George and Kittie Calderon 1905
Patrick Miles in his summer house, 11 December 2016
Captain of the 11
Sir Richard Vincent Sutton c. 1913
Unpublished watercolour by George Calderon, Tahiti 1906
The entrance to Fort Brockhurst (picture from Britain’s Past)
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.
Colonel Sir Walter Coote Hedley c. 1920
Frontis piece by Frank Calderon
Monarch Butterfly Madeira
Christmas 1901 Cartoon by George Calderon
Figure from Gauguin’s 1899 painting ‘Tahitian Women with Mango Blossoms’ (left); George Calderon’s pencil sketch ‘Manu’ (right)
George Calderon c.1901
A happy memory of Trinity College: undergraduates breakfast together in Downy V. Green, p. 77.
George Calderon, 1912
Basic form of the Calderon coat of arms
K.N. Das Gupta and Margaret Mitchell in an Indian Dramatic Society production of The Maharani of Arakan, 1913?
Jean Ryckaert, May 1916.Recent 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: Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry
First biography of Gallipoli war hero
Weep, you may weep, for you may touch them not. Wilfred Owen Although at 45 well over-age, George Calderon was determined in 1914 to get to the Front. He signed up on 4 August 1914 and went with the Blues … Continue reading
Posted in Edwardian character, Edwardian English, Edwardian literature, Edwardian marriage, Heroism and Adventure, Modern parallels, Personal commentary
Tagged Achi Baba, Anton Chekhov, biographies, biography, British Expeditionary Force, comments, Dardanelles, Gallipoli, George Calderon, King's Own Scottish Borderers, Kittie Calderon, KOSB, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, Royal Horse Guards, Tahiti, The Blues, The Great War, Third Battle of Krithia, Twelve Tree Copse, World War I, Ypres
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‘bubbling with wit and good humour’
In a letter to the TLS (9 July 2010) I appealed for unpublished letters or works of George Calderon, but also asked readers to contact me if they had ‘come across references to him in obscure publications’. My thinking was that … Continue reading
Posted in Edwardian character, Edwardian literature, Heroism and Adventure, Personal commentary
Tagged biographies, biography, comments, Dardanelles, Fort Brockhurst, Gallipoli, George Calderon, Grenadier Guards, Helen Peel, Heneage, Kittie Calderon, Michael Davidson, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, Robert Peel, The Great War, Third Battle of Krithia, Times Literary Supplement, World War I
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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
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Watch this Space
6/8/15. I was flabbergasted last week when the TLS featured ‘Calderonia’ a second time on its very popular blog, this time to mark our closing (see link on right under ‘Related’ to ‘Second TLS blog post’). I cannot thank Michael Caines … Continue reading
Posted in Personal commentary
Tagged appling, Constantinople, Dardanelles, Gallipoli, George Calderon, Helen Peel, Hoffman Philip, Kittie Calderon, Michael Caines, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, Robert Peel, The Great War, Third Battle of Krithia, TLS, TLS blog, War Office, World War I
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30 July 1915: ‘Ends’
It does not seem exactly a year since the small boys Jack and Roly Pym ran across from their holiday home at Seaview on the Isle of Wight to greet George Calderon, a kind of uncle to them, who had … Continue reading
Posted in Edwardian marriage, Personal commentary
Tagged 'real time', Anton Chekhov, Ashford, biographies, biography, Captain Charles Evelyn Pym, Carl Jung, Clare Hopkins, comments, Dardanelles, Derwent May, Elizabeth Ellis, Gallipoli, George Calderon, Harvey Pitcher, Isle of Wight, Jack Pym, James Muckle, John Dewey, John Pym, Johnnie Pym, King's Own Scottish Borderers, Kittie Calderon, Louisa Scherchen, Michael Welch, Nina Astley, Nina Corbet, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, Percy Lubbock, Peter Hart, Roly Pym, Sam Evans, Seaview, Sheet, Tahiti, The Great War, Third Battle of Krithia, Violet Pym, White Raven, World War I, Ypres
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29 July 1915
29th July, 1915. The Military Secretary presents his compliments to Mrs Calderon, and begs to thank her for her letter of July 26th, and to inform her that a form of enquiry on behalf of her husband will be sent … Continue reading
Posted in Edwardian marriage, Personal commentary
Tagged American Embassy, comments, Constantinople, Coote Hedley, Dardanelles, Foreign Office, Gallipoli, George Calderon, Gertrude Bell, Hoffman Philip, King's Own Scottish Borderers, Kittie Calderon, Military Secretary, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, Percy Lubbock, The Great War, Third Battle of Krithia, War Office, World War I
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Flashback — and tourbillions in Time (again)
The Imperial War Museum invited me to contribute a post to their Research Blog, and I promptly accepted. I am not, of course, a military historian, and when I started researching the last ten months of George’s life I was … Continue reading
Posted in Edwardian character, Heroism and Adventure, Personal commentary
Tagged 'real time', biographies, biography, C.F. Aspinall-Oglander, Captain Grogan, Captain Hogan, Captain Paterson, Clare Hopkins, comments, Daniel Joiner, Dardanelles, Gallipoli, George Calderon, Jack Harley, King's Own Scottish Borderers, Kittie Calderon, KOSB, Major G.B. Stoney, Official History, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, Peter Hart, R.M.E. Reeves, Robert Graves, The Great War, Third Battle of Krithia, World War I
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The Press tries to help
Now that George was officially ‘missing’, Kittie could draw on George’s and her contacts in the world of print to publicise the fact and appeal nationwide for any information about him. She was extremely energetic about this. She first wrote … Continue reading
15 July 1915
Today Kittie received another letter from Gertrude Bell, who was managing the Enquiry Department for Wounded and Missing at 20 Arlington Street, London S.W. on behalf of the British Red Cross and Order of St John: Dear Mrs Calderon, Sir … Continue reading
Posted in Edwardian marriage
Tagged Arthur Maxwell Labouchere, Captain Hogan, Dardanelles, Gallipoli, George Calderon, Gertrude Bell, Ian Hamilton, John Hamilton, King's Own Scottish Borderers, Kittie Calderon, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, Sir Louis Mallet, The Great War, Third Battle of Krithia, World War I
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16 June 1915
Unless you are from a military background, you might not realise that soldiers on active service strive to report back to Battalion HQ at home, or how much other regiments exchange information from the battlefield with each other at home, … Continue reading
Posted in Edwardian marriage
Tagged Arthur Maxwell Labouchere, Bovington Camp, Captain Hogan, Captain James Grogan, Dardanelles, Dorchester, Dorset, Fort Brockhurst, Gallipoli, George Calderon, Kittie Calderon, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, The Great War, Third Battle of Krithia, Wareham, Wool, World War I
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11 June 1915
Sometime today, which was a Friday, Kittie received the following telegram: O.H.M.S. I certify that this telegram is sent on the service of the WAR OFFICE [Signature] 2nd Lieut. Calderon Oxford Light Infantry attached K.O.S. Borderers was wounded June 4th. … Continue reading
Posted in Edwardian marriage
Tagged Belgium, Flanders, Gallipoli, George Calderon, Hampstead, King's Own Scottish Borderers, Kittie Calderon, KOSB, Nina Astley, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, telegrams, The Great War, Third Battle of Krithia, War Office, Well Walk, World War I, Ypres
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31 May 1915
Today the fate of George Calderon and several thousand other British soldiers at Gallipoli was sealed. Sir Ian Hamilton, Commander-in-Chief of the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force, decided to fight a general action on the Helles front without waiting for the extra … Continue reading
Posted in Personal commentary
Tagged comments, Dardanelles, Gallipoli, General Henri Gouraud, General Kitchener, George Calderon, Ian Hamilton, Lieutenant-General Aylmer Hunter-Weston, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, The Great War, Third Battle of Krithia, World War I
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‘New Western Polovtsians’
Posted in Personal commentary
Tagged Achi Baba, comments, Dardanelles, Gallipoli, George Calderon, H.M.S. 'Majestic', Helles, King's Own Scottish Borderers, Kittie Calderon, Michel Fokine, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, Polovtsians, The Great War, Tommy, U-21, World War I
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26 May 1915
This afternoon the ferry steamer from Mudros with George Calderon on board arrived at Helles and its draft of soldiers from Britain landed ‘under the crumbled ruins of a white castle’ as he put it, i.e. the old fort at … Continue reading
25 May 1915
In a blue harbour surrounded by green rock-broken hills in a place I may not name. 9 a.m. … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged 'Stamboul', Dardanelles, Dorking, E-11, Frank Hornby, Gallipoli, George Calderon, H.M.S. 'Triumph', Kittie Calderon, Kyles of Bute, Lemnos, Mudros, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, R.M.S. 'Orsova', submarines, The Great War, U-21, World War I
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‘People are reading an awful lot…
…and many booksellers are doing mail order,’ writes Susan Hill in The Spectator. I should say they are! Click the prompt at the bottom of this post to buy my blockbuster biography from Sam&Sam while stocks last! Obsessed with self-image, … Continue reading →