7 September 1963 On 7 September 1963, there was a secret meeting in Aden’s Crescent Hotel, between Colonel David Stirling, who had founded the Special Air Service (SAS) in 1942, Peter de la Billiere, a junior intelligence officer, Tony Boyle, a junior RAF officer, and Ahmed al-Shami, the foreign minister of the former Yemeni royalist…
1 November 1956 On 1 November 1956, an editorial in the Daily Mail was headlined ‘Britain at War’, however neither Foreign Secretary Selwyn Lloyd nor Minister of Defence Antony Head were able to confirm whether or not the country was actually at war with Egypt. The infuriating lack of clarity fomented consternation among MPs and the speaker…
12 September 1963 Lieutenant Colonel Johnny Cooper, of the Special Air Service, was part of a British covert military operation in North Yemen. The plan was to draw Egyptian forces stationed there into a war of attrition and thereby undermine the prestige and influence of Nasser’s Egypt, which since the Suez crisis of 1956 had…
ABOLITION ACT – BIGGEST PAY-OUT IN BRITISH HISTORY FOR SLAVE OWNERS [ 1 August 1833 ] On 1 August 1833, the Slavery Abolition Act finally passed the House of Lords authorising a handout of some £20 million to the slave owners. The sum would be equivalent to either £17 billion or £100 billion in 2017…
