Category: History

Christmas Day

“The bearer, white-turbaned and bare-footed, pulls back the curtains to let in a blaze of sun. Outside the fountains are playing, the birds are shrieking. Cascades of stocks, carnations and petunias hang over the edges of ornamental pools.

General Stewart

If you walk along Pont Street you may have noticed this house opposite St Columba’s Church. Both were built in 1884 but the church was destroyed by a bomb in 1941 and rebuilt in 1955. No 67, known as Farm House, was commissioned by Major General Sir Herbert Stewart KCB but he never lived there.… Continue reading General Stewart

Ware’s War

Yesterday we left Fabian Ware in 1914 as a civilian in charge of The Mobile (Ambulance) Unit, reporting to the Red Cross and St John Ambulance.

Stand Before Your God

Paul Watkins is ten years younger than me, he was born in 1964. His childhood memoir, Stand Before Your God, was published in 1993 and made a huge impression on me.

Blake Memorial Cross

Margravine Cemetery has two listed buildings, four listed memorials and two Commonwealth War Commission headstones marking the graves of two holders of the Victoria Cross. Not bad, eh?

Swiss Role

The Honourable Artillery Company takes pride in being the oldest regiment in the British Army, founded by Henry VIII in 1537. It is irksome for the HAC that Pope Julius II founded the Pontifical Swiss Guard in 1506.

The Day The Dream Died

Today I am casting my bread upon the waters. TDTDD – I enjoyed writing that, it reminds me of TWTWTW – is a documentary screened, only once, on Channel 4 in 1988.

Lord Mayor’s Show

When I was a Trooper in the Honourable Artillery Company in the 1970s I twice took part in the Lord Mayor’s Show.

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Categorised as History