18th October 1860. During the Second Opium War Lord Elgin (1811-1863) orders the destruction of the Old Summer Palace outside Beijing in retaliation for the murder of British envoys. His father enjoys an equally bad reputation in Greece.

I should review the 1944 version of Henry V, it's excellent. Just look at this scene for instance, plenty that's a bit iffy, but there are COLOURS, no blue filter and it's exciting! And it makes your heart beat faster, makes me want to shout and fight.

In Kashmir. Opened June 2025.

My favourite photo of Emmeline Pankhurst, with Flora Drummond and Christabel Pankhurst on trial in court. Tired of explaining, tired of being dismissed, tired of fighting for what should have been theirs all along. Some looks never go out of date.

William the Conqueror, who won the Battle of Hastings on this day in 1066, is depicted on this silver penny. This coin was struck at the Hastings mint within two years of the decisive battle that bears the town’s name (1066-1068). From the Hunterian.

it’s a 2 minute radio program, never repeated, broadcast 18 times a week. Bigger audience than Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel, and Jimmy Fallon … combined. Millions listen, with no need for the information it gives. Just to listen. The BBC Shipping Forecast is 100 years old.

Pretty funny that the French have an airport named after Elizabeth II and we don't

Tommy Guns for 'ranch protection'.

15th October 1945. Gunner Hector Murdoch arrives home after 3.5 years in a Japanese prisoner of war camp, one of 85000 soldiers captured when Singapore surrendered. Apparently his son John is still alive age 85.

Quite a photo... Captain Teddy Prince zu Schaumburg-Lippe of the German Army, on secondment to the British Army's Life Guards, in front of a portrait of his great-great-grandfather, Kaiser Wilhelm II, also wearing the uniform of the Life Guards. @GilesMacDonogh @RCCoulombe

The Battle of Hastings. Impressive Victorian tiles in a Hastings pub:

1924. Noël Coward on stage at the Everyman Theatre in Hampstead, performing with Lilian Braithwaite in a scene from Coward's The Vortex. The dressing gown would become one of Coward's favourite on-stage fashion items, a perfect symbol for the modern dandy.

@carryontitterin Kenneth Williams was never able to get a visa to travel to the USA because the Met told the FBI they had very good reason to believe (but were unable to prove) that he murdered his father by putting poison in his bedside drink.

'An army marches on its stomach'

The artist behind 'American Gothic'

An almost ten minute reminder of what London was like back in 1955 - it looks like a different world from what we have at present. Watch it and weep for what we have lost… #eastend #London #history #heritage

Brassey was the owner of steam yacht 'Sunbeam' in which he completed what was said to be the first private circumnavigation of the world in 1877. Took 'Sunbeam' to Australia when appointed Governor of Victoria in 1895. Age 79 he sailed 'Sunbeam' to Gallipoli as a hospital ship.

After his death the Durbar Hall was donated to Hastings where he had been the Liberal MP. Reassembled in the town's museum where it serves to display some of Brassey's ethnographic collection acquired during his numerous sea voyages.

When the exhibition closed the Indian Palace were snapped up by Earl Brassey and remodelled for his Mayfair mansion. Thomas Brassey (1836-1918) was the son of a successful railway contractor and an ardent navalist. In 1914 arrested in Kiel for 'spying' on the Kaiser's navy.

The Colonial and Indian Exhibition of 1886 took place in South Kensington adjacent to the Albert Hall. It was one of many international exhibitions that followed the immensely successful example of the Great Exhibition of 1851. There were more than 5 million visitors.