5 SEPTEMBER

FIELD MARSHAL ROBERTS – DETAIN BOER CIVILIANS AND BURN THEIR HOMES [ 16 June 1900 ] In October 1899, Boer settlers in the Transvaal and Orange Free, faced with a tightening circle of British troops advancing from Cape Colony and Natal, had declared a war against Britain. It was a desperate act of rebellion, which…

BRITISH ARMY MURDERS “EVERY NATIVE THAT APPEARED IN SIGHT.” [ 11 June 1857 ] On this day in 1857, Colonel James Neill, who had been ordered to crush the slightest sign of support for the Indian mutiny, seized the city of Allahabad. In the two days which followed he implemented a reign of terror, unprecedented…

BOBBY SANDS MP DIES AFTER 66 DAYS ON HUNGER STRIKE 5 May 1981 – The Sinn Fein MP and Irish Republican prisoner Bobby Sands died after 66 days of his hunger strike at the H-Block Prison hospital at Long Kesh. At the age of ten Sands and his family had been forced to leave their…

CHURCHILL URGES POISON GAS ATTACKS ON GERMAN CITIES Writing a memo to General Sir Hastings Ismay on 6 July 1944, Winston Churchill urged the Chiefs of Staff to urgently consider the use of poison gas against German towns and cities. A YEMENI CIVIL SERVANT’S BRIEF ENCOUNTER WITH BRITAIN’S GUANTANAMO. At about 2 am on 6…

BRITISH SLAUGHTER THE ZULU WOUNDED AND BURN DOWN THE CITY OF ULUNDI [ 4 July 1879 ] On this day in 1879 British troops, part of a massive invasion force intended to subjugate the Zulu nation, slaughtered many hundreds of wounded warriors after the battle of Ulundi.  The Honourable William Drummond, an intelligence officer, tried…

THATCHER ADMONISHED FOR COLLUDING WITH APARTHEID SOUTH AFRICA [ 16 August 1985 ] On this day in 1985, Archbishop Trevor Huddleston reprimanded British prime minister Margaret Thatcher for propping up apartheid in South Africa. “If you persist in blocking sanctions in the EEC, the Commonwealth and the UN,” he wrote, “Britain will assume the role…