Tag Archives: George Calderon

They have wonderful editors

Hilary Mantel is an excellent writer. But when it was announced in January 2013 that Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies were going to be adapted for the RSC and a media maelstrom broke out, I felt uneasy. It wasn’t as though Thomas … Continue reading

Posted in Edwardian literature, Modern parallels, Personal commentary | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Apple apple apple apple apple

In his first letter to Kittie after embarking on the R.M.S. ‘Orsova’ at Devonport on 10 May 1915 (she was probably still watching the ship with other wives whilst he was writing), Calderon seems to have summed up his time … Continue reading

Posted in Edwardian English, Edwardian marriage | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The training of Lieut. Calderon

We can assume that George’s training with the 9th Ox and Bucks now began in earnest. Unfortunately, apart from a machine-gun course on Hayling Island in March/April, it is difficult to ascertain what exactly the training consisted of. We know … Continue reading

Posted in Edwardian marriage | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

An Appeal

If you have not read Clare Hopkins’s ‘Recent Comment’ of 9 January, please do. Clare is Archivist of Trinity College, Oxford, and the author of what has been described to me by the Senior Tutor of a different Oxford foundation … Continue reading

Posted in Personal commentary | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

17 (?) January 1915

Fortis est veritas 9th Battalion Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry                                                             … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Kittie’s ‘apology’

And why did I not go down and make him some comparatively comfortable sort of home somehow? — (for of course the married officers could live in their own ‘digs’) — Because he was firmly convinced that if he lived … Continue reading

Posted in Edwardian marriage | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

15 January 1915: The move to barracks

I conclude, by a process of the usual ‘triangulation’, that the newly commissioned Lieutenant Calderon travelled down by train to report to the Portsmouth base of the 9th Battalion Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry today, Friday 15 January 1915: 1. … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The military situation

Trench warfare was continuing along the Western Front, but Falkenhayn had no major offensive in view before the spring because he was too embroiled in his Eastern Front (see my post of 5 December 2014). Meanwhile, on 13 January 1915 … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

A review

George’s commission was dated 9 January 1915, which was a Saturday, and on the same day the literary magazine The Athenaeum came out with an unsigned review of his translation of Il’ia Tolstoi’s Reminiscences of Tolstoy. However, it is likely that George … Continue reading

Posted in Edwardian literature, Personal commentary | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

9 January 1915: Commission

This is the final state of George Calderon’s application for a commission: The writing in red ink across the left hand side of the form reads: ‘Temporary Commission as Lieutenant in 9 Battln Oxford & Bucks Light Inftr & order … Continue reading

Posted in Edwardian character | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

The Medical

About now, Thursday 7 January 1915, George Calderon went before a Board for medical examination. It is rather surprising how little concrete information one can obtain now about military medical examination procedures in the First World War. Recurrent themes are … Continue reading

Posted in Edwardian character, Heroism and Adventure | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Phantom flies in amber

So George was preparing himself in earnest for his forthcoming medical. He mentions having ‘massages’. I have a clear recollection of reading somewhere that these were ‘electrical’ massages — presumably the latest thing — but I cannot for the life … Continue reading

Posted in Personal commentary | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

(Commentary)

Staggered by flu, I did not have the energy to add any comments to my post of George’s New Year letter to William Rothenstein; but I will offer a few points now. William Rothenstein is an extremely interesting figure. He … Continue reading

Posted in Edwardian marriage, Personal commentary | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

1 January 1915

                                                                                … Continue reading

Posted in Edwardian marriage | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

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

Posted in Edwardian character, Edwardian marriage | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

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

Posted in Personal commentary | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment