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Showing posts with label Winston Churchill. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Winston Churchill. Show all posts

Saturday, May 19, 2018

This was their finest hour - Perspective on a #TurningPoint: Winston Churchill - Their Finest Hour speech (Complete) His most-famous speech made after reflection at the most-famous moment in British history

This was their finest hour - Perspective on a #TurningPoint: Winston Churchill - Their Finest Hour speech (Complete) His most-famous speech made after reflection at the most-famous moment in British history

Meant to post this yesterday afternoon...












So, naturally, with me, as always, there's a backstory...

Family Trivia: My paternal ancestors, the ones who came to America in the 17th Century, left an area of central England corresponding roughly to where the story of Robin Hood and his Merry Men in Sherwood Forest was set, eventually making their way to a town in New England where history of a different sort was made - Salem, Massachusetts, before and during the infamous Witch Trials.
That same family had the second Minister of the very first Baptist Church in the Colonies, in that very Baptist city of... Newport, Rhode Island! :-)

One of their descendents marched in the French and Indian War with British Gen. Braddock, directly under a young and overly-confident George Washington, from present day Alexandria, VA towards French-held Fort Duquesne (Pittsburgh), in a quite disastrous effort by the British that killed Braddock and which was nearly the undoing for good of Washington and his reputation. Same ancestor, years later, was a spy for Gen. Washington against the British in the American Revolution -he knew his way around the area like a realtor!- and for his efforts, was later given land in the Ohio Territories.

Which is why my family has been in Ohio since before it became a state in 1803, settling in a town on the Ohio River south of Canton, where the NFL was born, southwest of Pittsburgh.
That's why my late father was born in Steubenville, a couple of years after singer Dean Martin.


https://youtu.be/esU7kPQLEck
David Cameron's Favourite Past Prime Minister
10 Downing Street
Published on Mar 13, 2012

Prime Minister David Cameron's personal reflections on why Winston Churchill is his favourite former Prime Minister.


PRIME MINISTER DAVID CAMERON "My favourite Prime Minister is this man right here, Winston Churchill. He was an incredible leader for our country and indeed for the whole free world at the most impossibly difficult time. Just a few yards away from here is the Cabinet Room, and Winston Churchill, as Prime Minister, sat in that Cabinet Room and decided, with his colleagues, to fight on against Nazi Germany and Hitler, even after France had fallen. That was a heroic decision, a right decision, and actually meant that the world was saved from Nazi tyranny. It was the most important moment in British history, and I think it's because of his courage and guts that we made the right call."

ARCHIVE NEWS FOOTAGE "Behind Winston Churchill we stand united as never before in history."

PRIME MINISTER DAVID CAMERON "Well obviously he came to office in Nineteen Forty at a desperately difficult time; France was about to fall, the war was going extraordinarily badly from Britain's point of view, Hitler was rampant across Europe, it looked like the end for the free world, the end for Britain, and the end for Churchill too. But he showed incredible bravery, incredible courage, at bringing the nation together, forging a courageous spirit, taking on Hitler, and eventually winning. So it was a very difficult time for Britain, a time when you needed the best possible leader, the most courageous possible leader to come forward, and in Winston Churchill we were incredibly fortunate to have that man."


Winston Churchill - Their Finest Hour Speech - Complete

"If the Empire lasts a thousand years men will say, this was their finest hour."










Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Thoughts on the modern tradition in France of succumbing to sycophancy and high self-regard. Oui, "Un certain regard."; DeGaulle

French culture discussed by an informed and erudite Englishman!
http://youtu.be/Dmh880HAOZU

Thoughts on the modern tradition in France of succumbing to sycophancy and high self-regard. Oui, "Un certain regard."; DeGaulle

This very interesting audio track about contemporary French cultural and political life -which I came across completely by accident this past weekend while looking for something else dealing with BBC Radio- is the polar opposite of the chestnut I grew-up knowing so well that ends -at least, the version of the old 1940's maxim I often heard- "that France is not great because DeGaulle is in France, France is great because France is in DeGaulle."
C'est vrai!

DE GAULLE TRIUMPHANT

Newsreel video: British Pathe Gazette: The Voice of Britain: DE GAULLE TRIUMPHANT, April 11, 1960

1945 - YOU WERE THERE WHEN HISTORY WAS MADE

Newsreel video: British Pathe Gazette: The Voice of Britain: 1945 - YOU WERE THERE WHEN HISTORY WAS MADE, December 27, 1945.

FRANCE 24

France 24
France 24 broadcasts from Paris 24/7 in English to bring you the French perspective on the world.


France 24 News homepage: http://www.france24.com/en/