George Calderon, 1912
K.N. Das Gupta and Margaret Mitchell in an Indian Dramatic Society production of The Maharani of Arakan, 1913?
George and Kittie Calderon 1905
Patrick Miles in his summer house, 11 December 2016
Monarch Butterfly Madeira
Captain of the 11
A happy memory of Trinity College: undergraduates breakfast together in Downy V. Green, p. 77.
Frontis piece by Frank Calderon
Christmas 1901 Cartoon by George Calderon
Jean Ryckaert, May 1916.
Unpublished watercolour by George Calderon, Tahiti 1906
George Calderon c.1901
Michel and Vera Fokine in “Scheherazade”, 1914 (The Music And Theatre Library of Sweden, creative commons)
Basic form of the Calderon coat of arms
Figure from Gauguin’s 1899 painting ‘Tahitian Women with Mango Blossoms’ (left); George Calderon’s pencil sketch ‘Manu’ (right)
Colonel Sir Walter Coote Hedley c. 1920
The entrance to Fort Brockhurst (picture from Britain’s Past)
Book sent to George Calderon in Russia by his mother, Christmas 1895.
Sir Richard Vincent Sutton c. 1913Recent 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: Personal commentary
4/5 June 1915
The first wave of the KOSB attack at noon on 4 June was, as the Official History put it, ‘practically blotted out’. The carnage was so terrible that on his own initiative their commander delayed the second wave. At 12.35, however, … Continue reading
Posted in Edwardian literature, Heroism and Adventure, Personal commentary
Tagged 127th Manchester Brigade, comments, Dardanelles, Final days, Gallipoli, George Calderon, King's Own Scottish Borderers, Krithia, Lieutenant-General Aylmer Hunter-Weston, Manchester Territorial Brigade, Peter Hart, Royal Fusiliers, Royal Naval Division, The Great War, Third Battle of Krithia, Worcestershire Regiment, World War I
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‘We’re the Jims’
Hunter-Weston’s VIII Corps (in effect, all the British forces on the Helles front) issued its orders today, Thursday 3 June 1915. They were meticulous and ‘for the first time accompanied by a trench diagram, showing the various objectives to be … Continue reading
Posted in Edwardian character, Edwardian marriage, Personal commentary
Tagged 29th Indian Brigade, Achi Baba, Battle of the Brickstacks, Colonel Hawkins, comments, Dardanelles, Elizabeth Ellis, Gallipoli, George Calderon, Gully Ravine, Jim Corbet, King's Own Scottish Borderers, Kittie Calderon, Krithia, Shady, Sir Roland James Corbet, The Great War, Third Battle of Krithia, Tommy, World War I
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31 May 1915
Today the fate of George Calderon and several thousand other British soldiers at Gallipoli was sealed. Sir Ian Hamilton, Commander-in-Chief of the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force, decided to fight a general action on the Helles front without waiting for the extra … Continue reading
Posted in Personal commentary
Tagged comments, Dardanelles, Gallipoli, General Henri Gouraud, General Kitchener, George Calderon, Ian Hamilton, Lieutenant-General Aylmer Hunter-Weston, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, The Great War, Third Battle of Krithia, World War I
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28 May 1915
It may have seemed surprising, or even shocking, that Calderon did not end his letter to Kittie yesterday with any endearments to her, only a ‘warm embrace’ for their dog! But its beginning — ‘Oh dearest Mrs P.’ — is … Continue reading
‘New Western Polovtsians’
Posted in Personal commentary
Tagged Achi Baba, comments, Dardanelles, Gallipoli, George Calderon, H.M.S. 'Majestic', Helles, King's Own Scottish Borderers, Kittie Calderon, Michel Fokine, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, Polovtsians, The Great War, Tommy, U-21, World War I
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‘Hunter-Bunter’s’ plan
As an essentially literary chap, I do not propose to embroil myself in controversy about the Commander of the 29th Division at Helles, Sir Aylmer Gould Hunter-Weston (1864-1940), popularly known as ‘Hunter-Bunter’. He has been described as ‘one of the … Continue reading
Posted in Edwardian character, Personal commentary
Tagged ANZAC, armistices, Aubrey Herbert, comments, Dardanelles, Gallipoli, General Aylmer Hunter-Weston, General Douglas Haig, General Henri Gouraud, George Calderon, Ian Hamilton, Peter Hart, Second Battle of Krithia, The Great War, Third Battle of Krithia, World War I
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‘An obscure mixture of feelings’
I try reading the London Review of Books about twice a year, but each time end by flinging it in the bin: it’s not a literary publication, it’s a political one written by amateur politicians. And what I can’t take about … Continue reading
Gallipoli: The situation
To Hamilton’s request for ‘two fresh divisions organized as a corps’ (see my post of 6 May), Kitchener replied on 10 May that he could send him only one. This was the 52nd (Lowland) Division, which would take almost a … Continue reading
De-appling
In my 22 January post I explained the meaning of the Edwardian verb ‘to apple’. I mentioned that five lines in George’s letter to Kittie of 10 May 1915 were ‘appled out’ and I was following up ‘forensic programmes’ for … Continue reading
The bifurcator biffed
Faithful followers of this blog know that since last September I have been dogged by the rival claims of writing the blog and finishing the biography. The methods of each are so different that at times it’s felt schizophrenic — … Continue reading
Transfiguration and parting
Today, 10 May 1915, which was a Monday, George and Kittie set out on the 140-mile journey by train from Gosport to the naval base of Devonport, where he was to embark for an unknown destination. Five other officers from … Continue reading
Hypothesis, or conspiracy theory?
Whilst writing Crime and Punishment Dostoevsky reminded himself in his notebook that he must ‘establish why Raskol’nikov killed the old woman’; although he had already suggested several reasons in the novel. The question ‘why George Calderon insisted on signing up at the … Continue reading
8 May 1915
Today Kittie accompanied George to Brockhurst, where they stayed two days, probably at a B&B called Warwick House run by a Mrs Seymour. On the train journey, it is highly probable that George bought The Times and read a sensational letter … Continue reading
7 May 1915: Farewell to friends
A telegram arrived at tea-time on the Friday [7 May 1915] saying he would be home that evening for one night’s leave only to return next day to Fort Brockhurst to await immediate orders to go on active service. His Mother, sister, … Continue reading
Ruth Scurr’s exhilarating experiment
In my post of 6 March I discussed an essay by Ruth Scurr about biography that had just appeared in the Guardian Review. Her essay stirred up a whole hive of issues that the modern biographer should be aware of and needs … Continue reading
6/7 June 1915
By the end of 4 June, seven out of the twelve available reserve battalions of VIII Corps had been sent in to reinforce the failure of the attacks on the left and right flanks — although it has been suggested … Continue reading →