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Learie Constantine

Learie Nicholas Constantine, Baron Constantine, (21 September 1901 – 1 July 1971) was a Trinidadian cricketer, lawyer and politician who served as Trinidad and Tobago's High Commissioner to the United Kingdom and became the UK's first black peer. He played 18 Test matches for the West Indies before the Second World War and took the team's first wicket in Test cricket. An advocate against racial discrimination, in later life he was influential in the passing of the 1965 Race Relations Act in Britain. He was knighted in 1962 and made a life peer in 1969.

Born in Trinidad, Constantine established an early reputation as a promising cricketer, and was a member of the West Indies teams that toured England in 1923 and 1928. Unhappy at the lack of opportunities for black people in Trinidad, he decided to pursue a career as a professional cricketer in England, and during the 1928 tour was awarded a contract with the Lancashire League club Nelson. He played for the club with distinction between 1929 and 1938, while continuing as a member of the West Indies Test team in tours of England and Australia. Although his record as a Test cricketer was less impressive than in other cricket, he helped to establish a uniquely West Indian style of play. He was chosen as one of the Wisden Cricketers of the Year in 1939.

During the Second World War, Constantine worked for the Ministry of Labour and National Service as a Welfare Officer responsible for West Indians employed in English factories. In 1943, the manager of a London hotel refused to accommodate Constantine and his family on the grounds of their race in an instance of the UK colour bar; Constantine successfully sued the hotel company. Commentators recognise the case as a milestone in British racial equality. Constantine qualified as a barrister in 1954, while also establishing himself as a journalist and broadcaster. He returned to Trinidad and Tobago in 1954, entered politics and became a founding member of the People's National Movement, subsequently entering the government as minister of communications.

From 1961 to 1964, he served as High Commissioner to the United Kingdom and, controversially, became involved in issues relating to racial discrimination, including the Bristol Bus Boycott. In his final years, he served on the Race Relations Board, the Sports Council and the Board of Governors of the BBC. Failing health reduced his effectiveness in some of these roles, and he faced criticism for becoming a part of the British Establishment. He died of a heart attack on 1 July 1971, aged 69. In June 2021, he was inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame as one of the special inductees to mark the inaugural edition of the ICC World Test Championship final.

Early life
Constantine was born in Petit Valley, a village close to Diego Martin in north-west Trinidad, on 21 September 1901, the second child of the family and the eldest of three brothers. His father, Lebrun Constantine, was the grandchild of slaves; Lebrun rose to the position of overseer on a cocoa estate in Cascade, near Maraval, where the family moved in 1906. Lebrun was famous on the island as a cricketer who represented Trinidad and Tobago in first-class cricket and toured England twice with a West Indian team. Constantine's mother, Anaise Pascall, was the daughter of slaves, and her brother Victor, was also a Trinidad and Tobago and West Indian first-class cricketer;  a third family member, Constantine's brother Elias, later represented Trinidad and Tobago. Constantine wrote that although the family was not wealthy, his childhood was happy. He spent a lot of time playing in the hills near his home or on the estates where his father and grandfather worked. He enjoyed cricket from an early age; the family regularly practised together under the supervision of Lebrun and Victor Pascall.

Constantine first went to the St Ann's Government School in Port of Spain, then attended St Ann's Roman Catholic School until 1917. He displayed little enthusiasm for learning and never reached a high academic standard, but showed prowess at several sports and was respected for his cricketing lineage. He played for the school cricket team, which he captained in his last two years, by which time he was developing a reputation as an attacking batsman, a good fast-medium bowler and an excellent fielder. His father prohibited him from playing competitive club cricket until 1920 for fear of premature exposure to top-class opposition while too young; in addition, he first wanted his son to establish a professional career. Upon leaving school Constantine joined Jonathan Ryan, a firm of solicitors in Port of Spain, as a clerk. This was a possible route into the legal profession; however, as a member of the black lower-middle class, he was unlikely to progress far. Few black Trinidadians at this time became solicitors, and he faced many social restrictions owing to his colour.

Cricket in Trinidad and Tobago
In 1916, before his father imposed a ban on competitive cricket, Constantine had played briefly for Shannon Cricket Club; he returned to the club in 1920. Initially, he appeared in the second team, but after scoring 50 runs in an hour during his third game, was promoted to the first eleven. Cricket in Trinidad and Tobago at the time was divided along racial lines; Shannon was mainly for black lower middle-class players such as teachers or clerks. The club was competitive and highly motivated, partly as a reaction to the racial discrimination that its players and supporters encountered in their daily lives. Constantine's cricket thrived in this atmosphere, and the club helped to form some of his political views. He particularly noticed that in Trinidad and Tobago and West Indies cricket, white and light-skinned players were often favoured over black players of greater ability.

Constantine's reputation continued to grow. An innings for Shannon in 1921 against renowned fast bowler George John received great local publicity, but according to the cricket writer and social historian C. L. R. James, this was the only time prior to 1928 that Constantine played in such an effective way. Constantine's father, still a formidable player, did not put himself forward for selection into the Trinidad and Tobago team in 1921, in the hope that his son would replace him. The white captain of the team, Major Bertie Harragin, recognised the younger Constantine's promise, and selected him to play in Trinidad and Tobago's Inter-Colonial Tournament match against British Guiana. Unfortunately, Constantine arrived late after a newspaper advertised the wrong starting time, and did not play. However, he made his first-class debut in the following match, the final of the tournament, against Barbados on 21 September 1921. He scored a duck in his first innings, batting at number eight in the batting order. After taking two wickets at a cost of 44 runs in Barbados' only innings, he scored 24 in his second innings, batting at number three.

Constantine played for Trinidad and Tobago in the next Inter-Colonial Tournament, in British Guiana in 1922. Although in two games he scored only 45 runs and took four wickets, commentators considered his fielding in the covers to be exceptional, and he retained his place in the team largely as a fielder. Although Trinidad and Tobago lost to Barbados in the final, the Barbados captain Harold Austin, who was also captain of the West Indies team, was impressed by Constantine. Mainly on the strength of his fielding, Austin secured Constantine's selection for the 1923 West Indian tour of England; it was a surprising choice, as there were other candidates who appeared to have stronger claims. By this time Constantine was working for Llewellyn Roberts, a larger solicitors' practice which paid better. As his new employer's longer working hours restricted Constantine's cricket practice, when he was selected for the West Indies tour he resigned his position.

Tour of England in 1923
The 1923 West Indies touring team played 21 first-class matches in England, of which six were won, seven lost and the others drawn. The team's relative success, and particularly the performance of leading batsman George Challenor, persuaded English critics that West Indies cricket was stronger than previously supposed; this was instrumental in the promotion of the team to Test match status in 1928. Challenor was the biggest individual success of the tour, but Constantine impressed English critics, through his style of play more than his statistical achievements. He played 20 first-class matches on the tour, scoring 425 runs at an average of 15.74 and taking 37 wickets at an average of 21.86. Against Oxford University, he scored 77, his maiden first-class fifty; his only other half century came against Derbyshire. He also took five wickets in an innings for the first time, in the match against Kent.

Wisden Cricketers' Almanack recorded that his batting, while highly unorthodox in technique, could be very effective when he was in form. Wisden also noted that his bowling was fast. Several English players, including Jack Hobbs, singled out Constantine as an unusually talented cricketer on the strength of his performances in 1923. Pelham Warner, a former England captain and influential journalist and administrator, described Constantine after the tour as the best fielder in the world; his fielding was also praised by the press and in the pages of Wisden. James later wrote: "He is a success, but he has not set the Thames on fire, and, what is more, he hasn't tried to."

Mid-1920s career
John Arlott later commented that, on his first tour of England, Constantine "learnt much that he never forgot, by no means all of it about cricket: and he recognised the game as his only possible ladder to the kind of life he wanted." When Constantine returned to Trinidad and Tobago, he had no permanent job and little prospect of advancement in any suitable profession. He took several temporary jobs but was often forced to rely financially upon his family. However, his success had inspired him to pursue a career as a professional cricketer in England, and he began to practise to reach the required standard. Although he scored 167 for Shannon in 1924, and took eight for 38 for Trinidad and Tobago against Barbados, Constantine's cricket was steady but not consistently successful. He was initially dropped from the West Indies team to face the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) touring team during 1926, though he was recalled for the second match, once again at the insistence of Austin, who wanted a good cover fielder in the team. In the match Constantine was involved in an incident over short-pitched bowling. The MCC fast bowlers had bowled short at the 49-year-old Austin; in retaliation, Constantine bounced the MCC captain, Freddie Calthorpe, and only stopped after James pointed out the diplomatic row which would follow if Calthorpe, a respected figure in the British establishment, was hit by the ball. Once more, Constantine's performances were not statistically exceptional, but his style impressed critics and spectators, and he came top of the West Indies bowling averages.

A new, permanent job with Trinidad Leaseholds allowed Constantine to devote more time to cricket. Constantine realised that to succeed as a professional cricketer, he needed to improve; his bowling lacked true speed and, when batting, he was often dismissed playing shots that were too adventurous. After his relative failure in 1926, he increased his level of practice, improved his fitness and trained to become a slip fielder to conserve his energies for genuine fast bowling. In the trial matches before the 1928 tour of England, Constantine secured his place on the tour by taking five for 32 and scoring 63. He left behind his wife Norma, whom he had married in 1927, and his newly born daughter.

Tour of England in 1928
Constantine's main objective on the 1928 tour was to secure a contract to play cricket professionally in England. James wrote that Constantine "had revolted against the revolting contrast between his first-class status as a cricketer and his third-class status as a man ... The restraints imposed upon him by social conditions in the West Indies had become intolerable and he decided to stand them no longer."

According to James, Constantine would never have left Trinidad and Tobago had he been able to live with "honour [and] a little profit". In the tour's opening first-class match, against Derbyshire, Constantine began his second innings when the West Indians needed 40 runs to win; in seven scoring shots, Constantine hit 31 runs and took the team to a two-wicket victory. In the following match he scored his maiden first-class century, 130 in 90 minutes, against Essex.

As the tour proceeded, Constantine continued his success; the Middlesex game at Lord's brought his name to the widest notice in cricket circles. Although struggling for fitness, he chose to play knowing that he was a star attraction in this high-profile game. Middlesex batted first, and reached 352 before declaring the innings closed — Constantine bowled little owing to his injury — and the West Indies were struggling at 79 for five when Constantine came in to bat. He scored 50 in 18 minutes and reached 86 in under an hour, to avert his side's follow-on. In Middlesex's second innings, Constantine took seven for 57 in a spell of extremely fast bowling and the county were dismissed for 136. The West Indies needed 259 to win; they looked likely to lose when Constantine returned to bat with the score 121 for five. He scored 103 in 60 minutes, hitting two sixes and 12 fours and guiding the West Indies to a three-wicket victory. For players and spectators this was the defining match of Constantine's career; many years later, cricket writer E. W. Swanton suggested that there were few all-round performances in the history of cricket to match it. Shortly after the game, Nelson, a cricket club in the Lancashire League, offered Constantine a professional contract.

The rest of Constantine's 1928 tour was generally successful; only in the three Test matches, the first played by the West Indies, was he less effective. Although he took the West Indies' first wicket in Test cricket, dismissing Charlie Hallows, and finished with innings figures of four for 82, he took only one more wicket during the remainder of the series and ended with five wickets at an average of 52.40; with the bat, he scored 89 runs in six innings at 14.83. Even so, Jack Hobbs said that Constantine's opening overs to him in the first Test were among the fastest he ever faced, Constantine believed his captain, Karl Nunes, over-bowled him; the pair did not get along well. When the tour ended, Constantine had scored more runs and taken more wickets and catches in first-class games than any other tourist. He was second in the team's batting averages with 1,381 runs at 34.52, and led the bowling averages with 107 wickets at 22.95. It was the manner in which Constantine played which set him apart from the restrained form of cricket generally played in England at the time: his style, aggression and entertainment value made a big impression on the crowds. According to Peter Mason in his biography of Constantine, he established a unique style of West Indian cricket and possibly established the template for West Indian cricketers for years to come.

Series against England and Australia
At the end of the 1928 tour Constantine returned home and helped Trinidad and Tobago to win the Intercolonial Tournament. He took 16 wickets in the two games and scored 133 in the final against Barbados, the highest score of his career and a record for Trinidad and Tobago at the time. These were his last matches in the tournament, as the rules did not permit professional cricketers (which he became when he signed for Nelson) to take part. In 1929 Constantine played one match in Jamaica for a West Indies team against an English touring team and then travelled to Nelson to begin his professional career.

Constantine returned to the West Indies to face England (represented by the MCC as was usual in those days) in a four-match Test series early in 1930. The first Test was drawn; Constantine scored few runs, but bowled for a long time and fielded well. After the game, he was awarded a bat for his contribution. Calthorpe, the MCC captain, criticised his use of short-pitched bowling to a leg side field; one such ball struck Andy Sandham, but Constantine only reverted to more conventional tactics after a request from the MCC manager. During the second Test Constantine scored a rapid 58 and took six wickets, but the West Indies lost by 167 runs. In the following match the West Indies recorded their first win in Test matches; after centuries from George Headley and Clifford Roach, Constantine took four for 35 and five for 87 to secure the victory. Constantine was omitted from the final match in Jamaica, because inter-island politics meant that selectors tended to pick players from the island hosting the Test. In the series, 29 players represented the West Indies and the team had a different captain in each match. In the three matches in which he played, Constantine scored 144 runs at 14.40 and took 18 wickets at 27.61.

After his second season at Nelson, Constantine joined the first West Indies team to tour Australia in the 1930–31 season. The side felt some trepidation over how the black members of the side would be received, but the tour passed off without incident; Constantine later praised the reception the team was accorded. The West Indians were captained by Jackie Grant, a white man who had played for Cambridge University but was unfamiliar with his team. Constantine considered this unsatisfactory, and felt it affected the team's performances. The West Indies were heavily defeated in the five-Test series, losing the first four matches before winning the last. Constantine achieved little in the series, scoring 72 runs at 7.20 and taking eight wickets at 50.87.

In other first-class games, he was more successful and, although Headley performed very well, it was Constantine who proved most popular with spectators. Even before the Tests began, his fielding drew praise from the press and he was described in The Sydney Mail as the fastest bowler seen in Australia for years.

Monty Noble, a former Australian captain, writing in the Sydney Sun described one innings of 59 runs as "sensational" and one of the best played in Australia since the war. Constantine scored a century in 52 minutes against Tasmania, played five other innings over fifty and took three five-wicket returns. In 1950, Donald Bradman, who played against Constantine that season, described him as the greatest fielder he had seen. In all first-class matches, Constantine scored 708 runs at an average of 30.78 and took 47 wickets at 20.21; he led the team's bowling averages and came fourth in batting.

Test series against England in 1933 and 1934–35
By now living in Nelson and barred from the Inter-Colonial Tournament, Constantine played no first-class cricket for two years. His contract with Nelson made him unavailable for much of the 1933 West Indies' tour of England under Grant. Constantine never challenged Nelson over this; some critics suggested he was swayed by the greater financial rewards the club provided. He appeared once for the tourists in May, scoring 57 in 27 minutes and taking four wickets in a victory over an MCC team at Lord's. The West Indian board unsuccessfully tried to secure his release for the first Test match, which the West Indies lost heavily. After he took nine wickets in the tourists' game against Yorkshire, Nelson gave him permission to appear in the second Test at Manchester.

During the previous winter, England had played Australia in the controversial Bodyline series in which the English bowlers were accused of bowling the ball on the line of leg stump. The deliveries were often short-pitched with four or five fielders close by on the leg side waiting to catch deflections off the bat. The tactics were difficult for batsmen to counter and were designed to be intimidatory. In the 1933 English season, Bodyline was a sensitive subject. There had already been controversy in the tourists' match against the MCC, during which Constantine and Manny Martindale, another West Indian fast bowler, were criticised in the press for bowling short. Frustrated by a slow pitch which he believed was intended to neutralise his fast bowlers, Grant had ordered Constantine to bowl Bodyline against Yorkshire, and decided to repeat the tactics in the second Test. The West Indies scored 375, of which Constantine made 31. When England replied, several batsmen were discomfited by the Bodyline bowling; Wally Hammond was struck on the chin and retired hurt. Constantine and Martindale bowled up to four short deliveries each over so that the ball rose to head height; occasionally they bowled around the wicket.

Although not as fast as he had been on the previous tour, Constantine was still capable of short bursts of very fast bowling. However, the slowness of the pitch reduced the effectiveness of the Bodyline tactics, and Constantine took one for 55; England's captain Douglas Jardine, who had implemented the Bodyline tactics in Australia, batted for five hours to score his only Test century. The public disapproval expressed during and after the match was instrumental in turning English attitudes against Bodyline, something Constantine considered hypocritical. In the West Indies' second innings Constantine's innings of 64 in an hour ensured that the match was drawn. Nelson initially agreed to release him for the third Test, with Essex all-rounder Stan Nichols to be Constantine's substitute for the club team. When Jardine heard, he convinced the England selectors to include Nichols in the England team for the Test, the deal collapsed and Constantine did not play. Most critics believed that the West Indies underachieved in the Test series; Constantine believed that one cause was the inadequacy of Grant as captain. In all first-class games on the tour Constantine scored 181 runs at 20.11 and took 14 wickets at 22.14.

Constantine worked in India as a cricket coach during 1934, playing two matches in the Moin-ud-Dowlah Gold Cup Tournament. He was invited to play in the 1935 Test series against England in the West Indies, and although he arrived too late for the first Test, won by England, he played in the remaining three games of the series. In a match for Trinidad and Tobago before the second Test, he and his brother Elias appeared together for the only time in a first-class match, and shared a partnership of 93. In the next Test Constantine scored 90, his highest Test score. England needed 325 to win in the fourth innings, but  lost early wickets. In the final stages of the match Constantine was warned by the umpire for bowling Bodyline, and Grant withdrew him from the bowling attack. After the crowd protested, Constantine returned to bowl; with two balls of the match left, he took the final English wicket. The West Indies won by 217 runs, with Constantine taking three for 11; in the match as a whole he scored 121 runs and took five wickets. The third Test was drawn, leaving the final Test to decide the series. After making a large total, the West Indies bowled England out twice to win by an innings and record their first Test series victory. As well as taking six wickets in the game, Constantine captained the team to victory after Grant injured an ankle on the last morning and asked Constantine to assume the leadership. Peter Mason writes: "Given the measures that the West Indian authorities had taken to ensure that no black man would ever captain a regional side, it was a great irony and a huge source of delight to Constantine that he should be the man to lead the team at the moment of their greatest achievement so far." Once more, the press praised Constantine and hailed his achievements. In the series, he scored 169 runs at an average of 33.80 and took 15 wickets at 13.13.

Tour of England in 1939
Apart from one guest appearance for Barbados in a friendly match early in 1939, Constantine did not play first-class cricket after 1935 until the West Indies toured England in 1939. Constantine had deliberately not signed a league contract in 1939, to be available for the tour. However, he was unhappy with the playing strength of the touring team and the £600 he was offered in wages. He believed the captain, Rolph Grant, was unqualified for the job and had been appointed only because he was white. Constantine captained the side in one match, but was reprimanded by the West Indies board for not pursuing a win. The West Indies lost the three-match Test series 1–0 against a very strong England side, although critics judged the overall playing record of the team to be good. In the three Tests, Constantine scored 110 runs at 27.50 and took 11 wickets at 29.81, including five for 75 in the final Test.

By this time Constantine bowled generally at medium pace from a short run-up. To compensate for his reduced pace he mixed up his bowling style, spinning the ball and bowling at speeds varying from slow to very fast. He bowled more overs than any other member of the team, and was the side's leading wicket-taker with 103 wickets in the season. His bowling average of 17.77 placed him first in the team's bowling averages and seventh in the English national averages. With the bat, Constantine scored 614 runs at 21.17; Preston wrote that Constantine "often electrified onlookers with his almost impudent zest for runs". His highest innings came in the final Test match when he scored 79 in an hour and hit 11 fours. Wisden commented: "Constantine, in the mood suggesting his work in Saturday afternoon League cricket, brought a welcome air of gaiety to the Test arena. He revolutionised all the recognised features of cricket and, surpass[ed] Bradman in his amazing stroke play." For his all-round performances during the season he was chosen as one of Wisden's Cricketers of the Year.

The third Test match, after which the tour was abandoned owing to the imminent outbreak of the Second World War, was Constantine's last. In 18 Test matches between 1928 and 1939 he scored 635 runs at an average of 19.24, took 58 wickets at 30.10 and held 28 catches. He played one more first-class match when, in 1945, he captained a team representing the "Dominions" against England at Lord's. The match was narrowly won by the Dominions. Constantine, in the second innings, shared a partnership of 117 in 45 minutes with Keith Miller. He bowled very little, but ran out a batsman at a key point in the final innings. In all first-class cricket, Constantine scored 4,475 runs at 24.05 and took 439 wickets at 20.48.

Lancashire League cricketer
In 1928, Constantine had signed an initial three-year contract with Nelson, to play in the Lancashire League. The contract was worth £500 per season, plus performance bonuses and travelling expenses. He remained there until 1937, an unusually long time for a professional to remain with one club. Constantine's appearances boosted attendances and gate receipts for all Nelson's matches, and was of great financial benefit to both the club and the League as a whole. In Constantine's nine seasons at the club, Nelson never finished lower than second, won the league competition seven times and the knockout cup twice. In 1931, Constantine renewed his contract for £650 per season; when, in 1935, a rival league attempted to sign him, all the Lancashire League clubs contributed to his wage, which rose to £750 per year between 1935 and 1937. This was far more than the then maximum wage for a professional footballer of £386, or the £500 per season that a top county cricketer could potentially earn, and possibly made Constantine the best-paid sportsman in the country. Consequently, he and his family enjoyed a good standard of living for the first time in their lives.

As Nelson's professional, Constantine was immediately successful. Although he produced better figures in subsequent years, he considered his first season at Nelson the most enjoyable of his life, owing to the freedom and excitement of the cricket. During nine years at the club he scored 6,363 runs at an average of 37.65 and took 776 wickets at 9.50. His highest score was 192, and his best bowling figures were ten wickets for ten runs. In each season except for 1932, he averaged over 30 with the bat and in 1933 he scored 1,000 runs at an average of over 50. He took over 70 wickets every season and his bowling average never rose above 11.30; in five seasons, he averaged under ten runs per wicket. In 1933, he took 96 wickets, his highest seasonal aggregate, and had he not missed two games to play for the West Indies touring team, would likely have completed the cricketer's double (1,000 runs and 100 wickets), an unprecedented feat in the league.

In the mid-1930s, representatives from Lancashire County Cricket Club twice approached Constantine with a view to him joining the club — his time in Nelson meant that he qualified to play for Lancashire, having lived in the county for the required time. There was a precedent for such a course, as the Australian Ted McDonald had joined Lancashire after playing as Nelson's professional in the 1920s. In the case of Constantine nothing happened, as members of the Lancashire Board and, later, players in the team opposed the idea of a black man playing for the county. In any case Constantine preferred league cricket to what he perceived was the negativity and dullness of county cricket. He found the standard of play very high, stating: "Never in my life have I played harder than in Lancashire." In his history of West Indies cricket, Michael Manley writes that league cricket at this time was intense and unrelenting, but: "it was in this special atmosphere of League cricket that Constantine was supreme."

For the 1938 season, Constantine played for Rochdale in the Central Lancashire Cricket League, although he continued to live in Nelson. He received £812 for the season, and performed successfully, but did not enjoy the experience. The nature of the pitches was different in his new league; furthermore, some of the players seemed resentful of his high earnings. There was also an incident of racial abuse which Constantine believed the Central Lancashire League committee effectively covered up. This season ended Constantine's career in the Lancashire Leagues, although during the war he returned to play for Nelson as an amateur.

Style and technique
Swanton believed that Constantine was the first West Indian cricketer to make an impression on the British public: "he ... personified West Indian cricket from the first faltering entry in the Test arena in 1928 until the post-war emergence of the trinity of Worrell, Weekes and Walcott." Swanton continued: "There have been many all-rounders with better records ... but it is hard to think of one who made a more sensational impact [and] impossible to imagine his superior as a fielder anywhere."

In 1934, Neville Cardus described Constantine as a "genius" and the "most original cricketer of recent years". R. C. Robertson-Glasgow called Constantine the most exciting cricketer to watch of all his contemporaries. This was partly because his style of cricket meant that he could alter the course of a match in a short space of time, although he developed his technique to minimise risk.

Constantine's batting was based on good eyesight, quick reflexes and natural ability. He used his wrists to adjust the angle of the bat at the last second, allowing him to counter unexpected late movement of the ball. He batted by instinct and, according to Manley, "his every stroke [owed] more to energy than calculation". He was capable of scoring rapidly against any standard of bowling, but rarely survived for long periods because he chose not to defend. His best shots were the cut, pull and hook. Critics believed that Constantine's batting reached its peak once he became an accomplished league cricketer. By setting himself to master the variety of pitch conditions he encountered, and adopting a style of fast-scoring and occasionally unorthodox batting, he became an adaptable and effective batsman in all forms of cricket, improvising where necessary to prevent bowlers getting on top.

As a cover-point fielder Constantine was, according to Manley, "athletic, panther-quick, sure handed and with an arm that could rifle the ball into the wicket-keeper's gloves like a bullet even from the deepest boundary". Many critics considered him to be one of the best fielders of all time. As a bowler, Constantine accelerated from a relatively short run into what Manley calls an "explosive" delivery. James believes he reached his best form as a bowler in 1939, using what he had learned in the leagues. By this time his varieties of spin, pace and flight made him effective even when conditions favoured the batsmen. Although Constantine's Test bowling record was modest, this may to some extent reflect the poor standard of fielding in the early West Indies teams, in particular their propensity to drop catches.

Manley writes that wherever Constantine played he brought "style and humour: that aggressiveness that is somehow good-natured and which is the distinctively West Indian quality in all sport. Constantine's extrovert exuberance was, of course, more particularly Trinidadian than generally West Indian. Perhaps it is this last characteristic that gave him that special quality of panache which sets him apart from all other West Indian cricketers."

Nelson
During his time in Nelson, Constantine made a deep impression and remained a celebrity there even after leaving the town; his general community involvement was such that a regional historian described him as a "local champion". He appreciated the greater freedom he enjoyed in Nelson as compared with Trinidad and Tobago, where racial issues predominated. Although Nelson suffered from the effects of the Depression, Constantine's high earnings were never a source of resentment; of his time in Nelson, he wrote: "If I had not come ... I could not have been the person I am today ... I am a better citizen for the time I have spent in Nelson."

Constantine's first season was difficult; both he and the residents of the town were at that stage uncertain of each other. Few black people had been seen in Nelson, and although some residents wrote welcoming letters, the Constantines also received racist and abusive ones. He quickly established boundaries over what he considered acceptable, permitting and even sharing small jokes over skin colour but protesting strongly at outright racism. John Arlott wrote: "[Constantine] fought discrimination against his people with a dignity firm but free of acrimony." Although Constantine later attributed some of the initial uneasiness to ignorance, at the time he seriously considered returning to Trinidad and Tobago after the first season. His wife persuaded him otherwise, pointing out the benefits from remaining to complete his contract. From 1930, Constantine found life more comfortable; the family began to develop friendships and to engage in the social life of the town. They continued to visit Trinidad and Tobago in the English winters, but Nelson became the family's permanent home.

In 1931 the Constantines settled in a fairly prosperous, middle-class area of Nelson, where they were to live until 1949. During 1932, they took C. L. R. James — who knew Constantine through having played cricket against him in Trinidad and Tobago — as a lodger; James had come to London but had run out of money. James was at the forefront of a growing West Indian nationalist movement, though Constantine had until then consciously avoided politics. Through James' influence, Constantine realised that his position gave him opportunities to further the cause of racial equality and independence for Trinidad and Tobago. He joined the League of Coloured Peoples, an organisation aiming to achieve racial equality for black people in Britain. He helped James to get a job with the Manchester Guardian, and in return, James helped Constantine to write his first book, Cricket and I, which was published in 1933. Later commentators have identified Constantine's book as an important step in West Indian nationalism, and an encouragement to future authors. At that time, James wrote, few active cricketers wrote books and "no one in the West Indies that I knew, cricketer or not, was writing books at all; certainly none was being printed abroad." Constantine and James drifted apart once the latter returned to London; they remained in contact but did not always agree politically or morally. Mason believes, however that without Constantine's assistance James may not have later established himself as a celebrated political writer.

Career during the war
During the war, Constantine continued his cricket career as a league professional; also, as a popular player who could boost crowd attendances, he appeared in many wartime charity games. However, the war ended his career in top-class cricket and signalled a change in his life's priorities. Remaining in Nelson when the war started, he initially served as an Air Raid Precautions equipment officer, and as a billeting officer for incoming evacuees. After applying for a job with the Ministry of Labour, Constantine was offered a senior position as Welfare Officer by the Ministry of Labour and National Service.

Using his familiarity with life in England, and his high profile and status as a cricketer, Constantine became responsible for the many West Indians who had been recruited to work in factories in the north-west of England for the duration of the war. Working mainly from Liverpool, he helped these men to adapt to their unfamiliar environment and to deal with the severe racism and discrimination which many of them faced. Constantine also worked closely with trade unions in an attempt to ease the fears and suspicions of white workers. He used his influence with the Ministry of Labour to pressurise companies who refused to employ West Indians, but generally preferred negotiation to confrontation, an approach that was often successful. Constantine's wartime experiences caused him to increase his involvement in the League of Coloured Peoples, sometimes referring cases to them. He particularly took up the cause of the children of white women and black overseas servicemen; these children were often abandoned by their parents. However, plans to create a children's home for them came to nothing, leaving Constantine frustrated. He remained in his post until the summer of 1946, latterly concerned with the repatriation of the West Indian workers at the end of the war. For his wartime work he was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in 1947.

During the war, at the request of the British government, Constantine made radio broadcasts to the West Indies, reporting on the involvement of West Indians in the war effort. As a result, he was often asked to speak on BBC radio about his life in England. His radio performances met with critical acclaim, and he became a frequent guest on radio panel shows; he also took part in a film documentary, West Indies calling, in 1943.

Constantine v Imperial London Hotels
In August 1943 Constantine played in a charity cricket match at Lord's and had booked rooms for himself, his wife and daughter at the Imperial Hotel, London for four nights. He had been specifically told that his colour would not be an issue at the hotel. When he arrived on 30 July, he was told that they could only stay for one night because their presence might offend other guests. When Arnold Watson, a colleague of Constantine at the Ministry of Labour, arrived and attempted to intervene, he was told by the manager: "We are not going to have these niggers in our hotel," and that his presence might offend American guests. Watson argued, to no avail, that not only was Constantine a British subject, he worked for the government. Eventually Watson persuaded Constantine to leave and stay at another hotel which, owned by the same company as the Imperial, proved to be welcoming. The Imperial Hotel incident affected Constantine deeply, both because of the involvement of his family and also because he was due to play cricket for a team representing the British Empire and Commonwealth.

In September questions were asked in the House of Commons about the incident, by which time Constantine had decided to take legal action. In June 1944 Constantine v Imperial London Hotels was heard in the High Court. Although there was no law against racial discrimination in Britain at the time, Constantine argued that the hotel had breached its contract with him. Constantine informed the court that the attitude of the hotel changed between his booking and arrival, owing to the presence of white American servicemen. The defence argued that they had met their contract by accommodating Constantine in another hotel and that he had left the Imperial voluntarily. The managing director of the hotel denied that racist language had been used. After two days of evidence, the judge found in Constantine's favour, rejecting the defence's arguments and praising the way Constantine had handled the situation. Although the law limited the award of damages against the hotel to five guineas, Constantine was vindicated. He did not pursue the case any further as he believed he had sufficiently raised the issue of racism in the public eye; the case was widely reported in the press, and Constantine received great support from both the public and the government.

Although racial discrimination continued to persist in Britain, this case was the first to challenge such practices in court. Critics regard it as a milestone in British racial equality in demonstrating that black people had legal recourse against some forms of racism. According to Mason, it "was one of the key milestones along the road to the creation of the Race Relations Act of 1965."

Legal studies
While living and playing cricket in Nelson before the war, Constantine had made plans for a future legal career. James helped him with his studies for a short time, and he later worked in a local solicitors' office. In 1944 he enrolled as a student in the Middle Temple, London. To finance his studies, he continued his professional cricket career in Bradford until 1948, and supplemented his income by coaching: at Trinity College, Dublin, in 1947 and in Ceylon in 1953. Constantine also extended his work in journalism and broadcasting, as a cricket reporter and as a radio commentator when the West Indies toured England in 1950. He also wrote several cricket books, probably with the help of a ghostwriter. Cricket in the Sun (1947) covered his career but also discussed the racism he had encountered and suggested then-radical ideas for the future of cricket, such as a one-day "world cup". Cricketers' Carnival (1948), Cricket Crackers, Cricketers' Cricket (both 1949) and How To Play Cricket (1951) were more traditional cricket books, which included coaching tips and opinions.

In 1947 Constantine became chairman of the League of Coloured Peoples, a position he held until the League was discontinued in 1951. In 1948 he was elected president of the Caribbean Congress of Labour, and between 1947 and 1950 was a member of the Colonial Office's Colonial Social Welfare Advisory Committee. Also in 1950, he became involved in a controversy over the interracial marriage of Seretse Khama, the future president of Botswana. Constantine lobbied the government on Khama's behalf, organised meetings and even approached the United Nations. Little was achieved, and Constantine disapproved of the approach of the Labour government and its Prime Minister, Clement Attlee, but declined an opportunity to become a Liberal parliamentary candidate.

Constantine neither enjoyed his legal studies, nor found the work easy, but was determined to prove he could succeed. His wife kept him motivated, restricted visitors to avoid distractions and forced him to study, making him continue when he was several times tempted to give up. The family moved to London in 1949; between 1950 and 1954, Constantine passed the required series of examinations, and in 1954 he was called to the bar by the Middle Temple.

Having turned down an offer in 1947 to return to his old employer, Trinidad Leaseholds, in 1954 Constantine agreed to join the same company as an assistant legal advisor. Uncertain about going back to Trinidad and Tobago after living for 25 years in England, he nevertheless believed it was a good time to return, particularly as his daughter was moving there to marry. Before leaving England, he published his book Colour Bar (1954), which addressed race relations in Britain and the racism he had experienced. It also discussed worldwide racial oppression and how the lives of black people could be improved. At the time, according to Peter Mason, this was "an explosive, challenging, hard hitting tome, the more so because it came not from a known black militant but from someone who seemed so charming, so unruffled, so suited to British society". Although not viewed as radical by black audiences, it was aimed at white British readers. The British press gave it mixed reviews and criticised him for unfairness in parts of the book; other critics accused him of communist sympathies.

Return to Trinidad and Tobago
When Constantine returned to Trinidad and Tobago in late 1954, he found a growing desire for independence from Britain. At Trinidad Leaseholds he felt isolated from other, mainly white, senior staff; this drew him towards political involvement. Eric Williams, leader of the newly founded People's National Movement (PNM), was aware of Constantine's popular appeal and recruited him. By January 1956 Constantine, with the full co-operation and blessing of his employers, was party chairman and a member of its executive committee. Feeling that the PNM's policies were in harmony with his views on improving the lives of black people, and encouraged by his wife, Constantine stood for election in the parliamentary constituency of Tunapuna in 1956. He won a narrow victory, which his colleagues believed few in the party could have done, and resigned from Trinidad Leaseholds. The PNM formed a government, in which Constantine became the Minister of Communications, Works and Utilities.

In his ministerial role, Constantine promoted development of Trinidad and Tobago's road, rail, water and electricity infrastructure. However, in late 1958 he was accused of corruption, over a ship leasing deal. His angry response to the charge, in the Legislative Council, created a perception of arrogance among his colleagues, and suggested that he had not sufficiently adapted to parliamentary politics. According to Mason, the speech was a miscalculation which made the public, perhaps already sceptical of his commitment to Trinidad and Tobago after so many years away, question his fitness for a ministerial role, a view increasingly held by commentators.

In the later 1950s, Constantine supported the campaign, led by James, to appoint West Indies cricket's first black captain; the success of black people like Constantine in attaining government positions while not permitted to captain the cricket team was a key factor in an ultimately successful campaign. While in government, Constantine assisted in the development of the West Indies Federation, as a step towards the independence of the islands, and his fame and familiarity with Britain played some part in the negotiations which led to Trinidad and Tobago's independence in 1962. After he decided not to stand for re-election in 1961, Williams appointed him as Trinidad and Tobago's first High Commissioner in London.

Peter Mason writes that Constantine's political career in Trinidad and Tobago was a success: he was efficient, active, respected and popular. Mason concedes that he was not a natural politician, often sensitive to criticism and that his experience abroad was a cause for mistrust in Trinidad and Tobago, rather than seen as an advantage. Gerald Howat believes that Constantine's political career, while not without successes, was undermined by several factors: his age, his over-frequent references to his English experience, his rejection of political theorising and lack of debating skills. However, his personal popularity undoubtedly attracted support to the PNM.

High Commissioner
Constantine began his role as High Commissioner in June 1961. In the 1962 New Year Honours List, he was knighted and became Sir Learie Constantine; among other accolades he received at this time was the freedom of the town of Nelson. Mason notes that Constantine had now "passed firmly into the consciousness as a British treasure". However, his tenure as High Commissioner ended in controversy. Constantine felt that his high-profile required him to speak out on racial issues affecting all West Indian immigrants, not just Trinidadians.

In April 1963, when a Bristol bus company was refusing to employ black staff, Constantine visited the city and spoke to the press about the issue. His intervention assisted in a speedy resolution of the affair which, according to Mason, was crucial in persuading the British government of the need for a Race Relations Act. However, politicians in both Trinidad and Tobago and Britain felt a senior diplomat should not be so closely involved in British domestic affairs, particularly as he acted without consulting his government. Williams effectively withdrew his support from Constantine, who decided not to continue as High Commissioner when his term expired in February 1964. He was succeeded by Wilfred Andrew Rose.

Although as High Commissioner Constantine looked after his staff and was respected by other diplomats, Howat observes there is limited evidence that he was successful in the post: "In the one area in which he acted positively, he blundered—the Bristol affair. In the language of the game he loved ... his timing was wrong though he was full of good intentions". Howat adds that he did not increase his stature or reputation during his term of office. Mason believes that "there was too much of the welfare officer about him and not enough of the government focused diplomat."

Final years
For the remainder of his life, Constantine lived in London. He returned to legal practice and was elected an Honorary Bencher of the Middle Temple in 1963. He also resumed work in journalism: he wrote and broadcast on cricket, race and the Commonwealth, and produced two more books: a coaching book The Young Cricketers Companion (1964), and The Changing Face of Cricket (1966) which included his thoughts on modern cricket. He made his debut as a television cricket commentator, although his failing health and talkative style meant he was less successful than on the radio. In 1965, he became a founding member of the Sports Council, which aimed to develop sport in Britain. Two years later, he was appointed to the three-person Race Relations Board, formed through the Race Relations Act, to investigate cases of racial discrimination. In this role he spoke out against the Commonwealth Immigrants Act, a stance that led to an offer from the Liberal Party, which he declined, to stand as parliamentary candidate for the Nelson and Colne constituency. Later, he was involved in an unsuccessful attempt to negotiate the release, after a military coup, of Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, the overthrown Prime Minister of Nigeria. Constantine was appointed to the BBC's General Advisory Committee in 1966 and became a BBC Governor two years later, although declining health restricted his involvement. The following year the students of St Andrews University elected Constantine as Rector, but again his health prevented him performing effectively in this role.

In his last years, Constantine was criticised for becoming part of the Establishment; Private Eye mocked him, while the new generation of West Indian immigrants believed he was out of touch. More radical black spokesmen disapproved of his conciliatory approach to racist incidents.

Constantine was awarded a life peerage in 1969 New Year Honours List, becoming the first black man to sit in the House of Lords; there were rumours that Trinidad and Tobago had prevented earlier attempts to ennoble him. He took the title of Baron Constantine, of Maraval in Trinidad and of Nelson in the County Palatine of Lancaster. His investiture attracted widespread media attention; Constantine stated: "I think it must have been for what I have endeavoured to do to make it possible for people of different colour to know each other better and live well together." He sat as a crossbencher in the House, but, due to failing health, was only able to make one speech in his time there.

Although Constantine was reluctant to leave England, his poor health necessitated a return to Trinidad and Tobago, but before he could do so he died of a heart attack, probably brought about by bronchitis, on 1 July 1971. His body was flown to Trinidad and Tobago, where he received a state funeral before being buried in Arouca. He was posthumously awarded Trinidad and Tobago's highest honour, the Trinity Cross. Later in the month, a memorial service was held in London in Westminster Abbey.

A collection of photographs, newspaper clippings, archival documents and memorabilia about Constantine's life is safeguarded and exhibited by Trinidad and Tobago's national library. This collection was inscribed in UNESCO's Memory of the World Register in 2011.

Family life
Constantine met his future wife, Norma Agatha Cox, in 1921. She had little interest in cricket and, although their relationship developed during the early 1920s, she resented that he gave more time to cricket than he did to her. However, the relationship lasted and she began to take more of an interest in his sporting achievements. They were married on 25 July 1927; their only child, Gloria, was born in April 1928.

Throughout their marriage, his wife motivated him to continue his efforts to further his career and they remained close. Norma, Lady Constantine, died two months after her husband's death in 1971.

Personality
John Arlott describes Constantine as a man of "easy humour and essential patience ... His outlook was that of a compassionate radical and he maintained his high moral standards unswervingly." E. W. Swanton writes: "None could call Lord Constantine a modest man, but gifts of warmth and friendliness as well as a shrewd brain and a ready tongue helped to make him one of the personalities of his time." He did not get along with everyone; he and England cricketer Wally Hammond feuded for nearly ten years over what Constantine perceived as a slight in 1925–26. Subsequently, Constantine continually bowled short when he encountered Hammond on the field, until the pair made peace in the Old Trafford Test match of 1933. After this, they pursued a more good-natured rivalry and became quite friendly; Hammond publicly expressed sympathy towards Constantine and other black West Indians for the discrimination that they faced.

In his earlier years, acquaintances believed Constantine was too conscious of colour. James wrote: "Many doors in England were open to him. That doors were closed to other West Indians seemed more important to him." Michael Manley describes him as an extrovert who displayed great self-belief in everything he did. He also notes that "Constantine was too long in England and perhaps too slight in Test-match performance to make the impact on the Caribbean that he did on England. But he enchanted England." Gerald Howat wrote: "Cricket apart ... Constantine's reputation must rest on his contribution to racial tolerance, his benevolent view of empire and Commonwealth, and his personal acceptance within the British 'establishment'. In the end he was more English than Trinidadian and he needed that wider platform."

title: Learie Constantine


text: Category:French aviators

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

title: Category:French aviators


text:
Sui Feifei

Sui Feifei (born January 29, 1979, in Qingdao, Shandong) is a Chinese basketball player who was signed with the Sacramento Monarchs of the WNBA. She was born and raised in Qingdao, Shandong in the People's Republic of China, and is 1.84 m (6 ft 1 in.) tall.

She was the MVP of the 2004–2005 WCBA season, where she led her team Bayi China Telecom to three consecutive championships. Sui was named the Women's Chinese Basketball Association's most popular player in 2002 and 2003.

On February 15, 2005, Sui signed a contract with the WNBA's Sacramento Monarchs and was drafted in April of that year, becoming the second Chinese woman basketball player to join the WNBA. As of 2006, she was playing as guard. Her teammate Miao Lijie also signed with the Monarchs.

title: Sui Feifei


text:
Talk:Antoine Thomson d'Abbadie

Duplicates
It's not unusual to find duplicate articles, but there were three articles on this guy, and I've never even heard of him. Merging them was more than I could face, so I'll leave it to others to decide whether the material in the duplicates is worth salvaging. Deb 18:25, 13 Apr 2005 (UTC)

WikiProject class rating
This article was automatically assessed because at least one article was rated and this bot brought all the other ratings up to at least that level. BetacommandBot 02:21, 27 August 2007 (UTC)

Tryng to edit the notes section
Hi, I'm new to editing and cleaning up some links. I couldn't figure out how to edit the disambig link to Abyssinia, which needs to actually go to Abyssinia. I'll watch this and hopefully will get back to it next week (I edit on Sundays) but if someone sees this and knows how to fix the notes link, please got for it! --Rachel.dicerbo (talk) 03:55, 10 November 2014 (UTC)

title: Talk:Antoine Thomson d'Abbadie


text:
Talk:Gordon Bell

Previous discussions without headers
This page is all messed up. The two most significant contributions of Gordon Bell are missing, and they are : The PDP-11 computer (not mentioned), and his work as a co-founder of Encore (one of the first multiprocessor computers to support > 2 or > 4 CPU's efficiently, using snoopy caches I believe.)

cgordonbell comments based on my page of articles http://research.microsoft.com/users/gbell/gbvita.htm A PDP-11 Reference: Bell, C. G., R. Cady, H. McFarland, B. Delagi, J. O'Laughlin, R. Noonan and W. Wulf, "A New Architecture for Mini-Computers -- The DEC PDP-11, Sprint Joint Computer Conference, pp. 657-675 (1970). Bell, G., W. Strecker, "Computer Structures:  What Have We Learned from the PDP-11"  IEEE Computer Conference Proceedings, Florida (November 1975).

 * What was his draft nubmer . ... I thought so  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.163.218.83 (talk) 21:02, 3 September 2015 (UTC)

The Encore Multimax operated with up to 20 cpu's as one of the first machines with snooping cache. Bell, C. G., H. B. Burkhardt III, S. Emmerich, A. Anzelmo, R. Moore, D. Schanin, I. Nassi, C. Rupp, "The Encore Continuum: A Complete Distributed Workstation Multiprocessor Computing Environment", AFIPS Conference Proceedings, Vol. 54 (July 1985).

See also Bell, C. G., "Multis: A New Class of Multiprocessor Computers", Science, Vol. 228, pp. 462-467 (April 26, 1985) that describe the basis of snooping cache computers. I called them "multis, but alas the name didnn't stick. I did claim (correctly) that computers, for the foreseeable future, would be built this way.

 * This is Wikipedia so you know what to do: be bold! If you can improve this, have at it. But I think you'll find his earlier work long-predates Encore Computer; witness the Cmp multiprocessor that was built at Carnegie-Mellon University. :Atlant 12:00, 15 Apr 2005 (UTC)

 * I don't know aenough about Bell (yet) to edit this article, but here's a partial timeline of his career, taken from the New Yorker article (which I've added to the page):

1957 - graduated from MIT with an M.S. (user:cgordonbell). 1958 - Fulbright Scholar at the University of New South Wales, Sydney Australia (user (user:cgordonbell). see Microsoft web page for viate (user:cgordonbell). 1959 - began work at MIT Speech Research Lab, including start of studies for a doctorate. 1960 - went to work for DEC 1966 - went on sabbatical to teach at MIT... (user:cgordonbell). NO IT WAS CARNEGIE MELLON UNIVERSITY AS THE PAGE CORRECTLY SAYS. 1972 - went back to DEC. 1972 - wrote "Law of Computer Classes". 1983 - left DEC. (don't have a date for when he started working for Microsoft)        August 1995 User:cgordonbell --Michael K. Smith 14:35, 19 June 2007 (UTC)

Possible References
If somebody has time, please check these sources and try to revise the article and incorporate footnoted references. I recommend using cite.

 * http://www.psc.edu/publicinfo/news/2003/2003-11-26_bell.html

 * http://research.microsoft.com/~gbell/bio.htm

 * http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/1998/09/10/BU90714.DTL

I may be back later to help out. Feel free to leave me a reminder if I forget. Jehochman ☎ / ✔ 17:43, 18 May 2007 (UTC)

--

 * Or http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/06/books/06cohenintro.html?ref=books about his "life-logging". --Gwern  (contribs) 16:12 5 January 2008 (GMT)

Neutrality ?
The neutrality of this article disputed ? Why ? It is all true, what has been written there. C. Gordon Bell is really a pioneer in computing of his time. I am familiar with his publications and with the history of DEC.

Important items missing? This is a matter of space in Wikipedia. Most biographies will be more or less incomplete.

Best regards, 87.177.248.130 11:08, 6 July 2007 (UTC)

Requested move

 * The following discussion is an archived discussion of the proposal. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. No further edits should be made to this section.

The result of the proposal was no consensus to move at this time. JPG-GR (talk) 23:17, 21 March 2008 (UTC)

Gordon Bell → C. Gordon Bell — Based on the article traffic tool, more than half the users are arriving at the wrong page. —TonyTheTiger (t/c/bio/WP:CHICAGO/WP:LOTD) 13:35, 9 March 2008 (UTC)

Survey

 * Feel free to state your position on the renaming proposal by beginning a new line in this section with  or  , then sign your comment with  . Since polling is not a substitute for discussion, please explain your reasons, taking into account Wikipedia's naming conventions.

 * Support - Based on the article traffic tool this is the right thing to do.--TonyTheTiger (t/c/bio/WP:CHICAGO/WP:LOTD) 13:39, 9 March 2008 (UTC)

 * Oppose based on the subject's own webpage. —  AjaxSmack   02:04, 13 March 2008 (UTC)
 * Reply You are missing the point. It is not that he doesn't call himself Gordon Bell. It is that it is not the case that the vast majority of people looking for Gordon Bell are looking for him.--TonyTheTiger (t/c/bio/WP:CHICAGO/WP:LOTD) 23:12, 13 March 2008 (UTC)
 * I assume what you mean is that this is not the primary topic and that Gordon Bell (disambiguation) should be moved to Gordon Bell. If so, that should be specified in the nomination and evidence that this Gordon Bell is not the primary topic should be presented.  I'm not even sure what the article traffic tool has to do with anything. —   AjaxSmack   23:59, 13 March 2008 (UTC)
 * Gordon_Bell has been viewed 1132 times in 200802
 * Gordon_Bell_(American_football) has been viewed 280 times in 200802
 * Gordon_Bell_(artist) has been viewed 189 times in 200802
 * Gordon_Bell_(QNX) has been viewed 168 times in 200802
 * It seems to me that the half of the Gordon Bell page views are probably people who click through to the other guys. —Preceding unsigned comment added by TonyTheTiger (talk • contribs)
 * How does this prove that the computer engineer is not the primary topic? How do you know that half of the page views are click throughs?  Some other qualitative evidence should accompany this nomination.  —   AjaxSmack   06:24, 16 March 2008 (UTC)

 * Support. I'm not convinced that Gordon Bell is the primary subject, so this should be a disambiguation page. Dan1980 (talk ♦ stalk) 18:37, 15 March 2008 (UTC)
 * I'm not convinced that the computer engineer is the primary topic either but I need something better to go on than statistics that show the computer engineer's page has almost twice as many page views as all of the other Gordon Bells combined. —  AjaxSmack   06:24, 16 March 2008 (UTC)
 * I don't think that just 77% more page views compared to all of the other Gordon Bells combined is enough to indicate that this is the primary topic – a large proportion of these page views could be from people who were looking for the other Gordon Bells. WP:PRIMARYUSAGE also states: If there is extended discussion about which article truly is the primary topic, that may be a sign that there is in fact no primary topic, and that the disambiguation page should be located at the plain title with no "(disambiguation)". Dan1980 (talk ♦ stalk) 10:53, 16 March 2008 (UTC)
 * Oppose, for now. Using wikipedia page views to determine primary topic is problematically solipsistic. At the very least there needs to be a wider discussion about the appropriateness of using the tool for that purpose. older ≠ wiser 18:58, 15 March 2008 (UTC)

Discussion

 * Any additional comments:
 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the proposal. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page. No further edits should be made to this section.

Leaving DEC
I am not sure about the comment that Gordon Bell left DEC because of a heart attack. I do know that prior to leaving he sent a flaming email to all employees denouncing the refusal of the executive to adopt the Windows, Icons, Mice and Pointers interface. I know because, like every other employee I got the message and I remember discussing it with a couple of Vice Presidents.

I am sure that this fact could be verified by any other DEC employee of the day —Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.106.102.112 (talk)

Why does Gordon Bell default to this article?
I understand this individual is Gordon Bell but there are many other Gordon Bells within Wikipedia. Why not make the default land on a neutral page which would direct you to other persons of the same name? Check out Gordon Bell here! HJKeats (talk) 18:03, 10 June 2013 (UTC)
 * Page traffic statistics suggests the current arrangement enables the majority of readers to arrive at the desired article. The current standard requires that the primary topic is much more likely than any other topic, and more likely than all the other topics combined—to be the topic sought when a reader searches for that term. Traffic for Gordon Bell was 6435 for the last 90 days. Total traffic for all the other pages listed on the disambiguation page (including the dab page) was 2651. Absent any other evidence (such as long term significance), it seems the current arrangement is satisfactory. older ≠ wiser 18:40, 10 June 2013 (UTC)

External links modified
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Hoax disappearance
User:2600:8807:4400:3cb0:503e:cacb:1ddc:a61d added disappearance hoax a few days ago. Why target this person and this article?  Blue Rasberry  (talk)  23:06, 17 April 2018 (UTC)

title: Talk:Gordon Bell


title: User:Violetriga/Templates2/farc


text:
Niall McLaughlin Architects

Níall McLaughlin Architects is an architectural firm in London, England. Níall McLaughlin established the practice in 1991. He has been described as "a favourite with Oxbridge clients"; as of 2022, McLaughlin has had commissions from 15 colleges at Oxford and Cambridge universities. In 2022, the practice won the Stirling Prize for excellence in architecture for the New Library at Magdalene College, Cambridge.

Projects

 * Radcliffe Observatory Quarter at Somerville College, Oxford (2011)
 * Bishop Edward King Chapel at Ripon College Cuddesdon, Oxfordshire (2013)
 * Darbishire Place housing, East London, for Peabody Trust (2015)
 * Extension of London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, Hammersmith, London (2017)
 * Sultan Nazrin Shah Centre at Worcester College, Oxford (2018)
 * Visitor centre for Auckland Castle, County Durham (2019)
 * Catherine Hughes Building at Somerville College, Oxford (2019)
 * New Library at Magdalene College, Cambridge (2021)

Awards
Níall McLaughlin Architects has been shortlisted for the Stirling Prize on four occasions, winning in 2022:

 * 2013 for Bishop Edward King Chapel, Ripon College Cuddesdon, Oxfordshire
 * 2015 for Darbishire Place, East London
 * 2018 for Sultan Nazrin Shah Centre, Worcester College, Oxford
 * 2022 for The New Library, Magdalene College, Cambridge

title: Niall McLaughlin Architects


text:
Music Construction Set

Will Harvey's Music Construction Set (MCS) is a music composition notation program designed by Will Harvey for the Apple II and published by Electronic Arts in 1983. Harvey wrote the original Apple II version in assembly language when he was 15 and in high school. MCS was conceived as a tool to add music to his previously published game, an abstract shooter called Lancaster for the Apple II.

Music Construction Set was ported to the Atari 8-bit computers, Commodore 64, IBM PC compatibles (as a self-booting disk), and the Atari ST. Two years later, in 1986, Will Harvey released a port for the 16-bit Apple IIGS, utilizing its advanced sound. Also that year, a redesigned version for the Amiga and Macintosh was released as Deluxe Music Construction Set.

Overview
With MCS, a user can create musical composition via a graphical user interface, a novel concept at the time of its release. Users can drag and drop notes right onto the staff, play back their creations through the computer's speakers, and print them out. The program comes with a few popular songs as samples. Most versions of this program require the users to use a joystick to create their songs, note by note.

The original Apple II version supports the Mockingboard expansion card for higher fidelity sound output. In addition, use of the Mockingboard allows the musical staff to scroll along with the music as notes are played. Without it, the Apple II can not update the display while playback is in progress.

Ports
Electronic Arts ported MCS from the original Apple II version to the Atari 8-bit computers, IBM PC compatibles, and Commodore 64. The Atari 8-bit and C64 versions use the multi-channel audio hardware of those systems.

The IBM PC version allows output audio via the IBM PC Model 5150's cassette port, so 4-voice music can be sent to a stereo system. It also takes advantage of the 3-voice sound chip built into the IBM PCjr and Tandy 1000.

The Apple IIGS version was done by the original programmer, Will Harvey, in 1986. This port takes advantage of the built-in Ensoniq wavetable sample-based synthesizer, offering over thirty instruments to choose from (sixteen are digitized and thus realistic sounding), but only two instruments can be selected per song. It supports up to 15 simultaneous voices, stereo audio and MIDI-output. A port of Deluxe Music Construction was also written, scheduled to be in stores by late 1987, but never released.

The version of Music Construction Set for the Atari ST is not a port and shares no source code with the original versions. It was written by Richard J. Plom for Intersect Software Corporation under the name The Orchestrator. It was acquired from Intersect Software by Electronic Arts and rebranded Music Construction Set in 1987. The Atari ST version is the first version to have supported the new MIDI standard, with this computer's built-in MIDI hardware.

The program was completely redesigned for the Amiga and Macintosh and renamed Deluxe Music Construction Set. This version has more features, including lyrics and support for IFF SMUS files.

Reception
II Computing listed Music Construction Set third on the magazine's list of top Apple II education software as of late 1985, based on sales and market-share data. Music Construction Set sold over a million units. Ahoy! stated that despite some limitations, Music Construction Set for the Commodore 64 "will aid both experienced songwriters and dedicated novices alike. It's a powerful music processor and a joy to use".

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User talk:198.237.17.16

September 2017
Hello, I'm PlyrStar93. I wanted to let you know that I reverted one of your recent contributions —the one you made with this edit to The enemy of my enemy is my friend— because it did not appear constructive. If you would like to experiment, please use the sandbox. If you think I made a mistake, or if you have any questions, you can leave me a message on my talk page. Thanks. -★- PlyrStar93. → Message me. ← 17:44, 19 September 2017 (UTC)

Please refrain from making unconstructive edits to Wikipedia, as you did with this edit to The enemy of my enemy is my friend. Your edits appear to constitute vandalism and have been reverted or removed. If you would like to experiment, please use the sandbox. Repeated vandalism can result in the loss of editing privileges. Thank you. -★- PlyrStar93. → Message me. ← 17:46, 19 September 2017 (UTC)

February 2022
Hello, I'm CAPTAIN RAJU. I wanted to let you know that I reverted one of your recent contributions—specifically this edit to Roundabout—because it did not appear constructive. If you would like to experiment, please use the sandbox. If you have any questions, you can ask for assistance at the Help desk. Thanks. CAPTAIN RAJU (T) 23:07, 15 February 2022 (UTC)

title: User talk:198.237.17.16


text: User talk:157.193.206.33

title: User talk:157.193.206.33


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Mariela Antoniska

Mariela Andrea Antoniska Arrondo (born 20 May 1975) is an Argentine field hockey goalkeeper, who won the silver medal with the national field hockey team at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, the bronze medal at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, the 2002 World Cup, the Champions Trophy in 2001, two Pan American Games and the Pan American Cup in 2001.

Arrondo was born in Banfield, Buenos Aires.

title: Mariela Antoniska


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Talk:Music Construction Set

Commodore 64
I'm almost positive I remember this program for the Commodore 64, but I can't find any evidence of it. Can someone else verify this? If not, I guess its mention in the article should be removed. — Frecklefoot | Talk 18:28, Apr 13, 2005 (UTC)

PC MCS was a booter
Hi, I removed the references to DOS for the IBM PC version of MCS because it was never a DOS program. The original diskette booted directly.

The DOS confusion probably stems from two things: 1. You could read the diskette somewhat in DOS; the program didn't show up, but the music data files did. 2. Most people nowadays who run MCS run the Demonlord-cracked version, which took him a few painstaking weeks to crack and convert. People with no experience with the original would never know it was a bootable disk that didn't use DOS. Trixter 18:28, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

Descendants of MCS?
For the last 15 years I've been looking for a piece of software that worked the way the Music Construction Set did. Does anybody know of any logical descendants of this program? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Dspitzle (talk • contribs) 21:20, 1 February 2007 (UTC).

 * I don't, though I know it was heavily criticized by musicians. Mainly because they couldn't just play music and have it show up in notation form—dragging and dropping notes wasn't "creative" enough for them.  I don't think it'd have much of an audience today, which explains why EA hasn't updated it.  Sorry I couldn't help... — Frecklefoot | Talk 21:42, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

title: Talk:Music Construction Set


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Buzzards Bay (horse)

Buzzards Bay (foaled February 17, 2002 in Florida) is an American Thoroughbred racehorse.

Background
Buzzards Bay was a chestnut horse bred in Florida by Jay Shaw. He was sired by Marco Bay, a winner of the Tampa Bay Derby who earned over a quarter of a million dollars during his racing days. Buzzards Bay's dam was Life's Lass, whose sire was Seneca Jones, a son of Alydar. The colt was initially sent into training with trainer Rodolfo Garcia.

Racing career
Buzzards Bay made three starts as a two-year-old at Calder Race Course in Miami Gardens, Florida. In a private transaction in the fall of 2004, trainer Jeff Mullins purchased the colt for Fog City Stable, a partnership of David Shimmon and William Bianco.

Trained by Jeff Mullins in California, the now 3-year old Buzzards Bay won the Golden Gate Derby in January 2005 at Golden Gate Fields then earned the most notable victory of his career in the Santa Anita Derby at Santa Anita Park. He followed this up with a fifth-place finish in the Kentucky Derby and a fourth in the Affirmed Handicap. As part of the liquidation of the Fog City Stable partnership, Buzzards Bay was sold at the Fasig-Tipton sale in July 2005 for $725,000. He was purchased by retired Los Angeles real-estate investor Gary Broad and his training was taken over by Ron Ellis.

In early 2006, the then four-year-old horse returned to the winners circle at Golden Gate Fields with a victory in the All American Stakes. He went on to win the Oaklawn Handicap but in mid season was sidelined by an ankle injury that kept him out of racing for eleven months.

He returned to racing in May 2007 at Hollywood Park where he finished third in the Grade II Mervyn LeRoy Handicap. He then won the Grade II Californian Stakes on June 2 but a sore back forced him to withdraw from his next scheduled start on June 30 in the Hollywood Gold Cup. In his next race on July 21 he finished eighth in the San Diego Handicap. The race would be his last, although he was nominated for the August 2007 Longacres Mile at Emerald Downs in Auburn, Washington.

Retirement
Buzzards Bay was retired in July 2008 with earnings of $1,428,141. He is currently standing stud at Timber Ridge Farm for a fee of $5,000.

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Songmaster

Songmaster (1980) is a science fiction novel by American writer Orson Scott Card. The story of the Songmaster occurs in a future human empire, and follows Ansset, a beautiful young boy whose perfect singing voice has the power of amplifying people's emotions, making him both a potential healer and destroyer. He is trained in the art of singing so beautifully that his songs can express ideas and emotions more truthfully than words. This novel was based on Card's short stories "Mikal's Songbird" and "Songhouse".

Origins
The novel originated from a novelette, "Mikal's Songbird", which appeared in Analog Science Fiction in May 1978. The story concerns a young boy whose perfect singing voice had the power to amplify people's emotions. It is reprinted in Card's short story collection Maps in a Mirror. In addition to serving as the seed from which the novel was written, the original story is incorporated (with minor alterations) as the second section of the novel. Card published a prequel to "Mikal's Songbird," entitled "Songhouse" in the September 1979 issue of Analog, which explored Ansset's training by Esste before being turned over to Mikal.

Plot summary
The empire of Songmaster is a place of treachery, resembling that of ancient Rome and the Galactic Empire of Isaac Asimov's Foundation series. The book is morally ambivalent. True love, both heterosexual and homosexual, are major themes as are loyalty and honor. Fraud, kidnapping, assassination, murder are also prevalent and each of them is shown in more than one light. As with many of Card's works, this story is more about the interplay of people, and their moral issues, than it is about technology, although the Empire clearly has advanced technology.

The Songbird
The core of the story is the idea that young boys and girls are selected and acquired at a very early age on account of their singing abilities. The children are taken away from normal life and trained to sing. They are given drugs that delay puberty for five years. The drugs also make them sterile. A few specially talented singers are designated as Songbirds, "Songbirds are given only to those who can truly appreciate them. We invite people to accept them. We do not take applications." Songbirds are sold to worthy wealthy clients and stay with them till their fifteenth birthday when they return to the Songhouse. Singers who fail to make the grade do not necessarily have fulfilling lives even though the Songhouse takes care of their material needs.

Ansset is seen as special and taken under the wing of Esste, a senior Songmaster. She takes him out into the real world, but only for a few days, a man remarking of the boy, "If he's willing to take off his clothes, he can make a fortune." Because of his talent, he is sent to the Emperor Mikal himself to sing. When he is aged 9, Riktors Ashen collects Ansset from the Songhouse and is captivated by his beauty, "the kind of face that melted men's hearts as readily as women's. More readily."

The theme of man/boy love
Ansset first experiences unwanted sexual attention in the form of a palace guard who searches him in preparation for his first meeting with Mikal. The guard suffers a steep price for lingering just a little too long, a harsh punishment swiftly dealt by Mikal on Ansset's word. Very soon after his induction into the palace and into Mikal's life, rumors circulate that surely, such a beautiful boy would have shared the emperor's bed. On a student group visitation to the palace, however, Kya-Kya, a former member of the Songhouse, silently debunks such rumors:

"They all wondered, of course, if a boy of such great beauty had found his way into Mikal's bed. Kya-Kya knew better. The Songhouse would never tolerate it. They would never send a Songbird to someone who would try such a thing." pg 130

A Songbird is only gifted to a person who has been judged to possess a soul capable of fully appreciating such beauty. A man or woman who would wish such great harm as sexual abuse would never be considered as a candidate for a Songbird. Ansset is loved by Mikal and loves him back, but neither Mikal, nor his successor Riktors, wish to have a sexual relationship with the boy.

Kya-Kya (Kyaren) is a girl a few years older than Ansset who leaves the Songhouse and works her way up to a senior position on Earth. Eventually she ends up working for Ansset when he is fifteen (though he still has the body of a 10-year-old). Kyaran has a boyfriend called Josif who is, in his own words, sixty two percent homosexual and the rest heterosexual. Josif was loved by a slightly older boy when he himself was a "shy child of unusual beauty".

Josif falls in love with Ansset the first time he meets him. He tries to avoid seeing the boy again, but this is impossible. As he slowly starts to mature, growing 17 centimetres, Ansset starts to seek out Josif's company more and more. Josif and Kyaren have a baby boy by now, but Ansset begins to realise that Josif is sexually attracted to him, as many people have been before. He recognises however, that Josif's love is different from the lust he has seen so often. Ansset starts to feel new longings. He knows that the drugs cause problems for Songbirds, particularly boys, but he has lost his songs and wants to know what happens next. Ansset eventually offers himself to the young man, saying, "I know what you want, and I'm willing". Josif lovingly brings the boy to his first climax. As Ansset experiences his first ever orgasm, he experiences enormous pain. The Songhouse drugs have almost killed him and he is forever impotent. Josif runs to find help and is captured by security forces, who take him to the palace at Susquehanna where Riktors has him drugged and castrated for his relations with Ansset. He then commits suicide by stuffing a bed sheet down his throat.

Conclusion
After many further developments, Ansset is back at the Songhouse, where he spends the remainder of his life.

Author's commentary
Card, a Mormon and social conservative who has written a number of essays condemning homosexuality, responded to conservative criticism of his novel in an article "The Hypocrites of Homosexuality". He wrote:

What the novel offers is a treatment of characters who share, between them, a forbidden act that took place because of hunger on one side, compassion on the other, and genuine love and friendship on both parts. I was not trying to show that homosexuality was "beautiful" or "natural" -- in fact, sex of any kind is likely to be "beautiful" only to the participants, and it is hard to make a case for the naturalness of such an obviously counter-evolutionary trend as same-sex mating. Those issues were irrelevant. The friendship between Ansset and Josif was the beautiful and natural thing, even if it eventually led them on a mutually self-destructive path.

Literary significance and criticism
The fantasy writer Alma Alexander characterized Songmaster as "Quite possibly Card's best published work, ever." The publisher characterised the story as "...a haunting story of power and love—the tale of the man who would destroy everything he loves to preserve humanity's peace, and the boy who might just sing the world away".

Awards and nominations
As with some other Card novels (Ender's Game, for example), this book started out as a shorter story "Mikal's Songbird", which was a Nebula Award finalist in 1978 and a Hugo finalist in 1979, both in the "novelette" category. Songmaster received the Hamilton-Brackett Memorial Award 1981.

title: Songmaster


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Helen Hoyt

Helen Lyman commonly known as Helen Hoyt or Helen Hoyt Lyman (January 22, 1887 – August 2, 1972) was an American poet.

Biography
She was born as Helen Hoyt in Norwalk, Connecticut on January 22, 1887, to Gould and Georgiana (Baird) Hoyt.

Helen Hoyt attended Miss Baird's School for Girls in Norwalk, Connecticut, which was owned by her aunt, Cornelia F. Baird. She later was educated at Barnard College, where she received an A. B. in 1909.

In 1921, she married fellow poet William Whittingham Lyman Jr, and so also became known either as Mrs. W.W. Lyman or Helen Hoyt Lyman.

Early in her career, Hoyt was an Associate Editor of the journal Poetry, and also had numerous articles and poems published within the magazine from 1913 to 1936. She also edited the September 1916 edition of Others: A Magazine of the New Verse, the woman's number. Other magazines to publish her work include The Egoist and The Masses.

Aside from her own collections, her work was also published in notable anthologies of her times, including The New Poetry: An Anthology (1917), The Second Book of Modern Verse (1920), Silver Pennies: Modern Poems for Boys and Girls (1925), May Days (1926), and The Best Poems of 1931.

Her poems include Ellis Park, Memory, Lamp Posts and Rain At Night.

In 1932, she wrote the foreword to California Poets: An Anthology of 244 Contemporaries, [House of Henry Harrison, editors].

She was a contemporary of Marianne Moore and Mina Loy, among others.

She was known to entertain correspondence with Idella Purnell Stone and Clark Ashton Smith.

Quotation
"'At present most of what we know, or think we know, of women has been found out by men, we have yet to hear what woman will tell of herself, and where can she tell more intimately than in poetry?'" Others: A Magazine of the New Verse in 1916

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Menziken

Menziken is a municipality in the district of Kulm in the canton of Aargau in Switzerland. On 1 January 2023 the former municipality of Burg merged to form the municipality of Menziken.

History
Menziken is first mentioned in 1045 as Manzinchouen though that comes from a 14th-century copy of the original document. In 1295 it was mentioned as Menzchon. However, the current site of Menziken was settled earlier. Both Roman era ruins and Alamanni graves have been discovered in the municipality. During the High Middle Ages it was owned by the Counts of Lenzburg. In 1173 it passed over to the Kyburgs and following the extinction of the Kyburg line, in 1273 it passed to the Habsburgs. The Habsburgs held the rights to high justice while their vassals, the Lords of Reinach, held the rights to low justice. From the conquest of Aargau in 1415 until the creation of the Helvetic Republic in 1798, the village was under Bernese domination. At that time, Menziken belonged to the district (Oberamt) of Lenzburg. With the creation of the Canton of Aargau through the Act of Mediation in 1803, Menziken became a municipality in the new canton.

During the Middle Ages Menziken was part of the Catholic parish of Pfeffikon. Following the introduction of the Protestant Reformation in 1528, it was initially part of Gontenschwil parish and then of the parish of Reinach. It became the independent parish of Menziken-Burg in 1889–90, with the construction of its own church. The Catholic Menziken-Reinach Diaspora parish was created in 1906-07 when St Anne's Church was built in the municipality.

In 1729 a cotton factory was built in the municipality. This factory was followed by numerous weavers, spinners and dyers, which until the 19th century provided a major source of income. In 1838 Samuel Weber opened a cigar factory in the village which led to the cigar industry dominating the entire upper Wynental. The cigar companies represented a major employer until the second half of the 20th century. Major employers in the early 21st century include the Schlör AG (which had developed from the brewery founded in 1888 and today produce soft drinks, fruit and apple juice) and Alu Menziken, which produces metal goods. Since 1904 Menziken has been the terminus of the Wynental- und Suhrentalbahn.

Geography
Menziken has an area,, of 6.39 km2. Of this area, 3.04 km2 or 47.6% is used for agricultural purposes, while 1.49 km2 or 23.3% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 1.87 km2 or 29.3% is settled (buildings or roads), 0.01 km2 or 0.2% is either rivers or lakes and 0.01 km2 or 0.2% is unproductive land.

Of the built up area, industrial buildings made up 2.8% of the total area while housing and buildings made up 17.1% and transportation infrastructure made up 4.4%. Power and water infrastructure as well as other special developed areas made up 2.7% of the area while parks, green belts and sports fields made up 2.3%. 21.8% of the total land area is heavily forested and 1.6% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 29.9% is used for growing crops and 16.6% is pastures, while 1.1% is used for orchards or vine crops. All the water in the municipality is in rivers and streams.

The municipality is located in the Kulm district. Menziken, together with Reinach Burg and Pfeffikon in the Canton of Lucerne, forms an agglomeration in the upper Wynental (Wyna River valley).

Coat of arms
The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Gules a Soldier Armoured and with Helmet Argent looking to sinister standing on Coupeaux Vert holding in dexter a Spear Or topped of the second and in sinister a Mullet of Five of the fourth.

Demographics
Menziken has a population of. , 34.4% of the population are foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (1997–2007) the population has changed at a rate of 1.8%. Most of the population speaks German (81.3%), with Albanian being second most common ( 5.0%) and Serbo-Croatian being third ( 4.1%).

The age distribution,, in Menziken is; 568 children or 10.4% of the population are between 0 and 9 years old and 780 teenagers or 14.3% are between 10 and 19. Of the adult population, 658 people or 12.0% of the population are between 20 and 29 years old. 710 people or 13.0% are between 30 and 39, 911 people or 16.7% are between 40 and 49, and 671 people or 12.3% are between 50 and 59. The senior population distribution is 560 people or 10.3% of the population are between 60 and 69 years old, 356 people or 6.5% are between 70 and 79, there are 220 people or 4.0% who are between 80 and 89, and there are 27 people or 0.5% who are 90 and older.

the average number of residents per living room was 0.59 which is about equal to the cantonal average of 0.57 per room. In this case, a room is defined as space of a housing unit of at least 4 m2 as normal bedrooms, dining rooms, living rooms, kitchens and habitable cellars and attics. About 43.8% of the total households were owner occupied, or in other words did not pay rent (though they may have a mortgage or a rent-to-own agreement).

, there were 211 homes with 1 or 2 persons in the household, 1,099 homes with 3 or 4 persons in the household, and 745 homes with 5 or more persons in the household. The average number of people per household was 2.50 individuals. , there were 2,111 private households (homes and apartments) in the municipality, and an average of 2.5 persons per household. there were 986 single family homes (or 40.4% of the total) out of a total of 2,442 homes and apartments. There were a total of 142 empty apartments for a 5.8% vacancy rate. , the construction rate of new housing units was 4.2 new units per 1000 residents.

In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the SVP which received 42.1% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SP (17.7%), the FDP (16.8%) and the CVP (6.1%).

In Menziken about 60.5% of the population (between age 25-64) have completed either non-mandatory upper secondary education or additional higher education (either university or a Fachhochschule). Of the school age population, there are 436 students attending primary school, there are 219 students attending secondary school, there are 95 students attending tertiary or university level schooling in the municipality.

The historical population is given in the following table:

Heritage sites of national significance
The Villa Mathys at Hofmattpark 1A is listed as a Swiss heritage site of national significance.

Economy
, Menziken had an unemployment rate of 2.69%. , there were 28 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 11 businesses involved in this sector. 660 people are employed in the secondary sector and there are 50 businesses in this sector. 1,077 people are employed in the tertiary sector, with 139 businesses in this sector.

there were 2,728 workers who lived in the municipality. Of these, 1,816 or about 66.6% of the residents worked outside Menziken while 1,296 people commuted into the municipality for work. There were a total of 2,208 jobs (of at least 6 hours per week) in the municipality. Of the working population, 7.7% used public transportation to get to work, and 52.1% used a private car.

Transport
Menziken is served by the Aarau–Menziken railway line, operated by Aargau Verkehr, which carries service S14 of the Aargau S-Bahn. This provides a fifteen minute interval service to the cantonal capital at Aarau, and stops at Menziken station within the municipality,

Religion
From the, 1,673 or 30.4% were Roman Catholic, while 2,181 or 39.6% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church. Of the rest of the population, there were 5 individuals (or about 0.09% of the population) who belonged to the Christian Catholic faith and a small congregation of Moravian Brethren.

Notable people

 * Bertrand Vogt (1857-1936)

title: Menziken


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Keiko Miura

Keiko Miura (三浦恵子) is a female field hockey field player from Japan, who is playing for Sony Bravia Ladies. She plays as a defender and is the striker of the penalty corner in her league team as well as the national team. She can strike the ball up to 120 km/h.

She was the team captain of the women's national team that participated in the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece as well as a member of the team of the women's national team that participated in the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China.

title: Keiko Miura