People of the Revolution and the USSR

Horatio Nelson

Horatio Nelson
United Kingdom state institutions Counter-revolutionary forces United Kingdom English 1758–1805 ✕ Killed in action at Trafalgar

Royal Navy admiral who destroyed the French fleet at the Nile

Commanding the British fleet as Rear-Admiral of the Blue at Aboukir Bay in August 1798, he destroyed the French fleet that had escorted Napoleon's army to Egypt: the French flagship Orient exploded, and of the 17 French ships engaged only two ships of the line and two frigates escaped.

British Royal Navy officer. Born in 1758 at the rectory of Burnham Thorpe, Norfolk, he entered the navy through his uncle Maurice Suckling's influence, served in the West Indies and the Mediterranean, lost the sight of one eye at Calvi in 1794 and his right arm at Santa Cruz de Tenerife in 1797, destroyed the French fleet at Aboukir Bay on 1–3 August 1798, stranding Napoleon's army in Egypt, defeated Denmark at Copenhagen in 1801, and was killed at Trafalgar in 1805.

Career timeline
  • 1794Lost the sight of one eye at Calvi
  • 1797Lost his right arm at Santa Cruz de Tenerife
  • 1798Destroyed the French fleet at the Battle of the Nile
  • 1801Defeated Denmark at Copenhagen
  • 1805Killed at the Battle of Trafalgar

Britain's wartime prime minister who divided Europe with Stalin on a half-sheet of paper

Churchill's memoir account of the October 1944 Moscow meeting: 'I wrote on a half-sheet: Romania, Russia 90%… I pushed this across to Stalin. He took his blue pencil, made a large tick, and passed it back.' Soviet authorities denied in 1958 that Stalin accepted such a proposal.

A British statesman, army officer and writer, Churchill was born in 1874 at Blenheim Palace into the wealthy aristocratic Spencer family, of mixed English and American parentage. After army service in India, Sudan and the Boer War he entered Parliament in 1900. As a Liberal minister he was President of the Board of Trade, Home Secretary, and First Lord of the Admiralty, where he oversaw the failed Gallipoli campaign; in 1924–1929 he was Chancellor of the Exchequer. Prime minister from May 1940, he led Britain through the Second World War, warned in 1946 of an 'iron curtain', and held office again in 1951–1955. An imperialist, anti-communist and opponent of Indian self-government, he remains a contested figure; he died in 1965.

Career timeline
  • 1940–1945Prime Minister (first term, coalition)
  • 1951–1955Prime Minister (second term)
  • 1945–1951Leader of the Opposition
  • 1939–1940First Lord of the Admiralty
  • 1924–1929Chancellor of the Exchequer
  • 1911–1915First Lord of the Admiralty
  • 1910–1911Home Secretary
  • 1908–1910President of the Board of Trade
  • 1921–1922Secretary of State for the Colonies
  • 1919–1921Secretary of State for War and Air
  • 1917–1919Minister of Munitions

Bertram Ramsay

Bertram Home Ramsay

The naval commander who organized the Dunkirk evacuation

From headquarters beneath Dover Castle, Ramsay and his staff coordinated the Dunkirk evacuation for nine days and nights.

Bertram Ramsay was a Royal Navy officer distinguished by his ability to organize and command maritime operations in wartime. At Dunkirk in 1940, he directed the evacuation of encircled British and Allied troops, coordinating warships and civilian vessels. He later served in the North African and Sicilian invasions before becoming Allied naval commander-in-chief for the Normandy landings in 1944. He died in France in 1945 when his aircraft crashed.

Career timeline
  • 1898Entered the Royal Navy
  • 1915–1919Commanded monitor M25 and destroyer HMS Broke in the Dover Patrol
  • 1933–1935Commanded battleship HMS Royal Sovereign
  • 1939–1942Flag Officer Commanding Dover, responsible for Channel defence and the Dunkirk evacuation
  • 1942Deputy Naval Commander-in-Chief for the invasion of North Africa
  • 1943Naval commander of the Eastern Task Force for the invasion of Sicily
  • 1944Allied Naval Commander-in-Chief for the Normandy landings

Ronald Scobie

Ronald MacKenzie Scobie

The British general who commanded the Battle of Athens

On 1 December 1944, Scobie ordered ELAS to disarm.

Ronald Scobie was a British Army general who served in both world wars and commanded forces at Tobruk, Malta, and later III Corps. After Greece was liberated in 1944, he became the military commander who embodied Britain's intervention in the country's contested transition. His 1 December order for ELAS to disarm helped precipitate the Dekemvriana, and he directed British operations during the fighting in Athens.

Career timeline
  • 1914–1918Royal Engineers officer, serving on the Western Front
  • 1920–1924Officer of a cadet company at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich
  • 1939Deputy Director of Mobilisation at the War Office
  • 1941Commander of the 70th Infantry Division and commandant of Tobruk fortress
  • 1942General Officer Commanding the Troops in Malta
  • 1943–1944Chief of the General Staff, Middle East, then commander of III Corps
  • 1944–1946Commander of British forces in Greece
  • 1947Retired from the Army