Captain of the 11
Unpublished watercolour by George Calderon, Tahiti 1906
George Calderon c.1901
The entrance to Fort Brockhurst (picture from Britain’s Past)
Basic form of the Calderon coat of arms
Figure from Gauguin’s 1899 painting ‘Tahitian Women with Mango Blossoms’ (left); George Calderon’s pencil sketch ‘Manu’ (right)
Jean Ryckaert, May 1916.
Patrick Miles in his summer house, 11 December 2016
Michel and Vera Fokine in “Scheherazade”, 1914 (The Music And Theatre Library of Sweden, creative commons)
Book sent to George Calderon in Russia by his mother, Christmas 1895.
Christmas 1901 Cartoon by George Calderon
K.N. Das Gupta and Margaret Mitchell in an Indian Dramatic Society production of The Maharani of Arakan, 1913?
Colonel Sir Walter Coote Hedley c. 1920
A happy memory of Trinity College: undergraduates breakfast together in Downy V. Green, p. 77.
George Calderon, 1912
Frontis piece by Frank Calderon
Monarch Butterfly Madeira
Sir Richard Vincent Sutton c. 1913
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: World War I
…and a brain surgeon writes
Much as I am enjoying writing this blog free of the constraints of 1914-15 Time, I think long-term followers may understand when I say that I still think of my 1914-15 ‘blography’ of George as Calderonia proper. Those followers will remember … Continue reading
A posh word for it…
The other day, I came across a word that was new to me: apophenia. It is not in Chambers Dictionary, and at first I wondered whether it was a misprint. But, of course, there is masses about it on the internet. … Continue reading
Posted in Modern parallels, Personal commentary
Tagged apophenia, biographies, biography, Claus Konrad, comments, Dardanelles, Gallipoli, George Calderon, King's Own Scottish Borderers, Kittie Calderon, Man in the Moon, paranoia, pareidolia, schizophrenia, solipsism, The Great War, Third Battle of Krithia, Wikipedia, World War I
2 Comments
Thank you; and Bunty!
Last Thursday here in Cambridge I went to see a new production of Patrick Marber’s version of Strindberg’s Miss Julie, set in Britain 1945. I would be surprised if there is a tougher, less sentimental play touring England at this moment (it … Continue reading
Posted in Edwardian character, Edwardian marriage, Modern parallels, Personal commentary
Tagged August Strindberg, biographies, biography, Bunty, Captain Charles Evelyn Pym, cats, Clare Hopkins, comments, Constance Sutton, dogs, Foxwold, George Calderon, Harry Ricketts, Jack Pym, Jenny Hands, John Pym, Kittie Calderon, Miss Julie, Nina Corbet, Patrick Marber, Robert Nichols, The Great War, war poetry, World War I
Leave a comment
Is this George Calderon?
Just as music gives people ‘ear-worms’, so biography brings us ‘phantom flies in amber’. As I explained in my posts of 5 January and 1 April 2015, over time the biographer becomes convinced s/he has seen things in print that … Continue reading
Posted in Edwardian character, Heroism and Adventure, Personal commentary
Tagged beetles, biographies, biography, comments, Dardanelles, ear-worms, flies in amber, Gallipoli, George Calderon, King's Own Scottish Borderers, Kittie Calderon, military interpreters, photographs, The Blues, The Great War, Third Battle of Krithia, World War I
Leave a comment
A terrible anniversary
George Calderon is presumed to have died just after noon at the Third Battle of Krithia on 4 June 1915. Obviously, I refer first-time blog-visitors to my posts for that and subsequent days last year, the actual centenary of the … Continue reading
Posted in Edwardian character, Edwardian English, Edwardian marriage, Heroism and Adventure, Personal commentary
Tagged 'real time', Anton Chekhov, biographies, biography, Brigadier-General Napier, Clare Hopkins, comments, Dardanelles, Gallipoli, George Calderon, Helles, King's Own Scottish Borderers, Kittie Calderon, Major G.B. Stoney, River Clyde, Stanley Spencer, Søren Kierkegaard, The Cherry Orchard, The Great War, Third Battle of Krithia, William Rothenstein, World War I
5 Comments
Mrs Stewart of Torquay
I have been on holiday in Devon. A happy side effect is that I was able to visit what I believe to be the property that ‘Mrs Stewart of Torquay’ lived in from at least 1914 until her death in … Continue reading
Posted in Edwardian character, Edwardian marriage, Personal commentary
Tagged Brantford, Canada, comments, Dardanelles, Eliza Stewart, Gallipoli, George Calderon, Henry Stewart, James Affleck Stewart, Jane Stewart, Jim Corbet, Kittie Calderon, Lesbia Corbet, Mrs Stewart of Torquay, Nina Astley, Nina Corbet, Nina Stewart, Robert Stewart, Sir Walter Corbet, The Great War, Torquay, Vincent Corbet, World War I
Leave a comment
Watch this Space
Calderonia is an experiment in biography through a blog. It tells the story of George and Kittie Calderon’s lives from 30 July 1914 to 30 July 1915 from day to day as it happened, but exactly 100 years afterwards. It therefore … Continue reading
The Brave Little Tailor
7/5/16. The good news is that I have finished my fundamental revision of the biography. It can rest for a few weeks until I give it the final slow, close read. I turn now to writing the Introduction. These things … Continue reading
Posted in Edwardian character, Edwardian literature, Edwardian marriage, Heroism and Adventure, Personal commentary
Tagged Alison Miles, biography, British Library, Clare Hopkins, comments, Dardanelles, feng shui, Gallipoli, George Calderon, Graeme Wright, Harvey Pitcher, James Muckle, Karen Spink, Kittie Calderon, Laurence Binyon, Martin Shaw, The Great War, William Caine, World War I, Ypres
Leave a comment
Watch this Space
27/4/16. By the time you read this, I shall either be poring over George Calderon’s uncatalogued manuscript (typescript?) of The Brave Little Tailor and Kittie’s letters to Laurence Binyon at the British Library, or I shall have done so, in which … Continue reading
Posted in Edwardian character, Edwardian literature, Heroism and Adventure, Personal commentary
Tagged biography, British Library, comments, Dardanelles, Gallipoli, George Calderon, Hythe, Ian Hamilton, Kennington, King's Own Scottish Borderers, Kittie Calderon, Laurence Binyon, Liddell Hart Military Archives, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, The Brave Little Tailor, The Great War, Third Battle of Krithia, Wolfram Onslow Ford, World War I
Leave a comment
Watch this Space
13/4/16. The collective noun for emeritus professors is ‘a reticence’. It derives from the fact that although they still hold definite opinions, in retirement they are too shy to parade them before the world, e.g. in Comments that will appear … Continue reading
Posted in Edwardian English, Edwardian literature, Personal commentary
Tagged American Civil War, comments, Drew Gilpin Faust, emeritus professors, Emily Dickinson, Georg Trakl, George Calderon, Kittie Calderon, Laurence Binyon, Paul Boyer, Seamus Healey, The Great War, war poetry, Wilfred Owen, William Shakespeare, World War I
1 Comment
Watch this Space
6/4/16. I have now revised 96% of my book George Calderon: Edwardian Genius. The last chapter, covering Kittie’s life 1923-1950, feels too close still (I finished the second draft only two months ago) to tackle, so I am limiting myself to … Continue reading
Posted in Personal commentary
Tagged Addenbrooke's Hospital, Belgium, biographies, biography, British Expeditionary Force, Cambridge, Cambridge University Library, Clare College, commemoration, comments, Dardanelles, David Kindersley, Eric Gill, First Eastern General Hospital, George Calderon, Joseph Cribb, Joseph Griffiths, King's College, Kittie Calderon, Mediterranean Force, Philomena Guillebaud, Territorial Army, The Great War, World War I
Leave a comment
Watch this Space
23/3/16. I have now revised 92% of the typescript of my book. I shall tackle the last two chapters, which cover Kittie’s life 1915-50, after Easter. One reason for leaving them till then is that there are two pieces of … Continue reading
Posted in Personal commentary
Tagged Adrian Gregory, American Civil War, biographies, biography, commemoration, comments, Dardanelles, Drew Gilpin Faust, Emily Dickinson, Gallipoli, George Calderon, Louis Menand, Oliver Wendell Holmes, sacrifice, Sandham Memorial Chapel, Stanley Spencer, The Great War, war poetry, War Poets, Wilfred Owen, World War I, Ypres
2 Comments
Watch this Space
Calderonia is an experiment in biography through a blog. It tells the story of George and Kittie Calderon’s lives from 30 July 1914 to 30 July 1915 from day to day as it happened, but exactly 100 years afterwards. It therefore … Continue reading
Posted in Personal commentary
Tagged 'real time', Anton Chekhov, biographies, biography, Calderonia, comments, Constance Garnett, Dardanelles, deadlines, Gallipoli, George Calderon, Jenny Hands, political parties, Taoism, The Great War, The Stage Society, trade unionism, World War I, Ypres
Leave a comment
Watch this Space
Calderonia is an experiment in biography through a blog. It tells the story of George and Kittie Calderon’s lives from 30 July 1914 to 30 July 1915 from day to day as it happened, but exactly 100 years afterwards. It therefore … Continue reading
The Somme: a memory
In July 1970, whilst waiting to hear whether I had been awarded a grant to do a Ph.D. on Chekhov, I worked for six weeks in the male wing of a ‘mental hospital’ near my home. I place the words … Continue reading →