The sidebar on the right of this page displays daily-changing historical events drawn from a library of (currently) 560 items. The number of entries a day varies. Most days have 2-3. Some have 5-6. Some artistic licence and creative thinking has been necessary to ensure every day has at least one entry.
Both the day of the year and the associated entries automatically update daily. Pictures and/or links to other, more detailed material are embedded in most of the entries and could include video or audio files. The cycle begins again after 365 days. The setup is very flexible and entries can be edited or added to whenever required.
The sidebar could be displayed on the homepage of the 2GR website which means people would see it when they land there (e.g. after an internet search). It could also be added to the most intensively-used pages such as the membership address list and Noticeboard(s) so people going to such pages would see it. Alternatively the material can be displayed on its own full page as shown below but to my mind that would reduce its impact as people would have to make a deliberate choice to go to that page rather than just seeing the stuff in the margins of navigating round other bits of the site.
HISTORICAL EVENTS FROM THE REGIMENT’S HISTORY
On this day, 14th May, in....
- 1857 Three days after the outbreak of the Indian Mutiny, the Sirmoor Battalion marched out of its home barracks in Dehra Dun only four hours after the arrival of a camel sowar (messenger) bringing the news. After considerable skirmishing and fighting on the way, including the battle of Badle-ke-Serai, the Goorkhas reached Delhi on 8 June. Of great symbolic importance was the fact that the Sirmoor Battalion was the first local regiment to confront and open fire on the mutineers. Click here to read a description of the campaign.
- 1857 Major Reid, the Commandant, called for pensioners resident in Dehra Dun to guard the Battalion's Lines in Dehra Dun during the Battalion’s absence at the siege of Delhi. 50 volunteered. This was the second occasion that pensioners had responded so magnificently, the first being in 1841 when the Battalion under the command of Colonel Young had been ordered to take part in the First Afghan War.
- 1876 Field Marshal His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales became Honorary Colonel of the Regiment, serving in this capacity even after becoming King Edward VII in 1901 and then as Colonel-in-Chief until he died in 1910.