Patrick Miles in his summer house, 11 December 2016
George Calderon, 1912
Michel and Vera Fokine in “Scheherazade”, 1914 (The Music And Theatre Library of Sweden, creative commons)
Book sent to George Calderon in Russia by his mother, Christmas 1895.
K.N. Das Gupta and Margaret Mitchell in an Indian Dramatic Society production of The Maharani of Arakan, 1913?
George and Kittie Calderon 1905
Jean Ryckaert, May 1916.
A happy memory of Trinity College: undergraduates breakfast together in Downy V. Green, p. 77.
Frontis piece by Frank Calderon
Sir Richard Vincent Sutton c. 1913
Christmas 1901 Cartoon by George Calderon
The entrance to Fort Brockhurst (picture from Britain’s Past)
George Calderon c.1901
Unpublished watercolour by George Calderon, Tahiti 1906
Monarch Butterfly Madeira
Colonel Sir Walter Coote Hedley c. 1920
Captain of the 11
Figure from Gauguin’s 1899 painting ‘Tahitian Women with Mango Blossoms’ (left); George Calderon’s pencil sketch ‘Manu’ (right)
Basic form of the Calderon coat of armsRecent Comments
- John Pym on Two anniversaries We are all, followers and occasional contributors, beholden to you, Patrick, for reminding us for ten years that the past is worth remembering and for keeping alive the... (August 17, 2024 at 1:06 pm)
- Patrick Miles on A second Family Bible Very many thanks for fleshing that point out -- and so entertainingly! (I love your reference to creative writing courses, which are a phobia of mine.) Although several... (August 2, 2024 at 11:03 am)
- Laurence Brockliss on A second Family Bible When I say that the British Republic of Letters was dead by 1880, I don't mean to imply that thereafter there were no men and women outside universities, institutes and... (August 2, 2024 at 9:19 am)
- Patrick Miles on A second Family Bible Thank you for devoting valuable time to writing this fascinating Comment. If I may say so, it is awe-inspiring to see the author of a monumental work standing back from that... (July 31, 2024 at 5:32 pm)
- Laurence Brockliss on A second Family Bible Male Professionals in Nineteenth Century Britain was a new departure for me. For most of my adult life I have worked on seventeenth and eighteenth century France. It is also... (July 24, 2024 at 11:31 am)
Category Archives: Uncategorized
25 October 1914
George wrote to Kittie this morning from his billet at, presumably, Nieuwkerke: off this morning on motor trucks with the bully beef. I shall find Gen. Kavanagh tonight. I hope he’ll accept me. Perhaps I shall find the place taken … Continue reading
Another ‘Russian connection’
It is also surprising that in his letter of yesterday Calderon did not mention Captain Fitzgerald, with whom he had shared a hotel room at Ypres. This ‘full-blooded Irishman, black and hairy’ had, we presume, accompanied George to Dunkirk with … Continue reading
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Tagged Alexis Gunzberg, Ballets Russes, Belgium, Bernard Pares, Captain Fitzgerald, Colonel Gordon Wilson, Diaghilev, Dmitri de Gunzberg, Dunkirk, George Calderon, military interpreters, Royal Horse Guards, School of Russian Studies, Steenwerck, The Blues, The Great War, World War I
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21 October 1914
At four o’clock this morning the hospital train arrived in Dunkirk. George could not name the town in his letter to Kittie of 23 October, but we know from his letter of 15th that this was his destination. He heads … Continue reading
20 October 1914: Hell breaks loose
This morning the Germans began an offensive along the whole northwestern front from La Bassée in France to the Belgian coast. The German 4th Army was closing in on Ypres from the north and east, the 6th Army from the … Continue reading
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Tagged Belgium, British Expeditionary Force, General Douglas Haig, General Edmund Allenby, General Henry Rawlinson, George Calderon, La Bassée, Messines, Passchendaele, Royal Horse Guards, Sir Richard Sutton, The Blues, The Great War, World War I, Ypres, Zandvoorde
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Nuns fall for the Calderonian charm
The motor lorries arrived at 3 in the morning. Sick and wounded were put in; a pleurisy case; a man from our Brigade with rheumatic fever from our so-called ‘billets’. He had been lying two days in an ambulance wagon … Continue reading
15 October 1914
On this day George wrote his next long letter to Kittie, ‘from a low estaminet by a muddy village wayside’. During the night Captain Fitzgerald of B Squadron had ‘dropped something heavy on his foot in the dark stables and … Continue reading
12 October 1914
From the Château […] we went on to what they were pleased to call a ‘billet’ in the country, but it was only a bivouack, except for myself, who, having a cold, slept in the kitchen on straw. The others … Continue reading
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Tagged Belgium, Boulogne, Calais, George Calderon, Izegem, Lendelede, Royal Horse Guards, Rumbeke, Sir Richard Sutton, The Blues, The Great War, The Life Guards, World War I, Ypres
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Pause and enigma
The Calderon quotations that feature in my preceding two posts come from a letter George wrote to Kittie today, 11 October 1914, which was a Sunday. This was now the pattern: every few days he would write her a long … Continue reading
10 October 1914
Up at 3.30 to go out on a Patrol with [Sergeant] Mackintosh, to see that the country was clear of Germans for the Regiment to move. Out (with a little cocoa inside) between misty grey fields; very keen eyed at … Continue reading
8 October 1914
The transport ship ‘Huanchaco’ arrived at Zeebrugge at 5.30 this morning. Mid-morning George wrote to Kittie that the voyage had been ‘much like other sea voyages; meals, tobacco, chat and a little music’, But down below something between a menagerie … Continue reading
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Tagged "Huanchaco", Antwerp, Belgium, George Calderon, Kittie Calderon, Royal Horse Guards, The Blues, The Great War, World War I, Zeebrugge
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Darkness
By yesterday night the Blues had embarked at Southampton. But the transport ships did not move, as there was suspected U-boat activity in the English Channel. They may not have moved next day either, or they may have steamed eastwards … Continue reading
The ‘off’
‘So as not to crowd’ Ludgershall station, as Calderon wrote his mother yesterday, at six o’clock that evening the Blues set off on horseback from Windmill Hill Camp across Salisbury Plain to another station (presumably Amesbury). The Life Guards had … Continue reading
The military situation
In his letter to Kittie yesterday, Calderon wrote: ‘We hear that cavalrymen on the Oise have put their horses by, and are standing in the trenches with the rest.’ This was true and highly revealing. After 9 September the German … Continue reading
A lacuna
When I wrote in my posting for 16 September 1914 that George Calderon went off to say goodbye to his ‘only visitable relation’ in London, the word ‘visitable’ was carefully chosen. George’s widowed mother was in the New Forest at … Continue reading
25 September 1914
[From Windmill Hill Camp, Salisbury Plain] Friday Mrs P., So you didn’t have too much of your sleepy mole? Well, I don’t know about any more upcomings. Next Sunday, that’s the day after tomorrow, I certainly can’t; it’s too soon; … Continue reading
17 September 1914
In the morning, George and Kittie left Ringwood and travelled to Southampton. Here they said goodbye for the time being and Kittie returned to Hampstead. After lunch George caught the train to Ludgershall and walked to the vast Windmill Hill … Continue reading
