Domine dirige nos (Latin) ("Lord direct us") | ||||||||
| Anthem | "Hevel Räage Kùsse (God Bless Him)" | |||||||
| Capital (and largest city) |
Marlborough | |||||||
| Other cities | Lambourn | |||||||
| Language | English, Kennneter | |||||||
| Government | Parliamentary republic | |||||||
| Currency | cel | |||||||
The Kennet was a state in an area of southwestern England spanning the traditional counties of Wiltshire and Berkshire. In common with many parts of southern England, a majority of its population can trace themselves to refugees from Greater London in the immediate aftermath of the nuclear attack of 26 September 1983. The core community of survivors that developed into the republic were initially based in and around Windsor Castle before migrating further west.
The Kennet became a member nation of the Celtic Alliance in 2002, a somewhat controversial move that greatly extended the Alliance's reach into central England. In the 2010s the community voted to merge with another small CA nation, the Cotswolds, creating a new nation called Wessex. The Kennet accordingly ceased to exist as an independent entity in 2015, though its people maintain a sense of separate history and identity.
Doomsday in London[]
Between 1:52 AM and 1:58 AM two one-megatonne detonations over the capital city of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the City of London. It is assumed that they were located over Whitehall and the City of London.
Between 2:02 AM and 2:11 AM seven more nuclear explosions occur, two 10 kt blasts occur on both Gatwick and Heathrow airports, a 200kt device explodes near the port of London over the river south of Dagenham, two 100kt devices also explode one over Shoreditch and one over Kensington.
Between 2:22 AM and 2:36 AM three more blasts occur in central London, experts estimate that they were three 100 kt blasts, one near Southwark Park, one near Regents Park and one over Kentish Town.
In the immediate aftermath of the blast a massive firestorm swept the remains of the centre of London, this Greater fire of London led to nearly 70% of the land within the M25 motorway to burn.
Survivors of the blasts headed away from the city in all directions, those who headed north and east died due to massive radioactive fall out blowing from the burning, ruined city.
Many headed south for the coast. However, the Brighton road had been contaminated by fall out from the Gatwick Airport blasts leading to many deaths, and once reaching the Brighton area survivors discovered that Brighton itself had been nuked.
To the west, Heathrow was similarly hit by small yield nukes, however many people made there way to Windsor Castle, assuming the Queen would still be at her favorite and most secure palace and with the government assumed correctly to be in the majority dead, the Queen became a figurehead and symbolic head of the remains of the country.
However, the Queen (along with the Duke of Edinburgh) had been evacuated from Windsor Castle shortly before the blasts occurred, boarding the royal yacht Britannia and sailing to Loch Torridon in northern Scotland.
Leadership of Sir John Grandy[]
Painting of Sir John Grandy in 1981 in his uniform as Marshal of the RAF
Remaining at the castle were the members of the Household Cavalry and the Queen's Life Guards, after the departure of the Queen and under her direct orders, Sir John Grandy took command. Grandy was the former Marshal of the Royal Air Force, now semi-retired and serving as Constable and Governor of Windsor Castle. His remit was to defend the castle and surrounding town from any foreign attack, render assistance to any British citizen.
Grandy immediately set up a governing council consisting of himself, the Commanding Officers of the Household Cavalry and the Queens Life Guards, as well as 22 resident members of the Military Knights of Windsor.
- His first act was to secure the town of Windsor setting up a voluntary defence force using the citizens of the town,
- His second act was to order any civilian weaponry to be brought to the Castle, this included any stores of black power kept in the two gun stores in Windsor town.
- His third act was to order all stored and display weaponry to be brought back into a usable state, including all the cannons around the castle.
- His fourth act was to order the evacuation of boarding children of Eton College as well as the teachers to the Castle with them taking residence in the Royal Apartments. In total 157 children, aged 13 to 18 years of age, and 21 teachers are successfully evacuated.
Refugees from London started arriving in Windsor in large numbers early on the 30th September. Many had severe radiation sickness and burns; most died within two weeks of arriving a large tent city for the refugees were set up in Windsor Great Park. This is also where mass graves began to be dug on the 2nd October 1983.
October 1983[]
The massive refugee camp near Windsor Castle in early October.
In mid October the first snow fell across the area, refugees were relocated into any buildings within Windsor town that could hold them, but several hundred die due to cold.
With the population of Windsor town increasing daily the food situation quickly grew dire, Sir John ordered food rationing, with every person getting the equivalent of 1900 calories per day, just enough to keep people healthy. But it also was becoming quite clear that Windsor was not a sustainable home for the number of people seeking safety there. Some of the castle troops escorted the first organized caravan in November, reaching relative safety in the downs of western Berkshire before the winter set in.
1984[]
The year turned in an atmosphere of shock and fear. It was winter, and food was running out. The voluntary defence force made extended journeys into the surrounding countryside searching for other sources of food. Others began to equip new caravans for the spring to get people away from the overcrowded camps of Greater London.
In February, Queen Elizabeth died of an illness that had spread on the royal yacht. The news took some time to reach the refugees at Windsor; yet the camps were not totally isolated, either. The giant bunker in Kelvedon Hatch, Essex was nominally responsible for the entire Greater London region, but the burning crater that was London made it difficult to communicate with it. The Isle of Portland, over a hundred miles to the southwest, was the refuge of Britain's new prime minister Whitelaw, and via radio transmissions and indirect contacts by travelers it became the main source of news for the refugee communities west of London.
That spring, the Windsor community became a hub for organised migrations from other refugee centres: Henley-on-Thames upstream of Windsor from early February, as well as the towns of Ascot, Bagshot and High Wycombe by the summer of 1984.
During the September of 1984, some scouts from Windsor inadvertently wandered too close to the ruins of Reading (hit with a 100kt device). Five members of the team suffered severe radiation poisoning with two dying within a month.
1986-7[]
Downs landscape in western Berkshire
In 1986, an order came from Portland that the Life Guards must report to the coast and prepare to travel to South Africa, to answer a request made by the new South African government of the exiled King Andrew, who was still considered to be Britain's lawful sovereign. The order caused deep and lasting resentment both toward the royals and the Portland government, which would become the republic of Southern England. Most survivors felt a deep connection to the troops of the household regiments and credited them for saving their lives. In truth, however, much of their work among the survivors was now being done by part-time forces in the volunteer defence force, and this was especially true in the new camps in the Downs. The departure of the Life Guards helped to cut the connection between these new settlements and Windsor.
On the 22nd November 1987 Grandy himself relocated to the town of Lambourn. Refugee communities were now scattered across the North Wessex Downs region, and indeed many locals had moved on to other places. Grandy's arrival helped to bring some coherence to these settlements, who who looked to him and the remaining Windsor officers as the natural leaders and the last local remnant of the British state.
The communities in the Downs settled in, began producing their own food, and found ways to survive. Some forms of civic life, such as law courts, began to make a return; but mostly power remained in the hands of the militia. The region in these years had no official name. Officials acted in the name of the United Kingdom; locals referred to it as both "New London" and "New Windsor", or simply "the Downs".
1989[]
The Kennet flowing through the village of Sithcombe
The community centered on Lambourn now had extended its influence over much of the hilly territory between the ruins of Swindon and Reading. The town of Marlborough, the largest settlement in the Downs region, was incorporated into the refugee society and in 1989 became the center of administration.
As the decade turned, the Downs settlements were one of many small polities that had formed in the more isolated parts of Great Britain. A primitive peasant-like existence, still governed to some extent by military discipline, was the lot of many of the country's survivors.
1990s[]
Narrow High Street, Marlborough
During the 90s, the community continued to grow. Free elections were not yet restored, but some forms of representative government appeared in the form of a council of leaders chosen from the various villages, mostly by informal means. Sir John Grandy remained the acknowledged leader but, now close to 80, he took a less and less active role.
There was increasing contact with neighboring communities around Great Britain. In the early 90s, it was generally assumed by all parties that the region was loosely associated with Southern England. But travel between the two remained difficult enough that the Downs could not be fully incorporated. Furthermore, bad feelings lingered toward the southern government.
On the other hand, the growing Celtic Alliance seemed to offer an alternative model of organised statehood in the British Isles. The Downs were in the trading hinterland of Wales, which was re-emerging as a nation and a civil society after years of emergency government. In 1995 Wales declared an independent republic and joined the Alliance, news which resonated in the refugee communities.
Diane Abbott in 2005
In 1999 the council decided to pursue the same path as Wales. They named their state after the Kennet, the river that flowed through the valley in which the main settlements were located.
Celtic Alliance observers were invited to assist in holding the first election for a leader of the Kennet, with the title of Mayor. The vote took place on the 12th November 1999. Diane Abbott, a civil rights activist and survivor who like many had been displaced from London, announced the start of an interim period until the change to a fully democratic system could be up and running.
2000s[]
On the 23rd October 2000 Mayor Abbott transitioned to her new role as head of a republican government. The Kennet joined the Celtic Alliance as a full member in 2002.
In 2004, Sir John Grandy died in his sleep in his home in Lambourn at the age of 90 years.
The region of the Cotswolds, like the Kennet, was a remote hilly region whose populace included many survivors from larger cities, namely Birmingham and Bristol. The communities there lacked the level of organisation that the Kennet had achieved. In the 2000s, both the Kennet and the Celtic Alliance sought connections with the Cotswold communities, seeing them as a possible bridge between the Kennet and Wales. The CA extended help with physical and civic infrastructure. In 2006 the Cotswolds formed a government and became a member nation of the Alliance.
Unification with the Cotswolds[]
Increasing development of the region was leading to calls for a unification already in the 2010s under the name of Wessex. The largely abandoned city of Swindon would serve as a natural location for the capital. Wessex regional symbols, in particular the wyvern, had begun to appear in the 1970s; now they were adapted as symbols of the new state. The unification was accomplished in 2015, at which time the Kennet ceased to exist as an independent entity.
See Also
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