Nick Lipscombe | |
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Born | Nicolas John Lipscombe 5 June 1958 Angers, France |
Nationality | British |
Education |
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Occupation(s) | Historian/author/lecturer/ university tutor |
Employer | University of Oxford |
Notable work | |
Military career | |
Allegiance | United Kingdom |
Service/ | British Army |
Years of service | 1979–2013 |
Rank | Colonel |
Unit | Royal Regiment of Artillery |
Awards | United States Bronze Star Medal |
Website | official website |
Colonel Nicolas John Lipscombe FRHistS (born 5 June 1958 in Angers, France) is a British historian, author, tour guide, lecturer and university tutor.
Lipscombe was commissioned into the Royal Regiment of Artillery in 1981 following his military and academic training at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst where he was awarded the Tombs Benson Memorial Scholarship. [1] During his 34 years of military service in the British Army he spent most of his career abroad and/or on operations. [2] He was awarded the United States Bronze Star Medal in 2006 in recognition of services during coalition operations in Iraq. [3]
Lipscombe was educated at St. Peter's Catholic School, Bournemouth. [4] In 1990 he obtained his Master of Science degree from Cranfield University, Shrivenham and the Indian Defence Services Staff College. [5]
He is the author of a number of historical works that are best categorised as military history from the seventeenth through to the nineteenth centuries. Having lived and worked for 7.5 years in the location, he is recognised as a world authority on the battles and battlefields of the Iberian Peninsula and Southern France. Andrew Roberts selected the Peninsular War Atlas as one of the Daily Telegraph (History) Books of the Year in November 2010. [6] Lipscombe edited (and contributed to) the official Waterloo 200 book, Waterloo, The Decisive Victory compiled to commemorate the Bicentenary of the Battle of Waterloo. [7]
Lipscombe was chairman of Peninsular War 200 (now dissolved), the official organisation established in 2008 to commemorate the bicentenaries of the battles and sieges of the Peninsular War 1808–1814. The organisation worked for both the UK Ministry of Defence and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and in conjunction with Waterloo 200 and the civil and military authorities in Spain, France and Portugal. [8] He is a trustee of the British Cemetery at Elvas, Portugal.
In 2015 Lipscombe was an advisor and presenter on the BBC documentary on Wellington: The Iron Duke Unmasked. [9]
He was elected a fellow of the Royal Historical Society in 2015. [10] He has been a tutor at the University of Oxford’s Department of Continuing Education since 2017. [11] Having been a member of the British Commission for Military History for a number of years, Lipscombe joined the Committee in 2018. [12]
The Hundred Days, also known as the War of the Seventh Coalition, marked the period between Napoleon's return from eleven months of exile on the island of Elba to Paris on 20 March 1815 and the second restoration of King Louis XVIII on 8 July 1815. This period saw the War of the Seventh Coalition, and includes the Waterloo Campaign and the Neapolitan War as well as several other minor campaigns. The phrase les Cent Jours was first used by the prefect of Paris, Gaspard, comte de Chabrol, in his speech welcoming the king back to Paris on 8 July.
Duke of Wellington is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. The name derived from Wellington in Somerset. The title was created in 1814 for Arthur Wellesley, 1st Marquess of Wellington, the Anglo-Irish military commander who is best known for leading the decisive victory with Field Marshal von Blücher over Napoleon's forces at Waterloo in Brabant. Wellesley later served twice as British prime minister. In historical texts, unqualified use of the title typically refers to the 1st Duke.
Peter John Snow is a British radio and television presenter and historian. Between 1969 and 2005, he was an analyst of general election results, first on ITV and later for the BBC. He presented Newsnight from its launch in 1980 until 1997. He has presented a number of documentaries, including some with his son, Dan Snow.
The King's German Legion was a British Army formation consisting of expatriate German soldiers which existed from 1803 to 1816. It achieved the distinction of being the only German military force to fight without interruption against the French and their allies during the Napoleonic Wars.
Jean-Baptiste Drouet, Comte d'Erlon was a Marshal of France and a soldier in the Grande Armée during the Napoleonic Wars. He notably commanded the I Corps of the Army of the North at the Battle of Waterloo.
Major General Sir Alexander Dickson was a British Army officer who served in the artillery. He fought at many battles during the Napoleonic Wars. Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington had the highest opinion of his abilities and made him the effective commander of his army's artillery during the latter part of the Peninsular War.
The Battle of Zornoza, fought on 31 October 1808, was one of the opening engagements in Napoleon's invasion of Spain. The battle was intended to encircle and crush the left wing of the Spanish front. The Spanish infantry was swiftly thrown back but escaped in good order.
This is the order of battle for the Battle of Albuera. The Battle of Albuera was an engagement of the Peninsular War, fought between a mixed British, Spanish, and Portuguese corps and elements of the French Armée du Midi. It took place at the small Spanish village of Albuera, about 12 miles (20 km) south of the frontier fortress-town of Badajoz, Spain. Marshal Sir William Beresford had been given the task of reconstructing the Portuguese army since February 1809. He temporarily took command of General Rowland Hill's corps while Hill was recovering from illness, and was granted overall command of the Allied army at Albuera by the Spanish generals, Joaquín Blake y Joyes and Francisco Castaños.
In the Blockade of Almeida a French garrison under Antoine François Brenier de Montmorand was surrounded by approximately 13,000 Anglo-Allied soldiers led by Generals Sir Alexander Campbell, 1st Baronet and Sir William Erskine, 2nd Baronet.
Philip J. Haythornthwaite FRHistS is an author and historical consultant specialising in military history, uniforms, and equipment. While his main area of research is the Napoleonic Wars, his list of publications covers a wider period from the English Civil War through to 1939.
The Battle of Toulouse saw a French army led by Marshal Nicolas Soult defend the city of Toulouse against the Marquess of Wellington's British, Portuguese, and Spanish army. The fighting took place on 10 April 1814 and Soult evacuated the city late in the evening of 11 April after suffering defeat. Allied casualties in the bitter fighting exceeded French losses by more than a thousand. Official news of the end of the war did not reach Wellington until the afternoon of 12 April.
Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington,, was one of the leading British military and political figures of the 19th century. Often referred to solely as "The Duke of Wellington", he led a successful military career in the Indian subcontinent during the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War (1798–99) and the Second Anglo-Maratha War (1803–1805), and in Europe during the Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815).
The Battle of Talavera saw an Imperial French army under King Joseph Bonaparte and Marshal Jean-Baptiste Jourdan attack a combined British and Spanish army led by Sir Arthur Wellesley. After several of their assaults were bloodily repulsed on the second day, the French retreated toward Madrid leaving the battlefield to the Anglo-Spanish army. Events soon compelled Wellesley, who was soon appointed Viscount Wellington, to fall back toward his base in Portugal. The following units and commanders fought at the battle, which occurred during the Peninsular War.