K.N. Das Gupta and Margaret Mitchell in an Indian Dramatic Society production of The Maharani of Arakan, 1913?
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)
Frontis piece by Frank Calderon
Jean Ryckaert, May 1916.
Book sent to George Calderon in Russia by his mother, Christmas 1895.
Figure from Gauguin’s 1899 painting ‘Tahitian Women with Mango Blossoms’ (left); George Calderon’s pencil sketch ‘Manu’ (right)
George and Kittie Calderon 1905
Christmas 1901 Cartoon by George Calderon
Basic form of the Calderon coat of arms
Monarch Butterfly Madeira
Patrick Miles in his summer house, 11 December 2016
The entrance to Fort Brockhurst (picture from Britain’s Past)
Colonel Sir Walter Coote Hedley c. 1920
Unpublished watercolour by George Calderon, Tahiti 1906
Captain of the 11
George Calderon, 1912
Sir Richard Vincent Sutton c. 1913
George Calderon c.1901
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Monthly Archives: December 2014
A biographer’s long breath
Back in September, on 27th to be precise, a former professor of American and English literature at Leeds University, Park Honan, died at the age of eighty-six. Since another former professor of English literature recently expressed to me the view … Continue reading
Another big ‘Cauldron’
Rather late in the day, I asked my research assistant to look into the eldest of George Calderon’s brothers, Alfred Merigon Calderon, who was born on 7 June 1861, seven years before George, and was known to have emigrated to … Continue reading
The next week
There is no documentary evidence for what George did between 17 and 23 December 1914, when he and Kittie left for what she described as ‘a delightful Christmas at Foxwold [Brasted, Kent] with the Pyms’. But we can be pretty … Continue reading
17 December 1914
42 WELL WALK, … Continue reading
Total war comes closer
Today, 16 December 1914, at eight in the morning, three German battleships emerged from the fog off Scarborough and from a distance of less than half a mile shelled the town. Further up the coast at about the same time, … Continue reading
‘We are not bamboozled’
About now George Calderon was informed by letter, or told to his face, that his ‘real status’ was ‘that of interpreter’, i.e. not ‘second lieutenant’ as he had disingenuously interpolated in Form M.T. 393, APPLICATION FOR A TEMPORARY COMMISSION IN … Continue reading
A different mystery, then
You may remember that under ‘A lacuna’ (27 September) and ‘Pause and enigma’ (11 October) I described my attempts to solve the ‘mystery’ of Henry Calderon, George’s second-eldest brother. He had never featured in any of George and Kittie’s extant … Continue reading
Words (Edwardian) again
There was a long news item in The Times last week headed ‘Army gallantry awards under fire’. To clarify, this was not about awards-made-under-fire, but about ‘Britain’s centuries-old military honours system’ being ‘questioned amid allegations that a second Military Cross has … Continue reading
Chronotopia cured, or ‘a biographer…writes’
In my post on 12 September, I described how writing the blog nearly every day whilst attempting to finish the book had induced a kind of schizophrenia: the blog tells the last year of George Calderon’s life day by day … Continue reading
Posted in Personal commentary
Tagged 'real time', biographies, biography, chronotopes, chronotopia, comments, George Calderon, The Great War, World War I
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The military situation (2)
The military situation in the Calderon household had worsened, from Kittie’s point of view. She could see that George’s wound was not fully closed, but he had managed to get down with her to Brasted and back on 29 November, … 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
Posted in Personal commentary
Tagged Belgium, British Expeditionary Force, comments, Dardanelles, Erich Ludendorff, Erich von Falkenhayn, Gallipoli, George Calderon, Herbert Asquith, Kittie Calderon, Paul von Hindenburg, Sir Henry Rawlinson, The Great War, Theobald Bethmann Hollweg, Thompson Capper, Venetia Stanley, Winston Churchill, World War I, Ypres
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Birthday
Today, 2 December 1914, was George Calderon’s forty-sixth birthday. He most likely celebrated it over tea with Kittie and his mother; possibly a sister or brother also looked in. His mother, Clara Calderon (1836-1921), was the sister of painter George … Continue reading
23-31 December 1914: Christmas at Foxwold
Christmas Day 1914 was a Friday. Two days before, George and Kittie Calderon, together with their Belgian refugees Jean Ryckaert and Raymond Dereume, made their way by train to Sevenoaks, where they changed for Brasted. At Brasted station they were … Continue reading →