Category: History

The Best of the Best

If I were a guest on Desert Island Discs (unlikely) I’d choose Burke’s or Debrett’s as my book. It would be fun drawing family trees in the sand.

Sir John Lillie

John Scott Lillie was born in 1790 at Drumdoe Castle in Co Roscommon. Little Lillie grew up to be a great man.

Black and Tan

Wing Commander Gibson ,VC, DSO and bar, DFC and bar was the bravest of the brave. He died flying a Mosquito on a raid to Bremen in September 1944 aged twenty-six.

Chunky Chips

I very much enjoyed Chips Channon’s Diaries, the 1967 edition. I was aware it was incomplete out of respect for people still alive.

A Mad World

This townhouse, on the Upper East Side, is said to be the largest single-family home in New York.

Some Corner of a Foreign Field

When PG Wodehouse was interned in 1940 he had a long and uncomfortable journey to Upper Silesia, spending five weeks in the fort at Huy, a place better viewed from the outside. You will be curious about Huy and may not be quite sure where it is or how to pronounce it.

An Admirable Admiral

Cloudesley Shovell’s a grand name for a chap who doesn’t have to spell it out every time he talks to a call centre. He could be the central character in a series by Patrick O’Brian, for he spent most of his life at sea.