Cecil Blanche Woodham-Smith (née Fitzgerald) (April 29, 1896 – March 16, 1977) was a British historian and biographer. Events 1429 - Joan of Arc arrives to relieve the Siege of Orleans. Year 1896 ( MDCCCXCVI) was a Leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian Calendar (or a Leap year Events 597 BC - Babylonians capture Jerusalem, replace Jehoiachin with Zedekiah as king Also 1977 (album by Ash. Year 1977 ( MCMLXXVII) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link displays The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located See also History An historian is an individual who studies and writes about History, and is regarded as an Authority on it Biographers are Authors who write an account of another person's life while autobiographers are authors who write their own Biography. She wrote four popular history books, each dealing with a different aspect of the Victorian era. Culture The Victorian fascination with novelty resulted in a deep interest in the relationship between modernity and cultural continuities
Early life
Cecil Woodham-Smith was born in 1896 in Tenby, Wales. Tenby ( Welsh language: Dinbych-y-Pysgod "little town of the fishes or little fortress of the fish" is a walled Seaside Town in Pembrokeshire Her family, the Fitzgeralds, were a well-known Irish family, one of her ancestors being Lord Edward Fitzgerald, hero of the Irish Rebellion of 1798. The Irish people ( Irish: Muintir na hÉireann, na hÉireannaigh, na Gaeil) are a Western European Ethnic group who originate Lord Edward FitzGerald (15 October 1763 &ndash 4 June 1798 was an Irish aristocrat and revolutionary The Irish Rebellion of 1798 (Éirí Amach 1798 Turn Oot 1798 or 1798 rebellion as it is known locally was an uprising in 1798 lasting several months against the Her father Colonel James FitzGerald had served in the Indian Army during the Sepoy Mutiny; her mother's family included General Sir Thomas Picton, a distinguished soldier who was killed at Waterloo. Lieutenant General Sir Thomas Picton GCB (August 1758 &ndash 18 June 1815) was a British Army officer from Wales In the Battle of Waterloo (Sunday 18 June 1815 near Waterloo Belgium
She attended the Royal School for Officers' Daughters in Bath, until her expulsion for taking unannounced leave for a trip to the National Gallery. Bath is a city in Somerset in the south west of England It is situated west of London and south-east of Bristol. She finished her schooling at a French convent and afterwards entered St Hilda's College, Oxford. A convent is a community of Priests religious brothers religious sisters or Nuns or the building used by the community particularly in the Roman Catholic Church St Hilda's College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. She graduated with a second-class degree in English in 1917. Year 1917 ( MCMXVII) was a Common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year
In 1928 she married George Ivon Woodham-Smith, a distinguished London solicitor with whom she had an exceptionally close and deep relationship until his death in 1968. Year 1928 ( MCMXXVIII) was a Leap year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Year 1968 ( MCMLXVIII) was a Leap year starting on Monday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. But although she possessed a knack for historical writing, she postponed her career (as was customary for women of her time) until her two children had gone off to boarding school. A boarding school is a School where some or all pupils not only study but also live during term time with their fellow students and possibly teachers In the meantime, she wrote pot-boilers under the pseudonym 'Janet Gordon'; this training was to stand her in good stead as a historian, as she mastered the art of writing entertaining narrative.
Career
Her first book as a historian, a biography of Florence Nightingale published in 1950, took her straight to the top of her profession. Florence Nightingale, OM, RRC (in her own pronunciation ˈflɒɾəns ˈnaɪtɪŋgeɪl 12 May 1820 – 13 August 1910 who came to be known as "The Year 1950 ( MCML) was a Common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Her meticulous research had taken nine long years, but the book succeeded in restoring the lustre to Nightingale's reputation, which had gone down a notch after Lytton Strachey's sly debunking job in his notorious Eminent Victorians. Giles Lytton Strachey (ˈdʒaɪlz ˈlɪtən ˈstreɪtʃɪ 1 March 1880 &ndash 21 January 1932 was a British writer and critic Eminent Victorians is a book by Lytton Strachey (the oldest member of the Bloomsbury Group) first published in 1918 and consisting of biographies Acclaimed for its combination of scholarship and readability, Florence Nightingale won the James Tait Black Award for biography. Founded in 1919 the James Tait Black Memorial Prizes are among the oldest and most prestigious book prizes awarded for literature written in the English Language and are Britain's
Her next book was equally well received. The Reason Why (1953) was a brilliant study of the Charge of the Light Brigade, a military disaster during the Crimean War and one of the defining events of the Victorian age. Year 1953 ( MCMLIII) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. The Charge of the Light Brigade was a disastrous Cavalry charge led by Lord Cardigan during the Battle of Balaclava on 25 October The Crimean War, also known in Russia as the Eastern War (Восточная война Vostochnaya Vojna) (March 1854–February 1856 was fought It became her most popular book, and afterwards she explained to a television audience how she wrote the Charge itself: working at a gallop through thirty-six hours non-stop without food or other break until the last gun was fired, when she poured a stiff drink and slept for two days.
She produced two more notable works: The Great Hunger (1962), a powerful account of the Great Irish Famine of the 1840s that was unsparing in its indictment of the British; and the first volume of Queen Victoria: Her Life and Times (1972). Year 1962 ( MCMLXII) was a Common year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1962 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Year 1972 ( MCMLXXII) was a Leap year starting on Saturday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Unfortunately, she was unable to complete the next volume of the biography; she died in London in 1977 at the age of 80.
Cecil Woodham-Smith was appointed CBE in 1960. The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British Order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by King George V. She received honorary doctorates from the National University of Ireland in 1964 and the University of St Andrews in 1965. The National University of Ireland ( NUI) (Ollscoil na hÉireann is a federal University system of constituent universities, previously called The University of St Andrews is the oldest University in Scotland and third oldest in the English-speaking world, having been founded between She also became an honorary fellow of St Hilda's College (her alma mater) in 1967.
External links
- LibraryThing author profile
- The Great Hunger, Reference [1]
- Works by or about Cecil Woodham-Smith in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
Dapyx Software network: MP3 Explorer | Ebook Manager | Zenithic