Category: History

Berlin Embassy

Say “William Russell” and I would think of the initially slightly disreputable Irishman who made his name reporting for The Times in Crimea. He was described as “a vulgar low Irishman, sings a good song, drinks anyone’s brandy and water and smokes as many cigars as a Jolly Good Fellow. He is just the sort… Continue reading Berlin Embassy

A Pro-Cathedral

A “pro-cathedral” is a church with cathedral status though not being the main cathedral. St Paul’s is one of three cathedrals of the Anglican Diocese of Gibraltar in Europe; the others being in Gibraltar and Brussels.

Waterloo and Other Family Matters

I think I remember my maternal grandfather visiting Barmeath when I was a child; but as he died when I was four I think the memory derives from a photograph of him with me. He was Chaplain to the Bishop of Bombay and it was in India he met and married my grandmother.

On This Day

I have, again, delved into The Assassin’s Cloak: an anthology of the world’s greatest diarists, edited by Irene and Alan Taylor.

Days and Nights on Malta

Nicholas Monsarrat is an unjustly neglected author. If you have read any of his novels it will be The Cruel Sea. I hadn’t read anything of his until last weekend.

Eliza Lynch

Recent illegal emigrants to the UK have not contributed much to their new country so far, in contrast to 20th century emigrants from Nazi persecution, and from Uganda, Hong Kong etc.

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Categorised as History

Impeachment

When I was at school impeachment was synonymous with Warren Hastings.

The Today Programme

”A diary is an assassin’s cloak which we wear when we stab a comrade in the back with a pen.” (William Soutar, 1898 – 1943, Scottish poet diarist and epigrammatist)