Ronald Niel Stuart (1886 – 1954) was a British Merchant Navy Commodore and
Royal Navy Captain who was highly commended following extensive and
distinguished service at sea over a period of more than thirty five years.
During World War I he received the Victoria Cross, the Distinguished Service
Order, the French Croix de Guerre avec Palmes. and the United States' Navy
Cross for a series of daring operations he conducted while serving in the
Royal Navy during the First Battle of the Atlantic. Stuart's Victoria Cross
was awarded following a ballot by the men under his command. This unusual
method of selection was used after the Admiralty board was unable to choose
which members of the crew deserved the honour after a desperate engagement
between a Q-ship and a German submarine off the Irish coast. His later
career included command of the liner RMS Empress of Britain and the
management of the London office of a major transatlantic shipping company.
Following his retirement in 1951, Stuart moved into his sister's cottage in
Kent and died three years later. A sometime irascible man, he was reportedly
embarrassed by any fuss surrounding his celebrity and was known to exclaim
"Mush!" at any demonstration of strong emotion.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Niel_Stuart
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1880:
Australian bank robber and bushranger Ned Kelly was hanged in Melbourne.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Varna)
1889:
The U.S. territory of Washington officially became the 42nd U.S. state as
the State of Washington.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington)
1918:
Germany and the Allies signed an armistice treaty in a railway carriage in
France's Compiègne Forest, ending World War I on the Western Front.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armistice_with_Germany_(Compi%C3%A8gne)<htt…
)
1965:
Ian Smith, Premier of the British Crown Colony of Southern Rhodesia, issued
the Unilateral Declaration of Independence, a move that the British
government and the United Nations condemned as illegal.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unilateral_Declaration_of_Independence_(Rhodes…
)
1975:
The Australian constitutional crisis came to a head as Prime Minister Gough
Whitlam was dismissed from office by Governor-General Sir John Kerr.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1975_Australian_constitutional_crisis)
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
apotheosis (n) 1. Glorification, sometimes to a divine level;
deification; crediting a person with god-like power.
2. (mythology) The process of becoming a deity.
(
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/apotheosis)
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
As long as I am mayor of this city the great industries are secure. We hear
about constitutional rights, free speech and the free press. Every time I
hear these words I say to myself, 'That man is a Red, that man is a
Communist.' You never hear a real American talk like that.
--Frank Hague
(
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Frank_Hague)