Sir Nigel: A Novel of the Hundred Years' War

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During the wars young Nigel—squire to the real-life knight Sir John Chandos—vows to perform three acts of valor to win the hand of his beloved Mary. He eventually hunts down a spy known as the Red Ferret; daringly rescues 20 archers held captive by a brutal warlord; and, most amazingly, takes a most unexpected prisoner at the battle of Poictiers. In several ways, Sir Nigel is a better book than its predecessor—faster-paced, with more variety in its action and fewer tableaux-like descriptions. While the older Sir Nigel can seem foolish or even half-deluded in his quest for glory, his younger self starts off hotheaded, but gradually learns that the specific virtue of the warrior-hero is self-control. DWF head-honcho Andrew Leaitherland has stepped down as chief executive and managing partner with immediate effect, the listed law firm announced this morning.

Sir Nigel will serve for three years. He joins the team of existing Judicial Commissioners, responsible for providing independent oversight of the use of investigatory powers. From space to book festivals - SARAH HARTLEY looks at 20 hidden gems buried in the Autumn Statement The 1930s was a period when the Big Four saw providing faster services and breaking speed records both as prestigious and a source of huge amounts of publicity. In 1934 the (now re-numbered 4472) Flying Scotsman became the first steam locomotive to reach 100mph. Gresley was already working on his next masterpiece, the streamlined A4 class Pacific. The first batch of four A4s was introduced in September 1935 in a striking silver and grey livery to pull the Silver Jubilee train marking the jubilee of King George V and Queen Mary. No 2509 Silver Link set a new British speed record, twice touching 112mph, on the return trip from Grantham to Kings Cross during the inaugural run. Nigel Wilson – or to give him his proper title, Sir Nigel – is a one-man Northern powerhouse and a one-man advert for social mobility. The boy from a council estate in the North East of England grew up to be Britain's biggest investor. So it came about that Nigel, with his lion heart and with the blood of a hundred soldiers thrilling in his veins, still at the age of two and twenty, wasted the weary days reclaiming his hawks with leash and lure or training the alans and spaniels who shared with the family the big earthen-floored hall of the manor-house.

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For his premier express locomotive Gresley decided in favour of a Pacific 4-6-2 configuration which would allow a much great boiler capacity and his first Pacific class engine No 1470 Great Northern appeared in April 1922, earning a huge amount of publicity on account of the engine’s huge size yet graceful looks. Nigel Gresley had come to the public’s attention for the first time. Sir Herbert Nigel Gresley CBE (19 June 1876 – 5 April 1941) [1] was a British railway engineer. He was one of Britain's most famous steam locomotive engineers, who rose to become Chief Mechanical Engineer (CME) of the London and North Eastern Railway (LNER). He was the designer of some of the most famous steam locomotives in Britain, including the LNER Class A1 and LNER Class A4 4-6-2 Pacific engines. An A1 Pacific, Flying Scotsman, was the first steam locomotive officially recorded over 100mph in passenger service, and an A4, number 4468 Mallard, still holds the record for being the fastest steam locomotive in the world (126mph). We have a number of communities to join, so you can choose which one you want to be part of and we'll send you the latest news direct to your phone. You could even join them all!

Outside of work he is a keen runner and has several British masters titles over 100m, 200m, 400m and 800m and supports his local football team, Newcastle United. Does he have any regrets over his time at L&G? 'I don't think about 'should haves' and 'could haves', my brain doesn't function like that. I have left them behind and I look forward, like when I left the North East.' As an engineer he was interested in railway developments abroad and keen to exchange ideas. André Chapelon, CME of the Paris-Orleans Railway was a good friend who was also involved in experimental designs, including the Kylchap exhaust system which became an important aspect of Gresley’s later designs. Gresley was also introduced to French-based racing car designer Ettore Bugatti. They often discussed ideas for streamlining, still quite a futuristic concept at that time. Sir Nigel was a slight man of poor stature, with soft lisping voice and gentle ways. So short was he that his wife, who was no very tall woman, had the better of him by the breadth of three fingers. His sight having been injured in his early wars by a basketful of lime which had been emptied over him when he led the Earl of Derby’s stormers up the breach at Bergerac, he had contracted something of a stoop, with a blinking, peering expression of face.

In that respect, he is of his time. War is honourable, and Sir Nigel is his ideal of how we should behave – courageous and noble, and always living according to his particular set of ethics. At the root of it all is a war in France in which England lays claim to a country it had no right to rule, and the defeat of the French is seen as the height of glory and bravery. Conan Doyle lived in a colonial age, where Britain controlled large areas of the world, and he does not have the imagination to question the ethics of invading and colonising someone else’s land. No. 4472 Flying Scotsman Biography [ edit ] Salisbury Hall, Gresley's home during the 1930s Memorial plaque to Gresley's achievements displayed in the main hall of Edinburgh's Waverley railway station

During 1994, Sir Nigel Gresley spent some time at the Great Central Railway then at the East Lancashire Railway. The locomotive then moved to the North Yorkshire Moors Railway in 1996, and is now based there. It is owned by Sir Nigel Gresley Locomotive Preservation Trust and operated by the A4 Locomotive Society on behalf of the trust. Since 1927 Sir Nigel had cherished hopes of a national locomotive testing plant, for the ‘attainment of increased efficiency’ but times were hard and government help was not forthcoming. He persevered however, enlisting the support of LMS CME Sir William Stanier. Eventually the directors of the LMS and LNER agreed to pool their resources and gave the go-ahead, in 1937, for a plant to be built at Rugby but the outbreak of war, in 1939, brought this to a halt. In a career during which he worked for the Great Northern Railway and the London and North Eastern Railway, he designed some of the most famous steam locomotives in Britain, including the LNER Class A1 and LNER Class A4 Pacific engines. JEFF PRESTRIDGE: Customers dealt a bad hand on credit card 'holds' on hire cars, hotels and petrol pumps The following year Sir Nigel Gresley received his knighthood from King Edward VIII in recognition of his services as chairman of the committee looking into the loss at sea of two steamers, Usworth and Blairgowrie. In 1936 Sir Nigel also received an honorary Doctor of Science from the University of Manchester and was elected President of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers.

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An intensely private person, he was annoyed at having been outed as gay in 1995 in the publicity surrounding the Academy Awards, but he did attend the ceremony with his long-time partner Trevor Bentham, and afterward, he spoke openly about being gay in interviews and in his autobiography, Straight Face, [6] which was published posthumously. [7] Appointment of non-executive director and of Sir Nigel Boardman as Chairman of Arbuthnot Latham & Co., Limited Sir Nigel was a slight man of poor stature, with soft lisping voice and gentle ways. So short was he that his wife, who was no very tall woman, had the better of him by the breadth of three fingers. Tax charges in Britain are at an all-time high, but tax breaks are not necessarily the answer. The key question is how you structure industrial policy. War was a rude game with death for the stake, and the forfeit was always claimed on the one side and paid on the other without doubt or hesitation. Only the knight might be spared, since his ransom made him worth more alive than dead.”

A Judicial Commissioner is a serving or retired member of the senior judiciary in the UK. Appointments are made by the Prime Minister, having consulted with Scottish Ministers, on the recommendation of the Investigatory Powers Commissioner, the Lord Chancellor, the Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales, the Lord President of the Court of Session and the Lord Chief Justice of Northern Ireland. Dunkley, Emma (13 October 2019). "Nigel Wilson, L&G's marmite man, proves an acquired taste. The insurer's chief executive divides the city with his direct style". The Sunday Times. Arthur Conan Doyle consistently maintained that The White Company (1891) and its prequel Sir Nigel (1906) were his most important works of fiction. The two novels—both featuring Sir Nigel Loring—were particularly dear to his heart because in them he hoped to emulate and surpass Sir Walter Scott’s Ivanhoe and Charles Reade’s The Cloister and the Hearth, both of which he fervently admired. It wouldn't take much to surpass Ivanhoe, I don't think so anyway.The next batch of A4s to appear in early 1938 was named after birds, with No 4468 Mallard receiving special attention from its designer, having all the latest modifications, streamlined air passages, more powerful boiler, new Westinghouse brake system and a double chimney with a Kylchap blastpipe. As I recalled in last month’s Derbyshire Life, Mallard set the world steam record on 3rd July 1938 between Grantham and Peterborough, a record that still stands today. The following year the directors of the LNER named their 100th Pacific locomotive, built to Sir Nigel’s designs, A4 No. 4498 Sir Nigel Gresley. Another A4, ' Silver Link', previously holding the world speed record for steam locomotives (112mph)