Tag Archives: George Calderon

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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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The ‘off’

‘So as not to crowd’ Ludgershall station, as Calderon wrote his mother yesterday, at six o’clock that evening the Blues set off on horseback from Windmill Hill Camp across Salisbury Plain to another station (presumably Amesbury).  The Life Guards had … Continue reading

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5 October 1914

                                                                             Windmill Hill … Continue reading

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4 October 1914

It was Sunday.  Kittie probably went to church.  She fervently believed in the power of prayer, and one can imagine what she prayed for. After lunch, they set out for Waterloo station.  As George was coming out of 42 Well … Continue reading

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3 October 1914

This morning, which was a Saturday,  Kittie suddenly received a telegram from George to say that, in her words, ‘after all a lot of them were getting 24 hours leave and he would be home in a few hours’. When … Continue reading

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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

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1 October 1914

The first attempt at implementing the Schlieffen Plan for defeating France had failed and Moltke was replaced as chief of the German general staff by Falkenhayn.  The Germans now began a second attempt.  Their intention was to invade the rest … Continue reading

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The military situation

In his letter to Kittie yesterday, Calderon wrote: ‘We hear that cavalrymen on the Oise have put their horses by, and are standing in the trenches with the rest.’  This was true and highly revealing.  After 9 September the German … Continue reading

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29 September 1914

It is clear from something Calderon wrote to his wife at the end of October that he did suffer from bouts of depression whilst he was an interpreter with the Blues.   On this day, Tuesday 29 September, he wrote … Continue reading

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‘Connected with the Hamiltons’

A hundred years ago today George V, Queen Mary, the Prime Minister, and their entourages, visited Windmill Hill Camp.  The Third Cavalry Division had now been officially formed and was being reviewed by the monarch. George Calderon described it as … Continue reading

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A lacuna

When I wrote in my posting for 16 September 1914 that George Calderon went off to say goodbye to his ‘only visitable relation’ in London, the word ‘visitable’ was carefully chosen. George’s widowed mother was in the New Forest at … Continue reading

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26 September 1914

Today Kittie left Hampstead to stay with the Pyms at Foxwold, near Sevenoaks in Kent. It was a sign of her desperation, or of her need for comfort, or at least of her desire to be with people she loved … Continue reading

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