Greatest Briton nominations

The greatest Briton of modern times was either

Charles George Gordon

[ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_George_Gordon"]Charles George Gordon - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia@@AMEPARAM@@/wiki/File:Charles_Gordon_Pasha.jpg" class="image" title="Gordon Pasha as Governor of Sudan"><img alt="Gordon Pasha as Governor of Sudan" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d0/Charles_Gordon_Pasha.jpg/250px-Charles_Gordon_Pasha.jpg"@@AMEPARAM@@commons/thumb/d/d0/Charles_Gordon_Pasha.jpg/250px-Charles_Gordon_Pasha.jpg[/ame]

or

T.E. Lawrence
 
Col. Edward Boxer, inventor of the boxer primer. This innovation is what allows us to reload fired brass. Notably though, this invention only caught on in America. The Brits, along with the rest of Europe, used the American invented Berdan primer. Funny how that works out.
 
Or the long version.

Generals, or great leaders (Caesar / Alexander / Gordon / Lawrence were as great as political leaders as generals) change the course of history, they have a massive impact on the world around them and create the world we live in.

As Agamemnon said in that appalling film 'Troy', they carve their names in the stone.
 
Caboose said:
Col. Edward Boxer, inventor of the boxer primer. This innovation is what allows us to reload fired brass. Notably though, this invention only caught on in America. The Brits, along with the rest of Europe, used the American invented Berdan primer. Funny how that works out.
Click to expand...

A great achievement.

I would, if we were playing great men Top Trumps, trump him with the Frank Whittle, the inventor of the jet engine, or the un-named officer who created the battle tank... :)
 
AnyOldIron said:
A great achievement.

I would, if we were playing great men Top Trumps, trump him with the Frank Whittle, the inventor of the jet engine, or the un-named officer who created the battle tank... :)
Click to expand...
Or Hiram Maxim, inventor of the machine gun (American born but he did become a British citizen). To be fair though, Whittle wasn't the only person to design a jet engine. The Italians had one in the works as well, but the project was abandoned before it could be completed.

Other notable British military firsts:
Aircraft carriers
Chobam armor
Man portable machine guns (the Lewis gun)
 
AnyOldIron said:
The greatest Briton of modern times was either

Charles George Gordon

Charles George Gordon - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

or

T.E. Lawrence
Click to expand...

The world would be a thousand times better off if Lawrence hadn't helped topple the Ottoman Empire. We would be dealing with a far more stable ME (or at least pacified), run by the Turks, who have long aspired to be a part of the West (such as trying to join the EU, etc.).

Also, Lawrence sold the Arabs on a bill of goods that he knew the British would never go along with. In the end, the Arabs, and the ME as a whole, got screwed over at Versailles. Its largely why they tended to support Hitler during WWII.
 
Threedee said:
The world would be a thousand times better off if Lawrence hadn't helped topple the Ottoman Empire. We would be dealing with a far more stable ME (or at least pacified), run by the Turks, who have long aspired to be a part of the West (such as trying to join the EU, etc.).

Also, Lawrence sold the Arabs on a bill of goods that he knew the British would never go along with. In the end, the Arabs, and the ME as a whole, got screwed over at Versailles. Its largely why they tended to support Hitler during WWII.
Click to expand...

I'm not so sure. It depends on whether the Ottoman Empire would've turned into a multinational secular state or evolved into a theocracy. Certainly, a world in which arab Jews and Muslims lived side by side in a secular and liberal republic would be better than the extremely unstable situation we have today.

Turkey is pretty much alone in the Muslim world for maintaining a secular democracy in the midst of the fundamentalist takeover of the ME.
 
Messenger of God said:
I'm not so sure. It depends on whether the Ottoman Empire would've turned into a multinational secular state or evolved into a theocracy. Certainly, a world in which arab Jews and Muslims lived side by side in a secular and liberal republic would be better than the extremely unstable situation we have today.

Turkey is pretty much alone in the Muslim world for maintaining a secular democracy in the midst of the fundamentalist takeover of the ME.
Click to expand...

Not exactly true, Malaysia is fairly close to being a secular democracy as is Indonesia.
It is a little known fact that Malaysia could easily have been either a Communist dictatorship or a Muslim fundamentalist nation without the British stopping the insurgency in its tracks in the 1950s.

http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/section?content=a912750182&fulltext=713240928
 
I will grant Watermark, that Kemal Attaturk may never have come to have political influence on a maintained Ottoman Empire, but remember that Ottoman rule with regard to Islam was always noted for its moderation and leniency. I think it could have reigned in radicals, who would have been viewed always as a threat to the Empire's stability and interests.
 
AnyOldIron said:
The greatest Briton of modern times was either

Charles George Gordon

Charles George Gordon - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

or

T.E. Lawrence
Click to expand...
I agree with Lawrence. He would be my far distant #2 pick to Newton, no disrespect intended. Jesus Christ is about the only one who comes close to Newton.

I memorized this poem by Lawrence a long time ago.

All men dream, but not equally, those who dream in the darkest recesses of their mind awake to find it was vanity. But the dreamers of the day are dangerous men. For they dream their dreams with open eyes and make them come true. This I did.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top