14 NOVEMBER

BRITISH REIGN OF TERROR AT BENARES 4 June 1857 – Colonel James Neill, imposes a reign of terror at Benares after crushing the mutinous Indian soldiers of the 37th Native infantry. He armed civilians so that they could form “volunteer hanging parties”, and so pacify the city with summary and indiscriminate hangings, who’s victims even…

THE TIMES WARNS FAMINE STRUCK IRELAND TO EXPECT LESS RELIEF [ 30 August 1848 ] Lord Clarendon, the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, writing about the political debate over how Britain should respond to the Irish famine of the 1840s, observed that ‘an extraordinary and universal importance attaches to the views of The Times.’1 BOMBING NORTH WEST…

“WE STAND NO NONSENSE HERE” – BRITISH OFFICER EXPLAINS MASS EXECUTIONS. [ 26 June 1857 ] On this day in 1857, during the Indian Mutiny, a British artillery officer stationed at Peshawar wrote a report explaining that “in these times of danger and treachery, we don’t bother ourselves about the quirks of law, but hang,…

THE TIMES – NASSER MUST BE STOPPED OR OTHERS WILL ALSO DEFY US. [ 1 August 1956 } On this day in 1956 The Times ran a leader insisting that even if Egyptian president Nasser might be legally justified in taking back the Suez canal, his action must be opposed because it was a dangerous…

MODERATE MINISTER PRAISES BRITISH REPRISALS AGAINST IRISH CIVILIANS. [ 31 October 1920 ] On this day in 1920  Austen Chamberlain, Britain’s Chancellor of the Exchequer who was considered a dovish moderate on the issue of Ireland, wrote to his sister reminding her of the positive impact of brutal acts of British retribution against Irish civilians.  It…

BRITISH ARMY AGREES TO ALLOW PROTESTANT PARAMILITARIES TO PATROL WITH THEM. 3 July 1072 – After negotiations between the Ulster Defence Associaton, with its known links to Loyalist terrorism, the British army agreed to allow Protestant paramiliataries armed with batons and clubs to patrol alongside them in the mixed Catholic-Protestant neighbourhood around March Street and…