tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-70356095599958755652024-02-08T03:24:13.727+00:00Grave Expectations and Doyennes of DeathThis blog is currently inactive as I've shifted my focus to talks and writing books. Feel free to say hi via Twitter (@misssamperrin), Bluesky (@misssamperrin.bsky.social) and Instagram (londontombs).Sam Perrinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09087801375009020534noreply@blogger.comBlogger16125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7035609559995875565.post-20336326558297864552019-05-17T12:56:00.000+01:002019-05-17T12:56:21.606+01:00Start as you mean to go on<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: black;">Greetings all, </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: white; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: black;">We've been human dynamos here at GE & DD recently, chipping away at a number of very exciting projects and MA-related research, all of which will be posted here shortly... hooray! </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: white; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: black;">Also in the pipeline is a brand spanking new website being created just for us by an amazingly talented designer so watch this space - we'll be back with a bang soon.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: white; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: black;">Rowan, Sam and Romany</span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmeLaGVrC6VxAR3JQkwQJLK6DTrJVEUCmwVqpk1A3fej3t8IoewPJ0llKl-FIZ0gBdbmW9nqz4sLiT9XERJQGIO-jWMYcUuB9ZJGrr36iB905f2yGXstjEOHvAkmoHPZvPL_pZGaruqiU/s1600/IMG_1828.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1305" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmeLaGVrC6VxAR3JQkwQJLK6DTrJVEUCmwVqpk1A3fej3t8IoewPJ0llKl-FIZ0gBdbmW9nqz4sLiT9XERJQGIO-jWMYcUuB9ZJGrr36iB905f2yGXstjEOHvAkmoHPZvPL_pZGaruqiU/s640/IMG_1828.JPG" width="521" /></a></div>
<br />Sam Perrinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09087801375009020534noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7035609559995875565.post-70629988430160660672018-11-23T17:38:00.001+00:002018-11-23T17:38:33.360+00:00William Mellish & the Would-Be-Killer Whaler<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">(originally posted 15 January 2018)</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Not everyone’s lives are a rollercoaster of
excitement or celebrity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Such was that
of William Mellish Esq., a respected ship and commercial property owner who
made his fortune providing the British navy and other vessels with fresh meat,
suet and other supplies.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVO68K1KJZqTtd1Ya3XeqeM6_k7kbTEiyuWRyXg7hAyubQuR2sk-i26GvGN-MVJDnwXiHOVOoa24AIHNEm87ru0tD0itG9iWzZGDEIx_EYKWQ841nx7XKwKcOuD0wfIBOOH4_q_vw4jmE/s1600/London+docks.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="745" data-original-width="1287" height="370" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVO68K1KJZqTtd1Ya3XeqeM6_k7kbTEiyuWRyXg7hAyubQuR2sk-i26GvGN-MVJDnwXiHOVOoa24AIHNEm87ru0tD0itG9iWzZGDEIx_EYKWQ841nx7XKwKcOuD0wfIBOOH4_q_vw4jmE/s640/London+docks.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">'Entrance to the London Docks' engraved by Charles Heath, drawn by Peter DeWint, (1829), image from https://www.bl.uk</td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: large;">On a freezing February afternoon in 1833, Mellish
stopped in at Spread Eagle Court to do a spot of banking. </span><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-size: large;">Unbeknownst to him, a shadowy figure lurked in
the entrance of the court directly opposite. </span><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-size: large;">As Mellish exited the bank and entered Spread
Eagle Alley, the man walked up behind him and shot him twice in back of the
neck, in full view of witnesses. </span><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">The
assailant then calmly cast the weapon aside as Mellish, bleeding profusely,
cried out, “What does this mean?</span><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-size: large;">I don’t
understand it - what does this mean?!”</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">The man coolly replied, “Mr Mellish, you tried to
kill me and I tried to kill you if I could”.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhV1vdZMhGKdLALpSHk_f3iROeTf_zftnQcz9eXsVQ7frO015wnLZ8CoKgBGGsFsEMfo954GvmTS0qXonZ986sEgTW4V9UAy9uJ-_oCV0cL0jBaThDJnBKMitPdDhnGI4DyQJ53JJAd7o/s1600/Spread+Eagle+Court.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="762" data-original-width="1097" height="277" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhV1vdZMhGKdLALpSHk_f3iROeTf_zftnQcz9eXsVQ7frO015wnLZ8CoKgBGGsFsEMfo954GvmTS0qXonZ986sEgTW4V9UAy9uJ-_oCV0cL0jBaThDJnBKMitPdDhnGI4DyQJ53JJAd7o/s400/Spread+Eagle+Court.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The approximate scene of the crime where Spread Eagle Alley once was (image courtesy of Google Maps)</td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: large;">What had Mellish done to deserve this? Was the motive robbery? Or a business deal gone sour? </span><span style="font-size: large;">Witnesses commented on the gunman's lucidity
immediately after the shooting.</span><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-size: large;">Making
no attempt to escape, he sat on the pavement and waited for the police to turn
up, confessing, "I have done it - I have followed him for a month, and I
know I shall be hanged for it; I won't hurt any of you - take me where you
like, I won't offer to go". </span><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-size: large;">Mellish
was rushed to Mr Miles, a surgeon on nearby Throgmorton Street. </span><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-size: large;">The first musket ball exited an inch in front
of Mellish’s ear and was discovered on the floor of a nearby tailor’s shop. A
week later, the second was extracted from Mellish’s neck.</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">A rich heritage and 'madness'</span><span style="font-size: large;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Two years earlier Captain Noah Pease Folger was the
master and commander of Mellish’s whaling ship, Partridge, but had been
dismissed on charges of misconduct.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A
dispute erupted: Folger claimed he was owed between £1200 - £1300 but was only
awarded £848, which Mellish paid immediately. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Crucially, Capt. Folger was denied an
all-important character testimonial by Mellish and it was this straw that broke
the camel’s back.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Folger descended from a proud and distinguished
line of whalers said to be related to Benjamin Franklin who were also
name-checked in Herman Melville's Moby Dick (1851). Soon Folger was convinced Mellish had
intentionally besmirched his reputation and ruined future opportunities,
depriving him of a living, and from that day forward Folger became a man
obsessed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A witness later recalled, “I
have heard him speak very violently of Mr Mellish indeed!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As soon as Mr Mellish’s name was mentioned,
he was like a madman”.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVMqU_2VWLe0rRgvp3GeLh7Wm8YMRG4jp2PBksTw6fzWTSPjpsE3xQathsUdf0vI_IAcMOBr36HqGkzxDMtF_LvHTzMG84U8RlrXcYu8TyMl9SaJKizz5q-yS8ZYYglPzvxoIMMv3HS_A/s1600/Moby+Dick.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="808" data-original-width="534" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVMqU_2VWLe0rRgvp3GeLh7Wm8YMRG4jp2PBksTw6fzWTSPjpsE3xQathsUdf0vI_IAcMOBr36HqGkzxDMtF_LvHTzMG84U8RlrXcYu8TyMl9SaJKizz5q-yS8ZYYglPzvxoIMMv3HS_A/s320/Moby+Dick.jpg" width="211" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Folger family as mentioned in Herman Melville's Moby Dick, 1922 edition and image from https://archive.org</td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: large;">What are fascinating are the varying degrees of
Captain Folger’s alleged insanity: he erupted with fury at the mere mention of
Mellish’s name before the attempted murder, yet his behaviour after the
shooting was calm and resigned. Folger followed Mellish for weeks leading up to
the shooting and had purchased a horse whip specially to beat him with,
indicating premeditation, however testimony from Folger’s fellow mariners
aboard the Partridge in 1826 painted him as a dangerously unstable man capable
of harming himself and others without a thought.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">While sailing the South Seas route, Folger
reportedly hurled iron bars at passing whales and then attempted to jump from
the ship onto their backs. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Half-naked,
he waltzed with chairs in the cabin and smashed panes of glass with his bare
fists, dancing on the broken shards. As soon as he’d been patched up, he
repeated the bloody ritual all over again.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>He was known to scramble out of bed in the dead of night, convinced that
Satan himself had entered the cabin, and steadfastly refused to sleep below
deck for fear of ghost of the ship’s cook who’d been dead for two months.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Convinced the crew planned to rob him, he
locked up his possessions and slept with loaded horse pistols next to his head
nightly.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg72rjQ53qQvB3XfMd9QWlGOUHoqqjdgb0094FAYI41G8PKGWbiWZojvAiY54F-i_dM7Dzok8zZ-UmOvb4fCnc7NRDkxfQr23DW6j4NkhBxitEt0nkx2QRSy9YKACZjMYA2fVCGAeV6kaw/s1600/Whaling.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-size: large;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="500" height="614" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg72rjQ53qQvB3XfMd9QWlGOUHoqqjdgb0094FAYI41G8PKGWbiWZojvAiY54F-i_dM7Dzok8zZ-UmOvb4fCnc7NRDkxfQr23DW6j4NkhBxitEt0nkx2QRSy9YKACZjMYA2fVCGAeV6kaw/s640/Whaling.jpg" width="640" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Image from https://archive.org</span></td></tr>
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<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">The Verdict</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Unsurprisingly, 37-year old Captain Folger entered
a plea of insanity and the jury took just 20 minutes to acquit him of murder,
although he was found guilty of breaking the peace and wounding with intent to
kill.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was sentenced to imprisonment
by Sir Peter Laurie, the then Lord Mayor who, like Mellish, is buried in
Highgate Cemetery West. Interestingly, despite the successful insanity plea,
Folger was moved from Newgate to the County Lunatic Asylum but was then moved
back to Newgate after the Superintendent of the Asylum noted the “establishment
was not intended for the care of sane persons”.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Redressing the balance</span><span style="font-size: large;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">William Mellish passed away the following year, his
ultimate demise no doubt sped up by his earlier brush with death.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was then that Folger’s lawyers, the
Sheriff and even the Governor of Newgate campaigned for his release on the
basis that Folger posed no threat to the public as Mellish was now dead. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The appeal was successful and a full pardon
was granted to Captain Folger but on one condition: he was to leave Britain
permanently within 30 days, in addition to “entering into his own recognizances
to keep the peace during the remainder of his life”. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After three years and nine months as a
prisoner, Noah Pease Folger was a free man and returned to Nantucket where he
died three years later on 7th December 1837.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">William Mellish was survived by two daughters (both married into minor aristocracy) to whom he left properties estimated at
the eye-watering sum of over £1 million (the inheritance later resulted in a
particularly ugly court battle between the sisters and their husbands, but
that's a different story!). Mellish and seven other family members were then
moved from the original family plot in St John’s, Wapping, to the plot in
Highgate Cemetery West by his daughter in 1859, some 25 years after his
original interment.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiS7NpVp1_V0Nom_nwVJcmQ7ibdK4jNdfZ3yPo2hbVTQ_zPoAXV9hsxwPKF-SIfVbSsN2mpUdPHa4l9qRO8AlsbP08Tije_hXphyH04ZvMnBnoGSYbk7dgWzDNjJT42E8z4lq0f6CCFPCY/s1600/mellish-west-highgate.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="510" data-original-width="680" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiS7NpVp1_V0Nom_nwVJcmQ7ibdK4jNdfZ3yPo2hbVTQ_zPoAXV9hsxwPKF-SIfVbSsN2mpUdPHa4l9qRO8AlsbP08Tije_hXphyH04ZvMnBnoGSYbk7dgWzDNjJT42E8z4lq0f6CCFPCY/s640/mellish-west-highgate.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<o:p><span style="font-size: large;"> <b>A m</b></span></o:p><b style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">assive
thank you to the doyenne of all Highgate Cemetery-related knowledge, Mrs Sue Berdy
- viva the Coven!</span></b></div>
Sam Perrinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09087801375009020534noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7035609559995875565.post-6138771958686971112018-11-23T16:38:00.003+00:002018-11-23T16:38:41.045+00:00Who put the nookie in the cookie jar? Mick did…(originally published 13 August 2018)<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">How on earth did two of Hampstead Cemetery’s most successful residents become embroiled in some deliciously subversive 20th century advertising? Sometimes that’s just the way the cookie crumbles…</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">In 1857 Samuel Palmer joined Huntley & Palmers as a partner and within a decade the family-run biscuit company dominated the market. By 1878 they boasted being Royal Warrant holders for the British, French, Belgian, Dutch, Italian and, at that time, Siamese royal families, while Henry “Dr Livingston, I presume?” Stanley ensured he was well-stocked with Huntley & Palmers as he trekked to Lake Tanganyika. Captain Scott followed suit (with his own bespoke recipe no less) for his ill-fated Antarctic expedition. The company supplied soldiers with their biscuits during both World Wars and even baked the future Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip’s wedding cake, while the Reading-based factory was visited by Oscar Wilde, King George V and Edward VII. It also was used as a set location for the speakeasy scenes in 1975’s Bugsy Malone starring Jodie Foster and Scott Baio. But something else set the company apart: its flair for advertising, both in print and on their highly collectible biscuit tins (trust me on this, they’re exquisite). But by the 20th century, this Biscuit Behemoth had no idea about just how collectible its tins were about to get…</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZsm1DGJ6RcxjbghmT2pkrrk8fUZEGU4g0DweIt8LT-GQW2eYAJRQ5KDqa6H74g5yU3N5NtowZUC3pEQy2Xr3qU84daPIYFCvhc63uQn05fPugxPyJOET95bXXUG_Nz_oUcH_yO8ghipg/s1600/samuel-palmer.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="500" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZsm1DGJ6RcxjbghmT2pkrrk8fUZEGU4g0DweIt8LT-GQW2eYAJRQ5KDqa6H74g5yU3N5NtowZUC3pEQy2Xr3qU84daPIYFCvhc63uQn05fPugxPyJOET95bXXUG_Nz_oUcH_yO8ghipg/s400/samuel-palmer.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Samuel Palmer (image courtesy of Reading Borough Council via http://www.huntleyandpalmers.org.uk)<br /><div>
<o:p><br /></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">By the late 1880s Kate Greenaway was legendary in her own right, commanding adoration from a generation of Victorian children (and their mothers!) with her nostalgic illustrations of children frolicking in Regency-style outfits. Her “Under the Window: Pictures & Rhymes for Children” saw her hit meteoric heights with the book selling out as quickly as it was printed, while Liberty of London commissioned an entire range of children’s clothing based on her artwork. Kate counted John Ruskin as a professional admirer and personal friend, was elected to the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours, exhibited at the Fine Art Society and even had an award established in her honour (The Kate Greenaway Medal) recognising outstanding achievements in illustration. Her work epitomised a time when children were untainted by cynicism, negativity or hardship, instead encapsulating innocence and eliciting a longing for a bygone era. Fast forward to the late 1970s when all that was about to change, courtesy of a subversive young freelance artist….</span></div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizNVlPdbHFb3zaBvhLfK3HUC-HYYmIux5s-qw7xpG8Wb65lMeoK0wB1KpoMDerHdOIu8X-NZZ6iGUyAJm4qQsWUJtN47_-ExT5QLPN0ZzceqqAOj0p1QFG1UVT0EhenCFCuv4c2lG7egE/s1600/kate-greenaway.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="536" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizNVlPdbHFb3zaBvhLfK3HUC-HYYmIux5s-qw7xpG8Wb65lMeoK0wB1KpoMDerHdOIu8X-NZZ6iGUyAJm4qQsWUJtN47_-ExT5QLPN0ZzceqqAOj0p1QFG1UVT0EhenCFCuv4c2lG7egE/s400/kate-greenaway.jpg" width="267" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Kate Greenaway (Image courtesy of https://www.npg.org.uk)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">During 1978/79 the UK saw the Winter of Discontent and Margaret Thatcher’s election as Prime Minister. The Clash released London Calling, the streets were piled with rubbish and Mary Whitehouse, self-appointed crusader against moral decay, was still fighting the filth. At the time Mick Hill was an illustrator from Whitstable commissioned to design three Huntley & Palmer biscuit tins and the opportunity to make a little mischief was simply too good to pass up.</span></div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-size: x-large;"><i>Mucha do about puffing</i></span></b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Mick got to work on his first design for Huntley & Palmers Cocktail Biscuits by replicating the style of <a href="http://www.muchafoundation.org/" target="_blank">Alphonse Mucha</a>. He created an Edwardian party scene in full swing complete with dancing couples, a band, bottles and bottles of champagne, luscious fruits and flowers… the illustration smacked of free-spirited opulence. But there was one small detail hiding in plain sight: a devilish-looking gent offering a buxom blonde an enormous spliff with one hand while pouring drink into his lap with the other. Evidently Mick wished to ensure the contents of the tin and the characters depicted on it had something in common: they were all baked.</span></div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJfKa1mLvWH64bsNvf0L0PagxTP58G7IHCPR0OGqASQzY3J81usC5SxkUnDOXv_vwjRTkSqGpJbBbbQZGjLuGLZsJNNFV8tHYmp1R14nhmxLbKf3rkAqv2skE0N5k1htYIm8SHpqJYZQI/s1600/huntley-palmers-biscuit-tin-barrel-mick-hill.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="620" data-original-width="513" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJfKa1mLvWH64bsNvf0L0PagxTP58G7IHCPR0OGqASQzY3J81usC5SxkUnDOXv_vwjRTkSqGpJbBbbQZGjLuGLZsJNNFV8tHYmp1R14nhmxLbKf3rkAqv2skE0N5k1htYIm8SHpqJYZQI/s640/huntley-palmers-biscuit-tin-barrel-mick-hill.jpg" width="528" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Those Edwardians, eh? (image courtesy of https://picclick.co.uk)</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIgFjWb-e7V2d8MmmKVeVw6uenxhe765OOGLlQpspH6v9BLaMgiyxIRJ89_9xcjGCd8VWqLaG9gfCC9sVkmByjpqLpNvqlDhMGSX_cShDldpLo7fB-xk-PA6xBBTlpAMikSaw5bpvr5sU/s1600/huntley-palmers-biscuit-tin-barrel-mick-hill-_57.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="590" data-original-width="518" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIgFjWb-e7V2d8MmmKVeVw6uenxhe765OOGLlQpspH6v9BLaMgiyxIRJ89_9xcjGCd8VWqLaG9gfCC9sVkmByjpqLpNvqlDhMGSX_cShDldpLo7fB-xk-PA6xBBTlpAMikSaw5bpvr5sU/s640/huntley-palmers-biscuit-tin-barrel-mick-hill-_57.jpg" width="560" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
The party in full swing (image courtesy of https://picclick.co.uk)<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b><i><span style="font-size: x-large;">Huntley & Palmers: (going at it) since 1979</span></i></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">This little act of dissent slipped under the radar and in 1979 Mick turned his attention to the next piece, basing it on Kate Greenaway’s famous Regency revival style (it resembles the accompanying illustration from her poem “The Tea Party”, published in 1892’s “Marigold Garden”). But this time Mick added an extra measure of spice to the tin, which featured children and young women dressed in that famous Greenaway style enjoying tea, cakes, tennis and kite-flying in front of a large country house. Sounds wholesome, doesn’t it? Again, things weren’t quite as they appeared: hidden in the background, underneath the feet of the innocent kiddies perched on the branch of a tree, are a couple enjoying some al fresco fun in the bushes while a pair of dogs are going at it in the garden’s right-hand border.</span></div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWlYHGke5GJqLmMILKqNfTehOOYXpGkNwZGXqYrm-lZt0zh0hd0sTDCipyV2HJP84ifNPEMxEN5lHanJdfXl8-9NvWXxEOvObBud9DKK0OgIAtwOgRVNJq3ImXQjJLeGrw7xdsSaleop4/s1600/olddesignshop_kgreenawaytheteaparty-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="470" data-original-width="579" height="516" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWlYHGke5GJqLmMILKqNfTehOOYXpGkNwZGXqYrm-lZt0zh0hd0sTDCipyV2HJP84ifNPEMxEN5lHanJdfXl8-9NvWXxEOvObBud9DKK0OgIAtwOgRVNJq3ImXQjJLeGrw7xdsSaleop4/s640/olddesignshop_kgreenawaytheteaparty-1.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Kate’s original The Tea Party illustration (image courtesy of https://olddesignshop.com)</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6o5cjSDft7xPadIY0l-1mwILbqL9pQzMI5M5p2QAjdng8BmcFS0rcW5N5H3v_UmCSBwxeIg8zsmdJ5g2q698ouSh8heMPUO95PzklM6pJ-kT_EtmVDDGM2GXdsoaQ9_DnspBR6XCuT_Q/s1600/kate-greeenaway-mick-hill-metro-e1534161204513.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="428" data-original-width="428" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6o5cjSDft7xPadIY0l-1mwILbqL9pQzMI5M5p2QAjdng8BmcFS0rcW5N5H3v_UmCSBwxeIg8zsmdJ5g2q698ouSh8heMPUO95PzklM6pJ-kT_EtmVDDGM2GXdsoaQ9_DnspBR6XCuT_Q/s640/kate-greeenaway-mick-hill-metro-e1534161204513.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mick Hill’s Greenaway-style tin (image courtesy of https://www.metro.co.uk)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHfrvWZ3nDAibXyUOjbqg2Ngag24nqJ8EOaP2A9WLHFpLAZh5tj3k9W8rlCwVW9xs1oihlmcFOTnmncnJz-9m_VWoXeBYANan6ppttVZ-nqxACqT4r0DopSPC7yS8eukGeSN23RUnyiIc/s1600/naughty-scene.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="409" data-original-width="615" height="424" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHfrvWZ3nDAibXyUOjbqg2Ngag24nqJ8EOaP2A9WLHFpLAZh5tj3k9W8rlCwVW9xs1oihlmcFOTnmncnJz-9m_VWoXeBYANan6ppttVZ-nqxACqT4r0DopSPC7yS8eukGeSN23RUnyiIc/s640/naughty-scene.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The naughty bits (image courtesy
of https://www.bathchronicle.co.uk)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbomUZqV4FTUhMXF_1DNR5GHWorDwPBThtWINQckFPhZitfdCSV4B2J0vbq-Mi86GIiZ66zdb_Pzzc9f4qMoeN0tM4oS4ldd1jNnN2Wh-lEQw0GNXfjxdgqolGcIFKjVYqj5oxw5Ipmxo/s1600/dogs.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="409" data-original-width="615" height="424" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbomUZqV4FTUhMXF_1DNR5GHWorDwPBThtWINQckFPhZitfdCSV4B2J0vbq-Mi86GIiZ66zdb_Pzzc9f4qMoeN0tM4oS4ldd1jNnN2Wh-lEQw0GNXfjxdgqolGcIFKjVYqj5oxw5Ipmxo/s640/dogs.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">More
naughty bits (images courtesy of https://www.bathchronicle.co.uk)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<b><i><span style="font-size: x-large;">Sex and drugs and profiteroles</span></i></b><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;">F</span><span style="font-size: large;">or the final instalment in his hat-trick of naughtiness, Mick chose a Japanese theme that imitated woodblock printing, depicting a lively nocturnal scene in which traditional bare-chested female pearl divers brought their treasures to the surface. The scene is completed with an attractive cherry blossom tree, underneath which stands an artist painting a landscape scene. Now this one was a little more subtle, unless you are Japanese: the logographic characters running down the left of the artist’s picture spell out “Sex and drugs and rock ‘n roll” which Mick had a friend translate for him.</span></div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzpA-U9Ym3lgKDKb0eRZYeOdeu59pYR0PVvLvwGOSFrryWs6rHvGXrHKLHBgpc8dkF5rq3wxmz4U9_HhEz_TT7ZX-bv34z4pRjd7taxXXY9w62cByCsyeL9cDTTasALLaf2ql4Fv327O0/s1600/pearl-divers-editiononline-e1534162066634.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="462" data-original-width="462" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzpA-U9Ym3lgKDKb0eRZYeOdeu59pYR0PVvLvwGOSFrryWs6rHvGXrHKLHBgpc8dkF5rq3wxmz4U9_HhEz_TT7ZX-bv34z4pRjd7taxXXY9w62cByCsyeL9cDTTasALLaf2ql4Fv327O0/s640/pearl-divers-editiononline-e1534162066634.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Pearl Divers by Mick Hill (image courtesy of http://www.editiononline.co.uk)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">All good things must come to an end and it wasn’t long before someone
spotted the impish images and brought them to the attention of Huntley &
Palmers. The company didn’t take it
well, issuing a press statement that read, in part, “… we can only decide to
have a joke in rather poor taste” and describing the incident as “a very stupid
and costly prank”. Predictably the
papers had a field day and thousands of lofts the country over were raided in
the hope of finding contraband tins.
Mick was portrayed as being a vindictive ex-staff member but that was
never the case: he was a freelancer and described his actions as being “just
done for a bit of fun, for devilment really”.
You can watch the wonderful BBC interview with him <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-england-berkshire-43671549/huntley-and-palmers-biscuit-tin-sex-secrets-revealed" target="_blank">here</a>. One of each of the infamous tins resides in
the Reading Museum’s collection while the rest go for a pretty penny on online
auction sites.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Samuel Palmer’s family grave is on a small tarmacked path to the left
of the main path leading down from the cemetery gates on Fortune Green
Road. Samuel retired in 1898 and passed
away on 9th April 1903 suffering from Parkinson’s Disease. His wife, Mary Jane, joined him in 1910,
followed by their daughter Nora in 1932.
The monument in Hampstead Cemetery isn’t listed but the memorial
drinking fountain erected in his memory on nearby College Crescent (where the
family lived at No. 40) is. Constructed
in the Arts & Crafts / Gothic-style with pink granite and oak, the
inscription reads:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">“<i>This fountain, together with the open space on which it is erected,
was presented to the Borough of Hampstead for the public benefit, in memory of
the late Samuel Palmer, of Northcourt, Hampstead, by his widow and family,
1904</i>”</span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCRxI27pNQy_Grv26jJOIARIwTtEQ_VFP5UIrXt-r9QnPQj9xpbsplldhKenJ6EnDFdRuhfyfX4MXuJ5oiq9XbDlf_E1bdX0wborYUcj-61e-y2OUiLLukQgAbvcNF0KOMe0R5iaXpK0U/s1600/palmer.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="423" data-original-width="317" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCRxI27pNQy_Grv26jJOIARIwTtEQ_VFP5UIrXt-r9QnPQj9xpbsplldhKenJ6EnDFdRuhfyfX4MXuJ5oiq9XbDlf_E1bdX0wborYUcj-61e-y2OUiLLukQgAbvcNF0KOMe0R5iaXpK0U/s400/palmer.jpg" width="298" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Palmer
family plot, Hampstead Cemetery</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiE4kbXpxKR3_LfOJ68_xVhsUMCgtyxAzXYvgQESi1ipnmP_CkkQuRRBOltj1x0XvllhHw0kA3Mc8kEpmNu1JmH9FDY1bQ3OgjThwP3wMAyONCfnFbPmad0wdatCBuFwOTSsdXbbG4selQ/s1600/palmer-fountain.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="423" data-original-width="317" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiE4kbXpxKR3_LfOJ68_xVhsUMCgtyxAzXYvgQESi1ipnmP_CkkQuRRBOltj1x0XvllhHw0kA3Mc8kEpmNu1JmH9FDY1bQ3OgjThwP3wMAyONCfnFbPmad0wdatCBuFwOTSsdXbbG4selQ/s400/palmer-fountain.jpg" width="298" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Samuel
Palmer Memorial Drinking Fountain, College Crescent, Swiss Cottage</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
</div>
<div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Kate Greenaway died on 6th November 1901 after suffering from breast cancer, which eventually spread to her lungs, for three years. Her Arts & Crafts-style Hampstead home (39 Frognal) boasts a blue plaque commemorating her achievements and she was cremated in a private service, joining her parents in the family grave on 13th November, aged 55. Her only brother, Alfred, joined them in 1938. The plot is almost completely covered by an impenetrable blanket of blackberries and brambles, with only part of her father’s name visible on the top of the headstone (stand directly in front of Joseph Lister’s grave and look slightly to the right under a large tree – thank you, helpful sunbeam, for shining directly onto the grave in the photo below). Her epitaph reads:</span></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>Heaven’s blue skies may shine above my head,</i></span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<i style="font-size: x-large;">While you stand there – and say that I am dead!</i></blockquote>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZEEcYgfM86jPdhV56SbPfcy3i-TtxIP_yCzWHIxSUPKYmbKfljcnuLsPkST8FQaJeTbGXuAtULlF4BCNbCrDCwgrRQz6nHGH1xNYVenuvZ4lY-XW8tTGLeI4DQ2Y7WFuIByLneeGSTJA/s1600/greenaway.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1396" data-original-width="1600" height="558" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZEEcYgfM86jPdhV56SbPfcy3i-TtxIP_yCzWHIxSUPKYmbKfljcnuLsPkST8FQaJeTbGXuAtULlF4BCNbCrDCwgrRQz6nHGH1xNYVenuvZ4lY-XW8tTGLeI4DQ2Y7WFuIByLneeGSTJA/s640/greenaway.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">So what would Samuel and Kate have made of these little acts of
rebellion? I’d like to imagine them
taking it in the humour in which it was intended, perhaps over a pot of tea and
some ginger snaps in that biscuit factory / artist studio in the sky, but
something tells me they wouldn’t have (fig) rolled with it.</span></div>
</div>
Sam Perrinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09087801375009020534noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7035609559995875565.post-50426265487750659602018-10-11T16:21:00.000+01:002018-10-11T16:22:43.668+01:00Charlotte Mary Mew (1869 –1928)<br />
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">(originally published 01 May 2018)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">As LGBT History month draws to a close, today we
celebrate Charlotte Mew, a writer and poet whose original, emotionally intense
work packed a punch that belied her diminutive physical stature. Her fans included Virginia Woolf, who
described her as the “<i>world’s greatest poetess</i>” while another admirer,
Thomas Hardy, said she was, “<i>far and away the best living woman poet, who
will be read when others are forgotten</i>”.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhreLiCPDSl5l4RVs6kubQEXhoZfFLhkC_nOVwtOUG_Nt7eEm4p88cnadO1tQeZA2uZ9I0T1zrBFP6aZxtcC20T2_ibFbB-evzfrbBP2LZo4dvW7397lU5lYvcnR3rsESYCg6HRk24yzR8/s1600/ellie_foreman-peck.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><img border="0" data-original-height="334" data-original-width="535" height="199" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhreLiCPDSl5l4RVs6kubQEXhoZfFLhkC_nOVwtOUG_Nt7eEm4p88cnadO1tQeZA2uZ9I0T1zrBFP6aZxtcC20T2_ibFbB-evzfrbBP2LZo4dvW7397lU5lYvcnR3rsESYCg6HRk24yzR8/s320/ellie_foreman-peck.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Add Illustration by Ellie Foreman-Peck from 03 June 2013 issue of the New Statesman</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">“<i>An Imp with Brains</i>” - Catherine Dawson
Scott<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">One of Charlotte’s best known works, <a href="https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/55324/the-farmers-bride"><span style="color: blue;">The Farmers Bride</span></a>, is included in the GCSE English
Literature syllabus and poetry lovers on the tube might have noticed <a href="https://tfl.gov.uk/forms/12393.aspx?ID=28"><span style="color: blue;">Sea Love</span></a> featured on TFL’s Poetry on the
Underground. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Her talents even earned her
a blue plaque outside the home she grew up in on Doughty Street, Bloomsbury,
yet her simple headstone lies toppled over on its back in a quiet section of
Hampstead Cemetery, echoing the themes of loneliness and isolation that
featured so frequently in her writing.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Charlotte Mew as painted by Dorothy Hawksley © National Portrait Gallery, London</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Joy Grant’s Harold Monro and the Poetry Bookshop described a tiny, witty and thoroughly unique woman who rolled her own
cigarettes and brandished her umbrella as though it were “a weapon against the
world” but who possessed a charmingly self-deprecating sense of humour - when
asked if she was Charlotte Mew, she drolly responded, “I am sorry to say I am”.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Was this humour countering the loss of nearly her
entire immediate family before she was 30 and the string of romantic rejections
from the women she fell in love with? <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
believe it was. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After all, she
experienced more hardship in her life than most are equipped to deal with. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A woman after my own heart, cemeteries also
featured in her work, most notably <a href="https://charlottemewproject.wordpress.com/2014/04/09/in-nunhead-cemetery/"><span style="color: blue;">In Nunhead Cemetery</span></a> and <a href="https://charlottemewproject.wordpress.com/2014/04/16/jour-des-morts/"><span style="color: blue;">Jour des morts
'Cimetière Montparnasse'</span></a>, the latter of which was set to music. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Her dark sense of humour was evident when
telling her favourite joke about a hearse-driver who ran over a man, killing
him, causing a passer-by to shout out, “Greedy!”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">By around 1915/1916 Charlotte stopped writing
stories and essays to focus almost solely on poetry and while celebrated by her
famous fans, her work was largely ignored by the public at the time. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In 1928 Charlotte Mew poured herself a glass of Lysol and drank it, so ending her own life the
year after losing her last remaining sister. As is so often the case, her genius was only appreciated retrospectively.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />Sam Perrinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09087801375009020534noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7035609559995875565.post-24990834877690238792018-10-11T13:21:00.000+01:002018-10-11T13:21:34.658+01:00Adventures of a Country Home (originally published 17 May 2018)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<b style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: black; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">Today’s blog is a departure
from the usual</span></span></b></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_DSpJt8iGFOLaZ0Ydu9tpRyPAXEjV2-dzTe9d8fHVShFoYFvrvUmDvWx8zC0EXZ3-Wun8SAQGbtA_QF3O2OV8e3wWZaRDjHqgo2P8hTKwpexEBsA_l0kuRSDm5P6IMAIzMer6H5cQ69k/s1600/lake.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="580" data-original-width="966" height="192" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_DSpJt8iGFOLaZ0Ydu9tpRyPAXEjV2-dzTe9d8fHVShFoYFvrvUmDvWx8zC0EXZ3-Wun8SAQGbtA_QF3O2OV8e3wWZaRDjHqgo2P8hTKwpexEBsA_l0kuRSDm5P6IMAIzMer6H5cQ69k/s320/lake.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; color: white;">The Hayes positively radiates history.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; color: white;">It’s a gorgeous old mansion that could easily
double as the set of a whodunit murder mystery, with links to St Pancras
Station and which was also the site of a daring wartime escape!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; color: white;">Built by Francis Wright as a wedding gift to his
son, Fitzherbert (as one does), construction commenced in the 1860s and the
sprawling home was finally completed in 1909.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Francis was a forward-thinking industrialist with interests in the
Butterley Company, an iron production company responsible for the first
Vauxhall Bridge over the Thames.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Butterley also extracted coal and was producing enormous amounts of the
stuff by 1862.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipBJKI0A93NskPhgCPCr9WS9xWXOCO11HCc2wLlnhQKYUlZd_cKIZGANtUOM3n-0gENhqv9a6CKecaw4w0jT9XyL0FOVe_6uBFF_CtpcyS_KR2E_x7c71jYpZ6AFSbjiMJY1pDwacPvaw/s1600/Arches+Hayes.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="872" data-original-width="523" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipBJKI0A93NskPhgCPCr9WS9xWXOCO11HCc2wLlnhQKYUlZd_cKIZGANtUOM3n-0gENhqv9a6CKecaw4w0jT9XyL0FOVe_6uBFF_CtpcyS_KR2E_x7c71jYpZ6AFSbjiMJY1pDwacPvaw/s400/Arches+Hayes.jpg" width="238" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: white;"><span style="background-color: black;">Wright was savvy and realised the Midland Railway
Company, also under his directorship, had no direct route into the increasingly
congested Euston Station and was in dire need of expansion. So the Midland Railway purchased land north
of the Regents Canal (flattening Agar and Somers Towns, considered two of the
worst slums in north London, and clearing St Pancras Churchyard in the process)
to construct a goods terminus and in 1868 secured the contract for designing
and creating the roof of St Pancras Station. It’s hardly surprising that the beautiful blue
arched ribs of St Pancras and the arches in the conservatory of The Hayes bear
a resemblance - they were both created by Wright’s Butterley Company.</span><span style="background-color: white;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPnTxKZ4_tE5lOZaEO-EIKYvR0zRDd8lz9FSPwSzTXeWCAOpm0Y0KAyQ1mWHxStyd6l3Qp5fgzjQdhhzfVabjaf4QipR46ryCf7nAnxFIC2_OmzR33ae0J_g4CpY4FdpiFEYwyUUYUc5s/s1600/Arches+KingsX.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="477" data-original-width="794" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPnTxKZ4_tE5lOZaEO-EIKYvR0zRDd8lz9FSPwSzTXeWCAOpm0Y0KAyQ1mWHxStyd6l3Qp5fgzjQdhhzfVabjaf4QipR46ryCf7nAnxFIC2_OmzR33ae0J_g4CpY4FdpiFEYwyUUYUc5s/s400/Arches+KingsX.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<o:p> </o:p><span style="background-color: black; color: white;">Fitzherbert resigned from the Butterley Company due
to ill health and retired to the coast where he died in December 1910.</span><span style="color: white;"> </span><span style="background-color: black; color: white;">His son, Henry, lived elsewhere and it was
around this time that a fledgling company, First Conference Estate Limited, a
collective of Christian societies and organisations, just happened to be
looking for a site similar to the permanent venues used for Christian student
conferences in the US.</span><span style="color: white;"> </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; color: white;">The Hayes was perfect for the company’s needs and
was purchased from Henry for £11,500, a fraction of what it cost to build, with
parts of the original house redeveloped to have additional accommodation
facilities.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Henry was appointed director
of the company and there he remained for the next 12 years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Business was good until the outbreak of WWI
when the site was used as army barracks and residence for evacuees from two London
girls’ schools. Post-war, the company expanded - purchasing property in
Hertfordshire to add to its portfolio, extending its services to host functions
like wedding receptions. In 1920 Henry severed the Wright family’s connection
with The Hayes after he resigned.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhdXaTowMKjQXEjK0ldWHHLyvYgF1JE1Cs7EA2efhyphenhyphen-Cco-5TeZoYmbSmRo_2I7TJ3TZUqu4fGSOBPKgE-bUeaIQ9LuFvSdQR-sRQpJBA_7RVb6oWZ4iwPqn2oFnxJIlMXEADd4j8bm7w/s1600/hayes.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="828" data-original-width="1380" height="192" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhdXaTowMKjQXEjK0ldWHHLyvYgF1JE1Cs7EA2efhyphenhyphen-Cco-5TeZoYmbSmRo_2I7TJ3TZUqu4fGSOBPKgE-bUeaIQ9LuFvSdQR-sRQpJBA_7RVb6oWZ4iwPqn2oFnxJIlMXEADd4j8bm7w/s320/hayes.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; color: white;">WWII is when The Hayes’ history gets really
interesting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The site was acquired by
the War Office and was initially used to accommodate British troops but was
later converted into a “Detention Camp for Aliens”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; color: white;">It then became a POW encampment for German air
force officers known as Camp 13.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Two of
its first “enforced guests” were Luftwaffe Major Heinz Cramer and fighter pilot
Franz Von Werra, the latter of whom had previously escaped from Grizedale Hall
in the Lake District by climbing over a wall during exercises. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; color: white;">Unsurprisingly, the prospect of escape came up
again and the pair recruited another three men to join them: Walter (Manni)
Mannhart, “Doc” Wagner and Hannes Wilhelm.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The five prospective escapees even earned a rather droll nickname
courtesy of Von Werra: “Die Swanwick Tiefbau AG” (“The Swanwick Construction
Company”).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In November 1940, they began
digging a tunnel from the Garden House, depositing the superfluous sand and
clay anywhere they could to avoid detection.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; color: white;">They dug for over a month and on 20 December 1940,
finally broke through the soil behind a tree to freedom. But their collective
relief was short lived as all five men were eventually caught and returned to
Camp 13 and later transferred to Canada, where Von Werra finally did evade his
captors by jumping from a train and eventually crossing the border into the
U.S. His exploits were immortalised in the 1957 film “The One That Got Away”,
starring Hardy Krüger.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The tunnel is
still in existence but isn’t accessible and in the 1990s, one of the original
German POWs, returned to The Hayes for an emotional visit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Heinz Mollenbrok, a Luftwaffe pilot, said, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white;">“It was the best place in
the world during the war… it’s the first time I have been here in over 50 years
but when I looked up and saw the building, I instantly recognised it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I saw the window of the room I stayed in”.</span><o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<o:p> </o:p><span style="background-color: black;"> </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white;">The Hayes is now a conference centre and the
original house is flanked by two magnificent Cedar of Lebanon trees, commonly
imported as status symbols in the gardens of stately homes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And something I especially liked is that the
area surrounding the lake is now a memorial garden (below) with plaques and
ashes interments of now deceased staff members who worked there so tirelessly over
the years.</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white;">Many thanks to Olive and Joe from The Hayes for
enduring all my questions.</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br />Sam Perrinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09087801375009020534noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7035609559995875565.post-31926719376035774902017-07-27T11:58:00.003+01:002018-11-23T17:41:28.219+00:00Do animals mourn us?<span style="font-size: large; text-align: justify;">Right, dear reader, prepare yourself for a beast of a post (pun most certainly intended).</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">For some people, losing a pet can be as devastating as losing a human member of the family. Londoners lacking gardens could lay their beloved <span style="line-height: inherit;">animals to rest in </span><a href="https://cemeteryclub.wordpress.com/2015/11/30/exploring-hyde-parks-hidden-pet-cemetery/" style="line-height: inherit;">Hyde Park's pet cemetery</a><span style="line-height: inherit;"> or </span><a href="http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/ilford-animal-cemetery" style="line-height: inherit;">Ilford Animal Cemetery</a><span style="line-height: inherit;">. In the gardens of Marlborough House (now home to the Commonwealth Secretariat) a semi-circle of tiny headstones memorialize Bonny the Bunny, Caesar, Togo, Marvel and Poor Little Boxer et al, all of whom were once adored pets of Queen Alexandra. The Tower of London has one of the oldest pet cemeteries in the country and people have been known to inter their pets' bodies with their own after death.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">They provide companionship, have been known to detect disease and have even saved us from danger. So it’s hardly surprising that their loss affects some people so acutely. While certain animal species are known to mourn their own, what of those who appear to mourn the loss of a human?</span><br />
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"<em>Animals are such agreeable friends - they ask no questions; they pass no criticisms" - George Eliot</em></span></h2>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Greyfriars Bobby, a Skye terrier, famously mourned his human friend John Gray for 14 years until his own death, while Hachikō (an Akita) waited patiently at the station for owner Professor Ueno daily for nine years after the professor died. But is the phenomenon <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/animalia/wp/2016/06/29/we-love-stories-about-dogs-mourning-their-owners-but-they-might-not-be-what-they-appear/?utm_term=.ec408ed46a75">really as it appears?</a> Are pets genuinely saddened at our passing or do they merely pick up on an emotionally charged event, which we humans then anthropomorphise to make our own mortality more palatable? Sentimentality aside, some pets don't mourn but rather <a href="http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/06/pets-dogs-cats-eat-dead-owners-forensics-science/">eat</a> their owners after death. Make your own mind up with these intriguing and curious tales (tails?!) from various newspaper archives.</span></div>
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<strong><em><span style="font-size: large;">Man’s (and Woman’s) Best Friends</span></em></strong><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">In February 1924, 11-year old Vera Hoad left her Chichester home for a music lesson. A “good obedient girl, a proper home bird”, Vera attended her lesson and left around 18h40 but was never seen alive again. Her snow-covered body was discovered three days later in a Graylingswell field where she'd been murdered. The little girl’s funeral was an emotionally charged affair attended by thousands. Those unable to fit into the packed church spilled outside singing hymns while local shops and houses drew their blinds out of respect.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">As the service began, mourners noticed a brown dog slink up the aisle toward the trestles holding Vera’s coffin. One of Vera’s schoolmates called out, “<em>Oh, it’s Vera’s Tango!</em>” Tango was Vera’s favourite pet and had escaped the family home unnoticed to follow his young mistress’ funeral cortege to the church. The dog regularly accompanied Vera on walks and had helped search for her while she was missing. At the mention of his name Tango turned, whimpered and then returned his gaze upward to the small coffin, tail wagging. He was picked up and removed by the verger, who put him outside the vestry door, but Tango made his way back up the aisle and sat beneath the flower-covered coffin once more.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">When a journalist from the Sunday Post interviewed the Hoad family in March 1924, he reported, “<em>Whilst we were talking my attention was drawn to Tang [sic], Vera’s pet dog, who, disconsolate at the loss of his little mistress, was whining piteously. Since Vera had been missing he had hardly touched any of his food, and with canine instinct he seemed now to realise the awfulness of the tragedy</em>”.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><img alt="Vera hoad" class="wp-image-9535 aligncenter" height="443" src="https://cemeteryclub.files.wordpress.com/2017/06/vera-hoad.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="315" /></span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img alt="Vera Hoad Illustrated Police News Thursday 13 March 1924" class=" wp-image-9538 aligncenter" height="824" src="https://cemeteryclub.files.wordpress.com/2017/06/vera-hoad-illustrated-police-news-thursday-13-march-1924.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="618" /></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: large;">In June 1942 a number of Australian papers reported that Nicky, a crossbred black Pomeranian, followed the hearse containing the body of his owner, Sevestiano D’Andrea, who’d been murdered in his Newtown grocery store. As the hearse sped up, so did Nicky and he was picked up by mourners making their way to Botany Cemetery for the service. The dog remained by the graveside throughout the ceremony and refused to budge, whimpering for the rest of the day. He then disappeared and didn’t return home.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">That evening, agonized howls and whimpers were heard by residents living near the crematorium building. This went on night after night. Two local women, concerned by what was obviously a deeply distressed creature, entered the cemetery in the early hours of the fifth morning to find Nicky lying in front of the crematorium. He was weak and starving. One of the women reported, “<em>He was stretched out, with his nose between his paws, and took no notice as we approached. When I patted him he looked up with bewildered brown eyes, and cried. He was so sad Jeannie and I cried too. My tears were dropping on him as I carried him back to our house. He made no attempt to resist, but refused food, and took no notice of our dogs</em>". Nicky was transported to his owner’s brother-in-law’s home but attempted to jump out of the moving car as it passed the cemetery where his owner, Sevastiano, had just been interred.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img alt="the-old-shepherd-s-chief-mourner" class="wp-image-9548 aligncenter" height="387" src="https://cemeteryclub.files.wordpress.com/2017/06/the-old-shepherd-s-chief-mourner.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="510" /></td></tr>
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<strong><em><span style="font-size: large;">Feathered Friends</span></em></strong></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">From Sydney, Australia, comes the following story from December 1925 and is the only reference I could find involving a pigeon, however there are no names involved or even which hospital this incident is alleged to have occurred.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img alt="News Hobart Tas Wednesday 23 December 1925" class="wp-image-9554 aligncenter" height="552" src="https://cemeteryclub.files.wordpress.com/2017/06/news-hobart-tas-wednesday-23-december-1925.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="338" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The News (Hobart, Tas) Wed 23 Dec 1925</td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: large;">In Australia's Northern Suburbs Crematorium, an astonishing sight met mourners attending the funeral of Captain John A. Johnson, former sea-captain, in July 1938. Ten wild birds flew into the chapel through beams of sunlight as Dr Johnson’s casket was being moved and “<em>fluttering round the coffin, whistled joyously</em>”. The birds continued this curious display for approximately a minute until the coffin was out of sight, before circling the catafalque and then upward to an architectural gap in the ceiling through which they disappeared.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Rev. A. J. Parker had actually noticed the birds earlier, commenting “<em>Before the service I walked out of the vestry, and my attention was drawn to a shrub which was covered with birds. I could not say what kind they were</em>”. Later described by a witness as starlings, the display was strangely moving but even odder was the late Dr Johnson’s hobby: he’d been an avid bird lover who spent hours befriending and feeding flocks of sparrows, doves and starlings in his north Sydney garden.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">To be fair, both abovementioned incidents could easily be consigned to “File Under Strange Coincidence”, as could the next story, which involves winged creatures but not of the avian variety. This was widely reported in the Australian press (as well as the Nottingham Evening Post) from September to December 1930:</span></div>
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<img alt="Bees at a Funeral Kalgorie Miner 27 Oct 1930" class="size-full wp-image-9557 aligncenter" height="540" src="https://cemeteryclub.files.wordpress.com/2017/06/bees-at-a-funeral-kalgorie-miner-27-oct-1930.jpg" width="318" /></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Back to birds, the <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/3487321/Parrot-given-Prozac-after-owner-dies.html">Telegraph</a> reported that Fred, an African Grey parrot, was prescribed a bird-friendly liquid version of Prozac twice daily help cope with the loss of his human owner George in November 2008. Animal experts believed Fred was traumatized by George’s disappearance and was suffering from separation anxiety, falling into a deep depression that caused him to pull his neck feathers out and bob his head up and down in distress. Channel 4’s programme <em>Special Needs Pets</em> later reported that after treatment, George’s wife, Ruth, had to carry Fred around the house to show him that George was no longer there.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Cats being generally aloof and marching to the beat of their own drum, it was a surprise to absolutely no one that I found no references to them mourning people (if anyone knows of any stories, feel free to post in the comments section). However I will include the story of the south London Cemetery Cat (reported in the Mudgee Guardian and North-Western Representative, 12 January 1933) because everyone likes a good Cemetery Cat, don't they? The enormous feline lived in the churchyard of Eltham Church and, black with white paws, he looked suspiciously like the cat belonging to a man buried in the same churchyard some time before (yup, the cat attended the funeral service in case you were wondering).</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Despite being re-homed, Cemetery Cat returned repeatedly to the churchyard and began attending the funerals of complete strangers, watching over the coffins as they were lowered into the earth, escorting the mourners back to the cemetery gates and then disappearing into the undergrowth. One mourner visiting her family grave in the same churchyard ensured that a regular supply of meat and fish were left for Cemetery Cat.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">(For the record, I'm not suggesting Cemetery Cat was mourning the dead and suspect he remained purely because the cemetery was his personal amusement park complete with the feline version of Deliveroo. I just liked the story)</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">In January 2017, 34-year old Wagner Figueiredo de Lima died following a motorcycle accident. Wagner was a semi-professional cowboy in his native Brazil and had an incredibly close bond with his faithful horse, Sereno, winning numerous shows together. By all accounts, Wagner and Sereno were best friends, with Wagner even sacrificing personal items so that he could afford Sereno's food. When Wagner’s brother, Wando, brought Sereno to the funeral the horse became visibly distressed, whinnying, shaking his head and swishing his tail as the eulogy was read. He then walked up to the hearse and placed his head on his old friend’s coffin, as if the full emotional comprehension that Wagner had passed had hit home. Wando said, “<em>It was if the horse knew what was happening and wanted to say goodbye</em>.” Various postings of the video has been viewed millions of times on <a href="https://youtu.be/sjMOm63lLoo">Youtube.</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">While I keep an open mind about animals mourning us, part of me believes that they do. The case I found the most compelling of all these examples is Sereno the horse who, by gently laying his head upon Wagner's coffin, appears to genuinely feel the loss. I'm also particularly intrigued by Capt John Johnson's starlings - was their fluttering around his coffin merely a strange coincidence or had they come to say their final goodbyes? </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">November 2018: as a quick addendum to this post, another story of a mourning dog in China recently appeared in the news this month, link <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-trending-46180260" target="_blank">here</a>.</span></div>
Sam Perrinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09087801375009020534noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7035609559995875565.post-81290919278051635722017-03-20T13:42:00.002+00:002017-03-20T13:42:36.760+00:00Ladora, the Queen of Fire I finally got round to finishing off my mini bio on <a href="https://cemeteryclub.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">Ladora, Queen of Fire,</a> originally posted on Cemetery Club's website on 08/03/2017 - you can read about her <a href="https://cemeteryclub.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">here</a>.<br />
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I'm looking forward immensely to posting about my next little project, which has been an enormous amount of fun to research. In the meantime though, I'll be posting something great on behalf of Rowan Lennon which, while not a historical biography, it's a most interesting piece. More to follow soon! <br />
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Regards<br />
Sam Sam Perrinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09087801375009020534noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7035609559995875565.post-17498640830003334792016-10-17T14:19:00.000+01:002018-10-11T13:05:06.252+01:00Tales from Streatham Cemetery<span style="color: white; font-size: large;">Hi folks,</span><br />
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<span style="color: white; font-size: large;">Below is the first blog post I recently contributed to </span><a href="https://cemeteryclub.wordpress.com/" target="_blank"><span style="color: white; font-size: large;">Cemetery Club.</span></a><span style="color: white; font-size: large;"> I opted not to venture into the history of London’s cemeteries and the ever-growing need for burial space. I don’t need to, as this topic has already been covered in the excellent existing posts by </span><a href="https://twitter.com/sheldonkgoodman" target="_blank"><span style="color: white; font-size: large;">Sheldon</span></a><span style="color: white; font-size: large;">, </span><a href="http://www.rainbowroadtrip.com/the-cemetery-diaries" target="_blank"><span style="color: white; font-size: large;">Christina </span></a><span style="color: white; font-size: large;"> and </span><a href="https://flickeringlamps.com/" target="_blank"><span style="color: white; font-size: large;">Caroline</span></a><span style="color: white; font-size: large;">.</span><br />
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<span style="color: white; font-size: large;">Instead I've posted mini biographies about two of the interesting characters I came across whilst researching Streatham Cemetery (located in Tooting and not to be confused with Streatham Park Cemetery, which I’ll be covering in my next blog). Sheldon and I only located one grave of the two people I’ll be writing about but we still enjoyed an excellent outing to a thoroughly lovely and well-maintained cemetery.</span><br />
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<u><strong><span style="color: white; font-size: large;">Hilda Wilson</span></strong></u><br />
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<span style="color: white; font-size: large;">A rather unconventional entertainer was interred at Streatham Cemetery on a dry and mild New Year’s Eve day in 1936. A special platform was erected at the edge of the 4ft wide grave, the largest ever dug at the cemetery, and an additional six cemetery staff members were needed to help ease the huge coffin onto the pall. Surrounded by her fellow circus performers who came to pay their respects, this was the final resting spot of Mrs Hilda Wilson, 1936’s self-proclaimed “World’s Fattest Woman”.</span><br />
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<span style="color: white; font-size: large;">Tod Browning’s film “Freaks” had provoked such public revulsion four years earlier but, even before that, the British and American public had already bought into question the morality of these once hugely popular 'freak shows'. By the 1920s and 30s, the silver screen began eclipsing the allure of the circus with its featured human oddities and freak show audiences dwindled.</span></div>
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<span style="color: white; font-size: large;">Could this downturn in popularity have prompted 63-year old Hilda Brown to relocate from Berlin to try her luck at the Fun Fair in London's Haymarket in mid-December 1936? A living exhibit, she was 5’3” but weighed in at 46 stone with a waist that was 3 yards in circumference. The widow of fellow carnival attraction John Wilson (a.k.a. “The English Giant”), Hilda had arrived in England only a fortnight earlier - no doubt she considered her fellow performers the closest thing she had to friends and family.</span><br />
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<span style="color: white; font-size: large;">Travelling around London was problematic for Hilda, as the standard English rail carriages simply couldn’t accommodate her and she was forced to commute in the guard’s van. While appearing at the Fun Fair on that fateful December day, Hilda collapsed and never awoke.</span><br />
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<span style="color: white; font-size: large;">In death it reportedly took eight men to carry her body to the mortuary where it was determined that a pituitary gland disorder was responsible for her size, putting such strain on her 23oz heart that it could no longer support her frame. The cause of death was recorded as “myocardial degeneration and adeposis”. Rather dramatically, the funeral very nearly didn’t take place as Hilda’s financial interests were still tied up in Germany, but luckily Hilda’s circus family generously chipped in to defray the cost of her burial. </span></div>
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<strong><u><span style="color: white; font-size: large;">Captain Gibb Mapplebeck</span></u></strong></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwzSsQ6PMLskbJXZZmySRRqB71hyphenhyphenxUqdMrFmApfztKqXNlsJbqREOZRruuQ3JKLUKYRAyutv07Pv_mM_fj5FqSWiPtG5K_7uUFoIQqU9gWG7M1uzlswdll0rfeT5DHcmq3FStiB1FlYZ0/s1600/mapplebeck.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: large;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwzSsQ6PMLskbJXZZmySRRqB71hyphenhyphenxUqdMrFmApfztKqXNlsJbqREOZRruuQ3JKLUKYRAyutv07Pv_mM_fj5FqSWiPtG5K_7uUFoIQqU9gWG7M1uzlswdll0rfeT5DHcmq3FStiB1FlYZ0/s400/mapplebeck.jpg" width="323" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="color: white; font-size: large;">Picture from </span><a href="https://greatwarlondon.files.wordpress.com/2015/04/mapplebeck.jpg" target="_blank"><span style="color: white; font-size: large;">Great War London</span></a><br />
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<span style="color: white; font-size: large;">Gilbert “Gibb” William Roger Mapplebeck’s only calling was to be a pilot. Even before the devastating outbreak of WWI Gibb had already learned to fly, earning his Royal Aero Club’s flying certificate at the tender age of 19. Following his father’s career path as a Liverpool dentist was not on the cards for Gibb who, at 6'3", was “<em>possessed of a personal charm that endeared him to many</em>”. Within the next two years, Gibb’s skill and courage made him a real life 'Top Gun' who enjoyed such distinctions of flying in the RFC’s seminal reconnaissance mission in August 1914, and later becoming the first pilot to bomb enemy lines in Flanders.</span><br />
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<span style="color: white; font-size: large;">Not long afterwards, Gibb had the dubious honour of being the first British pilot to be injured in aerial combat. During a 6,000ft dog fight, he was hit by the rifle bullet of a German plane which sliced through the back of his right thigh, exiting the inner thigh and grazing his groin. Against all odds, Gibb managed to reach British lines before lapsing into unconsciousness as the plane slowly filled up with his own blood. Excellent medical care (involving multiple surgeries) and sheer force of will ensured his survival and 22-year old Gibb was awarded a </span><a data-mce-href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distinguished_Service_Order" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distinguished_Service_Order"><span style="color: white; font-size: large;">DSO</span></a><span style="color: white; font-size: large;"> in the New Year’s Honours.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: white;">In March 1915 he spearheaded the first ever nocturnal air raid ever undertaken but things didn’t go according to plan. Shot down over Lille and ensuring his survival only by burning what remained of his plane, Gibb laid low in a wood for three days before finding sanctuary in an abandoned house, sustaining himself only with the chocolate he carried with him. </span><span style="color: white;">Once again though, Lady Luck was on Gibb’s side – he happened to speak fluent French and charming the locals, he disguised himself a peasant as he made his way through France back to England, all while tearing up his own Wanted posters issued by the enemy. Eventually passing through Holland to return to London, Captain Mapplebeck arrived on 4<sup>th</sup> April, presenting himself at Farnborough later the same day. The man was unstoppable!</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: white; font-size: large;">Gibb’s reputation as a daredevil preceded him and he performed mid-air tricks and stunts which sometimes got him into a spot of bother with his superiors (on one occasion he was disciplined for looping the loop in his plane. As one does). Whether or not this ‘devil may care’ attitude contributed to his death, we’ll never know. On Tuesday 24<sup>th</sup> August 1915, Gibb was stationed in Kent testing a Morane Saulnier Type N “Bullet” fighter plane when, to the horror of witnesses, the aircraft banked, made a sharp right turn and then nose-dived straight into the ground.</span></div>
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<span style="color: white; font-size: large;">Captain Gibb Mapplebeck was killed on impact, two days short of his 23<sup>rd</sup> birthday. The Board of Inquiry found that “<em>the accident was due to the machine ‘spinning’ on a heavily banked turn, the pilot not having sufficient height to regain control before hitting the earth</em>.” Gibb’s possessions were returned to his family and he was buried with full military honours in Streatham Cemetery at 11h45 on Saturday 28<sup>th</sup> August 1915.</span></div>
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<span style="color: white; font-size: large;">So highly regarded were her son’s heroics that his mother received personal condolences from Lord Stamfordham on behalf of King George V himself. The message read, “<em>His Majesty knows what gallant and distinguished services he has rendered during the war, and deeply regrets that a young life of such promise should have been thus cut short</em>.”</span><br />
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<span style="color: white; font-size: large;">Hilda and Gilbert - we salute you.</span></div>
Sam Perrinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09087801375009020534noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7035609559995875565.post-30859294383821613862016-09-28T17:21:00.002+01:002016-09-28T17:30:28.712+01:00"All Hallows Eve by Lamplight" guided tour of Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park<span style="background-color: black; color: #e69138; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Hi everyone,</span><br />
<span style="background-color: black; color: #e69138; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: black; color: #e69138;">Join </span><a href="https://cemeteryclub.wordpress.com/" target="_blank"><span style="background-color: black; color: #990000;">The Cemetery Club</span></a><span style="background-color: black; color: #e69138;"> (as recently featured on </span><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07w44wj" target="_blank"><span style="background-color: black; color: #990000;">BBC's Inside Out</span></a><span style="background-color: black; color: #e69138;">) for a very special tour of <a href="http://www.fothcp.org/" target="_blank"><span style="color: #990000;">Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park</span></a></span></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: black; color: #e69138;"> on Sat 29th October 2016! Join us on our most atmospheric historic guided walk yet as we take you around by lamplight to celebrate the lives of the cemetery's "permanent residents" who've come before us.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: black; color: #e69138; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Marvel as the lamplight flickers over the graves of heroes, villains and mavericks as we simultaneously step back in time to explore Victorian customs associated with Hallowmas, and taste authentic Soul Cakes, made from a recipe from the time of old Queen Vic herself. It’ll finish on a song, too – a long forgotten ditty that many of the people buried here would have known and sung themselves.<br /><br />With a choice of two time slots, the tours will commence at the War memorial, by the Soanes Centre. Please wear suitable footwear and wrap up warm... All Hallows Eve can be chilly!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: black; color: #e69138;">Please see visit </span><a href="https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/all-hallows-eve-by-lamplight-tickets-28151958265?aff=erellivmlt" target="_blank"><span style="background-color: black; color: #990000;">EventBrite</span></a><span style="background-color: black; color: #e69138;"> for more information and to book your places. </span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: black; color: #e69138; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.fothcp.org/">http://www.fothcp.org/</a></span><br />
<span style="background-color: black; color: #e69138; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://cemeteryclub.wordpress.com/">https://cemeteryclub.wordpress.com/</a></span><br />
<a href="https://twitter.com/CemeteryClub?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"><span style="background-color: black; color: #e69138; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">https://twitter.com/CemeteryClub?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw</span></a><br />
<a href="https://www.instagram.com/thecemeteryclub/"><span style="background-color: black; color: #e69138; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">https://www.instagram.com/thecemeteryclub/</span></a><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: large;"></span><br />Sam Perrinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09087801375009020534noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7035609559995875565.post-69296528360180853032016-04-02T15:32:00.003+01:002016-04-02T15:32:49.754+01:00So many projects, so little timeI haven't posted in an age because I'm currently writing my first book, a (surprise surprise) historical biography. It's taken a long time to research but the outcome will be worth it - my subject led a fascinating life! <br />
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In addition to the book, I've undertaken a further two biographies which will be posted here once research is completed. Once those are online, there's a very exciting history-related project waiting in the wings... I'm having a blast, be back soon! Sam Perrinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09087801375009020534noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7035609559995875565.post-35603831948682616012014-09-29T17:57:00.001+01:002018-05-22T13:37:27.492+01:00Arthur Frederick "Peggy" Bettinson (1862 - 1926)<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">On a lesser-explored pathway in Highgate Cemetery
East lies a relatively modest grave.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
earth contained within the grave’s curb is hard, dry and without floral
tributes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The plain white letters
inscribed on the headstone reveal only a name and dates of birth and death.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yet, to historians and aficionados of the
noble art of boxing, the man lying beneath commands colossal amounts of respect.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A posthumous inductee to the International
Boxing Hall of Fame, thanks to the immeasurable contribution he made toward revolutionising
the rules and reputation of the sport, this is the final resting place of Arthur
Frederick “Peggy” Bettinson.</span><o:p><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> </span></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Born in Marylebone, Peggy grew up in Hampstead and
was an avid sportsman throughout his life, partaking in competitive swimming
while also enjoying rugby and cricket.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>In his later years, he was also said to be an enthusiastic roller skater.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But boxing was always his first love and in
1882, aged 20, Peggy became the British Amateur Boxing Association's
lightweight champion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Peggy continued competing
as an amateur in exhibition bouts, but it was shortly before his <span style="font-size: large;">29th
birthday that his passion for pugilism steered him away from fighting and down
a path that would leave his indelible mark on the sport for years to come.</span></span><o:p><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> </span></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">The Pelican Club on Gerrard Street opened its doors
in 1887 as an entertainment venue for wealthy men of influence, but was soon frequented
by rowdy rakish types who squandered their money on drink and gambling.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>While its members (known as Pelicans) were no
angels, the club boasted the largest boxing hall in London and hosted many a bout
that featured the most illustrious fighters of the day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Pelican Club counted The Marquess of
Queensberry as a member but despite such high level patronage, the club’s reputation
suffered a blow in 1889 following its sponsorship of a bare-knuckled fight in
Bruges between Jem Smith and Frank Slavin that ended in a riot.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The club’s standing was sullied further by the
behaviour of the Pelicans themselves, who staggered out of the club into the
surrounding streets of the West End in the early hours of almost every morning,
inebriated and raucous.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In response, the
sleep-deprived residents took out an injunction against the Pelican Club,
resulting in the revocation of the club’s licence to host fights. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And so, just four years after its grand opening,
the Pelican Club was declared bankrupt.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">The steps and pillars outside what would later become the National Sporting Club are visible on the right (near centre) of Hogarth’s “Morning”, published in 1738 (see Additional Notes for more information on the building)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">This presented Peggy with the perfect opportunity to
establish a far more respectable boxing venue and, after ploughing a large
amount of his own capital into the venture, he joined forces with the Pelican’s
former manager, John Fleming.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Together
they set up the fledgling organisation’s new headquarters at 43 King Street, Covent
Garden and on Thursday 5 March 1891, the National Sporting Club opened its doors to
a throng of excited sports lovers.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Peggy Bettinson John Fleming Lord Lonsdale</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">The interior of the club was impressive on an
aesthetic level while simultaneously offering the utmost comfort to its members
courtesy of the plush but elegant furnishings.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The grand entrance hall featured
part of an ornately carved staircase that had once belonged to Lord Russell’s
flagship, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Britannia</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Coffee Room was tastefully decorated, the
walls adorned with portraits of notable sportsmen and other distinguished faces
and complimented by a well-stocked bar.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Amongst
the Club’s other attractions were the upstairs Billiard Room and the nostalgic London
Room – the NSC even featured new-fangled electric lighting!</span></div>
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<o:p><span style="font-family: "calibri";">Images of the NSC entrance hall (above) and saloon (top) used with the kind permission of Miles Templeton (<a href="http://blog.boxinghistory.org.uk/"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "calibri";">http://blog.boxinghistory.org.uk</span></a><span style="font-family: "calibri";">)<o:p></o:p></span></span></o:p></div>
<o:p><span style="font-family: "calibri";"></span></o:p><br />
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">But the pièce de résistance was the boxing ring
downstairs in the basement, which allowed up to 1,300 spectators and guests a
good view from any angle in the room.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
Club’s first President was boxing royalty, gloved boxing enthusiast Hugh Cecil
Lowther (a.k.a. the fifth Earl of Lonsdale) and, while the Club’s focus was mainly
on boxing, matches were often punctuated by performances from the leading music
hall artistes of the day, as well as the occasional literary and musical
recital - rather fitting considering that prior to occupancy by the NSC, the
building had previously been home to a music hall and a theatre. </span><o:p><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> </span></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4amArcTZe8JCfwpe3TBPDxSULihVZUcMn0uT_zJBpJyj5j4uwDtvzl4oKMixT_OWxGfbOQP9MykzARm2veo86_VA_k5O4gmxz3JNgEfYa-AvKihS6hykD7LMQjrBoj4B2z2MwdXyz5Rg/s1600/NSC+ring.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="520" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4amArcTZe8JCfwpe3TBPDxSULihVZUcMn0uT_zJBpJyj5j4uwDtvzl4oKMixT_OWxGfbOQP9MykzARm2veo86_VA_k5O4gmxz3JNgEfYa-AvKihS6hykD7LMQjrBoj4B2z2MwdXyz5Rg/s1600/NSC+ring.jpg" width="640" /></a><span style="font-family: "calibri";">Images of the NSC boxing ring (above) and floor plan (below) used with the kind permission of Miles Templeton (</span><a href="http://blog.boxinghistory.org.uk/"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "calibri";">http://blog.boxinghistory.org.uk</span></a><span style="font-family: "calibri";">)<o:p></o:p></span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiV9ZWygekNwuuoxIUlEGDjx6gldoMMZJ45ywa-O-zYh7id7J1TXwfEUwFMNFwgO9jXcaF8ulTAQ3Gs3UDtV7gPwr7M0rkIkvAMRhKzIiOxGS_BgCM1fE9d0GyTZOPJXY18TetF-TXsqL4/s1600/nsc+floor+plan.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiV9ZWygekNwuuoxIUlEGDjx6gldoMMZJ45ywa-O-zYh7id7J1TXwfEUwFMNFwgO9jXcaF8ulTAQ3Gs3UDtV7gPwr7M0rkIkvAMRhKzIiOxGS_BgCM1fE9d0GyTZOPJXY18TetF-TXsqL4/s1600/nsc+floor+plan.jpg" width="516" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">From a business perspective Peggy ran the NSC in an
exacting and unflinching fashion, taking responsibility for approving all
fights, handpicking the original members and overseeing the general day-to-day
mechanics of the club.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He is described
in Andrew Horrall’s “<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Popular Culture in
London C.1890-1918… </i>” as ‘opinionated’ and ‘outspoken’, while Arne K Lang noted
him as being ‘autocratic’ in “<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Prizefighting:
An American History</i>”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>While Peggy may
have ruled with a firm hand, it was this same single-mindedness that, in time,
transformed the reputation of the sport from one linked with gambling and ne'er-do-wells
to a respectable and noble art appreciated by gentlemen.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Under the NSC, Peggy also cemented the foundations
for the British Boxing Board of Control as we know it today.</span><o:p><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> </span></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEha7t0MGJ1s9KX8o5Tfr481f62p1P8aH8XHk0sPDZvIDK1gOiFL1rSJuogrwQRxNGY8qCauJTID1wULrZ6UiMyZaCO8nu0YRIe7O8UEEDYac6Y-9HiaN-3yvlE61MNHZPpZcJeW4TyiMXk/s1600/nsc+covent+garden+front.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEha7t0MGJ1s9KX8o5Tfr481f62p1P8aH8XHk0sPDZvIDK1gOiFL1rSJuogrwQRxNGY8qCauJTID1wULrZ6UiMyZaCO8nu0YRIe7O8UEEDYac6Y-9HiaN-3yvlE61MNHZPpZcJeW4TyiMXk/s1600/nsc+covent+garden+front.jpg" width="229" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJ4G2r1NqUwshhQs2EW1CedCzC-Mh9SlfO_vbwTxyjzpBqHqUkSXyyGUb6iJpPJ7GhnLgsojWoCUgWkMDVQFdTM_x9W4KjpCWIFaW2X2I2-6wEb80Y7OeqFrtBZu_ls6X_A-U_MK0FjNU/s1600/NSC+2014.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJ4G2r1NqUwshhQs2EW1CedCzC-Mh9SlfO_vbwTxyjzpBqHqUkSXyyGUb6iJpPJ7GhnLgsojWoCUgWkMDVQFdTM_x9W4KjpCWIFaW2X2I2-6wEb80Y7OeqFrtBZu_ls6X_A-U_MK0FjNU/s1600/NSC+2014.JPG" width="240" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">The NSC then and now</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">("Then" image (left) used with the kind permission of Miles Templeton (<a href="http://blog.boxinghistory.org.uk/"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "calibri";">http://blog.boxinghistory.org.uk</span></a><span style="font-family: "calibri";">), "Now" picture by Sam Perrin)</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">The etiquette expected of NSC members was a far cry
from the pleasure-seeking antics of the Pelicans, with Peggy insisting that the
NSC operate as a strictly private club which "<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">was a businesslike undertaking of business men for other business men</i>”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Access to the club by non-members was by
invitation only and a dress code (evening attire) was observed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Following dinner, members would descend to
the basement to observe bouts in decorous silence.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even the fighters were expected to conduct
themselves in a courteous manner, bowing to the audience after each bout - regardless
of whether they had won or lost - and exercising the utmost compliance with any
decision made by the referee.</span><o:p><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> </span></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiprPM0i2XZELb6TY47-Cq-5SZERoYKs0NePF9Elc3NyYIMCjp6z33-V9T7HAnScBp4vAmCM8PyV7DZGKIu7l8o4RG49353fs9Q5oBeJbbmLl-oAORJN64HO_xCxw1yxuZevzM3k_llaeo/s1600/nsclogo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="190" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiprPM0i2XZELb6TY47-Cq-5SZERoYKs0NePF9Elc3NyYIMCjp6z33-V9T7HAnScBp4vAmCM8PyV7DZGKIu7l8o4RG49353fs9Q5oBeJbbmLl-oAORJN64HO_xCxw1yxuZevzM3k_llaeo/s1600/nsclogo.jpg" width="200" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3MS0JR9Iuu5U3a2H5UDTdkbIqEQyOK_XKe4YMNd1hyphenhyphennf6GTkPBQ5TKIDoQJiMTabkVj6nPuPM042_eYLQsbuiiEeBtDPx01PsGmRPxismcDIdXOAQrGO1xNI7hlO0cBFh7vuofCmDHlI/s1600/programme0366-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="305" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3MS0JR9Iuu5U3a2H5UDTdkbIqEQyOK_XKe4YMNd1hyphenhyphennf6GTkPBQ5TKIDoQJiMTabkVj6nPuPM042_eYLQsbuiiEeBtDPx01PsGmRPxismcDIdXOAQrGO1xNI7hlO0cBFh7vuofCmDHlI/s1600/programme0366-1.jpg" width="400" /> </a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Images of NSC Programme (08 June 1914) and NSC logo used with the kind permission of Miles Templeton (<a href="http://blog.boxinghistory.org.uk/"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "calibri";">http://blog.boxinghistory.org.uk</span></a><span style="font-family: "calibri";">)</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">In terms of the rules of the ring, a modified
version of the Queensberry Rules was followed and no more than 20 rounds were permitted
for championship fights.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Boxers were to
wear padded gloves and a five-point round-by-round scoring system was now adhered
to.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Overall, the standards of safety
observed by the NSC were much higher than those of the boxing clubs of the past.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>According to Graham Gordon in “<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Master of the Ring</i>”, Peggy based the
defence points system on the style of the great Jem Mace, who taught Lord
Lonsdale to box and who both John Fleming and Peggy had observed for years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Peggy was determined that the National
Sporting Club instilled a sense of fairness, good sportsmanship and respect among
fighters and club members alike.</span><o:p><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> </span></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">In 1897 John Fleming passed away unexpectedly and
Peggy took over as Managing Director of the NSC.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Following his promotion, four fatalities occurred
at the NSC in just as many years, resulting in a sea change for boxing rules as
they then stood.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Peggy and the
respective officials were hauled into court to defend themselves and the NSC
against allegations of unlawful killing, culpable manslaughter and “felonious
killing” of the deceased fighters.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However,
in each and every instance, all were cleared of any wrongdoing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After all the energy and effort Peggy and the
NSC had put into transforming the sport’s image, these “not guilty” rulings
essentially saved boxing from being outlawed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>One positive development that emerged as a result of the court cases was
the implementation of a regulation in which a referee could now halt a bout as
and when he saw fit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Two types of knockouts
(knockouts* and technical knockouts†) were also now clearly defined.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><span style="font-size: x-small;">* Knockout (KO): When
a competitor in the ring cannot get up from the floor without help by the count
of ten<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><span style="font-size: x-small;">† Technical Knockout
(TKO): When a competitor in the ring can no longer defend himself (or is unable
to continue the fight due to being badly injured) and the referee stops the
fight as a result<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">By 1909, the NSC’s influence within the boxing
world was far-reaching.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It had begun
regulating divisions, setting the bar for weight limits before the sanctioning
of British title fights, as well as introducing the presentation of 22 carat
gold and porcelain championship belts (donated by Lord Lonsdale) to the victors
of all British title fights held at the NSC’s premises.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The belts were exclusive to the NSC, with
Henry Cooper later being the first man to win three of them in succession.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhY_1ZEvy1dmT9ujvlQi_KeNqg79rA1na9fiOFHBPoVt1IFEZAG0Z1fWq-LFuorEk7nl330hU1pmfW60xJMe-3gkCbYxQdMdqzaukjhyphenhyphenaXBW78Q4HHd8dmGt710evps0dbv1D_ESwFxMvo/s1600/Peggy+Boxing+Cover+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhY_1ZEvy1dmT9ujvlQi_KeNqg79rA1na9fiOFHBPoVt1IFEZAG0Z1fWq-LFuorEk7nl330hU1pmfW60xJMe-3gkCbYxQdMdqzaukjhyphenhyphenaXBW78Q4HHd8dmGt710evps0dbv1D_ESwFxMvo/s1600/Peggy+Boxing+Cover+2.jpg" width="497" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Peggy on the front cover of Boxing, 18 December 1909</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">(Image used with the kind permission of Miles Templeton (</span><a href="http://blog.boxinghistory.org.uk/"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "calibri";">http://blog.boxinghistory.org.uk</span></a><span style="font-family: "calibri";">)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">With regard to Peggy’s personal life, he married Florence
Mallet in 1890 and together they had two sons, Gerald and Lionel (Lionel would later
succeed his father as Managing Director of the NSC).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However at some point, it appears that
Florence and Peggy’s marriage broke down and the couple were living
separately.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The census of 1911 confirms that
Peggy was living at 59 Clifton Hill with Lionel (aged 18), niece Florence (aged
18) and two servants (Alice Reed and Bridget Ahearn).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, there were also two other people
living in the house: “Kate H Flint” (aged 33, single, no occupation noted) and “Ralph
Gilbert Bettinson” (son, aged 3).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At the
same time, Florence was noted as living with an uncle in Northdown, Kent, and
was listed as still being married, while Gerald wasn’t recorded as residing at either
of these residences.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOVDt4h8hai3dqdo8fHZlHI2wkYu70CWEKtnVfh4dX4fgKsRdzKvDJHu7_9L1ozZRn2LvG-3GwVGyNsKCV-2j3aH7BKpMhF7bcH-6mUxrPnkwMiWkathwbBwq6bKrwVrkbo1zD40eucq4/s1600/Peggy+Front+Page+Boxing.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOVDt4h8hai3dqdo8fHZlHI2wkYu70CWEKtnVfh4dX4fgKsRdzKvDJHu7_9L1ozZRn2LvG-3GwVGyNsKCV-2j3aH7BKpMhF7bcH-6mUxrPnkwMiWkathwbBwq6bKrwVrkbo1zD40eucq4/s1600/Peggy+Front+Page+Boxing.jpg" width="457" /></a><span style="font-family: "calibri";"></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">Peggy on the front cover of Boxing, 13 August 1910</span></span><span style="font-family: "calibri";"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"></span><br /></div>
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"></span><br />
<div align="center">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">(Image used with the kind permission of Miles Templeton (</span><a href="http://blog.boxinghistory.org.uk/"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "calibri";">http://blog.boxinghistory.org.uk</span></a><span style="font-family: "calibri";">)<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">In 1911, despite the sport beginning to enjoy an
increasing surge in popularity with the public, boxing became the focus of yet another
court case.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A fight between Owen Moran
and Jim Driscoll was scheduled to take place in Birmingham on 16 December 1911
and the stakes were high: the victor would’ve walked away with a purse of
£1,560 (quite a sum in those days) and the title of Featherweight Champion of
the World.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But before the fight could
take place, each boxer was issued a summons and ordered to appear in court, the
fight accused of being a now-illegal prize fight (as opposed to a sparring
exhibition) and, as a result, a breach of the peace.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
promoter, Mr Gerald Austin, stood accused of soliciting and inciting the two
boxers to partake in a prize fight and the safety of the sport was also microscopically
scrutinised.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Once again Peggy and a
number of officials rallied around in boxing’s defence, with the cost of the
defence borne entirely by Lord Lonsdale.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Despite the testimony of numerous experts defending the sport, the fight
was declared illegal and Moran and Driscoll were each fined £50 (as well as sureties
of £25 each).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The newspapers of the day
lamented that this ruling had sounded the death knell of professional boxing
and an appeal was launched, but the Crown only withdrew the charges two years
later.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And so, on 27 January 1913, Messrs
Driscoll and Moran finally partook in the fight that should have taken place
over two years earlier.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Hosted at the
NSC (naturally) the fight was a 20-round battle that ended (much to the
disappointment of the crowd) in a draw, with Driscoll retaining his title of Featherweight
Champion of the World.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5sC2e2UF9KW7W0l_bSbirnVqGUUgWmZie5KN563JD_Mgu0H3Fks7J5mrW82f2ptL3XQITAQIDw4Cn5DH2ViaDGYrJnYvZkgENcXDwjW_yQ2WxxWNdZwAxvYN1nh3KmTLdTVMHo9i0WN4/s1600/1911+court+case.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5sC2e2UF9KW7W0l_bSbirnVqGUUgWmZie5KN563JD_Mgu0H3Fks7J5mrW82f2ptL3XQITAQIDw4Cn5DH2ViaDGYrJnYvZkgENcXDwjW_yQ2WxxWNdZwAxvYN1nh3KmTLdTVMHo9i0WN4/s1600/1911+court+case.jpg" width="456" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Peggy and co in court on the front cover of The Mirror of Life & Sport, 18 November 1911</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">(Image used with the kind permission of Miles
Templeton (</span><a href="http://blog.boxinghistory.org.uk/"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "calibri";">http://blog.boxinghistory.org.uk</span></a><span style="font-family: "calibri";">)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">1914 marked the start of The Great War.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Peggy wasn’t sent away to fight in the
trenches because, at the age of 52, I suspect he may have been regarded as a little
too ‘time-worn’ for combat.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This didn’t
stop him from volunteering as a Special Constable though, while son Lionel
enlisted in the Middlesex Regiment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In
the year following the end of the war, Florence Bettinson passed away (aged 46)
and less than a fortnight later, Peggy made Harriet Flint his second wife in a
ceremony in Hampstead.</span><o:p><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> </span></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Peggy certainly didn’t rest on his laurels as an
ex-amateur champion, manager, match-maker, promoter and referee.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even into middle age, he exuded a crackling
energy and dedicated his spare time to authoring books dedicated to boxing and
the NSC.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Along with Ben Bennison, he
penned “<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Famous Fights and Fighters: From
Jem Mace to Tommy Farr</i>” (published 1913) and “<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The
Home of Boxing</i>” (published 1922).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>‘The
Guv’nor’ (as he was known to many) was also responsible for writing “<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The National Sporting Club, Past and Present</i>”
with William Outram Tristram (published 1902).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Of
all the luminaries within the sport, Peggy Bettinson possessed an encyclopaedic
and multi-faceted knowledge of his subject matter, fuelled by a deep love of
the sport and based on vast personal experience.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3qrMbiUwqkRWj8PWfD9UTsyVD3eoZNX2Clc1iF9tHLzXaKypxXzn-2bbr4n3ji3pQlMGGrwbWq06q3OteO6eIul40KYiV7PxrutOzgvGH89mfzX1Rz-AmRCvnuM72-mEZP9t-uDo3nTE/s1600/Peggy+Boxing+Cover+3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3qrMbiUwqkRWj8PWfD9UTsyVD3eoZNX2Clc1iF9tHLzXaKypxXzn-2bbr4n3ji3pQlMGGrwbWq06q3OteO6eIul40KYiV7PxrutOzgvGH89mfzX1Rz-AmRCvnuM72-mEZP9t-uDo3nTE/s1600/Peggy+Boxing+Cover+3.jpg" width="457" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Peggy on the front cover of Boxing, 21 June 1922</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">(Image used with the kind permission of Miles Templeton (</span><a href="http://blog.boxinghistory.org.uk/"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "calibri";">http://blog.boxinghistory.org.uk</span></a><span style="font-family: "calibri";">)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">In the weeks preceding his death, Peggy had been
travelling through Europe and suffered a heart attack en route. After being
hospitalised for a month, he was discharged and continued his journey through
Italy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However he suffered a further
cardiac arrest, forcing him to return to England accompanied by his son, Gerald.</span><o:p><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> </span></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Peggy passed away on Christmas Eve 1926 at his home
on Fairfax Road, south Hampstead, aged 64.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The news of his death shocked and saddened the boxing world, both in the
UK and internationally, and Peggy’s funeral was held at Highgate Cemetery on
Wednesday 29 December 1926.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The cemetery
seemed an especially fitting place for Peggy seeing as it is also the final
resting place of Tom Sayers, who famously fought John C. Heenan back in 1860, and
who Peggy was said to have held in high regard.</span><o:p><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> </span></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">The Daily Herald described Peggy’s funeral as being
attended by “<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">a gathering of men mostly
with battered faces and gnarled ears but with hearts of gold</i>” and his friends,
colleagues and fellow boxing devotees and were certainly not restrained in their
admiration and respect for Peggy and his contribution to the sport:</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">“<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">He did more
than any other six men for professional boxing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I have lost a good friend and sport has lost a great figure</i>”</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">
</span>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">John Douglas (referee)</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman";">
</span></div>
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“<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">A national
figure in boxing has gone.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was a good
friend and the game has lost a great supporter.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>He was more than a manager; he was an authority on the history of the
game.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am sure all boxers will join me
in my deep regret</i>”</div>
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Bombardier” Billy Wells (former British heavyweight champion)</div>
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<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjr9wwA1wVZCOPtTsDfTpvcu8dHHJOXm-n6Q8Fc-oD4s9xtZltZsHQRkLzx1CQsOxZ-zklc9fvdheaRDt6o5xEa8Wsq-o_vn69WamRHVEAiK6Ow0JelH19ujwWK9gYhsEYfGdHhNn9MTMs/s1600/billy+wells+and+peggy+bettinson+at+nsc.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="492" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjr9wwA1wVZCOPtTsDfTpvcu8dHHJOXm-n6Q8Fc-oD4s9xtZltZsHQRkLzx1CQsOxZ-zklc9fvdheaRDt6o5xEa8Wsq-o_vn69WamRHVEAiK6Ow0JelH19ujwWK9gYhsEYfGdHhNn9MTMs/s1600/billy+wells+and+peggy+bettinson+at+nsc.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<o:p>Billy Wells pictured above (centre) with Peggy (right, with bowler hat and ever-present cigar) in an earlier photograph</o:p><br />
<o:p>(Image used with the kind permission of Miles Templeton (<a href="http://blog.boxinghistory.org.uk/"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "calibri";">http://blog.boxinghistory.org.uk</span></a><span style="font-family: "calibri";">)<o:p></o:p></span></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman";">
</span></div>
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“<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">It is bad
news.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I met Mr Bettinson frequently and
he always struck me as a man on whom one could rely for a fair deal.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He did professional boxing many services
which none of us can forget</i>”<o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman";">
</span>Jimmy Wilde (former flyweight champion of
the world)</div>
</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">A multitude of wreaths were sent to Peggy’s home,
the NSC and Highgate Cemetery, with an especially poignant tribute left by
Jimmy Lambert made of violets and shaped as a boxing glove.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Modestly inscribed, Peggy’s headstone is a simple
chunk of grey granite set at the head of the plot which, I think, sums up his
character and legacy quite nicely: straightforward, tough and enduring.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjvPAcupwTIrzQggKT4-woEujqO91GYzl0jvTgrxQbLfSM1Xq9QBHt0I0IH3Q7iiNG5gLP5xKIDud8mc2phyV2BpvMXwxAs657KpWfv83Yth_clqacuDebzt8zWPSBDRBn6U8kIwkKjOw/s1600/Peggy+granite+headstone.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="476" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjvPAcupwTIrzQggKT4-woEujqO91GYzl0jvTgrxQbLfSM1Xq9QBHt0I0IH3Q7iiNG5gLP5xKIDud8mc2phyV2BpvMXwxAs657KpWfv83Yth_clqacuDebzt8zWPSBDRBn6U8kIwkKjOw/s1600/Peggy+granite+headstone.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Image by Sam Perrin</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">By 1933, seven years after he’d passed away,
Peggy’s influence in the boxing world was still evident following the
implementation of an idea he’d formulated 15 years earlier.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Peggy had been looking to promote the “<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">institution of new boxing championships at
the eight weights for belts such as offered in the British championships in a
new series of British Empire titles.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></i>The
10 May 1933 edition of the Western Daily Press and Bristol Mirror reported that
“<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">the project will be sponsored by Lord
Lonsdale and the trophies will be known as the Lonsdale Empire Belts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Rules for the new championships are being
framed</i>.”</span><o:p><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> </span></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Peggy had accomplished an astonishing PR coup by
transforming public opinion so favourably of a sport that had once been viewed
with disdain.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Nevertheless, boxing’s increasing
popularity ironically contributed to the downfall of the once-mighty NSC by the
end of the 1920s.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Boxers who’d once flocked
to the venue described by Peggy as a “Temple of Sport” had learned and evolved,
and were now positioned to command larger purses at bigger venues.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This impacted negatively on the NSC’s
profitability and in 1928 the club had no option but to renege on its exclusivity
as a private club by opening up to the public.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Unfortunately, this effort was long overdue and the club was forced to
shut up shop at 43 King Street the following year and move to another premises.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Members of the NCS went on to form the
British Boxing Board of Control, the organisation’s primary goal being to act
as “<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">the sole governing body for the
professional sport</i>”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Board
reformed in 1929 and is still the governing body of professional boxers in the
UK.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The National Sporting Club is also still
in existence, the organisation now specialising in providing hospitality for corporate
and sporting events.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Curiously, there is
not a solitary mention of Peggy or John Fleming within the ‘History’ section of
the NSC’s official website, with the inception of the club being credited solely
to Lord Lonsdale.</span><o:p><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> </span></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">As for Peggy’s nickname, he offered up the
following explanation not long before his death:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">“<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">I was the
baby of a large family, and as a youngster fresh to an infant school my mother
tried to break me of left-handedness.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
always held my knife in the left hand and my fork in the right.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One day at dinner my mother said, “You’re not
a boy; you must be a girl to eat your food like that.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We shall have to call you Peggy.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“My elder
brothers, always glad to take it out of me, carried that name to school, where
the other boys seized upon it, and it has stuck to me through a life-time,
though it is years since anybody was curious enough to ask how I got it</i>.” </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgswMmrccpYH0Ebw-MwVdThcZJk8WMAchd764gLPRpc8a49FIs0qcgqz6YfobdKx2ndKrtNSdFpTa4cK4YrzMY_0GWdg_AB5CV-mvotFsPqVyMHhg-cCJSfJKHE4a3oa-51x1omncQNOmA/s1600/peggy+bettinson.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgswMmrccpYH0Ebw-MwVdThcZJk8WMAchd764gLPRpc8a49FIs0qcgqz6YfobdKx2ndKrtNSdFpTa4cK4YrzMY_0GWdg_AB5CV-mvotFsPqVyMHhg-cCJSfJKHE4a3oa-51x1omncQNOmA/s1600/peggy+bettinson.jpg" width="422" /></a></div>
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<o:p><span style="font-family: "calibri";">Peggy Bettinson image used with the kind permission of Miles Templeton (</span><a href="http://blog.boxinghistory.org.uk/"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "calibri";">http://blog.boxinghistory.org.uk</span></a><span style="font-family: "calibri";">)<o:p></o:p></span></o:p></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u><span style="font-family: "calibri";">ADDITIONAL
NOTES<o:p></o:p></span></u></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u><span style="font-family: "calibri";">43 King
Street<o:p></o:p></span></u></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Originally designed by Thomas Archer, 43 King
Street is the oldest surviving building in Covent Garden’s Piazza.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In June 2013, a proposal to award the
building a commemorative green plaque was put forward to Westminster Council,
which responded that “<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">the nomination for
a commemorative Green Plaque at 43 King Street, Covent Garden to commemorate
the National Sporting Club, be approved subject to sponsorship in full</i>”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The official unveiling of the plaque to
commemorate the NSC’s former headquarters as the “home of gloved boxing” is scheduled
for May 2015 and the interior of the building is currently being renovated to
house an upmarket shoe shop.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u><span style="font-family: "calibri";">John
Murray, first editor of “Boxing”<o:p></o:p></span></u></b></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">20 years after Peggy’s death, Highgate Cemetery would
count John Murray, the first editor of “Boxing” (later known as “Boxing News”),
as a permanent resident after he passed away following a long illness.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Like Peggy, John possessed an
all-encompassing knowledge of (and was a great friend to) the sport.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Peggy featured on the cover of “<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Boxing”</i> a number of times and it appears
that both he and John Murray shared the same desire to make the sport fair and
reputable.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiK9Nvms3n7B8sUZQCaqdw_N7wSos1tjDqz-V3BQPYjcJR9s0cKqwaawstVETssU4Cffa9eUsbQeC-qstmooAFNVjSfSVbZxgZ8cyHNDiZ3Hy6Lo63-9E71WswGKHKMtAzMY5wRFR5394E/s1600/Murray.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiK9Nvms3n7B8sUZQCaqdw_N7wSos1tjDqz-V3BQPYjcJR9s0cKqwaawstVETssU4Cffa9eUsbQeC-qstmooAFNVjSfSVbZxgZ8cyHNDiZ3Hy6Lo63-9E71WswGKHKMtAzMY5wRFR5394E/s1600/Murray.jpg" width="483" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><o:p>Boxing News (as it later became known) remembers John Murray, 27 March 1946 </o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><o:p>(Image used with the kind permission of Miles Templeton (<a href="http://blog.boxinghistory.org.uk/"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "calibri";">http://blog.boxinghistory.org.uk</span></a><span style="font-family: "calibri";">)<o:p></o:p></span></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u><span style="font-family: "calibri";">Sources:<o:p></o:p></span></u></b></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Miles Templeton (</span><a href="http://blog.boxinghistory.org.uk/"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "calibri";">http://blog.boxinghistory.org.uk</span></a><span style="font-family: "calibri";">)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Sue Berdy<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Prizefighting:
An American History</i> by Arne K. Lang<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Popular
Culture in London C.1890-1918: The Transformation of Entertainment</i> by
Andrew Horrall<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">SPORT AS
HISTORY - COLLINS SOCIETY: Essays in Honour of Wray Vamplew</i>, edited by Tony
Collins<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Marquess
of Queensberry: Wilde's Nemesis</i> by Linda Stratmann<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Boxing
Register: International Boxing Hall of Fame Official Record Book </i>by James
B. Roberts & Alexander G. Skutt<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The National
Sporting Club Past and Present</i> by A.F. Bettinson<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<a href="http://news.boxrec.com/news/2011/meet-mr-bettinson-hall-fame-inductee-2011"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "calibri";">http://news.boxrec.com/news/2011/meet-mr-bettinson-hall-fame-inductee-2011</span></a><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<a href="http://transact.westminster.gov.uk/committee/index.cfm?c_docs=Cabinet%20Member%20Decisions/Built_Environment/2013-2014/03%20-%20Commemorative%20Green%20Plaque%20to%20The%20National%20Sporting%20Club"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "calibri";">http://transact.westminster.gov.uk/committee/index.cfm?c_docs=Cabinet%20Member%20Decisions/Built_Environment/2013-2014/03%20-%20Commemorative%20Green%20Plaque%20to%20The%20National%20Sporting%20Club</span></a><o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><i><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">Old
Bailey Proceedings Online</span></i><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"> (www.oldbaileyonline.org, version 7.0, 18 September 2014), June 1901,
trial of JACK ROBERTS ARTHUR FREDERICK BETTINSON JOHN HERBERT DOUGLAS EUGENE
CORRI ARTHUR GUTTERIDGE ARTHUR LOCK WILLIAM CHESTER WILLIAM BAXTER BENJAMIN
JORDAN HARRY GREENFIELD, (t19010624-479).</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">The Argus, 15 November 1911<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">The Spectator, 18 November 1911<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">The Straits Times, 16 December 1911<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Kalgoorlie Miner, 28 December 1911<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">New York Times, 29 January 1913<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Auckland Star, Volume XLIV, Issue 29, 3 February
1913<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Sunday Post, 26 December 1926<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Evening Telegraph, 27 December 1926<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Daily Herald, 30 December 1926<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Western Daily Press and Bristol Mirror, 10 May 1933<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Aberdeen Journal, 29 December 1937</span></div>
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C<span style="font-family: "calibri";">opyright © Sam Perrin September 2014<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Sam Perrinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09087801375009020534noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7035609559995875565.post-76170684514363453022013-07-26T12:32:00.002+01:002015-05-27T15:59:38.765+01:00David Devant – Multi-Talented Magician (1868 to 1941) <div class="MsoNormal" style="border-image: none; border: currentColor; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><em>“[Magic] is an art by means of which a man can </em></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><em>exercise, as it were, a spell over others and persuade them into believing that they have seen some natural law disobeyed"</em></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"> David Devant</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">David Devant is largely considered the best British stage illusionist and practitioner of magic of his era, although his talents weren’t restricted to conjuring.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was gifted with irrepressible creativity and counted the making and exhibition of films, shadowgraphy, inventing, writing, acting and animation amongst the many strings to his bow.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As a magician, he was an engaging and witty showman and possessed exceptional skill which, coupled with superb technique, captivated audiences of all ages.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Early Life<o:p></o:p></span></u></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Born David Wighton in north London on 22<sup> </sup>February 1868, he became enamoured with conjuring when, as a 10-year old boy, he watched a travelling magician called Dr Holden perform.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This so inspired him that he rushed out and purchased a selection of tricks that he practised diligently, using his siblings as a test audience.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>From that point onward David immersed himself all things magical, poring over books such as Jean Eugène Robert-Houdin’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Masterpieces </i>and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Modern Magic</i> by Professor Hoffman, and regularly attending shows at the Egyptian Hall in Piccadilly to watch and learn from performing magicians as they confounded their audiences.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPGTJAUSZ1oG-PzGc1FqDzVq5oGphy16Cyzu3QBOiwmKlUO-vF_vyepSkwUToAxwrMbED038eYUw5yvvOTiq_3aNIS1yMLL_VoGaA5_3mERVi5dGn3CIphWI_eNCv3oM69VFZRsW_7350/s1600/DD+001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img bba="true" border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPGTJAUSZ1oG-PzGc1FqDzVq5oGphy16Cyzu3QBOiwmKlUO-vF_vyepSkwUToAxwrMbED038eYUw5yvvOTiq_3aNIS1yMLL_VoGaA5_3mERVi5dGn3CIphWI_eNCv3oM69VFZRsW_7350/s320/DD+001.jpg" width="220" /></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Into Magic</span></u></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></u></b></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">While visiting an art gallery with his father, David was particularly drawn to a painting entitled <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">David Devant Goliath</i> and decided that this would make for a great stage name.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And so a soon-to-be legend was born.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>While managing a tour of the British Isles with the two famous American midgets, General and Mrs Mite, David began performing his magic act and in 1888 met his future wife, who caught his eye after he allegedly saw her reflection in a mirror.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Three months later, Marion Melville became not only Mrs David Devant but also a part of one of her husband’s illusions known as <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Vice Versa.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></i>It was this very illusion that Devant invited John Nevil Maskelyne, owner of the Egyptian Hall, to view at the Trocadero after he learned that one of Maskelyne’s illusionists (Charles Morritt) was no longer with the company.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After seeing David in action, Maskelyne challenged the bright young magician to create a new illusion specifically for the Egyptian Hall and less than a fortnight later, Devant presented <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Artist’s Dream</i> to Maskelyne.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Artist’s Dream</i> was a rather poignant illusion in which an artist, clearly still mourning his recently deceased wife, painted a full length portrait of her through which she magically came to life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Maskelyne opted to add a script and music and the role of the artist was given to an actor, while Marion played the woman in the painting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>David was taken on at the Egyptian Hall as a conjurer in his own right.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Finally!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was now employed at the very theatre in which he’d studied and learned from the tricks of other magicians as a younger man. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">David’s reputation grew, as did his audiences and in March 1896 he exhibited the first animated photographs at the Egyptian Hall.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He got his hands on one of Robert Paul's Theatrograph projectors and, at his own expense, introduced it to the theatre’s performances.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Apparently Maskelyne, who’d been initially apprehensive about the introduction of the Theatrograph, soon realised its potential and began to enthusiastically introduce each performance!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A review of the first performance read:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">“The first moving scene announced by Mr Nevil Maskelyne is a band practise.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The music of the march that one may imagine is being played is given on the pianoforte by Mr F. Cramer.”</span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">David certainly didn’t rest on his laurels and industriously continued creating new illusions and tricks to keep his show original and exciting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He delighted audiences with tricks like “The Magic Kettle", from which multiple alcoholic beverages suggested by the audience were poured, as well as the fantastic “Mascot Moth” illusion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This was one of his best, in which a female assistant (wearing a silk dress with beautiful wings attached to her arms) weaved around Devant, who held a lit candle in his hand while trying to entice the beautiful moth-woman toward him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Just as Devant drew the candle to the moth-woman’s wings, she literally disappeared with a flash right in front of the gobsmacked audience.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">(“Mascot Moth” was actually inspired by a curious dream that Devant had one night.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He recalled the incident:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">“My wife saw me get up and light a candle and go through all the actions, which were afterwards performed on the stage, with my eyes wide open, although I was obviously asleep.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The next morning I awoke with a clear conception of the illusion, complete with new principle, with the exception of a few mechanical details which were supplied by my friend Bate”.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Even Nevil Maskelyne was bamboozled by this illusion and described it as “<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">the trickiest trick</i>” he’d ever witnessed)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Another of David's most popular tricks was called The Egg Trick, although he didn't invent it. A young volunteer was invited up onto the stage to assist David as he rapidly produced a seemingly never-ending quantity of eggs from an empty top hat. </span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The charm of the trick was the almost slapstick humour that came from it: the boy or girl couldn't possibly hold as many eggs as were materialising from the hat, resulting in eggs being smashed all over the stage as the hapless young volunteer battled to retain all of them.</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The Magic Circle<o:p></o:p></span></u></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The Magic Circle was formed in 1905 after 23 magicians met at Pinoli's Restaurant on Wardour Street with the aim of creating a society that would further and preserve the interests of magic.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The initial meeting was chaired by Servais Le Roy, a Belgian magician, and The Green Man pub in Soho played host to their first official meeting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The meetings were later moved to St George’s Hall on Langham Place which was, fittingly, the venue that Maskelyne and Devant moved the company to after performing at the Egyptian Hall so many years previously.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>By this point, Devant wasn’t just working for Maskelyne but alongside him as a partner, with their company now known as <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Maskelyne and Devant’s Mysteries</i>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">(Image used with the kind permission of Mr Matthew Lloyd at </span><a href="http://www.arthurlloyd.co.uk/"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">www.arthurlloyd.co.uk</span></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The following year, The Magic Circle published a magazine called <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Magic Circular, </i>first edited by Maskelyne with a monthly edition distributed to its members.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was Maskelyne who proposed the society’s motto “<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Indocilis Privata Loqui</i>".<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is Latin for "not apt to disclose secrets" and is pretty much the organisation’s Golden Rule.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This rule of preserving the secrecy of the mechanics behind tricks and illusions was (and still is) vitally important and was supported in the Society’s set of rules, first drawn up by Neil Weaver (the son of an amateur magician and one of the founding members of the organisation).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I imagine that this Golden Rule was akin to the 1905 conjurers’ version of the film Fight Club: “The first rule of The Magic Circle is: You do not talk about the mechanics behind your magic”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Any member caught intentionally revealing magical secrets to anyone other than fellow magicians or students of magic would suffer the indignity of an enforced resignation from the society (or were they ‘ex-spelled’?).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Bearing in mind The Magic Circle’s motto, I’m sure you can imagine the furore when a member of the society committed the cardinal sin of showing the layman how to perform tricks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Worse, the guilty party was none other than David Devant himself, one of the organisations founding members and its first President!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Devant had contributed to a series of articles called <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Tricks for Everyone</i>, published in The Royal Magazine from 1908 to 1909.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As the title suggests, the articles made magic more accessible to the reader but David’s contribution to the publication was construed as being a a flagrant breach of The Magic Circle's secrecy rule (this was despite David trying, but failing, to stop the production of the magazine).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was an incident that split the magic community in two and Devant resigned on 05 April 1910.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was reinstated two years later.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Devant’s contribution to these articles wasn’t motivated by spite or the desire to expose his fellow magicians - he’d contributed them because he truly believed that the articles would benefit the art of magic, an opinion that his friend, former stage partner and current President of the society, Nevil Maskelyne, supported (it appears that both Devant and Maskelyne believed that technological advancements could be used not only to benefit their performances but also to expose frauds and potential faults – see Additional Notes on Nevil Maskelyne).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">In 1909, David and his sister Dora utterly baffled audiences with a mind reading trick called Transludication.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Six audience members were each passed a blank visiting card and were invited to write a message on the card without anybody else seeing it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Each card was placed into an envelope and sealed, and all sealed envelopes were collected in a black bag, which was to be brought to the front of the stage where Dora (who was completely blindfolded) sat near the footlights, surrounded by a semi-circle of volunteers behind her.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, something completely unexpected happened that even Devant himself couldn’t have anticipated.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As the person collecting the envelopes approached the seat of Sir Oliver Lodge, the eminent physicist, Sir Oliver stood up and insisted that his own card, written at home before the performance, be added to the bag and challenged Dora to 'read' it.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Sir Oliver's card was dropped into the bag with the others and the bag then bought to the stage and placed into Dora’s lap by her brother. David stepped away from his sister and explained to the audience that what they were about to do involved no trickery or fraud and could be done by anyone in the auditorium.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The anticipation in the room was palpable as Dora reached into the bag and, one by one, drew each sealed envelope up to her forehead and ‘read’ the message within while still blindfolded.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The unopened cards were then returned to their owners, each of whom confirmed that Dora had just relayed the messages on each card absolutely correctly, including Sir Lodge’s.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sir Lodge stood up in his seat, appealed for silence from the stunned audience and then said, “I do not understand by what means this marvel has been accomplished.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I know nothing in science that could account for it, and although the lady herself may be unaware of the supernatural powers she is exercising, I believe that the intervention of such power alone could offer a solution.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">David Devant himself said afterwards of the incident, “I saw him after the performance and tried to assure him it was trickery but he frankly said that he did not believe it”.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">David was invited to appear at the very first Royal Command Performance, in July of 1912, for King George V and Queen Mary, an enormous honour given that it was the monarchs who decided who would perform and who wouldn’t.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This glittering event was held at the London Palace Theatre and was a terribly extravagant affair, with the entire theatre and all the boxes being decked out with <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">three million</i> roses.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>David performed alongside not only vaudeville star Wilkie Bard (who, coincidentally, is also interred at Highgate Cemetery East) but other entertainment heavyweights such as Harry Lauder, Clarice Mayne, George Robey and Fanny Fields but to name a few.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">(Incidentally, this was the same Royal Command Performance to which the music hall legend Marie Lloyd was scandalously not invited, due to her act being considered far too salacious at a time when music hall was supposedly regaining a respectable reputation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Marie was positively adored by the public but was considered too common to perform in front of royalty because, scandalously, she’d had the temerity to marry <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">three times</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Oh how times have changed… Elizabeth Taylor, who famously married eight times, was made a Dame by Queen Elizabeth II in 1999)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">By 1919 at the age of 52, David’s health was failing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He’d noticed that his hands had begun to shake while performing and he was diagnosed with ‘paralysis agitans’, or what we now know as Parkinson’s disease.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The main symptoms of this debilitating condition are stiffness and rigidity of the limbs, shaking and loss of agility.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In some cases, the disease can cause speech and communication problems and can also adversely affect the memory.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For someone who’d based his entire life’s work on sleight of hand, mental dexterity and constant interaction with audiences, this diagnosis must have been absolutely devastating to David. By 1928 Marion Devant passed away from alcoholism and, by this point, David was unable to walk or control his hand movements.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Although he was confined to a wheelchair, David continued to write books and teach magic. </span></div>
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</span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Scandal II<o:p></o:p></span></u></b>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">In 1931, David wrote an autobiography called <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">My Magic Life</i>, which was followed up with <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Secrets of My Magic</i> four years later.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>An excerpt from the latter entitled “Illusion and Disillusion” was published in the Windsor Magazine in December 1935 and once again, David found himself in hot water with The Magic Circle for contravention of Rule No. 13.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was forced to resign in 1936 and said of his expulsion:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">“The tricks I had exposed were my own, so I did not think I had broken any rule.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I owe it to posterity to give to the world my secrets before I die.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I don’t think I shall live much longer. Exposing tricks or illusions—providing they are not someone else’s new invention—is good for the profession. It stimulates public interest in magic and forces magicians to seek new tricks rather than to stagnate with some that are centuries old.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Magic Circle seems to think that it is the mechanics of a trick that are the secrets of its success. In my view, it is only the artistry of the performer that can make it magic.”</span></i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'MS Gothic'; mso-bidi-font-family: "MS Gothic";">
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">By 1937, David had been placed in the care of the Royal Home for Incurables in south west London, and was presented an Honorary Life Membership by The Magic Circle the same year.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Every year following his admittance to the hospital, a group of magicians from The Magic Circle performed for David at his bedside, a tradition that has continued long after his death 1941.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He is buried in Highgate Cemetery in the Dissenters’ section of the West cemetery.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The grave is not accessible by guided tour because it’s in a rather tricky spot to locate but is cared for by The Magic Circle.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrXl-vxhs5B-blgEylQq9QBmFtlHtQqS9suS4dbD0UP27AeGNAkfYWtKxaluy8k2N74ukII4Op3ozVrY-AWO24f8jwKI1gojIa5sR_5j63eJrlw96OV1HGSpUknKROxa3t4AypHSls0Y4/s1600/Devant+Grave.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img bba="true" border="0" height="427" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrXl-vxhs5B-blgEylQq9QBmFtlHtQqS9suS4dbD0UP27AeGNAkfYWtKxaluy8k2N74ukII4Op3ozVrY-AWO24f8jwKI1gojIa5sR_5j63eJrlw96OV1HGSpUknKROxa3t4AypHSls0Y4/s640/Devant+Grave.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The grave number is 16167, in square 23, and the Right of Burial granted 11 August 1868 to Matilda Wighton, 8 Grosvenor Road, Holloway for the sum of £3.3.0.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The plot itself is 2’6 by 6’6 and is unconsecrated.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Wighton family members in the plot are: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">David Wighton (died 1868)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Matilda E Wighton (died 18 November 1887)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">James E Wighton (died 21 January 1901)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Mary Wighton (died 08 July 1918)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Jessie Wighton (died 01 November 1934)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">David Devant (died 11 Oct 1941)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Ownership of the grave was transferred more than once and by 25 July 1902, the registered owner was Mary Wighton of Camden Road.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Legacy<o:p></o:p></span></u></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Every year since 1999, The Magic Circle presents an award to, “<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">those who have made a significant contribution in advancing the art of magic or who have given outstanding service to magic internationally”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></i>The award is known as (you guessed it!) the Devant Award and past recipients have included:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">2012<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Jim Steinmeyer<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">2011<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>David Berglas<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">2009<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Ali Bongo<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">2008<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Siegfried & Roy<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">2007<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Paul Daniels<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">2006<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>John Fisher<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">2005<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>John Calvert<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">2004<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Marvyn Roy<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">2003<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Mark Wilson and Nani<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">2002<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Dr. Eddie Dawes<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">2001<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>John Gaughan<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">2000<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Channing Pollock<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">1999<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Jay Marshall<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">David has a room at the Centre for the Magic Arts named in his honour and even has a band named after him (indie group <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">David Devant & His Spirit Wife</i>). He appears in a book by children’s called <em>The Story of the Amulet</em> by E. Nesbit and his contribution to the performing arts was finally recognised by English Heritage in 2003, when a blue plaque was erected outside his home on Ornan Road, Belsize Park. His magic can be seen on Youtube via the Vintage Magic Archive's wonderful collection:</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmZ7-xc3gp0">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmZ7-xc3gp0</a><br />
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUYXYDl2_hY">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUYXYDl2_hY</a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">In short, David Devant is still a huge inspiration to magicians today, both old and new, and when asked how his magic was done, David simply answered: “All done by kindness".</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9gllL2-XKI11SdEoJYbZAOAKNz9hA8Fr14FI4tvcw1Q6QQWRnYLrMt1d-lYNE6GU4S9vKeuSS-wk9-UA_aN73J7clJZn2YqQS4ApSyVTIS9CR-JWL_WK_ahfcfFDXK52fHwV56F5gAh0/s1600/DD+404.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img bba="true" border="0" height="385" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9gllL2-XKI11SdEoJYbZAOAKNz9hA8Fr14FI4tvcw1Q6QQWRnYLrMt1d-lYNE6GU4S9vKeuSS-wk9-UA_aN73J7clJZn2YqQS4ApSyVTIS9CR-JWL_WK_ahfcfFDXK52fHwV56F5gAh0/s640/DD+404.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><u>David’s Accomplishments –a Summary</u>:<u><o:p></o:p></u></span></i></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Illusions:<o:p></o:p></span></u></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">1893:<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Vice Versa</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">1893:<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Artist's Dream</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">1893:<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Colour Change<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">1893 (±): <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Vest Servante</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">1895:<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Birth of Flora</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">1905:<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Mascot Moth</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">1906:<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The New Page</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">1913:<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Vanishing Motorcycle</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><u>Shadowgraphy</u>:<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">1911:<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Window of a Haunted House<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><u>Books</u>:<u><o:p></o:p></u></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">1901:<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Hand Shadows</i> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">1903:<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Woes of a Wizard<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">1911:<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Our Magic, </i>co-authored with J. Nevil Maskelyne<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">1913:<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Tricks for Everyone</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">1921:<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Magic Made Easy</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">1922:<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Lessons in Conjuring</i> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">1931:<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">My Magic Life</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">1931:<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Best Tricks and How to Do Them<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">1936:<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Secrets of My Magic</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><u>Cinematographer (documentaries)</u>:<u><o:p></o:p></u></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">1898:<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Collision</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">1898:<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Eastbourne Memorial</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">1898:<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Greasy Pole</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">1898:<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Worcester Street</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><u>Acting Roles</u>:<u><o:p></o:p></u></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">In 1920, Devant played the part of The Master Magician in a film called <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Great London Mystery</i>, alongside Robert Clifton and Lady Doris Stapleton.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The film was directed by Charles Raymond and was a silent crime/mystery/horror movie in which a magician foils a Chinese crime lord.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><u>Short films featuring Himself</u>:<u><o:p></o:p></u></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">1903:<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">David Devant's Laughable Hand Shadows</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">1903:<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">David Devant, Conjurer</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">1896:<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Devant's Exhibition of Paper Folding</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">1896:<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Devant's Hand Shadows</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">1896:<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Egg-Laying Man</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">1896:<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Mysterious Rabbit</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><u>Documentary</u>:<u><o:p></o:p></u></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">David featured in a television documentary in 2000 called <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Heroes of Magic</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><u>Additional Notes about Nevil Maskelyne</u>:</span></b></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSIaAPHHfTXfjLk905D8PcgYozlthFJFPVY3MGZwSTan9bNodNJG2ZXxiwQjygUaPs7_yD7Y4HylBu-Y90DQN3qBKgu0cCMgU5JcjxDTzv7p7z2V_8SspfsS8xtU-vCIhAI8sKm_Yrd-A/s1600/mw159706.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a><br /></div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSIaAPHHfTXfjLk905D8PcgYozlthFJFPVY3MGZwSTan9bNodNJG2ZXxiwQjygUaPs7_yD7Y4HylBu-Y90DQN3qBKgu0cCMgU5JcjxDTzv7p7z2V_8SspfsS8xtU-vCIhAI8sKm_Yrd-A/s1600/mw159706.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img bba="true" border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSIaAPHHfTXfjLk905D8PcgYozlthFJFPVY3MGZwSTan9bNodNJG2ZXxiwQjygUaPs7_yD7Y4HylBu-Y90DQN3qBKgu0cCMgU5JcjxDTzv7p7z2V_8SspfsS8xtU-vCIhAI8sKm_Yrd-A/s200/mw159706.jpg" width="133" /></a><span style="font-family: Calibri;">It appears that Nevil Maskelyne is regarded in some circles as being the world’s first hacker (or troll, depending on how you look at it!).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In essence, he was a self-taught devotee of wireless technology and used it in in parts of his magic act.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, he found his efforts within the field were constantly hampered by Marconi’s broad use of patents and so, rather mischievously, Maskelyne decided to have the last laugh in 1902 by hacking into Marconi’s wireless telegraph display at the Royal Institution's lecture theatre.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He interrupted the public demonstration of the transmission by sending insults in Morse code that claimed Marconi was a fraud and was "diddling the public."<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Marconi was bamboozled (and not to mention incredibly humiliated) by the hoaxer and his colleague, physicist John Ambrose Fleming, fired off a strongly worded letter to the Times of London, demanding that the paper’s readers assist in unmasking the perpetrator accused of "scientific hooliganism".<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Four days later, the paper received a response from Maskelyne, in which he claimed that his exposure of the security flaws were completely justified as it demonstrated that Marconi’s previous claim that the system’s security was top notch to be false.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Maskelyne is buried in Brompton Cemetery and is also credited with creating the first pay toilet. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><strong>Copyright © Sam Perrin July 2013</strong></span><br />
<strong><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></strong>
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><u>Thanks</u>:<u><o:p></o:p></u></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Terry Wright, David Hibberd and Darren Tossell, The Magic Circle (</span><a href="http://themagiccircle.co.uk/"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">http://themagiccircle.co.uk/</span></a><u><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span class="MsoHyperlink">)</span><o:p></o:p></span></span></u></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Paul Kieve (<a href="http://www.stageillusion.com/">http://www.stageillusion.com/</a>)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Matthew Lloyd (<a href="http://www.arthurlloyd.co.uk/">www.arthurlloyd.co.uk</a>)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The Vintage Magic Archive channel on Youtube (<a href="http://www.youtube.com/user/VintageMagicArchives">http://www.youtube.com/user/VintageMagicArchives</a>)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Justin Bickersteth (Registrar) and Eddie Daley (Trustee), Highgate Cemetery (<a href="http://highgatecemetery.org/">http://highgatecemetery.org/</a>)</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Sources:<o:p></o:p></span></u></b></div>
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<a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0222212/bio#trivia"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0222212/bio#trivia</span></a><span class="MsoHyperlink"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmZ7-xc3gp0"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmZ7-xc3gp0</span></a><o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="http://magicgizmo.com/home/Magic-History/famous-tricks-of-famous-conjurers-by-david-devant.html"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">http://magicgizmo.com/home/Magic-History/famous-tricks-of-famous-conjurers-by-david-devant.html</span></a><o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="http://www.olympicmagic.com/site/content/view/80/31/lang,el/"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">http://www.olympicmagic.com/site/content/view/80/31/lang,el/</span></a><o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="http://www.creatorofmysteriousstories.com/"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">http://www.creatorofmysteriousstories.com/</span></a><o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="http://www.magicnook.com/forum/SECRETSOFMyMAGICDevanteCD03.htm"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">http://www.magicnook.com/forum/SECRETSOFMyMAGICDevanteCD03.htm</span></a><o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="http://www.magicnook.com/forum/bioCDE.htm"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">http://www.magicnook.com/forum/bioCDE.htm</span></a><o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="http://www.eabf.org.uk/royal-variety-performance/archive/1910s/1912"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">http://www.eabf.org.uk/royal-variety-performance/archive/1910s/1912</span></a><o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="http://www.stageillusion.com/news/articles-by-paul-kieve/my-favourite-londoner-david-devant"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">http://www.stageillusion.com/news/articles-by-paul-kieve/my-favourite-londoner-david-devant</span></a><o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="http://www.users.waitrose.com/~2themorgans/cast/cast.html"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">http://www.users.waitrose.com/~2themorgans/cast/cast.html</span></a><o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21228440.700-dotdashdiss-the-gentleman-hackers-1903-lulz.html?full=true"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21228440.700-dotdashdiss-the-gentleman-hackers-1903-lulz.html?full=true</span></a><o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="http://www.socialphy.com/posts/computers-technology/7967/Nevil-Maskelyne_-a-hacker-109-years-ago.html"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">http://www.socialphy.com/posts/computers-technology/7967/Nevil-Maskelyne_-a-hacker-109-years-ago.html</span></a><o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="http://www.illusionrepository.com/repository/?listing=artists-dream"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">http://www.illusionrepository.com/repository/?listing=artists-dream</span></a><span class="MsoHyperlink"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="http://quick-change-artistry.com/shadowgraphy.html"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">http://quick-change-artistry.com/shadowgraphy.html</span></a><o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="http://www.victorian-cinema.net/devant"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">http://www.victorian-cinema.net/devant</span></a><o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="http://filmsdefrance.com/FDF_gmelies.html"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">http://filmsdefrance.com/FDF_gmelies.html</span></a><o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/07/books/now-you-see-it.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/07/books/now-you-see-it.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm</span></a><o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="http://sleighted.blogspot.co.uk/2011/02/david-devants-mascot-moth-illusion.html"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">http://sleighted.blogspot.co.uk/2011/02/david-devants-mascot-moth-illusion.html</span></a><o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="http://www.magicmagazine.com/2012/may/contents.html"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">http://www.magicmagazine.com/2012/may/contents.html</span></a><span class="MsoHyperlink"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/discover/blue-plaques/search/devant-david-1868-1941"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/discover/blue-plaques/search/devant-david-1868-1941</span></a><span class="MsoHyperlink"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="http://publicdomainreview.org/2013/04/17/magic-stage-illusions-and-scientific-diversions-including-trick-photography-1897/"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">http://publicdomainreview.org/2013/04/17/magic-stage-illusions-and-scientific-diversions-including-trick-photography-1897/#</span></a><span class="MsoHyperlink"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="http://www.kylesummers.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/file/The%20Magic%20Circle.pdf"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">http://www.kylesummers.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/file/The%20Magic%20Circle.pdf</span></a><o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="http://cabinetmagazine.org/issues/26/dawes.php"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">http://cabinetmagazine.org/issues/26/dawes.php</span></a><span class="MsoHyperlink"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="http://cabinetmagazine.org/issues/24/allen.php"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">http://cabinetmagazine.org/issues/24/allen.php</span></a><span class="MsoHyperlink"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span class="MsoHyperlink"><u><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">http://images.slsa.sa.gov.au/mpcimg/17000/B16763_87.htm<o:p></o:p></span></span></u></span></div>
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<a href="http://www.theverge.com/2011/12/29/2667801/marconi-maskelyne-rivalry-1903-hacking-morse-transmission"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">http://www.theverge.com/2011/12/29/2667801/marconi-maskelyne-rivalry-1903-hacking-morse-transmission</span></a><span class="MsoHyperlink"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Hiding the Elephant: How Magicians Invented the Impossible and Learned to Disappear</i> by Jim Steinmeyer<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Sounds of the Silents in Britain</i>, edited by Julie Brown and Annette Davison<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Magic: A Picture History</i> by Milbourne Christopher<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Take it for a Fact: a Record of my Seventy-Five Years on the Stage</i> by Ada Reeve<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">When the World Was Young: Lost Empires</i> by Graham Nown<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Thunderstruck</i> by Erik Larson<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Dream That Kicks: The Prehistory and Early Years of Cinema in Britain </i>by Professor Michael Chanan<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Meta-Morphing: Visual Transformation and the Culture of Quick-Change</i>, edited by Vivian Carol Sobchack<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Thought Reader Craze: Victorian Science at the Enchanted Boundary</i> by Barry H. Wileya<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Modern Enchantments: The Cultural Power of Secular Magic</i> by Simon DURING<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Theosophist Magazine January 1932-April 1932</i>, edited by Annie Wood Besant<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Straits Times, 14 November 1936, Page 18</i> (“Devant Tells His ‘Secrets’ of Magic”)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Popular Mechanics</i>, Dec 1958<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Our Magic: The Art in Magic, the Theory of Magic, the Practice of Magic</i> by John Nevil Maskelyne, David Devant<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Circle Without End the Magic Circle 1905</i> by Edwin A Dawes and Michael Bailey<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Cheating and Deception</i> by John Bowyer Bell and Barton Whaley<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Encyclopedia of Early Cinema</i> edited by Richard Abel<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Thought Reader Craze: Victorian Science at the Enchanted Boundary</i> by Barry H. Wiley</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Haunted Gallery: Painting, Photography, and Film C. 1900</i> by Lynda Nead</span><br />
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Sam Perrinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09087801375009020534noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7035609559995875565.post-59741172427741948652013-06-14T18:16:00.000+01:002015-05-27T15:59:48.972+01:00George Honey - Vocalist, Comedian and Actor (1822 to 1880) <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinhzgoZ17-HAqNJBTi1-0BpE06UFicdd3KWxPDFiu-uSNbQFUhhXZqMBR0nLSQKDdA8QQYz762ops5Qmill98dePfxzOHmODY95qiEUCO3UqdRUPnS3VQ9_bfntx-EkLG9OTQMUx0XqAs/s1600/George+Honey+Portrait.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" cya="true" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinhzgoZ17-HAqNJBTi1-0BpE06UFicdd3KWxPDFiu-uSNbQFUhhXZqMBR0nLSQKDdA8QQYz762ops5Qmill98dePfxzOHmODY95qiEUCO3UqdRUPnS3VQ9_bfntx-EkLG9OTQMUx0XqAs/s640/George+Honey+Portrait.jpg" width="387" /></a></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><br /></span></span></i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">“One of the most genuine and unexaggerated examples of pure humour the modern stage has witnessed”<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">“Highly finished from first to last”<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">“… delivered his words with a quaintness that quite took the audience by surprise.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Such a success as he achieved last night is enough to make an epoch in an actor's career”<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">“An English comedian of great repute”<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The reviews above are the sort that most theatrical performers would give their eyeteeth to receive and the recipient in this case was George Honey, an actor and singer buried in Highgate Cemetery East. George was gifted with not only a beautiful singing voice but great comedic timing and was one of the most popular comedic stage actors of the latter part of the 19<sup>th</sup> Century.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Born on 22 May 1822, George found a job as a call-boy at the Adelphi Theatre in 1843, aged 21, and was soon given the part of the singing mouse as part of a comedy duet in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Harlequin Blue Beard</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Five years later he debuted as Pan in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Midas</i> at the Princess’s Theatre and a review of his later performance in G.A. MacFarren’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Robin Hood</i> noted that George had “rendered valuable assistance both by his comic acting and excellent singing”.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhT7E-AipPJ-RIx2CPO3elQKyJbr2tbzAEJn_32EMcjy4NTQfd1SM67sHI6SQZsvXQWV4zBYHqV-rgKV3jgsPHhf0LAfQjW4gLLywpNE30bC2h3TjlKGPNTJ37Jke8v87TUomOZMqgpHVQ/s1600/Robin+Hood+Opera.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" cya="true" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhT7E-AipPJ-RIx2CPO3elQKyJbr2tbzAEJn_32EMcjy4NTQfd1SM67sHI6SQZsvXQWV4zBYHqV-rgKV3jgsPHhf0LAfQjW4gLLywpNE30bC2h3TjlKGPNTJ37Jke8v87TUomOZMqgpHVQ/s400/Robin+Hood+Opera.png" width="292" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">George’s career went from strength to strength and between 1850 and 1851, he performed in a number of comedy operas at the Adelphi:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><b>Character<o:p></o:p></b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><b>Production<o:p></o:p></b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><b>Run</b><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Widgeon<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Disowned<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">24 Mar 1851 - 2 Apr 1851<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Gil<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Giralda<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">27 May 1851 - 31 May 1851<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 3;"><td style="background-color: transparent; border-color: rgb(240, 240, 240) windowtext windowtext; border-style: none solid solid; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 154pt;" valign="top" width="205"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Signor Pantalon<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Good Night, Signor Pantalon<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">29 May 1851 - 23 Aug 1851<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 4;"><td style="background-color: transparent; border-color: rgb(240, 240, 240) windowtext windowtext; border-style: none solid solid; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 154pt;" valign="top" width="205"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Muster Grinnidge<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td><td style="background-color: transparent; border-color: rgb(240, 240, 240) windowtext windowtext rgb(240, 240, 240); border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 154.05pt;" valign="top" width="205"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Green Bushes<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">24 Jul 1851 - 22 Sep 1851<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 5;"><td style="background-color: transparent; border-color: rgb(240, 240, 240) windowtext windowtext; border-style: none solid solid; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 154pt;" valign="top" width="205"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Jukes<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td><td style="background-color: transparent; border-color: rgb(240, 240, 240) windowtext windowtext rgb(240, 240, 240); border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 154.05pt;" valign="top" width="205"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Jessie Gray<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
</td><td style="background-color: transparent; border-color: rgb(240, 240, 240) windowtext windowtext rgb(240, 240, 240); border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 154.05pt;" valign="top" width="205"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">18 Nov 1850 - 24 Jan 1851<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 6;"><td style="background-color: transparent; border-color: rgb(240, 240, 240) windowtext windowtext; border-style: none solid solid; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 154pt;" valign="top" width="205"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Sharp<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td><td style="background-color: transparent; border-color: rgb(240, 240, 240) windowtext windowtext rgb(240, 240, 240); border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 154.05pt;" valign="top" width="205"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Married Bachelor<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
</td><td style="background-color: transparent; border-color: rgb(240, 240, 240) windowtext windowtext rgb(240, 240, 240); border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 154.05pt;" valign="top" width="205"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">15 Oct 1850 - 22 Mar 1851<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 7;"><td style="background-color: transparent; border-color: rgb(240, 240, 240) windowtext windowtext; border-style: none solid solid; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 154pt;" valign="top" width="205"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Bob<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td><td style="background-color: transparent; border-color: rgb(240, 240, 240) windowtext windowtext rgb(240, 240, 240); border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 154.05pt;" valign="top" width="205"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Night of Horrors<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
</td><td style="background-color: transparent; border-color: rgb(240, 240, 240) windowtext windowtext rgb(240, 240, 240); border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 154.05pt;" valign="top" width="205"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">12 Jun 1851 - 5 Jul 1851<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td></tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 8;"><td style="background-color: transparent; border-color: rgb(240, 240, 240) windowtext windowtext; border-style: none solid solid; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 154pt;" valign="top" width="205"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Jack the Linnet<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td><td style="background-color: transparent; border-color: rgb(240, 240, 240) windowtext windowtext rgb(240, 240, 240); border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 154.05pt;" valign="top" width="205"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">O'Flannigan and the Fairies<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
</td><td style="background-color: transparent; border-color: rgb(240, 240, 240) windowtext windowtext rgb(240, 240, 240); border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 154.05pt;" valign="top" width="205"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">21 Apr 1851 - 24 May 1851<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td></tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 9;"><td style="background-color: transparent; border-color: rgb(240, 240, 240) windowtext windowtext; border-style: none solid solid; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 154pt;" valign="top" width="205"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Jacob<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Road to Ruin<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
</td><td style="background-color: transparent; border-color: rgb(240, 240, 240) windowtext windowtext rgb(240, 240, 240); border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 154.05pt;" valign="top" width="205"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">16 Jul 1851<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td></tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 10;"><td style="background-color: transparent; border-color: rgb(240, 240, 240) windowtext windowtext; border-style: none solid solid; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 154pt;" valign="top" width="205"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Puggs<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Shocking Events<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
</td><td style="background-color: transparent; border-color: rgb(240, 240, 240) windowtext windowtext rgb(240, 240, 240); border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 154.05pt;" valign="top" width="205"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">7 Jul 1851 - 11 Jul 1851<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td></tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 11;"><td style="background-color: transparent; border-color: rgb(240, 240, 240) windowtext windowtext; border-style: none solid solid; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 154pt;" valign="top" width="205"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Mazourki<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Taming a Tartar<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
</td><td style="background-color: transparent; border-color: rgb(240, 240, 240) windowtext windowtext rgb(240, 240, 240); border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 154.05pt;" valign="top" width="205"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">25 Aug 1851 - 17 Sep 1851<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td></tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 12; mso-yfti-lastrow: yes;"><td style="background-color: transparent; border-color: rgb(240, 240, 240) windowtext windowtext; border-style: none solid solid; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 154pt;" valign="top" width="205"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Sanquineo<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td><td style="background-color: transparent; border-color: rgb(240, 240, 240) windowtext windowtext rgb(240, 240, 240); border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 154.05pt;" valign="top" width="205"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">La Tarantula<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
</td><td style="background-color: transparent; border-color: rgb(240, 240, 240) windowtext windowtext rgb(240, 240, 240); border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 154.05pt;" valign="top" width="205"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">26 Dec 1850 - 26 Feb 1851<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Incidentally, a number of the abovementioned operas that George performed in were under the direction of Louisa Pyne and William Harrison of the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Pyne & Harrison English Opera Company</i>, which was the most successful English travelling opera troupe in the United States in the 1850s.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The company later returned to London and Louisa Pyne appears to have been instrumental in the formation of the Royal English Opera Company.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She was also the second woman to ever win the Royal Philharmonic Society's Beethoven Gold Medal for her contribution towards opera and was hugely respected and admired both in the UK and across the pond.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOWG_4A6iyYdsLcjkkjqa69GQCrSrU_l-fism_pLsFxbIWHMOa_wVo9w7erM2Rf8Y7C1bMPu5tnHDW9d0lMMwseWSXPXY33wbARZncdAS1wkkMYYB2SGOsGmwZhAhUsHfLvJTz78w9bSE/s1600/Louisa+Pyne.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" cya="true" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOWG_4A6iyYdsLcjkkjqa69GQCrSrU_l-fism_pLsFxbIWHMOa_wVo9w7erM2Rf8Y7C1bMPu5tnHDW9d0lMMwseWSXPXY33wbARZncdAS1wkkMYYB2SGOsGmwZhAhUsHfLvJTz78w9bSE/s400/Louisa+Pyne.jpg" width="252" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Louisa Pyne</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">As for the Adelphi Theatre, it was noted by the London Times as being "the most popular theatre of the metropolis" with the "best company in London for its purpose” in the summer of 1851. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s also said that The Adelphi had the honour of being one of the first, if not <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">the</i> first, theatres to stage adaptations of the works of Charles Dickens.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So not only was George rubbing shoulders with some of the most well respected directors and performers within the industry, he was also performing in one of the most popular theatres in London at the time!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The Old Adelphi Theatre</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><strong><u><br /></u></strong></span></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><strong><u>Success in the UK<o:p></o:p></u></strong></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Quite a number of later characters that George took to portraying were drunken, eccentric and slightly damaged, including a less-than-honest lawyer in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Miriam’s Crime</i> (1863), Turco the Terrible in William’s Brough’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Prince Amabel</i> (1865) and Annibal Locust, a boozy sergeant, in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Huguenot Captain </i>(1866)<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">.</i></span></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><br /></i></span></span>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">George as Biles in </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Miriam's Crime</i></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">His acting was described by Peter Fitzgerald as being “of the old broad, boisterous, exaggerated style” and Tom Robertson was initially reluctant to cast George as Eccles in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Caste</i> (1867) because he felt that George’s over-the-top style would clash with the subtler performances he’d established at the Prince of Wales theatre.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As it turned out, George’s overstated ‘old school’ style was just the tonic required to bring Eccles to life, and George’s very funny portrayal was a thunderous success that ensured the character was only ever associated with his name thereafter.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">George as Eccles</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">George’s later portrayal of Major Buncombe in Andrew Halliday's <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">For Love or Money</i> (1870) at the Globe also won him great acclaim and he went on to receive even more praise and recognition playing Cheviot Hill in W. S. Gilbert's <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Engaged</i> (1877) at the Haymarket.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">(Incidentally, George’s professional reputation had soared by the 1870s and as a result, his financial situation had improved dramatically: when he first played Eccles back in 1867, he was receiving £18 per week.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Four years later, when <i>Caste</i> was revived, he was earning £60 a week.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>According to the VictorianWeb currency convertor, this amounts to £3,900 a week - A WEEK - in today’s currency!)<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><strong><u>Success in the US<o:p></o:p></u></strong></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">George travelled to New York in 1875, where his portrayal of Eccles at Wallack’s Theatre was “admired and praised on all hands”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In fact, George’s obituary in the New York Times described his portrayal of Eccles as “inimitable” and noted that George had produced “a remarkable and lasting effect”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><em>The Era</em> (14 May 1876 edition) reported that his tour of the US had been a “brilliant success” and, in playing Major Buncombe in "For Love or Money" (the first time the play had ever been seen in the United States), the <em>Cambridge Chronicle</em> (11 September edition) reported that he remained at the Boston Globe for a “series of star performances” for the rest of his stay in America.</span></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Wallack's Theatre</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">George’s naturally quick wit occasionally presented itself in unscripted moments on stage, much to the delight of the audience.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The following recollection comes from Lady Marie Bancroft (nee Wilton) in which she recalled one such incident during a performance of <em>Orpheus</em>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A horse race had taken place earlier on in the day, with the winning horse called Black Deer:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">“In the evening, George Honey, who was playing Black King Pluto introduced an unexpected joke in my scene with him: “<em>Saucy boy!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You’ve been to the races, it is clear.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was taken by surprise but soon recovered, and replied, “Yes, and was a winner, too, you Black Dear.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The audience at once recognised the introduction, and received it with much laughter and applause.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Mr Honey, seeing that I had the best of it, added, “Oh, so I thought: well, long may you reign, dear.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This, being done on the spur of the moment, was more successful than if it had been pre-arranged</em>.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Lady Marie Bancroft</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><strong><u>Personal Life<o:p></o:p></u></strong></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I attempted to locate George’s birth certificate and any other associated documentation that pertained to his parents and/or family, but was unable to source anything due to the fact that birth registrations in the UK only became necessary in 1837 (unfortunately for me, George was born in 1822 so 15 years too early to be registered).<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">However, I <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">did </i>come across an intriguing clue about George’s early life on the biography of another Victorian actress called Laura Agnes Stevenson.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Her mother was the celebrated actress and singer Laura Honey (one of many aliases that daughter Laura used) although neither appear to have been related to George.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, Laura Honey (daughter) and George performed together in a number of plays at the Adelphi (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Married Bachelor, Jessie Gray, The Disowned</i>, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Giralda</i> and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Good Night, Signor Pantalon).<o:p></o:p></i></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">This same biography claimed that George was actually born George Alfred Dryland and on the Adelphi Theatre’s calendar for 1850/1851, George’s name is shown as being George A. Honey.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Also, in the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Devon & Cornwall Notes & Queries (Volume 38</i>), George is referred to as George Alfred Honey.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So I followed this up and, courtesy of Ancestry.com, found one George Alfred Dryland who was baptised in Lambeth on 17 September 1823.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If this is indeed the very same George, it would’ve made him 16-months old at the time of the baptism.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Intriguingly, I came across an excerpt from a book called <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Avowals</i> by George Moore (described by Google Books as being “a volume of conversational memoirs by Moore, who was a significant member of the Irish Literary Revival in the early 1900s”).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>On page 50, Moore reminisces about seeing <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Money</i> at the Prince of Wales Theatre (1869):<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><br /><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">“Another great event of my youth, and of yours too, Gosse, I'm sure, was Money, at the Old Prince of Wales' Theatre, when the Bancrofts owned it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Do you remember Coghlan and Miss Foote in the act in which the will is read, as good an act of comedy as ever was written if it resembles my memory of it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you have forgotten it I never have, nor a certain short front scene, played by George Honey and his wife.”</span></i><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Could George have been married? Or could Mr Moore have possibly been referring to George's character's wife, perhaps? I was intrigued by this statement because while researching George, I hadn't come across one solitary suggestion or confirmation about his marital status anywhere at the time of posting. That's not to say that George never married and it's certainly worthy of investigation (I shall post any discoveries made in this regard as/if they present themselves). </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Regarding George's interests outside the theatre, I stumbled across the following article in the 17 February 1875 edition of the Worcestershire Chronicle that suggests George might’ve had some involvement with the Freemasons:</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><strong>[A CARD.]<o:p></o:p></strong></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><strong>BROTHER GEORGE HONEY<o:p></o:p></strong></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><strong><span style="font-size: xx-small;">(COMEDIAN)<o:p></o:p></span></strong></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Takes this opportunity of THANKING the<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">FREEMASONS of WORCESTOR for their<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">PATRONAGE and PRESENCE upon the occasion of<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">His (RETURN) VISIT to the THEATRE ROYAL, on<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">FRIDAY LAST, FEB 12th<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Acting Manager<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> C.K. FURTADO<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I wanted to confirm this so contacted Diane Clements, the Director of the Library and Museum of Freemasonry. Diane advised that while the Freemasons occasionally sponsored events and performances for their members, this didn’t necessarily mean that the performer was a member of the organisation themselves. I then subsequently came across an article from The <em>Freemasons' Quarterly Magazine and Review</em> (26th February 1870) that appeared to confirm George's involvement within the Masons and commends George and one of his fellow brothers on their excellent singing following their initiation. However, one of Diane's colleagues contacted me a short while later to advise that while George had certainly performed for the organisation, they have absolutely no record confirming him as being a member. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><strong><u>Ill Health and Death<o:p></o:p></u></strong></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">There was something almost Tommy Cooper-esque about the stroke that George suffered during his final entrance of the 1879 revival of <em>Caste</em> at the Prince of Wales.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Marie Bancroft, who played the part of Polly, was present as George collapsed backstage. </span></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The scene at the end of Act 1 centred on Eccles’ inebriated return to the stage and Miss Bancroft supported George (literally and figuratively) after his collapse by rattling a door and impersonating Eccles cursing, while physically holding the stricken actor up in the doorway (all while the audience applauded and laughed as the act-drop fell).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The good news was that, unlike Tommy Cooper, George didn’t die from this stroke.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The bad news was that the incident pretty much ended George’s career and the only theatrical appearances he made thereafter were minor parts for benefits.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>George died on 28 May 1880 following an aneurism of the heart.</span></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><br /></span></span>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">George is buried on the East side of Highgate Cemetery on a small pathway to the right of the main pathway, near Chester Gate (look out for Ann Jewson Crisp's monument featuring her dog Emporer). <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The right of burial was granted to Emily Honey of 127 Camden Road on 29 May 1880 at a cost of £6.6.0 and ownership was never transferred.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>George is the only person buried there and was interred on 01 June 1880.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Interestingly, the location of the plot was chosen by Highgate Cemetery on behalf of George's family and the monument is on the right as you walk down the pathway.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It's an upright rectangular pinkish stone with a white oval medallion featuring a (very accurate) relief of George’s face.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The inscription reads:</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><b>IN MEMORY OF GEORGE HONEY<o:p></o:p></b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><b>COMEDIAN<o:p></o:p></b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><b>DIED MAY 28 1880<o:p></o:p></b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><b>AGED 58 YEARS<o:p></o:p></b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><b>ERECTED BY HIS FRIENDS<o:p></o:p></b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><b>AND FELLOW WORKERS</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">In just about every one of his obituaries and reviews I’ve come across, George was described as being a very popular and talented performer and his professional career lasted for a very successful 32 years.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: x-small;"><o:p><strong>Copyright © Sam Perrin June 2013</strong></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><strong><u>Sources:<o:p></o:p></u></strong></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Justin Bickersteth, Registrar, Highgate Cemetery</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Ancestry.com<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="http://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person/mp88534/george-honey"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">http://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person/mp88534/george-honey</span></span></a><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Honey,_George_(DNB00)"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Honey,_George_(DNB00)</span></span></a><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="http://www.oxforddnb.com/templates/article.jsp?articleid=13660&back"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">http://www.oxforddnb.com/templates/article.jsp?articleid=13660&back</span></span></a><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">=<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<a href="http://content.lib.sfu.ca/cdm/singleitem/collection/ceww/id/318/rec/411"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">http://content.lib.sfu.ca/cdm/singleitem/collection/ceww/id/318/rec/411</span></span></a><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The Cambridge Companion to Victorian and Edwardian Theatre</span></i><span style="font-size: 12pt;">, edited by Kerry Powell<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<a href="http://imslp.org/wiki/Robin_Hood_(Macfarren,_George_Alexander)"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">http://imslp.org/wiki/Robin_Hood_(Macfarren,_George_Alexander)</span></span></a><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Opera on the Road: Traveling Opera Troupes in the United States, 1825-60</span></i><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> By Katherine K. Preston<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<a href="http://www.luminous-lint.com/app/vexhibit/_THEME_Portrait_19thc_Opera_01/6/17/705520886123040645792793/"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">http://www.luminous-lint.com/app/vexhibit/_THEME_Portrait_19thc_Opera_01/6/17/705520886123040645792793/</span></span></a><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="http://www.umass.edu/AdelphiTheatreCalendar/m50d.htm"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">http://www.umass.edu/AdelphiTheatreCalendar/m50d.htm</span></span></a><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="http://www.victorianoperanorthwest.org/Operas/RobinHood.htm"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">http://www.victorianoperanorthwest.org/Operas/RobinHood.htm</span></span></a><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The Pilgrim Edition of the Letters of Charles Dickens: Volume 6: 1850-1852</span></i><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> by Charles Dickens<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<a href="http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~rogers/Genealogy/TheatricalDeaths.html#1880_-_1889"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~rogers/Genealogy/TheatricalDeaths.html#1880_-_1889</span></span></a><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="http://luna.folger.edu/luna/servlet/view/all/what/Honey,%20George,%201822-1880,%20depicted.?os=0&pgs=50"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">http://luna.folger.edu/luna/servlet/view/all/what/Honey,%20George,%201822-1880,%20depicted.?os=0&pgs=50</span></span></a><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="http://kaga.wsulibs.wsu.edu/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/butler&CISOPTR=922&CISOBOX=1&REC=7"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">http://kaga.wsulibs.wsu.edu/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/butler&CISOPTR=922&CISOBOX=1&REC=7</span></span></a><span class="MsoHyperlink"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Players and Performances in the Victorian Theatre</span></i><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> by George Taylor<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<a href="http://www.measuringworth.com/calculators/ppoweruk/index.php"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">http://www.measuringworth.com/calculators/ppoweruk/index.php</span></span></a><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Annals of the Liverpool Stage, from the Earliest Period to the Present Time</span></i><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> by R. J. Broadbent<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Victoria Magazine, Volume 9</span></i><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> by Emily Faithfull<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Diane Clements, Director of the Library and Museum of Freemasonry <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The Freemasons' Quarterly Magazine and Review, </span></i><span style="font-size: 12pt;">26<sup>th</sup> February 1870<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The National Portrait Gallery</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The Freeman’s Journal, 10<sup>th</sup> July 1858<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The Worcestershire Chronicle, 17<sup>th</sup> Feb 1875<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Cambridge Chronicle, 11<sup>th</sup> September 1875<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The Glasgow Herald, 29<sup>th</sup> May 1880<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The New York Times, 30<sup>th</sup> May 1880<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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Sam Perrinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09087801375009020534noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7035609559995875565.post-20413803943384254182013-05-14T13:55:00.002+01:002015-05-27T15:59:58.942+01:00The Hastings Family <div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">The Hastings’ family grave generally isn’t included on tours of Highgate Cemetery west but Dorothy Hastings' headstone is listed by English Heritage so I thought I'd share some information about her and her family:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">William Granville Hastings and Florence Edith Keyzar married in Lambeth in 1890.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>William was a sculptor who’d studied at Lambeth Art School and was later employed by Doulton as a modeller and designer, his specialities being classical and renaissance vases.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In 1889 the promising ceramicist was awarded first prize for one of his vases by the very prestigious Society of Arts and from there his career went from strength to strength: by 1889 he’d moved to Paris to work with Dalou and then went on to create a series of bas reliefs for the Edison Company illustrating the history of the phonograph.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In 1891, he accepted a fantastic opportunity to work as designer and sculptor for the esteemed Gorham Manufacturing Company in Rhode Island NY.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After arriving in Providence on 12 May 1892, he was joined by Florence, their first son Warren Granville and his brother (Richard) three months later.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">William Granville Hastings</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">In 1893, the Hastings family welcomed another son into the world, William John, who was followed by Charles Henry in 1894.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The following year, on 05 February, Florence gave birth to a baby girl, Dorothy Florence, in Rhode Island.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">The 1900 census records 5-year old Dorothy (known to her family as Dody) as living with her parents and brothers at 239 Morningside Avenue, Manhattan, New York.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However two short years later in 1902, tragedy struck and William Senior died suddenly in Mount Vernon.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His obituary in the New York Times stated that he’d succumbed to cancer of the stomach, aged just 34.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Florence and the children returned to London.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The years following William Senior’s death must have been incredibly difficult for them, both emotionally and financially, but was all too common when the head (and chief breadwinner) of any family passed away.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>By the time the 1911 census was undertaken, the family had split up and were living in different locations.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Those who were able to find work did so:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Dorothy, then aged 16, was listed as being a ‘child’s companion’ while her two older brothers (William John, 18, and Charles Henry, 17) were noted as being ‘domestic gardener’ and ‘printer’s compositor’ respectively.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The three siblings lived together at 9 Carlingford Road in Hampstead.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Their mum, Florence, had taken a live-in job as a nurse to an elderly lady called Kate Bedford Raven at 212a West End Lane in Hampstead.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The youngest son (Donald Pierre, aged 11) was living in Watford under the care of the London Orphan Asylum, a charitable organisation that cared for children who had lost one or both of their parents.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I can’t find any documentation confirming where Warren Granville, the eldest, or Alfred Donald, the second youngest, were living or with whom at this time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Alfred was 13 in 1911 – could it have been possible that he too was under the care of the London Orphan Asylum or another similar institution?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Three years later the wheels of World War I were set in motion and fate dealt another blow to the Hastings family.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Charles Henry enlisted and by 1916 was serving as a Private in the Royal Fusiliers’ 10th Battalion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was stationed in France and found himself in Gommecourt Salient, a small village en route to Calais.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Unfortunately, Gommecourt was on the frontline of the hostilities in that area and Charles was killed during fierce fighting in a nearby wood, aged just 22.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He, along with the 73,000 other servicemen who lost their lives there, is commemorated at the Thiepval Memorial to the Missing of the Somme.</span></div>
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Charles Henry Hastings</div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">As an adult, Dorothy found work as a travelling sales woman within the fashion industry (her occupation is listed as “Commercial Traveller (Ladies’ Gowns)” on her death certificate) and had moved from Hampstead to nearby Hendon.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>On 09 September 1932, Dorothy was admitted to hospital to have an abscess on her appendix drained but things didn’t go according to plan.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>On 23 September, aged 37, she died in St George’s Hospital, the cause of death being a cerebral embolism resulting from the operation.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">I’d imagine that her last couple of weeks were spent in agonising pain and while she never married or had children, at least she wasn’t alone when she died: her younger brother, Alfred Ronald, was by her side when she passed away.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Dorothy Hastings’ monument is a very beautiful art deco relief, in which her face is framed by a bobbed hairstyle that was so fashionable in the early 1930s.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Her arms are crossed upwards in front of her and to the left is a large lily and drapery.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To the right are three strands of wheat and above her head is a bird in flight.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The material used is cast concrete and it was listed by English Heritage on 11 January 1999.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The monument was designed and created by Dorothy’s youngest brother, Donald Pierre (a promising sculptor in his own right) and the inscription reads:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">IN LOVING MEMORY OF DOROTHY HASTINGS<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">DIED 23 SEPT 1932</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Donald’s own blossoming sculpting career was cut short after he, by horrible coincidence, died following an appendectomy six years later in 1938.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He’s buried in the same plot as Dorothy, along with their mother Florence (who had until her death in 1940 outlived her husband and three of her six children), Donald’s wife Clara and their son Julian.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The inscription on the footstone reads:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">DONALD PIERRE HASTINGS<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">SCULPTOR OF THIS HEADSTONE<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">DIED OCT. 23 1938 IN HIS 39TH YEAR<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">BELOVED FATHER, HUSBAND AND SON<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">FLORENCE EDITH HASTINGS<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">HIS DEAR MOTHER<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">3RD DEC. 1871 – 8TH JULY 1940<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">PHYLLIS CLARA CURTIS<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">HIS MUCH LOVED WIFE<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">14TH JUNE 1899 – 9TH DECEMBER 1992<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">JULIAN FREDERICK GRANVILLE HASTINGS - ARCHITECT<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">DEAR FATHER, HUSBAND, BROTHER AND SON<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">29TH JAN. 1930 – 2ND OCT. 2002</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">(Incidentally Donald's daughter, Eveline Dorothy (an artist), was named in memory of her mother's aunt Eveline and her father's sister, Dorothy Florence)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Further Notes on the Artistic Talents of William Granville and Donald Pierre Hastings:<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">William Granville<o:p></o:p></span></u></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">William’s first commission after moving to the US was to design works for display at the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He then created a number of public statues, including four Abraham Lincoln sculptures in Bunker Hill (Illinois), Sioux City and Jefferson (Iowa) and Cincinnati (Ohio).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He also created Liberty Arming the Patriot in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, as well as the 15th Pennsylvania Cavalry Regiment Monument on the Chickamauga National Battlefield.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">The company that employed William Senior, the Gorham Manufacturing Company, was one of the biggest American manufacturers of elegant and highly prized silverware, as well as being a foundry for bronze sculpture.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It must have been incredibly exciting for William to have been offered a job in America working for such a well-respected company at the young age of 23.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But then to be fair, Gorham were lucky to have acquired such a talented employee as William Granville Hastings!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">William Senior was an enthusiastic member of the Providence Art Club and served on the Board of Managers between 1895 and 1898.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Records show that he was Chair of the Friday Night Entertainments committee, he regularly exhibited his art at the club and took it upon himself to oversee 'the unique and artistic decoration of the Grill Room'. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He appears to have been a rather charismatic individual and people who knew him remembered him as being “a picturesque character and an entertaining fireside speaker”.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Donald Pierre<o:p></o:p></span></u></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Artistic talent appears to have run in the family but it almost never happened for Donald, whose sculpting career only really took off after he lost his office job working as a representative for a company called Compton’s, where he was tasked with overseeing the Officers Training Cadets’ account.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This redundancy was the shot in the arm he needed to pursue his passion full time and for the remaining nine years of his life, he produced an impressive body of work including:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">a set of Stations of the Cross for St Wilfrid's Church in Brighton (his first commission);</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">a roundel relief portrait of Catherine Gladstone on one of the three-sides of the Gladstone Memorial Fountain in Flintshire, Wales, which commemorates the marriage of Catherine and Sir William;</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Various ecclesiastical pieces in the Church of Our Lady, St. Alphege's at Bath, St. Nicholas's, Kingsway in Manchester, St. Paul's in Haringey (consisting of seven figures, including two angels, St. Paul, St. John and St. Mellitus);</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">A commission by Tussards to do a series of heads, including the jockey Gordon Richards;</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">An ambitious exhibition entitled <em>50 Celebrity Portrait Busts</em>, which he held at the New Burlington Art Gallery in 1934, for which he persuaded an impressive variety of personalities to be his subjects, including Flora Robson, Sir Cedric Hardwicke, Ivor Novello, Ralph Lynn; Fred Perry, Bunny Austin, George Lansbury MP, Sir Stafford Cripps; John Drinkwater, Walter de la Mare, T.S. Eliot, Sir Malcolm Campbell, Gordon Richards and Eileen Joyce.</span></div>
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Donald with some of his modelling subjects</div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">The sculptor Nigel Boonham regarded Donald as being a leader in the movement of semi-trained amateur sculptors operating professionally in the last century and some of his work is housed in the Leeds City Art Gallery collection, as well stored in the V&A.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Donald was passionate about Highgate Village and became the Secretary of the Highgate Preservation Society in 1938.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<strong><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: x-small;">Copyright © Sam Perrin May 2013</span></strong><br />
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All family photographs (with the exception of Dorothy's headstone and the family footstone) are the property of Ken Hastings, who has been incredibly generous in sharing this information about his family with me. Thanks Ken!</div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Sources:<o:p></o:p></span></u></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Ancestry.com<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Ken Hastings<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Glynis Hastings via </span><a href="http://www.mybrightonandhove.org.uk/page_id__6594_path__0p115p187p951p.aspx"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">http://www.mybrightonandhove.org.uk/page_id__6594_path__0p115p187p951p.aspx</span></a><o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">The Henry Moore Institute’s Archive Catalogue: (</span><a href="http://217.204.55.154/DServe/dserve.exe?dsqIni=Dserve.ini&dsqApp=Archive&dsqCmd=Show.tcl&dsqSearch=RefNo==%272002.63%27&dsqDb=Catalog&PF=Yes"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">http://217.204.55.154/DServe/dserve.exe?dsqIni=Dserve.ini&dsqApp=Archive&dsqCmd=Show.tcl&dsqSearch=RefNo=='2002.63'&dsqDb=Catalog&PF=Yes</span></a><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Askart.com: (http://www.askart.com/AskART/artists/biography.aspx?artist=10023674)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="http://www.askart.com/askart/h/william_granville_hastings/william_granville_hastings.aspx"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">http://www.askart.com/askart/h/william_granville_hastings/william_granville_hastings.aspx</span></a><o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">V&A: (</span><a href="http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O68867/sculpture-hastings-donald/"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O68867/sculpture-hastings-donald/</span></a><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">British Listed Buildings: (</span><a href="http://www.britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/en-478257-monument-to-dorothy-hastings-in-highgate"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">http://www.britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/en-478257-monument-to-dorothy-hastings-in-highgate</span></a><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Death List of the Day, NY Times, 16 June 1902:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=F20E1FFC3E5911738DDDAC0994DE405B828CF1D3"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=F20E1FFC3E5911738DDDAC0994DE405B828CF1D3</span></a><br />
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Sam Perrinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09087801375009020534noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7035609559995875565.post-7433046762503163602010-12-17T13:07:00.000+00:002018-10-11T12:40:23.275+01:00Bram Stoker vs "The Highgate Vampire"<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: white;">A number of years ago, a friend gave me a copy of SeΆn Manchester’s book, “The Highgate Vampire” to read as it was something that had popped up on the internet occasionally when I'd been doing my own historical research about the cemetery.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As the title implies, the book is Manchester’s account of an alleged malicious vampiric presence that plagued Highgate Cemetery in the late 1960s / early 1970s and details Manchester’s role in ridding the world of it.</span></div>
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<span style="color: white;">I’d come across many an online review from visitors who’ve been reprimanded by past Highgate guides for asking about vampires, ghosts and other supernatural entities so I decided to read Manchester’s book and see what all the fuss was about.</span></div>
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<span style="color: white;">The second chapter details Manchester’s introduction to the Highgate Vampire case and it was when I reached page 23 that a simple description used by Manchester leapt out at me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The phrase described the face of a creature allegedly seen lurking in the cemetery and it dawned on me that I’d read the description somewhere but just couldn’t quite put my finger on it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The phrase was “and upon the face was an expression of basilisk horror”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Despite this little mental niggle, I continued to read.</span></div>
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<span style="color: white;">It was when I got to Manchester’s discovery of the vampire on page 55 that the pennies started to drop and they did so en masse: </span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d85c6;">".. Gorged and stinking with the life blood of others, fresh clots of which still adhered to the edge of the mouth."</span><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d85c6;">"The glazed eyes stared horribly - almost mocking me, almost knowing that my efforts to destroy it would be thwarted."</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; color: white;">The above descriptions sounded uncannily like parts of Bram Stoker’s “Dracula” (in particular, from Jonathan Harker’s journal, chapter 4 - page 58 of my copy – published by Arrow Books):</span></div>
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<span style="color: maroon;"><span style="color: #e06666;">".. For on the lips were gouts of fresh blood, which trickled from the corners of the mouth… It seemed as if the whole awful creature were simply gorged with blood."</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: maroon;"><span style="color: #e06666;">"There was a mocking smile on the bloated face which seemed to drive me mad."</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: maroon;"><span style="color: #e06666;">"…and the eyes fell full upon me, with all their blaze of basilisk horror."</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: white;">I sat down with both books open in my lap and read them side-by-side and discovered that there were actually a number of spookily similar uses of wording, plot twists and phrasing, as listed below:</span></div>
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<span style="color: white;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">1)<span style="font-family: "times new roman";"> </span></span></i></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><u>Mental health patient in both novels discovered with severe neck trauma</u></i></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: white;">From “The Highgate Vampire”, page 58 (Manchester describes the mysterious disappearance and subsequent discovery of a patient who went a walkabout from The Priory in Roehampton.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This hospital specialises in (and I quote from their website) “the management and treatment of mental health problems”):</span></div>
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<span style="color: #6fa8dc;">"He was later found covered in blood in Highgate Cemetery and died some ten days later in Whittington Hospital.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>According to official sources, the blood had poured from a throat wound."</span></div>
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<span style="color: white;">From “Dracula”, page 293 (chapter 22 - Jonathan Harker describes the discovery of Dr Seward’s patient, Renfield, at the sanatorium that Dr Seward oversees):</span></div>
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<span style="color: maroon;"><span style="color: #e06666;">"..they had found Renfield, lying on the floor, all in a heap.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His face was all bruised and crushed in, and the bones of the neck were broken."</span></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: white;"><span style="background-color: black;">2)<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><u>Descriptions of the Count</u></span></span></i></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; color: white;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white;">From “The Highgate Vampire”, page 112</span>:</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; color: #3d85c6;">"Flared nostrils connected to a thin, high-bridged nose.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The mouth still set in its cruel expression with lips drawn far back as if unable to contain the fangs."</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; color: white;">From “Dracula”, page 25 (chapter 2 - Jonathan Harker’s description of the Count):</span></div>
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<span style="color: maroon;"><span style="color: #e06666;">His face was a strong – a very strong – aquiline, with high bridge of the thin nose and particularly arched nostrils;…”</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: white;">From “Dracula”, page 291 (chapter 21 - Dr Seward's description of the Count):</span></div>
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<span style="color: maroon;"><span style="color: #e06666;">"The waxen face, the high aquiline nose, in which the light fell in a thin white line; the parted red lips, with the sharp white teeth showing between."</span></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: white;">3)<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><u>Things to say when staking a vampire</u></span></i></b></div>
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<span style="color: white;">From “The Highgate Vampire”, page 113 (Arthur, Manchester's assistant, is urging him to kill The Evil One):</span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d85c6;">"In God's name strike!" cried Arthur.</span></div>
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<span style="color: white;">From “Dracula”, page 219 (chapter 16 - Arthur Holmwood is being instructed on how to effectively stake what used to be Lucy Westenra):</span></div>
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<span style="color: maroon;"><span style="color: #e06666;">"..strike in God's name, …</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: white;">(Two Arthurs involved in each respective staking?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Would it surprise you even more if I mentioned that two female vampire victims are called Lucy in “Dracula” and Lusia in “The Highgate Vampire”?!)</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: white;">4)<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><u>The inexplicable wounding and death of local animals</u></span></i></b></div>
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<span style="color: white;">From “The Highgate Vampire”, page 44 (Manchester details mysterious animal deaths):</span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d85c6;">"For a number of weeks, dead animals, notably nocturnal ones, kept appearing in Waterlow Park and Highgate Cemetery itself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Further inspection revealed that what they all had in common were lacerations of the throat and they were completely drained of blood.”</span></div>
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<span style="color: white;">From “Dracula”, page 87 (chapter 7 - after the Demeter has crashed, a cutting placed in Mina Harker’s journal tells of a “large dog, a half-breed mastiff” discovered dead):</span></div>
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<span style="color: maroon;"><span style="color: #e06666;">"It must have been fighting, and manifestly had had a savage opponent, for its throat was torn away, and its belly slit open as it with a savage claw." </span></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: white;">5)<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>C<u>hildren lured away by women in white, necks bitten</u></span></i></b></div>
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<span style="color: white;">From “The Highgate Vampire”, pages 121-122 (Manchester visits the cemetery in which Lusia is supposedly resting):</span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d85c6;">"And now a child had complained of being bitten by someone or something that enticed the youngster from the neighbouring recreation park into the wooded part of the graveyard"<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">.</i></span></div>
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<span style="color: white;">Also from “The Highgate Vampire”, page 123 (upon interviewing the victim):</span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d85c6;">"He described his “lovely lady all in white” as being “very blonde with big starry eyes”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It would seem that she allured him into the cemetery’s wood…<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He woke with the familiar small incisions on his throat which his parents ascribed to animal or insect bites."</span></div>
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<span style="color: #003300;"><span style="color: white;">From “Dracula”, page 213 - 214 (chapter 16.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Seward, Holmwood & Van Helsing visit the churchyard in which Lucy is supposedly resting):</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: maroon;"><span style="color: #e06666;">“He pointed; and far down the avenue of yews we saw a white figure advance – a dim white figure, which held something at its breast… …. we could not see the face, for it was bent down over what we saw to be a fair-haired child.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: white;">From “Dracula”, pages 180-181 (a newspaper report about the “Bloofer Lady”):</span></div>
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<span style="color: maroon;"><span style="color: #e06666;">"…. the first child missed gave as his reason for being away that a “bloofer lady” had asked him to come for a walk… The wounds seem such as might be made by a rat or a small dog"</span></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: white;">6)<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><u>Female victims of the Vampire hypnotised</u></span></i></b></div>
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<span style="color: white;">From “The Highgate Vampire”, pages 88-89 (Manchester hypnotises Lusia):</span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d85c6;">“I brought Lusia to the place and induced a deep trance which eventually produced the following remarkable utterances from her lips:</span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d85c6;">“……. ……… you have lost… dark… just darkness… so dark…”</span></div>
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<span style="color: white;">From “Dracula”, page 317 (chapter 23 - Van Helsing hypnotises Mina Harker):</span></div>
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<span style="color: maroon;"><span style="color: #e06666;">Van Helsing:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“What do you see?”</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: maroon;"><span style="color: #e06666;">Mina Harker: “I can see nothing; it is all dark.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: white;">From Dracula, page 338 (chapter 25):</span></div>
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<span style="color: maroon;"><span style="color: #e06666;">“He asks her what she can see or hear.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She answers to the first:</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: maroon;"><span style="color: #e06666;">“Nothing; all is dark.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: white;">While Manchester wasn’t brave enough to plagiarise Stoker word-for-word, it’s glaringly obvious he's taken liberties in the striking similarities of phrasing, events and wording used in ”The Highgate Vampire” that already appear in “Dracula”. And the reason Manchester gets away with such obvious creative poaching is because “Dracula” is in the public domain, i.e., no legal action can be taken against him by Stoker’s family.</span></div>
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<span style="color: white;">In an interview with Manchester from the 27/02/1970 edition of the Hampstead & Highgate Express, the paper claimed ‘his theory is that the King Vampire of the Undead, originally a nobleman who dabbled in black magic in medieval Wallachia "somewhere near Turkey", walks again.’</span></div>
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<span style="color: white;">(For the record, Wallachia was the principality ruled by Vlad Tepes, a.k.a. Vlad the Impaler, who (it’s been claimed) was one of the main historical figures on whom Count Dracula was based)</span></div>
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<span style="color: white;">Manchester is quoted as saying, “His followers eventually brought him to England in a coffin at the beginning of the 18<sup>th</sup> century and bought a house for him in the West End,” and that “his unholy resting place became Highgate cemetery.”</span></div>
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<span style="color: white;">Frankly, Manchester’s house-moving nobleman is beginning to sound an awful lot like Bram Stoker’s Count to me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After all, the reason Jonathan Harker visits Transylvania is because the Count has employed the services of the legal firm for which Harker works by getting them to procure him an estate in Purfleet, Essex.</span></div>
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<span style="color: white;">Fast forward fifteen years to page 89 of “The Highgate Vampire”: the home of Sir William Ashurst, Lord Mayor of London in the late 17<sup>th</sup> century, was knocked down after his death and St Michael’s Church was built on top of it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This statement is mostly factually accurate.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In fact, the cemetery’s Terrace Catacombs were so named because they were literally built into what used to be the terrace of Sir William’s home.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, Manchester also claims that the time of Sir William’s death (1720) just happened to be the “height of a vampire epidemic” in London that originated from south-eastern Europe.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He claims that the nobleman arrived in England and rented a property that “cast its shadow where now stands the Columbarium”.</span></div>
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<span style="color: white;">What?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No mention of the term “King Vampire of the Undead” or his Wallachian origins in this later version?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even the Gothic Press website (a site that heavily promotes and sells Manchester's books) now claims that it was the MEDIA who dubbed the vampire the “King Vampire of the Undead”!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Why could it possibly be that Manchester would want to distance himself from using the term “King Vampire of the Dead”?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It might have a little something to do with the fact that the term “Un-Dead home of the King Vampire” is used in chapter 27 of “Dracula” in Van Helsing’s Memorandum (page 376).</span></div>
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<span style="color: white;">The Gothic Press’ website claims that Manchester’s follow-up novel “Carmel” is not only a completion of Dracula but a sequel.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The reason for this, I hear you ask?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The website claims that <span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Stoker neglected to tie up many loose ends in Dracula and that these loose ends are resolved, courtesy of Manchester, in “Carmel”!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Unbelievable…<em></em></span></span></div>
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<em><span style="font-style: normal; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"><span style="color: white;">Let’s take a look at the Gothic Press publishing house itself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The website describes itself as a not-for-profit organisation that gives the public access to works on subject matter that would otherwise remain under the radar.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Its banner proudly proclaims that it includes works by Sean Manchester and the first picture on the site (at the top of the page) is that of Lord Byron, from whom he claims to descend.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Manchester even dedicates “The Highgate Vampire” to the memory of Lord Byron. There is no evidence that Manchester actually runs this press but it’s been reported that he currently resides in Bournemouth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The business seller’s address on eBay’s Gothic Press shop is listed as being in Bournemouth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In fact, nobody else’s books appear to be for sale via the site, and the only photographs are ones that mostly include or feature Manchester (sometimes inexplicably dressed in period costume, like some second-rate Mills & Boon character).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s clear that if he doesn’t own or manage this website, then someone very close to (or in adoration of) him certainly does.</span></span></em></div>
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<span style="color: white;">Regarding the proceeds of the book, I noted on one of the first pages of “The Highgate Vampire” that “<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">All proceeds of this book will be contributed towards The Church of the Holy Grail</i>”. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So I visited the church’s website and what did I see on the third line down?</span></div>
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<span style="color: white;">“<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Primate & Bishop: The Right Reverend Seán Manchester, O.S.G.</i>”</span></div>
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<span style="color: white;">The Gothic Press website notes that part of Manchester’s ascent through the ranks of the church includes that “<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">he </i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">assumed the primacy of the autocephalous jurisdiction Ecclesia Apostolica Jesu Christi</span></i><span style="font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now, Dictionary.com offered me up one of two very interesting definitions of the word ‘autocephalous’, the most relevant being:</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="color: white;">Autocephalous:</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="color: white;">2. (of a bishop) subordinate to no superior authority; self-governing. </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: white;">Blimey!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He’s the principal of the very church that receives the book’s proceeds!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Well, well<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">, well….</i></span></div>
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<span style="color: white;">In conclusion, I’m of the opinion (based on all of the above) that Manchester has effectively made it impossible for me to take him seriously as a self-proclaimed expert on the subject because of his creative reliance on another author, as well as his total lack of hard evidence.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>While he provides a bibliography on page 169, he curiously states in the acknowledgements afterwards that, “The textual sources from which I have drawn information for my research are too numerous to be listed here.”</span></div>
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<span style="color: white;">There are no copies of police, doctor or veterinary reports included in this book and Manchester excuses away the lack of photographic evidence by claiming that, “Each failure of this supernatural being to be recorded by sophisticated means only served to confirm for me the true picture, albeit a picture of object horror” (pages 44-45).</span></div>
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<span style="color: white;">The “neo gothic mansion” that the vampire allegedly lived in no longer exists due to its convenient demolition and the book contains only pictures of Lusia as portrayed by a model.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>From the outset, Lusia’s true identity is a mystery (“... a beautiful twenty-two year old woman, whom I shall call Lusia”).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Elizabeth, one of the two girls who allegedly saw bodies rising out of graves in Highgate Cemetery, is coincidentally of eastern European descent and the origin of her surname conjures up suggestions of “good vs evil” (Wodjyla stems from the Polish word “woj”, meaning “warrior”).</span></div>
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<span style="color: white;">It’s my opinion that Manchester is nothing more than a frustrated gothic romance novelist who desperately wishes he’d gotten in there first to write “Dracula” but instead has provided us with a half-baked, substandard facsimile.</span></div>
Sam Perrinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09087801375009020534noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7035609559995875565.post-6518712241716336042010-11-12T13:11:00.000+00:002015-05-27T16:00:08.409+01:00Bram Stoker vs Highgate Cemetery <div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: black; color: white;"></span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="color: white;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">If I had a pound for every time I’ve been asked by visitors whether Bram Stoker was influenced by Highgate Cemetery when writing his masterpiece, Dracula, I’d have been able to pick up nice big bottle of Ms Dior Cherie and a new pair of Grinders by now.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="color: white;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Over the years, numerous blogs and articles have alleged that Mr Stoker visited the cemetery regularly after having moved from Dublin to London in 1878.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> He</span> worked at the legendary Lyceum Theatre as both Sir Henry Irving’s personal secretary and the theatre’s business manager, and it’s claimed he used to wander Highgate Cemetery in his spare time, admiring the monuments and musing about what might happen if beams of sunlight fell directly onto the inhabitants of the cemetery’s numerous vaults.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>According to these same sources, it was this train of thought that inspired Stoker to write Dracula, and that one Highgate vault in particular (exact location varying, depending on the source) was the influence behind Lucy Westenra’s mausoleum.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>While there is no hard evidence in the cemetery’s archives that Mr Stoker visited Highgate, the striking architectural features, exclusivity and unique atmosphere have attracted visitors since 1839.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So it’d hardly come as a shock if he <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">had</i> ventured through the gates for a stroll at one time or another.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="color: white;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">(Conversely, a large part of the novel was based in Eastern Europe, a part of the world that Mr Stoker never visited in person. He instead undertook years of research about Eastern European folklore beforehand, heavily utilising the British Library on many occasion to do this)</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="color: white;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">So I decided to do a bit of digging to see what I could find and came up with a couple of interesting bits and bobs that I thought I’d share.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="color: white;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">My first stop was to cross-reference online dissections or study guides of the novel I could find for anything Highgate-related, the best example being “<em>Bram Stoker’s Notes on ‘Dracula’: a Facsimile</em>” by Robert Eighteen-Bisang and Elizabeth Miller.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In essence, this book consists of Bram Stoker’s original notes and diagrams compiled while he researched and planned Dracula, all of which have been painstakingly transcribed for the reader (at a cost of between £35-£50, depending on where you shop).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The only reference to Highgate I could find in it was footnote 243 on page 115 which states, “<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Many people assume that Lucy’s tomb is in Highgate Cemetery but we are never told where she is interred</i>”.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="color: white;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">While this doesn't confirm or deny anything, I found an article written by Andy Ferrar for the Garden Suburb Theatre Group’s production of Dracula.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s interesting from a geographical/logistical perspective and reads:</span></span></span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="color: white;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">“It is often assumed that Lucy’s tomb would be in Highgate Cemetery; there is reference to Lucy’s body being interred in a tomb in a churchyard at ‘Kingstead’.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is no such place, but in the novel, before going to the churchyard, Seward and Van Helsing dine at Jack Straw’s Castle.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They return to Hampstead Heath before catching a cab from Spaniard’s (the Spaniard’s Inn on Spaniard’s Lane).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is possible that Kingstead is a fictitious name for Hampstead though the novel gives the distinct impression that the churchyard is ‘out of town’ from the two pubs, possibly putting it in the area now occupied by the Hampstead Garden Suburb.</span></span></span></i></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="color: white;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">There is a reference in the novel to the sun rising over Hampstead Hill seen from Lucy’s tomb.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is also reference to a Shooter’s Hill on the side of the Heath where one of Lucy’s juvenile victim’s is found.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This would suggest that the tomb is to the West of Hampstead, in the direction of Shoot up Hill, which connects Kilburn to Cricklewood, possibly in the area around Childs Hill or what is now West Hampstead.</span></span></span></i></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="color: white;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">A recently published book on Haunted Places in Middlesex suggests that the inspiration for the tomb is the Rundell mausoleum in St. Mary’s Church Hendon. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Though it is unlikely the sun could be seen rising over Hampstead Hill from there except on the shortest of winter days.</span></span></span></i></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="color: white;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Clearly the tomb was not intended to be in the secular burial ground at Highgate, given the clear references to a churchyard, but more likely (given Stoker’s apparently hazy geography) in a fictitious churchyard, nominally to the West of Hampstead”</span></span></span></i></div>
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<span style="color: white;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">With Andy’s suggestion that Lucy’s tomb is located to the west of Hampstead in mind, I checked Google Maps and noted with interest that Hampstead Cemetery just happens to fall directly west-south-west of the Heath.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The cemetery opened up in 1876, is 26 acres in size and is described on the Camden Council’s website as being, “</span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">attractively situated on a gentle north-west facing slope overlooking the Cricklewood sports ground</span></i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> Like Highgate, Hampstead Cemetery is not a churchyard but is </span>coincidentally the final resting place of Sir Henry Irving’s son, </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Henry (aka Harry) Brodribb Irving and his wife, Dorothea Frances Forster (pictured).</span></span></span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjclTz5pYTuymhZFYs6SWcr9IKPiwYIXQtTV4V5kWJIDhdnR9LdWazdshai97zNL9t1NF7XGC4eZQ_XOYAGkB4UHMSqbVqtuSnCcECDFs0tsCOQSFwILwkGgDUfxDyLHGKnPTQVizCN7Yo/s1600/irving.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white;"><img border="0" px="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjclTz5pYTuymhZFYs6SWcr9IKPiwYIXQtTV4V5kWJIDhdnR9LdWazdshai97zNL9t1NF7XGC4eZQ_XOYAGkB4UHMSqbVqtuSnCcECDFs0tsCOQSFwILwkGgDUfxDyLHGKnPTQVizCN7Yo/s1600/irving.jpg" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="color: white;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Another very plausible candidate is mentioned in Andy’s article, namely St Mary’s Churchyard in Hendon.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The oldest part of the church dates back to the 13<sup>th</sup> century and the church's own website claims <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">"<span style="color: white;"><em>the massive tomb of Philip Rundell, just a few paces north of Chapman, is thought to have been Bram Stoker’s inspiration for ‘Kingstead Churchyard’ in his novel Dracula</em>" </span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="color: white;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><span style="color: white;">(<a href="http://www.hendonparish.org.uk/history/st-marys-churchyard/"><em><span style="color: white;">http://www.hendonparish.org.uk/history/st-marys-churchyard/</span></em></a><em>).</em></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="color: white;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><span style="color: white;">Now, here's where it gets interesting: shortly after having read the above, a </span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="color: white;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="color: white;">cemetery colleague sent me a copy of a delightfully intriguing newspaper article relating to an act of desecration that took place in the very same churchyard nearly 200 years ago. A couple of remarkable </span>coincidences emerged relating to the surnames of two of the accused, as well as the names of the two local areas surrounding the churchyard, both of which suggest to me that St Mary's may very well be one of the inspirations behind Lucy's final resting place.</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: white;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">The story goes that on 13 September 1828, three men (Henry Holm, James Wood and Charles Charsley) broke into a vault in St Mary's churchyard and decapitated one of the corpses within.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They were apprehended and it emerged the owner of the severed head was Henry Holm's own mother, who’d been dead for 20 years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The public were outraged but explaining his rationale to a packed courtroom on 01 December of the same year, Holm claimed that he did it purely in the interests of science and that he was attempting to trace the source of an inherited family illness (Holm was an ardent follower of Johann Spurzheim, one of the leading champions of phrenology).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The three men were found guilty but were not jailed, their saving grace being that they’d committed the misdemeanour “with the idea of furthering the interests of science”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Holm was fined 50ℓ and both Wood and Charsley were fined 5ℓ each, to be paid to the King (this case is documented in “<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Annual Register, or a View of the History, Politics and Literature of the Year 1828</i>”, “<span class="messagebody2"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">The Gentlemen's Magazine & Historical Chronicle (Jul to Dec 1828, Vol XCVII) by Sylvanus Urban</span></i></span><span class="messagebody2"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">” and “<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Middlesex Sessions (01/12/1828)).”</i></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="color: white;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">A somewhat ghoulish tale but if you’re familiar with Mr Stoker's novel (which was apparently called “The Un-Dead” before a last-minute change of heart by the author), you might have noticed the following:</span></span></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="color: white;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">St Mary’s Churchyard is roughly situated between <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: white;">King</span></i><span style="color: white;">s</span>bury (to the west<span style="background-color: black;">)<span style="color: white;"> and Hamp<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">stead</i></span></span> (to the east).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="color: white;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Kingstead</i> is the name of the fictional churchyard described in the novel as being a “lonely churchyard” where Lucy is lain to rest.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Highgate Cemetery, at that time, was most certainly not a lonely churchyard but a large (and well guarded) commercial cemetery.</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="color: white;">Two of the three desecrator’s surnames were <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Holm</i> and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Wood</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Holmwood </i>is the</span> surname of one of the main characters faced with the task of decapitating Lucy Westenra to save her from eternal damnation as a vampire. </span></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="color: white;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">The connection between Stoker and St Mary’s Church in Hendon appears to have been made courtesy of the Pre Raphaelites, in particular Philip Burne-Jones, a relative late-comer to the movement.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He corresponded with Bram Stoker regularly and his painting “The Vampire” was exhibited the same year that “Dracula” was published (the painting was inspired a poem by Rudyard Kipling of the same name).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Since having worked for Sir Henry Irving at the Lyceum, Stoker’s social status had been somewhat elevated and he rubbed shoulders with some of the most illustrious and well respected poets, actors and artists of the era, including Alfred Lord Tennyson (of whom the Pre Raphaelites were ardent admirers) as well as certain members of the Pre Raphaelite movement themselves.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s entirely possible that via his association with Philip Burne-Jones, Stoker heard about the decapitation tale through Thomas Woolner, the Pre Raphaelite sculptor and poet who lived in Hendon.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Mr Woolner would have certainly been aware of the scandal caused by that incident in 1828 due to the public outrage it had caused and he himself was buried in the same St Mary’s Churchyard in 1892.</span></span></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="color: white;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">A definite geographical hotbed of influence is another St Mary’s Churchyard, but this time in Whitby, Yorkshire, where a pivotal part of the novel takes place: Count Dracula lands on English soil in the form of a large dog after the Russian ship, the Demeter, crashes into the pier under the East Cliff.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The churchyard of St Mary’s is on the edge of this cliff and is also where both Mina Harker and Lucy Westenra enjoyed the seaside views on their favourite seat.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This same seat is where Lucy falls victim to the Count and is turned from being a sweet innocent into a vixen-like vampire.</span></span></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="color: white;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">The Pre Raphaelite connection offers up another interesting story that could possibly have inspired Stoker, although it relates more to Lucy Westenra’s radiant beauty after her ‘death’.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Stoker dedicates his novel to “My dear friend Hommy-Beg”, whose real name was Hall Caine, a fellow novelist.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Caine was one of Stoker’s most trusted friends, Hommy-Beg being a nickname given to him by his grandmother when he was a child.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It turns out that Mr Caine worked as Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s secretary until Rossetti's death in 1882 and four years before the publication of Dracula, Caine published a book entitled, “Recollections of Dante Gabriel Rossetti”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In this book, he describes the exhumation of Elizabeth Siddal, Rossetti’s late wife, who’d died tragically in February 1862 as a result of a massive laudanum overdose.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Rossetti had placed a book of his poetry onto the pillow of her coffin before it was lowered into the Rossetti family plot on the west side of Highgate Cemetery.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgQSubbgeDRiFybtI1LTfbURcpOyQbSqVojwNBog0mqUCwTIgT0e0_-BWlVG8gDstbi5yN8q-DLV24vh36w5ETYEJIZBbKgUEBQyEHQAS2Zg2ngtRuGilB6fvADaQiN2W6VNnkKyZ1qRA/s1600/39741_451795340836_506555836_6884634_4447620_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" px="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgQSubbgeDRiFybtI1LTfbURcpOyQbSqVojwNBog0mqUCwTIgT0e0_-BWlVG8gDstbi5yN8q-DLV24vh36w5ETYEJIZBbKgUEBQyEHQAS2Zg2ngtRuGilB6fvADaQiN2W6VNnkKyZ1qRA/s320/39741_451795340836_506555836_6884634_4447620_n.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="color: white;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Things changed though. Seven and a half years later, Rossetti was bullied into retrieving this book by his literary agency, the shady Charles Augustus Howell, for publication.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In Caine’s book, the brief description of the exhumation reads as follows:</span></span></span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="color: white;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">“At length preliminaries were complete, and one night, seven and a half years after the burial, a fire was built by the side of the grave, and then the coffin was raised and opened. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The body is described as perfect upon coming to light.”</span></span></span></i></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKz68BFzqRJ3MdliVRA00GQvsqx3BeeZsVWmGpyJhoQfbmolo-dmnfTXx1H1MnZtjJTNhu8ZhwtpleRb9Flex4-dbFm2bGsAtf83AQhhFhjhYBQi3ArV-fFfJ_btyFzXGUIBOKUxDiOPM/s1600/Lizziesnow.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white;"><img border="0" px="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKz68BFzqRJ3MdliVRA00GQvsqx3BeeZsVWmGpyJhoQfbmolo-dmnfTXx1H1MnZtjJTNhu8ZhwtpleRb9Flex4-dbFm2bGsAtf83AQhhFhjhYBQi3ArV-fFfJ_btyFzXGUIBOKUxDiOPM/s1600/Lizziesnow.jpg" /></span></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKz68BFzqRJ3MdliVRA00GQvsqx3BeeZsVWmGpyJhoQfbmolo-dmnfTXx1H1MnZtjJTNhu8ZhwtpleRb9Flex4-dbFm2bGsAtf83AQhhFhjhYBQi3ArV-fFfJ_btyFzXGUIBOKUxDiOPM/s1600/Lizziesnow.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a></div>
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<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="background-color: black;">(The sad reality was that Elizabeth Siddal had suffered from ill health for most of her adult life, which resulted in her being pale, painfully thin and a severe drug addict - hardly the picture of someone glowing with vitality and good health.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> Also, </span>Howell was a known blackmailer and liar and was described by Algernon Swinburne, a friend of the Rossetti’s, as being, </span></span><span style="background-color: black;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN;">"<em>the vilest wretch I ever came across</em>".<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Other less-than-complimentary descriptions included, "<em>a base, treacherous, unscrupulous and malignant fellow</em>" (Edward Burne-Jones) and “<em>one of the biggest liars in existence</em>" and "<em>half mad</em>" (Ford Madox Brown).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Howell acted as middleman when negotiating the exhumation order from the home office and it was he who’d claimed that Elizabeth was still as beautiful in death as she’d been in life when the lid of the coffin was raised (to help ease Rossetti’s guilty conscience, perhaps?).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Legend also dictates that Lizzie’s copper-coloured hair filled the coffin.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Contrary to popular belief, human hair and fingernails do not continue to grow after death – the skin shrinks back as the body dries out, making the hair and nails <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">appear</i> longer)</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="color: white;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Despite how improbable the reality of Elizabeth’s Siddal’s perfectly preserved corpse might have been, could Stoker have been taken by the idea of immortal beauty based on Caine’s description of Elizabeth Siddal and included the concept in his novel?</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="color: white;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">When Dr Van Helsing attempts to convince Dr Seward of Lucy’s undead tendencies, they visit the mausoleum in Kingstead and open the coffin to reveal the contents within (Lucy had been dead for a week, by this point, and would have most definitely have begun to show signs of decomposition were she not a vampire):</span></span></span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="color: white;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">“There lay Lucy, seemingly just as we had seen her the night before her funeral. She was, if possible, more radiantly beautiful than ever, and I could not believe that she was dead. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The lips were red, nay redder than before, and on the cheeks was a delicate bloom”</span></span></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="color: white;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">After so much talk of eternal damnation, exhumation, decapitation and other such horrors, it’s hardly a surprise that Bram Stoker opted for cremation at Golders Green Crematorium in 1912.</span></span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgK52mAZn5RqxYH1Aj60FwJ0kVXR12XzgRGccGZNMRDnTCJ21Srzk9g_AmUnmZDeNagqWVeIPGOB1906iVqTjDXf3SPdm5RC5JXekSqJbci8ConHgNEKJZr67NDVHH_Y92ZjYD14L_EZGs/s1600/39978_454000170836_506555836_6946152_3815019_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white;"><img border="0" height="259" px="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgK52mAZn5RqxYH1Aj60FwJ0kVXR12XzgRGccGZNMRDnTCJ21Srzk9g_AmUnmZDeNagqWVeIPGOB1906iVqTjDXf3SPdm5RC5JXekSqJbci8ConHgNEKJZr67NDVHH_Y92ZjYD14L_EZGs/s320/39978_454000170836_506555836_6946152_3815019_n.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="color: white;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">So… what do <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">you</i> think?</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="color: white;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">I believe that there’s always been a romantic aura surrounding Highgate Cemetery and can appreciate why people wish to believe that its beauty and mystery inspired one of the best Gothic horror novels ever written.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And, perhaps, certain elements just might have…</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">(All photographs used on this post are under copyrighted and are property of Sam Perrin)</span><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: Georgia;"></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: Georgia;"><strong><u>Addendum:</u></strong> </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: Georgia;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">As a post script to this, I came across a series of letters
between Dante Gabriel Rossetti and Charles Augustus Howell taken from "<em>The
Correspondence of Dante Gabriel Rossetti: The Chelsea years, 1863-1872</em>", written
by Dante Gabriel Rossetti and edited by William E Fredeman.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: Georgia;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">I found two letters in particular (dated 03 and 16 September 1869) to be especially
interesting in that they paint Rossetti as a rather calm and collected individual
who happily assisted Howell (referred to by Rossetti as “My dear Howell”) in
obtaining the exhumation order required from the Home Office. Rossetti provided Howell with the
name of someone he believed to be the Home Secretary at the time, even going so
far as to suggest writing to the man himself to advise that “<em>an intimate friend
has undertaken to manage matters for me</em>”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>At one point Rossetti muses about whether his aunt had since been buried
in the same plot, suggesting he was contemplating the practical and logistical
aspects of accessing Lizzie’s coffin, and he also mentions that he hadn’t yet
told his brother William about the planned exhumation (guilty conscience per
chance, Mr Rossetti?).</span></span><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: Georgia;">
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<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: Georgia;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">He goes on to describe the book of poetry for retrieval as
being “bound in rough calf and has I am almost sure red edges to the leaves” so
as to not confuse it with the Bible he’d also placed in the same coffin.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He finishes and signs the letters “With a
thousand thanks” and “Very affectionately yours” - hardly the language and tone
of someone who’d allegedly been bullied into agreeing to the exhumation by
Howell and was supposedly aghast at the prospect!</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: Georgia;"><strong><span style="color: white; font-family: Verdana; font-size: x-small;">Copyright © Sam Perrin November 2010</span></strong></span></div>
Sam Perrinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09087801375009020534noreply@blogger.com8