The entrance to Fort Brockhurst (picture from Britain’s Past)
Christmas 1901 Cartoon by George Calderon
A happy memory of Trinity College: undergraduates breakfast together in Downy V. Green, p. 77.
Sir Richard Vincent Sutton c. 1913
Figure from Gauguin’s 1899 painting ‘Tahitian Women with Mango Blossoms’ (left); George Calderon’s pencil sketch ‘Manu’ (right)
K.N. Das Gupta and Margaret Mitchell in an Indian Dramatic Society production of The Maharani of Arakan, 1913?
Michel and Vera Fokine in “Scheherazade”, 1914 (The Music And Theatre Library of Sweden, creative commons)
George Calderon c.1901
Patrick Miles in his summer house, 11 December 2016
Captain of the 11
Unpublished watercolour by George Calderon, Tahiti 1906
George Calderon, 1912
Jean Ryckaert, May 1916.
Basic form of the Calderon coat of arms
Book sent to George Calderon in Russia by his mother, Christmas 1895.
Monarch Butterfly Madeira
Colonel Sir Walter Coote Hedley c. 1920
Frontis piece by Frank Calderon
George and Kittie Calderon 1905Recent 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)
Tag Archives: The Great War
Kittie
Most unusually, Kittie Calderon appears not to have gone to stay with friends at all since George embarked for Belgium on 6 October. We know this because the envelopes of George’s letters show that her housekeeper, Elizabeth Ellis, did not … Continue reading
Posted in Edwardian marriage
Tagged Acton Reynald, Antwerp, Belgium, Brinsop Court, British Expeditionary Force, Constance Sutton, Coote Hedley, Dixmude, Foxwold, John Masefield, Kittie Calderon, Mons, Nieuport, Nina Astley, Royal Horse Guards, Sturge Moore, The Blues, The Great War, VAD, World War I, Ypres, Yser
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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
Posted in Uncategorized
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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‘Rich gift of anger’ is roused
Calderon awoke this morning, Saturday 17 October 1914, ‘in a large comfortable double-bedded room, looking through tall windows into a big town square.’ He had breakfast in bed and ‘stayed there till eleven’. This afternoon he wrote to Kittie from … Continue reading
Posted in Edwardian character, Edwardian literature
Tagged Belgium, Bruce Richmond, Captain Fitzgerald, Dr Albert Tebb, George Calderon, Kittie Calderon, military interpreters, Royal Horse Guards, The Blues, The Field, The Great War, Theodore Cook, Times Literary Supplement, World War I, Ypres
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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
They enter Ypres
Clearly the Blues were not the vanguard of the 3rd Cavalry Division on the march (this Division, incidentally, possessed only 12 field artillery pieces). That honour seems to have fallen to the Life Guards, who had a far more ‘interesting’ … Continue reading
Posted in Heroism and Adventure
Tagged Belgium, British Expeditionary Force, Bruges, Geluwe, General Edmund Allenby, George Calderon, Izegem, Kemmel, Life Guards, Menin, Royal Horse Guards, Sint Eloois Winkel, Sir Henry Rawlinson, Sir Richard Sutton, Taube aeroplane, The Blues, The Great War, Tielt, World War I, Ypres
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Blood is spilt
Presumably B Squadron of the 7th Cavalry Brigade of the Blues also bivouacked last night near Lendelede. Reveille this morning, Tuesday 13 October 1914, was at four, and two hours later the squadron was moving south again, towards Gullegem, where … 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
Posted in Uncategorized
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
9 October 1914
The 3rd Cavalry Division had arrived in Belgium with a crack infantry force, the 7th Division. The latter’s orders were to go to Antwerp, sixty miles away, to assist in its defence. Little did they know that on the night … 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
Posted in Uncategorized
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 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 →