3 January: Clement Attlee

Born on this date in 1883, in Putney, Clement Attlee was leader of the Labour Party from 1935 to 1955, and served as Britain’s Prime Minister from 1945 to 1951. 10 facts about him:

1. He was born into a middle class family. His parents were churchgoers and read prayers and psalms each morning at breakfast. One of his brothers became a clergyman and one of his sisters a missionary. Clement, however, is regarded as an agnostic, although when asked if he was, he said he didn’t know. He said he believed in "the ethics of Christianity" but not "the mumbo-jumbo".
2. He studied modern history at University College, Oxford. He had little interest in politics while at university.
3. After university he trained as a lawyer and then got a job managing Haileybury House, a charitable youth organisation in Limehouse, east London. This opened his eyes to the grinding poverty in the East End of London at the time, and helped shape his political views.
4. When the first world war broke out, Attlee applied to join the army, but was initially turned down, because at 31, he was considered too old. However, he was eventually commissioned as a temporary lieutenant and reached the rank of major.
5. He was put on a ship bound for England after collapsing with dysentery, but insisted that he wanted to get back to the action as soon as possible and asked to get off the ship in Malta, and recover in hospital there. While he was there, the Battle of Sari Bair happened. When he left hospital, he was informed that his company had been chosen to hold the final lines during the evacuation of Suvla. He was the penultimate man to be evacuated from Suvla Bay.
6. After the war, Attlee began his political career, and was Mayor of Stepney in 1919 before becoming the MP for Limehouse in 1922.
7. He married Violet Millar, who he met and fell in love with during a holiday in Italy with friends in 1921. The marriage lasted until she died in 1964.
8. He was the Prime Minister on whose watch the NHS was created. The National Health Service Act 1946 made healthcare free on the basis of citizenship and need rather than the payment of fees or insurance premiums. The National Insurance Act 1946 was another of his reforms. People of working age paid a weekly contribution and in return were entitled to a benefits when they could no longer work.
9. He was known for being a man of few words, and upon winning the election, he went to see King George VI, another man of few words, at Buckingham Palace to be appointed Prime Minister. Neither of them spoke for some time, but Attlee eventually broke the awkward silence by saying, "I've won the election". To which the King replied "I know. I heard it on the Six O'Clock News".
10. Attlee died of pneumonia, at the age of 84 on 8 October 1967. He is buried in Westminster Abbey.

Character birthday

Sophie Challenger, minor character in Tale of Two Sisters. She has no powers. Sophie is Jill Warner’s rival for the affections of Christopher Johannesjaegervitch.

A Tale of Two Sisters

During a battle with supervillains, a horrific accident leaves the Warner family with no option but to believe their youngest daughter, Jessica, is dead. It doesn't occur to them that the bad guys could, or would, save her.

Jessica wakes up with no memory of who she is or how she came to be on a space station with two bionic legs, a bionic arm and a bionic eye. She is told her family abandoned her and is sent back to Earth with a mission - to kill them. While Jessica wants to kill her family, along with the twin boys who once rejected her, she knows what the Alliance of Supervillains are asking her to do is a suicide mission. She decides to get her revenge in her own way.

As Jessica puts the first part of her revenge plan in motion, she finds herself with an agonising decision to make. Before she can decide, the Alliance come for her, determined to make her do their bidding. This time, it's the Alliance who leave her, crippled and at the mercy of the Warner family, who have no idea who the Alliance's Black Rose really is.

Jessica finds herself having to re-think her decisions in light of what she now learns about her family, the Alliance, the twins, and herself. It would appear the Alliance have left her with an unwanted and permanent reminder of her time with them. Or have they?

Jessica's older sister, Jill, knows her destiny is to be a doctor and specialise in bionics and genetic variant medicine. She is also hopelessly in love with Christopher, Crown Prince of Galorvia. Can their romance survive the lies Christopher told her when they were both at school, an unplanned pregnancy and Sophie, the wannabe princess who comes between them?

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