PRIZE CROSSWORD

Across

5 Blaise, 17th-century French mathematician and religious philosopher (6)

7 Whitehall war memorial by Edward Lutyens, the stone version unveiled in 1920 (8)

10 Government-commissioned ship, whose task was to attack and plunder another nation’s vessels (9)

11 English gold coin worth six shillings and eight pence (5)

12 Organisation set up in 1949 to facilitate economic development of eastern countries of the Soviet bloc (and other socialist states) (7)

14 Viking descendants who, led by Rollo, established a duchy in northern France in the 10th century (7) 16 See 18 down 17 See 23 down 18 Historical area corresponding roughly to the Crimea, whose people produced exquisite ‘animal style’ artefacts (7)

20 The social orders of France (the common people, clergy, nobility) prior to the Revolution (7)

22/27 The main reception centre, located near New York, at the height of immigration into US (5,6)

24 Democrat leader twice defeated by Eisenhower for the US presidency (9)

26 Name given to English coastal defence towers built at the time of the Napoleonic Wars (8)

27 See 22 across

Down

1 Great Meso-American civilisation, whose Classic period began around AD 250 (4)

2 Historic city of the West Bank, a major source of contention in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict (6)

3 19th-century politician, free trade campaigner and co-founder of Anti-Corn Law League (4,6)

4 Lady Caroline, who had a scandalous affair with Lord Byron (4)

5 That of Avignon lasted from 1309–77, when it was re-established at Rome (6)

6 Medieval tax: its revival by Charles I was one of the grievances leading to the Civil War (4,5)

8 Nazi soldier, tried by a Polish court in 1947 and hanged at Auschwitz, where he had been the commandant of the concentration camp (5)

9 Middle name of the 19th/20thcentury Glasgow artist, architect and designer, Charles Mackintosh (6)

13 City of southern England, named Noviomagus Reginorum by the Romans (in one version) (10)

15 In the years following her killing with other Romanov family members, ‘Anna Anderson’ was a famous claimant of her identity (9)

17 Local official, such as chief magistrate in Anglo-Saxon times (5)

18/16 Mechanical invention that contributed to the industrial revolution and the age of rail transport (5,6)

19 Former archbishop of Canterbury (d1109), whose ontological argument for God’s existence has been much debated (6)

21 Ecclesiastical gatherings such as that of Whitby (664) and of Dordt (1618/19) (6)

23/17 across Commander whose misinterpreted order resulted in the tragic charge of the Light Brigade in October 1854 (4,6)

25 The Drury Lane theatre was the HQ of this Second World War entertainment organisation (4) FIVE WINNERS OF THE BATTLE OF WATERLOO EXPERIENCE A Winterbottom, Greater Manchester; NL Short, Kent; A Wilson, Cheshire; A Howells, Cambridgeshire; A Cash, Bristol