In 2010, there were 1. 33 billion journeys on the National Rail network, making the British network the fifth most used in the world ( Great Britain ranks 23rd in world population ).

From the start of 1948, the " big four " were nationalised to form British Railways ( latterly " British Rail ") under the control of the British Transport Commission.

A East Midlands Trains British Rail Class 222 | Class 222 Meridian on a London to Nottingham service.

A CrossCountry British Rail Class 170 | Class 170 numbered 170113 with a service from London Stansted Airport to Birmingham New Street railway station | Birmingham New Street First Capital Connect British Rail Class 365 | Class 365 ' networker ' numbered 365538 at Cambridge railway station | Cambridge Rail Station

British Railways ( BR ), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was the operator of most of the rail transport in Great Britain between 1948 and 1997.

It was formed from the nationalisation of the " Big Four " British railway companies and lasted until the gradual privatisation of British Rail, in stages between 1994 and 1997.

The British Rail " double arrow " logo is formed of two interlocked arrows showing the direction of travel on a double track railway and was nicknamed " the arrow of indecision ".< ref >

The BT10 bogie was introduced on the British Rail Mark 3 coach in the 1970s.

A First ScotRail operated British Rail Class 318 | Class 318 departing Gourock railway station | Gourock.

From Elmers End to Woodside route 1 and route 4 ( and route 2 from Arena ) follow the former British Rail branch line to Addiscombe, then diverge to reach Addiscombe tram stop, which is 500 metres west of the now-demolished Addiscombe railway station.

The section of Route 3 between Wimbledon and West Croydon follows the old single-track British Rail route for the most part, which was closed on 31 May 1997 so that it could be converted for Tramlink.

* Cyclops, a nickname for the British Rail Class 67 Locomotive

The situation was greatly complicated by the large number of landowners involved: the PLA, the Greater London Council ( GLC ), the British Gas Corporation, five borough councils, British Rail and the Central Electricity Generating Board.

* Virgin Trains British Rail Class 221 unit 221129 is named in his honour.

A British Mark I " male " tank, 1916

Tank or " landship " development, originally conducted by the British Navy under the auspices of the Landships Committee was sponsored by the First Lord of the Admiralty, Winston Churchill and proceeded through a number of prototypes culminating in the Mark I tank prototype, named Mother.

The first tank to engage in battle was designated D1, a British Mark I, during the Battle of Flers-Courcelette ( part of the Somme Offensive ) on 15 September 1916.

The first tank versus tank action took place on 24 April 1918 at Second Battle of Villers-Bretonneux, when three British Mark IVs met an advance of three German A7Vs, supported by infantry.

* 1918 – First tank-to-tank combat, at Villers-Bretonneux, France, when three British Mark IVs met three German A7Vs.

The British Railways Mark 1 coach brought into production in 1950 used the BR1 bogie, which was rated to run at.

British Mark I tank during the First World War.

* 1960 – Mark Brydon, British musician ( Moloko )

Financial backers included Sir Mark Thatcher, son of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and possibly the British novelist Jeffrey Archer.

* Sir Mark Evelyn Heath-Diplomat, British Ambassador to Chad ( 1975 – 1978 ), the first British Ambassador to Holy See ( 1982 – 1985 ) and Head of Protocol for the Hong Kong Government ( 1985 – 1988 ).

Conversely, BBC critic Mark Kermode believes that " the movie industries of Britain and America are inextricably intertwined ", citing numerous examples of how Hollywood provides work to British production staff and studios, whilst Britain enables Hollywood to base their prestigious productions at UK studios.

* 1980 – Mark Watson, British comedian

* Simpson, Mark S. ( 1986 ) The Russian Gothic Novel and its British Antecedents, Slavica Publishers

The British Congreve rockets used 62. 4 % saltpeter, 23. 2 % charcoal and 14. 4 % sulfur, but the British Mark VII gunpowder was changed to 65 % saltpeter, 20 % charcoal and 15 % sulfur.

* 2011 – Mark Ryan, British musician ( Adam and the Ants ) ( b. 1959 )

* 1963 – Mark Moraghan, British actor and singer

* 1967 – Mark Lamarr, British comedian and broadcaster

Lemmy also took part in a comedy skit titled " The Easy Guitar Book Sketch " with comedian Rowland Rivron and fellow British musicians Mark Knopfler, David Gilmour, Mark King from Level 42, and Gary Moore.

* Underground ( 2007 film ), a British independent film starring Mark Strange

* 1912 – The British passenger liner sinks in the North Atlantic at 2: 20 a. m., two hours and forty minutes after hitting an iceberg.

The battle had begun when a force of between 2, 000 and 3, 000 Boers had surrounded a force of 500 Australians, Rhodesians, Canadians and British soldiers at a supply dump at Brakfontein Drift.

The British were able to annex Sind and for his services, Hasan Ali Shah received an annual pension of £ 2, 000 from General Charles Napier, the British conqueror of Sind with whom he had a good relationship.

Since the Bishop of London refused to ordain ministers in the British American colonies, this constituted an emergency, and as a result, on 2 September 1784, Rev.

Starting in 1941, the British developed the " en portee " method of mounting an anti-tank gun ( initially a 2 pounder ) on a truck.

The second Battle of Doiran, with general Vladimir Vazov as commander, inflicted a heavy blow on the numerically superior British army, which suffered 12, 000 casualties against 2, 000 from the opposite side.

The ship on which Charles Darwin made the voyage which provided much of the inspiration for On the Origin of Species was named HMS Beagle after the breed, and, in turn, lent its name to the ill-fated British Martian lander Beagle 2.

Additional awards were presented to the British fleet: Nelson was awarded £ 2, 000 (£ as of ) a year for life by the Parliament of Great Britain and £ 1, 000 per annum by the Parliament of Ireland, although the latter was inadvertently discontinued after the Act of Union dissolved the Irish Parliament.

Today, the British Museum has grown to become one of the largest museums in the world, covering an area of over 92, 000 m < sup > 2 </ sup > ( 990, 000 sq.

File: British Museum Olduvai handaxe. jpg | Room 2-Handaxe, Lower Palaeolithic, Olduvai Gorge, circa 1. 2 million years

File: England ; London-The British Museum, Facade South Front ~-Main Entrance + West Wing-Collonade + The Africa Garden. 2. JPG | African Garden-created by BBC TV programme Ground Force

The Balfour Declaration ( dated 2 November 1917 ) was a letter from the United Kingdom's Foreign Secretary Arthur James Balfour to Baron Rothschild ( Walter Rothschild, 2nd Baron Rothschild ), a leader of the British Jewish community, for transmission to the Zionist Federation of Great Britain and Ireland.

The War would be the most devastating in British military history, with near 800, 000 men killed and over 2 million wounded.

Of this total about 2. 4 million people lived in Oregon, 1. 7 million in Washington, 1 million in Idaho, half a million in British Columbia, and 0. 4 million in Montana.

Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began transmission on 2 November 1982.

" Creating the Exemplary Citizen: The Changing Notion of Citizenship in Britain 1870 – 1939 ," Contemporary British History ( 2008 ) 22 # 2 pp 203 – 225

* Holger Nehring, ' The British and West German Protests against Nuclear Weapons and the Cultures of the Cold War, 1957 – 64 ', Contemporary British History, 19, No. 2 ( 2005 )

Anti-tank guns were also tremendously improved during the war: in 1939, the British used primarily 2 pounder and 6 pounder guns.

British citizens were by far the most numerous population to migrate to the colonies: 2. 5 million settled in Canada ; 1. 5 million in Australia ; 750, 000 in New Zealand ; 450, 000 in the Union of South Africa ; and 200, 000 in India.

The composition of the Constitution of Canada is defined in subsection 52 ( 2 ) of the Constitution Act, 1982 as consisting of the Canada Act 1982 ( including the Constitution Act, 1982 ), all acts and orders referred to in the schedule ( including the Constitution Act, 1867, formerly The British North America Act, 1867 ), and any amendments to these documents.

Being a versatile denominator in fractions may explain why we have 12 inches in an imperial foot, 12 ounces in a troy pound, 12 old British pence in a shilling, 24 ( 12 × 2 ) hours in a day, and many other items counted by the dozen, gross ( 144, square of 12 ) or great gross ( 1728, cube of 12 ).