Portal:United Kingdom/Did you know/2005

=9 February 2005=

that Mary Seacole has been described as the black Florence Nightingale?
that AEJ Collins scored the highest-ever recorded score in cricket, 628 not out, over four afternoons in June 1899 as a 13-year-old schoolboy?
that Satyendra Prasanno Sinha, 1st Baron Sinha became the first Indian member of the House of Lords in 1919?
that The Duke of Wellington's Regiment is the only regiment in the British Army to carry four colours on parade?
that the St Lawrence Ground, Canterbury, Kent, is one of the two grounds used regularly for first-class cricket that has a tree within the boundary?

...that Hamilton Palace in Scotland was lent for use as a naval hospital during World War I, by Alfred, the 13th Duke of Hamilton?
... that the Saladin tithe was levied in England in 1188 to help finance the Third Crusade?
... that Reginald Hill's novel A Clubbable Woman was his first story about Dalziel and Pascoe?

...that King George V was a member of the Society for the Prevention of Calling Sleeping Car Porters George?
... that Double Gloucester cheese is made from a mixture of milk taken in the morning and evening?
...that although Admiral Robert Calder arguably saved Britain from invasion in the battle of Cape Finisterre, he was court-martialled for his failure to win a more decisive victory?
...that the BBC coat of arms was adopted in 1927 and uses heraldic symbols to depict the various qualities of broadcasting?

...that the FTSE 100-listed company Hays plc dates back to the 1600s, when they owned warehouses and wharves on the River Thames?
...that the History of Swansea includes an epidemic of yellow fever in 1865, the only outbreak of that disease on the British mainland?
...that Elsie Tanner was a core character on the British soap opera Coronation Street for over twenty years?
...that although England centre forward Geoff Hurst had scored a hat-trick and was therefore entitled to keep the match ball, it was German striker Helmut Haller who took it home after the 1966 World Cup final?
...that Arthur Owens, codenamed SNOW, was a vital double agent who supplied information to German intelligence under the direction of British MI5 during the early years of World War II?