text:
User talk:Shiftchange/Archive 1

Welcome to Wikipedia!
Thanks for your work on Azalea. The article looks much more professional now. Keep up the good work! – Quadell (talk) (help)  11:52, Oct 2, 2004 (UTC)

Umbrella tree
Hi Shiftchange - the page Umbrella tree had (by confusion of the same name being used for several different plants) become very mixed up, with more than one species mixed. I've moved the details to Umbrella magnolia (the species to which the scientific name given applies; an American species, not Australian) and changed Umbrella tree to a disambig page. If you let me know which one your 'umbrella tree' referred to, I'll paste your original text (sitting in the page history of Umbrella magnolia) into the relevant new page. My guess is you'd intended Schefflera actinophylla (which fits with the Australian distribution you gave), but I can't be certain. - MPF 12:33, 28 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Energy Development and Hubbert's Peak Theory
There is a little storm brewing at Hubbert peak concerning, well, many things. But currently concerning how to organize information concerning future development of energy schemes (phrased as "Oil Alternatives" or "Future energy development" depending on whom you ask). As you might guess, Hubbert Peak is an article that might be expected to draw a lot of public interest and heat; Energy development is not. We could use your input regarding how to proceed. Visit Talk:Hubbert Peak to contribute. Thanks for your consideration. Tom - Talk 21:06, Dec 15, 2004 (UTC)

Queen Mary Falls
According to the Queensland Parks and Wildlife service, Queen Mary Falls are part of the Main Range National Park. I've added a mention in that article. You might like to expand that rather than make a new article. I think all of the National Parks in Australia already have an article, and the lists of protected areas in each state are complete, too. --Scott Davis Talk 11:00, 3 December 2005 (UTC)

Platycerium
Thanks for your thanks. I didn't understand why the pic was not moved elsewhere in the article. Best Wishes - Adrian Pingstone 21:26, 6 December 2005 (UTC)
 * Hi Shiftchange
 * Sorry for maybe not putting enough reason to the replacement. I thought that the zoom in wasn't that clear which is why I replaced it. Normally I would have put the picture somewhere else in the article, but I recently copped a lot of flack when I went to the Parliamentary Triangle page and added my photo (which I thought better than the existing one) and left the old one. So as a result of the argument I vowed to not saturated articles with images. I very sorry if I've hurt your feelings, and if are attached to the photo feel free to remove my photo altogether and I'll just put a little commons link at the bottom. --Fir0002 06:54, 7 December 2005 (UTC)

Question
Hello. I was wondeering if you could help me. I've noticed that you've edited articles on forms of government. What form of government would it be called of it was a dictatorship but rather then there being one dictator it is an agency. So for instance the CIA becoming the leaders of the United States rather than having just one person be the leader. If your wondering why I need to know, I am contributing to Mindbenders and you have to write a fictional article. Check it out. 01:04, 13 December 2005 (UTC)

Pollution article
hi shift, thanks for your contribution to the pollution article, this article needs a ton of work. you need to be more specific about how oil spread in the environment cases rashes. Do you mean people swim in water where oil is spilled and contract a rash? we need to set some priorities here. you may be correct but the far more serious outcome of an oil spill is the massive damage to aquafauna. i would challenge and welcome you to be part of this article. bring in results of your research and bring references too. best regards Anlace 01:03, 11 February 2006 (UTC)

Cossacks: European Wars
You recently nominated Cossacks: European Wars at Computer and video games improvement drive. Unfortunately, this drive is inactive. I suggest you nominate the article at Gaming Collaboration of the week instead.  Pagra shtak  03:02, 22 February 2006 (UTC)

Userbox
I've replied on my talk page. JesseW, the juggling janitor 00:25, 24 February 2006 (UTC)

Environmental noise
see the latest comments on the Talk:Environmental noise page. we may need a vote or final concensus on this merge idea, cheers Anlace 03:53, 5 March 2006 (UTC)

Brisbane Tasks
Hello Shiftchange. I appreciate the work that you have been doing on updating the Brisbane Tasks template. Some of the other Australian cities wikiprojcts (such as Sydney, Canberra, Adelaide, Perth, and Melbourne) seem to have a mix of red and blue links on the list of tasks. I think it gives an impression that there is more activity at those wikiprojects and that some of the articles listed actually get worked on. Because While I know that some of the articles on the Brisbane tsks list have been created (because it is on my watchlist), I worry that to a random visitor it might just appear to be a daunting list of red links. Removing them quickly also means that interested editors such as myself can't see what articles have been created recently and can't go and look at them and contribute to them. I think that keeping some blue in there makes it look like there has been some activity and may encourage people to get involved in the project and contribute to recently created articles. I also worry that the template may have a few too many links in it. Perhaps it might be better to leave some blue links in there for a while and reduce the clutter a little bit by leaving some of them on a talk page like they do at Template talk:WikiProjectMelbourneTasks. Could we try this approach for a while?
 * Thanks for the reply. Having had another look, I agree that it doesn't look particularly cluttered, and it does appear well organised. The only thing I would add though is that I don't think 'tasks' should necessarily only include articles that need creating. I think it would be useful to leave stubs that need to be turned into short articles on the list. I think that many editors find it easier to contribute to a stub once it's created rather than starting from scratch. I'm happy for you or I to post a message on the Brisbane Project talk page to see what others think.
 * Another think I have been thinking about is that people seem to be working on Brisbane related articles with out others necessarily knowing where the activity is. I wonder whether a 'recent activity' notice board might be useful in focusing people onto common projects. This could just be a 'Recent Activity' section on the project talk page. - What do you think? Any other ideas you might have on how to stimulate some activity on the project would be great. -- Adz|talk 03:58, 26 March 2006 (UTC)
 * I created the list of tasks not so much as a simple 'to do' list but as a way of trying to focus people's efforts and to generate some activity. I think just about any article benefits from the input of more than one editor. I was going to create a 'recent activity' section so I'll do that. I think your idea of rotating things through sounds good like a good way of keeping momentum going, but I think that it needs some sustained activity to work. The priority tasks idea sound like a good one though. The WikiProject Canberra went through a frenzy of activity last year where they had a 'workup' to turn the Canberra article into a featured article. (It was on the front page on Friday). They then followed up with a frenzy of activity on History of the Australian Capital Territory and Walter Burley Griffin. I think all the activity encouraged more people to join in the project. That's the sort of thing I would like to try to achieve with the Brisbane WikiProject. I think using the project talk page encourages people to keep an eye on what's going on, so it'd be good if people were encouraged to use that page for discussing various things . Anyway, thanks for the suggestions and for your work. I'll try to keep plugging away when I have time. -- Adz|talk 11:44, 27 March 2006 (UTC)

George Bush
I just want you to know that most Americans now (about 70%) do NOT approve of this moron. I am one of them - for many of the reasons you describe. molly bloom 05:34, 15 May 2006 (UTC)

Image:MtBarney.jpg
Hi. I updated the image tag to PD-user as the PD tag is deprecated. Also, could you update the description page to include a date and what direction the photo was taken from or the mountain face in view? I would like to include this in the caption for Mount Barney. Thanks. RedWolf 17:05, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

Great Barrier Reef peer review?
Hi Shiftchange, I noticed that you've made some good edits to Great Barrier Reef. I've recently put the article up for peer review. I hope that you'll participate! - Malkinann 04:49, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

Image:Wollomombi Falls.jpg
Hey there. Nice picture of the falls, would you mind putting in the discussion page for it some details about when you took it... it looks like the dry spell is really taking it's toll on the falls, I remember them running much better in the mid '90's but never took any photos. The article would be done justice by a photo taken when there is actually a bit of water running! --Garrie 23:11, 17 July 2006 (UTC)

Sydney Mardi Gras
I'm afraid we can't use those pictures on Wikipedia, for two reasons, one policy and one technical.

Licensing policy: Both pictures are licensed under a CC-ND "No Derivatives" license, which is acceptable on Wikinews due to the brief lifespan of their stories and their own licensing policy. However, as we intend everything on Wikipedia to be freely reusable by others, we do not allow "non-commercial only" or "no derivatives" licenses. If the copyright holder is willing to change the license to CC-BY ("attribution required"), CC-SA ("share-alike", deriviatives must remain free), or both, CC-BY-SA, we'd be more than happy to have them here. (They could also use the GFDL license or release it into the public domain, but for Flickr users sticking with Creative Commons licenses is probably simplest.) See Image use policy and Image copyright tags and Requesting copyright permission for more info.

Technical issues: Wikinews and the English Wikipedia (indeed, all the language versions of all the projects) are contained in separate databases, so they can't link directly to each other's photos. To solve that, a picture with a free license can be uploaded to the Wikimedia Commons database, which is especially set up to allow all the Wikimedia sister projects to use images stored there. However, they won't accept CC-ND images. So if you can get the contributor to change the license, then the technical issue can be solved by uploading the images to Commons and you'll be able to link them here.

Hope that's not too muddy, — Catherine\talk 01:15, 30 September 2006 (UTC)

Mountain height reference
It would be great to have more info on the heights. There seems to be a lot of differences of opinion on the net about some of the heights, even when looking at what one would expect to to reliable sources. You can get an email to me on my user page... --Bcsr4ever 09:09, 7 November 2006 (UTC)

Conservation in Australia
To me is as boring as a government web-site - so In my opinion it needs some colour like identifying some of the issues that have more or less defined the governmental reactions to issues that actually caught the public imagination in the past. Please if your are interested in this way of changing it - either on the article talk page or mine give an idea what you might think of that. SatuSuro 11:37, 9 December 2006 (UTC)

Map for Skyrail Rainforest Cableway.
Greetings, I have created, uploaded and relased a map for the Skyrail Rainforest Cableway article. Please have a look and let me know what you think. Fosnez 00:57, 4 February 2007 (UTC)
 * Excellent, your response time was very quick! Could you do one for the Kuranda Scenic Railway? - Shiftchange 01:16, 4 February 2007 (UTC)
 * I will do it, but not right now.. It is a much bigger map to do... Fosnez
 * The map for Kuranda Scenic Railway has been created, uploaded and released. Please let me know what you think. Fosnez 08:36, 4 February 2007 (UTC)
 * In case you wanted some detailed feedback I would definately suggest using a large font for names, using black or a darker grey for roads and railways. Optionally I suggest you move scale and compass headings to corner or side, make maps more square shaped, add a border and if there are more features add a legend. In this case I would extend the river to edge of map and I think showing the waterfalls was a nice touch. - Shiftchange 02:47, 10 February 2007 (UTC)
 * Thankyou for your feedback. I have edited the map and after fighting with wikipedia's .SVG scaler, I have uploaded a new version. I link the rectangular map is better in this case because in thumbnail view it is more visible on the article's page, and it also"fits" the content better. Feel free to critique the new one. Fosnez 03:50, 10 February 2007 (UTC)

 * Also, on another note, after reading your userpage I though you might be interested in this userbox I created... it seems we share a similar view on the topic:

WP:AUS assessments
Hi Shiftchange. I'm curious why you think articles such as Brisbane Square, Post Office Square and King George Square fall as "mid" on the importance scale? I would have gone with "low" for all three, and a mixture of "low" and "mid" if rating with Brisbane-importance=.--cj | talk 11:52, 18 May 2007 (UTC)

WP Energy vs. WP Energy Development
I think this question should be addressed to both mentioned WPs (probably through the projects talk pages). I also see some overlapping here. WP Energy Development states that project deals with sustainable development and energy related development by civilizations. This leaves topics like infrastructure, companies and even policy (well, part of it) to WP Energy. But I think it's not possible to avoid some overlapping and considering limited human resources of both projects, maybe it's not even necessary. But this is just my personal opinion, probably broader discussion is needed. Beagel 21:12, 30 June 2007 (UTC)

Mandelbrot set
Please see Gandalf61's comments on the talk page of Mandelbrot set for an explanation of why your contributions were reverted. Cheers, Doctormatt 18:38, 18 July 2007 (UTC)

Goodna Shopping Centre
Shiftchange,

Appreciate your kind words back on the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goodna%2C_Queensland article.

Currently am having an uphill battle with some of the US Wikipedians wanting to delete the Goodna Shopping Centre article (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Articles_for_deletion/Goodna_Shopping_Centre ) as they have placed it http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Shopping_Centers after it was placed in the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Australia category.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goodna_Shopping_Centre

As it is a very important link to the Goodna http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goodna%2C_Queensland article would appreciate your constructive input on this discussion and/or advise what needs to be done to article to ensure it stays.

Thanks in advance!

Goodstone 10:07, 1 October 2007 (UTC)

Huh???

 * "Perhaps the greatest of all mathematical problems has been accurately calculating pi."

You've got to be kidding. Where'd you get that one??? Never mind proving the Riemann hypothesis or the P = NP conjecture.... Michael Hardy 16:41, 4 November 2007 (UTC)

Merging WikiProjects
Hi, there is a proposal to merge inactive WikiProject (WikiProject Climate change and WikiProject Energy development) into WikiProject Environment. Please voice your opinions. OhanaUnitedTalk page 14:55, 15 November 2007 (UTC)

WikiProject Australia newsletter
WikiProject Australia publishes a newsletter informing Australian Wikipedians of ongoing events and happenings within the community and the project. This month's newsletter has been published. If you wish to unsubscribe from these messages, or prefer to have the newsletter delivered in full to your talk page, see our subscription page. This notice delivered by BrownBot (talk), at 22:06, 11 December 2007 (UTC).

WikiProject Australia newsletter
WikiProject Australia publishes a newsletter informing Australian Wikipedians of ongoing events and happenings within the community and the project. This month's newsletter has been published. If you wish to unsubscribe from these messages, or prefer to have the newsletter delivered in full to your talk page, see our subscription page. This notice delivered by BrownBot (talk), at 22:15, 3 January 2008 (UTC).

Cabinet of Australia
I deleted the paragraph headed "Powers of the Cabinet" because it was not about the powers of the Cabinet at all. It was a tendentious piece of political commentary about the Iraq War, written by someone connected with the Australian Democrats. The questions of the powers of the Cabinet is dealt with adequately elsewhere in the article. I do not have to provide a reference before deleting something. How can one refence a deletion? Intelligent Mr Toad (talk) 07:44, 9 January 2008 (UTC)

Photo in Port Jackson article
Hello. I noticed you added a pic to the above mentioned article. I don't mind but don't be surprised if it gets removed by User:Merbabu. Just thought I would let you know . Cheers_Ad@m.J.W.C. (talk) 04:50, 10 January 2008 (UTC)

Shiftchange, you left a note on my talk page. I think it might have been for Adam.JWC. I'm not really sure what his message above is about, but WP:CIVIL prevents me from commenting any further on this editor's writing. See John Wayne Glover on which he is the main contributor (particularly versions before cleanup was attempted but partially reverted). --Merbabu (talk) 07:23, 10 January 2008 (UTC)
 * Thats okay. Shortly after I added my content and had other editors clean it up, even if there was a bit of reverting. The article was upgraded from stub to b class by an administrator shortly afterwards. No one complained about the large amount of content that I added afterwards either.

Anyway I wrote this Bankstown Bunker. The same admin classed it as B. Another editor just recenently and a very good one at that also recommended that it could stand as an A class article. I can't really be bothered looking into it though. . Cheers_Ad@m.J.W.C. (talk) 00:32, 11 January 2008 (UTC)
 * Also, no one complained about this article Anti-submarine boom net (Sydney Harbour WWII) which was on the main page for the 'did you know', which may have had a slight clean up by a few others but thats it. As for the removal of the new message bar, well thats just an anger thing.

Re. Thanks for advice
Your answer to my question at Referencing different pages in the same book? was useful. I thought I had to do something like that but because I wasn't so sure I didn't want to try and then get it wrong. Although one of my refs. had no year of publication anywhere on it, I think it worked out. If you have a minute can you check the citations in the history section of the Brisbane River to see if I did it correctly? - Shiftchange (talk) 00:17, 13 January 2008 (UTC)

---

Hi. I think your solution for Citations and References is basically fine. You've resolved the main issue, which would otherwise be unnecessarily repeating the full details such as title and publisher for example for references to McLeod and Longhurst.

Actually, I think the help advice on the Citing sources project page could still do with a bit more work to make it clearer (it's on my "to do" list).

What I did notice about your solution though was that it was kind of a mixture of two inline citation methods, namely Footnote referencing, and Short footnote citations with full references.

What you've got works well enough, but you might want to consider making the remaining long citations that you've got in the Citations section into short citations (e.g. Young 1990, Erskine 1990, O’Brien et al. 2001, Johnstone 1995) and then including their full references in the References section instead, even though (with the exception of Young 1990) these don't have multiple citations to different pages.

--SallyScot (talk) 11:53, 13 January 2008 (UTC)

Brisbane is new ACOTF
Hi. You voted for Brisbane which has been selected for the new Australian collaboration. Please help to improve it in any way you can. Thanks. --Scott Davis Talk 14:18, 13 January 2008 (UTC)

William Street, Brisbane
A proposed deletion template has been added to the article William Street, Brisbane, suggesting that it be deleted according to the proposed deletion process. All contributions are appreciated, but this article may not satisfy Wikipedia's criteria for inclusion, and the deletion notice should explain why (see also "What Wikipedia is not" and Wikipedia's deletion policy). You may prevent the proposed deletion by removing the  notice, but please explain why you disagree with the proposed deletion in your edit summary or on its talk page. Also, please consider improving the article to address the issues raised. Even though removing the deletion notice will prevent deletion through the proposed deletion process, the article may still be deleted if it matches any of the speedy deletion criteria or it can be sent to Articles for Deletion, where it may be deleted if consensus to delete is reached. If you agree with the deletion of the article, and you are the only person who has made substantial edits to the page, please add  to the top of William Street, Brisbane. h i s  s p a c e   r e s e a r c h 09:09, 15 January 2008 (UTC)

Brisbane meetup
Delivered on behalf of Dihydrogen Monoxide. Sorry you got this later than some other people - took the lazy botop 2 days to run :) Giggabot (talk) 07:51, 17 January 2008 (UTC)

Reply:Qld rail map request
I would like to, finding the time is the issue! Quaidy (talk) 09:25, 23 January 2008 (UTC)

QLD to-do
Not sure why that wasn't working but I've fixed it now. Moved existing content to To-do page and transcluded it within the main one. Orderinchaos 14:07, 16 February 2008 (UTC)

WikiProject Brisbane
Just a reminder that WikiProject Brisbane needs your help. There have been a number of changes to the project page over recent days and I hope you could spare some time to take a look, be bold and add some touches yourself.

There is plenty that needs to be done to get more Brisbane articles up to FA standard. Please come and discuss this and lets see if we can build up this project.

Your details were taken from Category:WikiProject Brisbane members Nicholas Perkins (T•C) 05:41, 23 February 2008 (UTC)

Edit to Talk:Price of petroleum/to do
What's with the request to add internal links? It would be much easier to just do this yourself than make a request. If they don't fit anywhere in the article just add them to see also. And inflation is already linked! Richard001 (talk) 07:16, 9 April 2008 (UTC)

 * Oh, of course. I should have thought what else you might have meant. Richard001 (talk) 07:34, 9 April 2008 (UTC)

title: User talk:Shiftchange/Archive 1


text:
Revesby railway station

Revesby railway station is located on the East Hills line, serving the Sydney suburb of Revesby. It is served by Sydney Trains T8 Airport & South line services.

History
Revesby station opened on 21 December 1931 when the line was extended from Kingsgrove to East Hills. In 1956 a crossing loop was opened.

On 9 December 1985, the line from Revesby to East Hills was duplicated with a new track laid to the north of the existing one. The line from Kingsgrove to Revesby was duplicated around the same time.

The Rail Clearways Program saw the station's role change significantly, with plans to considerably boost capacity of the East Hills line by creating two centre turnbacks at the station to replace a side turnback at East Hills, and quadruplicating the line from Kingsgrove to Revesby.

In 2006, construction commenced on a second island platform and a replacement footbridge. Platform 3 opened in December 2008, as the main platform to the west. The existing Platform 2 became a centre turnback with only a few services initially using the facility. In October 2009, a new timetable was introduced, and Revesby replaced East Hills as the major intermediate terminus.

In April 2013, as part of the quadruplication of the line from Kingsgrove to Revesby, Platform 4 opened.

Transport links
U-Go Mobility operates four bus routes via Revesby station, under contract to Transport for NSW:
 * 923: Bankstown Central to Panania
 * 924: Bankstown Central to East Hills station
 * 926: Bankstown Central to Padstow station
 * 962: East Hills to Miranda
 * S5: Padstow station to Milperra

Revesby station is served by one NightRide route:
 * N40: East Hills station to Town Hall station

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

title: Revesby railway station


text:
Cleveland Williams

Cleveland "Big Cat" Williams (June 30, 1933 – September 10, 1999) was an American professional boxer. A poll in The Ring magazine rated him as one of the finest boxers never to win a title.

Early life
Born in Griffin, Georgia, Williams started working at a pulpwood mill at the age of 13, and began his professional boxing career in his home state just a year later. He reported winning four of his first six fights, but was barred from competing until he turned 18 after an official learned of his age.

Early boxing career
Williams turned professional in 1951 and fought many of the best heavyweights of his era. During the late 1950s and early 1960s, the 6 ft 2 in Williams was a top-rated heavyweight. His quest to obtain a title fight, however, was consistently derailed. First he was knocked out by Sonny Liston on April 15, 1959. Williams recovered from the Liston fight to score more wins, but was again stopped by Liston in two rounds in their rematch on March 21, 1960. His quest for the title was later stalled when he was held to a draw by Eddie Machen on July 10, 1962, and when he dropped a split decision on March 13, 1963, to Ernie Terrell, a fighter he had previously knocked out in seven rounds in 1962. During this time frame, he defeated Billy Daniels.

Police shooting incident
On the evening of November 29, 1964, during the height of the civil unrest of the American Civil Rights Movement, a car driven by Williams was stopped near Houston, Texas, by highway Patrolman Dale Witten, who stated afterwards Williams was speeding. According to the police report Williams resisted arrest, and the officer's .357 magnum revolver went off during an ensuing struggle, hitting Williams in the stomach and lodging in his right hip. Williams underwent four operations over the subsequent seven months to address injuries to his colon and right kidney. The right kidney ultimately had to be removed in June 1965. Doctors could not extract the bullet, which had broken his right hip joint and caused partial paralysis of some of the hip's muscles, over 10 feet of his small intestine had to be removed, and nerve damage affected his left leg above the knee and caused it to atrophy as a result. Hugh Benbow, his manager, and Sonny Liston, former world champion, visited Cleveland Williams in the hospital. After his partial recovery Williams was fined $50 and briefly jailed after pleading no contest to charges arising from the incident. (Patrolman Witten visited Williams to wish him luck the day before his 1966 fight with Muhammad Ali, with both men saying they had "no hard feelings" toward the other).

Recovery and return to boxing
The injury, surgeries and subsequent convalescence caused Williams to lose over 60 pounds (27kg), and over 17 months of his career. He regained his weight and strength by tossing 80-pound (36kg) bales of hay daily on a cattle ranch till he had regained his fighting weight and physique. On February 8, 1966, Williams received a standing ovation from the Houston crowd as he returned to the ring, and knocked out Ben Black in the first round.

Williams competed for the heavyweight championship against Muhammad Ali on November 14, 1966, but was badly outclassed, and was knocked down twice in the third round ending the match. Williams retired from boxing after the 1966 Championship defeat, but later made a comeback. Although able to defeat journeymen fighters, he suffered several knockout losses before retiring permanently in 1972.

Later life
The Ring in the 1980s reported he worked as a forklift truck driver in his later years.

Death
On September 3, 1999, Williams was knocked down by a car in a hit and run accident while walking across a street in Houston, Texas; he died of his injuries at Ben Taub Hospital on September 10, 1999, at the age of 66. Williams was buried in Paradise North Cemetery in Houston.

Tributes
He ended his career with a record of 82 wins (62 KOs), 13 losses and 2 draws. During an interview after his retirement, George Foreman described Williams as having one of the three hardest punches he had experienced professionally, also stating that he and Williams had been sparring partners early in their careers. George Chuvalo also said Williams was one of the hardest punchers he had faced in his own professional career. Williams, aged 38, lost by decision to veteran Chuvalo over 10 rounds at the Astrodome in Houston, Texas, in November 1971. Sonny Liston stated Williams was the hardest puncher he'd ever been in the ring with.

In 2003 Williams was ranked 49th in The Ring's list of 100 greatest punchers of all time.

title: Cleveland Williams


text: File:SweetAndTenderHooligan.jpg

title: File:SweetAndTenderHooligan.jpg


text:
Henry Sydney, 1st Earl of Romney

Henry Sydney, 1st Earl of Romney (March 1641 – 8 April 1704) was an English Army officer, Whig politician and peer who served as Master-General of the Ordnance from 1693 to 1702. He is best known as one of the Immortal Seven, a group of seven Englishmen who drafted an invitation to William of Orange, which led to the November 1688 Glorious Revolution and subsequent deposition of James II of England.

Personal details

Henry Sydney was born in Paris around March 1641, fourth surviving son of Robert Sydney, 2nd Earl of Leicester (1595–1677), and his wife Lady Dorothy Percy (died 1659). His brothers included Philip (1619–1698), who fought for Parliament during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, and Algernon (1623–1683), a political theorist closely associated with John Locke who was executed in 1683 for his part in the Rye House Plot. Another brother, Robert (1626–1668), served in the army of the Dutch Republic, and was a close companion of the exiled Charles II of England, although he fell from favour shortly before his death.

His eldest sister Dorothy (1617–1684) married Henry Spencer, 1st Earl of Sunderland (1620–1643), killed fighting for the Royalists during the First English Civil War; her son, Robert Spencer, 2nd Earl of Sunderland (1641–1702), was born in Paris a few months after Henry and the two men were close friends for most of their lives. From December 1685 to October 1688, Sunderland was Lord President of the Council under James II of England. Another sister, Lucy (circa 1626-1685), married Sir John Pelham, 3rd Baronet (1623–1703), MP for Sussex for most of the period from 1654 to 1695. A Whig who supported the Glorious Revolution, two of his grandsons served as Prime Minister.

Although Sydney had an illegitimate son, Henry Worthley, he never married; on 8 April 1704, he died of smallpox at his house in London and was buried a few days later in St James's Church, Piccadilly. His titles became extinct.

Career
Sydney was brought up at Penshurst Place, the family home in Kent and spent much of the period from 1658 to 1664 travelling in Europe with his nephew and contemporary, the Earl of Sunderland. On his return, he held a number of positions at court and in 1667 was commissioned as captain in the Holland Regiment, commanded by his brother Robert. He carried out a number of minor diplomatic missions in the 1670s and received his first significant office in 1678 when Charles appointed him Master of the Robes.

In early 1678, England re-entered the Franco-Dutch War as an ally of the Dutch Republic and Sydney was given command of a new regiment raised to fight in it. Although the war ended before he saw active service, he became friends with William of Orange; with the support of Sunderland, then Secretary of State for the Northern Department, in June 1679 he was appointed Envoy to the United Provinces, a position he held with marked success until 1681.

In October 1679, he was also elected as MP for Bramber in what is commonly called the "Exclusion Bill Parliament". The central issue during this period was the attempt to exclude the Catholic Duke of York from the succession. Sydney was a "Williamite exclusionist", one of those who supported exclusion but preferred William of Orange, son of a Stuart mother and married to James' eldest daughter Mary, rather than Charles' illegitimate son, James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth. This ultimately led to his dismissal, although he was permitted to return to the Netherlands in 1682 and given command of one of the English regiments of the Dutch Anglo-Scots Brigade.

In 1683, Algernon Sydney was executed for his part in the Rye House Plot, an alleged conspiracy to assassinate Charles II along with his brother James, and place Monmouth on the throne. As William's wife Mary was then heir to the English throne, he provided troops to help suppress the June 1685 Monmouth Rebellion. Sydney was thus able to balance his obligations as a loyal subject with acting as an informal contact point between William and his English supporters, as well as Sunderland, whom James appointed Lord President of the Council in 1685. The situation changed in June 1688 with the birth of a male heir, James Francis Edward Stuart; the prospect of a Catholic dynasty led to the Invitation to William. Signed by the Immortal Seven, representatives from the key political constituencies whose support William needed to commit to an invasion, it was drafted by Sydney, later described as "the great wheel on which the Revolution rolled".

In August, he journeyed to The Hague and was appointed major general in the invasion force assembled by William that landed at Torbay on 5 November. In what became known as the Glorious Revolution, most of James' army changed sides and he escaped into exile in France on 23 December. Sydney was elected MP for Tamworth in the 1689 Convention Parliament that on 14 February made William and Mary co-monarchs in place of her father. On 4 April, he was created Baron Milton and Viscount Sydney, became a Privy Councillor and received a number of other offices, including Lord Lieutenant of Kent and Constable of Dover Castle.

Sydney accompanied William in 1690 when he took personal charge of the war in Ireland; appointed colonel of the Foot Guards, he fought at the Boyne in July, as well as the sieges of Waterford and Limerick. Recalled to London in December 1690, he was appointed Secretary of State for the Northern Department, before returning to Ireland as Lord Lieutenant in March 1692. Although his tenure was marked by conflict with the Irish Parliament and lasted less than a year, he retained William's confidence; in 1693, he was made Master-General of the Ordnance, then promoted Lieutenant-General and created Earl of Romney in 1694.

At the same time, he purchased the office of Chief Ranger of Greenwich Park, allowing him to use the Queen's House as a personal residence. He undertook a series of improvements, one of which was to alter the course of the main road between Woolwich and Deptford, part of which is now called "Romney Road". He remained a close advisor to William and accompanied him to The Hague for the negotiations that led to the signing of the Second Grand Alliance in September 1701. However, when William died and Queen Anne came to the throne in March 1702, he lost most of his offices and retired from active political life; he died of smallpox at his house in London on 8 April 1704, and was buried a few days later at St James's Church, Piccadilly.

Legacy
Sydney's reputation has been subject to a variety of views; some contemporaries considered him lazy and superficial, while Tory satirist Jonathan Swift dismissed him as 'an idle, drunken, ignorant rake, without sense or honour'. Other perspectives are more charitable and in general present him as "an individual with flaws, but also remarkable for his even temper, straight dealing, good judgement, and a knack for gaining the trust of others".

It has been suggested the use of the pheon, or broad arrow, on government property dates from Sydney's period as Master General of the Ordnance. However, the Oxford English Dictionary argues "this is not supported by the evidence", as the use of the device predates his association with the Board.

title: Henry Sydney, 1st Earl of Romney


text:
Category:The Smiths

__NOGALLERY__

title: Category:The Smiths