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Long Range Desert Group

The Long Range Desert Group (LRDG) was a reconnaissance and raiding unit of the British Army during the Second World War.

Originally called the Long Range Patrol (LRP), the unit was founded in Egypt in June 1940 by Major Ralph Alger Bagnold, acting under the direction of General Archibald Wavell. Bagnold was assisted by Captain Patrick Clayton and Captain William Shaw. The majority of the men were from New Zealand, but they were soon joined by a few Southern Rhodesian and British volunteers, whereupon new sub-units were formed and the name was changed to the better-known Long Range Desert Group (LRDG). The LRDG never numbered more than 350 men, all of whom were volunteers.

The LRDG was formed specifically to carry out deep penetration, covert reconnaissance patrols and intelligence missions from behind Italian lines, although they sometimes engaged in combat operations. Because the LRDG were experts in desert navigation, they were sometimes assigned to guide other units, including the Special Air Service and secret agents across the desert. During the Desert Campaign between December 1940 and April 1943, the vehicles of the LRDG operated constantly behind the Axis lines, missing a total of only 15 days during the entire period. Possibly their most notable offensive action was during Operation Caravan, an attack on the town of Barce and its associated airfield, on the night of 13 September 1942. However, their most vital role was the 'Road Watch', during which they clandestinely monitored traffic on the main road from Tripoli to Benghazi, transmitting the intelligence to British Army Headquarters.

With the surrender of the Axis forces in Tunisia in May 1943, the LRDG changed roles and moved operations to the eastern Mediterranean, carrying out missions in the Greek islands, Italy and the Balkans. After the end of the war in Europe, the leaders of the LRDG made a request to the War Office for the unit to be transferred to the Far East to conduct operations against the Japanese Empire. The request was declined and the LRDG was disbanded in August 1945.

Formation
Before the war, Major Ralph Bagnold learned how to maintain and operate vehicles, how to navigate, and how to communicate in the desert. On 23 June 1940 he met General Archibald Wavell, the commander of Middle East Command in Alexandria and explained his concept for a group of men intended to undertake long-range reconnaissance patrols to gather intelligence behind the Italian lines in Libya. General Wavell was familiar with desert warfare, having been a liaison officer with the Egyptian Expeditionary Force during the First World War, and he understood and endorsed Bagnold's suggested concept. Wavell assisted in equipping the force.

The unit, initially known as the No.1 Long Range Patrol Unit (LRP), was founded on 3 July 1940. Bagnold wanted men who were energetic, innovative, self-reliant, physically and mentally tough, and able to live and fight in seclusion in the Libyan desert. Bagnold felt that New Zealand farmers would possess these attributes and was given permission to approach the 2nd New Zealand Division for volunteers; over half the division volunteered. Two officers and 85 other ranks including 18 administrative and technical personnel were eventually selected, coming mostly from the Divisional Cavalry Regiment and the 27th Machine-Gun Battalion. Once the men had been recruited, they started training in desert survival techniques and desert driving and navigation, with additional training in radio communications and demolitions.

The LRP could initially form only three units, known as patrols, but a doubling of strength allowed the addition of a new Heavy Section. In November 1940, the name of the LRP was changed to the "Long Range Desert Group" (LRDG), and the New Zealanders were joined by volunteers from British and Southern Rhodesian regiments. The British volunteers, who came mostly from the Brigade of Guards and Yeomanry regiments, were incorporated into their own patrols. The original patrol unit consisted of two officers and 28 other ranks, equipped with a Canadian Military Pattern (CMP) Ford 15 Imperial hundredweight (cwt) truck and ten Chevrolet 30 cwt trucks. In March 1941 new types of trucks were issued and the patrol units were split into half-patrols of one officer and 15–18 men in five or six vehicles. Each patrol incorporated a medical orderly, a navigator, a radio operator and a vehicle mechanic, each of whom manned a truck equipped for their role.

Patrols
The Long Range Patrol comprised a 15-man headquarters with Bagnold in command. There were three sub-units: 'R' Patrol commanded by Captain Donald Gavin Steele, 'T' Patrol commanded by Captain Patrick Clayton and 'W' Patrol commanded by Captain Edward 'Teddy' Cecil Mitford. 'T' and 'W' Patrols were combat units while 'R' Patrol was intended to be a support unit.

In November 1940, the LRP was reorganised and re-designated as the Long Range Desert Group. It was expanded to six Patrols: 'T', 'W' and 'R' Patrols were joined by 'G', 'S' and 'Y' Patrols. Each patrol was expected to belong to the same regimental group, but only the Brigade of Guards and the Yeomanry regiments formed their own Patrols, 'G' and 'Y' respectively. The men of 'G' Patrol were drawn from the 3rd Battalion Coldstream Guards and the 2nd Battalion Scots Guards under command of Captain Michael Crichton-Stuart. The 'Y' Patrol men were drawn from the Nottinghamshire Yeomanry under command of Captain P. J. D. McCraith, with additional men from the Royal Northumberland Fusiliers and the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders. In December 1940, 'W' Patrol was disbanded and its personnel used to bring 'R' and 'T' Patrols up to strength, while 'G' Patrol took over their vehicles. By June 1941 the LRDG was re-organised into two squadrons: the New Zealand and Rhodesian 'A' Squadron with 'S', 'T' and 'R' Patrols, and 'B' Squadron with 'G', 'H' and 'Y' Patrols. There was also a Headquarters Section along with signals, survey and light repair sections. A Heavy section, initially equipped with four 6-ton Marmon-Herrington trucks, was used to provide logistical support by transporting supplies to bases and setting up hidden replenishment points at pre-arranged locations. In addition, there was an Air Section of two biplanes, a Waco ZGC-7 and a Waco YKC, that transported key personnel, evacuated wounded and performed other liaison tasks.

In August 1941 an artillery unit was formed to attack Italian forts more effectively. Initially it used a QF 4.5-inch howitzer carried on a 10-ton Mack NR 4 truck, with an accompanying light tank as an armoured observation post. However, these were handed over to the Free French at Kufra. The unit was then issued a 25 pounder gun-howitzer portee. The LRDG successfully attacked and captured the fort at El Gtafia using the gun, but later the truck had to be abandoned and the experiment ended.

Squadrons
In October 1941 the LRDG was expanded to 10 patrols by the simple method of splitting the existing patrols into two-half patrols; the New Zealanders formed A Squadron comprising 'R1', 'R2', 'T1', and 'T2' Patrols and the British and Rhodesians formed B Squadron comprising 'G1', 'G2', 'S1', 'S2', 'Y1', and 'Y2' Patrols. The 'H' Patrol had been disbanded in September 1941 after three months service.

These two squadrons were joined in December 1941 by the Indian Long Range Squadron, which had been formed by volunteers from the 2nd Lancers, 11th Cavalry and the 18th Cavalry, all part of the 3rd Indian Motor Brigade. The Indian Squadron was organized along ethnic and religious lines with the first two patrols originally known as 'J' (Jats) and 'R' (Rajput) Patrols. Their designations were changed to 'I1' and 'I2' to avoid confusion. In October 1942 two further Indian patrols were formed: 'M' (Muslim) and 'S' (Sikh) Patrols, which became the 'I3' and 'I4' Patrols. No. 1 Demolition Squadron, nicknamed "Popski's Private Army" and commanded by Major Vladimir 'Popski' Peniakoff, was briefly attached to the LRDG beginning in December 1942.

The vehicles of each patrol adopted their own markings. The New Zealand 'R' Patrol used a green Hei-tiki with a red tongue painted on the right side of the bonnet of the vehicle, and on the left a Māori place name beginning with the letter 'R' (for example, 'Rotowaro'). The 'T' Patrol vehicles had a black Kiwi over green 'grass' and a Māori name starting with 'Te' (for example, 'Te Anau') in the corresponding places. The 'W' Patrol vehicles had a Māori name or word starting with 'W' painted on their vehicles.

The British 'G' Patrol vehicles carried no distinctive markings, although some vehicles had the Guards insignia. They took over 'W' Patrol's vehicles when that unit was disbanded. The 'Y' Patrol vehicles were slightly different; 'Y1' half-patrol vehicles all had names of famous drinking establishments (such as 'Cock O' The North') and 'Y2' half-patrol had names from the "Three Musketeers" books (for example, 'Aramis') on the left sides of their vehicle bonnets. The Headquarters Section used a sequence of letters arranged in a square (see photo of "Louise"). The Rhodesian 'S' Patrol vehicles had names with a Rhodesian connection (such as 'Salisbury') painted on the left side of the vehicles' bonnets. By 1943 the practice of naming replacement vehicles was dropped.

Vehicles
The LRDG vehicles were mainly two wheel drive, chosen because they were lighter and used less fuel than four wheel drive. They were stripped of all non-essentials, including doors, windscreens and roofs. They were fitted with a bigger radiator, a condenser system, built up leaf springs for the harsh terrain, wide, low pressure desert tyres, sand mats and channels, plus map containers and a sun compass devised by Bagnold. Wireless trucks had special compartments built into the bodywork to house wireless equipment. Initially the LRDG patrols were equipped with one Canadian Military Pattern (CMP) Ford 15 cwt F15 truck for the commander, while the rest of the patrol used up to 10 Chevrolet 30 cwt 158.5" wheelbase (WB) trucks (the 'WA' model mentioned in some texts appears to be an 133" wheelbase version of the same vehicle). From March 1941 the 30 cwt Chevrolets were replaced by the CMP Ford 30 cwt F30, although in some ways this was a retrograde step as the four wheel drive and extra weight compared to the Chevrolets meant they used twice as much fuel, which reduced the range of a patrol. From March 1942 the Fords were progressively replaced by 200 Canadian Chevrolet 1533 X2 30 cwts, which had been specially ordered for the LRDG. From July 1942 Willys jeeps began to be issued for the patrol commander and patrol sergeant.

Weapons
The patrol vehicles were initially armed with 11 Lewis machine guns, four Boys anti-tank rifles and a Bofors 37 mm anti-tank gun distributed amongst their vehicles. By December 1940, the vehicle armaments had been improved and 'T' Patrol, for example, had five .303 Vickers Medium Mk. I machine guns, five Lewis guns, four Boys anti-tank guns and the Bofors 37 mm. Another Vickers gun used was the heavy Vickers .50 machine gun, which would be mounted at the rear of the vehicle. All of the unit's vehicles were armed with at least one gun; each vehicle was fitted with six to eight gun mountings, but normally only two or three of them would be in use.

Supplementing their army-supplied weapons, the LRDG was equipped with surplus Royal Air Force (RAF) aircraft guns, which were acquired for their high rate of fire. The most widely used of these was the Vickers K machine gun, which was sometimes used mounted in pairs. From mid-1941 the LRDG acquired .303 Browning Mk II's from RAF stocks, also mounted in pairs, with a combined rate of fire of 2,400 rounds per minute. When new vehicles were issued in March 1942, several were converted to carry captured dual-purpose 20 mm Breda Model 35s, which replaced the Bofors 37 mm, and each half-patrol was equipped with one Breda "Gun truck". In September 1942 the .50 Browning AN/M2 heavy machine gun began to replace both calibres of the Vickers machine guns and the Boys anti-tank rifle.

The men of the LRDG carried the standard British Second World War small arms, the Lee–Enfield No.1 Mk III* being the primary rifle. Other small arms carried were Thompson submachine guns and .38 Enfield, Webley & Scott or .45 Colt 1911A1 pistols. Several types of hand grenade were used: the Mills bomb, the No. 68 Anti-tank and the No. 69. Each truck was outfitted with a Lee–Enfield EY rifle attachment with a discharger cup able to fire the No. 36M Mills rifle grenade. The LRDG also laid land mines, the most common being the Mk 2 mine. Other explosives included the Lewes bombs, a custom made weapon using Nobel 808 used to destroy aircraft and other targets, and sticky bombs used to destroy enemy vehicles.

Captured German and Italian small arms were utilised including the Beretta M 1934, Luger P08 and Walther P38 pistols. The German MP40 submachine gun and MG34, MG42 along with Italian Breda M37 and Breda M38 machine guns were all used.

Communications

In the LRP, most of the radio operators were New Zealanders, but the LRDG radio operators were all from the Royal Corps of Signals. These men were skilled in communications and were able to maintain and repair their equipment without any outside help. On only three occasions did a broken radio prevent a patrol communicating with its headquarters. All LRDG patrols included one vehicle equipped with a Wireless Set No. 11 and a non-military Philips model 635 receiver. The No. 11 Set had been designed for use in tanks, and had transmitter and receiver circuits; the Royal Signals expected to use the No. 11 set to transmit and receive between 3 mi and 20 mi with the use of 6 ft or 9 ft antennas. The LRDG used Morse code for all transmissions, and were able to transmit over great distances using either a dipole antenna system attached to a 6.3 ft rod antenna mounted on the truck, which was adequate up to 500 mi, or for greater distances, a Windom dipole system slung between two 17 ft tall poles. The disadvantage of using the Windom system was that it took time to erect and work out the correct antenna length, so it could only be used in a relatively safe area. To power the No. 11 set extra batteries had to be carried by the radio vehicles. The Philips receiver was used to monitor Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) time checks, which was vital for desert navigation.

While on the move the lead vehicles of the patrol commanders and sergeants flew a small flag. Because the LRP was organised on divisional cavalry lines the leaders carried green flags for 'A' (HQ) Troop, black for 'B' Troop, yellow for 'C' Troop and red for 'D'. When the LRDG was organised into 11 vehicle patrols this was simplified to a green flag displaying the patrol letter in white; the later half-patrols used a plain green flag on occasion. When it became necessary to change course from an intended route, or in the event of enemy action, patrol movements were controlled by a simple semaphore flag system using blue and white signal flags, or hand signals, depending on how widely dispersed the trucks were.

Navigation
All trucks of the LRDG were equipped with the Bagnold sun compass and some trucks were also equipped with a P8 Tank Compass. Each patrol had a navigator who always rode in the second truck in the formation. He was equipped with a theodolite and astronomical position tables with which to plot star sightings, and maps. Watches were used and adjusted each evening using the GMT time check. One major problem faced early on by the LRDG was a lack of accurate maps for Libya in particular. Patrols had to do their own surveys and make their own maps of each route they took. In July 1941 the Survey Section was formed to carry out this task.

History
The LRDG area of operations between 1940 and 1943, known as the Western Desert, stretched about 930 mi south from the Mediterranean to the Tibesti and the Jebel Uweinat mountains, and about 1200 mi from the Nile valley in the east to the mountains of Tunisia and Algeria in the west. Paved roads were non-existent and only small tracks and pathways crossed the area. The daytime temperatures could reach 60 C and at night drop below freezing. The only water in the area is found in a number of small oases, which is also where the only vegetation grows. While the vast majority of Eighth Army operated along the coast, the LRDG started operations inland south of the Great Sand Sea, were later based there and operated west and north, and were later based further west, well south of the coast.

The first LRP patrol began during the Italian invasion of Egypt. 'W' Patrol commanded by Captain Mitford set out on 15 September 1940 to carry out a reconnaissance of Kufra and Uweinat. Finding no trace of the Italians, they turned south and attacked fuel dumps, aircraft and an Italian convoy carrying supplies to Kufra. 'T' Patrol, commanded by Captain Clayton, reconnoitred the main route between Kufra and Uweinat, then drove south to meet up with 'W' Patrol; both units returned to base, having captured two Italian trucks and official mail. The Italian response to these raids was to reduce their front line forces and increase the number of troops garrisoning the area from 2,900 men in September to 5,500 by November 1940. On 27 December 1940, 'G' and 'T' Patrols left Cairo and crossed the desert to northwest of Kufra. On arrival they met with representatives from the Free French forces in Chad, and on 11 January carried out a joint raid on the Italian fort at Murzuk. After two hours' fighting the fort remained in Italian hands, but the adjoining airfield had been destroyed. The units then withdrew southwards towards the Free French post at Zouar.

On 31 January they were intercepted by the Compagnia Autosahariana di Cufra, an Italian unit similar to the LRDG, in the Gebel Sherif valley. The LRDG had one man killed and three men captured, including Major Clayton, and three trucks destroyed during the battle. The Italian losses were five killed and three wounded, and one truck was abandoned. Four members of the LRDG escaped by walking 200 mi to safety in ten days with no food and only a two gallon water can between them. The patrol arrived back in Egypt on 9 February; it had covered about 4500 mi, experiencing the loss of six trucks, four by enemy action and two by mechanical breakdowns. One vehicle with a broken rear axle had been towed about 900 mi before it could be repaired. Total casualties were three dead and three captured. Major Clayton was awarded the Distinguished Service Order.

After Operation Compass ended with the Italians forced out of Cyrenaica it was decided to move the LRDG from Cairo to Kufra (SE Libya). At the same time the LRDG was expanded with the addition of 'Y' and 'S' Patrols. When the German Afrika Korps under command of General Erwin Rommel counterattacked in April 1941, the LRDG was ordered to reinforce the Kufra area. 'R' Patrol were based at Taiserbo, 'S' Patrol at Zighen, and the headquarters LRDG, 'T' Patrol, and the Free French were at Kufra, under command of Bagnold. The detached 'G' and 'Y' Patrols were based at Siwa Oasis, under command of XIII Corps.

The LRDG air link was created during the occupation of Kufra by Major Guy Lenox Prendergast. Appreciating the value of aircraft for reconnaissance, liaison, evacuating wounded and flights to GHQ Cairo, he had two Waco aircraft fitted with long range fuel tanks. Prendergast flew one himself and Sergeant R. F. T. Barker flew the other. When Bagnold was appointed to the General Staff Cairo in August 1941, Prendergast was given command of the LRDG.

The LRDG now began a series of patrols behind the Axis lines. Near the end of July 'T' Patrol left for the desert to the south of the Gulf of Sirte. One 'T' Patrol truck managed to observe the main coastal road, along which Axis traffic was passing. They were followed two or three weeks later by 'S' Patrol, who carried out a similar reconnaissance between Jalo oasis and Agedabia. Both patrols returned safely to Kufra without being discovered. In August 1941 'R' Patrol relieved 'G' and 'Y' Patrols at Siwa and was joined by 'T' Patrol in October.

Eighth Army command
In November 1941 the LRDG, now under command of the newly formed Eighth Army, moved from Kufra to Siwa (central Libya). The patrols were given the task of watching the desert tracks south of Jebel Akhdar and report any signs of reinforcements and withdrawals. 'R1' Patrol was to pick up Captain David Stirling and 30 men who had parachuted behind the lines to raid airfields to the west of Tobruk. Only 21 men arrived at the rendezvous and were returned to the British lines, later becoming the nucleus of the Special Air Service (SAS). One of the other roles assigned to the LRDG was to transport SAS units behind enemy lines; this continued until the SAS were issued with their own transport in 1942. In early November 'T2' Patrol took four British officers to the Gebel and was to return and collect them three weeks later. The officers were the advance land party of Operation Flipper, which had planned to kill General Rommel.

On 24 November, in support of Operation Crusader, the LRDG were ordered to attack Axis rear areas. Already on patrol, 'Y1' and 'Y2' Patrols attacked targets in the Mechili, Derna and Gazala area. 'Y1' damaged fifteen vehicles in a transport park and 'Y2' captured a small fort and about 20 Italians. 'S2' and 'R2' Patrols attacked targets in the Benghazi, Barce and Marawa area, where they ambushed nine vehicles. 'G1' and 'G2' Patrols were assigned the main road near Agedabia where 'G1' made two attacks on road traffic and shot up a few vehicles. After the Axis forces withdrew from Cyrenaica the LRDG moved to a base at Jalo oasis, about 140 mi to the south-south-east of Ajdabiya.

The last operations of 1941 were in December, when the LRDG twice ferried the SAS to and from raids on Axis airfields, attacking the airfields at Sirte (twice), El Agheila, Ajdabiya, Nofaliya and Tamit, and destroying 151 aircraft and 30 vehicles. During the second raid at Sirte, the SAS devised a new method of attacking parked aircraft. They drove the LRDG trucks between the rows of aircraft, which were then engaged by machine guns and hand grenades. Prior to this the procedure had been to quietly infiltrate an airfield and place Lewes bombs on aircraft and vehicles, leaving before the bombs exploded, but this attack was so successful that it became the preferred method for attacking airfields.

Road watch
When the LRDG was based at Siwa, they took part in what has since become known as the 'Road Watch' along the Via Balbia (the Tripoli to Benghazi road). Three patrols were engaged on road watch duties at any one time, with one watching the road for a week to 10 days, another would be en route to relieve them and the third was returning to Siwa after having been relieved. The site of the road watch was about 5 mi from the Marble Arch monument. The road watch patrol would park about 2 miles away from the road and the trucks would be camouflaged using camouflage nets, any local foliage and sand. Before dawn each day two men would move into a well camouflaged position about 350 yd from the road. By day they would record the details of all vehicles and troop movements, and at night they would move to about 30 yd from the road and guess what type of vehicles were passing by their sound and outline. At daylight they were relieved by another pair of men who took over that day's road watch.

If tanks or a large number of troops were seen passing, they would radio the LRDG headquarters at Siwa immediately so that by the time the enemy reached the front line, GHQ at Cairo would know they were coming. Once a patrol was relieved they would transmit details of all they had seen back to Siwa. The LRDG did not lose any men or vehicles when on the road watch, but they did have some close encounters. On 21 March 'R1' Patrol was surrounded by a convoy of 27 vehicles and about 200 men who stopped for the night between the watchers and their vehicles. While the road watch was ongoing, other patrols would be attacking targets along other stretches of the Tripoli to Benghazi road, by planting mines or attacking vehicles with machine gun fire. The road was kept under constant observation from 2 March to 21 July 1942.

After the Battle of Gazala and the fall of Tobruk, the LRDG were forced to withdraw from Siwa on 28 June. 'A' Squadron withdrew to Cairo to resupply and then moved back to Kufra, while 'B' Squadron moved to Faiyum.

Barce
With the Eighth Army now holding the El Alamein line, plans were submitted to attack the Axis supply lines and the ports of Benghazi and Tobruk. In September 1942, British Commandos would attack Tobruk by land and sea (Operation Agreement). The SAS would attack Benghazi (Operation Bigamy) and the Sudan Defence Force would capture Jalo oasis (Operation Nicety). The LRDG would be used to guide the attacking forces to their targets and at the same time, a LRDG force would attack Barce (Operation Caravan). The Barce force consisted of 17 vehicles and 47 men of 'G1' and 'T1' Patrols, which had to travel 1155 mi to reach their target. On arrival 'T1' Patrol attacked the airfield and 'G1' the Barce barracks. The attack on the airfield destroyed 35 aircraft according to an Italian prisoner of war. Official Italian figures quote 16 aircraft destroyed and seven damaged.

On 30 September 1942, the LRDG ceased to be under command of the Eighth Army and came under direct command of GHQ Middle East. The final LRDG operation in North Africa was in Tunisia during the Mareth Offensive when they guided the 2nd New Zealand Division around the Mareth Line in March 1943.

Post 1943 operations
In May 1943 the LRDG was sent to Lebanon to retrain in mountain warfare. However, following the Italian armistice in 1943, they were sent to Leros, one of the Dodecanese islands, to serve as normal infantry. They later took part in the Battle of Leros, where the commanding officer John Richard Easonsmith was killed and replaced by David Lloyd Owen. After the battle the last New Zealanders, two officers and approximately 46 men, were withdrawn from the LRDG and returned to their division.

In December 1943, the LRDG re-organised into two squadrons of eight patrols. Each patrol contained one officer and 10 other ranks. Major Moir Stormonth Darling was given command of the British Squadron and Major Kenneth Henry Lazarus the Rhodesian Squadron. Patrols were then parachuted north of Rome to obtain information about German troop movements, and also carried out raids on the Dalmatian Islands and Corfu.

In August 1944, British Squadron patrols were parachuted into Yugoslavia. One patrol destroyed two 40 ft spans of a large railway bridge, which caused widespread disruption to the movement of German troops and supplies. The commanding officer Lieutenant-Colonel Owen and a team of 36 men were parachuted into Albania in September 1944. Their mission was to follow the German retreat and assist Albanian resistance groups in attacking them. In October 1944, two British Squadron patrols were parachuted into the Florina area of Greece. Here they mined a road used by the retreating Germans, destroying three vehicles and blocking the road. Firing on the stranded convoy from an adjacent hillside, they directed RAF aircraft in to destroy the rest of the convoy.

After the end of the war in Europe, the leaders of the LRDG made a request to the War Office for the unit to be transferred to the Far East to conduct operations against the Japanese Empire. The request was declined and the LRDG was disbanded in August 1945.

Legacy
The Long Range Desert Group was disbanded at the end of the Second World War. The only comparable British Army units today are the Mobility troops of the Special Air Service. Each of the regular army Special Air Service squadrons has a Mobility troop. Like the LRDG, they are specialists in using vehicles, trained in an advanced level of motor mechanics to fix any problem with their vehicles, and are experts in desert warfare.

The Long Range Desert Group is one of the Second World War units represented by the Special Air Service Association. Other wartime units represented include all the SAS regiments, the Special Raiding Squadron, the Special Boat Service (Wartime), the Phantom Signal Squadron, the Raiding Support Regiment and the Greek Sacred Squadron.

The New Zealand Army erected a permanent memorial to the LRDG at the New Zealand Special Air Service barracks, in the Papakura Military Camp. On 7 August 2009, two honour boards containing details of every New Zealand soldier who served in the LRDG were unveiled.

One of the LRDG's Chevrolet WB trucks is displayed in the Imperial War Museum in London. It was presented to the museum by the LRDG Association, after being recovered from the Libyan desert in 1983 by David Lloyd Owen, by then a retired Major General and chairman of the Association. It is preserved in the condition in which it was discovered, rusted but largely intact.

As of 2022, there is only one surviving member of the group, Jack Mann.

Notable personnel

 * Ronald Joseph Moore, leader of the "Moore's March" of LRDG survivors through the Libyan desert

Popular culture

 * Sea of Sand (1958). Film depicting an L.R.D.G. patrol mission behind-enemy-lines on the eve of the Second Battle of El Alamein.
 * Play Dirty (1969). Film based in part on the L.R.D.G.'s activities, depicting a behind-enemy-lines raid upon an Afrika Corps installation.
 * Gli scorpioni del deserto (1969–92). Comic book series by Hugo Pratt and others.
 * Killing Rommel (2008). A historical fiction novel by Steven Pressfield depicting the L.R.D.G's activities.
 * Lost in Libya – In Search of the Long Range Desert Group (2009). Television documentary film tracing three L.R.D.G. lorries that were abandoned at Gebel Sherif in Southern Libya in 1941 after the unit's first encounter with its Italian equivalent the Autosahariana. Includes archival film of the L.R.D.G. in action. First aired on ANZAC day, 25 April 2009 on Television New Zealand.
 * SAS: Rogue Heroes (2022). A British television historical drama series.
 * Undaunted: North Africa (2020). A board game about historical battles in North Africa, between the L.R.D.G. and Italy

title: Long Range Desert Group


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African

African or Africans may refer to:
 * Anything from or pertaining to the continent of Africa:
 * People who are native to Africa, descendants of natives of Africa, or individuals who trace their ancestry to indigenous inhabitants of Africa
 * List of ethnic groups of Africa
 * Demographics of Africa
 * African diaspora
 * African, an adjective referring to something of, from, or related to the African Union
 * Citizenship of the African Union
 * Demographics of the African Union
 * Africanfuturism
 * African art
 * African jazz (disambiguation)
 * African cuisine
 * African culture
 * African languages
 * African music
 * African Union
 * African lion, a lion population in Africa
 * African lion, a lion population in Africa

Books and radio

 * The African (essay), a story by French author J. M. G. Le Clézio
 * The African (Conton novel), a novel by William Farquhar Conton
 * The African (Courlander novel), a novel by Harold Courlander
 * The Africans (radio program)

Music

 * "African", a song by Peter Tosh from his 1977 album Equal Rights
 * The Africans (band)

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: African


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Internationalist

Internationalist may refer to:

 * Internationalism (politics), a movement to increase cooperation across national borders
 * Liberal internationalism, a doctrine in international relations
 * Internationalist/Defencist Schism, socialists opposed to World War I
 * A member of the:
 * First International, or International Workingmen's Association, (1864–1876), an organization aimed at uniting various left-wing groups
 * Second International, (1889–1916), the original Socialist International
 * International Brigades, volunteers from different countries, who fought for the Second Spanish Republic in the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939)
 * League for the Fourth International, a Trotskyist international organisation whose most noteworthy section is the Internationalist Group in the United States
 * Internationalist Review, an e-journal founded in Maastricht
 * The Internationalist, a magazine based in Seattle
 * Internationalist (album), a 1998 album by Australian band Powderfinger
 * New Internationalist, an international magazine that works for social justice

title: Internationalist


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Countryside Agency

The Countryside Agency was a statutory body set up in England in 1999 with the task of improving the quality of the rural environment and the lives of those living in it. The agency was dissolved in 2006 and its functions dispersed among other bodies.

Formation
The agency was formed by merging the Countryside Commission and the Rural Development Commission. Its powers were inherited from those bodies. The agency was based in Cheltenham with smaller offices in London and the regions. Total staff numbers were around 600.

Role
The Agency was a government-funded advisory and promotional body; it owned no land and managed no facilities. Its funding came from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) as an annual budget of around £100 million. The Countryside Agency worked with other bodies, such as local authorities, landowners and other public agencies, to provide grants and advice to conserve the natural beauty of the landscape, promote rural economies and make the countryside more accessible to the public.

The Countryside Agency had special responsibility for designating national parks and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty, defining heritage coasts, and establishing long-distance trails for walkers and riders. In 2003, it initiated the designation of England's newest national park, the South Downs National Park.

In 2004, the Agency partnered with the Countryside Council for Wales to introduce The Countryside Code, an updated version of The Country Code.

Millennium Greens
The Agency inherited a project to create Millennium Greens, and 245 out of the 250 planned were created by the end of the project, just after 2000. Minimal government responsibility for these greens was then passed to Natural England on its creation.

Closure
Following a review by Christopher Haskins of several Government organisations involved in rural policy and delivery, the Natural Environment and Rural Communities Act 2006 dissolved the agency. Those parts of the Countryside Agency charged with environmental activity were merged with English Nature and parts of the Rural Development Service to form Natural England. The socio-economic functions of the Rural Development Commission had already transferred to the Regional Development Agencies in 1999 (they were in their turn replaced by local enterprise partnerships in 2012). The remaining parts of the Countryside Agency, largely research and policy functions, became the Commission for Rural Communities which was abolished in 2013.

title: Countryside Agency


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Political movement

A political movement is a collective attempt by a group of people to change government policy or social values. Political movements are usually in opposition to an element of the status quo, and are often associated with a certain ideology. Some theories of political movements are the political opportunity theory, which states that political movements stem from mere circumstances, and the resource mobilization theory which states that political movements result from strategic organization and relevant resources. Political movements are also related to political parties in the sense that they both aim to make an impact on the government and that several political parties have emerged from initial political movements. While political parties are engaged with a multitude of issues, political movements tend to focus on only one major issue.

An organization in a political movement that is led by a Communist party is termed a mass organization by the party and a "Communist front" by detractors.

Political movement theories
Some of the theories behind social movements have also been applied to the emergence of political movements in specific, like the political opportunity theory and the resource mobilization theory.

Political opportunity theory
The political opportunity theory asserts that political movements occur through chance or certain opportunities and have little to do with resources, connections or grievances in society. Political opportunities can be created by possible changes in the political system, structure or by other developments in the political sphere and they are the driving force for political movements to be established.

Resource mobilization theory
The resource mobilization theory states that political movements are the result of careful planning, organizing and fundraising rather than spontaneous uprisings or societal grievances. This theory postulates that movements rely on resources and contact to the establishment in order to fully develop. Thus, at the beginning and core of a political movement there lies a strategic mobilization of individuals.

Relation to political parties
Political movements are different from political parties since movements are usually focused on a single issue and they have no interest in attaining office in government. A political movement is generally an informal organization and uses unconventional methods to achieve their goals. In a political party, a political organization seeks to influence or control government policy through conventional methods, usually by nominating their candidates and seating candidates in politics and governmental offices.

However, political parties and movements both aim to influence government in one way or another and both are often related to a certain ideology. Parties also participate in electoral campaigns and educational outreach or protest actions aiming to convince citizens or governments to take action on the issues and concerns which are the focus of the movement. What links political movements to parties in particular, is that some movements have turned into political parties. For example, the 15-M Movement against austerity in Spain led to the creation of the populist party Podemos and the labor movements in Brazil helped form the Brazilian Workers' Party. These types of movement parties serve to raise awareness on the main issue of their initial political movement in government, since the established parties may have neglected this issue in the past.

For groups seeking to influence policy, social movements can provide an alternative to formal electoral politics. For example, the political scientist S. Laurel Weldon has shown that women's movements and women's policy agencies have tended to be more effective in reducing violence against women than the presence of women in the legislatures.

High barriers to entry to the political competition can disenfranchise political movements.

Examples
Some political movements have aimed to change government policy, such as the anti-war movement, the ecology movement, and the anti-globalization movement. With globalization, global citizens movements may have also emerged. Many political movements have aimed to establish or broaden the rights of subordinate groups, such as abolitionism, the women's suffrage movement, the civil rights movement, feminism, gay rights movement, the disability rights movement, the animal rights movement, or the inclusive human rights movement. Some have represented class interests, such as the labour movement, socialism, and communism, while others have expressed national aspirations, including both anticolonialist movements, such as Rātana and Sinn Féin, as well as colonialist movements such as Zionism and Manifest destiny. Political movements can also involve struggles to decentralize or centralize state control, as in anarchism, fascism, and Nazism.

Famous recent social movements can be classified as political movements as they have influenced policy changes at all levels of government. Political movements that have recently emerged within the US are the Black Lives Matter Movement, and the Me Too Movement. While political movements that have happened in recent years within the Middle East is the Arab Spring. While in some cases these political movements remained movements, in others they escalated into revolutions and changed the state of government.

Movements may also be named by outsiders, as with the Levellers political movement in 17th century England, which was named so as a term of disparagement. Yet admirers of the movement and its aims later came to use the term, and it is this term by which they are most known to history.

Mass movements
A mass movement denotes a political party or movement which is supported by large segments of a population. Political movements that typically advocate the creation of a mass movement include the ideologies of communism, fascism, and liberalism. Both communists and fascists typically support the creation of mass movements as a means to overthrow a government and create their own government, the mass movement then being used afterwards to protect the government from being overthrown itself; whereas liberals seek mass participation in the system of representative democracy.

The social scientific study of mass movements focuses on such elements as charisma, leadership, active minorities, cults and sects, followers, mass man and mass society, alienation, brainwashing and indoctrination, authoritarianism and totalitarianism. The field emerged from crowd or mass psychology (Le Bon, Tarde a.o.), which had gradually widened its scope from mobs to social movements and opinion currents, and then to mass and media society.

One influential early text was the double essay on the herd instinct (1908) by British surgeon Wilfred Trotter. It also influenced the key concepts of the superego and identification in Massenpsychologie (1921) by Sigmund Freud, misleadingly translated as Group psychology. They are linked to ideas on sexual repression leading to rigid personalities, in the original Mass psychology of fascism (1933) by Freudo-Marxist Wilhelm Reich (not to be confused with its totally revised 1946 American version). This then rejoined ideas formulated by the Frankfurt School and Theodor Adorno, ultimately leading to a major American study of the authoritarian personality (1950), as a basis for xenophobia and anti-Semitism. Another early theme was the relationship between masses and elites, both outside and within such movements (Gaetano Mosca, Vilfredo Pareto, Robert Michels, Moisey Ostrogorski).

Bibliography (Mass movements)

 * Hoffer, Eric, The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements, New York, NY: Harper Perennial Modern Classics, 2002.
 * Marx, Gary, T. & McAdam, Douglas, Collective behavior and social movements, Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1994.
 * Van Ginneken, Jaap, Mass movements – In Darwinist, Freudian and Marxist perspective, Apeldoorn (Neth.): Spinhuis. 2007.
 * Wilson, John, Introduction to social movements, New York: Basic, 1973.

title: Political movement


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Seymour

Seymour may refer to:

Australia

 * Seymour, Victoria, a township
 * Seymour railway station
 * Electoral district of Seymour, a former electoral district in Victoria
 * Rural City of Seymour, a former local government area in Victoria
 * Seymour, Tasmania, a locality

Canada

 * Seymour Range, a mountain range in British Columbia
 * Mount Seymour, British Columbia
 * Seymour River (Burrard Inlet), British Columbia
 * Seymour River (Shuswap Lake), British Columbia
 * Seymour Inlet, British Columbia
 * Seymour Narrows, British Columbia
 * Seymour Island (Nunavut)
 * Seymour Township, Ontario

United States

 * Seymour, Connecticut, a town
 * Seymour, Illinois, a census-designated place
 * Seymour, Indiana, a city
 * Seymour, Iowa, a city
 * Seymour, Missouri, a city
 * Seymour, Tennessee, an unincorporated community and census-designated place
 * Seymour, Texas, a city
 * Seymour, Wisconsin (disambiguation)

Elsewhere

 * Seymour Island, off the tip of Graham Land on the Antarctic Peninsula
 * Seymour, Eastern Cape, South Africa, a town

People

 * Seymour (given name)
 * Seymour (surname)

Other uses

 * HMS Seymour, more than one ship of the British Royal Navy
 * Seymour baronets, two titles in the Baronetage of England and one in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom
 * Seymour Airport, Galápagos Islands, Ecuador
 * Seymour College, a day and boarding school in Glen Osmond, South Australia
 * Seymour Football Club, Victoria, Australia
 * Seymour, the original title of the band Blur (band)

title: Seymour


text:
Aleatoric music

Aleatoric music (also aleatory music or chance music; from the Latin word alea, meaning "dice") is music in which some element of the composition is left to chance, and/or some primary element of a composed work's realization is left to the determination of its performer(s). The term is most often associated with procedures in which the chance element involves a relatively limited number of possibilities.

The term became known to European composers through lectures by acoustician Werner Meyer-Eppler at the Darmstadt International Summer Courses for New Music in the beginning of the 1950s. According to his definition, "a process is said to be aleatoric ... if its course is determined in general but depends on chance in detail". Through a confusion of Meyer-Eppler's German terms Aleatorik (noun) and aleatorisch (adjective), his translator created a new English word, "aleatoric" (rather than using the existing English adjective "aleatory"), which quickly became fashionable and has persisted. More recently, the variant "aleatoriality" has been introduced.

Early precedents
Compositions that could be considered a precedent for aleatory composition date back to at least the late 15th century, with the genre of the catholicon, exemplified by the Missa cuiusvis toni of Johannes Ockeghem. A later genre was the Musikalisches Würfelspiel or musical dice game, popular in the late 18th and early 19th century. (Such dice games are attributed to Carl Phillip Emanuel Bach, Franz Joseph Haydn, and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.) These games consisted of a sequence of musical measures, for which each measure had several possible versions and a procedure for selecting the precise sequence based on the throwing of a number of dice.

The French artist Marcel Duchamp composed two pieces between 1913 and 1915 based on chance operations. One of these, Erratum Musical written with Duchamp's sisters Yvonne and Magdeleine for three voices, was first performed at the Manifestation of Dada on 27 March 1920, and was eventually published in 1934. Two of his contemporaries, Francis Picabia and Georges Ribemont-Dessaignes, also experimented with chance composition, these works being performed at a Festival Dada staged at the Salle Gaveau concert hall, Paris, on 26 May 1920. American composer John Cage's Music of Changes (1951) was "the first composition to be largely determined by random procedures", though his indeterminacy is of a different order from Meyer-Eppler's concept. Cage later asked Duchamp: "How is it that you used chance operations when I was just being born?"

Modern usage
The earliest significant use of aleatory features is found in many of the compositions of American Charles Ives in the early 20th century. Henry Cowell adopted Ives's ideas during the 1930s, in such works as the Mosaic Quartet (String Quartet No. 3, 1934), which allows the players to arrange the fragments of music in a number of different possible sequences. Cowell also used specially devised notations to introduce variability into the performance of a work, sometimes instructing the performers to improvise a short passage or play ad libitum. Later American composers, such as Alan Hovhaness (beginning with his Lousadzak of 1944) used procedures superficially similar to Cowell's, in which different short patterns with specified pitches and rhythm are assigned to several parts, with instructions that they be performed repeatedly at their own speed without coordination with the rest of the ensemble. Some scholars regard the resultant blur as "hardly aleatory, since exact pitches are carefully controlled and any two performances will be substantially the same" although, according to another writer, this technique is essentially the same as that later used by Witold Lutosławski. Depending on the vehemence of the technique, Hovhaness's published scores annotate these sections variously, for example as "Free tempo / humming effect" and "Repeat and repeat ad lib, but not together".

In Europe, following the introduction of the expression "aleatory music" by Meyer-Eppler, the French composer Pierre Boulez was largely responsible for popularizing the term.

Other early European examples of aleatory music include Klavierstück XI (1956) by Karlheinz Stockhausen, which features 19 elements to be performed in a sequence to be determined in each case by the performer. A form of limited aleatory was used by Witold Lutosławski (beginning with Jeux Vénitiens in 1960–61), where extensive passages of pitches and rhythms are fully specified, but the rhythmic coordination of parts within the ensemble is subject to an element of chance.

There has been much confusion of the terms aleatory and indeterminate/chance music. One of Cage's pieces, HPSCHD, itself composed using chance procedures, uses music from Mozart's Musikalisches Würfelspiel, referred to above, as well as original music.

Types of indeterminate music
Some writers do not make a distinction between aleatory, chance, and indeterminacy in music, and use the terms interchangeably. From this point of view, indeterminate or chance music can be divided into three groups: (1) the use of random procedures to produce a determinate, fixed score, (2) mobile form, and (3) indeterminate notation, including graphic notation and texts.

The first group includes scores in which the chance element is involved only in the process of composition, so that every parameter is fixed before their performance. In John Cage's Music of Changes (1951), for example, the composer selected duration, tempo, and dynamics by using the I Ching, an ancient Chinese book which prescribes methods for arriving at random numbers. Because this work is absolutely fixed from performance to performance, Cage regarded it as an entirely determinate work made using chance procedures. On the level of detail, Iannis Xenakis used probability theories to define some microscopic aspects of Pithoprakta (1955–56), which is Greek for "actions by means of probability". This work contains four sections, characterized by textural and timbral attributes, such as glissandi and pizzicati. At the macroscopic level, the sections are designed and controlled by the composer while the single components of sound are controlled by mathematical theories.

In the second type of indeterminate music, chance elements involve the performance. Notated events are provided by the composer, but their arrangement is left to the determination of the performer. Karlheinz Stockhausen's Klavierstück XI (1956) presents nineteen events which are composed and notated in a traditional way, but the arrangement of these events is determined by the performer spontaneously during the performance. In Earle Brown's Available forms II (1962), the conductor is asked to decide the order of the events at the very moment of the performance.

The greatest degree of indeterminacy is reached by the third type of indeterminate music, where traditional musical notation is replaced by visual or verbal signs suggesting how a work can be performed, for example in graphic score pieces. Earle Brown's December 1952 (1952) shows lines and rectangles of various lengths and thicknesses that can read as loudness, duration, or pitch. The performer chooses how to read them. Another example is Morton Feldman's Intersection No. 2 (1951) for piano solo, written on coordinate paper. Time units are represented by the squares viewed horizontally, while relative pitch levels of high, middle, and low are indicated by three vertical squares in each row. The performer determines what particular pitches and rhythms to play.

Open form music
Open form is a term sometimes used for 'mobile' or 'polyvalent' musical forms, where the order of movements or sections is indeterminate or left up to the performer. Roman Haubenstock-Ramati composed a series of influential "mobiles" such as Interpolation (1958).

However, "open form" in music is also used in the sense defined by the art historian Heinrich Wölfflin to mean a work which is fundamentally incomplete, represents an unfinished activity, or points outside of itself. In this sense, a "mobile form" can be either "open" or "closed". An example of a "dynamic, closed" mobile musical composition is Stockhausen's Zyklus (1959).

Stochastic music
Stochastic processes may be used in music to compose a fixed piece or may be produced in performance. Stochastic music was pioneered by Xenakis, who coined the term stochastic music. Specific examples of mathematics, statistics, and physics applied to music composition are the use of the statistical mechanics of gases in Pithoprakta, statistical distribution of points on a plane in Diamorphoses, minimal constraints in Achorripsis, the normal distribution in ST/10 and Atrées, Markov chains in Analogiques, game theory in Duel and Stratégie, group theory in Nomos Alpha (for Siegfried Palm), set theory in Herma and Eonta, and Brownian motion in N'Shima. Xenakis frequently used computers to produce his scores, such as the ST series including Morsima-Amorsima and Atrées, and founded CEMAMu.

Film music
Examples of extensive aleatoric writing can be found in small passages from John Williams' score for the film Images. Other film composers using this technique are Mark Snow (X-Files: Fight the Future), John Corigliano, and others. Snow used digital samples of acoustic instruments "to merge starkly electronic timbres with acoustically based sounds, an approach developed extensively in his much celebrated music for The X-Files (1993–2002, 2016–18). Over the course of the series, Snow's often ambient music dissolved distinctions between sound design and musical score."

Howard Shore employed aleatoric composition in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring during the Fellowship's encounter with the Watcher in the Water outside of the gates of Moria.

title: Aleatoric music


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Medina (disambiguation)

Medina in Saudi Arabia is the second holiest city in Islam.

Medina, Medinah, or Madinah may also refer to:

Military operations

 * Battle of Medina, an 1813 battle of the Mexican War of Independence
 * Siege of Medina Fort, an 1857 battle in present-day Mali
 * Operation Medina, a 1967 Vietnam War search-and-destroy operation

Music

 * Medina (duo), a Swedish hip hop duo
 * Medina (album), a 1980 album by Bobby Hutcherson
 * Medina (singer), a Danish singer and songwriter

Names

 * Medina (given name)
 * Medina (surname)
 * De Medina (surname)

Places

 * Medina quarter, the old quarter of a North African town

Antarctica

 * Mount Medina, Graham Land
 * Medina Peaks, Ross Dependency

Colombia

 * Medina Province, Cundinamarca
 * Medina, Cundinamarca, a municipality in the Cundinamarca Department

Ghana

 * Madina, Ghana, a large town
 * Madina (Ghana parliament constituency), a parliamentary constituency in Ghana

Pakistan

 * Madina Colony (New Karachi Town), Karachi, Sindh province
 * Madina Colony (Orangi Town), Karachi, Sindh province
 * Madina Town, Punjab province

United Kingdom

 * Medina, Isle of Wight, United Kingdom, a former borough
 * River Medina, a river on the Isle of Wight, United Kingdom

United States

 * Medinah, Illinois, an unincorporated community
 * Medinah Country Club, a famous golf club located in the above community
 * Medina, Kansas
 * Medina, Minnesota, a city
 * Medina, New York, a village
 * Medina, North Dakota, a city
 * Medina, Ohio, a city
 * Medina County, Ohio
 * Medina, Tennessee, a city
 * Medina, Bandera County, Texas, an unincorporated community
 * Medina, Zapata County, Texas, a census-designated place
 * Medina County, Texas
 * Medina River, Texas
 * Medina Valley, Texas
 * Medina, Washington, a city
 * Medina, West Virginia, an unincorporated community
 * Medina, Wisconsin, a town
 * Medina, Outagamie County, Wisconsin, an unincorporated community
 * Medina Junction, Wisconsin, an unincorporated community

Elsewhere

 * Medina, Western Australia, a suburb of Perth, Australia
 * Medina, Minas Gerais, Brazil, a municipality in the state of Minas Gerais
 * Medina, a community in Zorra Township, Ontario, Canada
 * Medina, Dominican Republic, a municipal district in San Cristóbal (province)
 * Medina, Hungary, a village in Tolna County
 * Mdina, Malta, a city
 * Medina, New Zealand, a locality in Hurunui District, New Zealand
 * Medina, Misamis Oriental, Philippines, a 4th class municipality
 * Al Madinah Region, Saudi Arabia
 * Medina, Dakar, Senegal, a commune d'arrondissement of the city of Dakar
 * Wadajir District or Medina, a district of Mogadishu, Somalia

Publications

 * Medina (magazine), Spanish weekly women's magazine (1941–1945)
 * Madina (Bijnor), Urdu biweekly newspaper in India (1912–1975)
 * Al Madina (newspaper), daily newspaper in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

Schools

 * Medina High School (Medina, Ohio)
 * Medina High School (Texas)

Ships and naval vessels

 * Medina-class gunboat, a class of Royal Navy gunboats built between 1876 and 1877
 * HMS Medina (1840), a 2-gun Merlin-class paddle packet boat
 * HMS Medina (1916), an Admiralty M-class destroyer
 * Hunter Medina, a yacht produced by British Hunter boats
 * Medina (1811 ship), a West Indiaman
 * RMS Medina (1911), a steamship liner
 * SS Medina (1914), an ocean liner
 * HMS Medina, a list of Royal Navy ships
 * List of ships named Medina

Other uses

 * MEDINA, a universal pre-/postprocessor for finite element analysis of T-Systems
 * Medina (board game)
 * Medina (fly), a genus in the family Tachinidae
 * The Medina, an 1876 English contract-law case
 * Earl of Medina, a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom
 * Medina Dam, Texas
 * Museum Medina, Braga, Portugal
 * Saunders Medina, a British flying boat of the 1920s

title: Medina (disambiguation)


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Heritage coast

A heritage coast is a strip of coastline in England and Wales, the extent of which is defined by agreement between the relevant statutory national agency and the relevant local authority. Such areas are recognised for their natural beauty, wildlife and heritage and amongst the purposes of definition is support for these qualities and enabling enjoyment of them by the public. For England this national agency is Natural England (having formerly been the Countryside Agency) and for Wales it is Natural Resources Wales (which took over the role from its predecessor body, Countryside Council for Wales).

Designated coastline
1,057 km of the English coastline and 495 km of the Welsh coastline, in both cases approximately one-third of the total length, have been defined as heritage coast. The goal is to conserve their natural beauty and improve accessibility for visitors.

Unlike national parks and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONBs), the heritage coast designation is non-statutory, and designations can only be made with the agreement of local authorities and landowners. However, the majority of heritage coast falls within statutorily designated landscapes such as national parks, AONBs and the Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site. These coincident designations are listed in the fourth column of the tables below. Designations for nature conservation (as opposed to landscape, e.g. SSSI, Special Area of Conservation and Special Protection Area) of parts of Heritage Coasts are too numerous and complex to easily list here.

The southern coast of Wales and Devon and Cornwall in south west England have more heritage coastline per mile than other regions, including over 50% of the coast between Cardiff and St Davids, about 55-60% of Cornwall's coast, and around 60-65% of Devon's coast. This contrasts with the coasts of North West England, where St Bees Head is the only heritage coast, or the south-east stretch of the English Channel which has only very sporadic stretches.

The first heritage coast was Beachy Head with its famous white cliffs.

England
Heritage coasts listed clockwise around the English coast from Northumberland:

Wales
Heritage coasts listed clockwise around Welsh coast from southeast:

title: Heritage coast


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Greenwich (disambiguation)

Greenwich is a district of London, England, and home of the Greenwich meridian. The name is often used as a metonym for the prime meridian.

Greenwich may also refer to:

Canada

 * Greenwich Parish, New Brunswick
 * Greenwich Hill, New Brunswick, an unincorporated community
 * Greenwich, Nova Scotia, a rural community
 * Greenwich, Prince Edward Island, an unincorporated community

England

 * Royal Borough of Greenwich, a current local government district
 * Greenwich District (Metropolis), a former local government district, 1855–1900
 * Metropolitan Borough of Greenwich, a former local government district, 1900–1965
 * Greenwich (London County Council constituency), a former local government constituency, 1919–1965
 * Greenwich (UK Parliament constituency), a former constituency, 1832–1997
 * Greenwich, Ipswich, Suffolk, England, a suburb of Ipswich
 * Greenwich, Wiltshire

United States

 * Greenwich, California, former name of Tehachapi, California
 * Greenwich, Connecticut, a town
 * Greenwich (CDP), Connecticut, a census-designated place
 * Greenwich, Illinois, an unincorporated community
 * Greenwich, Kansas, an unincorporated community
 * Greenwich, Massachusetts, a defunct town
 * Greenwich Township, Cumberland County, New Jersey
 * Greenwich (CDP), Cumberland County, New Jersey
 * Greenwich Township, Gloucester County, New Jersey
 * Greenwich Township, Warren County, New Jersey
 * Greenwich (CDP), Warren County, New Jersey
 * New York:
 * Greenwich Village
 * Greenwich (town), New York
 * Greenwich (village), New York, mostly within the town of Greenwich
 * Greenwich, Ohio, a village
 * Greenwich Township, Pennsylvania
 * Greenwich, Utah, an unincorporated community
 * Greenwich, Virginia, an unincorporated community
 * Greenwich Bay (Rhode Island)
 * Greenwich Bay, at the mouth of the Yarra River in Newport, Victoria

Elsewhere

 * Greenwich Island, Antarctica, part of the South Shetland Islands
 * Greenwich, New South Wales, Australia, a suburb of Sydney
 * Greenwich, Maribor, Slovenia, a neighbourhood of Maribor and Hatchung
 * 2830 Greenwich, an asteroid

People

 * Greenwich (surname)

Schools

 * University of Greenwich, London, United Kingdom
 * Greenwich University, Karachi, Pakistan, a private research university
 * Greenwich University (Norfolk Island), a defunct, controversial distance learning institution
 * Greenwich Community College, Greenwich, London
 * Ark Greenwich Free School, Greenwich, London, a coeducational secondary free school
 * Greenwich High School, Connecticut, United States
 * Greenwich Academy, an all-girls day school in Connecticut, United States

Ships

 * HMS Greenwich, six Royal Navy ships
 * Greenwich (ship), various ships

Transportation

 * Greenwich Avenue, Greenwich Village, New York, United States
 * Greenwich Street, Manhattan, New York, United States
 * Greenwich station, London, England, a railway station
 * Greenwich station (Metro-North), Greenwich, Connecticut, United States, a commuter rail stop

Businesses

 * Greenwich Pizza, a large pizza chain in the Philippines
 * RBS Greenwich Capital, investment firm now known as RBS Securities
 * Greenwich Entertainment, an American film company

Other uses

 * Baron Greenwich, two titles, one extinct in the Peerage of Great Britain, one extant in the Peerage of the United Kingdom
 * Greenwich (soil), the official state soil of Delaware, United States
 * Greenwich Mean Time, or GMT, the local time at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, London; term used interchangeably with UTC as universal coordinated time

title: Greenwich (disambiguation)


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Middlesex (disambiguation)

Middlesex is a historic county in southeast England.

Middlesex may also refer to:

Australia

 * Middlesex, Tasmania, a locality in Australia

Belize

 * Middlesex, Belize, a village in Stann Creek District, Belize

Canada

 * Middlesex County, Ontario

Jamaica

 * Middlesex County, Jamaica

United Kingdom

 * Middlesex County Cricket Club
 * Middlesex University
 * Middlesex (UK Parliament constituency)

United States

 * Middlesex, New Jersey
 * Middlesex, New York
 * Middlesex, North Carolina
 * Middlesex, Vermont
 * Middlesex, Virginia
 * Middlesex Township, Butler County, Pennsylvania
 * Middlesex Township, Cumberland County, Pennsylvania
 * Middlesex School, Concord, Massachusetts
 * Middlesex Canal, Massachusetts
 * Middlesex County, Connecticut
 * Middlesex County, Massachusetts
 * Middlesex County, New Jersey
 * Middlesex County, Virginia
 * Middlesex Middle School, Connecticut

Literature

 * Middlesex (novel), by Jeffrey Eugenides

Other

 * Middlesex Plat Historic District, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in Polk County, Iowa
 * Middlesex (1783 EIC ship), an East Indiaman of the British East India Company
 * Middlesex County Cricket Club

title: Middlesex (disambiguation)


text:
Hermann Grassmann

Hermann Günther Grassmann (Graßmann, ; 15 April 1809 – 26 September 1877) was a German polymath known in his day as a linguist and now also as a mathematician. He was also a physicist, general scholar, and publisher. His mathematical work was little noted until he was in his sixties. His work preceded and exceeded the concept which is now known as a vector space. He introduced the Grassmannian, the space which parameterizes all k-dimensional linear subspaces of an n-dimensional vector space V. In linguistics he helped free language history and structure from each other.

Biography
Hermann Grassmann was the third of 12 children of Justus Günter Grassmann, an ordained minister who taught mathematics and physics at the Stettin Gymnasium, where Hermann was educated.

Grassmann was an undistinguished student until he obtained a high mark on the examinations for admission to Prussian universities. Beginning in 1827, he studied theology at the University of Berlin, also taking classes in classical languages, philosophy, and literature. He does not appear to have taken courses in mathematics or physics.

Although lacking university training in mathematics, it was the field that most interested him when he returned to Stettin in 1830 after completing his studies in Berlin. After a year of preparation, he sat the examinations needed to teach mathematics in a gymnasium, but achieved a result good enough to allow him to teach only at the lower levels. Around this time, he made his first significant mathematical discoveries, ones that led him to the important ideas he set out in his 1844 paper Die lineale Ausdehnungslehre, ein neuer Zweig der Mathematik, here referred to as A1, later revised in 1862 as Die Ausdehnungslehre: Vollständig und in strenger Form bearbeitet, here referred to as A2.

In 1834 Grassmann began teaching mathematics at the Gewerbeschule in Berlin. A year later, he returned to Stettin to teach mathematics, physics, German, Latin, and religious studies at a new school, the Otto Schule. Over the next four years, Grassmann passed examinations enabling him to teach mathematics, physics, chemistry, and mineralogy at all secondary school levels.

In 1847, he was made an "Oberlehrer" or head teacher. In 1852, he was appointed to his late father's position at the Stettin Gymnasium, thereby acquiring the title of Professor. In 1847, he asked the Prussian Ministry of Education to be considered for a university position, whereupon that Ministry asked Ernst Kummer for his opinion of Grassmann. Kummer wrote back saying that Grassmann's 1846 prize essay (see below) contained "commendably good material expressed in a deficient form." Kummer's report ended any chance that Grassmann might obtain a university post. This episode proved the norm; time and again, leading figures of Grassmann's day failed to recognize the value of his mathematics.

Starting during the political turmoil in Germany, 1848–49, Hermann and his brother Robert published a Stettin newspaper, Deutsche Wochenschrift für Staat, Kirche und Volksleben, calling for German unification under a constitutional monarchy. (This eventuated in 1871.) After writing a series of articles on constitutional law, Hermann parted company with the newspaper, finding himself increasingly at odds with its political direction.

Grassmann had eleven children, seven of whom reached adulthood. A son, Hermann Ernst Grassmann, became a professor of mathematics at the University of Giessen.

Mathematician
One of the many examinations for which Grassmann sat required that he submit an essay on the theory of the tides. In 1840, he did so, taking the basic theory from Laplace's Traité de mécanique céleste and from Lagrange's Mécanique analytique, but expositing this theory making use of the vector methods he had been mulling over since 1832. This essay, first published in the Collected Works of 1894–1911, contains the first known appearance of what is now called linear algebra and the notion of a vector space. He went on to develop those methods in his Die lineale Ausdehnungslehre, ein neuer Zweig der Mathematik (A1) and its later revision Die Ausdehnungslehre: Vollständig und in strenger Form bearbeitet (A2).

In 1844, Grassmann published his masterpiece (A1) commonly referred to as the Ausdehnungslehre, which translates as "theory of extension" or "theory of extensive magnitudes". Since A1 proposed a new foundation for all of mathematics, the work began with quite general definitions of a philosophical nature. Grassmann then showed that once geometry is put into the algebraic form he advocated, the number three has no privileged role as the number of spatial dimensions; the number of possible dimensions is in fact unbounded.

Fearnley-Sander describes Grassmann's foundation of linear algebra as follows:

"The definition of a linear space (vector space) [...] became widely known around 1920, when Hermann Weyl and others published formal definitions. In fact, such a definition had been given thirty years previously by Peano, who was thoroughly acquainted with Grassmann's mathematical work. Grassmann did not put down a formal definition – the language was not available – but there is no doubt that he had the concept.

Beginning with a collection of 'units' e1, e2, e3, ..., he effectively defines the free linear space that they generate; that is to say, he considers formal linear combinations a1e1 + a2e2 + a3e3 + ... where the aj are real numbers, defines addition and multiplication by real numbers [in what is now the usual way] and formally proves the linear space properties for these operations. ... He then develops the theory of linear independence in a way that is astonishingly similar to the presentation one finds in modern linear algebra texts. He defines the notions of subspace, linear independence, span, dimension, join and meet of subspaces, and projections of elements onto subspaces.

[...] few have come closer than Hermann Grassmann to creating, single-handedly, a new subject."

Following an idea of Grassmann's father, A1 also defined the exterior product, also called "combinatorial product" (in German: kombinatorisches Produkt or äußeres Produkt “outer product”), the key operation of an algebra now called exterior algebra. (One should keep in mind that in Grassmann's day, the only axiomatic theory was Euclidean geometry, and the general notion of an abstract algebra had yet to be defined.) In 1878, William Kingdon Clifford joined this exterior algebra to William Rowan Hamilton's quaternions by replacing Grassmann's rule epep = 0 by the rule epep = 1. (For quaternions, we have the rule i2 = j2 = k2 = −1.) For more details, see Exterior algebra.

A1 was a revolutionary text, too far ahead of its time to be appreciated. When Grassmann submitted it to apply for a professorship in 1847, the ministry asked Ernst Kummer for a report. Kummer assured that there were good ideas in it, but found the exposition deficient and advised against giving Grassmann a university position. Over the next 10-odd years, Grassmann wrote a variety of work applying his theory of extension, including his 1845 Neue Theorie der Elektrodynamik and several papers on algebraic curves and surfaces, in the hope that these applications would lead others to take his theory seriously.

In 1846, Möbius invited Grassmann to enter a competition to solve a problem first proposed by Leibniz: to devise a geometric calculus devoid of coordinates and metric properties (what Leibniz termed analysis situs). Grassmann's Geometrische Analyse geknüpft an die von Leibniz erfundene geometrische Charakteristik, was the winning entry (also the only entry). Möbius, as one of the judges, criticized the way Grassmann introduced abstract notions without giving the reader any intuition as to why those notions were of value.

In 1853, Grassmann published a theory of how colors mix; his theory's four color laws are still taught, as Grassmann's laws. Grassmann's work on this subject was inconsistent with that of Helmholtz. Grassmann also wrote on crystallography, electromagnetism, and mechanics.

In 1861, Grassmann laid the groundwork for Peano's axiomatization of arithmetic in his Lehrbuch der Arithmetik. In 1862, Grassmann published a thoroughly rewritten second edition of A1, hoping to earn belated recognition for his theory of extension, and containing the definitive exposition of his linear algebra. The result, Die Ausdehnungslehre: Vollständig und in strenger Form bearbeitet (A2), fared no better than A1, even though A2 manner of exposition anticipates the textbooks of the 20th century.

Response
In the 1840s, mathematicians were generally unprepared to understand Grassmann's ideas. In the 1860s and 1870s various mathematicians came to ideas similar to that of Grassmann's, but Grassmann himself was not interested in mathematics anymore.

Adhémar Jean Claude Barré de Saint-Venant developed a vector calculus similar to that of Grassmann, which he published in 1845. He then entered into a dispute with Grassmann about which of the two had thought of the ideas first. Grassmann had published his results in 1844, but Saint-Venant claimed that he had first developed these ideas in 1832.

One of the first mathematicians to appreciate Grassmann's ideas during his lifetime was Hermann Hankel, whose 1867 Theorie der complexen Zahlensysteme. "[…], he developed […] some of Hermann Grassmann's algebras and W.R. Hamilton's quaternions. Hankel was the first to recognise the significance of Grassmann's long-neglected writings and was strongly influenced by them."

In 1872 Victor Schlegel published the first part of his System der Raumlehre, which used Grassmann's approach to derive ancient and modern results in plane geometry. Felix Klein wrote a negative review of Schlegel's book citing its incompleteness and lack of perspective on Grassmann. Schlegel followed in 1875 with a second part of his System according to Grassmann, this time developing higher-dimensional geometry. Meanwhile, Klein was advancing his Erlangen program, which also expanded the scope of geometry.

Comprehension of Grassmann awaited the concept of vector spaces, which then could express the multilinear algebra of his extension theory. To establish the priority of Grassmann over Hamilton, Josiah Willard Gibbs urged Grassmann's heirs to have the 1840 essay on tides published. A. N. Whitehead's first monograph, the Universal Algebra (1898), included the first systematic exposition in English of the theory of extension and the exterior algebra. With the rise of differential geometry the exterior algebra was applied to differential forms.

In 1995 Lloyd C. Kannenberg published an English translation of The Ausdehnungslehre and Other works. For an introduction to the role of Grassmann's work in contemporary mathematical physics see The Road to Reality by Roger Penrose.

Linguist
Grassmann's mathematical ideas began to spread only towards the end of his life. Thirty years after the publication of A1 the publisher wrote to Grassmann: “Your book Die Ausdehnungslehre has been out of print for some time. Since your work hardly sold at all, roughly 600 copies were used in 1864 as waste paper and the remaining few odd copies have now been sold out, with the exception of the one copy in our library.” Disappointed by the reception of his work in mathematical circles, Grassmann lost his contacts with mathematicians as well as his interest in geometry. In the last years of his life he turned to historical linguistics and the study of Sanskrit. He wrote books on German grammar, collected folk songs, and learned Sanskrit. He wrote a 2,000-page dictionary and a translation of the Rigveda (more than 1,000 pages). In modern studies of the Rigveda, Grassmann's work is often cited. In 1955 a third edition of his dictionary was issued.

Grassmann also noticed and presented a phonological rule that exists in both Sanskrit and Greek. In his honor, this phonological rule is known as Grassmann's law. His discovery was revolutionary for historical linguistics at the time, as it challenged the widespread notion of Sanskrit as an older predecessor to other Indo-European languages. This was a widespread assumption due to Sanskrit's more agglutinative structure, which languages like Latin and Greek were thought to have passed through to reach their more "modern" synthetic structure. However, Grassman's work proved that, in at least one phonological pattern, German was indeed "older" (i.e., less synthetic) than Sanskrit. This meant that genealogical and typological classifications of languages were at last correctly separated in linguistics, allowing significant progress for later linguists.

These philological accomplishments were honored during his lifetime. He was elected to the American Oriental Society and in 1876 he received an honorary doctorate from the University of Tübingen.

Publications

 * A1:
 * A2:
 * 1862. Die Ausdehnungslehre. Vollständig und in strenger Form begründet.. Berlin: Enslin.
 * English translation, 2000, by Lloyd Kannenberg, Extension Theory, American Mathematical Society ISBN 0-8126-9275-6, ISBN 0-8126-9276-4
 * 1873. Wörterbuch zum Rig-Veda. Leipzig: Brockhaus.
 * 1876–1877. Rig-Veda. Leipzig: Brockhaus. Translation in two vols., vol. 1 published 1876, vol. 2 published 1877.
 * 1894–1911. Gesammelte mathematische und physikalische Werke, in 3 vols. Friedrich Engel ed. Leipzig: B.G. Teubner. Reprinted 1972, New York: Johnson.
 * English translation, 2000, by Lloyd Kannenberg, Extension Theory, American Mathematical Society ISBN 0-8126-9275-6, ISBN 0-8126-9276-4
 * 1873. Wörterbuch zum Rig-Veda. Leipzig: Brockhaus.
 * 1876–1877. Rig-Veda. Leipzig: Brockhaus. Translation in two vols., vol. 1 published 1876, vol. 2 published 1877.
 * 1894–1911. Gesammelte mathematische und physikalische Werke, in 3 vols. Friedrich Engel ed. Leipzig: B.G. Teubner. Reprinted 1972, New York: Johnson.

title: Hermann Grassmann


text:
User:Elian/Proposal here

Suggestion of guidelines for a neutralization of articles related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
This is only an additional proposal to the general policy of the Neutral Point of View

 * 1) An article should contain in general more facts than views, so that the reader has the possibility to interprete the presented views for himself with actual knowledge of the facts.
 * 2) Concurring views, e. i. "the" Arab and "the" Israeli side, should be given in general equal space. In existing articles where one side is grossly overrepresented the whole viewpart should be moved to the related talkpage until an equilibrium is reached.
 * 3) Writers should keep in mind, that there is no "Israeli view" and no "Arab view". Try to attribute as detailed as possible, f.e. "Israeli settlers", "Palestinian islamist groups". Views attributed to "some Israelis", "almost all Palestinians" should be based on statistics.
 * 4) Use strong words like "terror", "assasinated" with great care. Writing in one case of "assassination" where you use for the other side just a "killing" means already unconsciously taking party for one side and subtly influencing the reader. If you want to write "and terrorized the..." better  describe precisely the actions that constituted the "terror".
 * 5) Never try in your article to charge up deads/injured/terrible actions of one side against the deads/injured/terrible actions of the other side.
 * 6) (to be continued)

Question: what is the English equivalent to the German noun "Schwarzweißmalerei"?

title: User:Elian/Proposal here


text:
King's Cross fire

The King's Cross fire occurred in 1987 at King's Cross St Pancras tube station in London, England, causing 31 fatalities. It began under a wooden escalator before spreading into the ticket hall in a flashover.

The fire began at approximately 19.30 on 18 November 1987, at a major interchange on the London Underground. As well as the mainline railway stations above ground and subsurface platforms for the Metropolitan, Circle, and Hammersmith & City lines, there were platforms deeper underground for the Northern, Piccadilly, and Victoria lines.

A public inquiry was conducted from February to June 1988. Investigators reproduced the fire twice, once to determine whether grease under the escalator was ignitable, and the other to determine whether a computer simulation of the fire—which would have determined the cause of the flashover—was accurate. The inquiry determined that the fire had been started by a lit match being dropped onto the escalator. The fire seemed minor until it suddenly increased in intensity, and shot a violent, prolonged tongue of fire, and billowing smoke, up into the ticket hall. This sudden transition in intensity, and the spout of fire, was due to the previously unknown trench effect, discovered by the computer simulation of the fire, and confirmed in two tests on scale models.

London Underground was strongly criticised for its attitude toward fires; staff were complacent because there had never been a fatal fire on the system, and had been given little or no training to deal with fires or evacuation. The report on the inquiry resulted in resignations of senior management in both London Underground and London Regional Transport and led to the introduction of new fire safety regulations. Wooden escalators were gradually replaced with metal escalators on the Underground.

Fire
King's Cross St Pancras tube station has subsurface platforms for the Metropolitan, Circle, and Hammersmith & City lines. Deeper underground are the platforms for the Northern line City branch and the Piccadilly and Victoria lines. An escalator shaft led down to the Victoria line and another led down to the Piccadilly line, and from that to the Northern line. Stairs connected the Piccadilly and Victoria line platforms and from these there was a subway to King's Cross Thameslink railway station platforms used by British Rail Midland City (later Thameslink) trains to Moorgate and an entrance in Pentonville Road.

At approximately 19:30, several passengers reported seeing a fire on a Piccadilly line escalator. Officers of the British Transport Police (BTP) and station staff went to investigate and on confirming the fire one of the policemen went to the surface to radio for the London Fire Brigade (LFB), which sent four fire appliances and a turntable ladder at 19:36. The fire was beneath the escalator and was impossible to reach by use of a fire extinguisher. There was water fog equipment, but staff had not been trained in its use. At 19:39, BTP officers made the decision to evacuate the station using the Victoria line escalators. The LFB arrived a few minutes later, and several firemen went down to the escalator to assess the fire. They saw a fire about the size of a large cardboard box, and planned to fight it with a water jet and men with breathing apparatus.

At 19:42, the entire escalator was aflame, producing superheated gas that rose to the top of the shaft enclosing the escalator, where it was trapped against the tunnel ceiling, which was covered with about twenty layers of old paint from past repainting. As the superheated gases pooled along the ceiling of the escalator shaft, the layers of paint began absorbing the heat. A few years before the fire, the Underground's director of operations had warned that the accumulated paint might pose a fire hazard. However, painting protocols were not in his purview, and his suggestion was widely ignored by his colleagues.

At 19:45, there was a flashover and a jet of flames shot up the escalator shaft, filling the ticket hall with intense heat and thick black smoke, killing or seriously injuring most of the people still in the ticket hall. This trapped below ground several hundred people, who escaped on Victoria line trains. A police constable, Richard Kukielka, found a seriously injured man and tried to evacuate him via the Midland City platforms, but found the way blocked by a locked Bostwick gate until it was unlocked by a passing cleaner. Staff and a policewoman trapped on a Metropolitan line platform were rescued by a train.

At 22:00, the full horror of the fire blaze was evident, after the death toll jumped to 28. David Fitzsimons, a Metropolitan Police superintendent, told reporters: "We are talking about a major tragedy; many people are horribly burned."

Thirty fire crews—over 150 firefighters—were deployed. Fourteen London Ambulance Service ambulances ferried the injured to local hospitals, including University College Hospital. The fire was declared out at 01:46 the following morning. On a television program about the fire, an official described King's Cross underground station's layout as "an efficient furnace".

Victims
Thirty-one people died in the fire and 100 people were taken to hospital, 19 with serious injuries.

LFB Station Officer Colin Townsley was in charge of the first pump fire engine to arrive at the scene, and was in the ticket hall at the time of the flashover. He was killed in the fire; his body was found beside that of a badly burnt passenger at the base of the exit steps to Pancras Road. It is believed that Townsley spotted the passenger in difficulty and stopped to help her. An initially unidentified man, commonly known as "Michael" or "Body 115" in reference to a mortuary tag, was identified on 22 January 2004, when forensic evidence confirmed he was 73-year-old Alexander Fallon of Falkirk, Scotland.

Aftermath
The ticket hall and platforms for the Metropolitan and Circle lines were undamaged and reopened next morning; the Victoria line, its escalators only slightly damaged, resumed normal operation on the following Tuesday. The ticket hall for the three tube lines was reopened in stages over four weeks. The three escalators for the Piccadilly line had to be completely replaced, the new ones being commissioned on 27 February 1989, more than 16months after the fire. Until then, the Piccadilly line could only be reached via the Victoria line or Midland City platforms, and at peak hours in one direction only.

Access to the Northern line platforms was indirect, its escalators connecting with the Piccadilly line. As the traffic from all three tube lines would have overcrowded the Victoria line escalators, Northern line trains did not stop at King's Cross until repairs were complete. The nearly-life-expired Northern line escalators were replaced as well; the Northern line station reopened, completing the return to normal operation, on 5 March 1989.

Investigation and report
A public inquiry into the incident was initiated by Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. It was conducted by Desmond Fennell, assisted by a panel of four expert advisers. The inquiry opened on 1 February 1988 at Central Hall, Westminster, and closed on 24 June, after hearing 91 days of evidence.

Smoking on Underground trains was banned in July 1984, over three years before the fire. Following a fire at Oxford Circus station in November 1984, the ban was extended to all Underground stations in February 1985. However, smokers often ignored this and lit cigarettes on the escalators on their way out. The inquiry found that the fire was most probably caused by a traveller discarding a burning match that fell down the side of the moving staircase on to the running track of the escalator. The police decided that the fire had not been started deliberately, as there was no evidence that an accelerant had been used and access to the site of the fire was difficult. Investigators found charred wood in eight places on a section of skirting on an escalator and matches in the running track, showing that similar fires had started before but had burnt themselves out without spreading. The investigators found a build-up of lubricant grease under the tracks, which was believed to be difficult to ignite and slow to burn once it started, but it was noted that the grease was heavily saturated with fibrous materials (fluff from clothes, tickets and other small litter, human hair, rat fur, etc.). A test was conducted where lit matches were dropped on the escalator to see if ignition would occur. Dropped matches ignited the contaminated grease and the fire began spreading. It was allowed to burn for nine minutes before being extinguished.

This test confirmed the initial eyewitness reports up to that point, but four expert witnesses could not agree as to how the small fire flashed over, with some concern that the paint used on the ceiling had contributed to the fire. A model of King's Cross station was built at the Atomic Energy Research Establishment using computer simulation software; this showed the flames lying down along the floor of the escalator rather than burning vertically before producing a jet of flame into the ticket hall. The result matched the eyewitness accounts of the fire, but the simulation's depiction of the fire burning parallel to the 30-degree slope of the escalator was thought by some to be unlikely and it was suspected that the programming might be faulty. Experiments were conducted with a one-third-scale replica of the escalator built at the UK's Health and Safety Executive site at Buxton. After seven-and-a-half minutes of normal burning, the flames lay down as in the computer simulation. The metal sides of the escalator served to contain the flames and direct the temperature ahead of the fire. When the wooden treads of the escalator flashed over, the size of the fire increased dramatically and a sustained jet of flame was discharged from the escalator tunnel into the model ticket hall. The 30-degree angle of the escalators was discovered to be crucial to the incident, and the large number of casualties in the fire was an indirect consequence of a fluid flow phenomenon that was later named the trench effect, a phenomenon completely unknown before the fire. The conclusion was that this newly discovered trench effect had caused the fire to flash over at 19:45.

London Underground was strongly criticised in the report for its attitude to fires underground, underestimating the hazard because no one had died in a fire on the Underground before. Staff were expected to send for the LFB only if the fire was out of control, dealing with it themselves if possible. Fires were described as "smouldering", and staff had little or no training to deal with fires or evacuation.

Legacy
The publication of the report led to resignations of senior management of both London Underground and London Regional Transport (LRT), including Keith Bright, the chairman of LRT. Wooden panelling was to be removed from escalators, heat detectors and sprinklers were to be fitted beneath escalators, and the radio communication system and station staff emergency training were to be improved.

The Fire Precautions (Sub-surface Railway Stations) Regulations 1989 were introduced. Smoking was banned in all London Underground stations, including on the escalators, on 23 November, five days after the fire. Wooden escalators were gradually replaced, some remaining into the early 2000s (those at Wanstead were replaced in 2003 and at Marylebone in 2004, ) and since 2014 the entire London Underground has been operating on metal escalators, after the last wooden escalator at Greenford on the Central line was decommissioned on 11 March 2014.

By 1997, the majority of the recommendations of the Fennell report had been implemented, with safety improvements including the removal of any hazardous materials, CCTV fitted in stations, installation of fire alarms and sensors and the issuing of personal radios to staff.

London Underground was also recommended by the Fennell Report to investigate "passenger flow and congestion in stations and take remedial action". Consequently, parliamentary bills were tabled to permit London Underground to improve and expand the busiest and most congested stations, such as London Bridge, Tottenham Court Road, Holborn and King's Cross St Pancras.

Since then, major tube stations have been upgraded and expanded to increase capacity and improve safety. London Bridge was upgraded in conjunction with the Jubilee Line Extension project, which opened in 1999, King's Cross St Pancras was substantially upgraded and expanded as a component of the High Speed 1 project in the late 2000s, and Tottenham Court Road was expanded as part of the Crossrail project in the mid-2010s.

The fire also led to improvement in firefighters' equipment: yellow plastic leggings that melted in the heat and rubber gloves that limited movement were replaced with more effective clothing.

Six firemen received certificates of commendation for their actions at the fire, including Station Officer Townsley who was given the award posthumously. Townsley was also posthumously awarded the George Medal.

Soon after the fire a commemoration service was held at St Pancras Church. Further commemoration services were held on 18 November 2002, the 15th anniversary of the blaze, on the 20th anniversary in 2007 at the station itself, on the 25th anniversary in 2012 at the Church of the Blessed Sacrament near the station, and on the 30th anniversary in 2017 at the station, with the laying of a wreath.

Memorial plaques commemorating the disaster were installed at St Pancras Church, unveiled by Diana, Princess of Wales, and at King's Cross station.

In popular culture
The Nick Lowe song "Who Was That Man?" from the 1990 album Party of One tells the story of the only then-unidentified victim of the King's Cross Fire, identified in 2004 as Alexander Fallon.

Charles Duhigg in his book The Power of Habit discusses how bad corporate culture and inefficient management led to the disaster at King's Cross.

The Blue Zone single “On Fire”, with a young Lisa Stansfield on lead vocals, was hastily withdrawn from sale, stalling at No. 99 in the UK Singles Charts.

title: King's Cross fire