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FABRE—FALKLAND ISLANDS BATTLE
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FABRE, JEAN HENRI (1823-1915), French entomologist, was born at St. Leons in Avcyron Dec. 21 1823. At ten years old he went to Rodez as a choir boy and there received the elements of a classical education, continuing it further at the normal school of Vaucluse. But his whole bent was for science, and, after he had become a teacher at Carpentras, he worked in his spare hours at physics and mathematics and be- came interested in insects, the study of whose habits was to form his life-work (see 3.626, 6.672, 14.180). Later he became a teacher of physics, first at Ajaccio and afterwards at Avignon. His first observations were published in Annales des Sciences Naturelles (1855-8), followed a good deal later by Souvenirs Entomologiqucs (1879-1907). He was a Chevalier of the Legion of Honour. He died at Serignan, Provence, Oct. n 1915.


FAGUET, ÉMILE (1847-1916), French critic and man of letters (see 10.125*), continued up to 1914 to publish several volumes annually of critical and literary studies, more especially concerning Rousseau (Rousseau pciiseur, 1910; Vie de Rousseau, 1911; Les Amies de Rousseau; Rousseau artiste, etc., 1912). Amongst others may be noted a volume on Madame de Sevigni (1910); a study of Rostand (1911); En lisant Moliere (1914) and Msgr. Dupanloup (1914). He died in Paris June 7 1916.

FAIRBAIRN, ANDREW MARTIN (1838-1912), British non- conformist divine (see 10.129), died in London Feb. 9 1912.

FAIRBANKS, CHARLES WARREN (1852-1918), American politician, was born near Unionville, O., May n 1852. On graduating from Ohio Wesleyan University (1872) he became a newspaper reporter in Pittsburgh. He was admitted to the bar in 1874, and began practice at Indianapolis, Ind., where he was made solicitor for the receiver of the Indianapolis, Bloomington and Western railway. Henceforth he had much to do with rail- way affairs and became a railway financier. He attained a prominent place in state politics, being chairman of the Republican State Convention in 1892, 1898, and 1914. He was in charge of McKinley's campaign in Indiana, preceding the National Con- vention in 1896; and the following year he was elected to the U.S. Senate, having been nominated by the Republicans over several prominent candidates, including Gen. Lew Wallace. He was chairman of the U.S. representatives on the British- American Joint High Commission for dealing with Canadian questions in 1898 and 1903, being reelected to the Senate in the latter year. At the Republican National Convention in 1904 he was unanimously nominated for Vice-President with Theodore Roosevelt and was elected. In 1912 he had a large part in the making of the Republican platform. In 1916 he was again nominated by the Republicans for Vice-President but was de- feated. He died at Indianapolis June 4 1918.

FAISAL (1885- ), Arab Emir, third surviving son of Husein, King of the Hejaz, was born at Taif in 1885. He spent his infancy at Rihab in accordance with the tradition of the Qoreish. At the age of eight he was brought to Mecca, where he began his early studies, but was afterwards sent to Constantinople to join his father and here he received a good modern education. On attaining manhood he held official appointments under the Turkish Government. With his brothers, he took an active part in the constitutional movement which led to the deposition of 'Abdul Hamid, as a part consequence of which the emirate of Mecca was restored to his father Husein ibn 'Ali in 1908, Faisal returning to Mecca with him. He followed a military career, and commanded the Arab contingent in the Turkish operations against the Idrisi in 1911-3. In 1914 he was elected deputy for Jidda in the Turkish Parliament. Up to that time he was not markedly prominent among his brothers, but from 1915 he favoured Arab Nationalist aspirations, and (with his brother 'Abdulla) furthered his father's anti-Ottoman designs. At the outbreak of the Arab revolt in 1916 he commanded the rebels at Medina, and, in the crisis which followed the failure to capture the city, he came much to the front. He organized the revolting tribes each under its tribal leader, devised a scheme for the formation of an Arab regular army, and developed a particular school of irregular warfare. He commanded the Arab northern forces which, after the taking of Akaba (July 1917), constituted a friendly army of the right wing of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force. He led the Arab troops at their entry into Damascus 1918, and to him, subsequently, was entrusted the task of setting up, in the eastern area of Syria, a provisional military administration to exercise control until peace was signed. Faisal presented the case of the Arabs before the Peace Conference in Paris on Feb. 6 1919. His administration maintained comparative security throughout 1919. In March 1920 he was proclaimed King of Syria at Damascus by the Syrian National Congress, but this proceeding received no official sanction from the Allied Powers, and the regime was overturned by the entry of French troops into Damascus in July of the same year, Kerak then be- coming the headquarters of Faisal's administrative district. He spent some time in London in 1919 and again in 1920-21. On Aug. 23 1921 with the support of the Arab notables, ascer- tained by a referendum he was crowned King of Iraq (see MESOPOTAMIA) and became ruler of the new State set up under the mandate accepted by the British Government.

FALKENHAYN, ERICH VON (1861- ), Prussian general, was born Sept. 11 1861 at Burg Belchau in the district of Thorn. He took part in the China expedition of 1900 and remained in China with a brigade of occupation till 1903. In 1906 he was appointed chief-of-staff of the XVI. and afterwards of the IV. Army Corps; in 1913 he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant- general and was appointed Prussian Minister of War. He suc- ceeded Gen. von Moltke in Dec. 1914 as chief of the general staff of the army and was advanced to the rank of general of the infantry. It was on his initiative that the Russian lines were broken through at Gorlice-Tarnow on May 2 and 3 1915, and he likewise helped to plan the summer offensive of that year against Russia and the operations by which in the winter of 1915-6 Serbia was overrun. He was made responsible, however, for the ill-success of the German attacks of 1916 at Verdun, and was replaced as chief of the general staff by Hindenburg in August of that year. He was then assigned the leadership of the IX. Army against Rumania and commanded in the fighting at Hermannstadt and on the Targu Jin. In 1917 he took command of the so-called Asiatic Corps, for operations in the Caucasus, etc., and in 1918 and 1919 was at the head of the X. Army. He wrote an interesting account of the German conduct of the war during its first two years entitled Die obersle Heeresleitung in ihren wichtigsten Entschliessungen 1914-16 (1919).

FALKLAND ISLANDS BATTLE. The battle of the Falklands, one of the principal naval actions of the World War, was fought on Dec. 8 1914 to the S.E. of the Falkland Is., between a British battle-cruiser squadron under Vice-Adml. Sir F. Doveton Sturdee and the German East Asiatic Squadron under Adml. Graf von Spee. The British ships were:

" Invincible " (flag.), Capt. Percy Beamish, b. c., 1908, 8 12-in.,

25j knots. " Inflexible," Capt. R. F. Phillemore, b. c., 1908, 8 12-in., 25!

knots. " Carnarvon" (Rear-Adml. A. P. Stoddart), Capt. H. L. Skip-

with, a. c., 1904, 4 7'5-in., 6 6-in., 20 knots.

' Cornwall," Capt. W. M. Ellerton, a. c., 1904, 14 6-in., 22 knots. ' Kent," Capt. J. D. Allen, a. c., 1903, 14 6-in., 22 knots. ' Glasgow," Capt. John Luce, I.e., 191 1,2 6-in., 10 4-111. ,25^ knots. ' Bristol," Capt. B. H. Fanshawe, 1911,2 6-in., 10 4-in., 25^ knots. ' Macedonia, Capt. B. S. Evans, a. m. s.

The following composed the German squadron:

' Scharnhorst," a. c., 1907, 8 8-2-in., 6 5-9-in., 2o| knots. ' Gneisenau," a. c., 1908, 8 8-2-in., 6 5-9-in., 205 knots. ' Leipzig," 1. c., 1906, 10 4-i-in., 2Oj knots. ' Niirnberg," 1. c., 1908, 10 4-i-in., 22 knots. ' Dresden," 1. c., 1908, 10 4-i-in., 25^ knots. Also three supply ships, " Seydlitz," " Baden," " St. Isabel."

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