In a dictatorship when said dictator wants to impose his will he issues a Presidential Decree and at a stroke the dictator’s whim is law. In the UK there are democratic elections and two chambers in parliament to debate and scrutinise legislation. That is unless something is too trivial to detain our politicians, such as declaring war or leaving the EU. In that case parliament is by-passed and Her Majesty signs an Order in Council in the comfort of a sitting room in Buckingham Palace.
There will be no digression into using an Order in Council to trigger Article 50; I will leave that to the Supreme Court and steer into calmer waters. We have already seen (The 5th of August) how an Order in Council was used to bring forward the start of grouse shooting by a week.
St Peter’s Anglican Church in Cranley Gardens, Kensington, was buit in 1867 and continued in use until 1973. It is a large church that it became evident served a dwindling congregation. By an Order in Council it was declared redundant and leased to the Armenian Orthodox Church, who bought it in 1998 and in whose hands it remains today. It seats 1,000 and has the second largest church organ in the country, the largest being in Liverpool Cathedral. I intend to pay a visit soon.
Henry Sanford, who wrote a guest blog (Peaky Bloomers) earlier this year lives round the corner from the Armenian Church of St Yeghichè and told me about it. St Y, in case you are unfamiliar with him, was a theologian and soldier living from 415 to 475 AD. He wrote that “death, unanticipated, is death; death, anticipated, is immortality” which became a motto for Armenian soldiers. This aphorism seems to have more application to the field of battle than to civilian life.
But I digress. Henry noticed that David Ormsby-Gore (An Ambassador in the Family) had been to his prep school, St Cyprian’s in Eastbourne. Henry by and large enjoyed his time there and recalls his contemporary, Alan Clark, being “exceptionally nice and well-mannered”. Other Old Boys include George Orwell, Cyril Connolly (both of whom wrote about the school) Gavin Maxwell, Cecil Beaton, Philip Ziegler and the Maharaja of Cooch Behar. The school closed in 1943 and the Maharaja signed away his princely state in 1949.
Henry Sanford recalled his misery at parting from his mother at Platform 1, Victoria station for his first term at St Cyprian’s. I wonder what the Maharaja thought about being transplanted from his palace (modelled on Buckingham Palace) in West Bengal to Eastbourne?
Jeremy Paxman kindly wrote to me about his prep school in respect of George Orwell who had written an OTT vicious account of St Cyprians. I had noticed that the school had been an influence on his work and style.
The Platform 1, Victoria station episode related to me.
Henry
Thank you, Henry. I have corrected my mistake so that you are now miserable on Platform 1 and not Jeremy P.
Apparently Alan Clark did not enjoy his time at St. Cyprian’s. According to his biographer, Ion Trewin, he gave a stark account of the school to his father’s biographer, describing it as a notoriously awful place with bad food, absurd rules, tyrannical atmosphere and a feeling of being imprisoned, which, he felt, left a permanent scar. In 1993 he described it to another interviewer as “foul, I used to wake up on a lovely sunny morning and hear the doves, and I remember thinking it was another day of prison”.
One of Orwell’s biographers wrote that “Orwell’s experience of bullying at St. Cyprian’s can not be discounted as an influence on 1984”.
I expect it was a fairly typical 1930s prep school. By the 1950s when I attended one, in Eastbourne, things had improved a little.
Henry Sanford writes:
I have just seen
“One of Orwell’s biographers wrote that “Orwell’s experience of bullying at St. Cyprian’s can not be discounted as an influence on 1984”.
I expect it was a fairly typical 1930s prep school. By the 1950s when I attended one, in Eastbourne, things had improved a little.”
As an organ of record, I do not think I should let this pass.
If you wish you can add the following as a comment from me
‘The biographer was probably Prof Sir Bernard Crick. I once discussed with him the school’s influence on Orwell but he was not prepared to consider facts that contradicted a good anti-elitist story. Of course we all, like Alan, hated our prep schools. I do not remember it being any thing like 1984 or Animal Farm. Orwell seems to have picked this up from his experiences in Spain when he met Communists. My point is that I can recognise ‘her’ style and critical facility in his writing. He rejected the Edwardian snobbery and emphasis on duty, honour, obligation and sacrifice in response to the massacre of WW1. Admittedly my own experience was 20 years later than Orwell’s but I doubt if much had changed.”
I am afraid you must have experienced a bye day at the Armenian Church. I calculated a congregation of 2-300 when I attended. My musical appreciation is poor. I follow my Father who only recognised bugle calls. My Mother’s Russian family was incredibly musical and I crept away in embaressment on their musical soirees. There was one opera singer, Spiridonova, who would take the roof off! My Grandmother was not allowed a career in music, “not done”, in those days.