Military Times remembers the Battle of Turnham Green, the
strategically significant English Civil War confrontation, which
celebrates its anniversary this weekend. 11th November is
traditionally associated with the Day of Armistice 1918, when
the Great War finally ended, after five gruelling years of
turmoil and suffering. When considering the huge-death toll and
global devastation of ‘the war to end all wars’, there is no
denying the magnitude of the day, or its place in history. The
13th November, however, marks a decidedly more understated, yet
still significant, military engagement closer to home, which may
well have altered the course of British history. Almost 370
years ago, in 1642, Charles I’s Royalist force of up to 13,000
men met a 24,000-strong Parliamentary army, led by the Earl of
Essex at Turnham Green, in what is now West London (and the home
of Military Times) – one of the largest gatherings of opposing
forces ever assembled on English soil. In fact very little
fighting actually took place; th