John Logie Baird, inventor of the first demonstrable, working television, was born on the 13th of August, 1888.
John Logie Baird was a Scottish engineer and undoubtedly the inventor of the world´s first, practicable, working television system. He was one of a number of independent inventors of similar technology, but he nevertheless deserves his place in history and the title, the ´Father of Television´, because it was Baird who brought the idea of television to the attention of the world. There were many experiments into television being carried out in the early 1920s, but there is no question that Baird’s electromechanical contraption was the first practical system to be demonstrated to work. Although his apparatus was eventually displaced by purely electronic devices, Baird’s early successes, coupled with his later inventions, earn him a preeminent place in the history of television.
As early as the 26th of July, 1923, Baird had been able to apply for a patent for his invention and in Hastings, in 1924, using his first crude apparatus – the ‘Televisor’ – he transmitted the flickering image of a Maltese cross over a distance of ten feet. After moving to London, he made the first public demonstration of television pictures with clear, half-tones of light and shade, in Selfridge´s store in April, 1925. By October, 1925, he had made improvements sufficient to be able to transmit the thirty-line image of a ventriloquist´s dummy named ‘Stooky Bill’ across the room. He then transmitted the first television image of a human being; the face of office boy, William Taynton. And famously, on the 26th of January, 1926, Baird gave the world´s first demonstration of a viable television system, using mechanical picture scanning equipment with electronic amplification. His original apparatus, used in that demonstration, which was given in his tiny attic laboratory at 22 Frith Street, Soho, to an invited gathering of fifty scientists, all members of the Royal Institution, is now preserved in the Science Museum.
In 1927, he formed the Baird Television Development Company and demonstrated television over 438 miles of telephone line between London and Glasgow. On the 9th of February of the following year, he made the first trans-Atlantic television transmissions, between London and New York. An editorial in the New York Times of the 11th of February, 1928, conveyed the news that "Baird was the first to achieve television at all, over any distance. Now he must be credited with having been the first to disembody the human form optically and electrically flash it piecemeal at incredible speed across the ocean, and then reassemble it for American eyes."
In the view of the NYT, Baird's success was of epochal importance, and the beginnings of a new branch of engineering. The New York Herald-Tribune of the 12th of February was equally complimentary in writing, "If it be appreciated also that Baird is an experimenter of the most classic type, and that he has been struggling along for years with the crudest of equipment, built in the skimpiest shop, his recent stunt is nothing short of marvellous."
That same year of 1928, Baird made the first transmission to a liner, the Berengaria, in mid-Atlantic. The list of Baird ‘firsts’ continued with the transmission of a performance of Pirandello´s play, ‘The Man with a Flower in His Mouth’, which was the first play to be performed on television in Britain – or anywhere in the world, for that matter. That play was broadcast on the 14th of July, 1930, just under a year before another first – the first outside broadcast; the Derby of June, 1931. Baird also gave the first demonstration of sequential-frame colour television, in early December, 1937, to the assembled Press. And, there was his all-electronic ´Telechrome´ colour television system, for which a receiver was first demonstrated to the press on the 16th of August, 1944. However, despite the undoubted brilliance of both the colour and stereoscopic television systems, the technologies were never implemented commercially until much later.
During his career, despite a lack of funds and lacking modern laboratory facilities, the driven, dogged and often poor John Logie Baird created a host of television technologies. His legacy includes: phonovision, a forerunner of the video recorder (which still relies largely on mechanical scanning); noctovision, an infra-red spotting system for ‘seeing’ in the dark; open-air television; a theater-projection system; stereoscopic colour TV; and the first high definition, fully electronic, colour television tube. He was also involved in the development of fibre-optics and radio direction finding. He patented a system that later became known as Radar, although his contribution to the development of radar during the Second World War has never been officially acknowledged and remains ‘classified’. Shortly before he died, in 1946, Baird was still drafting plans for a television with 1,000 lines of resolution and he had earlier patents for television with up to 1,700 lines of resolution, using interlacing technology. The world would not catch up with Baird’s ideas until 1990, when the Japanese introduced a TV with 1125 lines of resolution per frame.
John Logie Baird was born on the 13th of August, 1888, in Helensburgh, and attended Larchfield School. By the age of thirteen, he had designed a remote control for a camera, converted his father’s house to electric light, and constructed a small telephone exchange to connect his bedroom to those of his friends across the street. In 1906, he studied Electrical Engineering at the West of Scotland Technical College, before going on to Glasgow University. His studies were interrupted by the outbreak of World War One and, due to problems with his health, instead of serving in the Forces, he served as Superintendent Engineer at the Clyde Valley Electrical Power Company. After the War, he set himself up in business and his first invention was the ´Baird Undersock´, which was not a success. Next, he emigrated to Trinidad, and tried his hand at jam making, but handicapped again by ill health, he returned to Britain. By late 1922, John Logie Baird had pitched up in Hastings, where he took lodgings. His first interest in television came in 1903, after he read a German book on the photoelectric properties of selenium. He then applied himself to creating a television and in his attic, virtually penniless, he constructed the world´s first television out of ‘odds and ends’. The base of his motor was a washstand stood on a tea-chest, the projection lamp was stuck in a biscuit tin, scanning disks were cut from cardboard, and the lenses were bicycle accessories, purloined at four pence each. The contrivance was held together by darning needles, string and sealing wax. And, wondrous story that it is, his television worked.
Of course, Baird was not the only man in the picture frame of television history. A number of scientists had made important discoveries that John Logie Baird would use in his development of the television. Sometime in the 19th Century, Henri Becquerel found that light could be changed into electricity and, importantly, Ferdinand Braun had invented the cathode ray tube. Significantly, in 1884, the German inventor, Paul Nipkow, created the ‘Elektrisches Teleskop’, which was a device for scanning a picture that could be viewed through an eyepiece. Baird’s first electromechanical television was based on the ‘Nipkow disc’. Interestingly, the word ‘television’ was first coined by Constantin Perskyi at the International Electricity Congress in Paris, in 1900. However, in terms of the evolution of television, a number of other scientists must be given great credit. In London in 1908, the idea of using a cathode ray system for displaying the television picture at the receiver was first proposed by a prominent electrical engineer, Alan A. Campbell-Swinton.
In 1923, Vladimir Kosma Zworykin took out a patent on an electronic television camera tube, but it was not demonstrated. Also in 1923, in the United States, Philo Taylor Farnsworth conceived a television system while still in high school, utilising a cathode ray tube. In September, 1927, he demonstrated the transmission of straight line images – or a moving blob of light; take your pick – from his first ‘Image Dissector’. By which time, of course, Baird had formed the Baird Television Development Company and was able to transmit proper images between London and Glasgow. By 1929, Farnsworth was still only able to show silhouettes. Later important contributions were made by Vladimir Kosma Zworykin, who invented the revolutionary ‘Iconoscope’ in 1933 whilst working for RCA. Two years later, EMI unveiled the ‘Emitron’ camera tube, which was uncannily similar to Zworykin´s ‘Iconoscope’. Somewhere along the line, an American inventor named Charles Francis Jenkins patented a system with some similarity to Nipkow´s and demonstrated a crude television. AT&T first demonstrated a television system, developed by one of Bell Lab´s scientists, Herbert Ives, and based on Nipkow’s disc. Finally, General Electric also demonstrated a mechanical system, which was developed by Ernst Alexanderson.
John Logie Baird died at his home in Bexhill-on-Sea, Sussex, on the 14th of June, 1946, and was buried in Helensburgh.
Friday, 13 August 2010
Friday, 21 May 2010
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, physician, novelist, poet, and detective story writer, creator of the unforgettable master sleuth Sherlock Holmes, was born in Edinburgh, on the 22nd of May, 1859.
Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle was born at Picardy Place, in Edinburgh. From the age of nine, Doyle was educated in a Jesuit boarding school and, by the age of fourteen, had learned sufficient French to be able to read Jules Verne in the original language. During this time Doyle came to loath the bigotry and lost his Catholic faith, but the training of the Jesuits deeply influenced his thought. It was during these difficult years that Arthur realised his talent for storytelling, as he was often found captivating fellow students with amazing stories.
He attended Stonyhurst College, graduating in 1876, and was later to use friends and teachers as models for characters in the Holmes stories, amongst them two boys named Moriarty. Family tradition should have dictated an artistic career, yet Arthur decided to follow medicine, influenced by his mother’s lodger, a Dr. Waller, who had trained at the University of Edinburgh, which is where Arthur duly went.
When he was in his third year of medical studies, adventure came knocking, and he left for the Arctic Circle as ship's surgeon on the whaler ‘Hope’. Doyle returned to his studies, in the autumn of 1880, without much enthusiasm and a year later he obtained his Bachelor of Medicine and Master of Surgery degree. On this occasion, he drew a sketch of himself receiving his diploma, with the caption; ‘Licensed to Kill’.
Dr. Arthur Doyle's first gainful employment after his graduation was as a medical officer on the steamer ‘Mayumba’. Unfortunately, he didn’t much like and was soon home in Blighty. His next employment was an infamous stint with an unscrupulous doctor in Plymouth. After near bankruptcy, he left for Southsea, to open his own practice, which, by the end of the third year, was beginning to earn him a comfortable income. However, until 1891, he divided his time between trying to be a good doctor and struggling to become a recognised author.
As a young medical student in Edinburgh, Doyle had met a number of future authors who were also attending the university, including James Barrie and Robert Louis Stevenson. However, the man who most influenced and impressed him was, without a doubt, his teacher and mentor, Dr. Joseph Bell. The good doctor, a legend at the medical school, was a master at observation, logic, deduction, and diagnosis, and all of these qualities were to be found later, in the persona of Doyle’s celebrated detective.
Another influence on Doyle becoming a writer was his mother, Mary, who was herself a master storyteller. Doyle once wrote about his mother's gift of "sinking her voice to a horror stricken whisper" when she reached the culminating point of a story. Arthur's touching description of his mother is poignantly described in his biography, "In my early childhood, as far as I can remember anything at all, the vivid stories she would tell me stand out so clearly that they obscure the real facts of my life”.
Arthur’s first published story was ‘The Mystery of Sasassa Valley’, which was published in an Edinburgh magazine called ‘Chamber's Journal’, which had also published Thomas Hardy's first work. By the time his second story, ‘The American Tale’, was published in ‘London Society’, he was to write, "It was in this year that I first learned that shillings might be earned in other ways than by filling phials”. However, the best was yet to come.
Over three weeks, in March, 1886, Conan Doyle wrote the novel, which catapulted him to fame. It was originally entitled ‘A Tangled Skein’ and the two main characters were called Sheridan Hope and Ormond Sacker. Less than two years later, this novel was published in Beeton's Christmas Annual, of 1887, under the title ‘A Study in Scarlet’. The characters had become Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John H. Watson. It was published in book form, in 1888, and Conan Doyle would go on to write fifty-five more stories and four novels starring the immortal Holmes.
Sherlock Holmes's literary forefather was Edgar Allan Poe's detective, C. Auguste Dupin. However, the characterization of Holmes and his ability of ingenious deductive reasoning was based on the real life person of Joseph Bell. Another model for the detective was Eugène Francois Vidoq, a former criminal, who became the first chief of the Sûreté on the principle of 'set a thief to catch a thief’. Dr. Watson, the good natured if bumbling narrator of the ‘Holmes’ stories, and the master criminal Professor Moriarty, are also equally brilliant creations. Doyle is said to have based the relationship between Holmes and his sidekick, Dr Watson, on Cervantes' Don Quixote and Sancho Panza, and James Boswell's conversations with Dr Samuel Johnson.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's now iconic mastermind sleuth and his companion, Dr. Watson, redefined the detective genre. Conan Doyle's medical training under Dr. Joseph Bell and his practical experience as a doctor are the foundation for Holmes's methods of deductive reasoning. "It is an old maxim of mine that when you have excluded the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth," he wrote in ‘The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet’.
Less well known is the list of his remaining literary achievements, including Sir Nigel, which a tale of medieval knights in armour, from which the following is a quote; "The Scotch knights have no masters in the world, and he who can hold his own with the best of them, be it a Douglas, a Murray or a Seaton, has nothing more to learn."
In his introduction to Sir Nigel, Doyle wrote, “I am aware that there are incidents which may strike the modern reader as brutal and repellent. It is useless, however, to draw the Twentieth Century and label it the Fourteenth. It was a sterner age, and men's code of morality, especially in matters of cruelty, was very different. The fantastic graces of Chivalry lay upon the surface of life, but beneath it was a half-savage population, fierce and animal, with little ruth or mercy. It was a raw, rude England, full of elemental passions, and redeemed only by elemental virtues. Such I have tried to draw it.”
Conan Doyle served in the Boer War as a physician, and he was knighted in 1902. During World War I, he wrote ‘History of the British Campaign in France and Flanders’ as a tribute to the bravery of British soldiers. By the 1920's, he was profoundly interested in spiritualism, which does seem a strange concern for the creator of Sherlock Holmes. Whatever you might make of that, the author went to meet his ‘maker’ on the 7th of July, 1930.
Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle was born at Picardy Place, in Edinburgh. From the age of nine, Doyle was educated in a Jesuit boarding school and, by the age of fourteen, had learned sufficient French to be able to read Jules Verne in the original language. During this time Doyle came to loath the bigotry and lost his Catholic faith, but the training of the Jesuits deeply influenced his thought. It was during these difficult years that Arthur realised his talent for storytelling, as he was often found captivating fellow students with amazing stories.
He attended Stonyhurst College, graduating in 1876, and was later to use friends and teachers as models for characters in the Holmes stories, amongst them two boys named Moriarty. Family tradition should have dictated an artistic career, yet Arthur decided to follow medicine, influenced by his mother’s lodger, a Dr. Waller, who had trained at the University of Edinburgh, which is where Arthur duly went.
When he was in his third year of medical studies, adventure came knocking, and he left for the Arctic Circle as ship's surgeon on the whaler ‘Hope’. Doyle returned to his studies, in the autumn of 1880, without much enthusiasm and a year later he obtained his Bachelor of Medicine and Master of Surgery degree. On this occasion, he drew a sketch of himself receiving his diploma, with the caption; ‘Licensed to Kill’.
Dr. Arthur Doyle's first gainful employment after his graduation was as a medical officer on the steamer ‘Mayumba’. Unfortunately, he didn’t much like and was soon home in Blighty. His next employment was an infamous stint with an unscrupulous doctor in Plymouth. After near bankruptcy, he left for Southsea, to open his own practice, which, by the end of the third year, was beginning to earn him a comfortable income. However, until 1891, he divided his time between trying to be a good doctor and struggling to become a recognised author.
As a young medical student in Edinburgh, Doyle had met a number of future authors who were also attending the university, including James Barrie and Robert Louis Stevenson. However, the man who most influenced and impressed him was, without a doubt, his teacher and mentor, Dr. Joseph Bell. The good doctor, a legend at the medical school, was a master at observation, logic, deduction, and diagnosis, and all of these qualities were to be found later, in the persona of Doyle’s celebrated detective.
Another influence on Doyle becoming a writer was his mother, Mary, who was herself a master storyteller. Doyle once wrote about his mother's gift of "sinking her voice to a horror stricken whisper" when she reached the culminating point of a story. Arthur's touching description of his mother is poignantly described in his biography, "In my early childhood, as far as I can remember anything at all, the vivid stories she would tell me stand out so clearly that they obscure the real facts of my life”.
Arthur’s first published story was ‘The Mystery of Sasassa Valley’, which was published in an Edinburgh magazine called ‘Chamber's Journal’, which had also published Thomas Hardy's first work. By the time his second story, ‘The American Tale’, was published in ‘London Society’, he was to write, "It was in this year that I first learned that shillings might be earned in other ways than by filling phials”. However, the best was yet to come.
Over three weeks, in March, 1886, Conan Doyle wrote the novel, which catapulted him to fame. It was originally entitled ‘A Tangled Skein’ and the two main characters were called Sheridan Hope and Ormond Sacker. Less than two years later, this novel was published in Beeton's Christmas Annual, of 1887, under the title ‘A Study in Scarlet’. The characters had become Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John H. Watson. It was published in book form, in 1888, and Conan Doyle would go on to write fifty-five more stories and four novels starring the immortal Holmes.
Sherlock Holmes's literary forefather was Edgar Allan Poe's detective, C. Auguste Dupin. However, the characterization of Holmes and his ability of ingenious deductive reasoning was based on the real life person of Joseph Bell. Another model for the detective was Eugène Francois Vidoq, a former criminal, who became the first chief of the Sûreté on the principle of 'set a thief to catch a thief’. Dr. Watson, the good natured if bumbling narrator of the ‘Holmes’ stories, and the master criminal Professor Moriarty, are also equally brilliant creations. Doyle is said to have based the relationship between Holmes and his sidekick, Dr Watson, on Cervantes' Don Quixote and Sancho Panza, and James Boswell's conversations with Dr Samuel Johnson.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's now iconic mastermind sleuth and his companion, Dr. Watson, redefined the detective genre. Conan Doyle's medical training under Dr. Joseph Bell and his practical experience as a doctor are the foundation for Holmes's methods of deductive reasoning. "It is an old maxim of mine that when you have excluded the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth," he wrote in ‘The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet’.
Less well known is the list of his remaining literary achievements, including Sir Nigel, which a tale of medieval knights in armour, from which the following is a quote; "The Scotch knights have no masters in the world, and he who can hold his own with the best of them, be it a Douglas, a Murray or a Seaton, has nothing more to learn."
In his introduction to Sir Nigel, Doyle wrote, “I am aware that there are incidents which may strike the modern reader as brutal and repellent. It is useless, however, to draw the Twentieth Century and label it the Fourteenth. It was a sterner age, and men's code of morality, especially in matters of cruelty, was very different. The fantastic graces of Chivalry lay upon the surface of life, but beneath it was a half-savage population, fierce and animal, with little ruth or mercy. It was a raw, rude England, full of elemental passions, and redeemed only by elemental virtues. Such I have tried to draw it.”
Conan Doyle served in the Boer War as a physician, and he was knighted in 1902. During World War I, he wrote ‘History of the British Campaign in France and Flanders’ as a tribute to the bravery of British soldiers. By the 1920's, he was profoundly interested in spiritualism, which does seem a strange concern for the creator of Sherlock Holmes. Whatever you might make of that, the author went to meet his ‘maker’ on the 7th of July, 1930.
The execution of Montrose
James Graham, 1st Marquis of Montrose, 5th Earl of Montrose, Earl of Kincardine, Scottish general, poet and Royalist hero, who won a series of spectacular victories in Scotland for Charles I, was executed, in Edinburgh, on the 21st of May, 1650, after being sold out by Charles II and betrayed by Neil MacLeod.
Graham was brought up at Kincardine Castle and succeeded his father as 5th Earl of Montrose, on the 14th of November, 1626, when he was fourteen years of age. He was educated in Glasgow and at St. Andrews University, where he studied classics such as Caesar and Seneca, and became inspired by tales of military glory. He went to France and Italy to complete his education, which included a period at the French military academy at Angers. With this background, his future military exploits are not unsurprising.
Montrose returned to Scotland, in 1637, and became active in the revolt against Archbishop Laud's prayer book, signing the National Covenant, in February, 1638. Contrary to popular opinion, Montrose was not the first to sign, but he did take an active part in its construction. Then, in November, he attended the Glasgow Assembly, which defied the King by abolishing episcopacy and establishing Presbyterian Church governance.
Montrose gained his first military experience leading Covenanter troops in the north of Scotland. First blood was shed in a small engagement known as the ‘Trot of Turriff’. More important, however, was the Battle of the Brig o’ Dee, in 1639, when Montrose drove the Marquis of Huntly out of Aberdeen. That was the First Bishops’ War, which ended when Charles I gave in and signed The Pacification of Berwick,
Here then, was the future Royalist hero, the foremost champion of the Crown against the Covenanters, being decidedly disloyal to his King, albeit on religious grounds – so what happened to cause him to ‘turn’?
What happened was that Montrose became aware that the National Covenant was being used by the likes of Archibald Campbell, the Earl of Argyll, to usurp the King’s power in Scotland, for his own ends. Montrose saw this and other extremist Presbyterian activities as a clear and outright abuse of the Covenant. In secret, and against Argyll's treachery, Montrose drew up the Cumbernauld Bond. However, at that point he was still committed to the cause and led the Covenanters’ across the Tweed in the Second Bishops' War.
When that war was over, Montrose's criticisms of the by now Marquis of Argyll, and the interception of Montrose's correspondence with the King, led to his arrest on charges of conspiracy against the ruling Committee of Estates. He was imprisoned in Edinburgh Castle, in June, 1641, but released on bail in the November.
The following year, Civil War broke out in England and, in 1643, the Scots and English signed ‘The Solemn League and Covenant’. This was a very different document to the National Covenant; it was the price of a Scottish army. If the English Puritans adopted Presbyterianism, then the Scots army would fight for the Parliamentarians against the King. Montrose saw this as a disgraceful and contemptible piece of double-dealing, and for him, it was the final straw. He joined King Charles at Oxford, in 1643, and his loyalty to the King and the Royalist cause was passionate and unwavering throughout the rest of his career, despite retaining purist Covenanting sympathies.
Throughout the next two years, at the head of a small force, including Alasdair MacColla and his Irish Confederates, Montrose, appointed Lieutenant-General in Scotland, conducted a series of brilliant campaigns in the Highlands. With skill and leadership, he won victory after victory over forces sometimes three times greater than his own. This became known as Montrose’s year of miracles in which he proved himself to be a remarkable tactician.
In the twelve months between September 1644 and August 1645, during which he was created Marquis, Montrose won six successive battles: Tippermuir; Aberdeen; Inverlochy; Auldearn; Alford; and, his greatest victory, Kilsyth, where he defeated Baillie and the Covenanter Committee of War headed by Argyll. For this, the Covenanters put a price on his head, dead or alive.
For a short time, Montrose was master of Scotland, with the Lowlands at his mercy. However, when he advanced further into the Borders, his clansmen dispersed. He was left with less than 1,000 men when he was surprised and his troops cut to pieces by a superior force under David Leslie, at Philiphaugh, near Selkirk, on the 13th of September, 1645. Then, in July, 1646, Charles I surrendered to the Covenanters and ordered Montrose to cease hostilities, whereupon he sailed into exile, on the 3rd of September.
After the execution of Charles I, Montrose swore vengeance and transferred his loyalty to Charles II, who was proclaimed King of Scots, in February, 1649. Charles appointed Montrose his Captain-General in Scotland, but to his dismay, the King also entered into negotiations with the Covenanters. Charles used the threat of military invasion by Montrose as a negotiating ploy and, ultimately, this led to doom for James Graham.
While Montrose was landing in Scotland, from Orkney, Charles was agreeing with the Covenanters that he would disband. The King’s letter never reached Montrose and he marched to defeat at the Battle of Carbisdale, in April, 1650. A few days later, Charles disavowed Montrose under the terms of the Treaty of Breda. Montrose fled to Ardvreck Castle on Loch Assynt, where he was betrayed to the Covenanters by the Laird, Neil MacLeod, for the princely sum of £25,000.
He was taken to Edinburgh and, on the 20th of May, already under sentence of death for his earlier campaigns, he was summarily sentenced to be hanged and dismembered as a traitor. He was led through the streets, in a cart driven by the hangman, to where the capital sentence was carried out in the Grassmarket, on the 21st of May, 1650. The execution was carried out pretty much as described by William Topaz McGonagall:
“And on the noble patriot raising his hands, the executioner began to cry,
Then quickly he pulled the rope down from the gibbet on high,
And around Montrose's neck he fixed the rope very gently,
And in an instant the great Montrose was launched into eternity.”
Montrose's head was fixed on a spike at the Tolbooth in Edinburgh, and his legs and arms were fixed to the gates of Stirling, Glasgow, Perth and Aberdeen. After the Restoration, his remains were finally buried at the High Kirk of St Giles, on the 11th of May, 1661, in an elaborate ceremony with fourteen noblemen bearing the coffin. A monument to the Marquis of Montrose was erected in 1888, inscribed thus:
"Scotland's glory, Britain's pride,
As brave a subject as ere for monarch dy'd
Kingdoms in Ruins often lye
But great Montrose's Acts will never dye"
Nigel Tranter wrote an excellent brace of novels about Montrose entitled, ‘The Young Montrose’ and ‘Montrose, the Captain General’, in which James Graham, poet, statesman and soldier is portrayed as an heroic yet ultimately tragic figure.
Read about the Marquis of Montrose on Wikipedia
Graham was brought up at Kincardine Castle and succeeded his father as 5th Earl of Montrose, on the 14th of November, 1626, when he was fourteen years of age. He was educated in Glasgow and at St. Andrews University, where he studied classics such as Caesar and Seneca, and became inspired by tales of military glory. He went to France and Italy to complete his education, which included a period at the French military academy at Angers. With this background, his future military exploits are not unsurprising.
Montrose returned to Scotland, in 1637, and became active in the revolt against Archbishop Laud's prayer book, signing the National Covenant, in February, 1638. Contrary to popular opinion, Montrose was not the first to sign, but he did take an active part in its construction. Then, in November, he attended the Glasgow Assembly, which defied the King by abolishing episcopacy and establishing Presbyterian Church governance.
Montrose gained his first military experience leading Covenanter troops in the north of Scotland. First blood was shed in a small engagement known as the ‘Trot of Turriff’. More important, however, was the Battle of the Brig o’ Dee, in 1639, when Montrose drove the Marquis of Huntly out of Aberdeen. That was the First Bishops’ War, which ended when Charles I gave in and signed The Pacification of Berwick,
Here then, was the future Royalist hero, the foremost champion of the Crown against the Covenanters, being decidedly disloyal to his King, albeit on religious grounds – so what happened to cause him to ‘turn’?
What happened was that Montrose became aware that the National Covenant was being used by the likes of Archibald Campbell, the Earl of Argyll, to usurp the King’s power in Scotland, for his own ends. Montrose saw this and other extremist Presbyterian activities as a clear and outright abuse of the Covenant. In secret, and against Argyll's treachery, Montrose drew up the Cumbernauld Bond. However, at that point he was still committed to the cause and led the Covenanters’ across the Tweed in the Second Bishops' War.
When that war was over, Montrose's criticisms of the by now Marquis of Argyll, and the interception of Montrose's correspondence with the King, led to his arrest on charges of conspiracy against the ruling Committee of Estates. He was imprisoned in Edinburgh Castle, in June, 1641, but released on bail in the November.
The following year, Civil War broke out in England and, in 1643, the Scots and English signed ‘The Solemn League and Covenant’. This was a very different document to the National Covenant; it was the price of a Scottish army. If the English Puritans adopted Presbyterianism, then the Scots army would fight for the Parliamentarians against the King. Montrose saw this as a disgraceful and contemptible piece of double-dealing, and for him, it was the final straw. He joined King Charles at Oxford, in 1643, and his loyalty to the King and the Royalist cause was passionate and unwavering throughout the rest of his career, despite retaining purist Covenanting sympathies.
Throughout the next two years, at the head of a small force, including Alasdair MacColla and his Irish Confederates, Montrose, appointed Lieutenant-General in Scotland, conducted a series of brilliant campaigns in the Highlands. With skill and leadership, he won victory after victory over forces sometimes three times greater than his own. This became known as Montrose’s year of miracles in which he proved himself to be a remarkable tactician.
In the twelve months between September 1644 and August 1645, during which he was created Marquis, Montrose won six successive battles: Tippermuir; Aberdeen; Inverlochy; Auldearn; Alford; and, his greatest victory, Kilsyth, where he defeated Baillie and the Covenanter Committee of War headed by Argyll. For this, the Covenanters put a price on his head, dead or alive.
For a short time, Montrose was master of Scotland, with the Lowlands at his mercy. However, when he advanced further into the Borders, his clansmen dispersed. He was left with less than 1,000 men when he was surprised and his troops cut to pieces by a superior force under David Leslie, at Philiphaugh, near Selkirk, on the 13th of September, 1645. Then, in July, 1646, Charles I surrendered to the Covenanters and ordered Montrose to cease hostilities, whereupon he sailed into exile, on the 3rd of September.
After the execution of Charles I, Montrose swore vengeance and transferred his loyalty to Charles II, who was proclaimed King of Scots, in February, 1649. Charles appointed Montrose his Captain-General in Scotland, but to his dismay, the King also entered into negotiations with the Covenanters. Charles used the threat of military invasion by Montrose as a negotiating ploy and, ultimately, this led to doom for James Graham.
While Montrose was landing in Scotland, from Orkney, Charles was agreeing with the Covenanters that he would disband. The King’s letter never reached Montrose and he marched to defeat at the Battle of Carbisdale, in April, 1650. A few days later, Charles disavowed Montrose under the terms of the Treaty of Breda. Montrose fled to Ardvreck Castle on Loch Assynt, where he was betrayed to the Covenanters by the Laird, Neil MacLeod, for the princely sum of £25,000.
He was taken to Edinburgh and, on the 20th of May, already under sentence of death for his earlier campaigns, he was summarily sentenced to be hanged and dismembered as a traitor. He was led through the streets, in a cart driven by the hangman, to where the capital sentence was carried out in the Grassmarket, on the 21st of May, 1650. The execution was carried out pretty much as described by William Topaz McGonagall:
“And on the noble patriot raising his hands, the executioner began to cry,
Then quickly he pulled the rope down from the gibbet on high,
And around Montrose's neck he fixed the rope very gently,
And in an instant the great Montrose was launched into eternity.”
Montrose's head was fixed on a spike at the Tolbooth in Edinburgh, and his legs and arms were fixed to the gates of Stirling, Glasgow, Perth and Aberdeen. After the Restoration, his remains were finally buried at the High Kirk of St Giles, on the 11th of May, 1661, in an elaborate ceremony with fourteen noblemen bearing the coffin. A monument to the Marquis of Montrose was erected in 1888, inscribed thus:
"Scotland's glory, Britain's pride,
As brave a subject as ere for monarch dy'd
Kingdoms in Ruins often lye
But great Montrose's Acts will never dye"
Nigel Tranter wrote an excellent brace of novels about Montrose entitled, ‘The Young Montrose’ and ‘Montrose, the Captain General’, in which James Graham, poet, statesman and soldier is portrayed as an heroic yet ultimately tragic figure.
Read about the Marquis of Montrose on Wikipedia
Tuesday, 11 May 2010
Aberdeen win European Cup Winner's Cup
Aberdeen F C won the European Cup Winners' Cup on the 11th of May, 1983, by beating Real Madrid 2-1.
In the football season of 1982-83, the 23rd European Cup Winners' Cup final was won by Aberdeen F C through an extra-time victory in the match, played in the Nya Ullevi stadium, in Göteborg, Sweden, against the mighty Real Madrid team. On a Wednesday evening, in 1983, a crowd of 17,804 spectators saw Aberdeen win the match 2–1, thanks to goals by Eric Black and substitute, John Hewitt. It was the second time that the cup had gone to Scotland; Rangers having won the Cup ten years previously, in 1973.
The Aberdeen team on the night was comprised of: Jim Leighton, Doug Rougvie, John McMaster, Neale Cooper, Alex McLeish, Willie Miller (captain), Gordon Strachan, Neil Simpson, Mark McGhee, Eric Black (sub: 87 John Hewitt), Peter Weir. One notable statistic involving Aberdeen’s players, is that all of them, like those of Celtic in 1967, when the European Cup was won for the first time by a team from the British Isles, were native Scots.
Of course, this team was managed by the then Mr. Alex Ferguson and he was pitted against the legendary Alfredo di Stéfano, the coach of Real Madrid. It’s doubtful whether di Stefano had heard of Alex Ferguson at the start of the season. However, on the eve of the final, the confident young manager, with the present of a bottle of malt whisky for the Spaniard in his hand, was destined to become a legend in his own right.
The gift of the whisky was the brainwave of Jock Stein, who had guided Celtic to European Cup glory, in 1967. Stein was there as an official guest of Ferguson's and offered the voice of experience. As Ferguson later recalled in his autobiography, Stein said, “Let the wee man feel important. Act as if you are thrilled just to be in the final and let him think you’re only there to make up the numbers.” Judging by the result and the effective annihilation of Read Madrid (never mind the extra time and the scoreline), it must’ve had an impact.
At the start of the 1982-83 season, Willie Miller's decision to stay put, instead of defecting to Rangers, spoke volumes. Other than Steve Archibald, Aberdeen hadn’t lost a star player for five years. There was a new sense of expectancy at Pittodrie and team-spirit was as high as anyone could remember, despite the roll-call for the Cup Winners’ Cup including Tottenham Hotspur, Real Madrid, Barcelona (the holders), Internazionale, and Bayern Munich.
The quarter-final engagement with Bayern Munich was to write a significant chapter in Pittodrie folklore. Bayern had lost to a jammy Peter Withe goal in the 1982 European Cup Final and eight of that side, including Breitner, Augenthaler, Hoeness and Rummenigge lined up against the Dons. However, Aberdeen stunned the Germans with a scoreless draw in Munich and, in probably Aberdeen’s most notable European result, apart from the final, was unlucky not to get an away goal. The Dons still had it all to do, but the doubters were proved oh so wrong on the most ecstatic night in Pittodrie's history. In a prequel to the final, John Hewitt popped up to stab the ball between Muller’s legs for the winner and Pittodrie erupted.
On paper, the final against the all conquering, six times European champions, Real Madrid, was the mismatch of all time. Who would bet against the multi-millionaires of Spain versus a team in which most of the players cost nothing. Besides the Dutchman Metgod and the German Stielike, Real was packed with Spanish internationals. Camacho and Santillana, for example, had both faced England in the 1982 World Cup.
It’s fair to say the venue was in the Dons' favour as the Ullevi Stadium became Pittodrie for a day. In addition, pre-match rain left the pitch sodden and full of puddles, which favoured the Scottish players far more than those of Real. However, Aberdeen’s spell-binding dribbler, Dougie Bell, was missing, along with Stuart Kennedy, which might have been significant, nevertheless, it all came down to the players on the night.
The first action saw Eric Black lean into a volley that crashed back off Augustin's crossbar. Then, shortly afterwards, Aberdeen got the first goal, from a McLeish header, which was deflected, but turned in by Black from six yards. The lead had gone to the better side as Madrid had carved out little by way of chances. Unfortunately, Aberdeen’s lead lasted only seven minutes, before Real were awarded a penalty. McLeish’s back pass stalled in the wet and Leighton brought down Santillana. Under today's regulations, Leighton would have been sent off, but in any case, he didn’t stop Juanito scoring.
Aberdeen also had the better of the second half, but despite the marauding of Weir and McGhee, the score remained unchanged. Only once did Real threaten, when from a twice-taken free-kick Salguero drove the ball past Leighton's far post. Extra-time saw the introduction of sub, Peter Hewitt and, with eight minutes to go, penalties were looming. Then came the moment history was made. Weir skirted past two players down the left touchline and chipped the ball on to McGhee. His cross tempted Augustin off his line and he missed the ball by inches and there, rushing in, was Hewitt once again, to head into an empty net. The hero of München became the hero of Göteborg and guaranteed his place in Pittodrie’s hall of fame.
Against all odds Alex Ferguson and his indomitable Dons had won the European Cup Winners’ Cup.
In the football season of 1982-83, the 23rd European Cup Winners' Cup final was won by Aberdeen F C through an extra-time victory in the match, played in the Nya Ullevi stadium, in Göteborg, Sweden, against the mighty Real Madrid team. On a Wednesday evening, in 1983, a crowd of 17,804 spectators saw Aberdeen win the match 2–1, thanks to goals by Eric Black and substitute, John Hewitt. It was the second time that the cup had gone to Scotland; Rangers having won the Cup ten years previously, in 1973.
The Aberdeen team on the night was comprised of: Jim Leighton, Doug Rougvie, John McMaster, Neale Cooper, Alex McLeish, Willie Miller (captain), Gordon Strachan, Neil Simpson, Mark McGhee, Eric Black (sub: 87 John Hewitt), Peter Weir. One notable statistic involving Aberdeen’s players, is that all of them, like those of Celtic in 1967, when the European Cup was won for the first time by a team from the British Isles, were native Scots.
Of course, this team was managed by the then Mr. Alex Ferguson and he was pitted against the legendary Alfredo di Stéfano, the coach of Real Madrid. It’s doubtful whether di Stefano had heard of Alex Ferguson at the start of the season. However, on the eve of the final, the confident young manager, with the present of a bottle of malt whisky for the Spaniard in his hand, was destined to become a legend in his own right.
The gift of the whisky was the brainwave of Jock Stein, who had guided Celtic to European Cup glory, in 1967. Stein was there as an official guest of Ferguson's and offered the voice of experience. As Ferguson later recalled in his autobiography, Stein said, “Let the wee man feel important. Act as if you are thrilled just to be in the final and let him think you’re only there to make up the numbers.” Judging by the result and the effective annihilation of Read Madrid (never mind the extra time and the scoreline), it must’ve had an impact.
At the start of the 1982-83 season, Willie Miller's decision to stay put, instead of defecting to Rangers, spoke volumes. Other than Steve Archibald, Aberdeen hadn’t lost a star player for five years. There was a new sense of expectancy at Pittodrie and team-spirit was as high as anyone could remember, despite the roll-call for the Cup Winners’ Cup including Tottenham Hotspur, Real Madrid, Barcelona (the holders), Internazionale, and Bayern Munich.
The quarter-final engagement with Bayern Munich was to write a significant chapter in Pittodrie folklore. Bayern had lost to a jammy Peter Withe goal in the 1982 European Cup Final and eight of that side, including Breitner, Augenthaler, Hoeness and Rummenigge lined up against the Dons. However, Aberdeen stunned the Germans with a scoreless draw in Munich and, in probably Aberdeen’s most notable European result, apart from the final, was unlucky not to get an away goal. The Dons still had it all to do, but the doubters were proved oh so wrong on the most ecstatic night in Pittodrie's history. In a prequel to the final, John Hewitt popped up to stab the ball between Muller’s legs for the winner and Pittodrie erupted.
On paper, the final against the all conquering, six times European champions, Real Madrid, was the mismatch of all time. Who would bet against the multi-millionaires of Spain versus a team in which most of the players cost nothing. Besides the Dutchman Metgod and the German Stielike, Real was packed with Spanish internationals. Camacho and Santillana, for example, had both faced England in the 1982 World Cup.
It’s fair to say the venue was in the Dons' favour as the Ullevi Stadium became Pittodrie for a day. In addition, pre-match rain left the pitch sodden and full of puddles, which favoured the Scottish players far more than those of Real. However, Aberdeen’s spell-binding dribbler, Dougie Bell, was missing, along with Stuart Kennedy, which might have been significant, nevertheless, it all came down to the players on the night.
The first action saw Eric Black lean into a volley that crashed back off Augustin's crossbar. Then, shortly afterwards, Aberdeen got the first goal, from a McLeish header, which was deflected, but turned in by Black from six yards. The lead had gone to the better side as Madrid had carved out little by way of chances. Unfortunately, Aberdeen’s lead lasted only seven minutes, before Real were awarded a penalty. McLeish’s back pass stalled in the wet and Leighton brought down Santillana. Under today's regulations, Leighton would have been sent off, but in any case, he didn’t stop Juanito scoring.
Aberdeen also had the better of the second half, but despite the marauding of Weir and McGhee, the score remained unchanged. Only once did Real threaten, when from a twice-taken free-kick Salguero drove the ball past Leighton's far post. Extra-time saw the introduction of sub, Peter Hewitt and, with eight minutes to go, penalties were looming. Then came the moment history was made. Weir skirted past two players down the left touchline and chipped the ball on to McGhee. His cross tempted Augustin off his line and he missed the ball by inches and there, rushing in, was Hewitt once again, to head into an empty net. The hero of München became the hero of Göteborg and guaranteed his place in Pittodrie’s hall of fame.
Against all odds Alex Ferguson and his indomitable Dons had won the European Cup Winners’ Cup.
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