text: On 5 May, the division's remaining men, both German and Bosnian, began to retreat northwards towards Austria. On 8 May, an order was sent to retreat to Wolfsberg, Carinthia. On learning of the orders, unit imams of the 28th Regiment "approached their commander, Hans Hanke and requested that they and their men be discharged and be allowed to attempt to return to their homeland ... Soon, all of the Bosnians remaining in the division were asked if they wished to remain." There are two reports of large-scale reprisal killings of these members of the division by the Partisans, one of which included the mass shooting of 1,400 soldiers.


title: 13th Waffen Mountain Division of the SS Handschar (1st Croatian)

text: The retreat continued until 11 May. On 12 May, Hampel carried out surrender negotiations with the British Army at Sankt Veit an der Glan. On 15 May most of the men were transported to Rimini in Italy, where they were incarcerated with other prisoners of war from 7th SS Division and 16th SS Panzergrenadier Division Reichsführer-SS. Scattered remnants did not surrender until 18 May and many attempted to obliterate their SS blood group tattoo. Hampel escaped from a prisoner-of-war camp in Fallingbostel.


text: While it achieved successes and proved itself competent in counter-insurgency operations against the Partisans in eastern Bosnia, the division earned a reputation for brutality and savagery, not only during combat operations, but also through atrocities committed against Serb and Jewish civilians in the security zone. Its reprisal attacks in northern and eastern Bosnia left many hundreds and possibly as many as several thousand Serb civilians dead by the spring and summer of 1944. The post-war Nuremberg trials made the declaratory judgement that the Waffen-SS was a criminal organisation due to its major involvement in war crimes and crimes against humanity, including the killing of prisoners-of-war and atrocities committed in occupied countries. Excluded from this judgement were those who were conscripted into the Waffen-SS and had not personally committed war crimes and crimes against humanity.


text: Thirty-eight members of the division were extradited to Yugoslavia to face trial following the war. Some committed suicide, including Sauberzweig on 20 October 1946 and Hans König. Trials took place at a military court in Sarajevo between 22 and 30 August 1947. Only seven of the 38 defendants were charged with specific offenses, although the indictment accused the division of murdering some 5,000 people. The accused were defended by three Yugoslav lawyers: two civilian and one military officer. All were found guilty; 10 were sentenced to death, and 28 received prison terms of between five years and life. Imam Halim Malkoč had already been executed in Bihać on 7 March 1947. All of those who were executed were junior officers and non-commissioned officers. Almost all the prisoners were released early and by 1952 all had been freed, except for one who had died. Having escaped, Hampel never faced trial and lived in Graz, Austria until his death on 11 January 1981.


text: Hundreds of members of the 13th and 23rd SS Divisions volunteered to fight in the 1948–1949 Arab–Israeli War. The Syrian government made a request for the transfer of 8,000 Bosnian Muslim refugees to Syria, many for recruitment into the Syrian Armed Forces. Iraq sent representatives to Europe and invited 2,500 Bosnian Muslims to settle there. Frantzman and Culibrk estimate that approximately 1,000 former Bosnian Muslim SS members fought in Palestine. Many of the volunteers served in the Arab Liberation Army's Ajnaddin Battalion.


text: The following officers commanded the division. The first two raised and trained the division in its early stages of development and Sauberzweig and Hampel commanded it on active operations against the Partisans and later against the Red Army and Bulgarians:


text: Several members were decorated with high German military awards, with five awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross (including Hampel and Hanke), five awarded the German Cross in Gold (including Hanke) and one awarded the German Cross in Silver. All five presentations of the Knight's Cross to members of the division are disputed and cannot be verified at the German National Archive. According to Gerhard von Seemen, Hampel, Karl Liecke and Hanke presumably received the Knight's Cross on the same day from the commander of the 2nd Panzer Army, Maximilian de Angelis.


text: From 24 September 1944, the supply and logistics battalions were combined to form the 13th SS Service Support/Supply Regiment.


text: The uniform was regular SS M43 field-jacket issue, with a divisional collar patch showing an arm holding a scimitar over a swastika. On the left arm was a Croatian armshield (red-white chessboard) and on the right, the Edelweiss flower patch of the German mountain troops. The chessboard armshield was controversial, especially with the imams, who, after crossing the Sava river, removed them. Former SS personnel serving in the division were entitled to wear a Sig Rune badge that was attached to the left breast pocket of the tunic.


text: Headgear was either the SS M43 fez which was to be worn by all ranks, while German officers had the option to wear the mountain cap (). The fez was chosen by Himmler because it had been worn by the Bosnian-Herzegovinian Infantry regiments of the Austro-Hungarian army from 1894 to 1918, as well as by the Austro-Hungarian Albanian Legion from 1916 to 1918. There were two versions of the fez: a field gray model to be worn in combat and while on duty and a red model for parades, marching exercises and while off duty. Both the fez and mountain cap bore the death's head and eagle of the SS. The mountain cap was also adorned with an Edelweiss flower patch, worn on the left side of the cap.


title: Vijay Prakash

text: Vijay Prakash (born 21 February 1976) is an Indian Playback singer and also a Music Composer from Karnataka. He has given his voice for predominantly Kannada and Telugu language films. In addition, he has also sung in Hindi, Tamil, Malayalam and Marathi. He is one of the judges for the Kannada reality show "Sa Re Ga Ma Pa" on Zee Kannada. He has also performed shows with Zakir Hussain. Prakash won the Karnataka Government's 'Best Playback Singer' award for the year 2016 for the song "Nammooralli Chaligaladalli" from the film "Beautiful Manasugalu".


title: Vijay Prakash

text: He is also one of four artists credited for the song "Jai Ho", which won the 2008 Academy Award for Best Original Song. Specifically, he sang the portion with the words "Jai Ho" that takes an extended high pitch at numerous junctures of the song. The song also won a Grammy Award in the category "Best Song Written For Motion Picture, Television Or Other Visual Media." He has also won the Filmfare Award for Best Male Playback Artist – Kannada twice for the songs "Gatiya Ilidu" from the Kannada film Ulidavaru Kandante and "Belageddu" from Kirik Party.


title: Vijay Prakash

text: He was born in Mysore, India to Carnatic Artists Lopamudra and Late L. Ramasesha, and is himself trained in Carnatic music. He was trained carnatic classic music by Bellary.M.Raghavendra


title: Vijay Prakash

text: After moving to Mumbai in 1996, he became a student of Suresh Wadkar. Prakash was a participant in the program "Sa Re Ga Ma" on Zee TV, hosted by Sonu Nigam. He made it to the mega-finals in 1999. Later he compered "Sa Re Ga Ma Pa" on Zee Kannada. He got his first break in Hindi cinema with the film "" in 2002, and his first song for A. R. Rahman was in Ashutosh Gowariker's "Swades", followed by the same composer's Tamil title track for the movie "New". His song "Kavite" in Kannada movie "Gaalipata" too became famous.


title: Vijay Prakash

text: He has done backing vocals for about 25 foreign films, including the film Couples Retreat, with music by A. R. Rahmaan. He has recorded for ads like "Kabhi chatpataa" for Knorr Soups and "Na sar jhuka hain kabhi" for HDFC Life Insurance. In 2008 he sang the "Condom a capella" ringtone composed by Rupert Fernandes and produced by the BBC World Service Trust for an Indian safe sex campaign. In 2009, his song, "Jai Ho"(Only chorus, original song sung by Sukhwinder Singh), won the 2008 Academy Award for Best Original Song.


title: Vijay Prakash

text: He was one of the Judges in Confident Star Singer 2 (Kannada), which aired on Asianet Suvarna in 2009.


title: Vijay Prakash

text: He has sung "Om Sivoham", a Sanskrit song penned by Vaali and composed by Ilaiyaraaja which was the main theme song of 2009 Tamil film Naan Kadavul.


title: Vijay Prakash

text: In 2010, he became a regular artist under composer A. R. Rahman, as he performed several of his numbers such as "Hosanna" ("Vinnaithaandi Varuvaaya, Ye Maaya Chesave"), "Beera Beera, Veera Veera (in Tamil & Telugu Versions)" ("Raavan & Raavanan"), "Powerstar" ("Komaram Puli") and "Kadhal Anukkal" ("Enthiran").


title: Vijay Prakash

text: Prakash has debuted as a music composer for the 2013 Kannada film "Andar Bahar" starring Shivrajkumar.


title: Vijay Prakash

text: He also won the Vijay Music Awards for the Best Male Playback for the song "Hosanna" from "Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa".


title: Vijay Prakash

text: In 2013, his song 'Khaali , written by lyricist Yograj Bhat, went viral on social media. The song 'Hoge' that he has sung for the film 'Nam Life Story' in Kannada is also going viral.


title: Vijay Prakash

text: In 2018, the song 'Bombe Helutaite' from the film " Raajakumara " inspired by the song 'Aadisi nodu bilisi nodu' from the film " Kasturi Nivasa " became one of the industry evergreen songs. It was written by " Santhosh Ananddram" .


title: Vijay Prakash

text: Prakash was also the brand ambassador of Nissan Evalia 'moves like music' campaign, which featured six young prominent artists of India.


title: Vijay Prakash

text: He is one of the very few Indian musicians who have had the honour of performing at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, USA.


title: Last Shift

text: Last Shift is a 2014 American psychological horror film directed by Anthony DiBlasi. It was written by DiBlasi and Scott Poiley, both of whom produced along with Mary Poiley. Juliana Harkavy stars as a rookie police officer who is tasked with taking the last shift at a police station before it is permanently closed. Strange events lead her to believe that it may be haunted. It premiered at the London FrightFest Film Festival on October 25, 2014, and was released to video-on-demand on October 6, 2015.


title: Last Shift

text: Jessica Loren, a rookie police officer on her first assignment, is ordered to take the last shift at a police station before it is permanently closed. Her mother pleads with her not to take the job, as her father, also a police officer, was killed on duty. After assuring her mother, Loren reports for duty and her commanding officer Cohen, leads her on a brief tour, during which he explains that a HAZMAT team will be there to collect evidence that is difficult to dispose of and that she is not permitted to leave her post. Before he leaves, he gives Loren his phone number in case of emergency.


title: Last Shift

text: Loren becomes bored and almost falls asleep, though she wakes when she hears knocking. She does not see anyone at the door but finds a homeless man in the hallway; he urinates on the floor and refuses to leave. Loren forces him outside and he leaves. She also receives a series of distress calls from a woman named Monica, who says she has been taken hostage by a cult; the police dispatcher confirms that all emergency calls have been rerouted to the new station.


title: Last Shift

text: She continues to hear strange noises and finds a rear door open. She finds the homeless man in a storage room throwing things to the floor. She detains him, and takes him to a holding cell, where the door suddenly closes and locks behind her. The lights go out, a bloody-faced person surprises her in the door's window, and she drops her flashlight. An unidentified person picks it up and taunts her. When the lights come back on, the door opens and no one is there.


title: Last Shift

text: Loren is further unsettled when she sees chairs and doors moving on their own, ghostly figures, and hears voices singing. Loren encounters a loiterer, Marigold, who tells her that she was in a cell when the police brought in an infamous cult, led by the charismatic John Michael Paymon. Marigold says the story told to the public, that the cult was killed at their residence, is untrue; instead, they committed suicide at the station one year ago to the day. Marigold leaves after, humming the song Loren heard earlier.


title: Last Shift

text: Further paranormal events at the station reveal that the cult worships the king of Hell, a being also named Paimon. Before committing mass suicide, Paymon threatened to come back and destroy everything. Ryan Price, a fellow police officer, arrives at the station, and Loren accuses him of planning the events as a hazing ritual. Confused, he insists he has come by to check up on her, as he had served with her father. Price confirms that the murderous cult was captured alive and tells her that her father, who died apprehending them, would be proud of her. As he leaves, Loren sees a bullet wound in the back of his head and he disappears.


title: Last Shift

text: After seeing several visions of the cultists and their victims, Loren calls Cohen and says that she cannot finish her shift but repents when he threatens to fire her. The dispatcher tells Loren that Monica was the final victim of Paymon's cult and died over a year ago. A living member of the Paymon cult takes Loren hostage, only to die by suicide in front of her. Loren tries to leave but the glass does not break when shot. Her dead father calls her and demands justice for his death, and she returns to the holding cell to find the homeless man hanged. Her father calls again to warn her of cult members assaulting the station, and she kills them. As she shoots the last one, Cohen shoots her from behind. In a moment of clarity, she realizes that she has murdered the entire HAZMAT team. Cohen calls for medical assistance, and Loren is approached by the spirits of Paymon and his cultists as she bleeds out.


title: Last Shift

text: DiBlasi wanted to make a smaller, contained film that focused on atmosphere, especially sound design. The film was designed to be experienced from Harkavy's point of view, which keeps the audience wondering whether the events are all in her mind. Shooting took place in Sanford, Florida, in an abandoned police station. DiBlasi was influenced by the action film "Assault on Precinct 13" (1976), the horror film "A Nightmare on Elm Street" (1984), and the Charles Manson documentary "Manson" (1973).


title: Last Shift

text: "Last Shift" premiered at the London FrightFest Film Festival on October 25, 2014. Magnet Releasing released it to video-on-demand on October 6, 2015.


title: Last Shift

text: The film holds a 100% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 9 reviews, with an average rating of 6.70/10. Anton Bitel of "Sight & Sound" called it the standout of FrightFest and wrote, ""Last Shift" masterfully builds its tension towards an unexpected yet satisfying release that deepens and ambiguates everything that has preceded". Staci Layne Wilson of Dread Central rated it 3.5/5 stars and wrote, "The movie is suspenseful and well-paced, and Harkavy is infinitely watchable". Mark L. Miller of Ain't It Cool News wrote, "This is a simple premise, sort of like an "Assault on Precinct 13" by way of "REC", but it is truly excellent in terms of building tension and delivering bone-rattling scares."


title: The Last Olympian

text: The Last Olympian is a fantasy-adventure novel based on Greek mythology by Rick Riordan, published on May 5, 2009. It is the fifth and final novel of the "Percy Jackson & the Olympians" series and serves as the direct sequel to "The Battle of the Labyrinth". "The Last Olympian" revolves around the demigod Percy Jackson as he leads his friends in a last stand to protect Mount Olympus.


title: The Last Olympian

text: Upon release, the book received highly positive reviews from various critics. It was also the #1 "USA Today" bestseller, the #1 "Wall Street Journal" bestseller, and #1 "Los Angeles Times" bestseller.


title: The Last Olympian

text: While Percy Jackson is on a drive with Rachel Dare, he is approached by Charles Beckendorf, and the two head off to attack Luke's ship, "The Princess Andromeda". Kronos, hosted in the mortal body of Luke, is not caught off guard because of a spy at Camp Half-Blood, and Beckendorf is killed in an explosion. Percy awakens later in his father Poseidon's underwater palace, which is under siege by the Titan Oceanus. Percy wants to help fight, but Poseidon sends Percy back to Camp Half-Blood to hear the "Great Prophecy". Once there, Percy informs the camp of the spy and learns that the Olympians are fighting Typhon. The following night, Percy leaves with Nico di Angelo, son of Hades, following a lead on how to defeat Kronos. After visiting Luke's mother in Westport, Connecticut, and talking with Hestia, Percy procures a blessing from his mother. He then descends into the Underworld to bathe in the River Styx and take on the curse of Achilles. Despite being betrayed by Nico in exchange for information on the boy's mother, Percy is successful and uses his new invulnerability to defeat a small army of Hades's minions.


title: The Last Olympian

text: Percy emerges from the Underworld in New York City, leaving Nico behind to convince his father to join the fight against Kronos. Percy calls the campers to help defend Olympus, as the gods refuse to end their struggle with Typhon. Just before the battle begins, New York City is affected by a powerful sleeping spell from Morpheus, Hecate, and Kronos himself. Despite being joined by Thalia's Hunters of Artemis, the Party Ponies, and a few other allies, the Olympian army struggles to hold back repeated assaults by the Titan army. Camp Half-Blood suffers approximately 16 casualties, out of an original 40 campers. Annabeth herself is badly injured when she saves Percy from an attack by Ethan Nakamura that would have hit Percy in his Achilles' point. Even after these setbacks, Percy refuses a chance to surrender offered by Prometheus, and entrusts the Titan's gift of Pandora's "pithos" to Hestia. The campers successfully defeat Hyperion, further enraging Kronos. Rachel Dare, who has been experiencing inexplicable moments of prophecy, arrives to warn Percy of a drakon that can only be killed by a child of Ares. The campers do poorly against the drakon until Silena Beauregard arrives disguised as Ares's head counselor Clarisse and breaks the cabin's boycott of the war, getting badly injured in the process. The real Clarisse arrives in a fury and kills the drakon by herself. As Silena lies dying, the campers learn that she was the camp's spy, but chose to right her wrongs after her boyfriend Beckendorf's death.


title: The Last Olympian

text: Percy contacts his father and asks Poseidon to join the fight against Typhon; he reluctantly agrees. Driven back to the blocks surrounding the Empire State Building, Percy and his friends make their last stand to protect Mount Olympus. Even when Hades arrives with Nico and an army, Kronos still manages to enter Olympus. Percy attacks Kronos, without either side gaining a significant advantage. In an Iris message-vision, the combatants are able to see Typhon approaching New York, only to be defeated with the aid of Poseidon and his cyclopes. Ethan Nakamura rebels against Kronos but is killed. When Kronos attacks Annabeth, Luke is able to regain control of his body and, with Percy's help, he injures himself at his mortal point and apparently kills Kronos. As he dies, Luke tells Percy that Ethan had the right idea; the war was caused by the resentment of unrecognized gods and unclaimed children. He dies peacefully, and the Fates carry his body away.


title: The Last Olympian

text: The gods grant rewards to several heroes who were instrumental in defeating the Titans, including Thalia, Grover, Annabeth, Tyson, Clarisse, and Nico. Finally, Percy is called forward. Zeus offers him the greatest gift of all time: immortal godhood. Much to the Olympians' shock, Percy instead asks the gods to swear on the River Styx that they will claim all demigods by the time they turn thirteen, have cabins built for the children of all minor gods and Hades, and give amnesty to innocent Titans and their former allies such as Calypso. Percy also relieves Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades of their oath to not have demigod children. Privately, Hermes reveals to Percy that Kronos is not dead, but is instead hopefully spread so thin that he can never form a consciousness again, let alone a body, as the Titans cannot die any more than the gods can. After the meeting, Percy discovers that Rachel plans to become the new Oracle, and he rushes to camp with Annabeth and Nico. With Apollo's supervision, Rachel safely becomes the new Oracle and speaks the next Great Prophecy. Annabeth celebrates Percy's birthday and the two begin dating. The gods keep to their new promises, and Camp Half-Blood slowly returns to normal. The fallen demigods are honored with the end-of-summer's bead.


title: The Last Olympian

text: "The New York Times" called the novel "both exciting and entertaining." While the review notes that the pace sometimes bordered on "frantic," distracting from weaker plot points, the book as a whole remains "clever" and "enjoyably hair-raising." The non-profit Common Sense Media warned parents that this final book in the series contains more violence than the previous entries, but praised the book overall, giving it five out of five stars. "Kirkus Reviews" reviewed the book positively, observing that "Riordan masterfully orchestrates the huge cast of characters and manages a coherent, powerful tale at once exciting, philosophical and tear-jerking."


title: The Last Olympian

text: Another "Camp Half-Blood Chronicles" series has been released, titled "The Heroes of Olympus". "The Lost Hero" is the first book in this series by Riordan, and was released on October 12, 2010. Though it is not directly related to Percy and friends, there are many references and appearances of these characters and it still serves as a sequel. Its sequel, "The Son of Neptune", portrays Percy as one of the main protagonists. "The Son of Neptune" is followed by "The Mark of Athena", "The House of Hades", and "The Blood of Olympus".


title: The Last Olympian

text: A sixth book in the "Percy Jackson & the Olympians" series, titled "The Chalice of the Gods" and set between the events of "The Heroes of Olympus" and its sequel series "The Trials of Apollo", was announced in October 2022, with a release date of September 26, 2023.


title: Merthyr Tydfil

text: Merthyr Tydfil (; ) is the main town in Merthyr Tydfil County Borough, Wales, administered by Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council. It is about north of Cardiff. Often called just Merthyr, it is said to be named after Tydfil, daughter of King Brychan of Brycheiniog, who according to legend was slain at Merthyr by pagans about 480 CE. generally means "martyr" in modern Welsh, but here closer to the Latin : a place of worship built over a martyr's relics. Similar place names in south Wales are Merthyr Cynog, Merthyr Dyfan and Merthyr Mawr.


title: Merthyr Tydfil

text: Peoples migrating north from Europe had lived in the area for many thousands of years. The archaeological record starts from about 1000 BC with the Celts. From their language, the Welsh language developed. Hillforts were built during the Iron Age and the tribe that inhabited them in the south of Wales was called the Silures, according to Tacitus, the Roman historian of the Roman invaders.


title: Merthyr Tydfil

text: The Romans arrived in Wales by about 47–53 CE and established a network of forts, with roads to link them. They had to fight hard to consolidate their conquests, and in 74 CE they built an auxiliary fortress at Penydarren, overlooking the River Taff. It covered an area of about three hectares, and formed part of the network of roads and fortifications; remains were found underneath the Merthyr Town F.C. football ground. A road ran north–south through the area, linking the southern coast with Mid Wales and Watling Street via Brecon. Parts of this and other roads, including "Sarn Helen", can be traced and walked.


title: Merthyr Tydfil

text: The Silures resisted this invasion fiercely from their mountain strongholds, but the Roman army eventually prevailed. In time, relative peace was established, and the Penydarren fortress was abandoned by about 120 CE. This was bad for the local economy, which had come to rely upon supplying the fortress with beef and grain, and imported items such as oysters from the coast. The Romans had intermarried with local women and many auxiliary veterans had settled on farms locally.


title: Merthyr Tydfil

text: With the decline of the Roman Empire, Roman legions were withdrawn about 380 CE. By 402, the Roman army in Britain consisted mostly of Germanic troops and local recruits; the cream of the army had been withdrawn to the continent of Europe. Sometime in that period, Irish Dalriadans (Scots) and Picts attacked and breached Hadrian's Wall. During the 4th and 5th centuries the coasts of Cambria (Wales) had been subject to the raids of Irish pirates, in much the same way as the south and east coasts of Britain had been raided by Saxon pirates from across the North Sea. Around the middle of the 5th century, Irish settlements had been established around Swansea, the Gower Peninsula, Carmarthenshire, and in Pembrokeshire and eventually petty kingdoms were established as far inland as Brecon.


title: Merthyr Tydfil

text: The Latin language and some Roman customs and culture became established before the withdrawal of the Roman army. The Christian religion was introduced throughout much of Wales by the Romans, but locally it may have been introduced later by monks from Ireland and France, who made their way into the region following rivers and valleys.


title: Merthyr Tydfil

text: Local tradition holds that, around 480 CE, a girl called Tydfil, daughter of a local chieftain named Brychan, was an early local convert to Christianity, and was murdered by either Welsh or Saxon pagans, and buried in the town. The girl was considered a martyr after her death. "Merthyr" translates to "martyr" in English, and tradition holds that when the town was founded, the name was chosen in her honour. A church was eventually built on the traditional site of her burial.


title: Merthyr Tydfil

text: For several hundred years the valley of the River Taff was heavily wooded, with a few scattered farms on the mountain slopes. Norman barons moved in after the Norman Conquest of England, but by 1093 they occupied only the lowlands; the uplands remained in the hands of the local Welsh rulers. There were conflicts between the barons and the families descended from the Welsh princes, and control of the land passed to and fro in the Welsh Marches. During this time Morlais Castle was built two miles north of the town.


title: Merthyr Tydfil

text: No permanent settlement was formed until well into the Middle Ages. People continued to be self-sufficient, living by farming and later by trading. Merthyr was little more than a village. An ironworks existed in the parish in the Elizabethan period, but it did not survive beyond the early 1640s at the latest. In 1754, it was recorded that the valley was almost entirely populated by shepherds. Farm produce was traded at a number of markets and fairs, notably the Waun Fair above Dowlais.


title: Merthyr Tydfil

text: Merthyr was close to reserves of iron ore, coal, limestone, timber and water, making it an ideal site for ironworks. Small-scale iron working and coal mining had been carried out at some places in South Wales since the Tudor period, but in the wake of the Industrial Revolution the demand for iron led to the rapid expansion of Merthyr's iron operations. By the peak of the revolution, the districts of Merthyr housed four of the greatest ironworks in the world: Dowlais Ironworks, Plymouth Ironworks, Cyfarthfa Ironworks and Penydarren. The companies were mainly owned by two dynasties, the Guest and Crawshay families.


title: Merthyr Tydfil

text: Starting in the late 1740s, land within the Merthyr district was gradually being leased for the smelting of iron to meet the growing demand, with the expansion of smaller furnaces dotted around South Wales. By 1759, with the management of John Guest, the Dowlais Ironworks was founded. This would later become the Dowlais Iron Company and also the first major works in the area. Following the success at Dowlais, Guest took a lease from the Earl of Plymouth which he used to build the Plymouth Ironworks. However, this was less of a success until the arrival in 1763 of a "Cumberland ironmaster, Anthony Bacon, who leased an area of eight miles by five for £100 a year on which he started the Cyfarthfa Ironworks and also bought the Plymouth Works". After the death of Anthony Bacon in 1786, the ownership of the works passed to Bacon's sons, and was divided between Richard Hill, their manager and Richard Crawshay. Hill now owned the Plymouth Iron Works and Crawshay the works at Cyfarthfa. The fourth ironworks was Penydarren, built by Francis Homfray and his son Samuel Homfray in 1784.


title: Merthyr Tydfil

text: It was the need to export goods from Cyfarthfa that led to the construction of the Glamorganshire Canal running from their works right down the valley to Cardiff Bay, stimulating other businesses along the way.


title: Merthyr Tydfil

text: During the first few decades of the 19th century, the ironworks at Cyfarthfa (and neighbouring Dowlais) continued to expand, and at their height were the most productive ironworks in the world: 50,000 tons of rails left just one ironworks in 1844, for the railways across Russia to Siberia. With the growing industry in Merthyr, several railway companies established routes linking the works with ports and other parts of Britain. They included the Brecon and Merthyr Railway, Vale of Neath Railway, Taff Vale Railway and Great Western Railway. They often shared routes to allow access to coal mines and ironworks through rugged country, which presented great engineering challenges. According to David Williams, in 1804, the world's first railway steam locomotive, "The Iron Horse", developed by the Cornish engineer Richard Trevithick, pulled 10 tons of iron with passengers on the new Merthyr Tramroad from Penydarren to Quakers Yard. He also claims that this was the "first 'railway' and the work of George Stephenson was merely an improvement upon it". A replica of this locomotive is in the National Waterfront Museum in Swansea. The tramway passed through what is arguably the oldest railway tunnel in the world, part of which can be seen alongside Pentrebach Road at the lower end of the town. The demand for iron was also fuelled by the Royal Navy, which needed cannon for its ships, and later by the railways. In 1802, Admiral Lord Nelson visited Merthyr to witness cannon being made.


title: Merthyr Tydfil

text: Famously, upon visiting Merthyr in 1850, Thomas Carlyle wrote that the town was filled with such "unguided, hard-worked, fierce, and miserable-looking sons of Adam I never saw before. Ah me! It is like a vision of Hell, and will never leave me, that of these poor creatures broiling, all in sweat and dirt, amid their furnaces, pits, and rolling mills."


title: Merthyr Tydfil

text: China was the name given to a nineteenth-century slum in the Pont-Storehouse area of Merthyr Tydfil. This was not a 'Chinatown' in the modern sense, and its residents were mainly English, Irish and Welsh. The inhabitants of China were seen as a separate class, away from the respectable areas of Merthyr, and were clearly recognisable by their lifestyle and appearance. In his article, "In search of the Celestial Empire", historian Keith Strange compares China to areas of Liverpool, Nottingham and Derby, and states that this area was just as bad if not worse than those "little Sodoms".


title: Merthyr Tydfil

text: There were at least 1,500 people living in the slum, the inhabitants of which were the poorest of society and had a bad reputation. Their living conditions were some of the most squalid in Britain. The slum was based around narrow streets, badly ventilated and full of crowded houses that led to festering diseases. China became known as "Little Hell" and was notorious for having no toilets but open sewers, which caused diseases such as cholera and typhoid.


title: Merthyr Tydfil

text: With the Industrial Revolution came a sharp decline in young men working in agriculture, who were attracted by higher wages paid in industries such as iron. In 1829, the depression hit Merthyr hard, as ironmasters responded with dismissals, wage cuts and short-term working. Any sudden downturn in the market plunged workers into hardship, widening the class distinctions.


title: Merthyr Tydfil

text: The Merthyr Rising of 1831 was precipitated by ruthless collection of debts, frequent wage reductions, and imposition of truck shops. Some workers were paid in specially minted coins or credit notes known as "truck", which could be spent only at shops owned by their employers. Many workers objected to the price and quality of goods sold there. Throughout May 1831, the coal miners and others who worked for William Crawshay took to the streets of Merthyr Tydfil, calling for reform, and protesting against the lowering of their wages and general unemployment.


title: Merthyr Tydfil

text: Between 7,000 and 10,000 workers marched, and for four days magistrates and ironmasters were under siege in the Castle Hotel, with the protesters effectively controlling the town. Soldiers called in from Brecon clashed with the rioters, and several on both sides were killed. Despite the hope of negotiating with the owners, the skilled workers lost control of the movement. Several supposed leaders of the riots were arrested. One of them, Richard Lewis, popularly known as Dic Penderyn, was hanged for stabbing a soldier in the leg, becoming known as the first local working-class martyr. It was claimed in 1876 that it was not Lewis who stabbed Black, but another man, Ianto Parker, who fled to America after the incident to avoid prosecution. Such claims have never been fully verified, although Lewis's innocence is widely accepted in Merthyr.


title: Merthyr Tydfil

text: The Chartist movement of 1831 did not consider the reforms put forward by The Reform Act of 1832 to be extensive enough.


title: Merthyr Tydfil

text: The population of Merthyr reached 51,949 in 1861, but then went into decline for several years. As the 19th century progressed, Merthyr's inland location became increasingly disadvantageous for iron production. Penydarren closed in 1859 and Plymouth in 1880; thereafter some ironworkers migrated to the United States or even Ukraine, where Merthyr engineer John Hughes established an ironworks in 1869, creating the new city of Donetsk in the process.


title: Merthyr Tydfil

text: In the 1870s the advent of coal mining to the south of the town gave renewed impetus to the local economy and population growth. New mining communities developed at Merthyr Vale, Treharris and Bedlinog, and the population of Merthyr rose to a peak of 80,990 in 1911. The growth of the town led to a grant of county borough status in 1908.


title: Merthyr Tydfil

text: A prime example of the decline is the Cyfarthfa Ironworks. The actions, or inactions, of Robert Crawshay ("The Iron King") can be seen as the main reasons for its downfall. The Crawshays refused to modernise by replacing iron production with steel production, using the newly discovered Bessemer process. This led to closure of the works in 1874, which caused economic hardship and unemployment in Merthyr.


title: Merthyr Tydfil

text: After Robert's death in 1879 his son William Thompson Crawshay took over the Cyfarthfa works. William finally modernised the works, introducing steel production. However it took until 1882 to get the works back up and running. It never fully caught up with other steel-making areas and closed again in 1910. Despite a comeback during the First World War, it finally closed in 1919. The local steel and coal industries began to decline after the war. By 1932, more than 80 per cent of men in Dowlais were unemployed; 27,000 people emigrated from Merthyr in the 1920s and 1930s, and a Royal Commission recommended that the town's county borough status be withdrawn. The fortunes of Merthyr revived temporarily during World War II, as war industry reached the area.


title: Merthyr Tydfil

text: Immediately after the Second World War, several large companies set up in Merthyr. In October 1948 the American-owned Hoover Company opened a large washing machine factory and depot in the village of Pentrebach, a few miles south of the town. The factory was purpose-built to manufacture the Hoover Electric Washing Machine, and at one point Hoover was the largest employer in the borough. Later the Sinclair C5 was built in the same factory.


title: Merthyr Tydfil

text: Hoover and other companies targeted Merthyr, and its declining coal and iron industries gave space for new businesses to start up there and grow. There were then increasing numbers of unemployed workers in the area, and since the Second World War this has included women too. "Initially 350 people were employed, by the mid 1970s that number had risen to near 5,000; making Hoover the largest employer in the borough", and therefore strongly filling in for the declining coal and iron industries.


title: Merthyr Tydfil

text: The strong growth of employment of women in Merthyr after the Second World War can be seen as a result of the introduction of more light manufacturing and consumer-based business – a stark contrast to the heavy industry in the coal and ironworks which had an almost entirely male workforce.


title: Merthyr Tydfil

text: Several other companies built factories, including the aviation components company Teddington Aircraft Controls, which opened in 1946 and closed in the early 1970s. The Merthyr Tydfil Institute for the Blind, founded in 1923, is the oldest active manufacturer in the town.


title: Merthyr Tydfil

text: Cyfarthfa, the former home of the ironmaster William Crawshay II, an opulent mock castle, is now a museum. It houses a number of paintings of the town, a large collection of artefacts from the town's Industrial Revolution period, and a notable collection of Egyptian tomb artefacts, including several sarcophagi.


title: Merthyr Tydfil

text: In 1992, while testing a new angina treatment in Merthyr Tydfil, researchers discovered that the new drug had erection-stimulating side effects for some of the healthy volunteers in the trial study. This discovery formed the basis for Viagra.


title: Merthyr Tydfil

text: In 2006 inventor Howard Stapleton, based in Merthyr Tydfil, developed the technology that gave rise to the recent mosquitotone or Teen Buzz phenomenon.


title: Merthyr Tydfil

text: In September 2021, Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council announced a bid to apply for city status, to be coordinated by urban economic and social researcher Dr Jane Croad.


title: Merthyr Tydfil

text: Use of the Welsh language in the town declined significantly in the late 19th and 20th centuries. In the 1891 census, 68.4 per cent of the 110,569 inhabitants habitually spoke Welsh. By the 1911 Census, the figure had fallen to 50.9 per cent of 74,596 inhabitants. The 2011 census showed 8.9 per cent primarily speaking Welsh.


title: Merthyr Tydfil

text: Despite Merthyr's long and varied industrial heritage, much of it has declined, with the closure of long-established nearby collieries, and steel and ironworks. Despite improvements, some parts remain economically disadvantaged and a marked proportion of the community are still long-term unemployed. In 2006, a Channel 4 series ranked Merthyr Tydfil as the United Kingdom's third-worst place to live. In the 2007 edition of the same series, Merthyr had improved to fifth-worst.


title: Merthyr Tydfil

text: In 2006, a large open-cast coal mine to extract 10 million tonnes of coal over 15 years was authorised just east of Merthyr as part of the Ffos-y-fran open-cast mine.


title: Merthyr Tydfil

text: The parish of Merthyr Tydfil was made a local board district in 1850, which became an urban district in 1894. The urban district was made a municipal borough in 1905, with eight electoral wards. Merthyr Tydfil was granted county borough status in 1908, making it independent from Glamorgan County Council. From 1974 to 1996 the borough reverted to being a lower-tier district council, with Mid Glamorgan County Council providing county-level services in the area. The borough was also enlarged in 1974, gaining Vaynor from Brecknockshire and Bedlinog from Gelligaer Urban District.


title: Merthyr Tydfil

text: In 1996 Mid Glamorgan County Council was abolished, and the borough council took over its functions in the area, being renamed Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council. The council governs the town and the wider Merthyr Tydfil County Borough, which stretches as far south as Treharris and Bedlinog. The town includes the electoral wards of Park, Penydarren, Cyfarthfa, Gurnos, Dowlais, Vaynor, and Town.


title: Merthyr Tydfil

text: The Member of Parliament for the Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney constituency is Gerald Jones, and the Senedd member is Dawn Bowden MS.


title: Merthyr Tydfil

text: Merthyr was regarded as a nonconformist stronghold in the 19th century, but the chapels declined rapidly from the 1920s onwards and most are now closed.


title: Merthyr Tydfil

text: The Church of England (now the Church in Wales) sought to counterbalance the influence of nonconformity in the 19th century and Merthyr had a succession of notable parish priests. Among them was John Griffith, rector of Merthyr from 1858 until his death in 1885. Griffith had previously been the incumbent at Aberdare, where he had created controversy for his evidence to the commissioners preparing the 1847 Education Reports. His views became more tempered over time. Griffith's move to Merthyr Tydfil saw him take over a much larger and more established parish than Aberdare. He became less than popular with the church authorities, however, as a result of his support for disestablishment. In July 1883 he stated "I have been for years convinced that nothing but Disestablishment, the separation of the Church from the State, can ever reform the Church in Wales."


title: Merthyr Tydfil

text: Griffith's funeral was said to have been attended by 12,000–15,000 people. "I venture to declare," wrote one correspondent, "no man in this part of the kingdom could be more popular in his day and generation than the Rev. John Griffith." Among the nonconformist ministers present was an old rival, Dr Thomas Price of Aberdare.


title: Merthyr Tydfil

text: Another influential character was Sir John Guest, who contributed greatly to the building of St John's Church, Dowlais. Despite the generally small congregations of Anglican churches, St John's thrived: it held two services in English each Sunday and also two in Welsh. This church was significant in the plan to counterbalance nonconformity in Merthyr. In 2019 the church was converted into residential flats which retain the original structure.


title: Merthyr Tydfil

text: Merthyr was notable in the 19th and early 20th centuries for a large number of nonconformist places of worship, most holding services in Welsh.


title: Merthyr Tydfil

text: One of the earliest was Ynysgau Chapel, which dated from 1749. It was demolished in 1967 as part of the Merthyr Town Improvement Scheme. The original cause at Ynysgau was established by various "dissenters" from the Church of England. It had been acquired by the Independents (Congregationalists) by the early 19th century.


title: Merthyr Tydfil

text: Other early chapels were Zion and Ebenezer (Baptists), Zoar and Bethesda (Independents) and Pontmorlais (Calvinistic Methodists).


title: Merthyr Tydfil

text: Merthyr Tydfil had the largest Jewish community in Wales in the 19th century, reaching 400 at its height. As the Jewish population had increased, Merthyr Hebrew Congregation was founded in 1848 and a cemetery consecrated a few years later at Cefn-Coed. Merthyr Synagogue was built in 1875. Religious services ceased when it had a male Jewish congregation of under ten, the minyan (quorum) required for them.


title: Merthyr Tydfil

text: In 1978 the building was given Grade II* listing, changed to Grade II in 1983. In the 1980s the 120-year-old synagogue was sold and became a Christian Centre, then a gym. In 2009 permission was obtained to turn it into flats. In 2019 it was bought by the Foundation for Jewish Heritage, which plans to open as a Jewish Heritage Centre in 2025.


title: Merthyr Tydfil

text: The town's many cultural events include local poets and writers holding poetry evenings and music festivals organised at Cyfarthfa Castle and Park. Menter Iaith Merthyr Tudful (the Merthyr Tydfil Welsh Language Initiative) has successfully transformed the Zoar Chapel and adjacent vestry building in Pontmorlais into a community arts venue, Canolfan Soar and Theatr Soar, which run a programme of performance events and activities in both Welsh and English, together with a cafe and a bookshop specialising in local interest and Welsh language books and CDs.


title: Merthyr Tydfil

text: Merthyr Tydfil Housing Association, in partnership with Canolfan Soar, has raised funds to turn the Pontmorlais area into a cultural quarter. With references to the 1831 Merthyr Rising and red bricks for its frontage, an arts and creative industries centre named Redhouse Cymru was launched in Merthyr Tydfil Town Hall on Saint David's Day 2014. The town's several choirs – Dowlais Male Voice Choir, Ynysowen Male Voice Choir, Treharris Male Voice Choir, Merthyr Tydfil Ladies Choir, Con Voce, Cantorion Cyfarthfa, St David's Church Choir, St David's Choral Scholars, Merthyr Aloud and Tenovus – perform locally and abroad and in the media.


title: Merthyr Tydfil

text: Merthyr's Central Library holds a prominent position in the town centre, as a Carnegie library. Merthyr hosted the National Eisteddfod in 1881 and 1901 and the national Urdd Gobaith Cymru Eisteddfod in 1987. Like nearby Aberdare, it is known for its music scene. Several bands have achieved national success, including The Blackout and Midasuno. From 2011 to 2014, the town held a Merthyr Rock Festival at Cyfarthfa Park. To complement this, the town holds the Merthyr Rising each year – a three-day celebration of town history through local music, held on the site of the Rising itself in Penderyn Square at the junction of Castle Street and High Street.


title: Merthyr Tydfil

text: The town lies the southern edge of the Brecon Beacons National Park and is also well-placed for visitors to the South Wales Valleys. The remains of Morlais Castle are on the northern edge of Merthyr Tydfil, the Norman castle was reportedly never completed. The Brecon Mountain Railway is a narrow-gauge tourist railway that runs up the Taf Fechan valley from Pant on the outskirts of Merthyr Tydfil.


title: Merthyr Tydfil

text: In 1802, Homfray, the Master of the Penydarren Ironworks, commissioned engineer Richard Trevithick to build one of his high-pressure steam engines to drive a hammer at the Penydarren Ironworks. With the assistance of works engineer Rees Jones, Trevithick mounted the engine on wheels and turned it into a locomotive. In 1803, Trevithick sold the patents for his locomotives to Homfray.


title: Merthyr Tydfil

text: Homfray was so impressed with Trevithick's locomotive that he made another bet with Crawshay, this time for 500 guineas, that it could haul 10 tons of iron along the Merthyr Tydfil Tramroad from Penydarren to Abercynon , a distance of . Amid great public interest, on 21 February 1804 it successfully carried 11.24 tons of coal, five wagons and 70 men over the full distance in 4 hours and 5 minutes, at an average speed of . As well as Homfray, Crawshay, and the passengers, other witnesses included Mr Giddy, a respected patron of Trevithick, and an "engineer from the Government". The latter was probably a safety inspector, who would have been particularly interested in the boiler's ability to withstand high steam pressures. This allowed others to develop Trevithick's ideas; some claim the modern railway system was born in Merthyr Tydfil. In modern Merthyr, behind the monument to Trevithick's locomotive, is a stone wall, the sole remainder of the former boundary wall of Penydarren House. There is a full-scale working replica of Trevithick's 1804 steam-powered railway locomotive in the National Waterfront Museum, Swansea.


title: Merthyr Tydfil

text: Road improvements mean the town is increasingly a commuter location and has shown some of the highest house-price growth in the UK.


title: Merthyr Tydfil

text: Regular trains run from Merthyr Tydfil railway station to Cardiff Queen Street and Cardiff Central. Merthyr Tydfil bus station is located in Swan Street, to the south of the town centre. The station opened in June 2021, replacing a previous one in Castle Street. The new bus station is closer to the railway station, to facilitate interchange as part of a proposed South Wales Metro network.


title: Merthyr Tydfil

text: Merthyr relies on a combination of public sector, manufacturing and service sector companies to provide employment. The Welsh Government has recently opened a major office in the town near a large telecommunications call centre (T-Mobile & EE). Hoover (now part of Candy Group) has its registered office in the town and remained a major employer until it transferred production abroad in March 2009, with a loss of 337 jobs from the closure of its factory.


title: Merthyr Tydfil

text: Merthyr is well known for boxers, amateur and professional. The latter have included Johnny Owen, Howard Winstone, and Eddie Thomas. A series of bronze sculptures in the town mark their achievements.


title: Merthyr Tydfil

text: Where the sculpture of Eddie Thomas stands was also the site of The Bethesda Community Arts Centre in the 1980s.


title: Merthyr Tydfil

text: Merthyr has a football team, Merthyr Town or "The Martyrs", currently competes in England's Evostick Southern Football League and plays home games at Penydarren Park.


title: Merthyr Tydfil

text: The town was home to the professional Football League club Merthyr Town F.C. (1909), which folded in the 1930s; Merthyr Tydfil AFC was founded in 1945. In 1987 it won the Welsh Cup and qualified for the European Cup Winners' Cup. The year 2008 marked the centennial of football at Penydarren Park. After going into liquidation in 2010, the club dropped down three divisions, reverted to the name of Merthyr Town and made Rhiw Dda'r its new home ground. After promotion the club moved back to Penydarren Park in July 2011.


title: Merthyr Tydfil

text: Merthyr RFC is known as "the Ironmen". It was one of the 12 founding clubs of the Welsh Rugby Union in 1881. It competes in the Principality Premiership and plays home games at The Wern.


title: Merthyr Tydfil

text: From 2017, semi-professional League 1 club South Wales Ironmen, previously known as "South Wales Scorpions", plays in the town at Merthyr RFC's ground, The Wern. Merthyr is also home to the Tydfil Wildcats Rugby League team, which played at The Cage in Troedyrhiw until September 2010. Merthyr Tydfil was one of the first rugby league sides in Wales in 1907 and beat the first touring Australian side in 1908.


title: Merthyr Tydfil

text: Bikepark Wales, the UK's first purpose-built mountain biking centre, is located at Gethin Woods, Merthyr Tydfil.


title: Merthyr Tydfil

text: Parkwood Outdoors Dolygaer is an outdoor activity centre that was opened in 2015 on the site of an earlier centre run by the local education authority. Pursuits include canoeing and stand-up paddleboarding on the Pontsticill Reservoir.


title: Merthyr Tydfil

text: The main secondary schools in the town are Afon Taf High School, Cyfarthfa High School and Pen-Y-Dre High School.


title: Merthyr Tydfil

text: Other notable residents have included poet and author Mike Jenkins (his son Ciaran mentioned above) and daughter Plaid Cymru politician Bethan Jenkins; poet, journalist, and Welsh Nationalist Harri Webb; General Secretary of the PCS trade union Mark Serwotka; poet, author, and Welsh language activist Meic Stephens; poet, author, and journalist Grahame Davies; and current head of Network Rail Andrew Haines. Sam Hughes began his career as a noted player of the ophicleide in the Cyfarthfa Brass Band. One of the first two Labour MPs to be elected to parliament was the Scot Keir Hardie, for Merthyr Tydfil constituency.


title: Merthyr Tydfil

text: Notable descendants of Merthyr include the singer-songwriter Katell Keineg, whose mother is from Merthyr, the "Chariots of Fire" athlete Harold Abrahams' mother Esther Isaacs, and the grandfather of Rolf Harris. The 1970s juvenile group The Osmonds traced its ancestry to Merthyr.


title: Merthyr Tydfil

text: Lady Charlotte Guest, publisher and translator, married ironmaster John Josiah Guest in 1833 and moved to his mansion in Dowlais, where she lived for many years. There she translated the stories of the Mabinogion in 1838–1845 and 1877.


title: Merthyr Tydfil

text: The population given as 38,000 is for the parishes round the town centre: the population of the County Borough at the 2011 census was 58,800 and in 2014 59,500.


title: Foxborough, Massachusetts

text: Foxborough is a town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States, about southwest of Boston, northeast of Providence, Rhode Island and about northwest of Cape Cod. Foxborough is part of the Greater Boston area. The population was 18,618 at the 2020 census.


title: Foxborough, Massachusetts

text: "Foxborough" is the official spelling of the town name, although the alternative spelling "Foxboro" is also frequently used. This alternative spelling is used by the United States Postal Service as the correct form by which to address mail to recipients in the town, although both can be processed by their system. The sign on the post office reads "Foxboro".


title: Foxborough, Massachusetts

text: Foxborough is best known as the site of Gillette Stadium, home of the New England Patriots of the National Football League (NFL) and the New England Revolution of Major League Soccer (MLS).


title: Foxborough, Massachusetts

text: Settled in 1704 and incorporated in 1778, the town of Foxborough was named for Charles James Fox, a Whig member of Parliament and a staunch supporter of the Colonies in the years leading up to the American Revolution.


title: Foxborough, Massachusetts

text: The town was once home to the world's largest straw hat factory. Founded by local businessman E.P. Carpenter, the Union Straw Works burned to the ground in the early 20th century. The town post office now stands on the site.


title: Foxborough, Massachusetts

text: Foxborough was composed of small neighborhood communities until the early 1900s. These included Foxvale/Paineburgh, which remained semi-independent until the early twentieth century; Quaker Hill in South Foxborough; and Lakeview/Donkeyville in West Foxborough.


title: Foxborough, Massachusetts

text: Schaefer Stadium (later known as Sullivan Stadium, then Foxboro Stadium) opened in 1971 as the home of the New England Patriots, after the football team spent its first eleven seasons playing at various stadiums in Boston. The family of Billy Sullivan owned both the Patriots and the stadium until they sold the team in 1988. The stadium, however, lapsed into bankruptcy and was then bought by paper magnate Robert Kraft. With Kraft in control of Foxboro Stadium, he prevented the Patriots from relocating to St. Louis in 1994 by refusing to let the team break their lease, then bought the Patriots outright. Kraft then founded the New England Revolution, one of the charter clubs of Major League Soccer, in 1996.


title: Foxborough, Massachusetts

text: Gillette Stadium opened in 2002 as a replacement for Foxboro Stadium. The Patriot Place shopping plaza, built on land surrounding the stadium bought by Kraft, completed construction in 2009. The plaza includes a variety of restaurants, clothing stores, and other retailers.


title: Foxborough, Massachusetts

text: According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of , of which is land and (3.88%) is water.


title: Foxborough, Massachusetts

text: For the purposes of the United States Census Bureau, the built-up central area of Foxborough known as the Foxborough Census Designated Place (CDP) has a total area of 7.6 km (3.0 mi). 7.5 km (2.9 mi) is land and 0.1 km (0.1 mi) (1.69%) is water.


title: Foxborough, Massachusetts

text: Foxborough's climate is humid continental (Köppen: Dfa) with four distinct seasons, which is the predominant climate for Massachusetts and New England. Summers are typically warm to hot, rainy, and humid, while winters are cold, windy, and snowy. Spring and fall are usually mild, but conditions are widely varied, depending on wind direction and jet stream positioning. The warmest month is July, with an average high temperature of 83 °F and an average low temperature of 62 °F. The coldest month is January, with an average high temperature of 36 °F and an average low temperature of 18 °F. Periods exceeding 90 °F in summer and below 10 °F in winter are not uncommon but rarely extended, with about 14 days per year seeing the former extreme. Because of the town's relatively short distance from the Atlantic Ocean, temperatures tend to remain warmer than locations further inland. Like the rest of the northeastern seaboard, precipitation is distributed fairly evenly throughout the entire year, with the winter months receiving slightly more precipitation than the summer months. Powerful storm systems known as Nor'easters can produce heavy amounts of rain and snow at any time of the year, but these storms most often strike during the winter months, causing significant snowfall amounts and blizzard conditions. Thunderstorms occur somewhat frequently in the summer, occasionally bringing heavy downpours, damaging winds, and hail. Tornado activity is relatively low in the area, although there have been a fair share of tornado warnings issued over the years. Due to its location along the United States eastern seaboard, Foxborough is somewhat vulnerable to Atlantic hurricanes and tropical storms that threaten the region from late summer into early autumn.


title: Foxborough, Massachusetts

text: As of the census of 2000, there were 16,246 people, 6,141 households, and 4,396 families residing in the town. The population density was 809.1 people per square mile (312.4/km). There were 6,299 housing units at an average density of 313.7 per square mile (121.1/km). The racial makeup of the town was 97.09% White, 0.82% Black or African American, 0.11% Native American, 1.22% Asian, 0.01% Pacific Islander, 0.20% from other races, and 0.54% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino people of any race were 1.06% of the population.


title: Foxborough, Massachusetts

text: There were 6,141 households, out of which 35.3% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 59.9% were married couples living together, 8.6% had a female householder with no husband present, and 28.4% were non-families. Of all households 23.4% were made up of individuals, and 8.6% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.63 and the average family size was 3.15.


title: Foxborough, Massachusetts

text: In the town, 26.5% of the population was under the age of 18, 5.0% was from 18 to 24, 32.1% from 25 to 44, 24.5% from 45 to 64, and 11.9% were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 38 years. For every 100 females, there were 95.8 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 92.2 males.


title: Foxborough, Massachusetts

text: The median income for a household in the town was $64,323, and the median income for a family was $78,811. Based on data from the 2007–2011 American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates, these figures have risen to $92,370 as the median income for a household in the town and $108,209 as the median income for a family. Males had a median income of $51,901 versus $35,748 for females. The per capita income for the town was $32,294, but this figure has risen to $42,236. About 2.3% of families and 3.1% of the population were below the poverty line, including 2.0% of those under age 18 and 6.2% of those age 65 or over.


title: Foxborough, Massachusetts

text: The built-up central business district is designated by the United States Census Bureau as the Foxborough Census Designated Place for record keeping purposes (this is common among many larger population New England towns).


title: Foxborough, Massachusetts

text: As of the census of 2000, there were 5,509 people, 2,486 households, and 1,372 families residing in the CDP. The population density was 730.9/km (1,895.7/mi). There were 2,576 housing units at an average density of 341.8/km (886.4/mi). The racial makeup of the CDP was 96.57% White, 1.42% Black or African American, 0.13% Native American, 1.07% Asian, 0.29% from other races, and 0.53% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino people of any race were 1.60% of the population.


title: Foxborough, Massachusetts

text: There were 2,486 households, out of which 25.9% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 41.9% were married couples living together, 9.5% had a female householder with no husband present, and 44.8% were non-families. Of all households 37.8% were made up of individuals, and 13.6% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.18 and the average family size was 2.95.


title: Foxborough, Massachusetts

text: In the CDP, 21.7% of the population was under the age of 18, 5.3% was from 18 to 24, 35.0% from 25 to 44, 21.6% from 45 to 64, and 16.4% were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 38 years. For every 100 females, there were 92.1 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 87.6 males.


title: Foxborough, Massachusetts

text: The median income for a household in the CDP was $50,431, and the median income for a family was $58,924. Males had a median income of $42,030 versus $35,370 for females. The per capita income for the CDP was $31,245. About 4.1% of families and 5.1% of the population were below the poverty line, including 5.4% of those under age 18 and 8.7% of those age 65 or over.


title: Foxborough, Massachusetts

text: Foxborough is run by a five-member board of selectmen and elected town officials like the town moderator and town clerk. Day-to-day operations involving items under the Board of Selectmen's purview is handled by an appointed Town Manager.


title: Foxborough, Massachusetts

text: Foxborough has a public school system. The Foxborough Public Schools (FPS) district currently has an enrollment of over 3,000 children in grades from preschool to grade 12.


title: Foxborough, Massachusetts

text: Foxborough High School offers a wide variety of sports including golf, track and field, football, soccer, cross country, volleyball, swim, basketball, wrestling, hockey, indoor track, cheerleading, lacrosse, baseball, tennis, and softball.


title: Foxborough, Massachusetts

text: The mascot of the high school is the Warriors, whose colors are blue and gold. Foxborough's rival is neighboring Mansfield High School.


title: Foxborough, Massachusetts

text: The football team has won the Hockomock League title and won the Division 2 Super Bowl various times, most recently in 2007 with a 21–10 victory over Burlington. The Super Bowl win was coach Jack Martinelli's 200th win. During the 1987 and 1988 seasons, the Warriors won back-to-back Division 3 Super Bowls and went undefeated in 1988. This team featured five players who went on to play Division 1 college football (Chris Cady, Eric Matckie, Tom Nalen, Dan Sullivan, and Rob Turenne).


title: Foxborough, Massachusetts

text: The cheerleading team has also earned recognition, making it to nationals for the first time in 2004 and again in 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008.


title: Foxborough, Massachusetts

text: The golf team has produced many all-scholastic players and state champions, as has the wrestling team. The boys' indoor track team were the Hockomock Champions in the 2006/2007 season. The field hockey team have been the Hockomock Champions several times in recent years.


title: Foxborough, Massachusetts

text: Foxborough High School is also known for its music program, which includes a string orchestra, symphony orchestra, chorus, marching band, concert band, symphonic winds, winds ensemble and jazz band/choir. Many of these groups regularly place in competitions, but the Jazz Ensemble has been recognized in several Essentially Ellington competitions. The top 15 jazz bands in the country send in recordings of themselves for judging. Foxborough has placed in the top 15 for several years.


title: Rab Butler

text: Richard Austen Butler, Baron Butler of Saffron Walden, (9 December 1902 – 8 March 1982), also known as R. A. Butler and familiarly known from his initials as Rab, was a prominent British Conservative Party politician. "The Times" obituary called him "the creator of the modern educational system, the key-figure in the revival of post-war Conservatism, arguably the most successful chancellor since the war and unquestionably a Home Secretary of reforming zeal". He was one of his party's leaders in promoting the post-war consensus through which the major parties largely agreed on the main points of domestic policy until the 1970s, sometimes known as "Butskellism" from a fusion of his name with that of his Labour counterpart Hugh Gaitskell.


title: Rab Butler

text: Born into a family of academics and Indian administrators, Butler had a distinguished academic career before entering Parliament in 1929. As a junior minister, he helped to pass the Government of India Act 1935. He strongly supported the appeasement of Nazi Germany in 1938–39. Entering the Cabinet in 1941, he served as Education Minister (1941–45, overseeing the Education Act 1944). When the Conservatives returned to power in 1951 he served as Chancellor of the Exchequer (1951–55), Home Secretary (1957–62), First Secretary of State (1962–63) and Foreign Secretary (1963–64).


title: Rab Butler

text: Butler had an exceptionally long ministerial career and was one of only two British politicians (the other being John Simon, 1st Viscount Simon) to have served in three of the four Great Offices of State but never to have been Prime Minister, for which he was passed over in 1957 and 1963. At the time, the Conservative Leadership was decided by a process of private consultation rather than by a formal vote. After retiring from politics in 1965, Butler was appointed Master of Trinity College, Cambridge.


title: Rab Butler

text: Richard Austen Butler was born 9 December 1902 in Attock, British India, eldest son of Sir Montagu Sherard Dawes Butler, a member of the Indian Civil Service, and Anne Smith. His maternal grandfather George Smith was Principal of Doveton Boys College, Calcutta. He had two sisters, the writer Iris Mary Butler (1905–2002), who married Lt-Colonel Gervase Portal (1890–1961), and Dorothy (1909–1999), wife of Laurence Middleton (1905–1982). His younger brother John (1914–1943) was killed in an air crash while on active service in January 1943.


title: Rab Butler

text: Butler's paternal family had a long and distinguished association with the University of Cambridge, dating back to his great-grandfather George Butler. His great-uncle Henry Montagu Butler was Master of Trinity College, Cambridge, and Dean of Gloucester, and his uncle Sir Geoffrey G. Butler, a Cambridge historian and Conservative MP for the university. His father was a Fellow and later Master of Pembroke College, Cambridge.


title: Rab Butler

text: On 20 April 1926, he married Sydney Elizabeth Courtauld (1902–1954), daughter of Samuel Courtauld and co-heiress to the Courtaulds textile fortune. They had four children; Sir Richard (1929–2012), President of the National Farmer's Union from 1979 to 1986, Adam (1931–2008), also a politician, Samuel (1936–2015), and Sarah (born 1944). Five years after Sydney died of cancer in 1954, he married again, this time to Mollie Courtauld (1908-2009), widow of Augustine Courtauld. They purchased Spencers, the house in Essex where Mollie previously lived with Augustine Courtauld; she remained there until her death on 18 February 2009, at the age of 101.


title: Rab Butler

text: In July 1909, at the age of six, Butler's right arm was broken in three places in a riding accident, leaving his right hand permanently disabled. He attended preparatory school in Hove, but rebelled against going to Harrow School, where most of his family were educated. Having failed to win a scholarship to Eton College, he instead attended Marlborough College, leaving in December 1920. In June 1921, he won an exhibition to Pembroke College, Cambridge; at this stage, he planned a career in the Diplomatic Service.


title: Rab Butler

text: He entered Pembroke College in October 1921 and became President of the Cambridge Union Society in Easter (summer) Term 1924. Initially studying French and German, he graduated in 1925 with one of the highest First Class degrees in history in the university. He was elected a fellow of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, and gave lectures on the politics of the French Third Republic. While at Cambridge, he met Sydney Courtauld; after they married in 1926, his father-in-law awarded him an income of £5,000 a year after tax for life, then comparable to a Cabinet Minister's salary and which gave him the financial freedom to pursue a political career.


title: Rab Butler

text: While visiting Vancouver on his honeymoon in June 1927, Butler learned that William Foot Mitchell, Conservative MP for Saffron Walden, would not contest the next election; with the help of his Courtauld family connections, Butler was selected unopposed as the Conservative candidate on 26 November 1927. He was elected in the 1929 general election, and retained the seat until his retirement in 1965.


title: Rab Butler

text: Even before being elected to Parliament, Butler had been private secretary to Samuel Hoare; when the National Government was formed in August 1931 Hoare was appointed Secretary of State for India and Butler was appointed Hoare's Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS). In January 1932, he visited India as part of Lord Lothian's Franchise Committee, set up by the Round Table Conference, and which recommended a large increase in the Indian electorate.


title: Rab Butler

text: On 29 September 1932, Butler became Under-Secretary of State for India, following the resignation of Lord Lothian and other Liberals over abandonment of free trade by the National Government. At 29, he was the youngest member of the government, responsible for piloting the Government of India Act 1935 through Parliament, in the face of opposition from Winston Churchill and the Conservative right. He retained this position in Stanley Baldwin's third government (1935–37) and when Neville Chamberlain replaced him as Prime Minister in May 1937, Butler was appointed Parliamentary Secretary at the Ministry of Labour.


title: Rab Butler

text: In the reshuffle caused by the resignation of Anthony Eden as Foreign Secretary and Lord Cranborne as Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs in February 1938, Butler replaced Cranborne as Under-Secretary. With the new Foreign Secretary Lord Halifax in the House of Lords, Butler was the main Foreign Office spokesman in the Commons.


title: Rab Butler

text: In internal discussions following Germany's annexation of Austria on 12 March 1938, Butler counselled against giving Czechoslovakia a guarantee of British support, and approved the Cabinet decision on 22 March not to do so, facts he later omitted from his memoirs. During the Sudeten Crisis, he was attending a League of Nations meeting in Geneva but strongly supported Chamberlain's trip to Berchtesgaden on 16 September, even if it meant sacrificing Czechoslovakia in the interests of peace. Butler returned to Britain to make the winding-up speech for the Government in the Parliamentary Debate on the Munich Agreement on 5 October. After Churchill had spoken, Butler said that war solved nothing and that it was better to "settle our differences with Germany by consultation". However, he did not directly defend the Munich settlement; the motion was to support the avoidance of war and the pursuit of lasting peace.


title: Rab Butler

text: Butler became a Privy Councillor in the 1939 New Year Honours list, the youngest person so appointed since Churchill in 1907.


title: Rab Butler

text: After the German occupation of Czechoslovakia on 15 March 1939, Butler, like Chamberlain, was shocked at Hitler's duplicity in breaking the Munich Agreement. Driven largely by Halifax, Britain now attempted to deter further German aggression by pledging to go to war to defend Poland and other east European countries. The evidence suggests Butler did not support it, and would have preferred Poland also to be sacrificed in the interests of peace.


title: Rab Butler

text: Butler became a member of the foreign policy committee, which agreed to seek an Anglo-Soviet Alliance in May 1939, contrary to Chamberlain's and Butler's wishes, but Butler and Horace Wilson persuaded Chamberlain to hamstring the search for an agreement by including a requirement that Britain would not fight without League of Nations approval. Throughout the summer of 1939 Butler continued to lobby for closer Anglo-German relations and for Britain to lean on Poland to reach agreement with Germany.


title: Rab Butler

text: After the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact was announced on 23 August 1939, Butler advised against Britain honouring her guarantee to defend Poland against Germany, instead favouring Hitler's proposal that Germany be allowed to settle matters with Poland as she wished and in return for concessions over her former colonies sign an Anglo-German alliance. Oliver Harvey recorded (27 August) that Butler and Horace Wilson were "working like beavers" for "another Munich", however, eventually the government agreed to honour the guarantee to Poland.


title: Rab Butler

text: As late as the start of September 1939, with German invasion of Poland imminent, comments in Channon's diary suggest that Butler was sympathetic to last-minute Italian efforts to broker peace and that he and Butler were heartened by a delay in the British declaration of war on Germany, although in fact the delay in the issuing of the British ultimatum was because of lack of agreement with the French over timing.


title: Rab Butler

text: Butler's close association with appeasement was often held against him later in his career. Although he later held many senior Cabinet positions, by the time of Suez in 1956 his past, coupled with his lack of personal military experience, damaged his reputation in the eyes of the younger generation of Conservative MPs, many of them Second World War veterans. Although at the time Butler strongly supported reaching agreement with Hitler as necessary for peace, in his memoirs "The Art of the Possible" (1971), he defended the Munich Agreement as essential to buy time to rearm and gain public support for war in Britain and the Dominions, while also claiming that he had little input into the direction of foreign policy.


title: Rab Butler

text: Later commentators argue the suggestion given in his memoirs that Butler supported Halifax in leading the drive away from appeasement after Prague is "wholly false", while his own papers suggest he went to "greater lengths to meet Hitler's demands than any other figure in the British government" in 1939. His efforts to revoke the Polish guarantee in the summer of 1939 went beyond even Horace Wilson's and it seems doubtful whether he was willing to fight Hitler over Poland at all. Patrick Cosgrave argues "Butler did not merely go along with appeasement he waxed hard, long and enthusiastic for it, and there is very little evidence ...he took the slightest interest in the rearmament programme to which he devotes such emphasis in his memoirs". Jago concludes Butler "distorted the facts" and "grossly misrepresented his responsibility and attitudes in 1938". Although not the direct cause of his defeats [for the party leadership] in 1957 or 1963 "it was … always there, the blemish that he could not quite reason away."


title: Rab Butler

text: On 20 October 1939, after the Fall of Poland, Butler was (according to Soviet Ambassador Ivan Maisky) still open to a compromise peace and agreement to restore Germany's colonies to her, provided it was guaranteed by all the powers, including the US and USSR. He dismissed as an "absurdity" any suggestion that Germany first be required to withdraw from Poland. Butler disapproved of Churchill, who was then First Lord of the Admiralty and publicly opposed to any hint of compromise peace.


title: Rab Butler

text: Butler was quicker than many to realise the social change which war would bring. He spoke to Robert Barrington-Ward of "The Times" (12 February 1940) of "the new social revolution that is making its way, and how to anticipate and meet it".


title: Rab Butler

text: With Chamberlain's position untenable after the Norway Debate, Butler tried (10 May 1940) to persuade Halifax to accept appointment as Prime Minister, but he was out at the dentist. Churchill was appointed instead. Butler wrote to Chamberlain on 11 May, urging him to carry on as a member of the government in the hope of achieving a negotiated peace and was reappointed to the Foreign Office on 15 May. Butler later grew to respect Churchill after serving under him.


title: Rab Butler

text: On 17 June 1940, the day Marshal Petain asked for an armistice, Butler met informally with the Swedish envoy Björn Prytz. Prytz later reported to Stockholm that Butler had declared British policy must be determined by "common sense not bravado" and that he had "assured me that no opportunity for reaching a compromise (peace) would be neglected if the possibility were offered on reasonable conditions.


title: Rab Butler

text: Churchill was furious when he found out, probably through intelligence intercepts of Swedish diplomatic cables. He wrote to Halifax on 26 June complaining of Butler's "odd language", which hinted at a lukewarm or even defeatist attitude. Butler, who was lucky not to be sacked, made a four-page handwritten reply the same day, claiming that he had kept to the official British line and had said "nothing definite or specific that I would wish to withdraw", but offering to resign. On 28 June, after being shown Churchill's letter, Butler wrote to Halifax giving an unconvincing explanation, which he later repeated in his memoirs, that by "common sense not bravado", he had been pushing the official line that there could be no peace until Germany had disgorged her conquests. Jago argues that Butler may have been covering for Halifax. Halifax's biographer, Andrew Roberts believes that Butler had been putting words into Halifax's mouth, and that Halifax had already moved away from his earlier openness to a compromise peace.


title: Rab Butler

text: Butler kept his job and was allowed to make two broadcasts on the BBC (21 October and 15 December 1940). At the reshuffle on Chamberlain's resignation from the government (22 October 1940) Churchill's sidekick Brendan Bracken offered Butler promotion to the Cabinet-level job of President of the Board of Education, but no offer was forthcoming from Churchill.


title: Rab Butler

text: Butler had little respect for Eden but reluctantly agreed to remain at the Foreign Office when he once again became Foreign Secretary in December 1940. In March 1941, with Eden in Cairo, Churchill handled Foreign Office business personally instead of delegating it to Butler. By then, Butler's responsibilities had been restricted to "routine drudgery" such as negotiating safe passage for diplomats, repatriation of neutral seamen and, on one occasion, arranging extra clothing coupons for foreign diplomats so that the Duke of Alba could buy more socks. Butler and Geoffrey Lloyd attempted to register for military service in May 1941, but their application was referred to Ernest Bevin (Minister of Labour), who, in turn, referred it to Churchill. He vetoed it on the grounds that their work as government ministers was more important.


title: Rab Butler

text: Butler gained permanent fame for the Education Act of 1944. It was a key part of the reform package that responded to strong wartime popular demands and helped reshape postwar society. It was the only reform for which the Conservatives obtained popular credit. The main provisions were drafted by senior civil servants based on ideas that had been in circulation for years. Butler's decisive role was to secure passage by negotiations with interested parties from Churchill to the churches, from educators to MPs.


title: Rab Butler

text: In July 1941 Butler received his first Cabinet post when he was appointed President of the Board of Education. Some writers, such as Addison, suggest that Education was a backwater and Churchill offered him that or a diplomatic post to remove him from the more sensitive Foreign Office. However, he had been keen to leave the Foreign Office, and press stories that he had previously declined Cabinet positions were misinformed. His biographer argues that the promotion was not, contrary to Butler's own later insinuations (such as that Churchill had talked of "wiping babies' bottoms"), intended as an insult. At the time, Butler recorded that Churchill had demanded more patriotic history teaching: "Tell the children that Wolfe won Quebec".


title: Rab Butler

text: Butler was also the chair of the War Cabinet Committee for the Control of Official Histories. Butler became Chairman of the Conservatives' Postwar Problems Central Committee on 24 July 1941. This had subcommittees to deal with demobilisation, agriculture, industry and finance, education and social services, constitutional and administrative affairs and national security.


title: Rab Butler

text: Butler proved to be one of the most radical reforming ministers on the home front. The main problem standing in the way of education reform was the question of integrating church schools into the state system, which had bedevilled Balfour's Act in 1902. H. A. L. Fisher had failed to integrate the church schools in his 1918 Act. Butler wrote to Churchill (12 September 1941) to suggest a Joint Select Committee. Churchill did not want a new bill and replied (13 September) that "we cannot have party politics in wartime". Churchill warned him not to "raise the 1902 controversy during the war". Butler later wrote that having seen the Promised Land, "I was damned if I was going to die in the Land of Moab. Basing myself on long experience of Churchill over the India Bill, I decided to disregard what he said and go straight ahead."


title: Rab Butler

text: More than half the schools in the country were church schools. However, Church of England schools now educated 20% of children, down from 40% in 1902 (Roman Catholic schools educated 8% of children). Many church schools were in a poor state of repair. The previous President of the Board of Education had produced a "Green Book" of proposals, which had been overtaken by the Five Points demanded by the Protestant Churches (both Anglican and Nonconformist), concerning Christian worship in schools. Butler received a deputation, including the two Anglican Archbishops, on 15 August 1941. There was a five-day debate on education in February 1942. Cosmo Lang, the outgoing Archbishop of Canterbury, spoke in the House of Lords, demanding the Five Points. James Chuter Ede, Butler's junior minister, dissuaded him from bringing in a draft bill to satisfy the Church's demands, as it would prevent a general settlement with other denominations. Temple succeeded the elderly Lang on 1 April 1942. The Church of England had been sympathetic to the "Green Book", but Chuter Ede's new "White Memorandum" aimed to end "single school areas", most of which were in rural districts. Butler had a meeting on 5 June with the National Society (the body of Church of England schools). He proposed that Church schools could choose either to be 50% aided or else fully funded with a local education authority majority on the school governing body. Temple agreed to persuade his flock to accept the deal and later obtained the concession that denominational teachers could be allowed in fully controlled schools if parents so wished. Although in the end a majority of the 9,000 Anglican schools became fully funded and were absorbed into the state system, 3,000 of them accepted 50% aided status, not the 500 anticipated. In early October 1942, Butler sold his scheme to the Nonconformist leaders of England and Wales.


title: Rab Butler

text: Butler had less success in his dealings with the Roman Catholic Church. He was not able to have talks with the elderly Cardinal Arthur Hinsley until September 1942. Butler was told that his plans for 50% aided status were not acceptable to the Roman Catholic Church (15 September 1942). He thought it better to present the Catholic Church with a "fait accompli". Plans for 1943 were scuppered by a letter to "The Times" from Hinsley, stressing Franklin Roosevelt's commitment to freedom of conscience and arguing that Catholic schools should not be bullied by the state, as they often provided for the poorest inner-city communities. Churchill telephoned Butler to tell him. "You are landing me in the biggest political row of the generation". (Butler later embellished the story to claim that Churchill had sent him a mounted copy of the letter, with "There you are, fixed, old cock" scrawled across it). Butler once presented himself at Southwark for talks, only to be asked what he had come for. On another occasion, Butler and Chuter Ede drove to the Northern Bishops' conference at Ushaw College, near Hexham, but were given dinner but no concessions.


title: Rab Butler

text: Serious thought was given to integrating public (fee-paying) schools into the state system. Butler was supportive, believing that standards would be raised in state schools if affluent and articulate parents were involved in the system. The Fleming Commission, assembled by Butler, recommended in July 1944 that a quarter of public school places be given to scholarships. However, nothing came of it, not least as the idea of spending ratepayers' money on a few bright pupils often did not meet with local authority approval.


title: Rab Butler

text: With Churchill's leadership being questioned after recent reverses in the Far East and North Africa, Ivor Bulmer-Thomas (14 August 1942) commented that some Conservative MPs saw Butler rather than Eden as a potential successor. In late November 1942, Butler toyed with the idea of allowing himself to be considered for the job of Viceroy of India (in succession to Lord Linlithgow; Eden had been offered the job by Churchill and was seriously considering accepting it). In the end, Field Marshal Wavell was appointed. Butler helped to write King George VI's Christmas broadcast at the end of 1942.


title: Rab Butler

text: Butler lobbied John Anderson, Kingsley Wood and Ernest Bevin for an education bill in 1943, and by the end of 1942, a draft White paper was proceeding through the Lord President's Committee. By March 1943, with an Allied victory seeming only a matter of time, Churchill began to support an education bill in 1944, aware that he needed to promise postwar improvements and reforming schools would be cheaper than implementing the Beveridge Report. When the White Paper was published on 16 July 1943, Church-State relations received the least attention whilst Anderson and Wood were happy that the White Paper helped to distract from the Beveridge Report. The resulting bill was produced to a civil service blueprint. In November 1943, Butler joined the Government Reconstruction Committee. James Stuart (Chief Whip) welcomed the publication of the bill in December 1943, as a way of keeping MPs happy without too much party strife.


title: Rab Butler

text: The bill became the Education Act 1944 (often known as the "Butler Act"). It brought in free secondary education – until then, many grammar schools charged for entry albeit with local authority assistance for poorer pupils in recent years. It institutionalised the Tripartite System, with children graded in the eleven plus exam. The Act also expanded nursery provision and raised the school leaving age to 15, with a commitment to raise it further to 16 (although this would not happen until 1972). The Church groups were satisfied as well. Butler thought Conservative MPs who opposed the Act "a stupid lot".


title: Rab Butler

text: At the Second Reading in March 1944, Thelma Cazalet-Keir, part of Quintin Hogg's Tory Reform Committee, proposed two amendments, one to raise the school leaving age to 16 by 1951 and one demanding equal pay for women teachers. The latter passed by one vote on 28 March 1944. This was the only time the Coalition suffered a significant defeat in a division. Churchill made the amendment a matter of confidence, and ensured its defeat on 30 March. This was one of the events which made Churchill and the Conservatives appear reactionary, contributing to their election defeat in 1945. The Butler Act became law in August 1944.


title: Rab Butler

text: With party politics restarting, Butler opposed the nationalisation of iron and steel on 9 April 1945. After the end of the European War in May, Butler was Minister of Labour for two months in the Churchill caretaker ministry. In the Labour landslide of July 1945 he held Saffron Walden narrowly, his majority falling to 1,158. His rival was the wartime mayor of Saffron Walden. He would probably not have held the seat if the Liberal candidate had not polled over 3,000 votes and split the opposition vote.


title: Rab Butler

text: After the Conservatives were defeated in the 1945 general election, Butler emerged as the most prominent figure in the rebuilding of the party. He became Chairman of the Conservative Research Department, assisted by David Clarke and Michael Fraser. He was opposed to detailed policy-making, not least as he felt the party was not yet pointing in the ideological direction he wanted. In 1946, he became chairman of the Industrial Policy Committee. In 1947, the Industrial Charter was produced, advocating full employment and acceptance of the welfare state (Butler himself said that those who advocated "creating pools of unemployment should be thrown into them and made to swim"). In 1950, he welcomed the "One Nation" pamphlet produced by new MPs including Iain Macleod, Angus Maude, Edward Heath and Enoch Powell.


title: Rab Butler

text: When the Conservative Party returned to power in 1951, Butler was appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer in the absence of other candidates, Oliver Lyttleton being seen as too close to the City of London. He inherited a balance of payments crisis partially caused by the increase in defence spending as a result of the Korean War. Butler initially planned to let the pound float (in practice, devalue) and become partially convertible ("Operation ROBOT"). ROBOT was struck down by Lord Cherwell and his adviser Donald MacDougall, who prepared a paper for Churchill. The counterargument was that the balance of payments would have worsened, as any reduction in demand for imports would have been swamped by the rise in prices of imported goods. Furthermore, 90% of other countries' sterling balances, kept in London, were to be frozen: they too would have been devalued, which would have angered Commonwealth countries and broken the rules for the International Monetary Fund and would not have been allowed under the new European Payments Union He was also opposed by his junior minister, Arthur Salter, while Lord Woolton insisted Eden should be involved since the policy would affect foreign relations. Eden opposed it in a rare intervention in domestic politics. It was finally buried at two Cabinets, on 28 and 29 February 1952.


title: Rab Butler

text: Butler followed to a large extent the economic policies of his Labour predecessor, Hugh Gaitskell, pursuing a mixed economy and Keynesian economics as part of the post-war political consensus. The name "Butskellism", referring to the generally similar economic policies pursued by both Conservative and Labour governments, was coined partly in response to Butler's extension of Gaitskell's NHS charges in 1952, the issue over which Aneurin Bevan and other Labour left wingers had resigned in April 1951. In 1954, "The Economist" published an editorial headed "Mr Butskell's Dilemma", which referred to the "already... well-known figure" Mr Butskell as "a composite of the present Chancellor and the previous one". However, Butler had more interest in monetary policy and in convertibility whereas Gaitskell was more inclined to exchange controls, investment and planning.


title: Rab Butler

text: Butler maintained import controls and began a more active monetary policy. In the March 1952 budget, he raised the official bank rate to 4% and cut food subsidies by 40%, as well as cutting taxes and increasing pensions and welfare payments, the cumulative effect being to increase foreign exchange reserves but depress domestic demand. His 1953 budget cut income tax and purchase tax and promised an end to the excess profits levy. When Churchill suffered a stroke in the summer of 1953, an illness that was concealed from the public, Butler acted as head of the Government since his presumed successor, Eden, was in the US having medical treatment. Between 29 June and 18 August 1953, Butler chaired sixteen Cabinet meetings. In July Macmillan recorded a conversation with Walter Monckton, who was willing to serve under Eden but not Butler, whom he thought "a slab of cold fish". Britain's economic problems at this time were worsened by Monckton's appeasement of the trade unions (e.g. the 1954 rail strike, settled on the union's terms with Churchill's backing) and by Macmillan's drive to build 300,000 houses a year.


title: Rab Butler

text: Butler was appointed to the Order of the Companions of Honour in 1954. He supported Churchill's proposal for Eden to take "command of the Home Front" in summer 1954, not least as he hoped to succeed Eden as Foreign Secretary. Butler was one of those ministers who demanded to Churchill's face (22 December 1954) that he set a date for his retirement.


title: Rab Butler

text: Butler's political judgement was affected by the death of his first wife Sydney on 9 December 1954. In February 1955, he increased the bank rate and restored hire purchase restrictions, while the 1955 budget reduced income tax by 6 pence, a cut allegedly based on faulty Treasury statistics. In April, Anthony Eden succeeded Churchill as Prime Minister; after the Conservatives won the May 1955 general election, Butler declined a request he move from the Exchequer, later admitting this was a mistake. In an unfortunate speech on 18 October, he commented that the country must not sink into "easy evenings with port wine and over-ripe pheasant". The "Daily Mirror" commented that he had "dropped his silver spoon upon the polished floor". By now it was apparent that the economy was "overheating" (inflation and the balance of payments deficit were rising sharply). The Cabinet refused to agree to cut bread subsidies and there was a run on the pound. His final budget in October 1955 reversed several of the measures from the spring budget, leading to charges of electoral opportunism. Hugh Gaitskell accused him of having deliberately misled the electorate, which amused Macmillan, who wrote in his diary of how Butler was always talking of "honour" in Cabinet. The introduction of purchase tax on kitchen utensils caused it to be labelled the "Pots and Pans" budget. Macmillan was already negotiating with Eden for Butler's job.


title: Rab Butler

text: In December 1955, Butler was moved to the post of Lord Privy Seal and Leader of the House of Commons. Although he continued to act as a deputy for Eden on a number of occasions, he was not officially recognised as such, and his successor as Chancellor, Harold Macmillan, insisted on an assurance from Eden that Butler was not senior to him. Harry Crookshank warned he was committing "political suicide" by giving up a big department. He recorded that after December 1955, "it was never again said of me, or for that matter of the British economy either, that we had "la puissance d'une idée en marche"".


title: Rab Butler

text: Butler suffered from what his biographer calls an "inability to take Eden wholly seriously". A number of his sardonic witticisms about Eden, who was already subject to press criticism, surfaced, while "The Sunday People" reported on 8 January 1956 that Eden was to resign and hand over the premiership to Butler. When it was officially denied, on 9 January, Butler told "The Guardian" he was determined to "support the Prime Minister in all his difficulties" and that Eden was "the best Prime Minister we have".


title: Rab Butler

text: Butler threatened resignation in March 1956 over Macmillan's plans to reverse the 6d cut in income tax. Macmillan himself then threatened resignation if he were not allowed to make spending cuts instead. He also served as Rector of the University of Glasgow from 1956 to 1959.


title: Rab Butler

text: Butler was ill when Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalised the Suez Canal and was not formally a member of the Cabinet Egypt Committee. Butler later claimed that he had tried to keep Eden "in a political straitjacket" and advocated an open invasion of Egypt. Gilmour writes that this would have attracted even more international opprobrium than Eden's pretence of enforcing international law.


title: Rab Butler

text: Butler seemed to be doubtful of Eden's Suez policy but never said so openly. Macmillan recorded (24 August) that Butler was "uncertain" and "wanted more time" before resorting to force. On 13 September, he recorded that Butler preferred to refer the matter to the UN, as Labour and the churches wanted to do. After the UN voted for an emergency force and an Israeli-Egyptian ceasefire seemed imminent, Butler tried to have the Anglo-French invasion halted. He ended up pleasing neither those who were opposed to the invasion nor those who supported it.