title: Emil Bitsch

texts:
<mask> (14 June 1916 – 15 March 1944) was a Luftwaffe flying ace of World War II. He was one of the most successful pilots on the Eastern Front; being credited with 108 aerial victories. He claimed 104 over the Eastern Front and four four-engine bombers over the Western Front. He may have been the pilot that shot down Soviet female ace Yekaterina Budanova. <mask> was killed in action against United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) fighters on 15 March 1944. World War II
World War II in Europe had begun on Friday 1 September 1939 when German forces invaded Poland. In July 1941, <mask> served with III.Gruppe (3rd group) of Jagdgeschwader 3 (JG 3–3rd Fighter Wing), based on the Eastern Front and under the command of Walter Oesau. The Wehrmacht had launched Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union, on 22 June 1941. III. Gruppe supported Army Group South in its strategic goal towards the heavily populated and agricultural heartland of Ukraine, taking Kiev before continuing eastward over the steppes of southern USSR to the Volga with the aim of controlling the oil-rich Caucasus. Operating from an airfield at Lutsk, <mask> claimed his first victory on 2 July over an Ilyushin Il-2. He had a total of five victories by the end of the year. He claimed two Russian Yak-4 twin-engine fighters which were shot down on 24 June 1942 to claim his 9th and 10th victories.In July, he claimed 15 victories, including his 20th 'kill' which he shot down on 13 July. <mask> recorded 18 victories in August, including his 30th victim shot down on 16 August; his score had risen to 40 on 28 August. On 4 September 1942, Oberleutnant <mask> was shot down by anti aircraft artillery northwest of Stalingrad. He bailed out of his Messerschmitt Bf 109 F-4 (Werknummer 13325—factory number) and landed safely but suffered light injuries in the incident. He later returned to combat duty and continued flying. <mask> recorded his 50th victory on 19 March 1943 three km South of Stary. On 1 June 1943, <mask> succeeded Oberleunant Franz Beyer who was transferred to IV.Gruppe as Staffelkapitän (squadron leader) of 8./JG 3. In July, Oberleutnant <mask> claimed 29 aerial victories. On 5 July, he became an "ace-in-a-day". On 19 July he shot a Yakovlev Yak-1 down on the Mius front, possibly flown by Soviet female ace Yekaterina Budanova. He recorded his 100th victory on 21 July 1943 over a Lavochkin La-5. He was the 46th Luftwaffe pilot to achieve the century mark. III.Gruppe flew its last combat missions on the Eastern Front on 1 August 1943. The next day, the Gruppe was ordered to Tschassof-Jar and then back to Germany where it was based at Münster-Handorf Airfield. Defense of the Reich and death

III. Gruppe arrived in Münster-Handorf on 3 August where it was placed under the command of Major Walther Dahl. Dahl had been appointed Gruppenkommandeur (group commander) on 20 July 1943. The Gruppe immediately began preparations for Defense of the Reich () missions and was subordinated to Fighter Leader for the Holland area (). <mask> was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross () on 29 August after 104 victories claimed on the Eastern Front.On 25 August, III. Gruppe was ordered to relocate to Bad Wörishofen in southern Germany. On 1 October, the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) attacked German aircraft production, approaching from the south, targeting the Wiener Neustadt Flugzeugwerke (WNF) in Wiener Neustadt and other targets at Friedrichshafen. At 12:30, III. Gruppe was scrambled. Approximately one hour later, the Gruppe intercepted the flight of 50 to 60 Consolidated B-24 Liberator bombers and 25 Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress bombers. In aerial combat which in parts was fought in Swiss airspace, III.Gruppe, without loss, claimed four aerial victories and three Herausschüsse (separation shots–a severely damaged heavy bomber forced to separate from its combat box and which the Luftwaffe counted as an aerial victory). In this engagement, Bitsch claimed the destruction of a B-17 which was shot down at 13:44. On 14 October, the USAAF Eighth Air Force (USAAF) launched the second Schweinfurt raid, attacking the vital ball bearing factories at Schweinfurt. In total, 291 B-17s from the 1st and 3rd Air Division, escorted by two fighter groups, were sent on the mission. The USAAF suffered heavy losses that day. III. Gruppe claimed eighteen aerial victories and Herausschüsse that day.A B-17 destroyed at 14:45 was credited to <mask>. On 19 December, the Fifteenth Air Force targeted the railroad transportation infrastructure at Insbruck as well as Messerschmitt aircraft manufacturing sites at Augsburg. III. Gruppe intercepted the bombers near Insbruck and claimed eight aerial victories, among them, a B-17 shot down by <mask>. Because the weather conditions at Bad Wörishofen rendered the airfield unserviceable, III. Gruppe was ordered to relocate to Leipheim on 18 February 1944. <mask> claimed his 108th and last aerial victory on 23 February during the USAAF "Big Week" operation.On 15 March 1944, 344 heavy bombers of 2nd and 3rd Air Division, escorted by 588 fighter aircraft, attacked German aircraft manufacturing at Braunschweig. At 10:57, 20 aircraft from III. Gruppe took off at Leipheim and were initially ordered to Wiesbaden-Erbenheim. While the flight was still airborne, the Gruppe received further instructions and were vectored to intercept the USAAF bombers on their return from the target area. In the vicinity of Volkel in North Brabant, Netherlands, III. Gruppe came under attack of approximately 20 to 30 Republic P-47 Thunderbolt fighters. In this engagement, III.Gruppe lost six Messerschmitt Bf 109 G-6 fighters for one aerial victory claimed. That day, <mask> was shot down and killed in action by a P-47 of the 352d Fighter Group in his Bf 109 G-6 (Werknummer 161139)  west of Schijndel. Post-war

<mask> is buried at the German war cemetery at Ysselsteyn (in the Netherlands). The crash site was rediscovered in 1994 by Thijs Hellings, a researcher of the World War II airwar from Schijndel. With help from the landowner, remains of the plane were recovered including the radio, armored glass, the compass and many other small items. Summary of career

Aerial victory claims
According to US historian David T. Zabecki, <mask> was credited with 108 aerial victories. Matthews and Foreman, authors of Luftwaffe Aces – Biographies and Victory Claims, researched the German Federal Archives and found records for 106 aerial victory claims.This figure includes 105 aerial victories on the Eastern Front and one four-engined bomber on the Western Front. Victory claims were logged to a map-reference (PQ = Planquadrat), for example "PQ 34 Ost 7546". The Luftwaffe grid map () covered all of Europe, western Russia and North Africa and was composed of rectangles measuring 15 minutes of latitude by 30 minutes of longitude, an area of about . These sectors were then subdivided into 36 smaller units to give a location area 3 × 4 km in size. Awards
 Iron Cross (1939) 2nd and 1st Class
 Honor Goblet of the Luftwaffe on 31 August 1942 as Leutnant and pilot
 German Cross in Gold on 19 October 1942 as a Leutnant in the I./Jagdgeschwader 3
 Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on 29 August 1943 as an Oberleutnant (war officer) and Staffelkapitän of the 8./Jagdgeschwader 3 "Udet"

Notes

References

Citations

Bibliography

1916 births
1944 deaths
Luftwaffe pilots
German World War II flying aces
German military personnel killed in World War II
Recipients of the Gold German Cross
Recipients of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross
Burials at Ysselsteyn German war cemetery

masks:
Emil Bitsch
Bitsch
Bitsch
Bitsch
Bitsch
Bitsch
Bitsch
Bitsch
Bitsch
Bitsch
Bitsch
Bitsch
Bitsch
Bitsch
Bitsch
Bitsch


title: James Stirling (Royal Navy officer)

type: original

texts:
Admiral Sir <mask> (28 January 179122 April 1865) was a Scottish naval officer and colonial administrator. His enthusiasm and persistence persuaded the British Government to establish the Swan River Colony and he became the first Governor and Commander-in-Chief of Western Australia. In 1854, when Commander-in-Chief, East Indies and China Station, <mask> on his own initiative signed Britain's first Anglo-Japanese Friendship Treaty. Throughout his career <mask> showed considerable diplomatic skill and was selected for a number of sensitive missions. Paradoxically, this was not reflected in his personal dealings with officialdom and his hopes for preferment received many rebuffs. <mask> also personally led the attack in Western Australia on a group of approximately seventy Bindjareb men, women and children now known as the Pinjarra massacre. <mask> entered the Royal Navy at age 12 and as a midshipman saw action in the Napoleonic Wars.Rapid promotion followed and when he was 21 he received his first command, the 28-gun sloop , and, in the War of 1812 between the US and the UK, seized two prizes. The Brazen carried the news of the end of that war to Fort Bowyer and took part in carrying to England the British troops that had captured the fort. On return to the West Indies, <mask> made two surveys of the Venezuelan coast and reported on the strengths, attitudes and dispositions of the Spanish government and various revolutionary factions, later playing a role in the British negotiations with these groups. In his second command, , he carried supplies and coinage to Australia, but with a covert mission to assess other nations' interest in the region and explore opportunities for British settlements. He is chiefly remembered for his exploration of the Swan River, followed by his eventual success in lobbying the British Government to establish a settlement there. On 30 December 1828, he was made Lieutenant-Governor of the colony-to-be. He formally founded the city of Perth and the port of Fremantle and oversaw the development of the surrounding area and on 4 March 1831 he was confirmed as Governor and Commander-in-Chief of the new territory, Western Australia, in which post he remained until in 1838 he resumed his naval career.In October 1834 <mask> personally led a group of twenty-five police, soldiers and settlers in a punitive expedition against approximately seventy Bindjareb men, women and children camped on the Murray River partly in retaliation for several murders and thefts. This bloody attack involving rifles and bayonets against spears is known as the Pinjarra Massacreand sometimes still; the Battle of Pinjarra. An uncertain number of Aboriginal men, women and children were killed during this encounter; <mask> reported 15 males killed, John Septimus Roe 15–20, and an unidentified eyewitness 25–30 including 1 woman and several children with probably more floating down with the stream. One of <mask>'s party was injured and one was injured and died about two weeks later, although it is uncertain if from existing injuries, injuries suffered during the massacre, poor medical treatment after the massacre, or a combination thereof. An uncertain number of Bindjareb were injured, and an uncertain number died of their injuries. From 1840 to 1844, in command of the 80-gun , he patrolled the Mediterranean with instructions to 'show the flag' and keep an eye on the French. In 1847, he was given command of the 120-gun first rate ship of the line  and his first commission was to conduct Her Majesty, the Dowager Queen Adelaide on trips to Lisbon and Madeira and then back to Osborne House on the Isle of Wight.After that, the Howe was assigned to the eastern Mediterranean, where she reinforced the squadron led by Vice Admiral Parker using gunboat diplomacy to secure an uneasy peace in the region. <mask>'s fifth and final command was as Commander in Chief, China and the East Indies Station, and his flag, as Rear Admiral of the White, was hoisted on  on 11 May 1854. Shortly afterwards news arrived that war had been declared on Russia. <mask> was anxious to prevent Russian ships from sheltering in Japanese ports and menacing allied shipping and, after lengthy negotiations through the Nagasaki Magistrate, concluded a Treaty of Friendship with the Japanese. The treaty was endorsed by the British Government, but <mask> was criticised in the popular press for not finding and engaging with the Russian fleet. Family background
<mask> was the fifth of eight sons, ninth of the sixteen children, of <mask>, Esq. of Drumpellier near Coatbridge, North Lanarkshire, Scotland, and his father's second cousin, <mask>.The Glaswegian <mask> family was made enormously wealthy by the slave trade in Britain, and <mask>'s father in law <mask> was a wealthy Atlantic ocean slaver. The <mask> family were also well-known and celebrated in the naval annals of the 18th century. His maternal grandfather was Admiral Sir <mask> and his uncle was Admiral Sir <mask>. With such a family background, it was natural for <mask> to enter the Royal Navy. His education at Westminster School was interleaved with periods of training on board British warships, and on 14 January 1804, at the age of 12, he entered the navy as a First-Class Volunteer, embarking on the storeship HMS Camel for the West Indies. Thus he began a distinguished career. Early career

Period as a midshipman

<mask> trained for midshipman on board  and also served for a period on  under the flag of Admiral Sir John Duckworth, Commander-in-Chief, Jamaica Squadron.He passed his midshipman tests on 20 January 1805 and shortly afterwards was posted to , but on 27 June, at the request of his uncle, Rear-Admiral <mask>, he joined his uncle's flagship, the 98-gun . The following month, at age 14, he was to see his first naval action. The Glory was in the fleet, commanded by Vice-Admiral Robert Calder, which in July that year engaged against the combined French and Spanish fleets off Cape Finisterre during the Napoleonic Wars. The Glory sustained a damaged foremast spar and sails "much torn". After the battle, the Squadron returned to England with two captured Spanish ships as prizes. In July 1806 his uncle was given a new ship, , and orders to convoy General Samuel Auchmuty and his troops to the Río de la Plata and take over command of the squadron there from Admiral Sir Home Popham on the flagship . <mask> accompanied his uncle and saw the fall of Montevideo to General Auchmuty's forces and the capture of twenty-five warships and more than 10,000 tons of merchant shipping.In August 1807 the <mask>s crossed the South Atlantic for a stay of five months at the Cape of Good Hope and at the end of February 1808 the Diadem returned to England via a short period in Rio de Janeiro. On arrival in England in April, Midshipman <mask> was posted to  under Captain Henry Blackwood. At this time he was preparing for his examinations to become a lieutenant, and Blackwood arranged for him to have short stints as Acting Lieutenant on other vessels in the Channel Fleet. He started his examinations at Somerset House on 1 August 1809 and on 12 August rejoined the Warspite as a full Lieutenant. West Indies
On 1 April 1810 <mask> was transferred from the Warspite to  under Captain R.D. Drum and moved with Drum when the Captain was transferred to  in November. A year later, on 20 November 1811, he received a significant elevation to flag lieutenant on , the flagship of his uncle, now vice-admiral and commander-in-chief of the Jamaica Station.On 3 March 1812, he was appointed acting commander of the sloop  and three months later, at age 21, he was promoted to the rank of commander. Soon after that he was given command of the 28-gun sloop , built in 1808, in which he was to serve for six years. In the War of 1812 between the United States of America and Britain, the role assigned to the ships of the Jamaica Station was to attack the US coast and ports on the Gulf of Mexico and to destroy their ships and stores. On 11 July 1812 Brazen weighed anchor on <mask>'s first mission, which was to be against New Orleans and the Mississippi delta. However, the Brazen was severely damaged by a hurricane and had to abandon the mission and enter the Spanish port of Pensacola to carry out repairs. Despite this, <mask> was able to make a valuable survey of Mobile Bay and the Spanish-held Florida coastline and capture an American ship, which he took back to Jamaica as a prize on 20 November. He had no immediate opportunity to revisit the Gulf of Mexico, as the Brazen was ordered to return to England for a maintenance survey.After docking in Sheerness for four months, the ship escorted a convoy carrying settlers and stores to Hudson Bay. On his return to the Strait of Dover at the end of December 1813, <mask> received confidential orders for an important mission, to carry the Duke of Brunswick to Holland. After that, during most of 1814, the Brazen patrolled the Irish Sea and the Hebrides in search of French or American ships until, at the end of the year, <mask> received orders to return to the West Indies, to the Windward Islands Station at Barbados, where Admiral Duckworth was now Commander-in-Chief. There were now two stations in the West Indies, at Barbados and Jamaica, and for a while the Brazen shuttled between the two, carrying communications between the two admirals. On one such trip <mask> was introduced to Simón Bolívar, who was in Jamaica following a defeat on the South American mainland. Soon after that he was given a mission to carry the news of the Treaty of Ghent, ending the War of 1812, to the British troops under the command of General John Lambert, near New Orleans, and to assist in their return to England. His reconnaissance of Mobile Bay and the coast of Florida three years earlier now stood him in good stead.The troops, who had captured Fort Bowyer, were recovered and some of them, under the command of Lieutenant Harry Smith, were taken to England on the Brazen after surviving a severe gale in the Gulf of Florida. Smith was impressed with <mask>'s seamanship and became a long-standing friend. The Treaty of Paris, signed by France, Great Britain, Austria, Prussia and Russia on 20 Nov 1815, ended the Napoleonic Wars and a large fleet was no longer needed. The Admiralty set about decommissioning ships and retiring officers. However, <mask> and the Brazen received a stay of execution, as they were needed again in the West Indies. Spain was losing its grip on the north of South America and rival factions were struggling for power. So close to the West Indies, Britain had an interest in the establishment of secure government on the mainland, but needed to be careful to avoid offending Spain, now an ally.The Brazen arrived at Barbados in June 1816 and on 20 July <mask> and the Barbados Harbourmaster were sent to survey the coast of Venezuela and gain intelligence regarding the attitudes of the population and the disposition of the various revolutionary factions. After making his report <mask> went back to patrolling the Caribbean with orders to prevent piracy and the contraband trade. Late in September he seized the . This action turned out to be unwise. The Hércules, not to be confused with Hercule on which <mask> had served in 1804, was nicknamed the Black Frigate and had at one time been the flagship of the Argentine Navy. When taken by <mask>, she was a privateer with 22 guns carrying a valuable cargo plundered from Spanish American cities and ships. She was under the command of William Brown, who had been an admiral in the Argentine Navy and was in command of the revolutionary fleet fighting the Spaniards.Her capture compromised the cautious line taken by the British between the Spanish and the revolutionaries. The Governor of Barbados ordered her release, but, when she had left Barbados, <mask> recaptured her and took her to Antigua as a prize. After long drawn-out proceedings, the High Court of the Admiralty ruled in Brown's favour, but he lost the frigate and her cargo. <mask> continued to receive demands for payment of damages for many years. At the end of 1816 <mask> was commissioned to make a further detailed inspection of the conditions in Venezuela. From Güiria in the Paria Peninsula he sailed west to Caracas and the port of La Guaira and returned eastward by an inland route, in order to study the conditions in the interior of the country. In February 1817 he submitted a detailed report to the Commander-in-Chief, Admiral John Harvey.In it he blamed Spanish neglect for the devastation and decay he found in the interior. He described the insurgent 'Patriots' as determined and disciplined, but the Loyalists were indisciplined and lazy. Following this, <mask> was given a number of covert missions in connection with Venezuela. The exact orders he received are not known, as the period from January to June 1817 has been removed from the Brazen's log in Admiralty files. In May, the Executive Committee of the Patriots prepared a draft Constitution for the Republic of Venezuela which was given to <mask> for transmission to the West Indies Stations and thence to England. However this draft was subsequently rejected by Bolívar. Another source reports that a secret agreement, between the British and the Republicans, was signed later on board the Brazen, in which the British would assist Bolívar in exchange for preferential trading rights when the Republic came into being.In the second half of 1817 <mask> returned once again to patrolling the Caribbean with orders to seize any vessels suspected of piracy, orders which he carried out with alacrity because of the prize money. By June 1818 the Brazen was in need of repair and he returned with her to England, where the ship was taken out of commission and <mask> received the dread news that he was to be placed on half pay. However, Admiral Harvey

masks:
James Stirling
Stirling
Stirling
Stirling
Stirling
Stirling
Stirling
Stirling
Stirling
Stirling
Stirling
Stirling
Stirling
Andrew Stirling
Anne Stirling
Stirling
Stirling
James Mangles
Stirling
Walter Stirling
Charles Stirling
James
Stirling
Charles Stirling
James
Stirling
Stirling
Stirling
Stirling
Stirling
Stirling
Stirling
Stirling
Stirling
Stirling
Stirling
Stirling
Stirling
Stirling
Stirling
Stirling
Stirling
Stirling
Stirling
Stirling
Stirling


title: James Stirling (Royal Navy officer)

texts:
 had sent the Lords of the Admiralty a letter strongly commending 'the zeal and alacrity of this intelligent and excellent officer', which may have influenced their decision to promote him to Post Captain on 7 December 1818. Surrey

Although at the end of 1817 he was not to know it, <mask> was to be without a command for eight years. Between 1818 and 1822 his father, Andrew, was a tenant at Henley Park in Surrey,
and <mask> made use of his enforced leave to visit his parents and other members of his scattered family. He also made several visits to the Continent of Europe. On one such visit to France he met and befriended Captain <mask>, RN, who was also on half pay.Mangles was returning from a tour of North Africa and Asia Minor and was among the first Europeans to have visited Petra. His uncle had an estate at Woodbridge Park, about ten miles from the <mask>s at Henley Park and had extensive interests in the East Indies, had been High Sheriff for Surrey in 1808 and was a director of the British East India Company. Captain Mangles invited <mask> to visit Woodbridge, where he met for the first time the, then, 13-year-old Ellen Mangles, his future wife. The two families got on well together and the parents were delighted two years later when, according to the etiquette of that era, <mask> formally asked the uncle's permission to propose marriage to his daughter. The permission was granted on the condition that <mask> should not make the proposal until Ellen completed her schooling. The couple were married at Stoke Church, Guildford on 3 September 1823, on Ellen's 16th birthday,
and went on a nine-month honeymoon and grand tour. On their return, Ellen gave birth to their first child, Andrew, at Woodbridge on 24 October 1824.During the next eighteen months <mask> put forward several ideas to the Admiralty, including a means of assessing compass declinations at sea and a proposal for improving stowage in warships. He was keen to keep his name in front of those in the Admiralty who could post him to active service. He had returned from the grand tour short of funds, his father had died in 1823, the family businesses were not prospering and he himself had to make payments to the court in connection with the Hércules case. The competition for preferment from other officers on half pay was intense, so he was fortunate that on 23 January 1826 he was recommissioned and given command of the newly built HMS Success. Australia
In 1826 the western side of Australia was still called New Holland, however the Dutch appeared to have no interest in its development. For the British, a port on the west or north coast might be a useful stage for trade with their settlements in the Cape of Good Hope, India and Singapore. However, the French were known to have an intense interest and French ships were exploring the Australian coasts.The British needed to assess further the potential of the region and find out the extent of the French interest without creating a diplomatic incident. For this task, <mask>, with his record of exploration, diplomacy and covert missions, was a natural choice. New South Wales was running short of currency and the settlement on Melville Island was short of food and scurvy was rife. A supply mission to these would be excellent cover for intelligence gathering activities. The Success sailed on 9 July 1826, carrying cases of coins and a distinguished passenger, Admiral Sir <mask>, Knight Companion of the Bath, a hero of the Napoleonic Wars. Ellen and one year old Andrew remained at home at Woodbridge. One of <mask>'s officers was 3rd Lieutenant William Preston, who would marry Ellen's sister Hamilla seven years later.The Success arrived at the Cape of Good Hope on 2 September, discharged its passenger, took on provisions and set sail again, arriving at Sydney Heads on 28 November. Captain Jules d'Urville arrived in Sydney Harbour on 2 December on the French corvette L'Astrolabe. The L'Astrolabe was on a voyage of exploration, which gave Stirling an opportunity to assess French interest in the region. <mask> and d'Urville dined together several times and <mask> discovered that the Astrolabe had a detailed chart of the Swan River. Before leaving England, <mask> had studied the available charts of the west coast of Australia and had concluded that the Swan was a possible site for a harbour and settlement and had hoped to be the first European to explore and chart it. However, d'Urville indicated that the French did not consider that the Swan would be a suitable site for a harbour, because of the difficulty of access and lack of fresh water. This gave <mask> a free hand.A ship arrived from Melville Island on the same day as the L'Astrolabe, bringing reassuring news that scurvy was under control and the settlement was progressing more satisfactorily. The Governor, Major General Ralph Darling, advised <mask> to delay his visit to Melville until later in the year. <mask> then made a report to Darling, setting out detailed arguments for a mission to the Swan River. Darling gave his approval and, on 17 January 1827, the Success sailed from Sydney for the Swan, via Hobart in Van Diemen's Land, where several cases of coins were delivered. On board the Success were the Colonial Botanist Charles Frazer, the surgeon Frederick Clause and the landscape artist Frederick Garling. Swan River exploration
The Nyoongar people called the river Derbarl Yerrigan. On 10 January 1697, the Dutch sea captain Willem De Vlamingh  renamed it to the Swan River (Zwaanenrivier in Dutch) after the large number of black swans they observed there.One hundred and thirty years later, the British ship 'Success arrived off the west coast of Australia on 5 March 1827 and anchored near the north east corner of Rottnest Island. The following day, the ship moved cautiously towards the coast and anchored about a mile from the mouth of the Swan. Lieutenant Carnac and the ship's Master, Millroy, were left to take soundings and look for channels and possible landing places. Meanwhile, <mask>, Frazer and Lieutenant Preston made a preliminary reconnaissance up the river in the gig. They sailed about five miles upstream, reaching a wide section which <mask> named Melville Water. Other features were named after <mask>'s brother Walter and Lieutenant Preston. During the next day more soundings were taken, and Isle Berthelot and Isle Bauche were renamed Carnac Island and Garden Island.<mask> gave the name Cockburn Sound to the "Magnificent Sound between that Island and the Main possessing great attractions for a Sailor in search of a Port". At mid-day on 8 March the exploration party - <mask>, Frazer, Garling, Clause, Lieutenant Belches,  Midshipman Heathcote, the ship's clerk Augustus Gilbert, 7 seamen and 4 marines - left the Success in the cutter and the gig and sailed to Point Belches. There the boats grounded and, as the party was unable to find a channel, the boats were unloaded and dragged across the shallows until nightfall. While this was being done, <mask>, Frazer and Garling climbed the commanding hill on the west bank, which <mask> named Mount Eliza in honour of Eliza Darling, the New South Wales Governor's wife. While there, Garling painted a watercolour landscape view showing the entrance to the river on the opposite side of Melville Water. <mask> later named this Canning River after the British Prime Minister at that time. The next day, dragging across the shallows started at daybreak and continued until nightfall.Frazer, exploring on land, found a freshwater brook and <mask> named the nearby point of land Point Frazer. Frazer also found a lagoon of fresh water and the party moved camp to beside it. On the following morning three armed Aboriginal warriors demonstrated their anger at the 'invasion' (<mask>'s word) of their territory with violent gestures, but eventually retired. During the day, the boats reached the Heirisson Islands and in the channel above them progress was much easier, but still slow, due to the winding of the river. On 11 March the boats passed through a long narrow stretch and encountered more Aboriginal people who threatened the boats with their spears from higher ground. When the boats reached more level terrain, gestures of goodwill defused the situation and the  Aboriginals moved on. On 12 March the boats reached a place where a tributary, later named Helena River, joined the Swan from the east.The party also found another fresh water stream, which they named Success, on the west side of the Swan. From this point on, the Swan narrowed and there were many obstructions. The next day, the cutter was holed and had to be repaired, after which the party reached a creek which <mask> named Ellen Brook, after his young wife. The Swan was not navigable any further and <mask> and Garling set off on foot for the hills to the east, arriving at about sunset. On their return to camp they lost their way in the dark, but Frazer sent out search parties to guide them back. On 14 March the party split into three groups. Frazer went east and Belches and Heathcote north.<mask> and Clause went west and discovered a freshwater lagoon, some Aboriginal huts and a fertile region which so pleased <mask> that he named it Henley Park after his Surrey home. The return journey was much quicker, being downstream and through previously charted areas. On arrival at Melville Water, Belches was sent to explore the Canning River. The rest of the party returned to the Success and spent the next four days surveying the surrounding islands and finding a safe channel into Cockburn Sound. On 21 March the Success weighed anchor and three days later arrived at Geographe Bay, in order to carry out Governor Darling's instructions to explore and report on the region. Geographe Bay was named in May 1801 by French explorer Nicolas Baudin. The Success then sailed to King George Sound, to pick up Major Edmund Lockyer and unload provisions for the settlement there, after which the ship returned to New South Wales, anchoring off Sydney Heads on 16 April.<mask>'s report to Darling and Frazer's report on the quality of the land were enclosed with Darlings report of 21 April 1827 to the Colonial Office in the United Kingdom. <mask>'s report consisted of a diary Narrative of Operations and a section Observations on the Territory, which included a report by Clause on the healthiness of the climate. Later events showed that all three reports were over enthusiastic, the party having explored only the strip of soil in the vicinity of the Swan. Frazer was heavily criticised for this later. However, in their defence, both Clause and Frazer were subject to <mask>'s intense enthusiasm for the project and may have been unduly influenced by it. <mask> wrote a second report on the Swan River on 31 August. This was addressed to the Admiralty and was shorter, placing more emphasis on naval concerns and the strategic value of the area.Melville Island and North Australia
<mask>'s original mission included a task to carry supplies to Melville Island. However, Darling had received further instructions to investigate the formation of a new settlement on the coast to the east of Melville Island. Accordingly, the Success left Sydney on 19 May 1827 carrying an establishment force for a new settlement and accompanied by the brig Mary Elizabeth. The two ships separated. The Mary Elizabeth sailed to Melville Island and on 15 June the Success anchored in Palm Bay, on the western side of Croker Island. <mask> quickly established that the island was unsuitable for settlement and sent a boat across to the mainland to explore Raffles Bay. The report being favourable, <mask> looked no further and on 18 June he went ashore with his officers to take possession of Raffles Bay and the surrounding territory in His Majesty's name.The establishment force and supplies were landed and <mask> named the settlement Fort Wellington. A month later, believing all to be well, <mask> set sail for Melville island. The Success arrived at Fort Dundas on Melville Island on 25 July and set sail again four days later for Madras, and then to Penang, to report to Admiral Gage, Commander of the Eastern Station. <mask> was keen to return home to see his family and to further his case for a settlement at the Swan River. However, Gage instructed him to base the Success in Trincomalee Harbour, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), where he arrived on 4 January 1828. There he succumbed rapidly to the tropical climate and on 21 February three Royal Navy surgeons certified that he was so ill he should return immediately to England. The settlements at Fort Dundas and Fort Wellington rapidly got into difficulties with outbreaks of scurvy and fever, supply shortages and communication failures.The Melville Island outpost was abandoned in November 1828 and the Raffles Bay settlement was broken up in July 1829. Western Australia

On returning to London in 1828, <mask> lobbied the Foreign Office and the Admiralty for support for a settlement in the vicinity of the Swan River, describing it as ideal for a permanent establishment. He emphasised the defensive prospects of Mount Eliza, the large hill on which Kings Park is now situated, "as it is near the narrows of the Swan River, which would make defending the colony from gunships easy, with just a few cannons." On 21 August 1828, <mask> and his friend Thomas Moody wrote a letter to Under-Secretary Robert Hay in which they offered to form an association of private capitalists who would settle Australia using their own money, observing the 'principles' that had been observed by William Penn in the settlement of Pennsylvania. Moody had the fervent support of Tories in Parliament, who had recently responded to his report to Parliament on slavery in the West Indies, by commending his 'great experience in the control of labour, both slave and free, both African and European,

masks:
Stirling
Stirling
James Mangles
Stirling
Stirling
Stirling
Stirling
Stirling
Stirling
James Saumarez
Stirling
Stirling
Stirling
Stirling
Stirling
Stirling
Stirling
Stirling
Stirling
Stirling
Stirling
Stirling
Stirling
Stirling
Stirling
Stirling
Stirling
Stirling
Stirling
Stirling
Stirling
Stirling
Stirling
Stirling
Stirling
Stirling
Stirling
Stirling
Stirling
Stirling
Stirling
Stirling
Stirling


title: James Stirling (Royal Navy officer)

texts:
 in garrison, and in the field'. He had previously offered advice to <mask> regarding the settlement of the Swan River Colony at minimal cost to the British Government. Parliament initially rejected the proposal of <mask> and Moody, but rumours of renewed French interest in the region led Sir George Murray, on 5 November, to request that the Admiralty send a ship-of-war "to proceed to the Western Coast of New Holland and take possession of the whole territory in His Majesty's name."This task was given to HMS Challenger under the command of Captain Charles Fremantle and, a week later, a further order was issued to prepare  to carry a detachment of troops to the Swan River. On 31 December Murray wrote to <mask> confirming his title as Lieutenant-Governor of the new colony and on the same day his Under-Secretary, Robert Hay, confirmed the appointment of the members of the civil establishment including Colonial Secretary Peter Brown, Surveyor-General John Septimus Roe, Harbourmaster Mark John Currie, naturalist <mask>, a surgeon, a storekeeper, a cooper, a blacksmith and a boatbuilder. After hectic preparations, on 6 February 1829 these pioneers, with their assistants, families, servants and livestock, departed Plymouth in the Parmelia under Captain J H Luscombe out of Spithead in company with the Sulphur, carrying 100 men of the 63rd Regiment of Foot, under the command of Major Frederick Irwin, and three years' of army stores, 10,000 bricks and £1,000 to meet all expenses of government. On arrival on 31 May at Garden Island, at what became known as the Swan River Colony, they re-erected a wooden house that had first been assembled at Lieutenant Preston's home in Sutton Green, Surrey, that would become the Governor's home. These pioneers were responsible for laying the foundations of Perth, Fremantle and the market-town named Guildford that is now a suburb of Perth. <mask> administered the Swan River settlement from June 1829 until 11 August 1832, when he left on an extended visit to England where he was knighted, and again from August 1834 until December 1838. However, he was commissioned as Governor of Western Australia only from 6 February 1832, rectifying the absence of a legal instrument providing the authority detailed in <mask>'s Instructions of 30 December 1828.<mask> had said I believe I am the first Governor who ever formed a settlement without Commission, Laws, Instructions and Salary. With the creation of the Western Australian Legislative Council in 1830, <mask> automatically became an official member. In October 1834 <mask> led a detachment of 25 armed troopers and settlers including Septimus Roe and Thomas Peel that attacked an encampment of 60-80 Pindjarep Aboriginal people. The Pindjarep fled into the bush and were later encircled near a crossing on the Murray River at Pinjarra, <mask> referred to this as the Battle of Pinjarra. Settlers accounts claim between 10-80 aboriginals died compared to aboriginal oral history which claim 150 people died. <mask> remained entirely unsympathetic to the needs of Aboriginal people in Western Australia, and never recognised their prior ownership of the land despite the fact that the Buxton Committee of the British House of Commons informed him that this was a mistake for which the new colony would suffer. <mask> mentioned in dispatches that the Aborigines "must gradually disappear" and the "most anxious and judicious measures of the local government [could] prevent the ulterior extinction of the race".As recognition of his service in establishing the colony <mask> was granted land near Beverley, Western Australia. This land, along with neighbouring properties was re-acquired by the Western Australian Government, who later subdivided the land into farmlets for returning soldiers. The remaining land was later used to establish the Avondale Agricultural Research Station, which includes <mask>'s restored homestead. Harvey
In 1829 <mask> selected  of land in Harvey and called it the "Harvey River Settlement". However, the only improvement made was a convict built cottage on the banks of the Harvey River. The cottage featured a shingled roof and pit-sawn jarrah walls with hexagonal-shaped paving blocks fitted together to form firm flooring. A replica cottage known as <mask>'s Cottage has been built on the site and includes one of the original paving blocks in its history room.Mediterranean and west coast of Europe

HMS Indus
In 1840 <mask> was given command of  and instructions to join the Mediterranean Fleet. The British Foreign Secretary, Lord Palmerston, considered it was necessary to show a strong British naval presence in the Mediterranean. Muhammad Ali Pasha had triggered the Oriental Crisis of 1840 by declaring himself Khedive of Egypt, which had been until then a province of the Ottoman Empire. Also King Ferdinand II of the Two Sicilies and Naples, had been persuaded by a British naval blockade of Naples to restore to a British company the monopoly for Sicilian sulphur, an essential ingredient of gunpowder. The Indus reached Gibraltar in August 1841 and made herself felt along the Algerian coast on her way to the Mediterranean station at Malta. For a few months she was deployed around Sicily and the boot of Italy, but in November <mask> received new instructions to show a presence and monitor the situation at Lisbon. Portugal had been in turmoil for several years and the British Admiralty had received intelligence that Lisbon was threatened by a 5,000 strong revolutionary army and the Portuguese Government was preparing for conflict.<mask> was directed not to take part in any action, but to safeguard British subjects and the Portuguese royal family. In the event, the conflict was resolved peacefully. In June the Indus was ordered back to Malta and then to Smyrna, where there had been an insurrection and British subjects and property in the region were thought to be at risk. This threat also failed to materialise and after three months at Piraeus in Greece the Indus  sailed to Naples to take part in the farewell celebrations sending the Princess Teresa Cristina on her way to marry the Emperor Pedro II of Brazil. This was a major diplomatic event and <mask> entertained the British Ambassador and British Consul on board and was received by King Ferdinand. The harbour was filled with vessels of the Neapolitan, Brazilian and British navies as well as an American warship and <mask> sent a detailed report on the foreign warships to the Admiralty. A brief spell at Gibraltar was followed by a visit to Cadiz to prevent a planned blockade of the harbour by rebel troops.Then, in September 1843, Vice-Admiral Sir Edward Owen, Commander-in-Chief, Mediterranean Fleet, received an urgent request for assistance from Sir Edmund Lyons, the British Consul in Athens. King Otto of Greece had rejected a proposed new constitutional government for Greece and was facing an armed rebellion. <mask> was to join , under the command of Sir Charles Sullivan, place himself at the disposal of Sir Edmund and arrange for the protection of British subjects. <mask>'s charm and diplomatic skill, combined with the presence of three British warships in the harbour, calmed the situation and, despite the King's reluctance to adopt the new constitution, Sullivan and <mask> persuaded him that acceptance was the wisest course. In gratitude for their help in quelling the rebellion and negotiating with his ministers, the King bestowed on Sullivan and Stirling Greece's high honour, Knight Commander of the Order of the Redeemer. Following this, <mask> returned to England, where the Indus was paid off on 13 June 1844. HMS Howe
Stirling received his fourth command, the 120-gun first rate ship of the line  in May 1847 and joined the Channel Fleet under the command of the newly appointed Rear-Admiral Sir Charles Napier on .In September he received special orders. He was to conduct Her Majesty, the Dowager Queen Adelaide, Queen Victoria's aunt, on trips to Lisbon and Madeira and then back to Osborne House on the Isle of Wight. Flying the Royal Standard at the main, the Howe entered the River Tagus on 22 October. Sir Charles Napier immediately boarded to pay his respects, followed shortly afterwards by Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg Gotha, King of Portugal, and two princes. The next day, all the captains in the squadron donned full dress and white trousers and were formally presented to the Dowager Queen, after which Napier and <mask> escorted her to the royal Palace of Necessidades, where they were received by Queen Maria II. After five days of sightseeing, the party set sail for Madeira. Leaving the Tagus, the Howe was struck by a large wave and the Queen slipped and nearly fell overboard, but was saved by <mask>, who in so doing lost his ceremonial sword overboard.The grateful Queen later presented him with a magnificent replacement, a fine gold plated dress sword and scabbard which had been specially made for her. She also presented him with a silver snuff box with an inscription thanking him for his presence of mind on the occasion. After delivering the Queen in Madeira, the Howe returned to Lisbon and took part in various exercises and manoeuvres before leaving again to collect her for the return voyage. She arrived at Osborne House on 27 April and <mask> learned a year later that she had honoured him by appointing him as her naval aide-de-camp. He now had a few weeks with his family before receiving orders to report at Malta to Vice-Admiral Sir William Parker, Commander-in-Chief, Mediterranean Fleet, who had succeeded Sir Edward Owen. During the next few years, the presence of the British and French fleets encouraged an uneasy peace in the eastern Mediterranean. In 1849 the Howe was recalled.She reached England on 2 July and two weeks later the ship's company was paid off. Far East
In July 1851, <mask> was promoted to rear admiral and in the following year served as Third Naval Lord at the Admiralty. From January 1854 to February 1856 <mask> was commander in chief of the East Indies and China Station. Using gunboat diplomacy he signed the first British treaty with Japan (the Anglo-Japanese Friendship Treaty) on 14 October 1854. In November 1854, with Hong Kong Governor John Bowring, he led a fleet up the Pearl River to Canton to support the Viceroy of Liangguang (modern day Guangdong and Guangxi) Ye Mingchen and his forces besieged by the Tiandihui army. The fleet carried weapons and ammunition, food and Qing reinforcements. Retirement
<mask> was promoted vice admiral in August 1857.He became an admiral in November 1862 and died in comfortable retirement at his home in Woodbridge Park, near Guildford in Surrey, on 22 April 1865 aged 74. There is a memorial tablet within St Marks Church, Wyke. Ellen survived him by nine years. <mask> and his wife were buried in the extension to the graveyard of St John's Church on Stoke Road, near Guildford where they had been married. Honours
The plant genus <mask>ia, was named in his honour by Stephan Endlicher in 1838. A variety of Pittosporum is also named in his honour. In England, Stoke Church's social centre and hall is named The Stirling Centre.In Western Australia the suburb of Stirling is named after him, as is a seat in the lower House of the federal Parliament and Governor Stirling Senior High School. The Royal Australian Navy's Indian Ocean Fleet is based at HMAS Stirling, near Rockingham. Stirling Highway (which links Perth and Fremantle) was named so in his honour. There are also many buildings and businesses named after him throughout Perth and Fremantle. Dishonours
Following the well-conceived ambush leading to a massacre lasting at least one hour and now known as the Pinjarra Massacre that <mask> led personally, <mask> threatened the Noongar people with genocide should they continue to resist colonisation. Given historical records of his involvement,

In 2020 a statue of <mask> on Hay Street in Perth's central business district was defaced amid Black Lives Matter protests. The statue had its neck and hands painted red, and the Australian Aboriginal Flag was painted over the plaque on the ground in front of the statue.Increasingly there are efforts to remove Stirling's name from Western Australian landmarks. In 2019, a petition to rename Stirling Highway received little support. In 2021, "residents at a [City of] Stirling council electors meeting voted in favour of changing their local government's name", although the city "eventually passed a motion that made no mention of any name change", with one councillor saying "while nobody condoned historical atrocities, a name change would cost 'millions of dollars', would set a dangerous precedent and should be 'nipped in the bud." However, shortly afterwards, Western Australian senators called for a broader review of Western Australian "place names, such as Stirling Range, linked to colonial figures with known racist histories ... such as William Dampier, John Forrest and John Septimus Roe." See also

 History of Western AustraliaHistorical Records of Australia Anglo-Japanese relations

References

Further reading
 Hasluck, <mask> <mask>. Melbourne: Oxford University Press. 1963.Statham-Drew, Pamela. <mask> : Admiral and Founding Governor of Western Australia'' : University of Western Australia Press, Crawley W.A., 2003. External links

 Celebrate W.A. site

 <mask> by Christopher John Pettitt for Normandy Historians

|-

|-

|-

1791 births
1865 deaths
People from North Lanarkshire
Explorers of Australia
Governors of Western Australia
Lords of the Admiralty
Members of the Western Australian Legislative Council
Royal Navy admirals
Scottish politicians
Japan–United Kingdom relations
Settlers of Western Australia
People associated with massacres of Indigenous Australians
Royal Navy personnel of the Napoleonic Wars
People from Coatbridge
19th-century Australian

masks:
James Mangles
Stirling
Stirling
James Drummond
Stirling
Stirling
Stirling
Stirling
Stirling
Stirling
Stirling
Stirling
Stirling
Stirling
Stirling
Stirling
Stirling
Stirling
Stirling
Stirling
Stirling
Stirling
Stirling
Stirling
Stirling
Stirling
Stirling
Stirling
Stirling
Stirling
Stirling
Stirling
Stirling
Stirling
Stirling
Stirling
Alexandra James
Stirling
James Stirling
James Stirling


title: Lawrence Leritz

texts:
<mask> (born September 26, 1962) is an American actor, dancer, singer, producer, director, fitness expert and choreographer. Life and career
Born in Alton, Illinois, <mask> made his stage debut in the children's chorus of the world stage premiere of Rodgers and Hammerstein's musical State Fair at The Muny, starring Ozzie and Harriet Nelson, directed by James Hammerstein, supervised by Richard Rodgers, conducted by Anton Coppola and choreographed by Tommy Tune. Leritz moved to New York City on scholarships to the Harkness Ballet, Joffrey Ballet and School of American Ballet, studying with Alexandra Danilova, Stanley Williams and the Bolshoi's Māris Liepa. Leritz was invited to work with the dance choreographers George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, Alvin Ailey, Robert Joffrey, Ruth Page, Frederic Franklin, John Neumeier, Lee Theodore, Joe Layton and Sir Frederick Ashton. <mask>, while dancing in a company class at The New York City Ballet, was discovered by Balanchine ballerina Violette Verdy. Violette invited <mask> to join The Hamburg Ballet. While performing in Hamburg,  his dancing impressed Dance Magazine's editor-in-chief William Como, who invited <mask> back to the U.S.for photo sessions with famed dance photographer Kenn Duncan for Dance Magazine.<mask> continued his dancing career on the international stages, starring with Ruth Page's Chicago Ballet, Israel's Bat-Dor Dance Company and with the Paris Opéra on its U.S. tour to the Metropolitan Opera and DC's Kennedy Center. <mask> also appeared as guest artist and choreographer for Plácido Domingo's Los Angeles Music Center Opera and danced in the Joffrey Ballet version of Michel Fokine's "Petrushka" with Rudolf Nureyev at the New York City Center. <mask> created his own company, Dance Celebration, which represented the United States at the International Choreographic Competitions in Paris, performing his signature ballet, "Worth A Song,"  receiving special congratulations from President Jimmy Carter at The White House in 1979. Leritz produced The 50th Anniversary Gala of The American Guild of Musical Artists, featuring over 300 stars of ballet and opera at The New York State Theater at Lincoln Center in 1986. The Gala's hosts, New York City Opera's Beverly Sills and New York City Ballet's Peter Martins provided the show's highlight, dancing together in the restaged opening of Balanchine's "Vienna Waltzes." <mask> appeared three times on the cover of Dance Pages Magazine, including the Spring 1989 issue, in which he wrote an article which introduced and encouraged bodybuilding for dancers. Appearing on the cover with bodybuilding champion Rich Gaspari, his article helped to change the look of professional dancers.In 2006, <mask> was included in Harvard University's George Balanchine Collection of The New York City Ballet at The Harvard Theatre Collection and The Harvard College Library. <mask> appeared Off-Broadway in "Funding The Arts" at the Baryshnikov Arts Center, acting and dancing the role of J. Edgar. <mask>'s television dance appearances include the 2013 Emmy Award winning "Night Of Too Many Stars" on Comedy Central, performing as Keitel's wise guy in "Call Me Maybe" with Carly Rae Jepsen and Harvey Keitel at the historic Beacon Theatre (New York City). <mask> was featured in The New York Times dance article, Your First Dance Crush, July 2013. <mask> also co-hosted the Off-Broadway tribute to dance legend Ruth Page, March 2015. <mask> was chosen by director/choreographer Jerome Robbins for the second Broadway revival of Fiddler on the Roof with Herschel Bernardi and Maria Karnilova. Other Broadway appearances include Fonteyn & Nureyev on Broadway and  Lee Theodore's American Dance Machine.<mask> also directed and produced two editions of "Broadway Showstoppers" at NYC's Hudson Theatre and The Town Hall. <mask> returned to co-star at The Muny with Broadway's Judy Kaye, John Reardon, John Schuck, Beth Leavel and his dance partner, Lorene Yarnell in Cole Porter's Can-Can, receiving excellent reviews. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch noted "Can-Can opened in dazzling style, reminiscent of the Muny glory days, weaving a magic spell. <mask> and Yarnell are teamed in exciting style. Their dancing is fabulous." <mask> appeared in The Joe Layton Tribute at Off-Broadway's St Luke's Theater, October 2014, hosted by Bruce Vilanch and recently in The Madeline Kahn Tribute, singing at New York's Metropolitan Room, September 2015. On television, <mask> had the honor of leading NBC's 2017 annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade as the Taxi Driver.Additional acting roles include  2018 appearances on Amazon's The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel and NBC's Saturday Night Live in the Spiritual Rap Choir with Amy Schumer, CBS's Capitol, ABC's All My Children, Dick Clark's Celebrity Boxing with Ron Palillo and in HBO's Sex And The City; talk shows including The Rosie O'Donnell Show with Liza Minnelli, Maury,  CNN's Showbiz Tonight and Entertainment Tonight. <mask> hosted and created the best-selling DVD Total Stretch! with <mask>". <mask>'s many feature films include the 2022 award-winning comedy Love in Kilnerry as Deputy Rory, The Con Is On starring Uma Thurman, The Adjustment Bureau opposite Matt Damon, Julie Taymor's Across the Universe, Dummy with Adrien Brody, Easy Money with Rodney Dangerfield,  Legs with Gwen Verdon Annie (1982 film) with Carol Burnett, and the HBO feature Stag with Ben Gazzara, Kevin Dillon and Taylor Dayne. Leritz co-starred in the 2017 comedy short film, The Pitch. Leritz is the Spectrum Records recording artist of the dance hit single "Crank It Up" produced by Cory Wade, performing on tour with The Weather Girls, Laura Branigan, Sylvester, Natalie Cole and starred at the Las Vegas Stardust Hotel during its final months. <mask> made his recording debut with the NYC club hit, "It Takes Two To Tango".<mask> choreographed the Motown feature film musical, Berry Gordy's  The Last Dragon, the mime duo Shields & Yarnell for Atlantic City, for MTV and various recording artists. He also choreographed the one-act ballet "Alone" for The Hamburg Ballet, receiving its US premiere in 2018. For Goodtimes Entertainment, <mask> choreographed and co-produced two live action children musicals, Treehouse Trolls Birthday Day and The Forest Of Fun and Wonder. <mask> is also known in the fitness world as the choreographer to many bodybuilding stars, which included the NBC Sports television special  "Arnold Schwarzenegger's Bodybuilding Arnold Classic" in 1989 and appears in numerous issues of Joe Weider's Muscle & Fitness and Men's Fitness magazines. In "A Broadway Holiday Concert"  for Huntington Disease NY, <mask> choreographed songs by Cole Porter and original cast members from Broadway's Grease. During the 2003–2004 New York theatre season, <mask> was the producer and choreographer of the long running Off-Broadway show, Boobs! The Musical.The New York Times review noted "The six person cast is expertly choreographed by <mask>." Boobs! The Musical was nominated for the 2004 MAC Awards for Best Musical Revue and won New Orleans' 2005 Big Easy and Ambie Awards. For television, <mask> produced three seasons of the annual event "Day of Compassion", for which Time magazine honored <mask> as their 1996 Local Hero. <mask> directed and produced a tribute, hosted by Tyne Daly, to honor Welcome Back, Kotter'''s Ron Palillo's life and career at NYC's The Triad Theatre, October 3, 2012. <mask> also produced three staged industry readings of Ron Palillo's play, "The Lost Boy" for the New York stage. Broadway's Chad Kimball, Matt Doyle, Jennifer Cody, Sheffield Chastain, Mary Beth Peil, Elizabeth Morton and Celeste Lecesne starred in the initial reading of "The Lost Boy," September 2014, at the Manhattan Theatre Club Studios.Awards, nominations and citations
2018 The Dancers Over 40 Legacy Award
2004 MAC Awards Best Musical Revue (Producer nominee)
2005 Big Easy Awards Best Musical (Producer nominee)
2006 Teall Awards Best Musical (Producer nominee)
2006 Teall Awards Best Choreography (nominee, based on original choreography by <mask>)
1996 Time'' magazine's Local Hero
1987 Lawrence Leritz Day Proclamation, Alton, Illinois
1983 Lawrence Leritz Day Proclamation, Wood River, Illinois

See also
Treehouse Trolls Birthday Day
Songs of Youth and Discovery
Kenn Duncan

References

Other sources
 Boobs! The Musical Bustin' Out All Over; Cast Album, Regional Runs Expected By Kenneth Jones at Playbill com on Jul 30, 2003
 Lawrence Leritz Films/New York Times

External links

1962 births
Living people
American male ballet dancers
American male stage actors
American male musical theatre actors
American male film actors
American male television actors
Ballet choreographers
American male singers
People from Wood River, Illinois
People from Alton, Illinois

masks:
Lawrence Leritz
Leritz
Leritz
Leritz
Leritz
Leritz
Leritz
Leritz
Leritz
Leritz
Leritz
Leritz
Leritz
Leritz
Leritz
Leritz
Leritz
Leritz
Leritz
Leritz
Leritz
Lawrence Leritz
Leritz
Leritz
Leritz
Leritz
Leritz
Leritz
Leritz
Lawrence Leritz
Leritz
Leritz
Leritz
Leritz
Lawrence Leritz


title: Morten Lauridsen

texts:
<mask> (born February 27, 1943) is an American composer. A National Medal of Arts recipient (2007), he was composer-in-residence of the Los Angeles Master Chorale from 1994 to 2001, and has been a professor of composition at the University of Southern California Thornton School of Music for more than 50 years. About
A native of the Pacific Northwest, Lauridsen worked as a Forest Service firefighter and lookout (on an isolated tower near Mount St. Helens) before traveling south to study composition at the University of Southern California with Ingolf Dahl, Halsey Stevens, Robert Linn, and Harold Owen. He began teaching at USC in 1967 and has been on their faculty ever since. In 2006, <mask> was named an "American Choral Master" by the National Endowment for the Arts. In 2007 he received the National Medal of Arts from the President in a White House ceremony, "for his composition of radiant choral works combining musical beauty, power and spiritual depth that have thrilled audiences worldwide". His works have been recorded on more than 200 CDs, five of which have received Grammy Award nominations, including O Magnum Mysterium by the Tiffany Consort, A Company of Voices by Conspirare, Sound The Bells by The Bay Brass, and two all-Lauridsen discs entitled Lux Aeterna by the Los Angeles Master Chorale led by Paul Salamunovich, and Nocturnes with the Polyphony choir and the Britten Sinfonia conducted by Stephen Layton.His principal publishers are Peermusic (New York/Hamburg) and Faber Music (London). A recipient of numerous grants, prizes, and commissions, <mask> chaired the Composition department at the USC Thornton School of Music from 1990 to 2002 and founded the School's Advanced Studies program in Film Scoring. He has held residencies as guest composer/lecturer at over 100 universities and has received honorary doctorates from Oklahoma State University, Westminster Choir College, King's College, University of Aberdeen, Scotland, and Whitman College. In 2014 he was invited to be Honorary Artistic President of Interkultur/World Choir Games. In 2016 he was awarded the ASCAP Foundation Life in Music Award. In late February 2020, via an update on his Facebook page, <mask> revealed he had retired from the Thornton School of Music after having taught classes there for over 50 years. He will still travel to university residencies and concerts worldwide.<mask> now divides his time between Los Angeles and his home in the San Juan Archipelago off the northern coast of Washington State. Compositions

His eight vocal cycles and two collections—Les Chansons des Roses (Rilke), Mid-Winter Songs (Graves), A Winter Come (Moss), Madrigali: Six "FireSongs" on Italian Renaissance Poems, Nocturnes (Rilke, Neruda and Agee), Cuatro Canciones (Lorca), Four Madrigals on Renaissance Texts, A Backyard Universe, Five Songs on American Poems (Moss, Witt, Gioia and Agee) and Lux Aeterna—his series of sacred a cappella motets (O magnum mysterium, Ave Maria, O Nata Lux, Ubi caritas et amor, and Ave Dulcissima Maria) and numerous instrumental works are featured regularly in concert by distinguished artists and ensembles throughout the world. O Magnum Mysterium, Dirait-on (from Les Chansons des Roses), O Nata Lux (from Lux Aeterna) and Sure On This Shining Night (from Nocturnes) have become the all-time best-selling choral octavos distributed by Theodore Presser, in business since 1783. His musical approaches are very diverse, ranging from direct to abstract in response to various characteristics (subject matter, language, style, structure, historical era, etc.) of the texts he sets. His Latin sacred settings, such as the Lux Aeterna and motets, often reference Gregorian chant plus Medieval and Renaissance procedures while blending them within a freshly contemporary sound while other works such as the Madrigali and Cuatro Canciones are highly chromatic or atonal. His music has an overall lyricism and is tightly constructed around melodic and harmonic motifs.Referring to <mask>'s sacred music, the musicologist and conductor Nick Strimple said he was "the only American composer in history who can be called a mystic, (whose) probing, serene work contains an elusive and indefinable ingredient which leaves the impression that all the questions have been answered ... From 1993 <mask>'s music rapidly increased in international popularity, and by century's end he had eclipsed Randall Thompson as the most frequently performed American choral composer." Vocal works

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Date !! Composition/Song Cycle !! Movements
|-
| 2012 ||Prayer (On a Poem by Dana Gioia) ||
|-
| 2008 ||Canticle/O Vos Omnes||
|-
| 2006 ||Chanson Eloignee (Rilke) ||
|-
| 2005 ||Nocturnes (written for the American Choral Directors Association's Brock Commission) ||I. Sa Nuit d'Été (Rainer Maria Rilke)
II. Soneto de la Noche (Pablo Neruda)

III.Sure on this Shining Night (James Agee)

IV. Epilogue: Voici le soir (Rilke, added in 2008)
|-
| 2004 ||Ave Dulcissima Maria (written for the Harvard Glee Club) ||
|-
| 1999 ||Ubi Caritas et Amor||
|-
| 1997 || Lux Aeterna (<mask> <mask> composition) |Lux Aeterna||I. IntroitusII. In Te, Domine, SperaviIII. O Nata LuxIV. Veni, Sancte SpiritusV. Agnus Dei|-
| 1997 ||Ave Maria||
|-
| 1994 ||O Magnum Mysterium||
|-
| 1993 ||Les Chansons des Roses (settings of poems by Rainer Maria Rilke) ||I.En Une Seule FleurII. Contre Qui, RoseIII. De Ton Rêve Trop PleinIV. La Rose ComplèteV. Dirait-on|-
| 1987 ||Madrigali: Six "Firesongs" on Italian Renaissance Poems||I. Ov'è, Lass', Il Bel Viso?II. Quando Son Piu LontanIII.Amor, Io Sento L'almaIV. Io PiangoV. Luci Serene e ChiareVI. Se Per Havervi, Oime|-
| 1981 ||Cuatro Canciones Sobre Poesias de Federico García Lorca||
|-
| 1980 ||Mid-Winter Songs (on poems by Robert Graves) ||I. Lament for PasiphaëII. Like SnowIII. She Tells Her Love While Half AsleepIV.Mid-Winter WakingV. Intercession in Late October|-
| 1976 ||Where Have the Actors Gone||
|-
| 1970 ||I Will Lift Up Mine Eyes||
|-
| 1970 ||O Come, Let Us Sing Unto the Lord||
|-
| 1967 ||A Winter Come (on poems by Howard Moss) ||I. When Frost Moves FastII. As Birds Come NearerIII. The Racing WaterfallIV. A Child Lay DownV. Who Reads By StarlightVI.And What Of Love|-
| 1965 ||A Backyard Universe||

|}

Recordings

Over 200 recordings of works by <mask> <mask> have been released, including five that have received Grammy nominations. Nine All-Lauridsen CDs:

Sheet music sales and performances

<mask> <mask> is currently one of America's most performed composers, with hundreds of performances each year throughout the world in venues including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Kennedy Center, Walt Disney Concert Hall, the Vatican, Sydney Opera House and Westminster Abbey. Over one million copies of his scores have been sold and his Dirait-on, O Magnum Mysterium and O Nata Lux have become the all-time best selling octavos distributed by the Theodore Presser Co., in business since 1783. Recordings of <mask> <mask>'s compositions are featured regularly on radio broadcasts throughout the United States, and he is a frequent interview guest on radio and television programs, including a recent KCET Life and Times program, the oft-repeated national broadcast of "A Portrait of <mask> Lauridsen" on First Art, and a nationally broadcast Christmas Day feature on NPR's Weekend Edition with Scott Simon. He has been profiled in several extended printed articles, including those in the Los Angeles Times "Calendar", Seattle Times, Choral Journal, Choir and Organ, Chorus America's Voice, Fanfare Magazine, and the Wall Street Journal. He has received over four hundred commission requests, most recently from Harvard University, the American Choral Director's Association and the Pacific Chorale, and is a frequent guest lecturer and Artist/Composer-in-Residence. His principal publishers are Peermusic (New York/Hamburg) and Peer's affiliate, Faber Music (London).Teaching life

In addition to these positions, Lauridsen has served as Artistic Advisor on the Boards of the Los Angeles Master Chorale, Dale Warland Singers, I Cantori (New York), USC Scoring for Films/TV Program, National Children's Chorus, Creative Kids Education Foundation, Volti (San Francisco Chamber Singers), New York City Master Chorale, Jacaranda, and Angeles Chorale. Publications
"It's a Still Life That Runs Deep: The Influence of Zurbaran's Still Life With Lemons, Oranges and a Rose on <mask> <mask>'s Composition O Magnum Mysterium", Wall Street Journal, February 21, 2009

foreword to the book, Evoking Sound, by James Jordan, GIA Publications, 2009

"<mask> Lauridsen on Composing Choral Music," a chapter in the book Contemporary Choral Music Composers, GIA Publications, 2007

Liner notes for the CD Randall Thompson—The Peaceable Kingdom, Schola Cantorum of Oxford, Hyperion Records

"Remembering Halsey Stevens," National Association of Composer Journal, 1990

Documentary

The 2012 documentary film Shining Night: A Portrait of Composer <mask> Lauridsen portrays the composer at his Waldron Island retreat and in rehearsals in California and Scotland. Commentaries about the composer by poet Dana Gioia, conductor Paul Salamunovich, composer/conductor Paul Mealor, composer Alex Shapiro and conductor Robert Geary, along with performances by the San Francisco Choral Society, University of Aberdeen Choral Society and Orchestra, Con Anima Chamber Choir and Volti, are featured. Works include O Magnum Mysterium, Lux Aeterna, Madrigali, Dirait-on, and Nocturnes'', with soundtracks by Polyphony and the Britten Sinfonia (conducted by Stephen Layton), The Singers: Minnesota Choral Artists (conducted by Matthew Culloton), and the Dale Warland Singers (conducted by Dale Warland). References

External links
mortenlauridsen.net Composer's Website
Peermusic Classical: Morten Lauridsen Composer's Publisher and Bio
 Los Angeles Master Chorale bio
Morten Lauridsen interview by Bruce Duffie
A Choral Master's Grass-Roots Appeal, Wall Street Journal Review by Bruce Campbell
 The Best Composer You've Never Heard Of Wall Street Journal Review by Terry Teachout
 Song Without Borders Film, Shining Night: A Portrait of Composer Morten Lauridsen Film publisher's website
 Fanfare Magazine Review, Prayer: The Songs of Morten Lauridsen Transcribed on Composer's website

1943 births
Living people
20th-century classical composers
20th-century American composers
20th-century American male musicians
21st-century classical composers
21st-century American composers
21st-century American male musicians
American classical composers
American male classical composers
American people of Danish descent
Choral composers
Singers from Washington (state)
People from Colfax, Washington
People from Beaverton, Oregon
People from San Juan County, Washington
Thornton School of Music alumni
Thornton School of Music faculty
United States National Medal of Arts recipients

masks:
Morten Johannes Lauridsen
Lauridsen
Lauridsen
Lauridsen
Lauridsen
Lauridsen
Lauridsen
Morten
Lauridsen
Morten
Lauridsen
Morten
Lauridsen
Morten
Lauridsen
Morten
Morten
Lauridsen
Morten
Morten


title: Colin Gifford

texts:
<mask> (born 1936) is a British railway photographer. <mask> pioneered the "New Approach" to railway photography in the 1960s during the declining years of steam. This approach relies heavily on abstraction and sought to encapsulate the dirty working atmosphere of the railway. Early years
<mask> was born in London in 1936, and grew up near King's Cross. As a child he had no particular interest in railways – though he lived within walking distance of King's Cross station, he was never a trainspotter. Instead, he positioned himself by the ticket barriers, to better watch the flow of travellers and the bustle of station business as much as the trains themselves. It was not until his student days in the late 1950s at Harrow School of Art that he found tangible expression for the visual possibilities that railways offered him.Though he was more interested in illustration than in photography, he began taking photographs of railway scenes around North London and especially along the Great Central Main Line that passed through Harrow, gradually moving further afield. Although Bill Brandt is often cited as a major influence, the style that made <mask>'s name owed much to the work of a little-known Swiss avant-garde railway photographer Jean-Michel Hartmann, whose book Magie du rail (Editions Amart, 1959) () revealed an eye for pattern and form that had an impact on <mask>'s pictorial approach. 1960s
In the early 1960s <mask> joined Ian Allan Publishing as art editor and occasionally placed railway photographs in the magazines he designed. He took many of his well-known shots – including images of Bulleid pacifics at speed, captured from trains on adjacent lines – during his daily commute. Thirty years later, one of these images was featured on a Royal Mail stamp. At the publishing house, he redesigned the Combined Volume, Railway World and helped to transform Trains Illustrated into Modern Railways, a large-format monthly for transport professionals. He also designed some trompe-l'œil covers for Model Railway Constructor, including a speeding Trix 'Warship' and a 00 gauge BR Standard Class 9F seemingly emitting an enormous plume of smoke.Aside from his work at Ian Allan, <mask> continued to build a photographic record of every region of British Railways using a Rolleiflex medium-format twin-lens reflex camera. He also photographed the full length of the River Thames with the idea of one day making a book out of it. His work was predominantly in black and white. For 35 mm colour work he used cheaper, less sophisticated cameras such as the Russian-made Fed; in later years a Pentax SLR. In 1965 the Decline of Steam book was published. In place of front three-quarter views (with the sun always coming over the photographer's shoulder and the locomotive number clearly visible), Decline of Steam portrayed misty industrial landscapes, sweating railway workers, rain-swept nocturnal platforms, and sulphurous engine sheds. The trains themselves were often almost an afterthought in this vision of the railway as a totality; some images did not feature trains at all.By 1967, <mask> had left his job to focus on photographing the final years of British steam

His work from this time influenced the British photographers John Tickner, Gordon Edgar, and Adrian Freeman in their work on steam trains in China. Each a Glimpse
Each a Glimpse, his second book, which he also designed, was published by Ian Allan in 1970. Many of the pictures dated from 1967 to 1968 and the influence of Jean-Michel Hartmann – which was strong in Decline of Steam – was less marked in a book that showed how, in those final years of steam, <mask> had begun to experiment with new techniques and find his own visual language, less graphically dynamic and more pictorialist than before. And Gone Forever
Although he had amassed a collection of some 18,000 negatives between 1958 and 1968, with enough unpublished material (including his rarely glimpsed colour work) for many more books, <mask>'s fastidiousness about his work became something of a stumbling block. The Thames book failed to find a publisher, while sales of Steam Railways in Industry (Batsford, 1976) were disappointing, as was the reproduction quality. Meanwhile, a projected seven-part region-by-region study with Ian Allan ceased after the first volume, Steam Finale North (1976), had been published. <mask> was not pleased when Ian Allan subsequently published Steam Finale Scotland, which was superficially a continuation of the series but in fact contained nothing by Gifford.Things had looked more promising when, the previous year, <mask> had signed with New English Library to produce the companion-piece to Each a Glimpse, entitled And Gone Forever. With an eye on the export market and foreign co-editions, extensive use of colour was stipulated for the first time. A mock-up of And Gone Forever was presented at the 1976 Frankfurt Book Fair but the book never reached production, at least in the form <mask> and his publisher anticipated. Deadlines came and went and though most of the design work was eventually completed, the contract was terminated in 1978. A very different book of the same title finally appeared from Oxford Publishing Company in 1994, but without the colour photographs that had been promised 18 years earlier. Commemorative stamps for the Royal Mail
Also in 1994, the Royal Mail published a set of five postage stamps featuring a selection of his photographs, chosen in collaboration with the designer Brian Delaney; as with all Royal Mail stamp issues, the designs were personally approved by the Queen. The stamps commemorate the sesquicentennial of a number of British train lines.There was an exhibition at the National Postal Museum (British Postal Museum) to mark the event, which included items such as <mask>'s notebooks and treasured Rolleiflex camera. 2000s
By the late 2000s there was talk of a new, revised edition of Each a Glimpse with enhanced, digitally scanned images taken from the original negatives and a significant number of minor alterations to the layout. The book was published in 2012, and a slipcased limited edition was also offered at a premium price. <mask>'s introduction to the revised edition of Each a Glimpse alludes to a set of approximately 100 colour images that had been exhibited at Kidderminster Railway Museum in 2009 under the title In the Wink of an Eye. The book Transition was published in August 2018 to mark the 50th anniversary of the last steam workings on British Rail. Kidderminster Railway Museum was to be the publisher and the images would feature diesel and electric traction as well as steam. <mask> had been one of few photographers who, in the fast-changing railway scene of the 1960s, responded creatively to the new forms of traction, often depicting them side by side with steam power.<mask> was present in person at the opening of an exhibition of photographs from the book – held at Kidderminster Railway Museum on 4 August 2018 – but of the finished copies there was no sign whatsoever. Rather than the more costly gravure method generally used for high-quality monochrome work, the KLM's printer had been instructed to use a simple four-colour process which, while less expensive, is not primarily designed for black and white. The book finally went on sale in May 2019, after long-standing production difficulties. Published works
 Each a Glimpse (1970)
 Decline of Steam (1965)
 Steam Finale North (1976)
 Steam Railways in Industry (1976)
 And Gone Forever (1994)

Exhibitions
In 1996 <mask> was in an exhibition at the National Railway Museum. In 2003 the Newcastle Arts Centre mounted an exhibition of his works from the series, Decline Of Steam, Each a Glimpse and Gone for Ever. In 2009 he had a show at the Kidderminster Railway Museum. Collections
<mask> has four photographs in the collection of the Science and Society Picture Library (UK).His five commemorative stamps are in the collection of the Science Museum Group (UK). See also
 Phoenix Railway Photographic Circle

References

Photographers from Sussex
Living people
1936 births
Rail transport photographers

masks:
Colin Telfer Gifford
Gifford
Gifford
Gifford
Gifford
Gifford
Gifford
Gifford
Gifford
Gifford
Gifford
Gifford
Gifford
Gifford
Gifford
Gifford
Gifford
Gifford
Gifford


title: Yvonne Ridley

texts:
<mask> (born 23 April 1958) is a British journalist who was a chair of the National Council of the now-defunct Respect Party. She was captured by the Taliban in 2001. She later converted to Islam. She is a vocal supporter of Palestine, which she took up as a schoolgirl. She is an avid critic of Zionism and of Western media portrayals and foreign policy in the War on Terror, and has undertaken speaking tours throughout the Muslim world as well as America, Europe and Australia. She has been called "something close to a celebrity in the Islamic world" by the journalist Rachel Cooke, and in 2008 was voted the "most recognisable woman in the Islamic world" by Islam Online. Biography
<mask> was born in the working class mining town of Stanley, County Durham, the youngest of three girls, and had an upbringing in the Church of England.She began her career at the local Stanley News, which was part of the Durham Advertiser Series. From there she moved to Newcastle upon Tyne and worked for The Sunday Sun and the Newcastle Journal for Thomson Regional Newspapers as well as The Northern Echo which was part of the Westminster Press group. She attended the London College of Printing. As a journalist, she was employed by The Sunday Times, The Independent on Sunday, The Observer, the Daily Mirror and the News of the World. She was deputy editor and acting editor of Wales on Sunday, and was chief reporter when the Sunday Express sent her to Afghanistan after 9/11. In one interview she mentions having "a reputation as the 'Patsy Stone of Fleet Street'" that she was happy to have left behind with her conversion to Islam. Her passion for left-wing, anti-imperialist causes predates her conversion; she joined the Labour Party as a teenager before resigning over the decision to invade Iraq in March 2003.Capture by the Taliban
<mask> was captured by the Taliban in Afghanistan on 28 September 2001, and held for 11 days, while working for the Sunday Express. In the days before the beginning of the US-led invasion of Afghanistan, after being refused an entrance visa, she decided to follow the example of BBC reporter John Simpson, who had crossed the border anonymously in a burqa. She entered on 26 September, and spent two days undercover in Afghanistan. It was on her return, travelling with her guides, that she was uncovered when the donkey she was on bolted and her camera was seen by a Taliban soldier. She was accused of being a spy, which carried a death sentence, and at the very least faced jail for illegally entering Afghanistan. The publisher of Express Newspapers, Richard Desmond, sent a team a negotiators to talk directly with Taliban officials at the Afghan Embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan. It soon became clear the regime wanted neither money nor aid but proof that <mask> was a bonafide journalist.The British high commissioner to Pakistan, Hilary Synnott, met the Afghan ambassador in Islamabad, Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef, and asked for her release. Following her release on 8 October, <mask> was escorted to the border, where she was handed over to the Pakistani authorities. It had been feared that this would be jeopardised by the bombing of Afghan targets as part of the War in Afghanistan that had commenced the previous day. <mask> revealed that she had kept a concealed diary inside a box for a toothpaste tube and in the inside of a soap wrapper. She had been on hunger strike throughout her captivity and described her experience as terrifying but she was not physically hurt. After her release, her guides Jan Ali and Nagibullah Muhmand, as well as his five-year-old daughter Basmena, were held in prison in Kabul. At least three of Muhmand's relatives were also arrested for aiding <mask> after the Taliban developed the film in her camera.All were subsequently released without charge or harm. <mask> had made several public pleas, including one via the BBC's Pashto and Persian Service, urging the Taliban to release the prisoners on the same humanitarian grounds the regime had shown her. She said later she was careful not to refer directly to the men as her guides as they had previously agreed not to admit any involvement in the event of capture. In March 2020, in recognition for her humanitarian work in the field of journalism, she was awarded an honorary doctorate at the International Academy of Diplomatic Action in Bern, Switzerland. Conversion to Islam
She said in her book, In the Hands of the Taliban, that, while she was in captivity, she was treated with respect by the men of the Taliban and was, subsequently, amazed by their courtesy. All men that she came in contact with lowered their gazes (to her), which left her bewildered. She had initially thought they had already decided to have her executed and therefore could not look her in the eyes.Only later did she discover they were showing her a sign of respect. While in captivity she gave an undertaking to read the Qur'an and study Islam if they let her go. Fulfilling the promise and setting out on what she described as "an academic exercise" she said she was shocked to discover "the Quran makes it clear that women are equal in spirituality, worth, and education. What everyone forgets is that Islam is perfect; people are not." She converted to Islam in the middle of 2003, claiming that her new faith has helped put behind her broken marriages and embrace "the biggest and the best family in the world." Subsequent career
After her conversion, she delivered lectures on issues relating to Iraq, Israel, Afghanistan, Chechnya, Kashmir, Uzbekistan, women in Islam, the War on Terror, and journalism at universities across the US, Australia, South Africa and the Middle East. She has authored and contributed towards a number of books called In The Hands of the Taliban and Ticket to Paradise.A later book entitled Torture: Does It Work was published by Military Press Studies in 2016. In 2019 she authored the book The Rise of the Prophet Muhammad: Don't Shoot the Messenger published by academic house Cambridge Scholars Publishing. <mask> was a patron of the UK-based pressure groups Cageprisoners until December 2014, the European President of the International Muslim Women's Union, and the Vice President of the European Muslim League based in Milan and Geneva. She is a member of the Stop the War Coalition, for which she has spoken at its rallies, and was a member of the Respect Party, for which she stood in parliamentary elections before resigning both leadership and from the party in early 2014. Writing, speaking and advocacy
In December 2001, <mask>'s memoir In the Hands of the Taliban was published which includes an account of the 10 days she was held captive. In it, she expressed worries that officers from Mossad, the Israeli secret service, or from other intelligence agencies, were plotting to have her killed in an effort to boost public support for the war in Afghanistan having been shown incriminating documents by a journalist for the Arabic channel, Al Jazeera. She left her job with Express Newspapers, and announced she would return to Afghanistan to work on a sequel to her book.The sequel has not yet materialised although she produced a programme for BBC Radio Four called The Return after she did return in 2002 and then the following year as part of a travel feature for The Observer with her daughter Daisy. <mask> was employed in 2003 by the Qatar-based media organisation Al Jazeera, where, as a senior editor, she helped launch their English-language website. In November of that year she was dismissed because Al Jazeera found her "overly-vocal and argumentative style" was incompatible with the station's programme. Her termination of her employment was also attributed to her campaigning for journalists' rights on the Al Jazeera English channel and website. She brought a case for unfair dismissal against the organisation, winning that case and the subsequent appeals which took four years. She was awarded 100,000 Qatari riyals, which equated to around £14,000. In December 2003, she released a novel, Ticket to Paradise, based on the backdrop of 9/11.She began presenting The Agenda With <mask>, the Islam Channel's politics and current affairs programme, in October 2005. In 2007, the Islam Channel was fined £30,000 by Ofcom after a series of breaches relating to her show and another show. She resigned in April 2007, complaining that she had effectively been dismissed after relations between her and the channel's CEO, Mohamed Ali Harrath broke down. She brought another case of unfair dismissal and sex discrimination. In April 2008, <mask> again won her case and was awarded £26,000 damages against the Islam Channel. <mask> is a freelance journalist and presenter, and for several years regularly worked for Press TV, the Iranian English-language 24-hour news channel. She hosted a weekly current affairs and politics show called The Agenda.She also wrote a column for the now-closed Daily Muslims, an online newspaper for North American Muslims. It was in this paper that an obituary calling Chechen militant Islamist Shamil Basayev a shaheed, a Muslim honorific for "martyr", was published. In May 2008, in an assignment for Press TV, she and the film-maker David Miller shot a documentary on the Guantanamo Bay detention camp where they filmed on-site and also interviewed former inmates. Their film Guantanamo: Inside the Wire was nominated in the 2009 Roma Film Fest in Italy, and in the 2010 Aljazeera International Documentary Film Festival in Qatar. Another film made in 2009 was also nominated in the 2010 Aljazeera festival; In Search of Prisoner 650, directed by Hassan Ghani, claimed that Aafia Siddiqui was held prisoner in secret by the US. <mask> joined the Free Gaza Movement in Cyprus in August 2008, as it headed for Gaza to challenge the Israeli-Egyptian blockade. She arrived without incident in Gaza on 23 August.During their brief stay <mask> interviewed Prime Minister Ismael Haniyeh for Press TV. In early 2009, <mask> helped organise and took part in the Viva Palestina convoy of around 100 vehicles bearing aid across North Africa to Gaza via the Rafah border. In July 2009, in the wake of Press TV's coverage of the 2009 Iranian presidential election and the subsequent protests, <mask> and other journalists working for Press TV were accused of being stooges for the Iranian regime. Election candidate (2004–2012)

<mask> was first on the Respect list for the 2004 European Elections for the North East England region, but was not elected; the party placed last with 1.1% of the vote. She stood for Respect in the Leicester South by-election in 2004, where she came fourth with 12.7% of the vote. When she stood there again in the 2005 general election, although she still placed fourth, her share of the vote fell to 6.4%. In the local government elections in 2006, she stood

masks:
Yvonne Ridley
Ridley
Yvonne Ridley
Ridley
Ridley
Ridley
Ridley
Ridley
Ridley
Ridley
Ridley
Yvonne Ridley
Ridley
Ridley
Ridley
Ridley
Ridley
Ridley
Ridley