Kingdom of West Wiltshire (1962: The Apocalypse)

History
The  Kingdom of West Wiltshire  is a totalitarian UK survivor nation based in Wiltshire.

Doomsday
The only major neighbouring attack was a heavy attack on in Bristol and Southampton, plus 3 1kt bombs on various parts of Gloucestershire. Wiltshire was also hit by 3 1kt bombs, 2 on Swindon and 1 on RAF Lynham.

After Doomsday
The nuclear winter lasted between October 1962 and March 1963. A nuclear summer then lasted between April 1963 and September 1964. A major famine, plus a typhoid and Legionella outbreak killed many across the country in 1963 and 1964. The locals did not want to share at first due to desperation an later also out of meanness. The leader of Trowbridge UDC, Terrance Arnold Drake, took the chance to cement his power. He was a successful doctor and set up an emergency board to fight the Typhoid and Legionella outbreaks. His decisive leadership saved many lives and he gained much respect and kudos. He was indeed clever and a savoir as was his deputy, the Devizes builder Andy Richard Pool, who helped repair several sanitation works. It was shortly after this that Mr Drake chose to declare himself king and Mr Pool his Lord Chamberlain. Sadly, both their egos and totalitarian views boded for the worse.

The nation would struggle with various raids by the tribesmen from Oxfordshire, Swindon and the New Forest for many years. When the Porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV), also known among farmers as 'blue-ear pig disease' also killed most of thief pigs in late 1967, they managed to ration out the remaining food fairly and prevented any notable food riots, but wrongfully accused villagers from the unincorporated village of Chippenham of causing it, since it was a regional plague that had hit other unincorporated villages and tribes in both Wiltshire and the New Forest to.

1968-1977
As time passed the situation stabilised, the population grew and plans were put forward to re-colonise eastern Wiltshire and Gloucestershire. People were glad crime was at an all-time low and that the country was stable, but regretted the increasingly draconian and centralised nature of the regime. In order to keep the nation from falling apart harsh new laws the decreed in the early years that included- mini-skirts being banned in 1968 and thieves right hands being cut off as of 1970.

Wessex and West Wiltshire clashed in 1977 over a border dispute in the Dorset town of Shaftsbury. The peaceable town in the remnants of former city of Bath was also approached by Wessex re-integrated at this time. West Wiltshire felt cheated by Bath, who they had been trying to charm over for the last 3 years.

First Contact
First contact was made with the Gloucester in 1976, Wessex in 1977, Isle of white in 1979, Southern English Republic in 1982 and Buckinghamshire in 1983.

1984-1988
A second severe famine and a cholera outbreak hit the region, killing many people during 1985 and most of 1986. The Porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV), also known among farmers as 'blue-ear pig disease' struck also again and killed some pigs in late 1986.

Rebellion
Salisbury town was the focus of a new conflict with Kingdom of Wessex, after the pro-democracy Mayor lead a separatist revolt in 1989.

Military
The armed forces abandoned the use of bows and swords in favour of rifles and pistols in 1995. The army is a volunteer force of 2,500 and a conscript force of 5,000.

Transport
Horses are still popular in the nation, despite the resent, but short lived, outbreak of equine ethmoid hematoma.

Waterworks and food sources
Most water is drawn from local rivers, wells and a aquifer boar-hole near Westbury that was drilled by Southern England in 2008.

Economy
West Wiltshire is heavily dependent on trade with Southern England. The nations have developed to about the same standard of living, moral values and political attitudes. Both are long standing allies against the hostile tribesmen form the ruined cities of N. W. England.

It is agrarian by nature largely dependent on agriculture, forestry and selling looted metal from the ruins of nearby towns. A growing food processing, brewing and scrap metal trading industry ared beginning to develop around Devizes, Warminster and Trowbridge.

Healthcare
Lung and thyroid cancer are no longer major issues, and are markedly less than they were before 1976.

Cider
A local cider has been comercaly prduced in Westbury and Claine since 1998 and it is the naional drink. Some is exported to the PRUK and Southern England.

The arts
William Shakespeare was a 16th century Stratford-upon-Avon poet laureate and playwright, and is commonly considered to be the finest writer in World History. He is famous for his 38 plays, such as Hamlet, Macbeth, A Midsummer Night's Dream, King Lear, and Romeo and Juliet. Both before Doomsday and after, his works are still widely beloved and very popular in The Republic.

Media
The PRUK’s national newspaper has been in illegal circulation since 2009. Posers a nailed up as and when nessasery by the local authorities. A state-censored 5 page national news sheet has been printed weekly since 2006.

The Death Penalty
Murderers, sex predators, (rapists and child molesters,ect), traitors and enemy spies are executed with the hangman’s rope.

A TV journalist from Denmark was hung by West Wiltshire in 2005, after he was caught trying to exposé the government’s endemic corruption and human rights abuses.

Also see

 * 1) 1962: Doomsday
 * 2) List of surviving nations (1962: Doomsday)
 * 3) Editorial Guidelines- (1962: Doomsday)