Udo Weitz/AP Global Citizen LifeDemand Equity
10 South African Freedom Fighters (Who Aren t Nelson Mandela) That Everyone Should Know
The country’s democracy is a result of the dedication of so many incredible people.
Why Global Citizens Should Care
South Africa’s Freedom Day recognises the first democratic election that took place in the country after apartheid, on April 27, 1994. Continuing to carry out Nelson Mandela’s legacy and live in a democracy has led the country on the path to achieving the United Nations’ Global Goal 16 for peace, justice, and strong institutions. Join the movement by to help us reach all of the Global Goals and eradicate poverty by 2030.
This photograph was taken on Nun s Bridge in Huntingdon.
- Credit: MAKR EGERTON
One of the oldest and best known ghost stories in Huntingdonshire is the tale of Nun s Bridge, which is covered in Mark Egerton s book
The Haunted History of Huntingdonshire.
It is not clear, says Mark, whether the ancient arched bridge, close to Hinchingbrooke House was originally named because of the Benedictine nunnery nearby or because of the nun who is said to haunt the site after losing her life there. The bridge was once part of the main traffic route between the Huntingdon and the A1, but as modern traffic increased and vehicles got larger and heavier, the bridge was deemed unfit for purpose. This may explain why sightings have dried up. Today, the bridge is only used as footpath by cyclists and walkers, and is almost impossible to see by passing motorists.
She met her husband Jim at a railway station when she was working for the air force. Mrs Setter’s daughter compared their meeting to ‘a scene out of a Brief Encounter’. After her husband passed away in 2013, Mrs Setter and her youngest daughter moved to Oxfordshire to be closer to family. In 2020 Mrs Setter moved into the care home in Kidlington. Ms Alexander described her mother as ‘a proud Northerner, who is made of stern stuff.’ She added: “My Mother has always been a private person who doesn’t like any fuss so it was actually very fitting that Covid restrictions meant that the celebrations were quite kept to a minimum.
by Paula Byrne (William Collins £25, 686pp)
Had Miss Marple been a novelist, she’d have been Barbara Pym. Both possessed a beady-eye for vicars wearing bicycle clips and enjoyed a glass of sherry.
Nothing was more exciting than ‘knitting a green jumper’, purchasing a bedspread, attending the parish jumble sale, sewing stockings for the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force or hearing the bells announce Evensong on a misty autumn night.
Pym was also a shameless snoop. Jilted by future MP Julian Amery, she concealed herself outside his house in Belgravia, peering through the window at him. But she kept watch on her neighbours and perfect strangers, too, compiling what her biographer Paula Byrne calls ‘an exhaustive log of their comings and goings’. One person she even stalked to a private hotel in the West Country.
Silvie Taylor, 1920s model, war time mechanic and author, dies aged 96
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In the 1920s, Silvie Taylor, who has died aged 96, modelled clothes for fashion magazines and went on to develop a love of the performing arts.
She later became an adjudicator at poetry and drama festivals across the world, as well as becoming an author in her own own right.
During the war she served as a flight mechanic with the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force where she taught Free French Forces how to repair and maintain aircraft engines.