ferteth himself was married to a woman whose name may be evidence that she was a native of Galloway. The kin-strife noted by "Vita Ailredi" could be evidence that Fergus' sons assisted in his overthrow, or at least did little to arrest it.

paragraph: Section::::Death and aftermath.

paragraph: Fergus did not live long after retiring, and died on 12 May 1161, as evidenced by the "Chronicle of Holyrood". Surviving sources reveal that he overshadowed his sons during his lifetime, with Uhtred witnessing only three charters and Gilla Brigte none at all. The latter's apparent exclusion from affairs of state could be relevant to the subsequent animosity between the siblings, as well as the difficulties Fergus faced with the men late in his career. Upon Fergus' death, the lordship appears to have been split between the brothers. Although there is no specific evidence for Gilla Brigte's share, later transactions involving Uhtred reveal that the latter held lands in the lower Dee valley, seemingly centred in an area around Kirkcudbright. The fact that this region appears to have formed the core of Fergus' holdings could be evidence that Uhtred was the senior successor. Conceivably, Uhtred's allotment consisted of the lordship's territory east of the river Cree, whilst Gilla Brigte's share was everything east of this waterway.

paragraph: In the wake of Malcolm's destruction of Fergus, the Scottish Crown moved to further incorporate Galloway into the Scottish realm. Uhtred appears to have been granted the territory between the rivers Nith and Urr, whilst Gilla Brigte may have been wed to a daughter or sister of Donnchad II, Earl of Fife, the kingdom's foremost Gaelic magnate. Scottish authority penetrated into the lordship through the installation of royal officials, and Scottish power was perhaps further projected into Galloway by a royal castle at Dumfries. Surviving royal acta dating to after the fall of Fergus indicate that, from the perspective of the Scottish Crown, the Lordship of Galloway had been integrated into the Kingdom of Scotland, and was subject to the overlordship of Malcolm himself.

description: Lord of Galloway

wikidata_label: Fergus of Galloway

wikipedia_title: Fergus of Galloway


text:
Elo rating system
chess
Egyházaskesző
Austro-Hungarian Empire
United States
physics
Marquette University
Milwaukee
chess master
Brookfield
Wisconsin
Kenneth Harkness
United States Chess Federation
St. Louis
FIDE
Chess Olympiad

categories: Sportspeople from Milwaukee,1992 deaths,Hungarian scientists,American chess players,American people of Hungarian descent,20th-century American physicists,1903 births,20th-century American mathematicians,Hungarian physicists,Chess theoreticians,Marquette University faculty,Hungarian chess players,Austro-Hungarian emigrants to the United States

paragraph: Arpad Elo

paragraph: Arpad Emmerich Elo (born Élő Árpád Imre; August 25, 1903 – November 5, 1992) was the creator of the Elo rating system for two-player games such as chess. Born in Egyházaskesző, Austro-Hungarian Empire, he moved to the United States with his parents in 1913.

paragraph: Elo was a professor of physics at Marquette University in Milwaukee and a chess master. By the 1930s he was the strongest chess player in Milwaukee, then one of the nation's leading chess cities. He won the Wisconsin State Championship eight times.

paragraph: Elo died in Brookfield, Wisconsin.

paragraph: Section::::The Elo rating system.

paragraph: Elo is best known for his system of rating chess players. The original chess rating system was developed in 1950 by Kenneth Harkness, the Business Manager of the United States Chess Federation. By 1960, using the data developed through the Harkness Rating System, Elo developed his own formula which had a sound statistical basis and constituted an improvement on the Harkness System. The new rating system was approved and passed at a meeting of the United States Chess Federation in St. Louis in 1960.

paragraph: In 1970, FIDE, the World Chess Federation, agreed to adopt the Elo Rating System. From then on until the mid-1980s, Elo himself made the rating calculations. At the time, the computational task was relatively easy because fewer than 2000 players were rated by FIDE.

paragraph: FIDE reassigned the task of managing and computing the ratings to others, excluding Elo. FIDE also added new "Qualification for Rating" rules to its handbook awarding arbitrary ratings (typically in the 2200 range, which is the low end for a chess master) for players who scored at least 50 percent in the games played at selected events, such as named Chess Olympiads. Elo and others objected to these new rules as arbitrary and politically driven.

paragraph: Section::::Books.

paragraph: BULLET::::- "The Rating of Chess Players, Past and Present" (1978), Arco.

paragraph: Section::::External links.

alias:
Elo
Elo, Arpad

description: Hungarian American physicists, developer of the Elo rating

wikidata_label: Arpad Elo

wikipedia_title: Arpad Elo


text:
German American
Munchkinland
The Wizard of Oz
Ken Darby
Frankfurt
Germany
butcher
midget
Singer Midgets
Leo Singer
Austria
World War I
vaudeville
George Burns
Will Rogers
Mahaska, Kansas
Washington
Kansas
stand-in
Lone Tree Cemetery
Fairview
Hayward
Prince Denis
Mickey Carroll
Ruth Duccini
Jerry Maren
Margaret Pellegrini
Meinhardt Raabe
Karl Slover
Clarence Swensen
Stephen Cox
Jerry Maren
Meinhardt Raabe

categories: Burials at Lone Tree Cemetery (Fairview, California),People from Hesse,Vaudeville performers,People from Washington County, Kansas,1968 deaths,20th-century American male actors,Actors with dwarfism,German emigrants to the United States,1887 births

paragraph: Charlie Becker

paragraph: Karl Becker (November 24, 1887 – December 28, 1968), billed as Charlie Becker, was a German American actor. He was 3'9" in height, and is probably best known for appearing as the Munchkinland Mayor in "The Wizard of Oz" (1939). Ken Darby dubbed the Mayor's vocals in the film.

paragraph: Section::::Biography.

paragraph: Becker was born near Frankfurt, Germany in the town of Muschenheim. As a teenager, he worked as a butcher, but often struggled to use the knives and other equipment, and was ridiculed by his fellow workers. When he was about 19, he began performing in travelling "midget shows", and eventually joined the Singer Midgets, a famous troupe led by Leo Singer of Austria. The Singer Midgets moved to the United States during World War I, and became popular on the vaudeville circuits. Becker became friends with George Burns, Will Rogers, and other stars of the time.

paragraph: Becker appeared in a few films during the 1920s and 1930s. These included "Spangles" (1926), "The Terror of Tiny Town" (1938), and, most notably, "The Wizard of Oz" (1939), in which he played the Mayor of Munchkinland. He was chosen for the role because of his large belly, round face, and facial hair, which were thought to be mayoral features. Because of his thick German accent, however, his voice had to be dubbed. On the set of "The Wizard of Oz", Becker met his future wife, Jessie Kelley, who played another Munchkin. She was originally from Mahaska, Kansas. The two married in 1940, moved to Washington, Kansas for a short time and later settled in California, where they sometimes worked as stand-ins for child actors. Later in his life, Becker opened his own sausage business.

paragraph: Becker died of a stroke in California at the end of 1968. His interment (and his wife's) was in Lone Tree Cemetery in Fairview, near Hayward. Some controversy emerged in 1984 when obituaries for the actor Prince Denis stated that he had played the Mayor of Munchkinland. In reality, Denis had played the Sergeant-at-Arms.

paragraph: Section::::Honours.

paragraph: In 2007, all 124 Munchkin actors in Oz were honored with a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. For Becker this was a posthumous honor. Seven surviving Munchkin actors attended the ceremony: Mickey Carroll, Ruth Duccini, Jerry Maren, Margaret Pellegrini, Meinhardt Raabe, Karl Slover and Clarence Swensen.

paragraph: Section::::Filmography.

paragraph: His performances in "All Over Town" and "The Wizard of Oz" were uncredited.

paragraph: Section::::References.

paragraph: BULLET::::- Stephen Cox. "The Munchkins of Oz". Cumberland House Publishing. 2002.

paragraph: BULLET::::- Jerry Maren and Stephen Cox. "Short and Sweet: The Life and Times of the Lollipop Munchkin". Cumberland House Publishing, 2006.

paragraph: BULLET::::- Meinhardt Raabe and Daniel Kinske. "Memories of a Munchkin: An Illustrated Walk Down the Yellow Brick Road". Back Stage Books, 2005.

description: American actor

wikidata_label: Charlie Becker

wikipedia_title: Charlie Becker


text:
VC
English
Victoria Cross
British
Commonwealth
lieutenant
75th Regiment of Foot
Gordon Highlanders
British Army
Indian Mutiny
Delhi
British India
colonel
Brompton Cemetery
Chelsea Barracks
Royal Chelsea Hospital
Aberdeen
Obituary
Location of grave and VC medal

categories: British recipients of the Victoria Cross,1826 births,1885 deaths,Indian Rebellion of 1857 recipients of the Victoria Cross,Burials at Brompton Cemetery,Gordon Highlanders officers,Gordon Highlanders soldiers,People from Lancaster, Lancashire

paragraph: Richard Wadeson

paragraph: Colonel Richard Wadeson VC (31 July 1826 – 24 January 1885) was an English recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces.

paragraph: Section::::Victoria Cross.

paragraph: Wadeson was 30 years old, and a lieutenant in the 75th Regiment of Foot (later The Gordon Highlanders), British Army during the Indian Mutiny when the following deed took place on 18 July 1857 at Delhi, British India, for which he was awarded the VC:

paragraph: Section::::Later life.

paragraph: Commissioned from the ranks he later achieved the rank of colonel. He died in 1885 and is buried in Brompton Cemetery. Wadeson was colonel-in-charge of Chelsea Barracks and has a plaque on barracks wall. He was also Lieutenant Governor of the Royal Chelsea Hospital where he died.

paragraph: Section::::Medal.

paragraph: His Victoria Cross is displayed at the Gordon Highlanders Museum, Aberdeen, Scotland.

paragraph: Section::::References.

paragraph: BULLET::::- Obituary

paragraph: BULLET::::- Location of grave and VC medal "(Brompton Cemetery)"

description: Recipient of the Victoria Cross

wikidata_label: Richard Wadeson

wikipedia_title: Richard Wadeson


text:
General
British Army
Victoria Cross
Commonwealth
Finea
County Westmeath
Sir Samuel Walker, 1st Baronet
MP
Solicitor-General for Ireland
Attorney-General for Ireland
Lord Chancellor of Ireland
Crimean War
lieutenant
30th Regiment of Foot
East Lancashire Regiment
British Army
The Buffs Regimental Museum
Canterbury
National Army Museum
Second Anglo-Chinese War
lieutenant-colonel
colonel
Madras
major-general
Aldershot
Gibraltar
lieutenant-general
general
Order of the Bath
Sherwood Foresters
Arlington, Devon
Canterbury Cathedral
List of Irish Victoria Cross recipients
The Register of the Victoria Cross
Monuments to Courage
Location of grave and VC medal

categories: People from County Westmeath,Crimean War recipients of the Victoria Cross,Knights Commander of the Order of the Bath,Irish officers in the British Army,19th-century Irish people,1827 births,British Army generals,British Army personnel of the Crimean War,British Army personnel of the Second Opium War,Irish recipients of the Victoria Cross,British amputees,Buffs (Royal East Kent Regiment) officers,1902 deaths,30th Regiment of Foot officers

paragraph: Mark Walker (British Army officer)

paragraph: General Sir Mark Walker (24 November 1827 – 18 July 1902) was a British Army officer and an Irish recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces.

paragraph: Section::::Early life.

paragraph: Walker was born in Gore Port, Finea, County Westmeath in Ireland, the son of Captain Alexander Walker and Elizabeth Elliott. His younger brother was Sir Samuel Walker, 1st Baronet QC, Liberal MP for Londonderry, Solicitor-General for Ireland, Attorney-General for Ireland and Lord Chancellor of Ireland.

paragraph: Section::::Victoria Cross.

paragraph: During the Crimean War, Walker was a 26-year-old lieutenant in the 30th Regiment of Foot (later the East Lancashire Regiment) British Army when the deed for which he was awarded the VC was performed.

paragraph: His Victoria Cross was until recently on display at The Buffs Regimental Museum, Canterbury, England. With the rest of that museum's collections, it has now been transferred to the National Army Museum, where it is not currently on display.

paragraph: Section::::Later life.

paragraph: He was wounded by a howitzer shell during his service in the Crimea which resulted in the amputation of his right arm. He served through the Second Anglo-Chinese War of 1860 as brigade major, and in 1861 he received the rank of lieutenant-colonel. Promotion to colonel followed in 1869, and from 1875-1879 he commanded a brigade in Madras, during which he was promoted to major-general in 1878. From 1883 to 1884 he was at Aldershot, then in command of a brigade at Gibraltar until 1888, when he was promoted lieutenant-general. He retired from the army with the rank of general in 1893, and was appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath.

paragraph: From 1900 until his death he was colonel of the Sherwood Foresters.

paragraph: He died at Arlington, Devon, England on 18 July 1902.

paragraph: A memorial wall plaque honoring Sir Mark is found at Canterbury Cathedral.

paragraph: Section::::Personal life.

paragraph: In 1881 Walker married Catherine Chichester.

paragraph: Section::::References.

paragraph: BULLET::::- List of Irish Victoria Cross recipients

paragraph: BULLET::::- "The Register of the Victoria Cross"

paragraph: BULLET::::- "Ireland's VCs" (Dept of Economic Development, 1995)

paragraph: BULLET::::- "Monuments to Courage" (David Harvey, 1999)

paragraph: BULLET::::- "Irish Winners of the Victoria Cross" (Richard Doherty & David Truesdale, 2000)

paragraph: Section::::External links.

paragraph: BULLET::::- Location of grave and VC medal "(Kent)"

description: Recipient of the Victoria Cross

wikidata_label: Mark Walker

wikipedia_title: Mark Walker (British Army officer)


text: VC

text: English

text: soldier

text: Victoria Cross

text: British

text: Commonwealth

text: Harleston, Norfolk

text: Malvern, Worcestershire

text: private

text: 78th Regiment of Foot

text: Seaforth Highlanders

text: British Army

text: Indian Mutiny

text: Lucknow

text: British India

text: Henry Havelock

text: quartermaster-sergeant

text: Fort George

text: Inverness-shire

text: Scotland

text: Monuments to Courage

text: The Register of the Victoria Cross

text: News report on his biography

categories: British recipients of the Victoria Cross,1867 deaths,Indian Rebellion of 1857 recipients of the Victoria Cross,Seaforth Highlanders soldiers,British military personnel of the Anglo-Persian War,People from Redenhall with Harleston,1823 births

paragraph: Henry Ward (VC)

paragraph: Henry Ward VC (1823 – 12 September 1867) was an English soldier and a recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces. He was born in Harleston, Norfolk, and died in Malvern, Worcestershire.

paragraph: Section::::Details.

paragraph: Ward was approximately 34 years old, and a private in the 78th Regiment of Foot (later The Seaforth Highlanders Ross-shire Buffs, Duke of Albany's), British Army during the Indian Mutiny when the following deed took place on 25 and 26 September 1857 in Lucknow, British India, for which he was awarded the VC:

paragraph: Ward later became the personal servant of Sir Henry Havelock whose life was saved by Ward in his VC action and later achieved the rank of quartermaster-sergeant. His Victoria Cross is displayed at the Regimental Museum of Queens Own Highlanders in Fort George, Inverness-shire, Scotland.

paragraph: Ward was buried in a pauper's grave in Malvern, Worcestershire. By 2014, his grave was in a poor state of repair and the local council proposed to repair in association with the Victoria Cross Trust.

paragraph: Section::::References.

paragraph: BULLET::::- Monuments to Courage (David Harvey, 1999)

paragraph: BULLET::::- The Register of the Victoria Cross (This England, 1997)

paragraph: Section::::External links.

paragraph: BULLET::::- Location of grave and VC medal (Worcestershire)

paragraph: BULLET::::- News report on his biography

paragraph: BULLET::::- News report on plan to repair the grave marker

description: Recipient of the Victoria Cross

wikidata_label: Henry Ward

wikipedia_title: Henry Ward (VC)


text:
VC
Kinsale
County Cork
Irish
Victoria Cross
British
Commonwealth
sergeant
8th King's Royal Irish Hussars
British Army
Indian Mutiny
Gwalior
India
Clement Walker Heneage
George Hollis
John Pearson
Longford
The Register of the Victoria Cross
Ireland's VCs
Monuments to Courage
Irish Winners of the Victoria Cross
Location of grave and VC medal

categories: People from Kinsale,1872 deaths,19th-century Irish people,Indian Rebellion of 1857 recipients of the Victoria Cross,1832 births,8th King's Royal Irish Hussars soldiers,Irish recipients of the Victoria Cross,Irish soldiers in the British Army

paragraph: Joseph Ward (VC)

paragraph: Joseph Ward VC (; 1832 – 23 November 1872) was born in Kinsale, County Cork, and was an Irish recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces.

paragraph: Section::::Details.

paragraph: Ward was about 26 years old, and a sergeant in the 8th King's Royal Irish Hussars, British Army during the Indian Mutiny when the following deed took place for which he was awarded the VC. On 17 June 1858 at Gwalior, India, Sergeant Ward - together with Captain Clement Walker Heneage, Farrier George Hollis and Private John Pearson - was in a charge made by a squadron of the 8th Hussars when, supported by a division of the Bombay Horse Artillery and the 95th Regiment, they routed the enemy and captured two of the enemy's guns. Their citation read:

paragraph: Section::::Further information.

paragraph: He died at Longford on 23 November 1872.

paragraph: Section::::References.

paragraph: Listed in order of publication year

paragraph: BULLET::::- "The Register of the Victoria Cross" (1981, 1988 and 1997)

paragraph: Section::::External links.

paragraph: BULLET::::- Location of grave and VC medal "(Co. Longford, Ireland)"

description: Recipient of the Victoria Cross

wikidata_label: Joseph Ward

wikipedia_title: Joseph Ward (VC)


text: VC

text: Victoria Cross

text: British

text: Commonwealth

text: Winterborne Whitechurch

text: Dorset

text: British Army

text: Seaforth Highlanders

text: Agra

text: First World War

text: Dehra Dun

text: 7th (Meerut) Division

text: Indian Expeditionary Force A

text: 19th (Dehra Dun) Brigade

text: Mesopotamia

text: Amara War Cemetery

text: Dorset Regiment

text: Wiltshire Regiment

text: The Highlanders Museum

text: Monuments to Courage

text: The Register of the Victoria Cross

text: The Queen's Own Highlanders Association

categories: British military personnel killed in World War I,People from West Dorset District,1916 deaths,British Army personnel of World War I,Seaforth Highlanders soldiers,British World War I recipients of the Victoria Cross,1892 births

paragraph: Sidney William Ware

paragraph: Sidney William Ware VC (11 November 1892 – 16 April 1916) was a British recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces.

paragraph: Section::::Details.

paragraph: Corporal Sidney William Ware, VC, was born in November 1892 at Whatcombe in the Parish of Winterborne Whitechurch, Dorset. He was educated at the Church of England Boys' School, Whitchurch.

paragraph: He enlisted into the British Army on 29 November 1911. He served with the 1st Battalion, the Seaforth Highlanders (Ross-shire Buffs, Duke of Albany's) and was with his battalion at Agra in India at the start of the First World War in 1914. His battalion, which was part of Dehra Dun Brigade of the 7th (Meerut) Division, immediately returned to Europe with the Indian Expeditionary Force A and landed in France in October, where it was in action almost immediately. Corporal Ware was wounded in November and after ten days leave on discharge from hospital, he returned to France. His battalion remained with the same brigade, now re-titled the 19th (Dehra Dun) Brigade, still part of the 7th (Meerut) Division, with it he was sent to Mesopotamia. Here he was again wounded in January 1916, before returning to duty a few months later.

paragraph: It was then that he won his Victoria Cross on 6 April 1916. During an engagement when the order was given to withdraw to the safety of a communications trench, Corporal Ware, whose cool gallantry had been very marked during the advance, was one of the few men remaining unwounded. He then picked up a wounded man and carried him some 200 yards to cover and then returned for many others, moving to and fro under very heavy fire for more than two hours, until he had brought in all of the wounded and was completely exhausted.

paragraph: However, although he was not injured on this occasion, he was not to be presented with his Victoria Cross as, a few days later, on 10 April, he was seriously wounded and brought back to the Persian Gulf. He died at the Rawalpindi Hospital on 16 April and was buried in the Amara War Cemetery in Iraq.

paragraph: He was always a very steady and trustworthy man who was very fond of football and reading. He was one of eight brothers of a family of 13, four of whom served in the First World War (Harold being the 4th) and one in the second (Douglas), though unfortunately two others were also killed in action, Sergeant A.C. Ware, Dorset Regiment, on 1 July 1916 and Private A. Ware, Wiltshire Regiment, on 11 March 1915.

paragraph: Section::::The medal.

paragraph: His Victoria Cross is displayed at The Highlanders Museum (The Queen's Own Highlanders Collection), Fort George, Inverness-shire, Scotland.

paragraph: Section::::References.

paragraph: BULLET::::- The Register of the Victoria Cross ("This England", 1997)

paragraph: BULLET::::- The Queen's Own Highlanders Association

description: Recipient of the Victoria Cross

wikidata_label: Sidney William Ware

wikipedia_title: Sidney William Ware


text:
VC
MM
Welsh
Victoria Cross
British
Commonwealth
Welshpool
Montgomeryshire
lance-sergeant
Royal Welsh Fusiliers
British Army
First World War
Ronssoy
France
machine-gun
strong-point
bayonet
Le Havre
Seine Maritime
France
Royal Welch Fusiliers Museum
Caernarfon Castle
Gwynedd
Wales
Monuments to Courage
The Register of the Victoria Cross

categories: People from Welshpool,British military personnel killed in World War I,1885 births,Royal Welch Fusiliers soldiers,British Army personnel of World War I,British World War I recipients of the Victoria Cross,1918 deaths,Recipients of the Military Medal,British Army recipients of the Victoria Cross

paragraph: William Herbert Waring

paragraph: William Herbert Waring VC MM (13 October 1885 – 8 October 1918) was a Welsh recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces.

paragraph: He was born and lived in Welshpool, Montgomeryshire.

paragraph: He was 32 years old, and a lance-sergeant in the 25th Battalion, Royal Welsh Fusiliers, British Army during the First World War when the following deed took place for which he was awarded the VC.

paragraph: Section::::Details.

paragraph: On 18 September 1918 at Ronssoy, France, Lance-Sergeant Waring led an attack against enemy machine-guns and in the face of devastating fire, single-handed rushed a strong-point, bayoneting four of the garrison and capturing twenty, with their guns. The lance-sergeant then reorganized his men, leading and inspiring them for another 400 yards when he fell mortally wounded.

paragraph: Waring is buried at Ste Marie Communal Cemetery, Le Havre, Seine Maritime, France.

paragraph: His Victoria Cross is displayed at the Royal Welch Fusiliers Museum, Caernarfon Castle, Gwynedd, Wales.

paragraph: Section::::References.

paragraph: BULLET::::- Monuments to Courage (David Harvey, 1999)

paragraph: BULLET::::- The Register of the Victoria Cross (This England, 1997)

description: Recipient of the Victoria Cross

wikidata_label: William Herbert Waring

wikipedia_title: William Herbert Waring


text:
almoner
Edward II
Oriel College
Oxford
England
Thomas de Brome
Brome
Eye
Edmund
2nd Earl of Cornwall
Dorset
Ireland
Yorkshire
Carlisle
Scotland
tithe
tallage
justice of assize
oyer and terminer
Dunwich
Bridford
Devon
Handsworth
St Creed
Cornwall
archdeacon of Stow
diocese of Lincoln
prebendary
Wherwell Abbey
Hampshire
St Mary the Virgin
Oxford
St Bartholomew's Hospital
Eckington
Derbyshire
mortmain
messuage
Provost
Bishop of Lincoln
Henry Burghersh

categories: 1332 deaths,Founders of English schools and colleges,Year of birth unknown,People from Wherwell,Oriel College, Oxford,Archdeacons of Stow

paragraph: Adam de Brome

paragraph: Adam de Brome (; died 16 June 1332) was an almoner to King Edward II and founder of Oriel College in Oxford, England. De Brome was probably the son of Thomas de Brome, taking his name from Brome near Eye in Suffolk; an inquisition held after the death of Edmund, 2nd Earl of Cornwall, in 1300, noted de Brome holding an inheritance of half a knight's fee.

paragraph: Section::::Late 13th-century records.

paragraph: The first records of de Brome are as a collector of food supplies in Dorset in 1297, in April 1298, he was in Ireland, from November 1299 was in charge of the assize of corn and wine and in the same year led troops from Yorkshire to Carlisle for a campaign in Scotland. In 1305 he was auditing accounts of the papal tithes, and in 1312 assessing tallage in the midlands. Early in Edward II's reign de Brome was one of the King's Clerks of Chancery, he was twice ordered to take charge of the Bishop of Durham's seals until its vacancy was filled. After 1311 he was given a variety of judicial offices, as justice of assize, commissioner of oyer and terminer, and as a justice dealing with crimes against the wool customs.

paragraph: Section::::Early 14th-century.

paragraph: In the 14th century many royal officials were not directly paid, but instead were given the incomes of distant ecclesiastical properties that they rarely visited. De Brome may have been one of these, he had been ordained priest on 2 March 1301 and was admitted as rector of Wyck Rissington, Gloucestershire, three weeks later. He was appointed Master of God's House, Dunwich, in 1306, and was, for a short time, rector of Bridford, Devon between 1311 and 1312, Handsworth, Yorkshire between 1313 and 1316, and of St Creed, Cornwall in 1314. He also held the posts of chancellor of Durham "sede vacante", in 1311 and between 1316 and 1317, archdeacon of Stow, in the diocese of Lincoln in 1320, prebendary of Bathwick in Wherwell Abbey, Hampshire from 1314 until 1320, rector of St Mary the Virgin, Oxford from 1320 until 1326, warden of St Bartholomew's Hospital, Oxford from 1326 until 1332, and rector sharing Eckington, Derbyshire from 1328 until 1332.

paragraph: On 28 April 1324, letters patent were issued by the King giving de Brome licence to found a college of Scholars, allowing him to hold in mortmain a messuage worth £30 a year for the "students of divers sciences in the Virgin's honour", to be governed by a rector elected by the scholars, the details of the government to be settled by de Brome himself. Before the year was out, de Brome had purchased two tenements in Oxford, Tackley's Inn and Perilous Hall, the college, later called Oriel College, was declared to be for the study of theology and the "ars dialectica" and John de Laughton was appointed the first Rector.

paragraph: Section::::First college provost.

paragraph: On 1 January 1326 de Brome handed over the properties to the King, who, on 21 January, issued by letters patent a charter of foundation in his own name, the Rector was to be replaced with a Provost, de Brome was appointed the first Provost and the college re-endowed with Tackley's Inn and Perilous Hall. Statutes issued in the King's name by the Bishop of Lincoln, Henry Burghersh in May 1326 called for the provision of a common seal, to be kept in a box with three keys, one for the Provost and the other two to trusted Scholars, the seal depicts the Annunciation, with the figure of Adam de Brome kneeling below and the legend "Sig.Comune Domus Scholarium Beate Marie Oxon". The statutes also stipulated daily services to be held in St Mary's for the souls of the father and mother of Burghersh, the Bishop himself, his brother and sisters, the King and de Brome. Burghersh confirmed the appropriation of St Mary's, and by 1 August 1326 de Brome had resigned its rectory into the hands of the college.

paragraph: Section::::Death.

paragraph: De Brome died in June 1332 and was buried on the north side of St Mary's Church, where, despite rebuilding, his tomb remains.

description: Almoner and founder of Oriel College, Oxford

wikidata_label: Adam de Brome

wikipedia_title: Adam de Brome


text:
luthier
luthiers
Cremona
Italy
Hieronymus Amati
Antonio Stradivari
Vincenzo Rugeri
Vincenzo Rugeri
Kreisler Bergonzi
Fritz Kreisler
Angel Reyes
Itzhak Perlman
Pablo Casals
Matteo Goffriller
Georges Chanot III
William Ebsworth Hill

categories: 1747 deaths,People from Cremona,1683 births,Italian musical instrument makers,Bowed string instrument makers,Luthiers

paragraph: Carlo Bergonzi (luthier)

paragraph: Carlo Bergonzi (21 December 1683 – 9 February 1747) was an Italian luthier and is the first and most noted member of the Bergonzi family, an illustrious group of luthiers from Cremona, Italy, a city with a rich tradition of stringed instrument makers. Today his instruments are highly valued for their workmanship and tone. Although he was historically assumed to have first apprenticed with Hieronymus Amati or Antonio Stradivari, he is now known to have been the student of Vincenzo Rugeri.

paragraph: Section::::Early life and career.

paragraph: Carlo Bergonzi and his family lived close to workshop in Cremona of Vincenzo Rugeri and would have been the most obvious place for apprenticeship for Carlo given the social and financial connections between the two families. When comparing the work of Bergonzi with Vincenzo Rugeri, their similarity of work is obvious in the treatment of the scrolls and the working technique of scarfing the linings into the corner blocks at an angle instead of square. The early violins of Carlo's career follow similar outlines as Vincenzo Rugeri's violins as could be expected, however the outlines of later instruments became his own. Antonio Stradivari and Guarneri del Gesu also had an influence upon Carlo Bergonzi's work. Carlo Bergonzi eventually moved into the Casa Stradivari in 1746 after the master's death in 1737 and even completed some of the unfinished violins by Antonio Stradivari.

paragraph: Section::::Violins.

paragraph: Bergonzi's violins are prized for their fine workmanship, tone, quality of materials, and exquisite varnish

paragraph: Bergonzi labels vary, but typically record date, name, and location:

paragraph: In 1740, he created one of his finest violins, the "Kreisler Bergonzi", which was subsequently named after violinist Fritz Kreisler. It was then owned by Cuban violinist, Angel Reyes.

paragraph: Professor Reyes sold the violin to Itzhak Perlman. Both Kreisler and Perlman performed and recorded with it.

paragraph: It is known that many instruments that bear his label are inauthentic. A cello once owned by Pablo Casals was for many years thought to be a Bergonzi because of the label it bore indicated: "Carlo Bergonzi . . . 1733." It was later found to have actually been made by Matteo Goffriller. In 1881 a sensational court case was held in London over claims that the well-known luthier Georges Chanot III had given a fake Bergonzi label to a violin and then sold it as genuine. His deception was discovered by violin-maker William Ebsworth Hill but Chanot qualified his admission of guilt by claiming that this was common practice in the violin-selling business; the court was unconvinced by his explanation and found him guilty.

paragraph: Section::::Bergonzi family of luthiers.

paragraph: BULLET::::- Michele Angelo (ca. 1722–1758), eldest Son of Carlo I.

paragraph: BULLET::::- Zosimo (ca. 1725–1777), younger Son of Carlo I.

paragraph: BULLET::::- Carlo II. (1758–1838 Cremona), younger son of Zosimo

paragraph: BULLET::::- Nicola (ca. 1746–1796) eldest son of Zosimo

paragraph: Source:

paragraph: Section::::References.

paragraph: BULLET::::- Dmitry Gindin: "The Late Cremonese Violin Makers" Edizioni Novecento, 2002

paragraph: BULLET::::- /ref

description: Italian luthier

wikidata_label: Carlo Bergonzi

wikipedia_title: Carlo Bergonzi (luthier)


text:
Ancient Greek
Odrysian
Thrace
Persian empire
Darius the Great
Mardonius
Thracian tribes
Persian defeat
Sitalces
Teres Ridge
Livingston Island
South Shetland Islands
Antarctica

categories: Thracian kings,Year of birth unknown,5th-century BC rulers,445 BC deaths,5th-century BC Greek people

paragraph: Teres I

paragraph: Teres I (Ancient Greek, "Τήρης"), (reigned 460-445 BC) was the first king of the Odrysian state of Thrace. Thrace had nominally been part of the Persian empire since 516 BC during the rule of Darius the Great, and was re-subjugated by Mardonius in 492 BC.

paragraph: The Odrysian state was the first Thracian kingdom that acquired power in the region, by the unification of many Thracian tribes under a single ruler, King Teres probably in the 470's after the Persian defeat in Greece. Teres, who united the 40 or more Thracian tribes under one banner, was well known for his military abilities and spent much of his life on the battlefield. He died during a military campaign in 445 BC. Historians argue it was against the Triballi, a Thracian tribe occupying a large amount of land to the north of Thrace. He was succeeded by his second son, Sitalces, who seemed to have taken on his father's fighting prowess and used all the tribes to wage war with Macedon.

paragraph: Teres Ridge on Livingston Island in the South Shetland Islands, Antarctica, is named for Teres.

description: first king of Odrysian state

wikidata_label: Teres I

wikipedia_title: Teres I


text: Second World War

text: Giro d'Italia

text: Tour de France

text: Righteous Among the Nations

text: Yad Vashem

text: World War II

text: Ponte a Ema

text: smallholder

text: raffia

text: 1935 Giro d'Italia

text: King of the Mountains

text: Giro di Lombardia

text: Ballon d'Alsace

text: Vosges

text: Grenoble

text: Roger Lapébie

text: Marseille

text: Henri Desgrange

text: Col de l'Iseran

text: Digne

text: Briançon

text: Aix-les-Bains

text: Benito Mussolini

text: Giro d'Italia

text: classics

text: Milan–San Remo

text: Züri-Metzgete

text: 1948 Tour de France

text: Briek Schotte

text: Trouville

text: Italian Communist Party

text: Palmiro Togliatti

text: Bernard Chambaz

text: Alcide de Gasperi

text: Cold War

text: Giulio Andreotti

text: Jean Robic

text: col d'Aubisque

text: Pyrenees

text: Sainte-Marie-de-Campan

text: col d'Aspin

text: Fiorenzo Magni

text: Jacques Goddet

text: Félix Lévitan

text: Lourdes

text: Louison Bobet

text: salami

text: San Remo

text: Menton

text: Robert Schuman

text: Italian Social Republic

text: Italian Resistance

text: Fascist police

text: German troops

text: Pisa

text: DELASEM

text: Tuscany

text: concentration camps

text: Archbishop

text: Pietro Boetto

text: Elia Dalla Costa

text: Franciscan Friars

text: DELASEM

text: Lucca

text: Florence

text: Rufino Niccacci

text: SD

text: Mario Carità

text: Assisi Network

text: Swiss Alps

text: Righteous Among the Nations

text: derailleur

text: 1948 Tour de France

text: Mario Cipollini

text: 1999 Tour de France

text: Fausto Coppi

text: conservative

text: Valkenburg

text: Col d'Izoard

text: World War II

text: Milan–San Remo

text: 1948 Tour de France

text: 1947 Giro d'Italia

text: Giro di Lombardia

text: Grand Prix des Nations

text: Col de Vars

text: Col d'Izoard

text: Briançon

text: 1950 Tour de France

text: Genoa

text: Montecatini Terme

text: Tuscany

text: nickname

text: Piedmont

text: Christian Democratic Party

text: communists

text: Pierre Chany

text: last rites

text: Giuliano Amato

text: Romano Prodi

text: European Commission

text: Italian National Olympic Committee

text: Legends of Italian sport - Walk of Fame

text: 69500 Ginobartali

text: Cycling records

text: Yellow jersey statistics

text: Pink jersey statistics

text: List of Grand Tour general classification winners

text: List of Righteous Among the Nations by country

text: History of the Jews in Italy

text: List of Italians

text: Gino Bartali Cycling Museum

categories: Italian male cyclists,Tour de Suisse stage winners,Giro d'Italia winners,Tour de France winners,Italian Righteous Among the Nations,Italian Giro d'Italia stage winners,Tour de France cyclists,Italian Roman Catholics,Sportspeople from Florence,1914 births,Italian Tour de France stage winners,2000 deaths,Giro d'Italia cyclists

paragraph: Gino Bartali

paragraph: Gino Bartali (; 18 July 1914 – 5 May 2000), nicknamed Gino the Pious and (in Italy) Ginettaccio, was a champion road cyclist. He was the most renowned Italian cyclist before the Second World War, having won the Giro d'Italia twice, in 1936 and 1937, and the Tour de France in 1938. After the war he added one more victory in each event: the Giro d'Italia in 1946 and the Tour de France in 1948. His second and last Tour de France victory in 1948 gave him the largest gap between victories in the race.

paragraph: In September 2013, 13 years after his death, Bartali was recognised as a "Righteous Among the Nations" by Yad Vashem for his efforts to aid Jews during World War II.

paragraph: Section::::Early life and amateur career.

paragraph: Gino Bartali was born in Ponte a Ema, Florence, Italy, the third son of four children of a smallholder, Torello Bartali. He was powerfully built, with a broad nose and a boxer's face. He earned pocket money by selling raffia to makers of covers for wine bottles. He began work in a bicycle shop when he was 13. He started racing at 13, became a promising amateur and turned professional in 1935 when he was 21. He was Italian champion the next year. On 14 November 1940 Bartali married Adriana Bani in Florence. The wedding was celebrated by Cardinal Della Costa and was blessed by Pope Pius XII, to whom Bartali donated a bicycle.

paragraph: Section::::Professional career.

paragraph: Bartali won a stage of the 1935 Giro d'Italia and was King of the Mountains, the first of seven times he won the title in the Giro. He was 20. In 1936, before he turned 22, he won the Giro and the Giro di Lombardia, although his season was marred when his brother, Giulio, died in a racing accident on 14 June. Bartali came close to giving up cycling.

paragraph: He was persuaded to return and in 1937 won the Giro again. His reputation outside Italy was that he was yet another Italian who could not ride well outside his country. There was some truth in the claim. The writer Tim Hilton said: "Bartali was essentially an Italian cyclist, a champion who rode within sight of his own people, and was uneasy when the Tour de France travelled north of Paris. He never disputed the northern classics."

paragraph: Stung by the claim, he rode the Tour de France in 1937. He got off to a bad start, losing more than eight minutes by the third stage and more than ten by the Ballon d'Alsace, a mountain in the Vosges. There he came back to life and led by 1m 14s over the rest and by enough over the leaders that he took the leader's jersey that night in Grenoble. But that was the end of his race. He and two helpers, Jules Rossi and Francesco Camusso, were riding across a wooden bridge over the river Colau when Rossi skidded. Bartali rode into a parapet and fell into the river.

paragraph: Roger Lapébie wrote: "In the valley that leads to Briançon, I saw the accident to the "maillot jaune", Bartali. The narrow and bumpy road ran along the foot of a rock. Suddenly Rossi, who was leading, took a bend badly, braked and his back wheel hit the parapet of a bridge. Bartali, who was beside Rossi, couldn't get clear and I saw him fall over the bridge and into the little river three metres below." Camusso pulled him out. Bartali was cut to his arm and knee and had trouble breathing because of a blow to the chest. He rode on to the end of the day, often pushed by his helpers. He finished 10 minutes behind the rest but kept his lead.

paragraph: He got through the Alps, by then having lost his jersey, and retired in Marseille. Before he dropped out, he notified the organiser, Henri Desgrange, who said: "You are the first rider to come to see me before dropping out. You're a good man ["un brave garçon"], Gino. We'll see each other again next year and you'll win."

paragraph: He did return in 1938 and overcame the teamwork of the Belgians, the cold and rain and a puncture on the Col de l'Iseran. He won the hardest stage, from Digne to Briançon, by more than five minutes. The radio commentator Georges Briquet, after he had seen the crowds of Italians greeting Bartali with green-white-red flags said: "These people had found a superman. Outside Bartali's hotel at Aix-les-Bains, an Italian general was shouting 'Don't touch him – he's a god.'" A public subscription was started in his name in Italy, and Benito Mussolini was among the contributors.

paragraph: The approaching war led Italy not to send a team in 1939.

paragraph: Bartali won the Giro d'Italia twice before the war – in 1936 and 1937 – and once after it (1946). He won classics such as Milan–San Remo, the Giro di Lombardia and the Züri-Metzgete. His most famous victory was the 1948 Tour de France.

paragraph: Section::::Professional career.:1948: Second Tour.

paragraph: Bartali returned to the Tour in 1948 to find that many riders he had known had died in the war and that there were as many more who had started racing since he stopped (see below for Bartali's war record). He was so worried that he spent an evening memorising two dozen riders he did not know. The Tour started in a rainstorm and Bartali found he could identify nobody because the whole field was wearing waterproofs. He took his chance and found he was with Briek Schotte. The two finished together at Trouville, and Bartali took the yellow jersey.

paragraph: It was during that Tour that the leader of the Italian Communist Party, Palmiro Togliatti, was shot in the neck by a sniper as he was leaving the parliament building. The writer Bernard Chambaz said:

paragraph: History and myth united, and a miracle if you like, because that evening Bartali got a phone call at his hotel. In a bad mood, dubious, he didn't want to answer. But someone whispered that it was Alcide de Gasperi, his old friend from Catholic Action, now parliamentary president, who told him that Palmiro Togliatti, secretary-general of the communist party, had been shot at and had survived by a miracle. The situation in the peninsula was very tense amid the ravages of the Cold War. Italy needed Bartali to do what he best knew how to do, to win stages.

paragraph: The communists occupied factories and radio and television stations, and angry rows in parliament came close to blows. A revolt was looming. Then Bartali won three stages in a row and led the Tour by 14 minutes. An obituary says:

paragraph: Just as it seemed the communists would stage a full-scale revolt, a deputy ran into the chamber shouting 'Bartali's won the Tour de France!' All differences were at once forgotten as the feuding politicians applauded and congratulated each other on a cause for such national pride. That day, with immaculate timing, Togliatti awoke from his coma on his hospital bed, inquired how the Tour was going, and recommended calm. All over the country political animosities were for the time being swept aside by the celebrations and a looming crisis was averted.

paragraph: The former prime minister, Giulio Andreotti said: "To say that civil war was averted by a Tour de France victory is surely excessive. But it is undeniable that on that 14th of July of 1948, day of the attack on Togliatti, Bartali contributed to ease the tensions."

paragraph: Section::::Professional career.:1950: Tour de France.

paragraph: Gino Bartali had a row during the 1950 Tour de France with the French rider Jean Robic. Newspapers made much of it, and the atmosphere was tense. Robic got clear of Bartali on the col d'Aubisque in the Pyrenees. Bartali made up ground over the Tourmalet, took the descent to Sainte-Marie-de-Campan and started up the col d'Aspin. There he caught Robic and the two rode together. The two rubbed shoulders and they fell.

paragraph: Bartali said French fans by the road were so angry, accusing him of sabotaging Robic's chances, that they punched him and that one threatened him with a knife. Bartali remounted and won the stage. Fiorenzo Magni, leading the Italian 'B' team, the "Cadetti", took the yellow jersey. The pair and their teams had barely returned to their hotel when Bartali said he was going home and so, he said, were the two Italian teams.

paragraph: The organisers, Jacques Goddet and Félix Lévitan, went to his hotel, the Hôtel de France, in Lourdes, to dissuade him. Bartali, a cigarette in his mouth, said, "I have no intention of risking my life to a madman." The truth of what happened may never be known: Louison Bobet, who saw the incident on the mountain, said: "I'm pretty sure that in the time it took me to pass him, Bartali wasn't struck, and I think he mistook as blows what was an attempt to get him back in the saddle. A hunt started for the knifeman but all spectators could remember was that a man who had been slicing salami still had his knife in his hand when he went to help.

paragraph: It then emerged that the Italian teams had been withdrawn by the Italian cycling association. Italian fans grew so angry that a stage due to cross the border to San Remo stopped just short of the Italian border instead, at Menton.

paragraph: The affair escalated to the national level when the French foreign minister, Robert Schuman, apologised to his Italian counterpart for what seemed to be no more than a man interrupted in the making of a sandwich. René de Latour said:

paragraph: To say that Magni was sore is putting it very mildly indeed. When he spoke to men he could trust, he would say: 'Gino knows what his little game is. He is too clever to ignore the facts that he will be lucky to win this Tour, and he prefers a foreign team win rather than see one of our team succeed, especially me. It was bad enough for him with Coppi winning last year.

paragraph: Section::::Rescues and Resistance role during World War II.

paragraph: Bartali earned respect for his work in helping Jews who were being persecuted by the Nazis during the time of the Italian Social Republic. It emerged in December 2010 that Bartali had hidden a Jewish family in his cellar and, according to one of the survivors, saved their lives in doing so.

paragraph: Bartali used his fame to carry messages and documents to the Italian Resistance. Bartali cycled from Florence through Tuscany, Umbria, and Marche, many times traveling as far afield as Assisi, all the while wearing the racing jersey emblazoned with his name.

paragraph: Neither the Fascist police nor the German troops risked discontent by arresting him.

paragraph: Giorgio Nissim, a Jewish accountant from Pisa, was a member of DELASEM, founded by the Union of the Israelitic Communities to help Jewish Italians escape persecution. The network in Tuscany was discovered in autumn 1943 and all Jewish members except Nissim sent to concentration camps. With the help of the Archbishops of Genoa Pietro Boetto and Florence Elia Dalla Costa, the Franciscan Friars of Assisi and others, Nissim reorganized DELASEM in Tuscany and helped 800 survive.

paragraph: Nissim died in 2000. His sons found from his diaries that Bartali had used his fame to help. Nissim and the Oblati Friars of Lucca forged documents and needed photographs of those they were helping. Bartali used to leave Florence in the morning, pretending to train, ride to Assisi where many Jews were hiding in the Franciscan convents, collect their photographs and ride back to Nissim. At Assisi Bartali was in direct contact with Rufino Niccacci. Bartali also used his position to learn about raids on safehouses.

paragraph: Bartali was eventually taken to Villa Triste in Florence. The SD and the Italian RSS official Mario Carità questioned Bartali, threatening his life. In spite of any threats, Bartali did not reveal what he had done. Even after the war he never boasted his merits; he used to say: "The good is done, but it is not said. And certain medals hang on the soul, not on the jacket."

paragraph: Bartali continued working with the Assisi Network. In 1943, he led Jewish refugees towards the Swiss Alps himself. He cycled, pulling a wagon with a secret compartment, telling patrols it was just part of his training. Bartali told his son Andrea only that "One does these things and then that's that".

paragraph: In June 2012, a book about Bartali's wartime activities, "Road To Valor" by Aili and Andres McConnon, was published.

paragraph: In 2013, Yad Vashem awarded Gino Bartali the honour Righteous Among the Nations. He is a central figure in the 2014 documentary "".

paragraph: Section::::Riding style and legacy.

paragraph: Bartali was a good climber and a pioneer of derailleur gears. His style was unusual: he rarely danced on the pedals and often stayed in the saddle throughout a 15 km climb. When others attacked, he stayed in the saddle but changed up gear, to a sprocket three teeth smaller.

paragraph: He rode smoothly on mountains but every now and then freewheeled, always with his right foot lowered with his weight on it. Then a second or two later he would start pedalling again.

paragraph: Bartali's feat of winning three consecutive mountain stages (13, 14 and 15) in the 1948 Tour de France has never been equaled. It is one of the most astonishing accomplishments in the history of road cycling. It would be 50 years before anyone again won three consecutive stages, when Italian cyclist Mario Cipollini did so in the early (flat) stages of the 1999 Tour de France, winning four consecutive sprint finishes in stages 4, 5, 6 and 7.

paragraph: Section::::Rivalry with Coppi.

paragraph: Bartali's rivalry with Fausto Coppi divided Italy. Bartali, a conservative, was venerated in the rural, agrarian south, while Coppi, more worldly, secular, innovative in diet and training, was a hero of the industrial north.

paragraph: The lives of each came together on 7 January 1940 when Eberrardo Pavesi, head of the Legnano team, took on Coppi to ride for Bartali. Bartali thought Coppi was "as thin as a mutton bone", but accepted. Their rivalry started when Coppi, the helper, won the Giro and Bartali, the star, marshalled the two men's team to chase him. By the 1948 world championship at Valkenburg, both climbed off rather than help the other win. The Italian cycling association said: "They have forgotten to honour the Italian prestige they represent. Thinking only of their personal rivalry, they abandoned the race, to the approbation of all sportsmen." They were suspended for two months.

paragraph: The thaw partly broke when the pair shared a drink bottle during the climb of the Col d'Izoard in the 1952 Tour but the two men fell out over who had offered it. "I did," Bartali insisted. "He never gave me anything.". Their rivalry was the subject of intense coverage and resulted in many epic races.

paragraph: When professional cycle racing resumed in 1946 after World War II, Bartali narrowly beat Coppi in that year's Giro, while Coppi won Milan–San Remo. Bartali won the Tour de Suisse twice, another Milan–San Remo, and the 1948 Tour de France – a full ten years after his last victory. Coppi took victories in the 1947 Giro d'Italia, the Giro di Lombardia and the Grand Prix des Nations.

paragraph: Despite the rivalry, perhaps heightened by Coppi's victory in the 1949 Giro, Bartali supported Coppi's bid in the 1949 Tour de France. The two Italian teammates destroyed the race as a contest in a mountainous Alpine stage over the Col de Vars and Col d'Izoard. When Coppi had a puncture on the Izoard, Bartali waited for him, then Bartali did the same and Coppi waited. On the final climb to Briançon, Coppi allowed Bartali to win (on his 35th birthday) and take the yellow jersey. But Coppi assumed the "maillot jaune" the following day after Bartali had a puncture with 40 km of the stage still to race. Coppi retained the lead to Paris, while Bartali took second place.

paragraph: The 1950 Tour de France saw him lead the Italian team again, with Coppi electing not to contest the race, but having been threatened by frenzied fans, the entire Italian team resigned from the race.

paragraph: Bartali always suspected that Coppi took drugs. On the hairpins of the Col di Bracco, during a stage of the 1946 Giro from Genoa to Montecatini Terme, Coppi drank from a glass phial and threw it into the verge. Bartali drove back after the race and found it. He said:

paragraph: With the meticulous care of a detective collecting evidence for fingerprinting I picked it up, dropped it into a white envelope and put it carefully in my pocket. The next day I rushed round to my personal doctor and asked him to send the phial to a lab for analysis. Disappointment: no drug, no magic potion. It was nothing more than an ordinary tonic, made in France, that I could have bought without a prescription.

paragraph: I realised that I should have to try to outsmart him and I devised my own investigation system. The first thing was to make sure I always stayed at the same hotel for a race, and to have the room next to his so I could mount a surveillance. I would watch him leave with his mates, then I would tiptoe into the room which ten seconds earlier had been his headquarters. I would rush to the waste bin and the bedside table, go through the bottles, flasks, phials, tubes, cartons, boxes, suppositories – I swept up everything. I had become so expert in interpreting all these pharmaceuticals that I could predict how Fausto would behave during the course of the stage. I would work out, according to the traces of the product I found, how and when he would attack me.

paragraph: Section::::Personal life.

paragraph: Bartali grew up in a religious family in Tuscany, and his belief earned him the nickname "Gino the Pious". He prayed before meals and resented when teammates swore. In contrast, Coppi grew up in Piedmont in the north and was not religious at all. Bartali was proud that Pope John XXIII had asked him to teach him to ride a bicycle. He made no secret that he supported the Catholic-leaning Christian Democratic Party but his personality ensured that he was forgiven by the rival communists. Tim Hilton wrote: "Bartali was a genuinely religious man, making his devotions public and, in return, becoming the Vatican's favourite sportsman – he was personally blessed by three popes. He would set up shrines in his hotel bedrooms when he rode the Giro and the Tour de France, and, on some mountains, children from summer camps sang canticles as he pedalled past, a priest conducting their infant worship."

paragraph: Bartali was frequently pessimistic. One of his customary phrases was "Everything's wrong; we'll have to start all over again." The best the historian Pierre Chany could say of him was that while he often boasted of what he had done on mountains when nobody was there to see him, he had the grace never to tell the story differently.

paragraph: Bartali lived at 173 via Chiantigiana, Florence in a home full of souvenirs. His wife died in 2014 aged 94.

paragraph: Section::::Later life and death.

paragraph: Bartali stopped racing when he was 40, after being injured in a road accident. By then he had lost much of his money. His wealth was "uncertain", said René de Latour.

paragraph: Bartali had a heart bypass operation and then died of a heart attack in May 2000, having received the last rites 10 days earlier. He left behind his wife, Adriana, two sons and a daughter. The prime minister, Giuliano Amato, sent condolences. Romano Prodi, president of the European Commission, called him "a symbol of the most noble sportsmanship." The Italian National Olympic Committee (CONI) called for two days of mourning and silence was observed before sports events.

paragraph: Section::::Career achievements.

paragraph: Section::::Career achievements.:Major results.

paragraph: Sources:

paragraph: BULLET::::- 1935

paragraph: BULLET::::- 1936

paragraph: BULLET::::- 1937

paragraph: BULLET::::- 1938

paragraph: BULLET::::- 1939

paragraph: BULLET::::- 1940

paragraph: BULLET::::- 1941

paragraph: BULLET::::- 1942

paragraph: BULLET::::- 1943

paragraph: BULLET::::- 1945

paragraph: BULLET::::- 1946

paragraph: BULLET::::- 1947

paragraph: BULLET::::- 1948

paragraph: BULLET::::- 1949

paragraph: BULLET::::- 1950

paragraph: BULLET::::- 1951

paragraph: BULLET::::- 1952

paragraph: BULLET::::- 1953

paragraph: BULLET::::- 1954

paragraph: Section::::Career achievements.:Grand Tour results timeline.

paragraph: Sources:

paragraph: Section::::Career achievements.:Monuments results timeline.

paragraph: Sources:

paragraph: Section::::See also.

paragraph: BULLET::::- Legends of Italian sport - Walk of Fame

paragraph: BULLET::::- 69500 Ginobartali, asteroid

paragraph: BULLET::::- Cycling records

paragraph: BULLET::::- Yellow jersey statistics

paragraph: BULLET::::- Pink jersey statistics

paragraph: BULLET::::- List of Grand Tour general classification winners

paragraph: BULLET::::- List of Tour de France general classification winners

paragraph: BULLET::::- List of Tour de France secondary classification winners

paragraph: BULLET::::- List of Giro d'Italia general classification winners

paragraph: BULLET::::- Individuals and groups assisting Jews during the Holocaust

paragraph: BULLET::::- List of Righteous Among the Nations by country

paragraph: BULLET::::- History of the Jews in Italy

paragraph: BULLET::::- List of Italians

paragraph: Section::::External links.

paragraph: BULLET::::- Gino Bartali Cycling Museum

description: Italian road cyclist

wikidata_label: Gino Bartali

wikipedia_title: Gino Bartali