3 OCTOBER

IRAQI VILLAGES AND CATTLE SUBJECTED TO PUNITIVE RAF BOMBING [ 27 January 1923 ] On 27 January 1923, after an RAF officer had been wounded in an ambush two miles north of the Iraqi town of Al Diwaniyah by insurgents opposing British rule, several nearby villages were selected for punitive bombing. Please feel welcome to…

HUNDREDS OF WOUNDED ZULU WARRIORS SLAUGHTERED AT RORKE’S DRIFT [ 23 January 1879 ] On this day in 1879 hundreds of Zulu warriors, injured during the battle at Rorke’s Drift the previous day,  were murdered by victorious British troops. Please feel welcome to post comments below.  If you have any questions please email alisdare@gmail.com © 2019 Alisdare…

BRITISH ARMY MAKES NO ATTEMPT TO PREVENT EXECUTION OF  IRAQI CHRISTIAN. [ 24 December 2003 ] On this day in 2003 British soldiers failed to intervene when local Shia militia executed a Christian man in the town’s main marketplace for the crime of selling alcohol. Over the preceding months, following the joint British-American invasion in…

DAY AND NIGHT CURFEW IMPOSED IN NICOSIA [ 13 June 1958 ] On 13 June 1958, during an insurgency against British rule in Cyprus which had also exacerbated tensions between the Greek and Turkish communities, Major General Douglas Kendrew decided to order a day and night curfew on the entire population of Nicosia ‘until further…

LORD ELGIN’S NOTES ON “LIVING AMONG INFERIOR RACES” [ 21 August 1857 ] On this day in 1857 Lord Elgin makes some observations in his diary about British attitudes to Indians in the Raj – “It is a terrible business, however, this living among inferior races… There are some three or four hundred servants in…