The entrance to Fort Brockhurst (picture from Britain’s Past)
Patrick Miles in his summer house, 11 December 2016
A happy memory of Trinity College: undergraduates breakfast together in Downy V. Green, p. 77.
Michel and Vera Fokine in “Scheherazade”, 1914 (The Music And Theatre Library of Sweden, creative commons)
Figure from Gauguin’s 1899 painting ‘Tahitian Women with Mango Blossoms’ (left); George Calderon’s pencil sketch ‘Manu’ (right)
Monarch Butterfly Madeira
Colonel Sir Walter Coote Hedley c. 1920
Jean Ryckaert, May 1916.
Frontis piece by Frank Calderon
K.N. Das Gupta and Margaret Mitchell in an Indian Dramatic Society production of The Maharani of Arakan, 1913?
Sir Richard Vincent Sutton c. 1913
Basic form of the Calderon coat of arms
George Calderon, 1912
Captain of the 11
Christmas 1901 Cartoon by George Calderon
George Calderon c.1901
Book sent to George Calderon in Russia by his mother, Christmas 1895.
George and Kittie Calderon 1905
Unpublished watercolour by George Calderon, Tahiti 1906Recent Comments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
Reactions
It has been suggested to me that the lack of Comments on the blog, after four months, is an indication of the ‘maturity’ (i.e. 60-plus) of its visitors and followers. You prefer to email me than bruit your reactions to … Continue reading
Polymaths, or dilettantes?
It is intriguing that in his memoir Sturge Moore should refer to George only as a ‘scholar’ (see yesterday’s post). They had both written plays, George rather more successfully than Moore, and they had both been active in 1910 in … Continue reading
‘Alle Strassen münden in schwarze Verwesung’
Apparently it was in November 1914 that Edward Thomas, with the encouragement of Robert Frost, began to write modern poems. I have known the ‘anthology poems’ of Thomas since I was a teenager, but now I am reading all his … Continue reading
Zillebeke Churchyard Cemetery
This week I have received and read Jerry Murland’s 2010 book Aristocrats Go to War: Uncovering the Zillebeke Churchyard Cemetery. Nothing, I think, could evoke so strongly the character and ethos of the men George Calderon was with at Ypres in … Continue reading
Posted in Personal commentary
Tagged Alexis de Gunzburg, Belgium, Colonel Gordon Wilson, George Calderon, Jerry Murland, military interpreters, Royal Horse Guards, Siege of Mafeking, The Blues, The Grand National, The Great War, Windmill Hill Camp, Winston Churchill, World War I, Ypres, Zillebeke
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Kittie’s therapy
‘So as to help him pass the day in hospital’, Kittie taught George to knit. He ‘at once grasped the possibilities offered by plain and pearl’ and started to knit a muffler, which became ‘a network of intricate patterns that … Continue reading
‘He downright cried’
One of the many symptoms of acute stress disorder is ‘hyperarousal’, e.g. irritability and outbursts of anger. About now, whilst Kittie was with him, Calderon learned that Colonel Wilson had been killed on 6 November: George was in hospital when … Continue reading
Remembrance
I wrote a piece for the parish magazine of my home town, Sandwich in Kent, about Laurence Binyon’s visit there in 1921 (see www.stclementschurchsandwich.org.uk and follow links to ‘The Signal’), and I’ve just received my copy. The issue, for November, … Continue reading
Posted in Heroism and Adventure, Personal commentary
Tagged George Calderon, The Great War, World War I
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Nurse Katharine
Several people have asked me why ‘Kittie’ is not spelt with a ‘-y’. The answer is that the spelling ‘Kitty’ is reserved for private, more intimate use, for example between Kittie and George, Kittie and Nina (‘Dinah’) Corbet, Kittie and … Continue reading
1 November 1914
Since Kittie recalled receiving a telegram ‘one Sunday morning’ saying ‘Home wounded, shot through ankle’, it probably was on 1 November 1914 that George arrived at Sussex Lodge Hospital, 27 Sussex Place, Regent’s Park, which is now the home of … Continue reading
Complex, yes
Today, Saturday 31 October 1914, George Calderon was presumably travelling in a hospital train to one of the Channel ports. The day is a black hole in his biography, but as Kittie remembered it he arrived in London on 1 … Continue reading
Posted in Edwardian character, Personal commentary
Tagged 'real time', Battle of Gheluvelt, Belgium, biography, comments, George Calderon, Kittie Calderon, Laurence Binyon, Michael Caines, military interpreters, Royal Horse Guards, Siegfried Sassoon, The Blues, The Great War, TLS blog, World War I, Ypres
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26 October 1914
Calderon found Brigadier-General ‘Black Jack’ Kavanagh last night about three miles from the front and presented his letter of recommendation from Kavanagh’s brigade major in Dunkirk. This afternoon he told Kittie the result: It is not certain that General K. … Continue reading
Posted in Personal commentary
Tagged Belgium, Brigadier-General Charles Kavanagh, comments, General Henry Rawlinson, George Calderon, Kittie Calderon, Kruiseecke, Menin Road, military interpreters, Royal Horse Guards, Sir John French, Sir Richard Sutton, The Blues, The Great War, World War I, Ypres
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23 October 1914
Today George wrote to Kittie from Dunkirk. It was his first letter to her for six days. ‘Dearest Mrs P.,’ he began, ‘I haven’t written, because there was nothing very gay to say.’ (See my posts of 29 August, 1 … Continue reading
The TLS link
At four o’clock this afternoon, Monday 19 October 1914, George and other patients set off on a very slow train to their ‘Hospital base’ at Dunkirk. It may seem odd that he had told Kittie to contact Theodore Cook, editor … Continue reading
Language issues again
The version of Binyon’s ‘For the Fallen’ published in The Times (see my post of 21 September) seems to contain a misprint in line 11: ‘stanch’ instead of ‘staunch’ (‘to the end against odds uncounted’). Last week I was in the … Continue reading
The military situation (1)
In the course of the First Battle of Ypres (19 October – 22 November 1914), the French, Belgian and British armies had fought Falkenhayn’s army to a standstill; but at a terrible cost. Beckett (2013) estimates German losses at a … Continue reading →