Latest news with #FirstWorldWar
The Herald Scotland
7 hours ago
- Business
- The Herald Scotland
‘He never gave up': tributes to patriarch of Scottish undertakers
Died: July 9, 2025 William Wallace, who has died aged 92, was the patriarch of a firm of undertakers and a respected, long-lived and well-known figure in the village where he lived and worked his whole life. He joined the family business in West Kilbride straight from school when he was 16 years old and was still working there in his 80s. The business was founded in 1902 when William's grandparents William and Helen started a carriage business in the stable of the Wellington Hotel in the village, where the funeral business still is today. In those early days, the horses were stabled upstairs and were taken in and out on a ramp. During the First World War, some of the horses were taken away for the war effort and Mr Wallace Snr went across to Connemara to replace them. The family firm thrived as a carriage business, taking people around, doing deliveries and also doing funerals as well. It was the age of the joiner/undertaker when funerals were simple affairs conducted at home before the deceased was moved to the local cemetery, and William Wallace & Son was there to help. William Wallace recalled that 'in those days, undertakers had other professions. We supplied them with carriages so it seemed like a natural progression for us.' It was when William eventually took over the firm in the 1950s that it began to specialise in funerals. It was still being run as it always had been, but with the help of his new wife Barbara, a nurse from Glasgow, William started to modernise. Barbara recalls seeing the office for the first time with its tall wooden desk and six-inch-thick ledger and realising that things hadn't changed for quite a long time. William Wallace was born in [[West Kilbride]] in 1933 and attended [[West Kilbride]] Primary. He was a bright kid but perhaps knew that he'd be leaving school to join the family business and didn't thrive in an academic environment. In one exam at Ardrossan Academy, he got three per cent for writing his name neatly at the top and his headmaster said he would make a 'good citizen'. Read more Tributes to countess who modernised royal Scottish castle | The Herald 'Til next time we meet, you take care': the life of Glen Michael | The Herald Great Scots coach who was 'way ahead of his time' dies | The Herald After leaving school, he went straight to work for the family business before it was interrupted in the 1950s by national service in Germany. He was discharged in 1956 from the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers holding the rank of corporal and with a very good military conduct grading. When he returned and started running the company for himself, William ran taxis and Volkswagen mini-buses for company contracts and collecting school children from local farms and ferrying them to and from school each day as part of a contract with the local council at that time. But he also had the skills and empathy needed to run a funeral business. Over the years, he expanded the business after buying an old bakery at the back of the Wellington premises and built a service room. Mr Wallace recalled the early days when a funeral would cost £54. 'Most people have cars now,' he said, 'in the 40s, it was not uncommon for a funeral to involve five following cars.' Although he was steeped in the history and traditions of the firm, Mr Wallace embraced modernisation and loved his mobile phone. Recently solar panels and batteries were installed so the firm's new Mercedes Benz E300de hybrid vehicle could be charged in the lighter months without using the grid. William and Barbara Wallace (Image: Contributed) William and Barbara had two children, John who earns a living as a professional guitarist, and Gordon, who eventually joined the family firm. Gordon says his parents encouraged him into further education, but after completing a degree in mechanical engineering and struggling to find work, he started helping his father out before going full-time. Gordon says his father was still working at the firm in his 80s and was still busy in his 90s. 'He wasn't lifting things anymore,' says Gordon, 'but if he could have, he would have; he was doing funerals well into his 80s. He never gave up.' Gordon, the fourth generation of the family at the helm of the business, says his father's firm has moved with the times and does traditional funerals as well as simpler, stripped-back affairs. The traditionally male-dominated business is changing too: one of the funeral directors at William Wallace & Son is Carly Brown, who joined nine years ago. A recent message to the family after news of William's death described him as, 'a real-life legend that I thought would live forever.' He will be greatly missed by everyone that knew him. William Wallace is survived by his wife Barbara, who he married in 1970, and their sons John and Gordon.
Cision Canada
3 days ago
- Politics
- Cision Canada
New stamp draws attention to history of civilian internment in Canada Français
Thousands of people forcibly confined and denied civil liberties during both world wars OTTAWA, ON, July 17, 2025 /CNW/ - Canada Post today unveiled a new stamp aimed at exploring the history of civilian internment in Canada. During both the First and Second World Wars, the Canadian government organized large-scale civilian internment operations, during which thousands of people were unjustly interned in camps across the country. Tens of thousands more had their freedoms restricted in the name of national security. Some of these measures continued into peacetime. Canada Post hopes today's stamp issue will raise awareness about this history and the resilience of the people and communities whose lives were profoundly affected by this forced displacement, confinement and hardship. It also reminds us of our responsibility to learn from the past. First World War In the opening month of the First World War, the federal government passed the War Measures Act, which gave Cabinet sweeping powers to suspend civil liberties, including the right to a fair trial before detention. More than 8,500 men were held at internment camps and receiving stations across Canada. This included people from: the Austro-Hungarian Empire, including more than 5,000 Ukrainians, as well as Croats, Czechs, Hungarians, Jews, Poles, Romanians, Serbs, Slovaks and Slovenes; the Ottoman Empire, including Armenians and Turks; the German Empire; and Kingdom of Bulgaria. More than 200 women and children voluntarily joined their male relatives in internment. People experiencing homelessness and unemployment, conscientious objectors and members of outlawed political groups, especially socialists, were also interned. Detainees lived in austere and at times harsh conditions. Some were forced to work on labour-intensive projects. More than 100 died. Some died from disease, injury and suicide. Others were shot trying to escape. Many were buried in unmarked graves. Another 80,000 people, mostly Ukrainian, were forced to register as "enemy aliens," including the Canadians with parents who had immigrated from a country at war with Canada. "Enemy aliens" were forced to regularly report to authorities and had many of their rights restricted. Second World War The War Measures Act was once again invoked one week before the start of the Second World War. This gave the government the power to detain anyone believed to be a threat to the public or the state. As many as 24,000 people were interned in camps across the country – sometimes alongside enemy prisoners of war. They included German Canadians, Italian Canadians and Japanese Canadians. Jewish refugees from Germany and Austria were also detained alongside socialists, conscientious objectors and other "subversives." As in the First World War, many people were also required to register with the government. More than 20,000 Japanese – the majority Canadian citizens – were forced from their homes on the West Coast. Their property was confiscated and later sold by the government. The War Measures Act remained in effect until December 31, 1945, though legal restrictions against Japanese Canadians weren't lifted until April 1949. About the stamp The stamp features bilingual vertical text in red against a grey background, with barbed wire over the words that captures the gloom and fear of Canada's internment camps. The stamp was designed by Underline Studio and printed by Colour Innovations. The issue includes six Permanent ™ stamps and an Official First Day Cover. The cancel site is Petawawa, Ont., where an internment camp operated during both world wars. Stamp products are available at and at select postal outlets across Canada. For resources, including links to images of the stamp and other products:
DW
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- DW
Salzburg Festival 2025: Between power struggles and hope – DW – 07/17/2025
This year's program mirrors the state of the world. Bloody conflicts and power-hungry figures take the stage by storm — but the festival hopes for light at the end of the tunnel. Theater is a reflection of the human experience, with all its emotions and conflicts. That's why the team behind this year's Salzburg Festival, led by artistic director Markus Hinterhäuser, has put together a program that embodies the crises happening around the world. Bloodshed and power struggles are thus dominating not only events in the world today but also the festival itself (July 18 to August 31). The program spans brutal rivalries from antiquity to the First World War. There have always been people like Trump and Putin, says Hinterhäuser. The lust for power has been part of world history. Thus, it comes as no surprise that power, that universal drug, has inspired numerous operas. For instance, George Frideric Handel's "Giulio Cesare in Egitto" about Roman general Julius Caesar will be staged, just like Gaetano Donizetti's "Maria Stuarda," which is dedicated to Scottish queen, Mary Stuart. Mozart is represented with his opera "Mitridate, re di Ponto," about the ruler of the fallen empire of Pontus in Asia Minor, and Verdi's "Macbeth" tells the story of the royal army commander and later Scottish king. And finally, "The Last Days of Mankind," a play based on Karl Kraus' disturbing book, deals with the horrors of World War I. The rulers of the past have one thing in common: Their power is crumbling. And each reacts differently to the inevitable end — whether with rigidity, fear, despair or a choleric attempt to escape fate. Opera, musical theater and stage plays act as a magnifying glass, illuminating the various scenarios of their demise. "This gives us, the audience, the opportunity to act," says Markus Hinterhäuser. The performing arts open up "spaces of change, of transformation." The festival's website says that around 222,500 tickets are available for a total of 174 opera, drama and concert performances. Musical theater is traditionally the program's flagship, and this year it features 12 productions ranging from Baroque to contemporary works. With both unconventional and traditional performances by big-name soloists — such as the annual production of "Jedermann" (or "Everyman") on the steps of the Salzburg Cathedral — the festival remains true to the guiding principle established over 100 years ago by theater producers Max Reinhardt and Hugo von Hoffmannsthal: To offer something for everyone. Among others, director Peter Sellars and conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen leading the Vienna Philharmonic orchestra will present a daring new production titled "One Morning Turns into an Eternity." They will combine Arnold Schoenberg's monodrama "Erwartung" (Expectation) with the "Der Abschied" (The Farewell) from Gustav Mahler's symphony "Lied von der Erde" (Song of the Earth) — Schoenberg's role model. There is also the play "The Blizzard," based on a book by Vladimir Sorokin, a well-known Russian writer who fled from Putin and his followers. In a deadly storm, his hero, a young doctor, searches for light and hope. Even the Greek conductor Teodor Currentzis, a controversial figure on account of his dual Russian citizenship and his unwillingness to distance himself from Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine, will be back in 2025 with his Utopia Orchestra, an ensemble that Currentzis founded specifically for performances in the West. In December 2024, the scandal surrounding the dismissal of Russian festival director Marina Davydova overshadowed the presentation of the Salzburg program. The dramaturge — who is also a vocal critic of the Putin regime — was dismissed for breach of contract: Davydova had worked for another festival without informing nor getting authorization to do so from the Salzburg Festival. Apart from that, the festival program shows a great deal of solidarity with artists who have turned their backs on Putin's empire: for example, Russian directors Kirill Serebrennikov (Sorokin's "The Blizzard"), Dmitri Tcherniakov (Handel's "Giulio Cesare in Egitto") and Evgeny Titov (Chekhov's "Three Sisters" in the version by the recently deceased Peter Eotvos) are all participating in Salzburg. "I make no secret of the fact that, as a pianist, I am a great admirer of the Russian pianistic tradition," Salzburg Festival director Hinterhäuser told DW. Grigory Sokolov, Arcadi Volodos, Evgeny Kissin, Daniil Trifonov and Alexander Malofeev will perform in Salzburg. They will honor composer and pianist Dmitri Shostakovich in particular with a series of concerts marking the 50th anniversary of his death on August 9. There are also plans for a reading by Ukrainian author Marianna Kiyanovska from her multi-award-winning work "The Voices of Babyn Yar," in which she recounts the murder of more than 30,000 Jews by the Nazis in September 1941.
DW
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- DW
Green Warriors - The Toxic Legacy of Warfare – DW – 07/17/2025
Until the 2000s, France submerged, buried or destroyed thousands of tons of ammunition. Long forgotten, these rubbish heaps are now releasing pollution that is toxic and carcinogenic. The film follows environmental activists over the course of a year as they investigate the consequences of these buried weapons. In the Grand-Est and Hauts-de-France regions, they took samples of tap water from areas surrounding old storage and destruction sites, or military sites still in operation. Seventeen of them contained explosive residues, two of them at levels exceeding the US health agency's recommendations for RDX - an explosive compound also known as cyclonite. In other samples taken from Lac de Gérardmer in Vosges, high levels of TNT were found near munition buried at the end of the First World War. And yet, the lake is regularly used by the neighboring villages to top up their water supply. The results of the investigation prompted local media and politicians to appeal to the government to finally take action and deal with the contamination. DW English TUE 29.07.2025 – 01:15 UTC TUE 29.07.2025 – 04:15 UTC WED 30.07.2025 – 09:15 UTC WED 30.07.2025 – 16:15 UTC WED 30.07.2025 – 21:15 UTC THU 31.07.2025 – 12:15 UTC SAT 02.08.2025 – 08:15 UTC SUN 03.08.2025 – 13:15 UTC Lagos UTC +1 | Cape Town UTC +2 | Nairobi UTC +3 Delhi UTC +5,5 | Bangkok UTC +7 | Hong Kong UTC +8 London UTC +1 | Berlin UTC +2 | Moscow UTC +3 San Francisco UTC -7 | Edmonton UTC -6 | New York UTC -4
Hans India
3 days ago
- Business
- Hans India
Effective Project Management Implementation Leads Civil Engineer to Successful Water Treatment Project
Dedication and expertise, combined with the proper application of Project Management, resulted in the successful implementation of a major water treatment plant in the state of Kansas, United States. The combination of these efforts led to the optimal use of resources, ultimately benefiting a significant portion of the local population thanks to the efficient management of resources throughout the project. The new water treatment plant has the capacity to produce 120 million gallons per day (MGD) of potable water. This volume is expected to serve around 20% of the population of Kansas. According to recent data, the state's population is close to three million residents. That means the project has the potential to serve approximately 600,000 people daily. One of the professionals entrusted with this mission is Civil Engineer Rajthilak Ganesan. His theoretical and practical experience has enabled him to contribute effectively to the success of large-scale infrastructure projects such as this plant in Kansas. Rajthilak Ganesan is, therefore, a key member of the team, qualified to assess the success driven by proper Project Management. "Initially, we can say that Project Management, when conducted within established guidelines, leads to unique optimization in the use of both human and material resources. Greater process control results in the satisfaction of stakeholders involved, internally and externally, as well as increased team engagement under more efficient timelines. It's about improving both the efficiency and the quality of the project being executed." Today, modern management relies on a range of tools and methodologies to implement Project Management. The evolution of these practices began, notably, after World War II. In fact, the roots of modern project management trace back to the early stages of international conflict in the 20th century, as a consequence of the First World War. Although the most visible effects came during the second major global conflict, early challenges from the late 1910s and mid-1920s already influenced the field. From the mid-1940s onwards, labor and raw material shortages due to global crises drove the need for more controlled service and product delivery, leading professionals to develop advanced techniques. 'We can say the United States pioneered this pursuit of productivity across various sectors, including multiple branches of engineering. The research was further developed and supported by Japan. Today, we have a wide range of tools to execute projects—like the new water treatment plant in Kansas—with a high level of excellence, just as envisioned in the early stages of these studies now being put into practice.' Career Highlights Originally from Tamilnadu, India, Rajthilak Ganesan is a Civil Engineer with a diverse background in Research and Construction Management. He earned his Bachelor's degree in Civil Engineering in India and worked as a Research Associate at the prestigious CSIR – Structural Engineering Research Centre in Chennai, India. During this time, he had the opportunity to collaborate with some of India's leading scientists in the field of concrete technology, gaining invaluable experience and knowledge—a privilege in itself. Motivated by a desire to broaden his expertise, Rajthilak moved to the United States to pursue a Master's degree in Civil Engineering at California State University, Fullerton. There, he continued his research focused on cementitious materials, which culminated in a master's thesis and the publication of a scientific article. He also actively participated in several conferences and presentations, sharing his findings with the global engineering community. He currently serves as Assistant Construction Manager at Burns & McDonnell Engineering, the firm responsible for the water treatment plant in Kansas. Passionate about engineering innovation and committed to sustainability, Rajthilak continues to push the boundaries in his field, aiming to improve infrastructure and serve communities through his work. 'Through innovative work, we've been able to tackle some of the industry's biggest challenges, including the demand for environmentally friendly, durable, and sustainable concrete. Cement is the second most consumed resource in the world, with over 4 billion tons produced annually. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), the cement industry is responsible for about 8% of global CO₂ emissions. The use of SCMs (Supplementary Cementitious Materials) can reduce cement consumption by up to 40% and significantly lower greenhouse gas emissions,' the specialist said, highlighting one of the key achievements in his career. Project Details The project in which Rajthilak Ganesan is involved, through the "Northwest Water Treatment Facility," is being built on a 40-acre site with a $500 million budget. As previously noted, this new water treatment plant has a capacity of 120 MGD and will provide potable water to approximately 20% of Kansas's population. The project has also created more than 1,800 jobs, most of them local. It stands as the largest infrastructure investment in the history of Wichita, Kansas. More than 77% of contracts remained within the local economy. Around 200 local vendors and contractors participated in the project, resulting in over $62 million in contracts awarded to emerging and disadvantaged businesses, and more than $400 million to local companies. 'In any construction project, the three critical factors are Schedule management, Cost management, and Risk management. Large-budget projects can quickly spiral out of control without effective oversight of these three areas, affecting profitability, company reputation, and future business opportunities'. On this $500 million project, Rajthilak Ganesan has been instrumental in overseeing all three. Rajthilak Ganesan have earned the respect of the project team and the client through his dedication, work ethic, and ability to handle challenging situations with professionalism—contributing significantly to the success of this landmark project. Critical decisions involving schedule and cost management, all rooted in Project Management theories, directly affect the profitability and reputation of the company. This has made Rajthilak Ganesan's contributions even more valuable to the continued success of the project—one that provides vital benefits to more than half a million people in the area where he now works to improve quality of life.
