Here is another scan and retouch that relates enormous history for our piece of the Rockies. When I discovered it, I exclaimed "WTF!" That inserted a worm into my brain and I dug in. It required a load of research and visits to Google Maps as well as Wikipedia to identify and confirm the location. I suppose I could have driven up with a sandwich and a drink. This place is a real zoo now. I finally found the skyline and nailed the information. In fact, it was a snap of William James and Edna Sophia Kiteley on an exceptionally early shot from Trail Ridge Road in Rocky Mtn. National Park. How early? Look at the heavy machinery marks on the edge of the road. Was the highway under construction? It was finished to the Grand Lake side in 1939. Were they married? I saw no rings when I focused in close. They were married in 03/29/1937. The Fall River road was already in existence and construction on Trail Ridge lagged for some time.

 

OK, OK, this in very close to the now existing Many Park Overlook. Looks skimpy to me as far as established overlooks go! Find RMNP on Google maps and plug in the overlook name. You will have to be fluid with the 3D functionality of the maps and you can match the skyline though paved today. Don't look so paved then and I could not find when the road was paved, let alone cleaned up from construction.

 

Grandmother, Alice, spent every summer at her cabin right near the Wid Basin Lodge at the southern end of Rocky Mountain National Park. This was probably a day's excursion from her cabin in an old jalopy. Granny probably went fly fishing instead.

 

As usual, the negative and contact printing left a lot of flecks, white and black, and garbage across the image. In close, it looks like a shotgun blast. As always, it provides plenty of practice whether needed or not. I used the same two techniques, the Stamp and Brush to work on the image. Unfortunately, the scanner usually features all the defects on old snaps like this. I suppose that it will always be possible that this family will exchange the digital shots and spread them far enough that my labor won't be entirely wasted.

 

Generally, I gang output these to high resolution PDFs that can be printed at home of taken to Fed-X Kinkos for their color printing. I have enough to output another sheet. Their output never seems to waver from the quality of the PDF.

 

I received a load of scanning and retouching recently relegated to me. So far, I have a load of solid days packed into the project and the collection has not shrunk that much. I wonder why the family thinks that I owe them so much difficult retouching and output labor?

  

Another excerpt from the story that I first started relating here.

 

The three siblings had traveled for several days, finding food and water through their own skills or the generosity of strangers along their route - which meandered but steadily took them west toward the great ocean that marked the edge of the known world. On the 19th day of their journey, they finally reached the rocky shores of the great ocean, and stopped - struck by the vast vista of water spread out before them. For the first time in any of their young lives they felt the weight of that great body of water and it penetrated them to their core, knowing their goal lay on its far side. But having traveled far, and in no particular hurry, they decided to camp that evening on the beach and plan their crossing upon morning.

 

It was while searching for firewood that the youngest brother saw a sparkle of white nestled amongst the stones of the beach. Scrambling over the slippery rocks to just near the edge of the surf, he bent down and plucked up three perfectly smooth, white stones that made him involuntarily catch his breath for the obvious magic they held within them, for surely these must be three of the fabled wishing stones of old. Smiling at his good fortune, he ran up the beach to share the news with his brother and sister. Arriving breathless at the camp though, their reactions were mixed. Rather than a similar excitement, the older brother met the stones with caution and the sister was more curious than anything else. All three had grown up with stories of the magic of old, but that was all the world was left with these days... stories and tattered memories of the great magic that had once been so common. After much debate, the youngest brother and his sister wanted to try to use the stones to cross the ocean safely. The eldest brother held out though, arguing that they had come so far on just their wits and abilities that it was foolish to trust something they knew next to nothing about. But the younger two were just as stubborn, arguing that they should not be diverted by fear of the unknown, as the crossing of the ocean itself was a great unknown voyage that would not be without great danger. In the end, they decided to put the stones aside and get some badly needed rest, as the trek across the continent had been arduous indeed. The stones and their use could wait until the next morning as well, just as the ocean would.

 

And indeed, wait they did, for the stones and the ocean were still there when the three awoke in a chilly, damp fog. But still agreement eluded them and even threatened to fray the bonds between them. So each decided to take a stone and decide how to best use it. The youngest brother walked down to the surf, wading up to his knees and wished to be a fish, so that he could swim across the ocean to the far side, agreeing to wait on the far shore for the other two. Amazingly enough, and quite suddenly, the youngest brother was gone, and a silver fish hung suspended momentarily in the air where he had stood, and then gravity claimed it and the fish splashed into the ocean. The other two watched it leap once above the waves and then it was seen no more, presumably swimming west.

 

The middle sister then took up her stone, and with a quick hug to her older brother, wished to be a bird, such that she could fly safely above the ocean to the far shore, and hopefully keep an eye out for her younger brother. In a blink, she too vanished and a splendid white gull flapped its wings a bit unsteadily, before rising into the sky, circling twice and flying away west until her silhouette vanished into the morning mist. The oldest stood there a long time gazing out across the ocean and into the fog, which gently receded as the day grew longer. He stood there, just looking, holding his stone in his hand. At one point he brought it up to his chest and mouthed words that only an empty beach could hear and dropped the stone into his pocket.

 

He spent the rest of that day collecting wood, with which he started to fashion a small boat. The beach was quite generous, for between what the ocean had washed up and what he carried himself, he soon had all he needed and small but sturdy vessel lay in front of him, pulled up just beyond the hungry reach of the incoming tide. Into the boat he stocked what food and water he had left and just as the shadows were beginning to grow long, he pushed the small craft into the height of the tide. He sailed all through the evening, and though he did not think it likely, the fatigue of the day soon caught up with him and he fell fast asleep, trusting to the wind and tides to carry him in the right direction. In the middle of the night, the eldest brother was woken from his sleep and sat up with a start. The sky above him was absolutely dark and at first he didn't notice the reason, but as the fog of sleep slowly crept from his brain, he realized that not a star shone in the sky above. He then became aware of a light from the ocean itself, and leaning over the side of his small boat, he gasped as he saw all the stars of the night sky floating in the ocean - not reflected, for he glanced quickly back up to the still blank canvas of the night sky above him. The ocean itself contained all the stars that should have been wheeling by over him. The eldest could make no sense of this spectacle, and he lingered at the edge of the boat for some time trying to comprehend what he saw. Slowly dawn approached on the horizon and the stars faded from the waters around the boat as the sky lightened above it.

 

He was shaken from his reverie by the cry of a gull overhead and looking up he saw his sister flying closer and closer until she plummeted into the ocean nearby. The eldest brother quickly brought his boat around and scooped the bird from the water and set her gently into the boat. In a moment the bird was gone, replaced by the familiar form of his younger sister. "The ocean is too big," she gasped. "I flew for hours and hours and still saw no land, there is no way I can fly across this whole expanse. I am glad you came when you did." He gave her some food and water and together they sailed through the day. Just as the sun was approaching the horizon and the breeze was turning cool, a gleaming silver fish jumped from the water and landed with a splash in the boat, only to disappear and be replaced by the form of the youngest. "Am I so glad to see you," the youngest exclaimed. "It is impossible to find one's way through the ocean, it is too vast and deep. I asked other fish, but they only know of things below the waves, coasts and quests such as ours do not concern them and they were of no help at all."

 

And with that the three were once again reunited. They pointed their boat toward the setting sun and ran with the wind across the surface of the ocean. And for another eighteen days they sailed such, collecting rain water when they needed it and catching fish from the bountiful waters to fill their stomachs. But other than that first night, the stars remained as they should, twinkling safely in the night sky overhead, and the eldest remained at a loss to explain the significance of what he had seen. The story of that night had such an impact that it distracted the younger two siblings from ever asking their older brother what had become of his wishing stone, and for his part, he did not bring the subject up, content as he was with having the three reunited. And on the nineteenth day of sailing, a dark strip of land finally broke the horizon, and smiles crested the horizons on three different faces in a like manner.

  

From Wikipedia relating to the original structure:

 

For the Canadian Centennial in 1967, the City of Calgary elected to undertake, as a civic project, the construction of a new planetarium. This choice was reflective of the interest in space exploration that was prominent in the 1960s. A design competition was held in 1964 for the new building. Advised by the director of the architecture department at the University of British Columbia, Henry Elder, the three finalists were McMillan Long, Gordon Atkins, and Bill Boucock. The design by the firm of McMillan Long and Associates was eventually selected as the winner. This firm had been established in 1964 between Hugh McMillan and Jack Long, and lasted until 1969, at which time McMillan retired. The Centennial Planetarium was built between 1966 and 1967 by Sam Hashman.

 

Built on a site north of Mewata Armouries overlooking the Bow River, the Planetarium is constructed of raw concrete and features non-orthogonal design. Designed around a central bay, the building has two main wings. The west wing holds the "celestial theatre," a 255-seat theatre with a 65-foot domed screen. The east wing holds a 250-seat lecture hall. The Planetarium also contains a library, observation deck, and telescopes.

 

In 1967 the Planetarium won the Nation Design Council Concrete Award, and in 1970 the Massey Medal in Architecture.

 

From 1971 to 1985, the Planetarium also housed the collection of aircraft, aero engines, and associated reference library that became the basis of the Hangar Flight Museum. [1]

 

In 1984 the Calgary Science Centre moved into the Centennial Planetarium. It would occupy the space for the next 27 years.

 

The Science Centre moved into a new building in 2011, leaving the Planetarium empty or under-utilized until Contemporary Calgary acquired it. After extensive renovations, the building reopened as Calgary's premier modern art gallery.

1. The spiritual entity Qalb

 

Prophecy and knowledge relating to this was granted to the Prophet Adam

 

In the Urdu language the fleshy meat, (the heart) is known as dil, and in Arabic it is called fawad. The spiritual entity that is next to the heart is the Qalb and according to a Prophetic statement the heart and the Qalb are two separate entities.

 

Our solar system is the physical human sphere. There are other realms and spheres, for example the realm of the angels, the realm of the throne of God, the realm of the soul, the realm of the secrets, the realm of unification and the realm of the essence of God. These spheres and life forms inhabiting these spheres have existed before the eruption of the ball of fire, our Sun, which created our solar system. Ordinary angels were created alongside the creation of the souls when God commanded "Be" but the Archangels and the spiritual entities (which are placed inside the human body at birth) have existed in these realms before the formation of our solar system.

 

Many planets in our solar system were inhabited but subsequently these life forms became extinct. The remaining planets and their inhabitants are awaiting their destruction. The Archangels and the spiritual entities (of the human body) were created seventy thousand years before the command "Be."

 

Of these spiritual entities God placed the Qalb in the realm of love. It is with this that a human being is able to become connected with God. The Qalb acts like a telephone operator between God and the human being. A human being receives guidance and inspiration through it. Whereas the worship and the meditation done by the spiritual entities themselves can reach the highest realm, the Throne of God, with the aid of the Qalb. The Qalb itself, however cannot travel beyond the realm of the angels, as its place of origin is the Khuld, the lowest heaven in the realm of the angels.

 

The Qalb’s meditation is from within and its vibrating rosary is within the human skeleton (the heartbeat). People that failed to achieve this meditation of the Qalb in this lifetime will be regretful, even though they may be in paradise. As God has stated regarding those who will go to paradise, that do they, the inhabitants of paradise think that they will be equal to those who are elevated (reached higher realms by practicing the spiritual disciplines and becoming illuminated). As those that have achieved the meditation of the Qalb, they will enjoy its pleasures even in paradise when their Qalb will be vibrating with the Name of God.

After death physical worship ceases to exist and the people whose Qalb and spiritual entities are not strengthened and illuminated with the light of God are afflicted and distressed in their graves and their spiritual entities waste away. Whereas the illuminated and strengthened spiritual entities will go to the realm where the righteous will wait before the final judgement.

After the day of judgement a second body will be given, the illuminated spiritual entities along with the human soul will enter that body. The people that taught their spiritual entities, meditation, whereby the entities chanted the Name of God Allah in this life time will find that the spiritual entities will continue with this meditation even in the hereafter. Such people will continue to be elevated and exalted in the hereafter.

  

Those that were “blind of heart” (not illuminated) in this life time will be in darkness in that realm also, as this world was the place of action and effort. Those in the latter category will become quiescent.

Besides the Christians and the Jews the Hindu faith also holds a belief in these spiritual entities. The Hindu faith refers to them as Shaktian and the Muslims know them as Lata’if.

The Qalb is two inches, to the left of the heart. This spiritual entity is yellow in colour. When it is illuminated in a person, that person sees the colour yellow in their eyes. Not only this but there are many practitioners of alternative medicine who use the colours of these spiritual entities to heal people.

Most people regard their heart’s word, “inner feeling” to be truthful. If the hearts of people were indeed truthful, then why are all the people of the heart not united?

The Qalb of an ordinary person is in the sleeping or unconscious state and it does not possess any appreciation or awareness. Due to the dominance of the spirit of the self, the ego, and the Khannas, or due to the individual’s own simple- mindedness the heart can make judgements in error. Placing trust in a sleeping Qalb is foolish.

Only when the Name of God Allah, does vibrate in the heart does an appreciation of right and wrong and wisdom follow. At this stage the Qalb is known as the awakened Qalb. Thereafter due to the increase in the meditation by the Qalb, of the Name of God Allah, it is then known as the God-seeking Qalb. At this stage the heart is capable of preventing the person from doing wrong but it is still incapable of making a right or just decision. Thereafter and only when the Light and the rays of the Grace of God (theophany) start to descend upon that heart, is it known as the purified and illuminated Qalb that stands in the presence of God (witnessing Qalb).

 

A Prophetic statement:

“The mercy of God descends upon a broken heart and an afflicted grave.”

 

Thereafter when the heart reaches this stage then one must accept whatever it dictates, quietly without question because due to the rays of the Light and the Grace of God the spirit of the self, (ego) becomes completely illuminated, purified and at peace. God is then closer to that individual than that person’s jugular vein.

God then says, “I become his tongue with which he speaks and I become his hands with which he holds.”

   

2. The Human Soul

 

Prophecy and knowledge relating to this was granted to the Prophet Abraham

 

This is on the right side of the chest. This is awakened and illuminated by the meditation and one-pointed concentration on it. Once it becomes illuminated, a vibration similar to the heartbeat is felt on the right side of the chest. Then the Name of God, Ya Allah is matched with the vibrating pulse. The meditation of the soul is done in this way. At this point, there are now two spiritual entities meditating inside the human body, this is an advancement in rank and status and is better than the Qalb. The soul is a light red in colour and when it is awakened, it is able to travel to the realm of the souls (the station of the Archangel Gabriel). Anger and rage are attached to it that burn and turn into majesty.

  

3. The spiritual entity Sirri

 

Prophecy and knowledge relating to this was granted to the Prophet Moses

 

This spiritual entity is to the left of the centre of the chest. This is also awakened and illuminated by the meditation and one-pointed concentration on it with the Name of God, Ya Hayy, Ya Qayyum. Its colour is white and in the dream state or by spiritual separation from the physical body “transcendental meditation” it can journey to the realm of the secrets. Now there are three spiritual entities meditating within a person and its status is higher than the other two.

   

4. The spiritual entity Khaffi

 

Prophecy and knowledge relating to this was granted to the Prophet Jesus

 

This is to the right of the centre of the chest. It too is taught the Name of God Ya Wahid by meditation. It is green in colour and it can reach the realm of unification. Due to the meditation of four entities one's status is further increased.

 

5. The spiritual entity Akhfa

 

Prophecy and knowledge relating to this was granted to the Prophet Mohammed

 

This is situated at the centre of the chest. It is awakened by meditating on the Name of God, Ya Ahad. It is purple in colour and it too, is connected to that veil in the realm of unification behind which is the throne of God.

 

The hidden spiritual knowledge relating to these five spiritual entities was granted to the Prophets, one by one and half of the knowledge of every spiritual entity was granted from the Prophets to the Saints of their time. In this way there became ten parts of this knowledge. The Saints in turn passed this knowledge on to the spiritually favoured (Godly) who then had the benefit of the sacred knowledge.

 

The apparent knowledge of the seen is connected to the physical body, the spoken word, the human realm and the spirit of the self, this is for the ordinary mortals. This knowledge is contained in a book that has thirty parts. Spiritual knowledge was also given to the Prophets by revelation brought by Gabriel and for this reason it is known as the spiritual Holy Scripture.

 

Many of the verses of the Qur’an would sometimes be abolished, since the Prophet Mohammed would sometimes mention matters relating to this “hidden spiritual knowledge” before ordinary people, which was only meant for the special and Godly. Later this knowledge passed on spiritually from the chest of one Saint to another, and now it has become widespread by its publication in books.

  

6. The spiritual entity Anna

 

This spiritual entity is inside the head and is colourless. It is by the meditation on the Name of God Ya Hu that this spiritual entity reaches its pinnacle. It is this spiritual entity that when it becomes illuminated and powerful it can stand in the Presence of God, face to face, and communicate with God unobstructed. Only the extreme lovers of God reach this realm and station. Besides this there are a few and extremely exalted people who are granted additional spiritual entities, for example the spiritual entity Tifl-e-Nuri or a spiritual entity of the Godhead, Jussa-e-Tofiq-e-Ilahi, the spiritual status of such people is beyond understanding.

 

With the spiritual entity, Anna, God is seen in the dream state.

 

With the spiritual entity of the Godhead, God is seen in the “physical meditating state” when the spiritual entity itself leaves the human body and transcends to the essence of God.

 

Those possessing the spiritual entity, the Tifl-e-Nuri, see God whilst they are fully conscious.

 

It is these people who are the majesty and power of God in the world. They can either occupy the people by prescribing worship and austerities or by their spiritual grace send a person straight to the realm of God’s love. In their sight, concerning dispensing spiritual grace the believers and the non-believers, the dead and the living are all the same. Just as a thief became a Saint, in an instant, by the passing glimpse of the Saint Sheikh Abdul-Qadir al-Jilani, similarly, Abu-Bakr Havari and Manga the thief, became instant Saints by the passing glimpses of such Saints.

 

The five major Messengers were given knowledge of the five spiritual entities separately and in order of their appearance, as a result of which spirituality continued to prosper. With whichever spiritual entity you practice meditation you will be connected to the corresponding Messenger and become worthy of receiving spiritual grace (from that Messenger).

 

Whichever spiritual entity receives the rays of the Grace of God (favour), the Sainthood granted to that spiritual entity will be connected to the corresponding Prophet’s spiritual grace.

 

Access to seven realms and gaining elevated spiritual status in the seven heavens is obtained through these spiritual entities.

The functions of the spiritual entities inside the human body

 

Akhfa: Due to the spiritual entity, Akhfa a person is able to speak. In its absence a person may have a normal tongue but will be dumb. The difference between human beings and animals lies in the presence or the absence of these spiritual entities. At birth, if the entity, Akhfa was unable to enter the body for whatever reason, then a Prophet appointed for the rectification of this ailment would be called to treat the condition as a result of which the dumb would start to speak.

 

Sirri: A person is able to see due to the spiritual entity, Sirri. If it does not enter the body the person is blind from birth. An appointed Prophet had the duty to find and place the spiritual entity into the body, as a result of which the blind would start to see again.

Qalb: Without the spiritual entity of the Qalb, in the body, a person is like the animals, unacquainted, far from God, miserable and without purpose. Returning this entity into the body was the task of the Prophets also.

The miracles of the Prophets were also granted to the saints, in the form marvels and mystical wonders as a result of which even the impious and liberal became close to God. When a spiritual entity is returned by any allocated Saint or Prophet, the deaf, dumb and the blind are healed.

Anna: When the spiritual entity, Anna, fails to enter the body, a person is regarded as insane even though the brain may be functioning normally.

Khaffi: In the absence of the spiritual entity, Khafi, a person is deaf, even if the ears are opened wide.

These conditions can be caused by other defects in the body, and can be treated. There is no cure in the case, where the defect is caused by the absence of the associated spiritual entity except where a Prophet or a Saint intervenes and cures the defect.

Nafs, self: As a result of the spiritual entity of the self (ego) a persons mind is occupied with the material world and it is because of the spiritual entity Qalb that a persons direction turns towards God. For more detail visit www.goharshahi.org or visit asipk.com and for videos visit HH rags

 

Uses: Anything relating to finance and money.

 

Free Creative Commons Finance Images... I created these images in my studio and have made them all available for personal or commercial use. Hope you like them and find them useful.

 

To see more of our CC by 2.0 finance images click here... see profile for attribution.

"Mad Month" is a Collection of Images that relate to its Title...."MAD"

"M" stands for Minimal

"A " stands for Abstract

"D " stands for I don't know what yet?...…."Drunk", "Digital", "Daft", Dumb, Debonair, Donuts, Dingly Dell, Dynamic, Dopamine, Doctor Dolittle, Disaster, DaDa, Devil, Disguise, Distance, Donegal, Dope, Dinner, Dachau, Diabetic, Dali, Deli, Dildo, Drop Dead, Dead Drop, Funky Chicken, Dogmatic, Dog, Dachshund, Dork, Dill, Daffodil. Dresden, Dog, Dull, Dozy, Different. Delicate. Deer, Dear, Ditto, Dipstick, Dumbarton, Donald Duck, Demented, Dinosaur, Donkey, December, Dragon, Drachma, Dance, Disk, Duet, Dollar, Donald, Dunce, Happy Birthday Mum, Diamond, Demand, Desert, Dialog, Dance, Daddy, Decaf, Didier, Duchamp, Dimitri, Ding Dong, Diogenes, Dwarf,

I will think of a few Reasons as the Month progresses.

"Mad Month" is a Collection of Images that relate to its Title...."MAD"

"M" stands for Minimal

"A " stands for Abstract

"D " stands for I don't know what yet?...…."Drunk", "Digital", "Daft", Dumb, Debonair, Donuts, Dingly Dell, Dynamic, Dopamine, Doctor Dolittle, Disaster, DaDa, Devil, Disguise, Distance, Donegal, Dope, Dinner, Dachau, Diabetic, Dali, Deli, Dildo, Drop Dead, Dead Drop, Funky Chicken, Dogmatic, Dog, Dachshund, Dork, Dill, Daffodil. Dresden, Dog, Dull, Dozy, Different. Delicate. Deer, Dear, Ditto, Dipstick, Dumbarton, Donald Duck, Demented, Dinosaur, Donkey, December, Dragon, Drachma, Dance, Disk, Duet, Dollar, Donald, Dunce, Happy Birthday Mum, Diamond, Demand, Desert, Dialog, Dance, Daddy, Decaf, Didier, Duchamp, Dimitri, Dictator, Diarrhea, Director,

I will think of a few Reasons as the Month progresses.

And now for the before and after of the horror story: Here is another scan and retouch that relates a load of history... and a load of grief. It's age is in question. Maybe someone knows of this cutout photo prop at Rockaway Beach at New York City. This is a crowd of people all loaded into two who choose to advertise it. A bay tug could be at risk of capsizing were this a real boat. Perhaps the date of the snap could be determined by investigating when a food shortage took NYC by storm.

 

These two are the crowd that created the mess of the Hodum family children and spreading families. You need to pack a lot of groceries away to generate enough energy to pull off a feat like that with bodies like these. Does anyone have footage of elephants mating?

 

As usual, dust on negatives and contact printing left untold white specks and black holes. Grubby fingers and tears left plenty of defects across the image. In close, it looked like a shotgun blast. I attacked the worst of the flecks. As always, it provides plenty of practice whether needed or not. I already have far too much practice. I used the same two techniques, the Stamp and Brush to work on the image. Unfortunately, this scanner usually features all the defects on old snaps like this. I would have been lucky if these were all the problems I encountered. Part of the original was ripped away when someone tore it from an album with black pages where it was glued down, an elegant presentation certainly. Perhaps not so good for longevity and finding any inscription that might be on the reverse. I searched for the scrap but never found it.

 

I suppose that it will always be possible that this family will exchange the digital retouching and spread them far enough that my labor won't be entirely wasted. I gang output to high resolution PDFs that can be printed at home or taken to Fed-X/Kinkos for color printing. I output a couple dozen ganged sheets. Their output never seems to waver from the quality of the PDF. Trimming them with scissors, especially the deckle edges, will be a challenge. That's not my job.

 

I received a load of scanning and retouching recently relegated to me. So far, I have several solid days packed into the project and the collection has not shrunk that much. So much for me keeping up with Flickr. I wonder why the family thinks that I owe them thousands in difficult retouching labor?

  

Collective: of, relating to, or denoting a group of individuals considered as a whole.

 

The Collective is a group of friends/business partners who met while in school. They are makeup artists, hairstylists, photographers and fashion stylists that formed a group.

 

They sometimes work together (or in pairs or small groupings) on photoshoots, music videos and other projects.

 

The Collective is:

 

From left to right:

 

Front seated- Intern Tory Thomas

 

Back rear- Photographers: Jon Alexander

Evan Knight

 

Stylists: Danny Silvera

Foreground- Rowan Rogers

Willow (just Willow)

 

Makeup Artists: Doran Cain

Dallas Alexander (Jon's sister)

 

Hairstylists: Phoenix Jones (no relation to Nebraska or Noxema)

Nina Chen (professionally goes by Nina Black)

I’m evil to the core

What I shouldn't do I will

They say I’m emotional

What I wanna save I’ll kill

Is that who I truly am?

I truly don’t have a chance

Tomorrow I’ll keep a beat

And repeat yesterday’s dance

 

Yo, this song will never be on the radio

Even if my clique were to pick and the people were to vote

It’s the few, the proud, and the emotional

Yo, you, bulletproof in black like a funeral

The world around us is burning but we’re so cold

It’s the few, the proud, and the emotional

 

I’m fairly local, I’ve been around

I’ve seen the streets you're walking down

I’m fairly local, good people now

 

Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh

 

Hey guys! So pretty much in love with this series. I feel like the more emotion and love you put into something, the more depth it takes on. The lyrics above are also from twenty one pilots new album Blurryface and the song is Fairly Local

 

www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDI9inno86U

 

I recently watched an interview with the band and they discussed who the Blurryface character is. Essentially what Blurryface embodies is every fear, insecurity, and inner thought that causes damage to who you are as a person. In the interview, Tyler Joseph said that the black paint he wears on his neck represents suffocation, the nervousness that overcomes you at times and you feel like you're dying. It can come out of nowhere and completely consume you. He also says how the black paint on his hands represents his insecurities with what he creates with his hands. Whether its music or anything else in his life, creating a song and releasing it into the world can be a little intimidating at times and insecurities can take over.

  

As a photographer, I 110% relate to this concept. I wear my insecurities on my sleeves. A lot of my fears are the things I choose to shoot. I create dark art and honest emotional pieces at times that can leave me exposed to the damages of the world. For me, Blurryface embodies my darkest fears and secrets, it's the part of me that can consume my entire happiness at times and leave me feeling empty.

  

The key thing is to never let it have the power to consume your being, your thoughts, who you are as a person...because in the end something that embodies your deepest insecurities doesn't hold power over you...it only grows with the power you give it.

 

(Spoiler warning for the film's ending)

 

I've found, as I get older, that it takes increasingly less to make me cry at movies – my theory being that the accumulation of real life experience correlates to an empathy for fictionalised narratives to which we couldn’t previously relate. Having said that, there are still only a handful of films I’d describe as truly devastating, and those that fit the description generally share one of two themes. The first is animals – my love thereof being no great secret. (A friend once asked if I wanted to rent Hachi, and I responded by saying that I wasn’t in the mood: the truth being that a) films where the animal protagonists don’t survive past the end credits utterly destroy me and b) I’d teared up just watching the trailer two days earlier.) The second – more human – theme is that of mothers.

 

As the product of a single-parent household, there are few things that offend me more than the notion that a child needs two parents (of either gender) for healthy development, and, once I’d reached an age where the option became available to me, I ceased contact with my father altogether. In consequence of having been raised by mum alone, however, we have a closeness for which I am unendingly grateful; and trading an additional parent for the woman who remains one of my favourite people in the world is an exchange I would make time and time again. (Indeed, half the arguments we had growing up were, upon reflection, a consequence of us being more or less the same person: my strong-mindedness (read: stubbornness) and self-assurance (/inability to admit when I’m wrong) being among the more charming traits I’ve inherited.)

 

Now, going into Still Alice last week, I had high expectations. I’m a long-time fan of Julianne Moore, and knew she’d secured the Oscar for Best Actress before the film had even premiered here in the UK (an accolade I chose to have faith in despite Patricia Arquette winning Best Supporting for Boyhood, which I consider a feat of technical filmmaking vs. acting or storytelling). I was not, however, prepared for the degree to which the film moved me, and as people slowly filed out of the cinema around us, it was all I could to do stay seated throughout the end credits until I could recover enough to stop crying.

 

The film’s theme is, of course, grave – the subject of early-onset Alzheimer’s is hardly the makings of a light-hearted comedy. Dr. Alice Howland (played to devastating effect by Moore) is a linguistics professor who, she tells us, has “always been so defined by my intellect, my language, my articulation, and now sometimes I can see the words hanging in front of me and I can’t reach them and I don’t know who I am and I don’t know what I’m going to lose next.” It’s a disease that strips Alice of the traits that form the very basis of her self-identity. This loss of her sense of self – and the bitter irony that the accelerated decline in Alice’s condition owes, in part, to her erstwhile superior intellect – is difficult to watch: scenes of Alice pre-emptively visiting a nursing home and seeing the fate that awaits her reflected in people vastly beyond her age; of the shame she feels after failing to find the bathroom in her own home; the emotional breakdown when she finally reveals her condition to her husband, and sobs that “it feels like my brain is fucking dying. And everything I’ve worked for in my entire life is going. It’s all going.” It’s heartbreaking.

 

But the true heart of the movie lies, for me, in Alice’s relationship with her youngest daughter, Lydia (played by Kristen Stewart in a role for which the internet at large probably owes her a collective apology after the Twilight series). Though their relationship is, at times, strained (foremost by Alice’s misgivings over Lydia’s choice of an acting career without a solid basis in education) the bond they ultimately develop over the course of the movie is a beautiful one; the child she least understands becoming the one who understands her most. The film’s final scene is, at face value, devastating – Lydia reads to Alice from a play they had discussed months earlier while her mother was still in command of her faculties, and Alice – finally in the full grip of her condition – responds seemingly incomprehensibly. But it contains within it an echo of the speech the once-brilliant Alice gave in the film’s opening moments, where she noted that, “Most children speak and understand their mother tongue before they turn four, without lessons, homework, or much in the way of feedback. How do they accomplish this remarkable feat? Well this is a question that has interested scientists at least since Charles Darwin kept a diary of the early language of his infant son. He observed, ‘Man has an instinctive tendency to speak, as we see in the babble of our young children.’”

 

After Lydia has finished reading, she asks her mother, “Hey, did you like that? What I just read, did you like it? Wh-what…what was it about?”

 

“Love,” Alice answers.

 

And though her mother has been reduced to a state where she can only communicate through childlike babble, we feel that Alice can still comprehend – on some level – Lydia’s devotion to her. “Yeah, mom,” she responds. “It was about love.”

 

In the hands of a lesser filmmaker, Still Alice could easily have been a schmaltzy, Lifetime Movie affair like My Sister’s Keeper or The Notebook – reliant on musical cues and manipulative sentimentality to tell the viewer where and when to feel. Still Alice favours a quiet dignity, like that of its protagonist, and of the film’s co-writer and director, Richard Glatzer, who made this movie – ultimately to be his last – whilst battling motor neuron disease. The film’s lasting message is of endurance, even in the face of inevitability — and of love.

 

(Dundee, 2014)

 

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Here is another scan and retouch that relates a load of history... and a load of grief. It's age is in question. Maybe someone knows of this cutout photo prop at Rockaway Beach at New York City. This is a crowd of people all loaded into two who choose to advertise it. A bay tug could be at risk of capsizing were this a real boat. Perhaps the date of the snap could be determined by investigating when a food shortage took NYC by storm.

 

These two are the crowd that created the mess of the Hodum family children and spreading families. You need to pack a lot of groceries away to generate enough energy to pull off a feat like that with bodies like these. Does anyone have footage of elephants mating?

 

As usual, dust on negatives and contact printing left untold white specks and black holes. Grubby fingers and tears left plenty of defects across the image. In close, it looked like a shotgun blast. I attacked the worst of the flecks. As always, it provides plenty of practice whether needed or not. I already have far too much practice. I used the same two techniques, the Stamp and Brush to work on the image. Unfortunately, this scanner usually features all the defects on old snaps like this. I would have been lucky if these were all the problems I encountered. Part of the original was ripped away when someone tore it from an album with black pages where it was glued down, an elegant presentation certainly. Perhaps not so good for longevity and finding any inscription that might be on the reverse. I searched for the scrap but never found it.

 

I suppose that it will always be possible that this family will exchange the digital retouching and spread them far enough that my labor won't be entirely wasted. I gang output to high resolution PDFs that can be printed at home or taken to Fed-X/Kinkos for color printing. I output a couple dozen ganged sheets. Their output never seems to waver from the quality of the PDF. Trimming them with scissors, especially the deckle edges, will be a challenge. That's not my job.

 

I received a load of scanning and retouching recently relegated to me. So far, I have several solid days packed into the project and the collection has not shrunk that much. So much for me keeping up with Flickr. I wonder why the family thinks that I owe them thousands in difficult retouching labor?

 

Recent postings relating to the latest member of our 'Fantasy Fleet', AEL 170B and in-depth information received from 'Landersreach' on the dispersal of this batch of Bournemouth Atlanteans sent me off on an electronic rummage. I'd forgotten that I'd taken a picture of another of them beyond those which came to Stonier's and Berresfords and so here it is. The last of the batch made its way to South Wales and the predominantly Leyland based fleet, Creamline of Tonmawr. At some time in it's life, 179 appears to have gained a one piece windscreen ... unless it was that the remainder had gained two piece whilst at Bournemouth for practical reasons. The bus is seen here parked next to a poorly Leopard in the yard of Creamline's wonderfully scenic valley side garage.

Kinetic: Relating to, caused by, or producing motion.

 

These are called “Kinetic” photographs because there is motion, energy, and movement involved, specifically my and the camera’s movements.

 

I choose a light source and/or subject, set my camera for a long exposure (typically around 4 seconds), focus on my subject and push the shutter button. When the shutter opens I move the camera around with my hands...large, sweeping, dramatic movements. And then I will literally throw the camera several feet up into the air, most times imparting a spinning or whirling motion to it as I hurl it upward. I may throw the camera several times and also utilize hand-held motion several times in one photo. None of these are Photoshopped, layered, or a composite photo...what you see occurs in one shot, one take.

 

Aren’t I afraid that I will drop and break my camera? For regular followers of my photostream and this series you will know that I have already done so. This little camera has been dropped many times, and broken once when dropped on concrete outside. It still functions...not so well for regular photographs, but superbly for more kinetic work.

 

To read more about Kinetic Photography click the Wikipedia link below:

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinetic_photography

 

And to see more of my Kinetic Photographs please visit my set, “Flux Velocity:”

 

www.flickr.com/photos/motorpsiclist/sets/72157622224677487/

 

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Albeit supremely risky this is one of my favorite ways to produce abstract photographs.

 

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My photographs and videos and any derivative works are my private property and are copyright © by me, John Russell (aka “Zoom Lens”) and ALL my rights, including my exclusive rights, are reserved. ANY use without my permission in writing is forbidden by law.

 

Uses: Anything relating to finance and money.

 

Free Creative Commons Finance Images... I created these images in my studio and have made them all available for personal or commercial use. Hope you like them and find them useful.

 

To see more of our CC by 2.0 finance images click here... see profile for attribution.

 

Uses: Anything relating to finance.

Crowle Manor Terrier 1738 - Nmbers relate to manorial Plan

Uses: Anything relating to health and money.

 

Free Creative Commons Finance Images... I created these images in my studio and have made them all available for personal or commercial use. Hope you like them and find them useful.

 

To see more of our CC by 2.0 finance images click here... see profile for attribution.

 

Uses: How much is your health worth? Costs of keeping healthy.

The International Bomber Command Centre (IBCC) a memorial relating the historical impact of and on Bomber Command during the Second World War. Located on Canwick Hill, overlooking the city of Lincoln in Lincolnshire.

 

The city of Lincoln was selected for the location of the IBCC because 27 RAF Bomber Command stations (over a third of all Bomber Command stations) were based in the county during World War II. The large amount of airfields led to Lincolnshire being nicknamed the "Bomber County".

 

Located at Canwick Hill, the centre is just under two and half miles from RAF Waddington, which suffered the greatest losses of any Bomber Command station, and close to the former Avro aircraft production facility at Bracebridge Heath. A view of Lincoln Cathedral, a prominent landmark for aircrews, forms an important part of the vista from the centre of the Memorial Spire.

 

The aim of the IBCC is to tell the personal stories of members of the RAF Bomber Command, ground crew and civilians impacted by the bombing campaigns during the Second World War. The centre will also provide a comprehensive record of the role of Bomber Command's squadrons and to digitally display historical documentation and photographs relating to the activity of Bomber Command.

 

Within the grounds of the International Bomber Command Centre the Spire Memorial was erected on 10 May 2015. The memorial is a spire, reflecting the connection to Lincoln Cathedral. Created out of Corten A weathering steel, it is based on the dimensions of the wingspan of a Lancaster bomber, being 102ft high and 16ft at the base. The Spire was officially unveiled in October 2015 to an audience of 3,600 guests including 312 Bomber veterans.

 

The spire is encircled by walls carrying the names of all 57,871 men and women who gave their lives whilst serving in or supporting Bomber Command. This is the only place in the world where all these losses are memorialised.

 

Information Source:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Bomber_Command_Centre

 

relating to or denoting faculties or phenomena apparently inexplicable by natural laws, esp. involving telepathy or clairvoyance.

 

another sign? indeed.

 

still playing tag with deb, check out her entire collection, it's all eye candy.

  

This relates to the time I spent at Arriva. My regular journey in the mornings was a peak hour service 23 from Erskine to Glasgow. My arch enemy was Neil Stafford (although I did not know him at the time) who had the same timed competitive journey for Gibson's. Normally he would have a Dart and I would have a Dart or sometimes a Scania. Every morning was a battle of wits! The only predictable thing was that we were both unpredictable! One or other of us would throw down the gauntlet.......Let the battle commence. One bus would suddenly shoot off, closely followed by the other. Passengers would be scooped up. All the old tricks would be played, leave your back end sticking out at an angle, indicate to get out when you were still taking fares, hang back if not enough bums were on seats. It was all great fun, sometimes I would get the upper hand, sometimes not, but there were enough passengers to go round, and I usually got into Glasgow with a full load. Neil probably did too. It was actually many years later that I discovered Neil was a bus spotter too.

This image relates to a later post where I tried to replicate the album cover as part of a challenge

-FOFT Music from 1969

The FFF+ Group has a monthly challenge called "Freestyle On The Fifth" a different theme posted on the 5th of the month. This month it was Phunny Photos turn to choose the theme, and she chose -Music from 1969.

 

I looked at the top 100 songs from 1969 and saw Dylan’s Lay Lady Lay. I had already paid tribute to this song for my Dylan Series and then I thought of the iconic album cover of Nashville Skyline, the album which Lay Lady Lay was from.

 

I wondered if I could replicate it using my No. 1 son as the model.

 

I tried.

 

I thought it would be easier than it was but it turned out to be really difficult to get that bloody angle right. We tried 3 different photo shoots. Dark cloudy skies in one shoot, so windy the hat kept blowing off in another and then the sun was in the wrong position. I had the added pressure of my son decided to bleach his hair last week so needed to get it done before then! (no blonde allowed peeking out from the hat for Bob Dylan).

 

Nashville Skyline was incredibly important for the country music industry. The album didn’t rate in the country charts but was No. 3 on the Billboard top 200 and introduced mainstream fans to a sound many had never heard before. This crossover of country and pop helped pave the way for the Eagles and other country-rock superstars of the early ’70s “The country scene was so conservative until he arrived. He brought in a whole new audience (said Kris Kristofferson). The album took 4 days to record.

 

My favourite song is Girl From North Country. Even those that don’t love Dylan’s voice might find this one surprisingly beautiful. This album marked a change in Dylan’s vocals: “He had developed a baritone country croon that he claimed was a result of his decision to quit smoking cigarettes. “

(Interview in Rolling Stone).

 

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Je4Eg77YSSA (Bobby and Johnny Cash-original)

 

www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJCmgKRszYM (recording of baby faced Dylan singing in a cabin)

 

Sorry-I just can’t help myself rattling about Dylan but I do know a few of my followers are fans too.

 

I nearly drove myself mad trying to get the image right so this is not identical but it is my Ode to my favourite musician with my favourite son once again putting up with my direction to model for me (Added to Flickr x 100 portraits of son).

  

This is the story of how I came to know and accept Jesus Christ as my Lord and Saviour. It is a story of God’s faithfulness to an unworthy and unfaithful young man. It is a story of the Holy Spirit patiently and lovingly changing my mind and heart and arranging circumstances to lead me to Christ so I can be saved.

 

Introduction

 

My name is Fadi and I was born in late 1982 in Baghdad, Iraq, but I grew up in Kirkuk, a city about 240km north of Baghdad. My grandfather was Syriac Orthodox but my father was raised as a Roman Catholic because my grandmother, the one who cared about religion, was a Roman Catholic so she raised him and us--my sister and I--as Roman Catholics. My mother’s family is also Roman Catholic.

 

In Iraq a person’s religion is part of their identification documents. Because of this a lot of people would be known by a certain faith even though they do not believe in it or practice it. A lot of Christians in Iraq are what I call devoted to their denominations, but as far as born-again is concerned I do not recall knowing anyone who was born-again. I also do not recall anyone ever teaching salvation is by faith in Jesus’ death on the Cross through God’s grace. Simply put, there was no Gospel: there was no good news because there was no message of salvation. And because there was no message of salvation people did not get saved and there were no born-again Christians. I also do not recall any teachings about the Holy Spirit; the only time I heard of the Holy Spirit is when we said “in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit”. I actually thought the Holy Spirit was an invisible force; I did not understand that the Holy Spirit is a person of the triune God!

 

Feeling Detached

 

My ethnical background is Chaldean. Chaldeans are an ethnical group of a minority Christian community in Iraq. However, I never felt like I was a Chaldean. The main reason has to do with the fact I do not speak Aramaic—the mother tongue of Chaldeans. I never learnt Aramaic because my family does not speak it either; we speak Arabic (the official language of Iraq). That is why I always felt an outcast in Sunday school, and my Muslim friends often asked me, “How can you be Christian if you do not speak Aramaic?” So since my childhood I never felt like I belonged to any group: I did not feel like I was a Chaldeans, a Roman Catholic, or an Iraqi. I simply could not associate myself with any group whether ethnic, religious, or political. I simply saw myself as a human and that was good enough for me.

 

This detachment from certain groups was negative socially as I could not relate to any group of people and I always saw myself as an outsider; therefore, I did not feel compelled to join any cause or group activity.

 

Feelings of Inferiority

 

I was a very shy and sensitive child and I never felt comfortable in social settings. Here is something that happened that set the course for my life. I have never told this story to anyone but I believe it is important to understand who I was before coming to Christ:

 

On my fifth or sixth birthday party my cousin bought me a set of army vehicles and GI Joes as a gift and I loved it. I was playing with the toys and the house was full of people and everybody was having fun socializing and eating. When my mom saw me playing with the toys she told my aunt (her older sister), “Why did you burden yourself? You shouldn’t have gone through the trouble and spent the money and buy a gift.” I was confused: I did not know if I had done something wrong by accepting and enjoying the gift and if I should return it or what—after all I was only five years old! And I was not a street-smart child—I was very naive and innocent. Of course my mom was saying a typical thing in the Middle East: she was not trying to minimize my importance to her or the importance of my birthday. (And I am sure countless mothers have said something similar in front of their children.) But I was a very sensitive child and to my 5 years old brain I interpreted her words as saying: I am not important; I had done something bad; I am not worthy; I am causing people trouble and costing them money--I am a burden.

 

You would think such a small insignificant incident would not have a long lasting effect, but ever since that day I always felt like I was a burden, always felt guilty, unworthy and stupid. So I shied away from people even more, and became nervous in social settings. And of course, the less social I became the less self-confident I became and started having really low self-esteem and self-image. However, out of all the negative feelings I have about myself the worst is the feeling of being stupid. I am not sure why I feel stupid sometimes but the feeling comes suddenly and so powerfully it is literally paralysing.

 

To make things worse as I became a teenager I started gaining weight and I developed trichotillomania which caused my already low self-confidence to plummet even more, and I became even more withdrawn from people and detached from my surroundings. It is such a vicious cycle: the more anti-social I became the lower my self-confidence became, and the lower my self-confidence became the more anti-social I became; the less social I became the worse my trichotillomania habit got, and the worse my trichotillomania habit got the less social I became! I felt like I was standing in a hole and digging myself deeper in.

 

Obedient but Stubborn

 

I was a good and obedient kid so I rarely gave my parents hard time and I was never the rebellious type. I remember overhearing my mom telling our neighbour that she would have more children if she could guarantee they will be like me. I always listened and respected authority so that made me a good student on top of the fact I always studied really hard. I was very peaceful and a peacemaker. I avoided conflict and I was fair: for me or against me. I always tried to look at things objectively which made my friends trust me. I enjoyed telling jokes but I also was a deep thinker. I was quite liked and respected by my peers. Somehow everybody seemed to know me.

 

I was very stubborn: I would not listen to anyone if I believed they were wrong. I had to be convinced and it was not always easy. My family used to joke that if doctors looked inside my head they would not find a brain but a rock--I was that stubborn! But I was never stubborn for the trivial things in life--I was only stubborn if I disagreed on things that mattered. I was never the follower type even though I never liked being a leader. I was not impressed by popular opinions and never tried to chase after the latest trends. For some reason what the world had to offer did not impress me—I wanted more from life than materialistic things and passing pleasures. I was not tempted to try things that I believed were wrong: to me wrong was wrong whether I am permitted to do it or not.

 

I was a good storyteller and communicated my thoughts well but I almost never shared my inner feelings with anyone—I kept everything on the inside and dealt with it by myself. I loved to help and could empathize with others. I was always attracted to the meek and outcast than the proud and popular. I love to comfort others and encourage them. I was cautious and had a heightened sense of danger. There are a couple of instances when God by His grace warned me beforehand to avoid—if I had went along with others to these two places I would have been hurt really bad. The young liked my company and the adults trusted me. I was the kind of a boy where the neighbourhood girls could give me a friendly smile without having to worry about me interpreting it the wrong way.

 

Even though I was smart, worked hard, punctual, and a perfectionist I still lacked confidence: I did not believe I was worthy or capable of succeeding.

 

God Is Real

 

In the 1980s Diego Maradona, the captain of the Argentina soccer team, was the biggest soccer star, especially after the 1986 FIFA World Cup where he single-handedly lead Argentina to win the title defeating West Germany in the final. So he was my hero because soccer is the most popular sport in Iraq. In the 1990 FIFA World Cup final it was Argentina versus Germany again and Argentina lost 1-0 because of a last minute penalty kick. Maradona, my hero, cried and so I was going to cry too (don’t forget I was only 7 years old at the time!) but I did not want my family to see me crying so I ran upstairs. (Because Iraq’s summer is hot and often times there was no electricity, a lot of people sleep on the rooftops. It is easy to set up beds on the roof since the houses have flat roofs with brick walls.) It was night time and I threw myself on my bed crying—it was very quiet because people were still watching the FIFA World Cup event. I bitterly asked God why He let Maradona lose--as a child I didn’t know any better! Then I got tired of crying so I just laid on my back on the bed and looked up: the sky was dark and full of stars. I could hear distance noises from the TVs but it was quiet where I was. I kept looking at the sky and kind of forgot about Maradona’s loss because it was such a peaceful sight. Then it suddenly became a fearful sight: I was lying on a bed that is sitting on a roof with nothing tangible attaching me to earth which itself was floating in a vast and dark universe! That is when I understood that there is a God: a God had designed and created the heavens and the earth. Until then I was told that God existed but on that night I understood that He existed.

 

Who was He? I did not know but I knew He existed and He was great.

 

Doubts, Disappointments, and Rebellion

 

My dad was a devoted Catholic and he was an altar boy as a child but after two wars and the economic sanctions under a ruthless dictator he started to doubt his faith. So after the Gulf War, when I finally got to spend some time with him and know him, he imparted his doubts onto me. I was still young, in my early teens, so I was easily impressible and so I embraced his doubts as mine. On top of my new doubts I was becoming very disappointed with the Roman Catholic denomination for many reasons.

 

When I was 12 years old I enrolled in Sunday school in the summer break to be prepared for my first communion. They seated me in the front and paired me with this beautiful girl who was my age. There was a boy named Emmanuel who was trouble (he was always up to no good) and they had seated him in the back. As usual I kept my distance from troublesome kids and minded my own business. I did not talk much anyway especially to the girls because I was very shy. We rehearsed everything and everything was going according to plan. On the day of the first communion a nun came and kind of escorted me by the shoulders all the way to the back of the column and gave Emmanuel my spot at the front. I did not know why and, as usual, I did not protest. Not long after I found out the reason: Emmanuel’s uncle was a deacon, so when his parents saw their son standing in the back of the line they asked his uncle to move Emmanuel to the front to stand next to the beautiful girl.

 

I was not disappointed with Emmanuel, after all he was just a boy like me, or his parents, after all they are just ordinary people, but I was very disappointed with the nun and his uncle the deacon for showing favouritism. There were other incidents that disappointed me. One time in Christmas mass I was sick with the flu and I had asthma so I got up to go outside to catch my breath and go to the washroom. As I opened the side door a priest was walking in so he asked me where I was going, so I explained to him that I was sick and needed some fresh air and he said, “You liar! You probably want to skip mass to hang out with the bad kids!” I was taken back by his comment, first because he accused me of lying which is something I did not do and hated, second he had no reason to assume I was a liar, and third I did my best to avoid bad crowds. I was very disappointed by how unclean the priest’s heart was.

 

Even though I became more and more disappointed with the Catholic denomination, I actually stayed a very devoted Catholic: I would still pray to the saints and follow the Catholic decrees. Instead, I started crumpling against God, doubted the Bible and especially disliked the Lord Jesus Christ to the point of disliking my name because Fadi means “Saviour” in Arabic! I had two dear friends, Ayad and Furat, who used to always try to restore my faith: they reasoned with me and quoted scripture but nothing helped. I was too stubborn to listen, too blind to see, and too self-righteous to believe—I had made up my mind that God was wrong and I was right, He was the bad guy and I was the good guy. I believed in Him, I just did not like Him!

 

Not by Works

 

Around the time of my first communion, my grandmother read the story of Joseph son of Jacob to my sister and me. I was very impressed by Joseph and set him as my role-model (until today) and I became more interested in spirituality, the Bible, and the Christian faith. In summer time I started going to church every morning and confessing my sins until the priest told me to stop confessing my sins every day! I started reading Catholic prayer books and did the Sacred Heart of Jesus month and the Immaculate Heart of Mary month readings and prayers. I reciting those shorts Catholic prayers such as “Holy Mary, pray for us” all the time. I felt peace when I did those religious tasks and felt closer to God.

 

One Sunday school they were giving New Testaments away so I took one (even though we had half a dozen Bibles at home) just because it had an orange cover and I love the colour orange! Having nothing to do in Iraq’s hot summer afternoons and excited about my orange-cover Bible I started reading the New Testament. A couple of weeks later I asked my grandmother, “What do I have to do to go to heaven?” And she gave me the classic Middle Eastern answer, “When you die God will weigh your good words versus your bad works. If your good works are more than your bad works then you go to heaven. And if your bad works are more than your good works then you go to hell.” That sounded fair to me so I made up my mind that next morning I would be the best righteous Fadi I could be!

 

The next morning I woke up early because lazy was “bad works”. I helped my sister with cleaning and resisted to rush to the streets to play with my friends, because helping and self-control were “good works”! I prayed my morning prayer and read some Catholic prayer book. I was obedient to my sister and did not give her hard time (probably the hardest thing to resist doing!) I also pushed all evil thoughts away from my mind and asked for forgiveness right away from any evil thought. Everything was going according to plan but by noon I was getting exhausted; a sinful human living a righteous life is as exhausting as if I had tried to live as a pig—it was contrary to my nature so it was a spiritual fight every second of it! But I still “prevailed” until the afternoon when the doorbell rang.

 

I looked from the kitchen window and saw it was a beggar boy; it was common for beggars in Iraq to go house to house asking for money or food especially in the years of the economic sanctions. Of course on that day I had to outgive myself so I took double the amount of money I usually gave and went outside. It was very sunny and bright and it was hot. I tiptoed so I would not burn my feet because the ground was very hot. I gave the boy the money and quickly looked through the door to see if my friends were outside or not. They were not so I headed back inside.

 

As I entered the hallway I realized I could not see anything because my eyes had not adjusted yet to the darkness so I thought to myself “Be careful, you don’t want to hit your little toe against the stairwell!” So I slowed my steps down and still could see very little and that is when a verse from the Bible I had read few days ago flashed through my mind. It was Luke 17:7-10:

 

“Suppose one of you has a servant plowing or looking after the sheep. Will he say to the servant when he comes in from the field, ‘Come along now and sit down to eat’? Won’t he rather say, ‘Prepare my supper, get yourself ready and wait on me while I eat and drink; after that you may eat and drink’? Will he thank the servant because he did what he was told to do? So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.’”

 

And just like that it occurred me: all my “good” works are not credited to me as righteousness! So I knew then that salvation is not attained by works because good works is my duty! However, I still did not know how to go to heaven!

 

After that day I stopped trying to live a righteous life by obeying man-made strict religious laws. I was angry that I was given wrong information about how to go to heaven—there is no scale of good versus bad works! And how could my grandmother a devoted Catholic for over 70 years not know that? So I started paying more attention at mass and realized there is no message of how to go to heaven. Most of the time the priest made little sense and talked about things that were irrelevant to my daily life. To make it worse most of the mass rituals were carried out either in Latin or Aramaic and I did not understand either! Also, it seemed that the priest answer to all life problems was: “God wants to test your patience!” Why did this happen to me? “God wants to test your patience!” Why did God say this in the Bible? “You shouldn’t question God. God wants to test your patience!” What does this mean? “God wants to test your patience!”

 

So I vowed after that day to never trust anyone with any spiritual teaching: I was going to test the faiths to see which one, if any, has any validity. If I found a faith that had any authority to its teachings then I would accept it as the truth and follow it. I did not mind people lying to me or misleading me in trivial matters, but going to hell was serious business—I wanted to know where I went after I died!

 

The Reality of Death

 

(Warning: This section is graphic so reader discretion is advised!)

 

If you live in Iraq you cannot ignore death. Growing up in the 1980s during the Iran-Iraq war I occasionally saw taxis driving by with Iraq flag-covered coffins on top. That did not scare me as it was a common sight. However, three incidents occurred that made me understand that death is real, it is a serious problem, and it is inevitable.

 

The first incident happened while watching TV at dinner time: the news showed two Iraqi soldiers captured by the Iranians. The first soldier was shot on the spot which kind of fazed me because I was about 7 or 8 years old and had never seen a person killed before, but the second soldier had his hands tied to two Jeeps. One of his arms was severed when the two vehicles moved apart, and he was shot afterwards. I was in shock because I had not known before that humans can be so evil and can inflict such violence and pain on another human. I thought people died peacefully in their sleep!

 

The second incident happened in 1991 during the Kurdish uprising right after the Gulf War; I was 8 years old. After Iraq’s loss in the Gulf War the Kurds in the north and the Shias in the south were convinced that the Iraqi army was weakened to the point where they can overthrow Saddam Hussein. So the Kurds advanced south toward Baghdad and in the process took control of the city I lived in, Kirkuk. However, a couple of weeks after retreating the army advanced into the city to regain control. One day in the battle between the Iraqi army and the Kurd rebels (known as Peshmerga) I went up to the roof of our house without my mom’s knowledge to see an army helicopter firing its weapons. I did not know at the time that weapons were horrible—I thought weapons were “cool”. There were no deaths in our neighbourhood so I did not give thought to the consequences of war. Not long after the firefight started the army took Kirkuk back and for few days everybody was scared and the streets were quite empty. It was an unusually quiet time for a city that just went through the turmoil of mass looting and a civil war.

 

Few days after the army recaptured Kirkuk, our neighbour--who lived across the street from our house--wanted to go see his daughter’s family who lived in Arafa (a mostly Christian neighbourhood on the outskirt of Kirkuk) to check on them because there were no phone lines and he was worried about them. His name was Matta (which means Matthew in Arabic) and he was an older man in his 60s or 70s, but because the government car he drove was stolen during the looting he asked if he can fill our car with gas to go see his daughter. My mom agreed (my dad was not home because he had to join the army) and her and I went with him. The streets were quiet but as soon as we reached the main road I saw two bodies covered in blankets. I was taken back by the view of two dead bodies lying on the side walk of the city’s main road. I had been through that street many times, and I never thought I would one day see dead bodies lying on the side walk!

 

After Matta checked on his family we drove back and a checkpoint was set up at a roundabout so we stopped. As Matta talked to the soldier I looked to my left outside the car window to see a dead young Kurd in the centre of the roundabout. He was may be in his late 20s or early 30s. He had a dark curly hair and dark skin and had facial hair. I do not know how long he was dead for but he was not dead for long even though the blood running from his body was kind of thick and dry. I mostly remember the flies flying in and around his face—and I think this image imprinted this incident in my memory. Because I thought, “How helpless is a dead person? He can’t even shoo away a fly from his face? Is this how I will end up?” The answer was “yes”—that is the fate of all human beings. Death is our biggest problem.

 

I was 8 years old then so I was not ready to see that but I understood then what death was, and I had never understood what death means before then. I knew when people died they were buried but I did not understand that death is ugly and tragic. For some reason, I kept trying to figure out who the dead young Kurd looked like then I realized he did not look like anyone I had known—he was a unique human being and his death was a loss not only to his loved ones but to humanity as a whole. I also understood that death is an ugly problem every human has to face. I realized when people die they do not just disappear as in action movies—in one scene they are killed and in the next scene they are gone. Death is real, ugly, tragic, and inevitable. I believe that incident trigger me to think about life’s meaning, searching for God, and know my place in the universe. But most importantly I really wanted to know what happens to me after death! I wanted to know if there was something more after life, or a corpse is all I was going to end up as!

 

The third incident I definitely was not ready for. I was may be 9 or 10 years old when they showed on the news images of the Amiriyah shelter bombing which happened during the Gulf War. The shelter was located in the Amiriyah neighbourhood and it was bombed by two “smart bombs”: the first bomb cut through the 3m of reinforce concrete while the second one went through the hole made by the first bomb. Over 400 civilians, mostly women and children, died. The images shown on TV were graphic: amputated and charred bodies of mothers and children fused together; human skin stuck on walls; burned corpses of screaming victims.

 

Again I was in shocked of the graphic violence of the incident and I was scared. At night I could not sleep because images of the dead kept flashing in my mind—images of their faces and corpses haunted me. And it was winter time so my mom would turn the electric heater from the evening until morning to warm up the bed room during the night, but I was too scared to uncover myself because of the images of the dead. I could not have a good night sleep because it was too hot to sleep and I was too scared to come out from underneath the blanket! As usual, I never shared my struggles and feelings with anyone. This went on for a couple of months until summer.

 

After that summer I was never again scared of the dark or death, but death became a reality of life that I could not ignore. Death has its way of maturing a person: you never live life the same after taking death into consideration. So many things and dreams become unimportant and so many things and dreams become important if you only keep in mind that you will die. So knowing who God is, who I am to Him, why He created me, and where I am heading after death became very important topics to me.

 

A Precious Gift

 

Around the age of 14 I started to become lonely because as teenagers all my close friends (aged 13 to 17) were interested in doing teenager things but I was never interested in joining them. Suddenly they stopped playing sports and decided to go downtown to chase after girls, which I wanted no part in. They spent time, energy, and money to look their best and buy the latest fashion to impress girls, which did not appeal to me. The summer break and fall of when I was 14 was very depressing; I was alone and the fall weather was gloomy and cloudy with no sun. I spent a lot of time thinking about life and asking: it can’t be that a great God exists but He is not interested in me! It makes no sense for Him to create me and create all those amazing and beneficial things for me then forgets me! There must be more to life than chasing girls and getting the latest in fashion! I know I am going to die but what am I supposed to do with my life in the meantime? And how do I go to heaven?

 

We only had one complete Bible in our house which belonged to my grandmother and it was a really old book; the other Bibles we had were only the New Testament. My sister wanted to read the Old Testament so she asked our neighbour and my friend, Furat, to get her one. (For some reason the Old Testament was not easily acquired at that time, may be because Iraq is a predominantly Muslim country and the Old Testament is all about God’s chosen people—the nation of Israel.) Furat was active in the church and had many friends so he was able to get a hold of a new copy of the complete Bible. He refused to get paid back for the price of the book (even though 400 dinars at the time was a lot of money)—he said it was a gift. For some reason my sister did not read the Old Testament so I took ownership of it. I started reading it starting with Genesis and I was amazed by it: here was an account of earth and human history from Adam, the first man, to 2,000 years ago! I remember sharing with two of my younger Muslim friends about how amazing the Bible was and they listened, but few weeks later we left Iraq to Jordan.

 

I cried a lot on the way to Jordan: I missed my home, my friends, my neighbours, and my country. Until that moment in my life Iraq is all I had known. We did not have the Internet so all things I did and knew were Iraqi things done the Iraqi way! We settled in Amman the capitol of Jordan and started our immigration papers to come to Canada where the rest of my mother’s family is. Few months later my aunt’s family joined us in Amman (they were the last family we had in Iraq) to do their immigration papers to go to Sweden where my cousin lives; it was my aunt (my mom’s oldest sister), her husband (who is also my dad’s uncle), and my two cousins. Being the insecure and shy kid I was meant I made no friends in Jordan, and being bitter toward the church meant I did not even go to church with my family. I would watch them take the stairs down to the main road (Amman is built on mountains so there are long stairs wherever you go) but I could never bring myself to go with them. Also, my insecurities and low confidence prevented me from meeting new people and made me feel very uncomfortable in social settings.

 

I simply stayed home and read the Old Testament for hours every day; I would read over a dozen of chapters every day. I was amazed by the God of the Old Testament and I wanted to become a Jewish Rabbi because I had found the true God! My uncle told me, “Israel has borders with Jordan. It’s not that far if you are serious about becoming a Rabbi!” I liked the God of the Old Testament but I still did not like Jesus Christ; I guess it was Satan’s last efforts to prevent me from getting saved.

 

Also, because I spent a lot of time by myself I started to realize that my mind and thoughts were always changing (which is a common thing for any human especially a teenager), but I was not reaching a point of knowing. I tried to explain life and live by following rules I had learnt from experiences but my experiences always changed and I always changed so my rules changed and I was again at the start point: Why did this happen? How should I respond to this situation? Is this action right or wrong? I did not know the answers to these questions and more. I was frustrated because my life events had no clear purpose or pattern I could understand and follow. Every time I looked back at myself from a month ago I realized I had yet again changed in no certain direction—I just randomly changed. This pattern of continuous random change scared me: how will I know to make the right decisions in the future if my thoughts keep changing? How will I choose the correct career and wife if I do not know who I am and what I am looking for! It is like trying to measure a length using a ruler that is always changing! Experiences, feelings, opinions and beliefs were not good enough for me: I wanted to know, I wanted truth!

 

Wrong Attitude

 

While I was getting all this information about God and how He works from reading the Old Testament, I still had the wrong attitude toward God. One day my sister came back from church and told me how it was wrong to pray to the saint and that was a shocking thing to say to a “devoted” Roman Catholic! I was upset with her words and told her, “How can you say we should not pray to the Virgin Mary?!” As far as I was concerned, what she was saying was sacrilegious! It is sad how I liked Mary, the mother of Jesus, and the other “saints”, but I did not like the Lord Jesus Christ Himself!

 

One evening in Amman, our neighbour--an Iraqi Catholic named Emad--came to visit us. He was in his 30s and was sitting at the table looking outside the window while I was sitting on a mattress on the floor (we did not have much in Jordan). I was making my case against God, the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Bible—mostly doubts I had heard my dad say (I was not that original!) I kept going on and on but he rarely looked at me and he did not seem fazed by my arguments against God. When I finally finished talking he looked at me and said in a scoffing manner, “So you are telling me that you know better than the Son of God?” WOW! That was all I needed to hear!

 

First, I shut my mouth because I realized I was “arguing” with a man twice my age which is a shameful thing to do in the Middle East. Second, and most importantly my spirit was quieted because I realized there is a huge problem with my belief system: how could I say that I believe God is great and all-knowing and all-powerful yet claim to know more than Him? How could I trust His knowledge if I knew more than Him? What’s the point of following God if I am smarter than Him? Why would He gives us truth in some things while mislead us in other things? Jesus Chris is the Son of God—I am not fighting against a man but God Himself!

 

So two things happened that evening: first, I started liking Jesus Christ because I finally understood He deserved the respect I gave the God of the Old Testament because He is the Son of God; second, I stopped questioning God’s Word to prove I am right and God is wrong, and started asking God to explain to me His Word. There is a big difference between the two: questioning comes with the wrong attitude of fighting against God, while asking comes with the right attitude of desiring to know God. On that day I humbled myself and gave God the respect He deserves—I laid down my arrogance and self-centeredness.

 

So far God had arranged my circumstances and changed me to know He is real, give me enough discernment to know we are not saved by works, gave me time to think about life and death and what happens after death, have knowledge of His Word (especially the Old Testament which I was not familiar with before), quieted my spirit and humbled me, but I still did not know what is the next step. The big questions were always: How do I go to heaven? What does all this mean to me?

 

Three Books, One Message

 

My aunt’s family had a Syrian neighbour who was Christian (born-again or not, I do not know) and his immigration papers came to Sweden so he took his family and stuff and immigrated to Sweden but left some things behind. One of the things he left behind were six books (two copies of three books) written by Josh McDowell titled: Evidence That Demands A Verdict, More Than A Carpenter, and Jesus: A Biblical Defense of His Deity. My uncle took one of each copy and gave me the other, so I started reading those books. It all made sense because I had just finished reading the Old Testament and knew the prophecies about Jesus—I finally understood who the Gospel writers were quoting! But I still needed something more to be convinced, more than good arguments and a testimony—I wanted tangible evidence. So what really made an impact on me are these three points:

 

1) Prophecies. Prophecies are very important because a lot of people can write “holy” books but what prove their authority are prophecies because no one knows the future but God. And this was not one prophecy or two, but hundreds that all came true in one person--the person of Jesus Christ! And they were not some random prophecies that did not have anything to do with each other. No, they were all parts of one plane: God’s plan to save mankind from sin and hell through the death of His Son Jesus Christ. The strange part is that they were written by different men in different places from different times, so how could all these prophecies agree on the message and make so much sense unless they were inspired by God!

 

Prophecies also give witness to Jesus Christ. So many religions were started by one person with no witnesses to His authority; Jewish law required at least two witness for a trial otherwise it would be one person’s word versus another person’s word. By what authority does a person start a religion? Self-righteousness? One’s own words? Who is to back him up? That is why some religions started by the sword: if people were not convinced by evidence they were persuaded by fear. But that is not how it is with Jesus Christ (apart from His miracles and the Father witnessing to Him) those prophecies witness to Him as the promised coming Saviour. And He did not need to harm anyone for people to follow Him.

 

2) The character, life, and death of Jesus Christ and His followers. Nothing made sense: why would His disciples die for Him? He did not give them money, fame, or earthly power, or allowed them to have carnal desires, or anything of that nature. On the contrary, they lived difficult lives full of hunger, chased, persecuted, put on trials and executed but still refused to deny Him as their Lord! And Why would He or they die for a lie? Were they crazy or delusional? They did not sound like it! Unless, they saw something supernatural in the person of Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit is real. Nothing else could explain to me their lives. Jesus Christ definitely was not crazy for how can a crazy man teach such noble things? And He definitely was not lying for how can a liar—a sinner--perform miracles?

 

3) How bizarre is Christianity comparing to all other world religions! Seriously, have you thought about how difficult it is for a dozen of men who lived in different times and places to conspire to write about the same God with the same salvation plan? And what an unlikely story for one person to come up with, yet they all had to agree on the following:

 

a. God is three Persons in One. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

b. The Son of God became a human. That is God in His entire glory and greatness manifest Himself as a human child.

c. The Son of God is born of a virgin! (Do you see now how bizarre it is for a man to come up with this story?)

d. He is born in a manger. He leads a simple and poor life, often times persecuted. (Remember, we are not talking about some monk here, we are talking about God Himself taking a form of a meek human being!)

e. He was a miracle worker to the likes of nobody! He opened the eyes of the blind, raised the dead, and walked on water.

f. Salvation is not by human works but by faith in the Son of God, that is: believing God’s Son died for your sins. (When was the last time you heard of a religion that teaches salvation is not by human good works?) All world religions teach: we must reach up to God—humanly it makes sense! While Christianity teaches that God reached down to us!

g. Not only the Son of God dies but He rose from the dead!

h. His followers will be indwelt by the Holy Spirit who will live the life of Christ through them!

 

And the list goes on and on—such an unlikely story to be written and die for! I do not know about you but if I made my own religion it would not sound something like this! It would be a simple “do good, go to heaven; do bad, go to hell”. Love those who love you (who teaches to love their enemies and expects large followers?) There is one god made up of one person (so much easier to be accepted than three persons make one God!) And enjoy life on earth as much as you can (power, fame, comfort, all kind of pleasures) because I know the there is no god and no heaven or hell—I made them up!

 

Christianity’s unusual doctrine and events are not made for the sake of making it a “strange” religion. Each one of these doctrines and events had a purpose and was designed this way. There is a reason for the virgin birth. There is a reason for the death on the cross. There is a reason why the Lord Jesus Christ rose from the dead. There is a reason the Son of God had to die and not somebody else. There is a reason why we cannot gain righteousness by works. And the list goes on and on: everything has a purpose to fulfill God’s divine plan to save mankind.

 

A lot of religions have very noble and admirable teachings but they still lack authority. You see the problem is that truth is truth: it is not about how much I like it, whether I accept it or not, or I agree with it or not. Jesus Chris is the truth and I could not avoid this fact.

 

Saved at Last

 

One day I was laying on a straw carpet close to a window in the afternoon and the sun rays were shinning on me and I was reading the last chapter of the last of the three books. At the end of the book, the author Josh McDowell wrote his own testimony of coming to Christ and his struggle to forgive his old drunkard father prior to coming to Christ. He asked if the reader wanted to give their lives to Jesus Christ and there was a short prayer (also known as the sinner’s prayer) and I desperately needed this 3- 4 years spiritual crisis to be over with because I had made up my mind that Jesus Christ is Lord and Saviour and I need to surrender my life to Him. So I prayed asking God to forgive my sins because I was a sinner and I accepted the death of His Son, Jesus Christ, on the Cross as payment for my sins, and I invited the Holy Spirit into my heart to change me into the likeness of Jesus Christ. For the first two days I was the happiest I had ever been--I felt like I was floating on air; as if the weight of the world was taken off my shoulders!

 

I did not know what happened to me but I knew few things right away: I was happy and worry free; I had peace and joy; and I started to see things differently. Suddenly I started to know good from evil and it stayed that way--the next day, next week, or next month--the good did not become evil and evil become good. I grew in my knowledge of the truth but the truth never changed.

 

A couple of months later we immigrated to Canada. In Canada, I still did not know what had just happened to me, and if there were other people out there who had gone through the same experience of salvation. Because I still did not go to church and did not socialize with others, I had no idea what was going on and so I kept praying the sinner’s prayer every day to remind myself that I was saved by faith through God’s grace and not by works. Not long after coming to Canada (may be a year or so) I was watching TV on a Sunday evening when I came across the InTouch program by Dr. Charles Stanley. That is when I understood what happened and I gradually grew in my Christian faith and still growing. One Sunday while I was listening to Charles Stanley on TV my uncle asked me, “Do you really believe in this nonsense?” I simply answered, “Yes, I do.” My uncle’s words and attitude reminded me of myself, not long ago, before coming to Christ: I also was an enemy of Christ, but God in His grace not only sent His Son to die for my sins but also sent the Holy Spirit to draw me to Him so I believe and be saved.

 

Giving up my Roman Catholic identity was a much harder battle. I still prayed to the Virgin Mary for three years, mainly out of habit, after coming to Christ. Until one day when I realized it was idolatry and had no spiritual value.

 

The work God had done in my life in the last 15 years and His love and faithfulness are more than I can include here. The testimony you read here is just the beginning because I could write about His love forever.

 

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

 

Final Words

 

Here I would to discuss issues that are related to my testimony but I did not include them in the testimony because I did not want to disturb the flow of the story.

 

The Birthday Incident

 

I had forgotten about the birthday incident, but about two years ago I prayed, “Lord, why do I hate my birthday? Why don’t I celebrate it like everybody else? Why don’t I like receiving gifts? Why do I always feel guilty and as if I am a burden on others?” A couple of weeks after I prayed that prayer I remembered the birthday incident—it all makes sense now. God has been faithful in every single way. He has been faithful in trying to heal my heart and emotional scars.

 

Salvation Is God’s Work

 

Salvation is the work of the Holy Spirit. The Bible says, "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them, and I will raise them up at the last day.” (John 6:44) I did not come to Christ through my own intelligence or effort—my testimony is a testimony of God’s faithfulness. When I did not understand He exists and He is great, He showed me His amazing creation. When I did not know where my life was headed, He showed me the reality of death. When I was busy, He provided me with a quiet time and the opportunity to read. When I did not understand who the Lord Jesus Christ is, He gave me the Old Testament to read and understand that Jesus Christ is the promised Messiah. When I had doubts, He gave me books that answered my questions. When I had the wrong heart attitude, He humbled me. When I was too shy to go to church, He reached me through books. When I fought against Him, He was patient because He saw my ignorance and confusion and lovingly led me to become His child. (Romans 2:4)

 

I would love to tell you that I was this genius kid who had this great spiritual discernment and understood God’s mind! But it was not like this at all! God saw my confusion, took me to a place and a time and patiently waited for me to open my eyes and see, then He did the same thing over and over again until I reached a point where I was ready to accept His Son, Jesus Christ, as my Lord and Saviour! How much more shall I say about God’s goodness and faithfulness?

 

Everything happened to me was God’s divine work to bring me to Himself through His Son, Jesus Christ. It was not my self-effort—I simply responded to His moves and when I did not He waited and used other methods to reach me. None of the things I mentioned in my testimony can be considered “miraculous”, actually a doubting person can simply look at these events as mere coincidences. However, so many things happen around us are God’s divine work and design but we cease to see them as such—we brushed them off as coincidence. Even painful events God can use for our good. There were many instances before I came to Christ where God worked in my life—not because I was His child but because He wanted to lead me to Himself to become His child.

 

The sinner’s prayer does not save anyone—the “sinner’s prayer” can simply express the desires of those who are ready to be born-again. Simply asking someone to read the “sinner’s prayer” will do no good if the Holy Spirit has not led that person to the point in their lives where they are ready to repent of their sins and turn to Christ as their only hope of salvation. Also, saying the “sinner’s prayer” is not a proof that someone is saved; the Bible says that the fruit of the Spirit--that is, us abiding in Christ so the Holy Spirit can live Christ’ life through us--is the proof that we are saved.

 

“And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit.” (Ephesians 1:13)

 

None of that “I prayed the sinner’s prayer” or “I felt Goosebumps” is evidence of our salvation. If you have to keep rededicating your life to Christ then maybe you do not want to be part of Christ—may be you are not saved, may be you are not a child of God. I am not saying the sinner’s prayer does not work: what I am saying is that it only works for those who the Holy Spirit has prepared to be born-again.

 

The Bible says, “Very truly I [Jesus Christ] tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.” (John 3:3) And in verse 6 it says, “Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.”

 

Why did our Lord use the birth experience to explain the born-again experience? Because being born-again is the work of the Spirit—it is not your work and it is not someone else’s work. Others can help the Spirit (just like a doctor and nurses help a pregnant woman), but it is the Spirit who has to do the work (just like it is the mother who has to give birth). And just like there is a nine month period of time for a child to be ready to be born, so there is also a preparation period for our sinful hearts to turn to and accept Christ. A person does not come out of a strip club for a smoke, then you ask him if he wants to go to heaven (who doesn’t?) then ask him to read the sinner’s prayer if he wants to go to heaven, then he goes back to the strip club and does so for the rest of his life and then you declare him to be born-again! It does not work this way!

 

Remember, it is not your work to save someone else. Often times you are only one link in the process of leading someone to Christ. Do not be discouraged or dishearten if you do not see the fruit of your labour right away; after all, sinners are not rejecting you—they are rejecting Jesus Christ.

 

"If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first.” (John 15:18)

 

I thank the Lord that by His grace and mercy He kept giving me chances to come to Him after rebelling against Him for years. Just like He never gave up on me, we should never give up on another person who is so blinded by Satan that he or she cannot see the truth of God’s Word.

 

The hymn “At Calvary” perfectly explains my salvation experience.

 

Peace Through Works

 

Believe it or not, I actually had peace before I came to Christ! It was not permanent and it was not fulfilling. It was peace acquired through doing good works and following decrees; it was peace tied to my performance, feelings, and circumstances. I had peace if I read the Catholic prayer books or read the Immaculate Heart of Mary devotional book. It was a momentary peace tied to my works. The Lord Jesus Christ does not say we will not have peace in this world but that the peace He gives us is different than the world’s peace.

 

“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.” (John 14:27)

 

Of course this worldly and work-based peace is very damaging because it deceives us into thinking that we can acquire more peace if we do more good works. So we end up becoming more religious and busier trying to please God all the while we are heading straight to hell. The peace I have now is not based on me or my circumstances—the peace I have now is based on God’s Word. I live by faith knowing that I am saved only because Jesus Christ, the sinless Son of God, paid for my sins on the cross. Nothing can take this away from me. Worldly peace is a counterfeit trying to mimic true peace which is the fruit of the Holy Spirit through abiding in Christ, but it will never be able to withstand trials and the test of time.

 

Satan will give you his version of peace--actually he will give you anything--to keep you away from Christ. The worldly peace I had was misleading: it misled me into believing I could have peace apart from Christ, and it misled me into thinking I could approach God my way.

 

Approaching God

 

The problem we have is not that we do not know God, but that God does not know us! If I went to the White House asking to see the president of the United States telling the guards that I knew him, will the guards let me in? Of course not! For me to get in the guards have to first verify if the president knows me! We have not separated ourselves from God; no, He separated Himself from us! He is the one who banished Adam and Even from the Garden of Eden—they did not leave voluntary! He is the one who has problem with sin because He is the Holy and Righteous one; we are sinners—sin is what we do, we love it!

 

If I am a man who wants to ask a lady’s hand in marriage then I have to meet her requirements and the requirements of her parents. Why is that? Because I am the one who wants to marry her and so I have to measure up to her expectations of being a godly husband and father and a leader and protector of the family. Therefore, I cannot approach her my way—I cannot offer what I want to offer. No, I have to approach her the way she expects and offers her what she wants! It is the same thing when we approach God: we have to approach Him the way He says is acceptable to Him and that is through His Son Jesus Christ.

 

In all religions God forgives by forgetting; that is, God’s mercy is not balanced by His justice. His justice book is not balanced—it does not add up to zero! Our sins are somehow forgiven but are not paid for! In Christianity God forgives by placing the punishment for sin on His Son Jesus Christ. His justice and requirement punishment for sin, namely death, is balanced by the death of His Son. God’s holiness, justice, mercy, and love are all satisfied. His justice book is balanced because Jesus paid it all!

 

In all religions God is holy and hates sin but He is not so holy and hates sin to the degree where He can’t just forget about it! If you do a bit of this and that and ask for forgiveness then He is merciful and will just forgive you! But in Christianity God is so holy and hates sin so much that there is no way He is just forgetting about it—justice must be served and the punishment for sin is death! He is infinitely holy and we are infinitely sinful, therefore, we are infinitely separated from Him. But He is also infinitely merciful and loving and to save us He sent His only begotten Son, the sinless Jesus Christ, to die for our sins. This way His justice is satisfied because sin’s death punishment is satisfied through the Cross, and the infinite gap between sinful man and holy God is spanned. It is not only spanned but God came to live inside man through the person of the Holy Spirit!

 

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)

 

“For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Romans 6:23)

 

“…the Spirit of truth...lives with you and will be in you.” (John 14:17)

 

Not Blind Faith

 

I do not like the phrase “blind faith”. I actually had not heard of this phrase until I came to Canada! I do not like the phrase because I do not agree with it. To agree with it is to say that God is unwise, unreasonable, and scared!

 

God knows that there are many beliefs and religions out there, so if He did not give us enough evidence of who He is and His plan then we would not be able to discern which prophet is sent from Him and which is not! Which faith is true and which is not! They all cannot be true because they have conflicting teachings! All gods cannot be the One true God! It would be unwise of Him not to give us evidence of His truth when He knows we could easily follow the wrong faiths. And it would be unreasonable of Him to not to give us reasonable proofs of His identity and will and still expect us to know Him and obey Him! Unless He is scared that we find out He is not real! May be He is keeping us at bay because He does not want us to discover the reality that He does not exist! Growing up in the Roman Catholic denomination I had a feeling that God was very insecure, so you can imagine my shock when I read Malachi 3:10 in the Old Testament, “Test me in this," says the LORD Almighty!

 

The reason I am bringing this up is that our faith should not be a blind faith—it must be built on a foundation. Sometimes in life when we go through trials and pain we have to preserve through faith—you may call it “blind” faith—but how do you know the Bible is God’s Word? I will go back to the three points that convinced me of the authority of the Bible and that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.

 

Suppose I told you, “Our friend Chris will come in a rental car” and he shows up in a rental car, what would the first thing you would ask? It would be, “How did you know?” Why? Because you know that the chances of me guessing accurately on that day Chris will show up in a rental car are very slim. Now suppose I also said, “Christ will show up in a yellow shirt” and he does, now you know that I did not simply guess but I knew these things! It is the same with prophecies: they are God’s way of wanting us to know who is sent by Him and who is not because we know that no one knows the future but Him—it is not blind faith if you know!

 

For the sake of the argument, let us assume that Jesus Christ had planned to fulfill some prophecies to impersonate the coming Messiah, namely: to die on the cross. How did he manage to plan the prophecies concerning His birth? Let us assume His disciples lied in the gospels about Him fulfilling His birth prophecies. Why would they die for a lie? Not only they would have died for a lie, but they gained nothing a human would want in return: long comfortable life, wealth, power and fame. They received none of that! Jesus Christ promised them two things: eternal life and persecution! Eternal life they could not see but persecution was very much real! To make their story even more bizarre they were not only following but also worshipping who in public opinion was a convicted and executed criminal! When was the last time the idea of worshiping an executed criminal appealed to you? Exactly! They saw and experienced someone very real--the Son of God and the Holy Spirit—to give up everything including their lives for this God!

 

Personal testimony is good but I wanted to base my faith on more than stories. I am sorry to word it this way, I am not trying to dismiss testimonies—they are the work of God—otherwise I would not have written my testimony. But I understood that people are emotional creatures and anything could change us, I knew that first hand because my thoughts were always changing. If someone told you his testimony of how boxing changed his life, how he was a street kid but now he has a purpose and stays away from bad influence, does this make boxing a religion or his trainer a prophet? Of course not! Testimonies are good to strengthen our faith, but not to base our faith on them because for every Christian testimony I can bring you a testimony of someone of a different religion. God wants us to know!

 

Why Christ?

 

I often asked myself: Why did I doubt the Bible? And why did I hate the Lord Jesus Christ? If I was disappointed with the Roman Catholic denomination, then why did I not hate being a Roman Catholic? If I was disappointed with the priest who called me a liar, then why did I not hate him? If I was disappointed with the nun who moved me to the last row at my first communion, then why did I not hate her? If the teachings and decrees of the Roman Catholic denomination did not make sense to me, then why did I not hate those teachings? Why did I not hate Moses, or King David, or Elijah, or the apostle Paul? If I had doubts, why did I not doubt God’s existence? Why did I not doubt the teachings of the Roman Catholic denomination? Why did I instead hate the person of Jesus Christ and doubt God’s Word?

 

The answer is simple: Satan blinded me and focused my doubts on God’s Word and turned my disappointments as hatred toward the Lord Jesus Christ because Satan knew that God’s Word can lead me to Jesus Christ who can save me. Satan did not care if I was a devoted Roman Catholic or not. Satan did not care if I believed in God, a god, or gods. The Bible says, “You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that--and shudder.” (James 2:19)

 

These things do not save me! What saves us from our sins is faith in Jesus Christ as the Son of God and His death on the Cross as payment for our sins. How do we come to this knowledge? Through God’s Word! And that is why Satan is willing to give us everything else but knowledge of God’s Word and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour.

 

Death

 

When I came to Canada at the age of 15 I was surprised that Canadians live as if they are not going to die: they live only for this world and for now.

 

The objective is not to focus on death--death is only a gateway--but to focus on our lives after death. Not long ago my 11 years old nephew told me about all those things he wants to accomplish when he grows up—things the world is concerned with—and how he would retire as a rich old man. So I asked him, “And then?” He thought about it for a second then answered, “I guess I die.” I asked him again, “And then?” And he looked baffled because he had thought of everything except death and he definitely did not think about eternity. He made the classical error of seeing death as an end when in reality it is the beginning. Satan distracts us with so many present worldly things just so we do not plan for eternal heavenly glory!

 

If we remember every morning that one day we will die then we will be more focused spiritually and make decisions with eternity in mind. Praying, giving, serving, forgiving, and loving will become our priority.

 

The Difference

 

So how am I different now than before coming to Christ? Well, I am saved now and have the Holy Spirit and God is working in me, through me, and in my life. But also God addressed my problems.

 

Do I still have trichotillomania? Yes, I do. It is not as bad as before and I have learned not to focus on it. Satan wants us to focus on our problems—whether big or small—but the Lord has taught me to focus on Him so I do not miss His plan for my life. Do I still have low self-confidence? Yes, I do. However, I have learned to be confident in the Lord. Before I could not make decisions because I had no self-confidence and no other source of confidence, but now I have the Lord as my source of confidence. The good part is that I am always drawing closer to Him because I know I will not be able to function and make important decisions without Him; this way I also know those decisions will be blessed because their source was Him. Do I still feel anxious in a crowd? Yes, but now I can have courage in Him. Just like He replaced my low self-confidence with His sufficient confidence, He also replaced my anxiety with His sufficient courage.

 

Am I still shy and feel awkward in social settings? Yes. But I learned that God can use us different ways: maybe I do not have what it takes to stand in front of a crowd and talk, but I can write! Not everyone comes to faith by hearing—some, like me, come to faith by reading! God does not see my shyness as a problem, after all He created me and He knows I am an introvert. Personality traits are not a sin: being funny versus serious is not a sin, being an introvert versus extrovert is not a sin, being talkative versus quiet is not a sin, excelling in math versus the arts is not a sin! He created every one of us to be unique, to fulfill a certain purpose in His plan to preach the gospel to the lost. Sin is a problem, shyness is not—not once did the Holy Spirit convict me of my shyness as being a sin! He did not solve my shyness problem because to Him it is not a problem.

 

Do I still feel guilty over past sins and do I still feel stupid? Yes, sometimes I do. Satan would bring something silly that happened in my childhood to mind to make me feel guilty or stupid, and the Holy Spirit would always remind me that I am forgiven by the blood of Jesus Christ and I have a new identity in Him. Those feelings and thoughts do not hinder me: I can confront them now with God’s truth and quickly move on. As many times as Satan attacks me I keep reminding myself that the war has been won 2,000 years ago at Calvary and Satan is just trying to win a pity battle here and there. There is nothing Satan can do to send me to Hell, but he sure will try to make me ineffective for God’s Kingdom.

 

Am I still searching for the truth? No, I found Him who is the truth. Does a runner keep running after reaching the finish line? Of course not! Before coming to Christ my thoughts were always changing: my thoughts were going in random circles toward no clear end. But now my thoughts are growing and being build up to know more of His truth. While I am still learning and growing, the knowledge the Holy Spirit taught me is not obsolete, on the contrary He is building my current knowledge on the previous lesson He taught me. My thoughts and knowledge are growing toward more of His truth; these are not some baseless thoughts with my ever-changing experiences as their reference. No, these are God’s truths written in His Word and carried out in my life.

 

The hymn “It Is Well with My Soul” best describes my Christian walk.

 

Lastly but Not Least

 

I am still friends with Ayad and Furat. In fact, they both now live in Toronto as I do! It is strange how 20 years ago they preached to me but now I preach to them the Good News of salvation by faith alone!

 

One day in Amman a tailor lady told my mom, “Why isn’t your son enrolled in school here? You don’t know how long you will stay in Jordan. Don’t waste his youth—let him continue his education here!” I often reflect back on those words: how many of us, with good intentions, give similar advice? Imagine if I had gone to school for that one year we spent in Jordan: imagine how busy I would have been, imagine how little time I would have had to read God’s Word, reflect on it, and read those evangelical books. Often times we try to help others but in reality we are interfering with God’s work. Give God the space and time to do His work—trust Him. He has never ever let me down. I was delayed a year in high school, so what? I gained eternal life instead! Do not rush God’s work; not everyone has to graduate from high school at the age of 18, go to university and graduate at the age of 22, find an office job and get married at the age of 26!

 

I will leave you with Proverbs 3:5-6:

 

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.”

 

(Toronto, ON; winter 2015.)

 

A search for ideas relating to my crystal ball for my monthly image turned up a painting by John William Waterhouse. Sadly the model wasn't up to his famous "Waterhouse Girl" type. Finished in 1902 the girl is gazing into the ball, apparently weaving a spell with the aid of a book and skull. Eventually hung in the dining room at Glenborrodale Castle in the Highlands, the painting was sold with the castle in 1952-3. The new owner didn't like the skull, and had it painted over by the curtain. Arriving at Christies in London, the head of the Victorian picture department found photographs of the original, and an X-ray showed the skull. Pigment analysis demonstrated that the original surface was protected by a layer of varnish, and the skull was successfully rediscovered.

Treasure Hunt 11: Monthly topic November.

 

The KOM League

Flash Report

To end 2020

and

Kickoff 2021

 

If interested, this report is accessible at: www.flickr.com/photos/60428361@N07/50766767243/

Even if you are not interested, it is still there. It is the reader’s choice to either partake or reject. Sure hope a few do the former.

____________________________________________________________________________

Annual Christmas call

 

Each year, approximately two or three days prior to Christmas, a cheerful voice announces that he is calling to tell his old friend Merry Christmas. The caller is Billy Bagwell of Homer, Louisiana and each time he relates that God is blessing him and that he loves my wife and I. This year a little more was elicited from him in the conversation. He is undergoing treatment for cancer and all is not as well as he would like. His parting comment was “John, I hope that I will be here next year to wish you a Merry Christmas.” I too, hope that is the case realizing that can go both ways.

 

Bagwell and his wife Joyce attended every KOM league reunion and was always the hit of the event when his did his pantomime of the man whose suit didn’t fit. It was such a humorous act that even those with hearing loss would laugh without being able to hear his words.

 

Bagwell has been mentioned numerous times in these reports. Since this report is far too voluminous I’m sharing this link to indicate is extensive minor league career after he had served in WW II. digital.la84.org/digital/collection/p17103coll3/id/12518/...

 

Another Christmas call used to come each afternoon on the 25th of December. It originated in Springfield, Missouri and was from the all-time home run hitter in KOM league history, Don Ervin. He was a native of Kansas City and did his heavy clouting for the 1952 Miami, Oklahoma Eagles. In recent years correspondence has been established with his daughter. This was a recent e-mail from her. “Merry Christmas. It’s been almost 3 years since my dad passed. Thank you for the pictures you send out. They are uplifting in times of sadness.”

 

There were many family members, of deceased KOM leaguers, who sent along Christmas greetings and a few former members of the league who sent greetings on their own behalf.

_______________________________________________________

One game shortstop.

 

In the final week of the 1946 season the St. Louis Cardinals sent a World War II veteran to Carthage, Missouri John James Meyer played in one game. It was the 114th contest of the season and he went 0-4 at the plate. The next spring he reported to the Cardinal training camp at Albany, Georgia but wasn’t on the bus to Carthage when the team headed north. That concluded his professional baseball days.

 

However, Meyer left a lasting memory of his very short time with Carthage. On the last day of the season he signed a baseball and that, along with one box score, are the only remaining pieces of evidence that he played professional baseball. Thanks to the late Oscar “Pappy” Walterman that baseball remains in my possession in a place that will not be revealed due to security reasons. Well, a little exaggeration isn’t all that bad, is it?

 

John James Meyer.https://www.tributearchive.com/obituaries/18444007/ John-James-Meyer/Jeromesville/Ohio/Fickes-Funeral-Home

 

John J. Meyer went to be with his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ on September 24, 2020 surrounded by his devoted family. Born May 25, 1925 in Stryker, Ohio, he was the only child of Carl and Miriam (Koehl) Meyer. In 1937, the family moved to England Station in rural Ashland County where they had purchased a farm. John attended a one-room schoolhouse until the eighth grade and graduated from Ashland High School in 1943. Upon graduation, he enlisted in the US Navy where he received his commission in 1944 after attending Oberlin College and Illinois State University in Normal, Illinois. On November 24, 1945, John married Nona Harriet Powers in San Francisco, CA where he was stationed during World War II. Upon his discharge in 1946, John and Nona returned to the family farm in England Station where they raised their family of six sons and two daughters. John and Nona also opened their home to several foster children throughout the years.

 

John made a life and a living primarily on the family farm. During his lifetime he sold seed corn and was a dairy and grain farmer. John learned to fix anything and always had a spare part or tool and some words of wisdom when anyone needed them. He farmed in some capacity into his nineties. He also was a Broker/Realtor at his son’s real estate company, JC Meyer Realtors. He earned many awards as a Realtor including Salesman of the Year and the coveted Realtor of the Year from the Ashland Board of Realtors.

 

Having a strong sense of community, he served as a 4-H advisor for 25 years, a Montgomery Township Trustee for 20 years, an Ashland County Fair Board Director for over 30 years, and held many positions, including Board President, with the Ashland Board of Realtors. He was a long-time member of the Ashland Dickey Church of the Brethren and was a proud World War II Veteran.

 

John was preceded in death by his son John (JC) in 2002 and his wife Nona in 2009. He is survived by his children and their spouses: Chris and Sharon Meyer (Ashland), Rex Meyer (Ashland), Paul and Kris Meyer (Gold Hill, Oregon), Mary and Rolly Cox (Ashland), Dewey and Karen Meyer (Polk), Ann Davis (Olivesburg), Dan and Terri Meyer (Ashland) and daughter-in-law Sue Meyer (Jeromesville). He will also be deeply missed by 17 grandchildren, 27 great-grandchildren and 5 great great-grandchildren. A loving dad and grandpa, he enjoyed keeping up with the goings-on of his large family and his kitchen table became the family meeting place.

 

A Celebration of Life memorial service will be held on Sunday, October 11, 2020 at 1 PM at the Ashland Dickey Church of the Brethren with Pastor Jeff Messner officiating. The family will greet guests at the church one hour prior to the service and again after the service at the family farm. At the church, the sanctuary will be reserved for the family, but guests can watch the service in the downstairs hall or can listen to the service in their vehicles in the church parking lot. Burial will immediately follow the service in the Dickey Church Cemetery and then all are welcome to return to the family farm for a meal and further visitation with the family. Memorial contributions, if one wishes to do so, can be made to the Ashland Dickey Church of the Brethren 1509 Township Road 655 Ashland, OH 44805.

 

Ed comment:

 

With the passing of John Meyer only three members of the 1946 Carthage Cardinals remain, to my knowledge. They are former big league hurler Cloyd Victor Boyer, long-term Pennsylvania State Representative William Eckensberger Jr. and Thomas Wardner Crossley from Hilliards, Ohio who now resides in Florida. For those who fact check these reports be aware that Crossley’s Sporting News player card had his middle name as Warden, as did I, until some further research was undertaken. Crossley was released by the Cardinals at the end of 1946 and he signed with the St. Louis Browns and was with their Pittsburg, Kansas KOM league affiliate in 1947.

 

One player from the 1946 Carthage club was never located. That was Louis Robert Cloutier from Windsor, Ontario who also lived in Hull, Quebec, Canada.

____________________________________________________________________________

Robert Mack Ehrlich

www.legacy.com/obituaries/spokesman/obituary.aspx?n=rober... Photo is included in this link.

 

EHRLICH, Robert M. (Age 94) On August 31, Heaven's gates opened to welcome Robert Mack Ehrlich. Bob was born September 19, 1925 In Topeka, Kansas to parents, John Henry Ehrlich and Idamac Warner Ehrlich. He joined brother, John and sister, Mary.

 

Bob's early years were full of baseball from the time he could lift a bat until June of 1943 when he joined the Marine Corps. He served in the Pacific and was in the battles of Pelelieu and Okinawa and the Army of Occupation in Japan. He was discharged in February 1946 and that was when he met his wife-to-be Eleanor Griswold --- they met at Washburn University, Topeka, Kansas. Bob and "El" were married on November 8, 1947 (missed 73 years by two months). In 1948 they moved to Idaho where Bob attended Farragut College and Technical Institute which was located in the former Navy Base. In 1950 Bob went back into the Marine Corps and served in Korea where he was a member of the "Frozen Chosin" and received two Purple Hearts. He was discharged in 1951.

 

They lived in Topeka where Bob served on the Police Department for five years. Their daughter, Vickie, was born in 1951, followed by Bob in 1953 and John in 1957. In 1958, back to the Northwest and Coeur d' Alene where Bob was in the Panhandle Health Dept. stationed in Grangeville and Coeur d'Alene. Son, Bill joined the family in 1966 and in 1972, they moved to Whatcom County, Washington where Bob had the dream job of his life farming. They had a red raspberry ranch and he also had a woodworking shop where he built beautiful furniture and did inlay work with exotic woods. Then back to Coeur d' Alene in 2008 to be closer to family. In addition to his parents, Bob was preceded in death by brother, John and daughter, Vickie. He is survived by wife, Eleanor; children, Bob (Karen), John (Dana), and Bill (Joyce); six grandchildren; seven great-grandchildren; and one great-great-grandchild. Due to declining health, Bob lived at Legends Assisted Living for the past five years and was loved and cared for there. Hospice of North Idaho was involved in his care for the last months and his family can never thank both Hospice and Legends enough for the loving care he received. In lieu of flowers, any contribution in Bob's memory can be made to Christ the King Lutheran Church Roof Fund or Hospice of North Idaho. A celebration of Bob's life will be held at 11:00 AM on Saturday, September 19, 2020 at Christ the King Lutheran Church, 1700 E. Pennsylvania Ave., Coeur d' Alene, ID 83814. The service will be streamed on ctkcda.com Yates Funeral Home is entrusted with final arrangements. Please visit Bob's online memorial and sign his guestbook at www.yatesfuneralhomes.com.

 

Ed comments:

 

Ehrlich pitched for the 1947 Independence, Kansas Yankees. His Sporting News player card shows his activity from 1947 to 1950 at which time he was back in the United States Marine Corps and was unfortunate to have been at the Battle of the Chosin Reservoir. digital.la84.org/digital/collection/p17103coll3/id/52252/... The Sporting News card provides a great hint as to how he wound up spending the bulk of his life in Spokane, Washington.

 

In 1947 Ehrlich filled out the Baseball Questionnaire which is found at this link. It requires a subscription to Ancestry.com to access it. www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/61599/images/480... When his middle name was being transcribed for the Ancestry site someone interpreted “Mack” as “Nock.”

 

Ehrlich played American Legion baseball, in Topeka, with Lee and Stokes Dodson. All three of those guys went into the Marine Corps during WWII. Lee Dodson was in the KOM League, in 1946 and the next year the trio of the Dodson boys and Ehrlich were playing professional baseball in the New York Yankee chain. Lee was with the Kansas City Blues of the American Association and Stokes and Ehrlich were hurling for the Independence, Kansas Yankees of the KOM league.

 

This link is the obituary for Ehrlich that appeared in the Lynden, Washington Times. It is included as it has a photo of him during his Marine Corps days as well as how he appeared in his senior years. www.lyndentribune.com/community/obituaries/robert-ehrlich...

________________________________________________

James Laverne Qualls==1950 Independence, Kansas Yankees

www.wilsonsfuneralhome.net/obituary/james-qualls?lud=9610...

 

On Friday morning, December the 18th the following note was received from Sparta, Illinois.

“Hi John a note to let you know Jim passed away on Tuesday. He was 89 and would be 90 Jan. 31. We were married 68 years. Thanks for everything .....Marge.”

 

Ed comments:

 

Over the years a lot of correspondence went back and forth from the Qualls family and Yours truly. James was a teammate of Bill Virdon in 1950 at Independence, Kansas. They were both Yankee minor league property at the time. However, Virdon wound up with the St. Louis Cardinals and was a Rookie of the Year a hand full of years later. Over the years Qualls became a Cardinal fan due to his proximity to St. Louis and their far-flung radio and television outreach.

 

Knowing that the Virdons had long been in touch with this source, Marge asked for the Virdons e-mail address so she could send them e-mails. However, at about that time Shirley Virdon ceased e-mailing, as she had in the past, and thus the Qualls/Virdon connection wasn’t reestablished.

 

James L. Qualls of Sparta, Illinois

January 31, 1931 - December 15, 2020

SPARTA – James L. Qualls, 89, of Sparta, passed away at 3:05 pm, Tuesday, December 15, 2020, at Sparta Community Hospital, Sparta, Illinois.

 

James was born in Jacob, Illinois, on January 31, 1931, the son of Robert F. and Dara (Moschenrose) Qualls. He married Margie “Marge” Eaton on January 16, 1953, in Piggott, AR. James was a retired Prudential Insurance Agent. He was a member of Trinity Presbyterian Church in Sparta, IL. He was a 50-year member of Hope Lodge #162 A.F. & F.M., Sparta, and an Ainad Shriner, East St. Louis, IL. James was the Chartered President of the Trico Lions Club. He was an avid golfer and achieved 5 holes-in-one! James loved flying and was a licensed pilot, loved the St. Louis Cardinals and spent some time in the Yankee’s Minor League.

 

James is survived by his wife, Margie Qualls of Sparta, IL, brother, Jerry (Lois) Qualls of Goreville, IL, and lots of loving nieces and nephews.

 

James was preceded in death by his Parents and one Sister, Pat Arbeiter.

 

James’s wishes are to be cremated and a Graveside Service at Caledonia Cemetery, Sparta, IL, will be held at a later date. Memorials may be given to Sparta Food Pantry and can be mailed to Wilson’s Funeral Home, PO Box 217, Steeleville, IL 62288. To sign the guestbook visit www.wilsonsfuneralhome.net.

 

The following link shows the Sporting News players card that was maintained for Qualls.

digital.la84.org/digital/collection/p17103coll3/id/92250/...

 

Two years ago an article featuring Qualls appeared on the Internet. Most liked it was shared at that time since the person writing this report was mentioned in it. The writer of that newspaper story got one detail incorrect but it wasn’t enough to prevent me from sharing that link, one more time. countyjournal.org/james-qualls-reflects-on-his-days-in-pr...

______________________________________________________________________________

Robert James Rose--- Leamington, Ontario

 

Bob Rose played for the 1949 Pittsburg, Kansas Browns. I was never able to verify much about him until Dec. 3. 2020. The following is an interview with him on a legacy site for Korean War veterans. There are four links like this one.

koreanwarlegacy.org/interviews/robert-j-rose/

 

If anyone who is interested can’t pull up that entire interview, in narrative format, let me know and an attempt at a miracle will be undertaken to get it to you.

_____________________________________________________________________________

A long search comes to a conclusion.

 

Back in the days when KOM league reunions were an annual event there was always a name or two that was bandied about by former teammates of a player that hadn’t been located. One name always came up when speaking with Brandy Davis who played not only for the Bartlesville Pirates but also the Pirates whose home was Forbes Field in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania during that era.

 

Each year Davis would ask if there was any trace of Bill Phillips who caught for the 1951 team of which Davis was a member. The years passed swiftly and in June of 2005 Davis departed this realm not knowing of his former teammate’s fate.

 

Over the next 15 years the search didn’t cease in locating Phillips or to learn of his fate. For all the years of searching the name of William Eugene Phillips born July 7, 1931 in Terre Haute, Indiana nothing appeared.

 

In looking at his Sporting News player card it showed that he had filled it out as Bill Eugene Phillips. digital.la84.org/digital/collection/p17103coll3/id/105253... That name was not found in Terre Haute but there was a reference to an obituary of a lady by the name of Jeanine Phillips. Following the “bouncing ball” quick fingers took me to her grave marker and there was the name of her husband. The first reaction was “Oh, no.” Then, looking closer the name “Bill Eugene Phillips” was on the marker, along with his birthdate but no death date. In reading her obituary I found Jeanine had been married to a Bill Eugene Phillips on February 27, 1954 and she passed away on May 2, 2008 and her husband survived her

images.findagrave.com/photos/2014/20/123850477_1390333718...

 

At this juncture it was pretty obvious Mr. Phillips is alive. A few clicks of the Internet searching for Bill Eugene Phillips turned up an address for him in Florida. That would be great news to share with his former 1951 Bartlesville teammate but there aren’t that many remaining who would recall the name. Brandy Davis and Ronnie Kline would have remembered him but they are no longer around. Phillips caught Kline, the future big leaguer, a number of times in 1951.

____________________________________________________________________________

Glen Gorbous’s amazing throw

 

John that is an unbelievable baseball throw. My brain cannot comprehend it. I thought I had a decent arm, but evidently not. I hope you had a good funeral for butterball and all who attended enjoyed. Wishing you and Noel a very blessed Christmas. Look forward to your great stories next year. Take care. Don Papst—Chanute, Kansas

 

Ed comment:

 

Well butterball was the theme of a note shared with a few people prior to Thanksgiving. If you missed it here it is. “Thanksgiving. We've been told that only six people are allowed to meet for Thanksgiving Day, but 30 people for a funeral. With this, I announce that we will be holding a funeral for our pet turkey named "Butterball" who will pass away on November 26, 2020. Refreshments provided. In lieu of flowers, please bring a side dish.”

 

On the subject of the throw by Glen Gorbous the Guinness Book of World Records at the time listed it at 445’ 10”.

 

From Portland Univ. Hall of Fame baseball coach regarding Gorbous

 

This note is relative to Glen Gorbous and his GREAT throwing arm. We were teammates in 1950 in The Arizona-Texas League. I coached Dale Murphy and I always compared his arm to Glen’s...both arms were unbelievable!. Howie Haak, Dodger scout, signed me in 1948...keep up the Great job! Kindest regards. Jack Dunn

 

A link to the Gorbous throw. albertadugoutstories.com/2017/08/02/alberta-kid-with-an-a... The throw was on August 1, 1957 when Gorbous was playing with the Omaha, Nebraska Cardinals.

____________________________________________________________________________

Recalling youthful days.

 

Enjoyed your news on the KOM players. Like many Carthage kids I still remember some of the 18 year old kids who played back in those days!! Have a great Christmas and stay safe. Merle Southern—Antarctic geologist among other things

 

Ed reply:

 

Thanks for the note. Those guys gave us a lot of lasting memories. Back then we thought they were older than they were.

____________________________________________________________________________

ACKKKKKK

 

An e-mail was received from a Kansas reader who had this reaction regarding a statement made in Nick Stefano’s about his love of two items of food. Although, I think he never ate them on the same plate that is the image the writer of the note had in mind when he wrote “Black licorice and ravioli ?!? ACKKKKKK !!!!!! Jeff Simpson

________________________________________________

Reaction to not having regular doses of FR

 

John, I know for sure I will be in the hospital within two weeks, all because of this new mysterious disease named appropriately, FR LOST-----so please do not cease completely, my old ticker can’t handle the shock. Casey--Always remember Once a Gorilla, Always a Gorilla------------1966 here!!!!

 

Ed comment:

 

Each time it is mentioned these Flash Reports have about run their course there are two, maybe three people who stir from their slumber and urge its continuance. Thus, I guess Casey, the Gorilla, is responsible for this attempt at informing and entertaining. The Gorilla is the mascot of the Pittsburg, Kansas State University. Usually, Casey spends the autumn of each year following the football team but in this past football season the Gorillas lost every game to the Chinese Covids.

________________________________________________

Former Dodger moves.

 

(We) just wanted to let you know that we have moved into a Senior apartment. Not much fun during this time of Covid. Mailing address is: 13801 East Yale Ave. apt 131, Aurora, Co

80014. Haven't lived in an apartment for over 50 years. The house is being sold to pay rent. Unbelievable how much it costs in Colorado. Have a wonderful Christmas season. Thank you for all you have done over the years. Take care. Pat Crandall—Wife of Harry Crandall 1950 Ponca City Dodgers

________________________________________________

News received on Christmas eve

 

John, it's with a heavy heart that I write to tell you that Dad passed away peacefully on Monday. His grandson Josh did a great job of taking care of Dad, although I have to admit Dad got a little combative at the end because frankly, he was ready to go and didn't want to be messed with.

 

One of my attempts to change his shirt ended with me being called a "Chicken Batter." Well, Mom and Dad only had me as a back-up scorekeeper, I'm sure. I was with him at the end, and for all the rude baseball catcalls, he went very peacefully. He was cremated in his best overalls with his Red Man and his harmonica in his pocket. No services, but he and Mom will be placed in the columbarium at Leavenworth National Cemetery in the spring. John, thanks for all your friendship with him and your hard work on the KOM league remembrance, that was a big part of Mom and Dad's later years. Here is the link to his obituary in The Star today, and please forgive me if I stated a few things not quite right:

 

www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/kansascity/name/warren-listo...

 

Warren T. Liston

 

October 31, 1926 - December 21, 2020

 

Kansas City, Kansas - Warren Thomas Liston, 94, of Kansas City, Kansas, died Monday, December 21, 2020, at the home. He was born in Kansas City, Kansas, on October 31, 1926, to Lloyd and Edna Liston. He graduated from Wyandotte High School and covered high school sports for the school's newspaper, The Pantograph, and also was a student sports reporter for The Kansas City Star. He was mobilized from the army's basic training at Camp Roberts, California, to the Philippines after the Japanese surrender and then was sent to Korea. After his military service, he attended Kansas City, Kansas, junior college and played on its baseball team.

 

He played for several teams in the Ban Johnson League and also played professional Class C and D baseball in the Kansas Oklahoma Missouri (KOM) league in Iola, Kansas; Miami, Enid and Blackwell, Oklahoma, and was active in the KOM's old-timers' reunion association. He coached several youth baseball teams and ended his baseball-playing career at the age of 61 in the Western Missouri Amateur Baseball Association. He was a reporter/photographer for The Kansas City Star's Kansas City, Kansas, office, covering local police news and sports, and later worked for The Kansas City Kansan newspaper. He married Delores Olive Sheppard in 1952 and the couple celebrated their 66th anniversary before her death in 2018. He was also predeceased by his parents; sisters Catherine, Barbara and Linda Kay; brothers Robert, Vernon, Jerry and Donnie. He is survived by his brother Richie of Kansas City, Kansas; brother Vance of Basehor, Kansas; eldest son Jeffrey and wife Jan of Boise, Idaho; daughter Jennifer and husband Greg Sherwood of Olathe, Kansas; son Dan and son Tom and his wife, Jeanne, all of the Sun Valley area, Idaho; son Alan and grandson Josh of Kansas City, Kansas, grandson Nick, and two great-grandsons. Cremation. Private services with inurnment in Leavenworth National Cemetery in the spring. The family suggests donations to The Hunger Coalition, 121 Honeysuckle St., Bellevue, ID, 83313, or thehungercoalition.org/act/donate/. Play ball!

 

Ed comment:

 

Warren Liston is a person who I could fill notebooks about. However, to those who knew him would quickly figure out any remarks made here would not do him justice. Thus, the only thing I’m going to share at this point is a note sent to Jack Morris of the Society of American Baseball Research—Necrology Section. “This one is a tough one to report. Warren was one of a kind. He and his wife would follow my travels anywhere I would appear in the Mid-America (KC metro) to talk about the KOM league. Wherever the appearance took place Warren would be in his overalls accompanied by his Red Man tobacco pouch and harmonica. He was a beat writer for the KC Star and when he left he still had a lot of typing paper remaining. He used that yellowed paper for his "Hunt and peck" messages to me, pounded out on a very old Underwood typewriter. Those letters were classic and were used in many of the paper newsletter I published for 17 years.”

 

Shortly after hearing of Liston’s death from his daughter this e-mail was received from Kansas City. It fits well with what is stated in the previous paragraph about the Liston’s attending any function dealing with the KOM league. “I am sure you know this John but just came in from getting today's KC Star and skimmed and saw obit for Warren Liston. Have not read entirely but see it says he was 94. He was in attendance that Saturday many years ago at the Red Bridge Library in KC. Mo when my son and I met you for the very first time. So sad to see.” Casey Casebolt

 

Also reading the Kansas City Star obituaries on Sunday, December 27, 2020 was former Kansas City A’s batboy from the mid-50’s, Jim Jay. He shared this comment “Saw in the STAR that Warren Liston at 94 passed away. He was a character and a good man. I liked the man.”

 

Shortly after hearing from Jim Jay a note was received from Bill Ashcraft who will be identified in this paragraph by the note he sent. What the note doesn’t reveal is he was one of the earliest Federal Narcotics agents, forerunner to the DEA, and his supervisor was my first cousin. I mention that since there is a reader of these reports who is the daughter of my first cousin which makes her my second cousin (dah). That is mentioned for it is essential to share material that keeps as many people as possible coming back each time these reports are prepared to see if there is anything, of interest, included. This is the note from Ashcraft. “John: You are probably aware of this but in the event you’re not: The KC Star’s 12-24-2020 edition reported that Warren Liston, a former KOMer had died on 12-21-2020. He was born in 1926 four years older than me. I only was with Iola for about 10 days in 1950 before being sent on to Ada (Ed note: Sooner State league) but Windy Johnson had me pitch relief in 3 games in a row and my arm was quite sore. I could never pitch even one inning without having a heckuva sore arm the next day.

 

At any rate Johnson had me come in in relief the first night I was in Iola, against Chanute. I could throw quite hard at the time and the first batter I faced was a big guy, whose identity I had no idea of, was a fellow named Newkirk and I threw him about 6 or 7 pitches, one quite close to his head and he glared at me before striking out on the next pitch over his head. The next batter was Sam ?, seems like it was Dixon (Ed note: It was), and he grounded out. When I got to the bench Warren Liston told me that the guy I had almost hit was somewhat hot headed and probably thought that I had intentionally thrown at him-so I had better watch out since I was due to bat. As it turned out we got a man on and Johnson pinch hit for me, thus averting retaliation. (Sorry to bore you with my inconsequential trivia--not about Liston of course). I only met him once but he seemed like a good guy.” Bill Ashcraft--Overland Park, Ks.

________________________________________________

Chanute player from 1950 passed away

 

Donald David Mitroff www.rosehills.com/obituaries/whittier-ca/donald-mitroff-7...

DECEMBER 17, 1928 – JANUARY 20, 2018

Donald David Mitroff - Was born on December 17, 1928 in Anaheim, CA and passed away on January 20, 2018 and is under the care of Rose Hills Memorial Park.

Ed comment:

There is nothing more frustrating, for the purposes of writing reports, than to find an obituary listed with very little information included. That is when this old guy has to “create stuff.”

 

Over the years the communication lines were open with the former infielder for the Chanute Athletics in 1950. He was with the club for a couple of weeks but loved his team and the town. This is his Sporting News player’s card. digital.la84.org/digital/collection/p17103coll3/id/152037... He was originally in the Pittsburgh Pirate organization in 1949 at Greenville, Alabama and then wound up with the Cleveland Indian organization to start the 1950 season at Daytona Beach. After 80 games in the Sunshine state he was off to play for Chanute, Kansas which was an unaffiliated club.

 

At this point I take exception to the obituary birth site listed at the start of this article. Mitroff was born on the date cited but in Lorain, Ohio not Anaheim, California. His Lorain address was 314 E.27th Street and he attended high school in Lorain and played basketball and football as well as baseball. He was a 6’ 185 athlete who was signed by the Pittsburgh Pirates following his graduation from Lorain High School. During his high school days he played amateur baseball for the National Tube Company that was located in his home town.

 

For the baseball scholars who search these reports for accuracy let it be known that when he filled out his Baseball Questionnaire on July 22, 1950 for the group in San Mateo, California he listed his birth year as 1930 for obvious reasons.

Anaheim was his place of residence for the many years we corresponded. Even for a fellow who had less than three weeks in the KOM league he loved reading about the exploits of the old league and he subscribed to the newsletters for the entirety of its existence.

________________________________________________

Richard Allen Hibbeler --November 6, 1928 - April 15, 2017

hutchensfuneralhomes.com/obituary/richard-allen-hibbeler/

 

Richard A. (Dick) Hibbeler, of Florissant Missouri, fortified with the Sacraments of Holy Mother Church, Saturday, April 15, 2017

Beloved husband of Frances M. Hibbeler; dear father and father-in-law of Rick (Valerie) Hibbeler, James (Dorothy) Hibbeler, Steve (Margaret) Hibbeler and Gregg (Carrie) Hibbeler; dear grandfather of Ryan (Holly, Kelly (Tanner) Julie (Chris), Jim, Susan (Jonathan), Michael, Christine (Jon), Andrea (Steve), Eric (Rachel), Leah, Peter, Emily, Katherine, Nicholas and Sarah; great-grandfather of 11; dear brother of Mary Jane (Tim) Sandt, and the late Donald, Charles and Kenneth Hibbeler; dear brother-in-law, uncle and friend.

 

Richard was a former standout amateur athlete who played football and basketball at North side Catholic/De Andreis High School in the 1940’s. He also played professional baseball in the old New York Giants minor league system. He signed his first professional contract at the age of sixteen and was inducted into the St. Louis Amateur Baseball Hall of Fame in 1991.

 

Richard retired from Southwestern Bell Telephone Company after 37 1/2 years, where he held a number of craft and supervisory positions. He was also active in the Fraternal Order of Eagles Alton Aerie #254 and participated in local community development affairs.

Memorials to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, 262 Danny Thomas Place Memphis, TN, 38105. Services will be private with his family.

________________________________________________

James Talmadge Hudson

 

www.tributearchive.com/obituaries/19250870/James-Talmadge...

 

James Talmadge Hudson, 92, died December 7, 2020. Born in Swifton, AR He was the son of the late Alvin Vohn and Lena Hancock Hudson. He was a World War II Marine Corps Veteran. Mr. Hudson was of the Lutheran faith. He enjoyed baseball and played professionally in the minor league for the New York Yankees.

 

Surviving is his wife, Carolyn Lane Hudson of Cheraw, SC, sons, James Hudson of Cheraw, SC , Mark Hudson of Palm Harbor, FL, four grandchildren and three great grandchildren.

There will be a private family visitation and service.

 

Note

 

James Hudson started with Independence, Kansas in 1948 and was then sent to Fond du Lac in the Wisconsin State league. When obtaining his release from the Yankee farm team he was signed by the New York Giants and sent to Chanute. His Sporting News player card didn’t reveal his Chanute playing days. digital.la84.org/digital/collection/p17103coll3/id/89996/... During the “revival” days of the KOM league Hudson drove to some of the KOM league cities Interestingly, he made the trip to Chanute but not Independence. He was a long term supporter of the KOM League Remembered newsletter that preceded the Flash Reports.

 

Ed comment:

 

This report carries the obituaries of Richard Hibbeler, James Hudson and Vincent Speranza who were all members of the 1948 Chanute Giants if but for fleeting moments. Of the young men who appeared on that New York Giant affiliated club, managed by Al Smith, who stopped Joe DiMaggio’s 56 game hitting streak, Daniel Dondero, Danny Bass, Richard Nolte, Anthony La Croix and Robert Harrison survive. In one of the best kept secrets one of those five guys later played in the major leagues. Yes, Robert Harrison made a quick pass through Chanute that season on his way to the Sooner State league.

________________________________________________

Vincent James Speranza

patch.com/connecticut/glastonbury/classifieds/announcemen...

 

Vincent “Gizzy” James Speranza died peacefully with his daughter by his side on January 19, 2019 at the age of 89. He had been under the care of Salmon Brook Center and Masonicare Hospice in Glastonbury, CT.

 

Gizzy is survived by his son James Anthony Speranza of Denmark, his daughter Lynn Michele “Shelly” Ruff and husband David of Fuquay Varina, N.C. and his granddaughter Sarah Speranza of Denmark along with several nieces and nephews. He is preceded in death by his parents Rocco and Nicholetta Speranza and siblings Carmelo Speranza, Lillian Speranza (Frascatore) and Fortunata Speranza (Caputo).

 

Gizzy was born on June 27, 1929 in Palmi, Italy to Rocco and Nicholetta Speranza. His family immigrated to Stamford, CT in 1930. He graduated from Stamford High School where he had been active in track, gymnastics and baseball. Gizzy’s love of baseball and natural ability as a pitcher led to his being drafted by the Brooklyn Dodgers AA team. His baseball career was cut short when he voluntarily joined the U.S. Air Force during the Korean War. He was stationed in Okinawa.

 

Gizzy loved to travel. He logged thousands of miles driving across the U.S. visiting National Parks even making it as far as Alaska. He made many stops along the way to visit family and friends. These visits were always filled with much joy, laughter and home-cooked meals. He also made many trips abroad. He enjoyed visiting his son and granddaughter in Denmark. He was also able to return to Italy to visit his birthplace and reconnect with family.

 

Over the years Gizzy had planted roots in Naples, FL and Fort Collins, CO, before settling in Glastonbury, CT in 2003 so he could live close to his daughter. Gizzy’s love of sports and health remained a priority for him. Wherever he resided he quickly joined the local gym and made many new life-long friends. His days were spent enjoying time with family and friends, caring for his “grand-dogs”, taking long walks around town, going to the gym and of course, satisfying his abundant appetite for good food and conversation.

 

Gizzy lived his life the way he wanted, carefree and happy and always tried to pass that attitude on to everyone he knew. He touched the lives of so many people in such positive ways, is greatly loved and will be momentously missed by all who knew him.

 

In lieu of flowers, please send donations to Masonicare of Connecticut.

 

I didn’t know about this when it happened. He had time with two KOM teams. When he was in the KOM league his birthplace was listed as Calibria, Italy and that he was from Stamford, Conn.

 

Ed comments:

 

Speranza made a number of stops in Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas during his career that is cited in the following link. digital.la84.org/digital/collection/p17103coll3/id/141700...

There is a possible conflict on his place of birth listed in his obituary and the one placed on his Sporting News player card. One shows he was from Palmi and the other has Calibria, Italy, I’m going to assume he was born in Palmi and moved 157 miles north to Calibria and from there his parents brought him to Stamford. CT.

_____________________________________________________________

Len Wiesner 1949 Independence Yankees

 

Wiesner, Leonard George, age 91, was baptized into the hope of Christ's resurrection, Saturday, December 5, 2020. www.schrader.com/obituary/leonard-wiesner

 

Leonard was the beloved husband of the late Elizabeth Wiesner (nee Gray), who preceded him in death in May 1988; the dear father of Barbara Wiesner, Mary (Rich) Eberhardt and Richard (Marie) Wiesner. He was also the loving grandfather (“G-Pa”) to Kaitlyn, William, Benjamin (Lisa) and Elizabeth Wiesner, Christopher (Amy) Eberhardt and Melissa Eberhardt; great grandfather to Jake and Ryan Eberhardt.

 

He was born and raised in St. Louis, a son of the late Joseph and Marie (nee Lindewirth) Wiesner. Beloved brother of the late Laverne (Ralph) Fioretti, late Joseph (Elaine) Wiesner, late Marian Duffy, late Loretta (Jake) Marquart, late Joni (Jim) Budde and Delores (Robert) Chapie. Dear uncle, cousin and friend.

 

After high school Leonard played professional baseball in the New York Yankees farm system, until serving in the United States Army during the Korean Conflict. He received his bachelor's degree from St. Louis University in 1958, and retired as an accountant after 30 years with Monsanto. He was an avid lifelong fan of the New York Yankees and St. Louis Cardinals. He also helped establish the original Metro Collegiate Baseball League in the 1980’s. In 1994, he was inducted into the St. Louis Amateur Baseball Hall of Fame.

 

Services: Funeral Mass at Christ, Prince of Peace Catholic Church, Manchester, Monday, December 14, 2020, 11:00 a.m. Interment Holy Cross Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to Catholic Charities. Visitation at the church, Monday, 10-11 a.m. A service of the SCHRADER Funeral Home and Crematory. Friends may sign the family's on-line guestbook at Schrader.com.

 

Ed comment:

 

Wiesner spent a lot of time being injured during his days with the Independence Yankees in 1949 and Joplin Miners in 1950. In spite of that he was a very good hitter and loved remembering those days playing with Bob Wiesler, Mickey Mantle, Steve Kraly and Lou Skizas. Over the last few years, at this time, he would make his annual Christmas call to KOM league headquarters and ask “How many of us are still left?” Sadly, each year the number decreased and this year he missed his call by a couple of weeks.

________________________________________________________________________

Thank You John!!!

 

Thank You for all the KOM memories. I can’t imagine anyone doing more research than what you have done on anything It makes me wonder how many books all your reports would fill…..

Ed reply:

 

Books are easy to write. Selling them is the tough task. With my Flash Repots they would easily produce a half dozen good size books a year. The books may be good size but they wouldn’t be good sellers.

 

The stuff that might sell are the true stories that I know bur won’t reveal. Most of the old ball players who told them to me are now deceased but they have survivors who wouldn’t benefit one iota from them being printed. Bruce Orser in New York

____________________________________________________________________________

The Cherokee Kid returns

 

For those who subscribed to the paper newsletter that went all over everywhere and back for over a decade, the name of Billy Jack Cornsilk was very much in prominence. He came into this world in 1933 at Stilwell, Oklahoma and nineteen years later he was pitching for Boyd Bartley’s Ponca City Dodgers.

 

Cornsilk reunited with many of his former Ponca City teammates at the huge KOM league reunion, at Carthage, Mo. in 1998. That was the last time I ever saw him but he stayed in touch until recent years. For about a half-dozen years nothing was heard from him until the day after Christmas. When the telephone ran on that day I had a feeling a former ballplayer was calling even though I was addressed by a different first name. When that got sorted out Cornsilk said that he had recently moved to be near his son in the Sacramento area. That came about after he lost his wife.

 

When going through his “most treasured” belongings (I kid) he found a copy of the KOM League Remembered newsletter from a different century. He looked for a telephone number of the editor of that paper and fortunately he found that the person responsible for printing it hadn’t had a change of numbers. A very nice conversation ensued and now Cornsilk is on the distribution list of these reports as well as all the previous ones he can handle. He also asked for an update on the status of his former teammates and that has already been shared. He is well down memory lane, by now, as he goes over the names of those who still share this planet with him as well as most of his former teammates who don’t.

 

One of the most memorable stories of Cornsilk is when the paper newsletters were sent. Somehow, Furman Bisher, the legendary sports writer for the Atlanta Constitution-Journal, used Cornsilk’s name at the close of an article. That reference was noticed by a reader in the Atlanta area who was shocked to see Cornsilk mentioned. Immediately, he placed a call to Bisher and asked how he knew of Cornsilk. Bisher admitted he had only seen that name by reading a newsletter published by someone in Missouri. The caller, Ron Minnich, wanted to know if there was any way that person could be contacted and Bisher called Yours truly to see if it was okay to release the contact information. Of course, I was thrilled, for at that juncture the search was for former players was in high gear. So, Billy Cornsilk has been a valuable asset in keeping the KOM league memory alive and it is great he will be reading these reports once again.

 

For anyone wishing to know the stops on the baseball journey of Cornsilk this link provides it: digital.la84.org/digital/collection/p17103coll3/id/44591/...

______________________________________________________________________________

This is a two-prong report—this last for 2020 and the first for 2021 as the KOM League enters its 75th year of being in the hearts and minds of a few people.

 

The face of the artist is nothing but his mask, since his real "I" remains invisible. According to Steiner, the head having become a kind of hologram of the body, then all the effort of spiritualization of the human being by the artist, will have to relate to the shape of the human head. This is what will happen with the design of the Goetheanum. Once more, we are faced with an objectification of the supersensible domain. The model of Gnostic art for Rudolf Steiner is of course as a work of art the Goetheanum in which he will give substance to his thought. 1965 The model of artistic gnosis for Raymond Abellio is of course a cabalistic diagram: the Universal Senaire Sphere which achieves the synthesis and the program of all his thought. Same. Through these images, we can grasp the artistic project of the first Goetheanum whose architectural elements, such as the columns, the capitals and the windows, owed nothing to chance, neither taste nor even less to functionality, but had to obey requirements particular esoteric and spiritual. The entire Goetheanum was to illustrate the foundations and 16 teachings of Anthroposophy, just as the art of Gothic cathedrals illustrated the foundations and various passages of the sacred history of Christianity. The scene of the Goetheanum was of course the apogee of his artistic project, with the column-seats where the twelve "apostrophes" should sit, next to the carved wooden ensemble, "The Representative of Humanity". which returns as a colored figure under the cupola.

In the rented hall of the Munich State Theatre, the Mystery Plays of Rudolf Steiner were performed each year between 1910 and 1913. The wish arose within the circle around Rudolf Steiner to build an appropriately designed building for these and for performances of eurhythmy. As there were many obstacles from the side of the authorities in Munich, it was decided to redesign the building to be erected on donated land in Dornach near Basel/Switzerland.

Construction began in 1913, meeting with delays during the First World War. Still incomplete, the building burnt down on New Year’s Eve of 1922/23.

The central element, already present in the project in Munich was the ground plan: 2 domes of different sizes resting on 2 large rotundas and interlinked with one another. Because of their particular proportions, they gave the impression both of a single, sculpted space, or also one consisting of 2 separate portions. The pillars along the interior of the building connected with earlier epochs in the development of architecture. Yet each pillar was sculpted individually with a base and a capital whose motifs were carved in such a manner that each new one derived its forms from elements of the previous one. It was Steiner’s attempt to incorporate into the design the laws underlying all development from one form to another in the living world, as in Goethe’s theory of metamorphosis, and to give to these new forms of artistic expression.

Architecture thereby departs from the static, “dead” state and begins to take on elements of a path of animated development. The arts of architecture, sculpture, painting and stained glass windows were united to create a space for the other arts – music, drama and eurhythmy. The building represents an effort to assist what slumbers in each human being as a higher element into full fruition

 

The First Goetheanum: A Centenary for Organic Architecture

John Paull*

University of Tasmania, Hobart, Australia *Corresponding Author: j.paull@utas.edu.au, john.paull@mail.com

ABSTRACT

A century has elapsed since the inauguration (on 26 September, 1920) of a remarkable piece of architecture, Rudolf Steiner‟s Goetheanum, headquarters of the Anthroposophy movement, on a verdant hilltop on the outskirts of the Swiss village of Dornach, near Basel. The Goetheanum was an all timber structure, sitting on concrete footings and roofed with Norwegian slate. The building was begun in 1913, and construction progressed through the First World War. Rudolf Steiner‟s intention was to take architecture in a new and organic direction. On New Year‟s Eve, 31 December 1922, the Goetheanum hosted a Eurythmy performance followed by a lecture by Rudolf Steiner for members of the Anthroposophy Society. In the hours that followed, despite the fire-fighting efforts of the Anthroposophists and the local fire brigades, the building burned to the ground. The popular narrative is that the fire was arson but that was never proved. A local watchmaker and anthroposophist, Jakob Ott, was the only person to perish in the fire. He was falsely accused (in death) as „the arsonist‟ but the evidence is rather that he perished in his brave efforts at saving the Goetheanum. Rudolf Steiner saw the “calamity” as an opportunity “to change the sorrowful event into a blessing”. He promptly embarked on plans for a new building, Goetheanum II. This time there was to be “no wood”. The short-lived Goetheanum I had served as a placeholder for Goetheanum II. This new Goetheanum, Rudolf Steiner‟s finest work of organic architecture, is of steel reinforced concrete and today stands on the Dornach hill right on the site of the old Goetheanum.

Keywords: Rudolf Steiner, Anthroposophy, Goethe, Edith Maryon, Jakob Ott, Marie Steiner, fire, arson, disability, Dornach, Switzerland.

INTRODUCTION

The present Goetheanum building, located at Dornach, Switzerland, is one of the great buildings of the twentieth century (). The world has this building, Goetheanum II, because of three strokes of good luck (karma if you prefer), although they did not appear in that guise at the time. First, was a frustrating bureaucratic denial [1], second, was a catastrophic fire that Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925) described as a “calamity” [2], and third was the arrival of a talented English sculptor who became one of Rudolf Steiner‟s closest colleagues [3].

The original Goetheanum was opened on 26 September, 1920. It was designed by the New Age philosopher, Rudolf Steiner. The first plan was to build a centre for Rudolf Steiner‟s Anthroposophy movement in Munich, but the city authorities denied building approval [1, 4]. It was a source of frustration and disappointment at the time, although it was really a stroke of great good fortune. As the Nazi ideology took root in Germany, Rudolf Steiner was unwelcome and threatened in Germany. After two decades of

living in Berlin, Rudolf Steiner relinquished his Berlin apartment in 1923 and never revisited Germany [5].

Alfred Hummel, who served as a member of the Building Office for the Goetheanum, explains of the denial of building approval: “this could be seen as good providence because the building would have run into great difficulties after the outbreak of World War 1. Munich would have been a place of great danger after 1933” [4: 2]. If the Goetheanum had been raised in Munich, it would have stood a good chance of destruction during World War II since the city was carpet bombed, including with magnesium incendiary bombs, in Allied raids. Such an alternative reality was never tested because shortly after the Munich denial, Dr Emil Grossheintz offered a site for the Goetheanum in Switzerland and Rudolf Steiner took up the offer [1].

The first Goetheanum was a building of very short life. Opened in 1920, it was burned to the ground at the end of 1922. This was a blow to the aspirations of the Anthroposophists and the multinational contingent of dedicated workers

Journal of Fine Arts V3 ● I2 ● 2020

1

 

The First Goetheanum: A Centenary for Organic Architecture

who had laboured through the war, many as volunteers, to create this unique building. Rudolf Steiner described it as a “calamity” [1]. But, the destruction proved to be a blessing in disguise because it allowed a rethink of the design. In place of the original rather quaint structure of Goetheanum I, there is now Goetheanum II, which is a truly remarkable and timeless masterpiece.

The English sculptor, Edith Maryon (1872- 1924), arrived in Dornach a few months before the outbreak of war in 1914, to devote her talents to the service of Rudolf Steiner and his Anthroposophy movement. Here she found her spiritual home and she devoted herself forthwith to „the cause‟. Goetheanum I was already designed and under construction by the time Edith Maryon arrived in Dornach, but she was the sculptor on hand, and by then established as one of Rudolf Steiner‟s close collaborators when Goetheanum II was conceived.

On the occasion of the centenary of the opening of Goetheanum I, the present paper, considers the dharma of the building, its reception, and its passing

Methods

Goetheanum I is, a century on from the opening, beyond living memory. The present account draws on contemporary documents of the time, to throw light on the building, its reception, and its calamitous demise. Documents drawn on include eye witness accounts, personal published and manuscript accounts, newspaper accounts, correspondence, and Rudolf Steiner‟s own comments, explanations and lectures. The original sources are quoted where appropriate.

Results

The Goetheanum with which this paper is concerned is the first Goetheanum, Rudolf Steiner referred to it as the “old Goetheanum”[6], the present paper will refer to it generally as „Goetheanum I‟. When building approval was denied in Munich [4], a devotee of Rudolf Steiner‟s Anthroposophy, the Zürich dentist Dr Emil Grosheintz, offered a site on the outskirts of the Swiss village of Dornach, the site of a famous Swiss battle of 1499 where Swabian invaders were repulsed [7]. Dornach is a brief commute (train or tram, about 15 km) to the city of Basel, which sits in the north west of Switzerland near the junction of three country borders (France, Germany and Switzerland).

The Goetheanum was a project of the New Age philosopher and mystic Rudolf Steiner. He had honed his skills as an orator and lecturer as

leader of the German section of the Theosophy Society [8]. Emerging differences between the Theosophists and Rudolf Steiner led to the establishment of a breakaway movement, the Anthroposophy Society. The Goetheanum was to be the home of the new Society, an administrative centre, and a performance space for Steiner‟s Mystery plays.

Rudolf Steiner went on to design various buildings in the growing enclave of Anthroposophists at Dornach [9], but the monumental Goetheanum I was the first venture into Anthroposophical architectural design on a grand scale, and the Goetheanum II was the apogee of Rudolf Steiner‟s architectural manifestations .

THE GREAT WAR

An Australian soldier, arriving in Europe in 1916, sent a postcard home: “Dear Dave, We have seen a lot of ruined towns & villages since we have been in France. This must have been a nice building once, now ruins, Keith” [10].

In the Europe of the time, destruction on an industrial scale was the order of the day. However, Switzerland remained neutral throughout, and her neutrality was honoured by all the belligerents for the duration.

Construction of the Goetheanum at Dornach began in 1913. Construction carried on through the years of World War I (1914-1918). The Russian artist, Assya Turgeniev, recalled: “Already at the beginning of hostilities Dr Steiner tried to speak to us about the background to the events of the war ... The stirred up chauvinistic moods of his listeners thrown together from all quarters of the globe (we were from about 17 different nations) that did not allow him to continue” [11: 99].

Marie Steiner wrote that, as the war stretched on, the work force was depleted by call-up notices: “one after another our artists were called away to the scene of the war. With very few exceptions, there remained only those men who belonged to neutral countries, and the women” [in 12: vii].

The Goetheanum was built during the Great War using volunteer and paid labour. They came and went. Amongst the privations and avalanche of news of death and destruction of the war: “the work went on as best it could and as far as our strength allowed” [11: 136]. “From all quarters of the globe people gathered in Dornach to help with the building. It was a motley, many-sided, multilingual company”[11: 57]. “Our carving group grew to about 70 in number, not counting those who put in a short appearance ... All financial affairs were

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attended to by Miss Stinde. For those who needed it she arranged a modest remuneration” [11: 58].

The artist Assya Turgeniev remembered: “we were only a bunch of dilettantes ... Only the knowledge that we were working together on a great future task and Dr Steiner‟s helping guidance brought order into this chaos. It remains a wonder that the work progresses without any kind of organisation” [11: 59].

With the outbreak of war, “A heavy gloom settled over Dornach ... a European war, was now on our very doorstep [11: 68]. Goetheanum volunteers were called up to return to their respective countries: “Many friends had been recruited and had to depart” [11: 69]. “Our group of wood- carvers grew less and less as further friends were called up” [11: 79].

Figure 1. View of the Goetheanum with blossom trees [source: 13].

A NEW STYLE OF ARCHITECTURE

Rudolf Steiner spoke of the Goetheanum, “The Dornach Building”, in a lecture to Anthro- posophists at The Hague in February 1921: “I have said that the style of this Goetheanum has arisen out of the same sources that gave birth to spiritual science. The endeavour to create a new style of imperfections which must accompany such architecture is accompanied by inevitable risks, by all the a first attempt” [14: 150]. Steiner elaborated: “there is not a single symbol, not a single allegory, but rather we have attempted to give everything a truly artistic form [14: 151].

Organic Architecture

Rudolf Steiner explained his Goetheanum as a manifestation of a new organic architecture: “Concrete and wood are both employed to give rise to an architectural style that may perhaps be described as the transition from previous geometrical, symmetrical, mechanical, static- dynamic architectural styles into an organic style” [14: 153]. The plinth was concrete and the superstructure was timber.

The Goetheanum was organic but not imitative of nature: “Not that some sort of organic form has been imitated in the Dornach building. That is not the case” [14: 154]. Rudolf Steiner informed his audience that: “The least and the greatest in an organic whole has its place in the organism, its absolutely right form. All this has passed over into the architectural conception of the Dornach building” [14: 154]

Rudolf Steiner acknowledged the German writer and polymath, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749 -1832): “it has been my aim, in accordance with Goethe‟s theory of metamorphosis, to steep myself in nature‟s creation of organic forms, and from these to obtain organic forms that, when metamorphosed, might make a single whole of the Dornach building. In other words, organic forms of such a kind that each single form must be in precisely the place it is” [14: 154].

Windows, as all the elements of the Goetheanum, were conceived of as part of an organic whole: “we are handing over this auxiliary building [the Glass House, Glashaus] ... in order that they

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may create something that in the fairest sense may be a living member in the whole organism of our building” [12: 15].

Rudolf Steiner was aware already that not all would be won over to his organic architecture: "I well know how much may be said against this organic principle of building from the point of view of older architectural styles. This organic style, however, has been attempted in the architectural conception of the building at Dornach ... You will therefore find in the Dornach building certain organic forms... carved out of wood, as embodied in the capitals of the columns at the entrance” [14: 154-6]

THE OPENING

The Italian artist Ernesto Genoni, who later spent a year with Rudolf Steiner at Dornach (in 1924) [15, 16] and was a member of Rudolf Steiner‟s First Class, wrote two (somewhat cryptic) accounts of his first visit to the Goetheanum on the occasion of the inauguration (26 September, 1920).

In one account Ernesto Genoni relates: “In Milan I came in touch with the Anthroposophical Society where I took part for a whole year in the study of Anthroposophy. Then my sister Mrs [Rosa] Podreider, for certain business reasons, sent me to Lausanne and said „While you are there you can go as far as the Goetheanum‟. Eventually I arrived in Dornach at the inauguration of the first Goetheanum. There Mrs [Charlotte] Ferreri introduced me to Dr Steiner and I was received by him with great warmth. Unfortunately he was speaking in German which I did not know, but by his long handshake

and smiling expression of the face I could feel his sincere welcome. Here I would like to add this - That was the only time among all the people I met at the Goetheanum that anyone gave me a feeling that I was truly welcome ... So much did I feel this isolation that I decided to return to Italy” [17: 7].

In another account of his Goetheanum inauguration visit, Ernesto Genoni writes: “In autumn 1920 Rosa sent me to Lausanne for selling some opossum skins and then I went to Dornach. What a strange impression I received from the first view of the Goetheanum building ... The short conversation with Fräulein Vreede ... chilly! Frau Ferreri ... the meeting with the Doctor ... the bewildering impression of the interior of the Goetheanum. I could not enter in such saturated life of the spirit and after a few days I left ... the reproach from Miss Maryon. In the following years it was a painful search to find my way in life” [18: 19] (author‟s note: ellipses are in the original handwritten manuscript).

ART OF THE TOUR

Rudolf Steiner wanted the art of the Goetheanum to speak directly to the viewer without intermediary explanations: “Sometimes I had occasion to show visitors the Goetheanum personally. Then I used to say that all „explanation‟ of the forms and colours was in fact distasteful to me. Art does not want to be brought home to us through thoughts, but should rather be received in the immediate sight and feeling of it” [1: 3]. The photographs in the present paper offer an insight into the experience of Steiner‟s visitors (Figs. 1, 2 & 3).

Figure 2. Rear view of the Goetheanum with Heizhaus to the right (postcard)

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NEWS IN THE ANTIPODES

The Register newspaper in Adelaide, Australia‟s city of churches, informed its readers in 1925 about Rudolf Steiner and the Goetheanum: “a man who built a building large enough to contain an audience of a thousand people, roofed by intersecting domes, the larger of them slightly greater span than St Peter‟s, earned a title of serious consideration from all who profess the art of architecture. The building owed nothing to traditional styles. No effect was made by its designer to present an intellectual conception of what the temples of ancient Greece could contribute to the art of modern Europe, nor were the forms of medieval Gothic borrowed and adjusted. In no sense was it a drawing board design.” [19].

The Register continued: “It was conceived and designed, as architecture should be and must be, in three dimensions, and it had to be seen in three dimensions to be understood ... as a first effort in a new presentation of architecture it has probably no rival in the history of art” [19].

Readers in South Australia were informed that the Goetheanum: “was built on the summit of one of the foothills of the Jura mountains, near the village of Dornach, standing out against a background of rugged hills and rocky cliffs ... He deliberately discards the limitations of squares, and one feels that his construction is organic rather than static” [19].

Figure 3. Interior of the Goetheanum [source: 13]. Journal of Fine Arts V3 ● I2 ● 2020

The Name

Even the name of the Goetheanum apparently drew offence. „Wokeness' is not such a twenty- first century phenomenon as some might suppose. Rudolf Steiner explained: “Many people were scandalised at the very name, „Goetheanum‟, because they failed to consider the fundamental reason for this name, and how it is connected with all that is cultivated there as Anthroposophy ... this Anthroposophy is the spontaneous result of my devotion for more than four decades to Goethe‟s world-conception” [2: 1].

Of the name, Rudolf Steiner explained: “this Goetheanum was first called „Johannesbau‟ by those friends of the anthroposophical world- conception who made it possible to erect such a building ... for me this building is a Goetheanum, for I derived my world-view in a living way from Goethe ... I have always regarded this as a sort of token of gratitude for what can be gained from Goethe, an act of homage to the towering personality of Goethe ... the anthroposophical world-view feels the deepest gratitude for what has come into the world through Goethe” [2: 2].

Second Thoughts

Less than a year after the opening of the Goetheanum, and even while the building remained incomplete (it was never entirely completed), Rudolf Steiner revealed that he was thinking of a Goetheanum Mark 2.

At a lecture in Berne on 29 June 1921 titled „The Architectural Conception of the Goetheanum‟ Rudolf Steiner told his audience that: “Naturally one can criticise in every possible way this architectural style which has been formed out of spiritual science. But nothing that makes its first appearance is perfect, and I can assure you that I know all its flaws and that I would be the first to say: If I had to put up this building a second time, it would be out of the same background and out of the same laws, but in most of its details, and perhaps even totally, it would be different” [20: 42]. As events played out just eighteen months later, it proved to be a remarkably prescient statement.

Bad Timing

For sheer bad timing (and perhaps prolixity), a fund raising letter dated 25 December 1922 by the British Anthroposophical Society in London would be hard to beat. The letter explained that: “the Goetheanum expresses in a language of line, form and colour those thoughts and ideas which a knowledge of higher spiritual worlds

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produces in the artist. As a work of art the Goetheanum can only be compared, in its tendency to the supreme artistic achievements of humanity, for it produces in the onlooker the perception of that interpenetration of object and idea of which the true world of art is the outcome, while it raises him to that point within his inner being where an ideal spiritual world is felt to be born into physical reality”.

Then the fund raising letter gets to the point: “The Goetheanum still remains to be completed. The funds at Dr Steiner‟s disposal are drawing to an end. Money is urgently needed to carry on the work. The work MUST NOT STOP ... Let each give what he or she can. In the old days ladies sold their jewellery to enable the foundation stone to be laid” [21].

Just six days after the date of the London fund raiser letter, the Goetheanum burned to the ground (on the night of 31 December 1922). Rudolf Steiner described the occurrence as a “dreadful calamity”. He reminded his audience of “The terrible catastrophe of last New Year‟s Eve, the destruction by fire of the Goetheanum, which will remain a painful memory” [2: 1].

Rudolf Steiner explained that the Anthroposophical Society was misunderstood and that there was calumny afoot: “That dreadful calamity was just the occasion to bring to light what fantastic notions there are in the world linked with all that this Goetheanum in Dornach intended to do and all that was done in it. It was said that the most frightful superstitions were disseminated there, that all sorts of things inimical to religion were being practiced; and there is even talk of all kinds of spiritualistic seances, of nebulous mystic performances, and so on” [2: 1].

The Fire

A local newspaper, the Basler Nachricten reported the news of the New Year fire at the Goetheanum: “The Goetheanum in Dornach-Arlesheim is on fire, was the terrible alarm message that flew like wildfire ... just before the bells sounded in solemn ringing ... On New Year‟s Eve ... at 7 pm , the Goetheanum had a presentation of Eurythmy and a lecture by Rudolf Steiner ... The last audience had left the lecture hall by 9.45 pm ... immediately after the seriousness of the situation was clear, the calls for help were despatched to the surrounding villages and to Basel ... The Dornachers were the first to arrive at 11:45 pm, followed by the Arlesheimers a quarter of an hour later ... Because of repair work, there was scaffolding where the fire was first seen” [22].

Rudolf Steiner put the fire as starting between 5:15 pm and 6:20 pm [23].

Rudolf Steiner related that: “one hour after the last word had been spoken, I was summoned to the fire at the Goetheanum. At the fire of the Goetheanum we passed the whole of that New Year night”. He stated that it was “exactly at the moment in its evolution when the Goetheanum was ready to become the bearer of the renewal of spiritual life”[6].

A newspaper gave an account of the events: “When the double cupolas fell in, there shot up heavenwards a giant sheaf of fire, and a torrent of sparks threatened the whole neighbor-hood so that fire-men had to be sent in all directions to prevent the spread of disaster” [24]. Later, on New Year‟s Day “The sky was veiled in clouds as if to check the great outpouring of people which took place from Basel and its neighbor- hood. For nearly the whole population there was one urge: Off to Dornach! Hour after hour unbroken streams of people climbed the muddy roads and slippery fields, whilst other streams, equally unbroken, flowed down again” [24].

Rudolf Steiner later referred to “the pain for which there are no words” [1: 7]. However, on the day, as Albert Steffen relates, Rudolf Steiner kept his nerve and declared the continuance of the New Year‟s programme: “In the morning Dr Steiner ... was still there ... „We will go on with our lectures as notified‟, he said, and gave instructions that the pools of water in the „Schreinerei‟ (the temporary shed used for lectures) and the dirt carried in by muddied shoes should be removed” [25: 13].

Seat of the Fire

Albert Steffen (1884-1963), Anthroposophist, writer and editor, wrote of the seat of the fire: “Unfortunately a scaffolding, necessary for certain work, had been put up just in the place where the fire was first noticed” [25: 12]. A local Basel newspaper had reported likewise: “Because of repair work, there was scaffolding where the fire was first seen” [22].

Ninety nine years later, accounts of the Notre Dame Cathedral fire of 2019 are reminiscent of accounts of the Goetheanum fire. “The fire began at about 18:43 local time on Monday (15 April). Pictures show flames shooting up around the spire, shortly after the doors were shut to visitors for the day. The blaze spread rapidly along the wooden roof as onlookers gathered on the ground below” [26]. Another account states

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that: “Flames that began in the early evening burst through the roof of the centuries-old cathedral and engulfed the spire, which collapsed, quickly followed by the roof” [27]. Builder‟s scaffolding for repair work are also a part of the Notre Dame story: “Much of the roof was covered in scaffolding as part of a big renovation programme, which is being investigated as a possible cause of the blaze” [26]. Two leading candidates for the cause of the Notre Dame fire are identified: “The catastrophic fire at the Notre Dame Cathedral could have been caused by a burning cigarette or an electrical malfunction, French prosecutors said ... Prosecutors are now looking at the possibility of negligence” [28].

Of the Goetheanum fire, a Basel newspaper reported: “Dr Steiner ... According to him,, who will probably know his way around the construction of the building, the fire must have started between 5:00 and 7:00 in the evening .... The smoke was noticed a little after 10 pm in the so-called „white room‟ on the third floor” [23]. The room, the apparent seat of the fire, was used by one or some Eurythmists as a change room [23]. It was reported that “there were no electrical systems at the fire site”[22].A discarded cigarette butt, a neglected candle or a portable camp stove or heater (the outside temperature would have been hovering around 0o C), or a flimsy Eurythmy costume draped carelessly on a hot light bulb are candidates as potential ignition sources.

The Goetheanum was insured for CHF 3,800,000 and with a further CHF 500,000 for furniture and equipment [22]. A proof of contributory negligence would have voided or severely prejudiced an insurance claim. This, combined with the prevailing persecution complex of the Anthroposophists, was a great motivation for fuelling suspicions of arson. To this day, the cause of the Goetheanum blaze remains an open question [29]. The timely payout of the insurance facilitated the rebuild of the Goetheanum, and the local Building Insurance Act was revised “to protect the state institution against such disasters” [30].

Jakob Ott

One person lost their life in the fire. That was Jakob Ott, a watchmaker from nearby Arlesheim, and a member of the Anthroposophy Society.

Assya Tergeniev recorded that: “When the glowing ashes had cooled, some days later, a human skeleton with a deformed spine was found therein. This deformity was the same as

that of a watchmaker who had disappeared at the time of the fire. It was officially announced that he had come to grief while helping with the rescue work” [11: 129].

A Basel newspaper reported that “Human remains were found in the rubble of the burned- down Goetheanum on Wednesday [10 January]. It is not yet certain whether it is the missing watchmaker Ott ... These are the bones of a single person, who presumably fell from the floor of the dome into the depth of the basement. The skull was smashed ... no one apart from the watchmaker Ott has been missing since that fateful night ... the bone remains were almost completely covered with slate residue from the roof of the dome. The casualty must have plunged into the stage basement below the collapsing dome at 12 midnight. Although all fire-fighting teams had withdrawn at 11:30 pm in view of the building, which was at risk and could no longer be saved, it is easily possible that, due to the thick smoke, a person who might already have been stunned had not been noticed” [31].

Conspiracy theorists of the day, and later commentators, have attributed the fire to arson, but that is not proven, and even named the supposed arsonist as Jakob Ott, and that is proven false. Research of Günther Aschoff has established: “the 28-year-old watchmaker Jakob Ott from Neu-Arlesheim had died in the fire. But he could not have been the arsonist, because he was home all New Year's Eve, then in the evening at a choir rehearsal and at the year-end service in the Reformed Church. (He was a member of the Reformed Church and of the Anthroposophical Society, he procured many advertisements for the magazine "Das Goetheanum" and had also collected signatures for the naturalization of Rudolf Steiner). At about 22.30 he was on the tram on the way home. When he saw the clouds of smoke at the Goetheanum in the moonlit night, he ran up the mountain, to help, which he used to do whenever he was needed. He was present when the fire was extinguished in the small dome at the top of the building, but when the others had already retreated because of all the smoke”. Jakob Ott failed to evacuate likely because he was overcome by smoke or that he lost his footing [32].

Jakob Ott was reportedly just 1.5 metres tall, and a hunchback with “a backbone curvature due to an accident” [31]. Another account simply sated: “Ott had a hump” [30]. He was a man of modest means and lacking influential friends. As a disabled figure, Jakob Ott was a

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ready candidate for „othering‟ and he made a convenient scapegoat for the smug. A Basel newspaper reported: “Dr Steiner, whom we also interviewed regarding Ott ... He himself has no suspicion of Ott” [23]. Rudolf Steiner subsequently attended Jakob Ott‟s funeral [33].

It appears that Rudolf Steiner never referred to the fire as „arson‟. Albert Steffen wrote of „The destruction of the Goetheanum by fire”, he did not write of „by arson‟ [25]. Arson does not rate in the top ten causes of house fires [34]. Arson does not rate as one of the nominated “leading causes of warehouse structure fires” [35]. If the arson conspiracy theory fails, then the quest for „the arsonist‟ is extinguished.

The demonising of Jakob Ott has been an unworthy episode propagated by some who should have known better. One hysterical account about Jakob Ott appears to be mere flights of fancy, ungrounded in fact, and owes more to a fertile imagination than sound research [e.g. 36]. It appears that Marie Steiner has fuelled conspiracy theories: “One of the suspects was the watchmaker Jakob Ott from Allesheim , whose skeleton was found ten days after the fire in the ashes of the Goetheanum which had burned down. It was identified by a spinal defect. Later Marie Steiner wrote „From a skeleton that was discovered, it can be established that the arsonist was burned‟‟ [quoted in 33: 904].

Jakob Ott (1895-1923) died a miserable death by incineration, in a worthy cause of trying to save the Goetheanum. Whether he was overcome by smoke and/or lost his footing, the action of entering a burning building is the act of a brave man.

A Blessing

Exactly a year on from the fire, Rudolf Steiner reflected on the events of New Year‟s Eve, 1922, at the Goetheanum. The venue for the lectures was now the much less salubrious (and cold) Schreinerei, the carpentry workshop, adjacent to the site of the remnants of the fire [37].

Rudolf Steiner referred to the “painful memory” of the final lecture that he had delivered at the Goetheanum, what he now called “our old Goetheanum” [6]. Remembering the night, Rudolf Steiner reminded his listeners that; “the flames bust from our beloved Goetheanum ... but out of the very pain we pledge ourselves to remain loyal to the Spirit to which we erected the Goetheanum, building it up through ten years of work” [6].

Changing tack, Rudolf Steiner urged his audience to move on from the “tragedy” and offered them the recipe for doing just that: “if we are able to change the pain and grief into the impulses to action then we shall also change the sorrowful event into a blessing. The pain cannot thereby be made less, but it rests with us to find in the pain the urge to action ... Let us carry over the soul of the Goetheanum into the Cosmic New Year, lets try to erect in the new Goetheanum a worth memorial to the old!” [6: 4].

Beyond Wood

Goetheanum I was an all-timber construct. One of the building officers related that: “our first director had implored us not to use any iron nail, coach screw or sheet metal in the main wooden structure. These artificial building materials were not to be brought in connection with the noble organic timber” [4: 15]

A few months after the fire, Rudolf Steiner, writing in the April 1923 issue of the periodical „Anthroposophy‟, was quick to rule in a rebuild, that was never in doubt in his mind, while at the same time he ruled out rebuilding in timber: “In rebuilding the Goetheanum we shall probably need to think on different lines ... There can, of course, be no question of a second Building in wood” [38: 38].

In 1923 Rudolf Steiner wrote to the Central Administration of the local Swiss Canton Solothurn: “The new building will stand directly on the site of the old. With regard to the construction of the building as a whole, we bring to your attention that it is to be executed as a solid structure and that all its structural parts, all floors and bearing walls, as well as the roof trusses will be carried out in reinforced concrete. We plan to employ a purely steel construction for the support of the floor of the main stage alone. Timber will be used nowhere as a constructional element in the new building, but exclusively for doors, windows, flooring and floor construction over solid slab floors, for rafters and for fixtures and cladding. As roof material the same Norwegian slate as was used on the old Goetheanum is to be employed. ... We are convinced that the entire building, when completed in this type of construction, will be able to meet all requirements as to fire safety to an unusual degree” [39: 52].

Concrete

By the time of Goetheanum II, Rudolf Steiner already had some experience of reinforced

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concrete as a building medium. The rather fanciful Heizhaus (Boiler House) of 1914 [9], located nearby the Goetheanum, and still standing today, is a creative exercise in concrete. Rudolf Steiner described it as “a remarkable structure” and so it is [14] (Fig.2).

Rudolf Steiner was well aware of criticism of his first adventure in concrete, the Boiler House. He proffered this rejoinder: “This is what is subject to the most severe criticism from some quarters ... I undertook to create ... a shell of concrete - a material which is extremely difficult to mould artistically. Those who criticise this structure today do not pause to reflect what would stand there if no endeavour had been made to mould something out of concrete - a material so difficult to mould. There could be nothing but a brick chimney. I wonder if that would be more beautiful than this, which of course is only a first attempt to give a certain style to something made of concrete. It has many defects, for it is only a first attempt to mould something artistic out of materials such as concrete” [14: 157].

Edith Maryon, Sculptor

Edith Maryon (1872-1924) stepped into Rudolf Steiner‟s life in 1914. It was just before the outbreak of World War I and she quickly became one of his closest confidants. Edith Maryon was an English sculptor trained at the Royal College of Arts in London.

As a trained and skilled sculptor, Edith Maryon brought new skills into the inner sanctum of Rudolf Steiner‟s bevy of talented women, which included the mathematician Elizabeth Vreede and medical doctor Ita Wegman. Goetheanum I was already under construction when Edith Maryon arrived at Dornach. Edith Maryon however quickly proved her skills in collaborative architectural design not just of sculptural elements within Goetheanum I. Together they created the Eurythmy Houses I, II and III (Eurythmiehäuser), a little way down the Dornach hill from the Goetheanum [9].

Edith Maryon brought a feminine influence and a sculptor's panache. Under the collaborative influence of Edith Maryon, Rudolf Steiner was liberated from the overt Freudian features of his earlier creations with his phallic Boiler House and the double-breasted Glass House (Glashaus) and Goetheanum I.

The clay models for Goetheanum II were constructed during 1923, the year of closest

collaboration between Rudolf Steiner and Edith Maryon. At the end of the year, at the Christmas Conference of 1923 Rudolf Steiner appointed Edith Maryon as the head of the Sculpture Section (plastic arts) of the School of Spiritual Science of the Goetheanum [40]. Sadly, by then her health was deteriorating and she passed away four months later. Rudolf Steiner‟s own health took a blow at the close of the Christmas Conference on 31 December 1923. He struggled on through nine months of 1924, before retreating to his sick bed in September, and he passed away six months later.

It could be regarded as fortuitous that Goetheanum I was destroyed during Rudolf Steiner‟s own lifetime and that he and Edith Maryon had developed a close collaborative working embrace that could bring the clay sculptural models of Goetheanum II quickly to fruition. Goetheanum II is Rudolf Steiner‟s final contribution to his portfolio of Anthroposophic buildings and to organic architecture, and more than any of his prior works, it is a monumental and masterful work of sculpture.

CONCLUSION

The first Goetheanum was both success and failure. It was a bold experiment in organic design, a proof of concept that such a vision could be translated into reality, that despite the disruption of war, work could proceed, funds could be raised, a distinctive building could be manifested, and the enthusiasm and talent of a multitude of volunteers could be harnessed. However, an all timber building is a conflagration waiting to happen, it is just the timing of the conflagration that is the uncertainty. In the case of Goetheanum I, the conflagration came quickly, before even the building was completed, before a Mystery Play was ever performed in the space, remembering that a dedicated performance space for such plays had been a large part of the rationale for the building.

The dharma of Goetheanum I was to serve as a placeholder for Goetheanum II. The new Goetheanum took the money from the insurance of the demise of the old Goetheanum, and embraced the lesson that an all-timber construction is not a recipe for longevity. Goetheanum II harnessed the sculptural skills by then on hand, and brought them to the fore to create what is not only a magnificent sculpture in concrete, but is also a functioning building and a delight to work in. Flushed away is the quaintness of Goetheanum I. The new Goetheanum is a bold twentieth

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century building worthy of the twenty first century and beyond.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Thank you to to members of the Goetheanum Archive (Dokumentation am Goetheanum Bibliothek Kunstsammlung Archiv) for kind

assistance in navigating the collection and to DeepL.com/Translator and Google Translate for assistance with various translations.

REFERENCES

[1] Steiner, R., The Goetheanum in the ten years of its life, I. Anthroposophy, 1923. 2(1-2): p. 2-10.

[2] Steiner, R., What was the purpose of the Goetheanum and what is the task of Anthroposophy, A lecture at Basel, 9 April, 1923. 1923, Fremont, IL: Rudolf Steiner Archive, .

[3] Paull, J., A portrait of Edith Maryon: Artist and Anthroposophist. Journal of Fine Arts, 2018. 1(2): p. 8-15.

[4] Hummel, A., A Diary: Life and Work During the Building of the First Goetheanum. 2003, (Trans. Friedwart Bock from c.1955 German original), Aberdeen: Camphill Architects.

[5] Paull, J., Rudolf Steiner: At Home in Berlin. Journal of Biodynamics Tasmania, 2019. 132: p. 26-29.

[6] Steiner, R., World History in the Light of Anthroposophy, A lecture at Dornach, 31 December 1923. 1923, Fremont, IL: Rudolf Steiner Archive, .

[7] Fahrni, D., An Outline History of Switzerland From the Origins to the Present Day. 1997, Zürich: Pro Helvetia Arts, Council of Switzerland.

[8] Steiner, R., The Story of My Life. 1928, London: Anthroposophical Publishing Co.

[9] Kugler, J., ed. Architekturführer Goetheanumhügel die Dornacher Anthroposophen-Kolonie. 2011, Verlag Niggli: Zurich.

[10] Keith, Postcard (with handwritten message on rear): Ypres - La Salle Pauwels (Halles d'Ypres) avant et après le Bombardment. The Pauwels Gallery (Halles of Ypres) before the Bombard- ment and after. 1916, Paris: Visé Paris (private collection).

[11] Turgeniev, A., Reminiscences of Rudolf Steiner and Work on the First Goetheanum. 2003, Forest Row, UK: Temple Lodge.

[12] Steiner, R., Ways to A New Style in Architecture: Five lectures by Rudolf Steiner given during the building of the First Goetheanum, 1914. 1927, London: Anthroposophical Publishing Company.

[13] Uehli, E., Rudolf Steiner als Künstler. 1921, Stuttgart: Der Kommnede Tag.

[14]

[15] [16] [17] [18] [19] [20] [21]

[22] [23]

[24]

[25] [26] [27]

[28]

[29] [30] [31]

Steiner, R., The Dornach Building, Lecture at The Hague, 28 Feb 1921, in Rudolf Steiner Architecture, A. Beard, Editor. 2003, Sophia Books: Forest Row.

Paull, J., Ernesto Genoni: Australia's pioneer of biodynamic agriculture. Journal of Organics, 2014. 1(1): p. 57-81.

Paull, J., The Anthroposophic Art of Ernesto Genoni, Goetheanum, 1924. Journal of Organics, 2016. 3(2): p. 1-24.

Genoni, E., Personal memoir. c.1970, 9 pp., typewritten manuscript, last date mentioned is 1966, A4. Private collection.

Genoni, E., Personal memoir. c.1955, 26 pp., handwritten manuscript, last date mentioned is 1952, school exercise book. Private collection.

The Register, Modernity in Art - New Architectural Forms. The Register (Adelaide, Australia), 1925. 31 December: p. 5.

Biesantz, H. and A. Klingborg, The Goetheanum: Rudolf Steiner's Architectural Impulse. 1979, London: Rudolf Steiner Press.

Metaxa, G., Typed letter, Dear Friends and fellow members. 2 pages. 25 December. Anthroposophical Society. 1922, 46 Gloucester Place, London.

Basler Nachrichten, Das Goetheanum niedergebrannt. Basler Nachrichten, 1923. 2 January.

Basler Nachrichten, Zum Brand im Goetheanum - Ott in Verdacht als Brandstifter oder Mitwisser. Basler Nachrichten, 1923. 5 January.

National Zeitung, The account of the burning of the Goetheanum from the National Zeitung. Anthroposophy, 1923. 2(1-2, January- February): p. 18-19.

Steffen, A., The destruction of the Goetheanum by fire. Anthroposophy, 1923. 2(1-2): p. 10-13.

BBC News, Notre-Dame: The story of the fire in graphics and images. BBC News, 2019. 16 April.

ABC News, Notre Dame fire: Paris cathedral spire collapses as blaze tears through landmark. ABC News, 2019. 16 April.

Vandoorne, S., A. Crouin, and B. Britton, Notre Dame fire could have been started by a cigarette or an electrical fault, prosecutors say. CNN, 2019. 26 June.

Balzer, M., The unsolved Goetheanum case: A play is devoted to the fire of New Year'ds Eve 1922. Aargauer Zeitung, 2019. 2 May.

Basler Nachrichten, Zur Untersuchung über den Goetheanum-Brand. Basler Nachrichten, 1923. 11 January.

Neue Zürcher Nachrichten, Ein wichtiger Fund bei den Aufräumungsarbeiten am Goetheanum. Neue Zürcher Nachrichten, 1923. 13 January.

10

Journal of Fine Arts V3 ● I2 ● 2020

 

The First Goetheanum: A Centenary for Organic Architecture

[32] Aschoff, G., Neues vom Goetheanum-Brand. Das Goetheanum, 2007. 1-2.

[33] Prokofieff, S.O., May Human Beings Hear It!: The Mystery of the Christmas Conference. 2014, Forest Row, UK: Temple Lodge.

[34] Real Insurance, The most common causes of house fires. 2013, Sydney: Real Insurance.

[35] Campbell, R., Structure Fires in Warehouse Properties. 2016, Quincy, MA: National Fire Protection Association.

[36] Ravenscroft, T., The Spear of Destiny: The Occult Power Behind the Spear Which Pierced the Side of Christ and how Hitler inverted the Force in a bid to conquer the World. 1982, York Beach, ME: Samuel Weiser Inc.

[37] Paull, J., Dr Rudolf Steiner's Shed: The Schreinerei at Dornach. Journal of Bio-Dynamics Tasmania, 2018. 127(September): p. 14-19.

[38] Steiner, R., The Goetheanum in the ten years of its life, VI. Anthroposophy, 1923. 2(4): p. 37-41.

[39] Raab, R., A. Klingborg, and A. Fant, Eloquent Concrete: How Rudolf Steiner Employed Reinforced Concrete. 1979, London: Rudolf Steiner Press.

[40] Steiner, M., Proceedings of the Founding Conference of the General Anthroposophical Society. 1944, Roneoed publication. "As edited and published by Marie Steiner in 1944. Translated by Frances E Dawson": "For Members of the General Anthroposophical Society".

  

hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-02566578/document

relates to Sammy´s www.flickr.com/photos/196910382@N03/53321045230/in/dateta...

Les Invalides contains museums and monuments, all relating to the military history of France, as well as a hospital and a retirement home for war veterans, the building's original purpose. The buildings house the Musée de l'Armée (the military museum of the Army of France), the Musée des Plans-Reliefs and the Musée d'Histoire Contemporaine, as well as the Dôme des Invalides, a large church, the tallest in Paris at a height of 350 feet. It houses tombs of some of France's war heroes, most notably Napoleon. The architect of Les Invalides was Libéral Bruant. By the time the enlarged project was completed in 1676, the river front measured 643 feet, and the complex had 15 courtyards, the largest being the cour d'honneur ("court of honor") for military parades. Jules Hardouin-Mansart assisted the aged Bruant, and the chapel for veterans was finished in 1679. This chapel was known as Église Saint-Louis des Invalides, and daily attendance of the veterans in the church services was required. Shortly after the veterans' chapel was completed, Louis XIV commissioned Mansart to construct a separate private royal chapel referred to as the Église du Dôme. The domed chapel was finished in 1708. The building retained its primary function of a retirement home and hospital for military veterans until the early 20th century. In 1872 the musée d'artillerie (Artillery Museum) was located within the building to be joined by the musée historique des armées (Historical Museum of the Armies) in 1896. The two institutions were merged to form the present Musée de l'Armée in 1905. At the same time, the veterans in residence were dispersed to smaller centers outside Paris, as the building became too large for its original purpose. The modern complex includes facilities about a hundred elderly or incapacitated former soldiers, including one gentleman sitting outside in full World War II army dress.

  

Today in Ireland and in the US new regulations relating to drones has been introduced [effective from the 21st of December 2015]. There are many similarities in the regulations but there is one major differences in that here in Ireland they have not mention the penalties for failure to register but in the US the cost of failure to register appears to be rather extreme … “civil penalties up to $27,500, or criminal penalties up to 3 years in prison and $250,000.” According to the minister the aim here in Ireland is to encourage drone users to be responsible citizens.

  

I have included the press releases from both administrations, have a read and see what you think.

  

Thursday, 17th December 2015: The Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) today announced a new drone regulation which includes the mandatory registration of all drones weighing 1kg or more from Monday, 21st December 2015.

 

The use of drones worldwide is expanding rapidly and there are estimated to be between 4,000 – 5,000 drones already in use in Ireland. Ireland has taken a proactive role in this fast emerging area and is currently one of only a handful of EU Member states that has legislation governing the use of drones.

 

The new legislation is intended to further enhance safety within Ireland and specifically addresses the safety challenges posed by drones.

 

From 21st December 2015, all drones weighing 1kg or more must be registered with the IAA via www.iaa.ie/drones. Drone registration is a simple two-step process. To register a drone, the registrant must be 16 years of age or older (Drones operated by those under 16 years of age must be registered by a parent or legal guardian). A nominal fee will apply from February 2016 but this has been initially waived by the IAA in order to encourage early registration.

  

Mr Ralph James, IAA Director of Safety Regulation, said

 

“Ireland is already recognised worldwide as a centre of excellence for civil aviation and the drone sector presents another major opportunity for Ireland. We’re closely working with industry to facilitate its successful development here. At the same time, safety is our top priority and we must ensure that drones are used in a safe way and that they do not interfere with all other forms of aviation.

 

Mr James explained that drone registration has been made a mandatory requirement as this will help the IAA to monitor the sector in the years ahead. The IAA encourages all drone operators to take part in training courses which are available through a number of approved drone training organisations.

 

“We would strongly encourage drone operators to register with us as quickly as possible, to complete a training course and to become aware of their responsibilities. People operating drones must do so in safe and responsible manner and in full compliance with the new regulations”, he said.

 

Welcoming the introduction of drone regulation, Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Paschal Donohoe TD highlighted the importance of the new legislation and commended the IAA for the efficient manner to have the new registration system in place so quickly.

 

“The core safety message promoted today advocates the safe use of drones in civilian airspace. The development of drone technology brings opportunities as well as challenges for businesses and services in Ireland. I expect hundreds if not thousands of drones to be bought as presents this Christmas so getting the message to ensure that new owners and operators are aware of their responsibilities and the requirement to register all drones over 1 kg from 21st December 2015 is key. Tremendous potential exists for this sector and Ireland is at the forefront of its development. The speedy response by the IAA to this fast developing aviation area will make sure that drones are properly regulated and registered for use. As a result, Ireland is well placed to exploit the drone sector and to ensure industry growth in this area,” he said.

  

The new legislation prohibits users from operating their drones in an unsafe manner. This includes never operating a drone:

 

• if it will be a hazard to another aircraft in flight

• over an assembly of people

• farther than 300m from the operator

• within 120m of any person, vessel or structure not under the operator’s control

• closer than 5km from an aerodrome

• in a negligent or reckless manner so as to endanger life or property of others

• over 400ft (120m) above ground level

• over urban areas

• in civil of military controlled airspace

• in restricted areas (e.g. military installations, prisons, etc.)

• unless the operator has permission from the landowner for takeoff and landing.

  

For further information please visit www.iaa.ie/drones and see the IAA’s detailed Q&A sheet.

  

The Federal Aviation Administration has officially launched the drone registration program first reported in October. Drone operators are required to register their UAVs with the Unmanned Aircraft System registry starting December 21. Failure to register could result in criminal and civil penalties.

 

Under the new system, all aircraft must be registered with the FAA including those 'operated by modelers and hobbyists.' Once registered, drone operators must carry the registration certificate during operation. This new system only applies to drones weighing more than 0.55lbs/250g and less than 55lbs/25kg. The only exception to the registration requirement is indoor drone flights.

 

Required registration information includes a mailing address and physical address, email address, and full names; however, no information on the drone's make, model, or serial number is required from recreational users. Non-recreational users will need to provide drone information, including serial number, when that particular registration system goes live.

 

Failure to register could result in civil penalties up to $27,500, or criminal penalties up to 3 years in prison and $250,000. A $5 registration charge is applied, but will be refunded to those who register before January 20. The registration certificate is sent in an email to be printed at home.

Uses: Anything relating to finance and money.

 

Free Creative Commons Finance Images... I created these images in my studio and have made them all available for personal or commercial use. Hope you like them and find them useful.

 

To see more of our CC by 2.0 finance images click here... see profile for attribution.

Blog relating to this story .... peterjemmett.blogspot.com/2019/10/heart-attack-to-10k-par...

Uses: Anything relating to finance and money.

 

Free Creative Commons Finance Images... I created these images in my studio and have made them all available for personal or commercial use. Hope you like them and find them useful.

 

To see more of our CC by 2.0 finance images click here... see profile for attribution.

 

Inspiration: Making money. Personal finance. Analyzing the dollar, investing, stock market, etc.

Uses: Anything relating to finance and money.

 

Free Creative Commons Finance Images... I created these images in my studio and have made them all available for personal or commercial use. Hope you like them and find them useful.

 

To see more of our CC by 2.0 finance images click here... see profile for attribution.

 

Inspiration: dollar, exchange rate, currency, money, US economy

 

Tradition relates that it was St. James the Apostle who came to Spain to spread the Gospel. January 2nd, forty years following the birth of Our Saviour, says the legend, St. James was already in Saragossa, walking along the Ebro River with seven of his disciples whom he had chosen to help him to teach the faith.

 

While St. James walked with his brethren along the Ebro River and talked to them, Our Lady, then still on this earth, was in Jerusalem. She prayed ardently to her Son for the success of the mission of St. James because she knew about the great venture. And, as Mary prayed with much fervor, Jesus appeared to her and promised help to St. James. At the same time, He told His Mother that angels would take her to Spain to encourage the Apostle. And immediately the seraphs carried Our Lady through the skies over the Mediterranean to Saragossa where James the Apostle was kneeling at the banks of the Ebro. He suddenly saw a radiant light and then his ears were filled with heavenly music. All the disciples shared with him the beautiful vision. Mary appeared to them seated on a throne, borne by angels and while James the Apostle and the disciples gazed up at her, she smilingly told him that she had come to help. She then asked that a church be erected on the spot. And as evidence of her appearance, Our Lady took from the hands of one of the angels at her service a small column of jasper upon which there was placed a beautiful small statue of herself, carved in wood.

 

Then the apparition faded out.

 

The pillar with the statue, however, remained there in Saragossa and this is the statue of Our Lady of the Pillar venerated ever since in that Spanish city.

 

St. James succeeded in his mission though he died the death of a martyr. His earthly remnants are buried in the city of Santiago de Compostela and he is considered the patron saint of Spain.

 

Very soon after the vision accorded to St. James and the disciples, a modest chapel was built as Our Lady had requested. This chapel was eventually destroyed and many other churches and chapels shared the same fate; the pillar with the statue, however, remained intact. It is a fact that Romans, Goths, Moors, Vandals and other invaders could never desecrate or destroy the statue itself because the people of Saragossa defended it with fierce heroism. All the kings of Spain, many other foreign rulers and saints have paid their devotion before this statue of Mary. St. John of the Cross, St. Teresa of Avila, St. Ignatius of Loyola are among the most outstanding ones. The present church was built in 1686 by Charles II, King of Spain.

 

"The sentiment of the Saragossans toward their beloved Virgen del Pilar is far different from the ordinary devotion paid to a favorite saint. It is an inheritance from their forefathers, a love that is born with them, and ends only with their lives. It is interwoven with their patriotism, with their nationality, with their home life, and with their daily tasks and amusements… In their talks, she is the ever-recurrent theme, and in their patriotic songs, they acclaim her as the leader of their nation. Saragossans say that the church of the Virgen del Pilar was the first raised in her honor and will last as long as the faith."

Jesus can relate to you and me. His life was full of immense suffering so he understands intimately what we go through every day.

 

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Okay, lookit, I bought this card at Metrolina before or after the events I'm relating, and I'm more interested in telling my story than I am in the card. I mean, to everything[s] a season, right? I'm pretty sure this is Bunny Yeager, though whether she took the photograph or someone else did I don't know. She has some assets. I'd like to drive down to Miami and meet her. Even now. But back to our story [If you haven't read the story up to now, go back one photo to the picture of the woman in the white dress. That's where the story started.]

 

At some point during the day of the encounter with the cranky dealer, I was looking at my New York Times for Friday, November 5th. I usually look at the arts section first, and I happened to see an article about, what else, glass lantern slides. Museums are digging them out of their basements and dusting them off and putting them on exhibit. So here's this article on the day when I first considered buying a glass lantern slide. It was like God was talking to me.

 

So that night, in bed (I do a lot of thinking in bed, alas) I thought about the glass lantern slide. It had, how do I say this, mrwaterslide written all over it. Its subject was pretty much total mrwaterslide + a whole lot of johnny (mrwaterslide's cohabitor). It was romantic, and it was a tad kinky, it was unusual, it was shocking (a bit), it was naughty (a bit, well, sort of like foreplay). In short, mrwaterslide realized that he had to have the glass lantern slide. It was him and he was it. God had indeed spoken directly.

 

Problem was, I had alienated the dealer, and there was no way he was going to sell me that glass lantern slide. He might even jack up the price, and try to sell it to me for $200 or something outrageous. I had offended him. How to get the lantern slide?

 

I came up with a plan.

 

The next day, about noon, I got out to Metrolina again. They sell you one ticket that's good for the whole week. The price used to be higher, but they got thrown for a loop when the show fragmented. I went right over to the concrete pad with the metal roof over it. At the front of this space, there is another dealer who has been there a long time. He's a nice guy, and he has a sense of humor, and I've bought from him before.

 

So I told the nice antiques dealer my story about the cranky antiques dealer, and how I had alienated him and now he wouldn't sell me anything, and I told him about the glass lantern slide, and how I had decided that I had to have it. The nice antiques dealer had never heard of a glass lantern slide. He was afraid he wouldn't be able to recognize it. But I told him the subject matter of the glass lantern slide, and explained that there was no way he could mistake it for something else. I asked the nice antiques dealer if he would go buy the slide for me, and he said he would. I gave him $50, which was the price the cranky guy said he wanted for the lantern slide. I was going to stay in the booth of the nice antiques dealer and watch his stuff while he was gone. The other dealer was only like thirty or forty yards away, but there were a number of dealers intervening, and no chance that Cranky Guy would catch on.

 

The nice antiques dealer was gone for maybe six or eight minutes. I told him not to just go in there and ask to see the glass lantern slide. He needed to be a guy looking for photographs, and then the Cranky Dealer Guy would get excited, and show him the glass lantern slide. This is what the Cranky Dealer Guy did with me, before I insulted him and alienated him and he became abusive.

 

So after the minutes have passed, I see the dealer fellow, the nice guy, returning to his set-up. He has the look of a man who has successfully completed his mission. I can see something that looks like the glass lantern slide in one hand, and he has some cash in the other hand. [To Be Continued]

  

Midori is releasing a series of new products relating to the popular Traveler's Notebook. In an attempt to create the same aesthetic of the leather notebook, the development team chose to use brass as the material which radiates the same pleasing quality as it ages. I think it is an excellent choice of material, it gives you the feeling of a trusted old friend, give it a little polishing it comes back to a shiny companion.

 

The brass series includes 12 pieces of numbered clips, a 15cm ruler with raised edge for easy pick up, a solid brass pen case and bullet pen/pencils. These bullet pen/pencils are available in white or brown barrels in addition to the brass ones. The pens have a ring at one end for strap add-on while the pencils have a large eraser instead.

 

During the Midori private show I visited, I learned that they are preparing for a "Traveler's notebook & company" exhibition to be held in Spiral Market again this year around March/April. I am glad to be invited to contribute some contents for their on-site newsletter in "what's in my bag" style.

 

The large size Traveler's Notebook is far more popular than the passport size they released last year. To promote the use of the passport size Traveler's Notebook, which can be used as an actual passport jacket with note keeping capability and kept close to your body, Midori is releasing more add-ons such as new refills, rub-on letters and 2 limited edition refills which looks like a real passport. In the limited edition refill package, they thoughtfully included rub-on letters in passport looking font so you can personalize the notebook on the last page like it is a real thing.

 

Finally, since document envelope with string closure is very difficult to find in Japan, "Kraft envelopes" are created. It gives a crafty way to store your receipts or coasters collected from travels, either use them individually or make them handy by taping them on the notebook refill cover.

 

Here's my 2 cents about material use. I love the brass application on the hardware (pen case, clip, pen and ruler), while Midori is proud of its range of high quality paper products, application of tougher material on the notebook covers or even envelopes and document holders will add similar aesthetic and durability to this overlooked area. I would recommend to use jean label material in the form of cellulose fibre in combination of leather and paper to create a new range of pleasing products under the Traveler's Notebook collection.

 

More on Scription blog: moleskine.vox.com/library/post/what-materials-age-well-br...

Bartolomeo Pinelli (1771-1835) - Telemachus Relates His Adventures to the Goddess Calypso, from The Adventures of Telemachus, Book 1 (1815)

 

www.artic.edu/artworks/17971/telemachus-relates-his-adven...

Alfred B Bales……………………………….......49 Canadian Batt

 

Name: BALES Initials: A B

Rank: Private Regiment: Canadian Infantry (Alberta Regiment) Unit Text: 49th Bn.

Date of Death: 07/04/1916 Service No: 436662

Grave/Memorial Reference: I. A. 22. Cemetery: MENIN ROAD SOUTH MILITARY CEMETERY

CWGC www.cwgc.org/search/casualty_details.aspx?casualty=95745

 

There is a picture of Private Alfred Benjamin Bales on Norlink

norlink.norfolk.gov.uk/02_Catalogue/02_013_PictureTitleIn...

 

The accompanying notes read

Private Bales was born at Norwich, 21st October 1892 and was educated at the Model and Municipal Secondary School. He enlisted in December 1914 and was killed in action at Ypres, 7th April 1916.

 

The 8 year Alfred appears on the 1901 Census at 19 Magdalen Street in the Parish of St Clements. This is the household of his parents, Ernest William, (aged 37 and a Saddle & Harness Maker and Leather Dealer from Norwich), and Anna Maria, (aged 39 and from Morwich). Their other children are:-

Anna Maud……………aged 12.………………born Norwich

Ernest William…………aged 11.………………born Norwich

 

Alfred Benjamin was baptised at St Clements on the 22nd December 1899. His birth date is simply given as 1882. Parents are Ernest William, a Saddler and Anna Maria. The family are living at Magdalen Street.

Alfred also appears on the NORWICH CATHEDRAL - BOYS MODEL SCHOOL WAR MEMORIAL

www.roll-of-honour.com/Norfolk/NorwichBoysModelSchool.html

 

The enlistment papers for Private Alfred Benjamin Bales can be seen on line here:-

www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/databases/cef/001042-119.02-e...

www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/databases/cef/001042-119.02-e...

 

They confirm he was born Norwich, but gives date of birth as the 18th October 1892. He gives his next of kin as E Wm Bales residing at 17 Magdalen Street. He was single and gave his occupation as farmer, (plus an undecipherable word). He had no previous military experience. At the time of his medical examination on the 25th January 1915 he was 22 years and three months, stood 5 foot 7 inches tall, with light brown hair, blue eyes, and a fair complexion.

 

It was the 31st Battalion that was the Albert Regiment. The 49th was the Edmonton Regiment. The battalion has no Battle Honours relating to the period of Alfred’s death.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_infantry_battalions_in_the_...

 

The 49th was in action at the St Eloi craters at this time, in one of the many pointless actions of the war based on the poor quality of the Army high command.

 

From Chapter 5 of the Nicholson Matrix, there is a description of the action, though no specific reference to the 49th but there is to the 31st .

 

Throughout 4 and 5 April the whole of the Canadian front line came under almost continual bombardment. The intensity of the German fire was described by a British artillery officer who had been in the Ypres Salient for the past year as far greater than any he had hitherto experienced.39 Both battalion sectors were hard hit, and 200 yards of trench in the 27th Battalion’s area were completely demolished. The destruction of the sandbag parapet in one of the 31st Battalion’s trenches exposed the Canadians to enfilade machine-gun fire from position 85 as well as to sniping from the German lines, only 150 yards away. Although each man dug his own slit trench in the mud, casualties mounted rapidly. By noon on the 4th every second man in one of the 27th’s forward companies had been hit. The battalion commander, Lt.-Col. I. R. Snider, was forced to thin out his front line, leaving in front of the craters only bombing parties supplied by battalions of the 5th Brigade and four Lewis gun detachments from the 5th Brigade Machine Gun Company. He had no contact with the 31st Battalion on his left. On the evening of 5 April small parties from the 28th Battalion were sent out to station themselves in the four big craters and act as snipers and observers until these could be trenched and garrisoned. There is doubt that the positions which they occupied were actually the designated craters. Later that same night the 29th Battalion began relieving the badly depleted forward companies of the 27th Battalion.40

 

This relief dragged out interminably. The incoming troops, burdened with extra equipment, had to struggle forward in a long line through the mud and congestion of the same narrow communication trench that was being used by pioneers moving up to work on the craters and by other parties coming to the rear, many of them wounded. The exchange was still in progress when at 3:30 a.m. on the 6th, following an intense barrage, the Germans attacked with two battalions* astride the road which ran from St. Eloi south-eastward to Warneton and before its destruction had passed between the sites of the 3rd and 4th craters. Effective resistance was impossible. West of the road the two relieving companies were not yet in position, having failed to find the positions manned by the 5th Brigade. They could do little more than deflect the tide of the German attack eastward, where it quickly wiped out the machine-gun posts and flowed through the resulting gap in front of the central craters. The eastern wing of the assault was held up momentarily by crossfire from the 31st Battalion’s machine-guns, which also repelled attacks against Craters 6 and 7 and the line to the east. Artillery fire on the enemy’s lines of approach by all available British field guns failed to stop the attackers, some of whom got through by splitting into small groups. The Germans quickly secured Craters 2 and 3 and from these points of vantage soon spread into Craters 4 and 5. In less than three hours the enemy had regained all the ground taken from him between 27 March and 3 April. 41

 

The Canadians launched local counter-attacks with the minimum of delay. The only feasible way to regain the craters seemed to be by bombing, but the element of surprise was missing and the efforts accomplished nothing. On the right bombers of the 27th and 29th Battalions attempting to reoccupy Craters 2 and 3 were caught in the mire and shot down before they could get close enough to fling their grenades. On the left Brig.-Gen. Ketchen ordered the 31st Battalion, reinforced with a detachment from the 28th, to retake Craters 4 and 5. But their unfamiliarity with the ground and the complete absence of recognizable landmarks caused the attackers to repeat the mistake made by British troops ten days earlier. Forced to make their approach from the side, they lost direction and occupied Craters 6 and 7, reporting that they had regained 4 and 5. German shellfire during the remainder of 6 April and on succeeding days isolated the two craters that the Canadians were holding, so that no reconnoitring officer could reach them in daylight. Because of bad weather no air photograph of the positions was taken from the 8th until the 16th. The mistake was to persist throughout that entire period.†42 The occupants of the two craters could see on their right the high edge of what they believed to be Crater 3 (The Mound), but which was in reality No. 5. On the night of 6-7 April the 28th Battalion sent out 75 bombers, supported by two companies, to regain this objective. Enemy shellfire and heavy rain held them up. Losing their way in the darkness they occupied a group of craters north of No. 4, and there captured several small German patrols. They had failed to attain their objective, or even identify it correctly. During the night the 4th Canadian Brigade (Brig.-Gen. R. Rennie) relieved the 6th Brigade, which had suffered 617 casualties in its four days of fighting.43 For the next week confusion was to persist with respect to the exact positions held by the Canadians.

cefresearch.com/matrix/Nicholson/Transcription/

 

Background to the creation of the battalion is here

www.lermuseum.org/ler/rh/ch1_page05.html

The same source has no mention of the 49th being involved in the St Eloi action

www.lermuseum.org/ler/rh/ch2_page03.html

 

Mack Billin,……………………………..............14th Essex Regiment

 

Name: BILLIN, MACK

Rank: Private Regiment/Service: Essex Regiment Unit Text: 13th Bn.

Date of Death: 13/11/1916 Service No: 28341

Grave/Memorial Reference: Pier and Face 10 D. Memorial: THIEPVAL MEMORIAL

CWGC www.cwgc.org/search/casualty_details.aspx?casualty=768669

(Note - different Battalion)

No match on Norlink

 

The 6 year old Mack is recorded at 10 New Yard in the Parish of St Pauls. This is the household of his parents, Mark, (aged 36 and a Shoemaker from Norwich), ans Alice, (aged 29 and from Norwich). Their other children are:-

Alice…………………….aged 8.………………….born Norwich

Herbert………………….aged 5.………………….born Norwich

Lily………………………aged 7 months…………born Norwich

Walter……………………aged 7 months…………born Norwich

 

Monday 13th November 1916. Day 136

 

The Battle of the Ancre, the final battle of the Somme Campaign began today.

 

13th Essex (Part of 6 Brigade) - Redan Ridge

 

2nd Div attacked Redan Ridge north of Beaumont Hamel with 6 Bde on the left and 5 Bde on the right. 99 Bde was in reserve. 5 Bde formed up in No Man’s Land and, staying close to the creeping barrage, took the German front line with little difficulty. 2nd Bn, Highland Light Infantry and 24th Royal Fusiliers pressed on to Beaumont Trench. The Fusiliers blocked the trench because 6 Bde’s advance had fallen behind. They fought off some German bombing attacks.

 

6 Bde had real problems. Fog and mud slowed the advance as did fire from the Quadrilateral. Added to which the German wire was intact. Troops from the brigade’s four battalions entered the German trenches where they were pinned down by MG fire.

 

By 7.30 am only 5 Bde was ready to move on to the second objective, Frankfurt Trench. Only a few men reached this objective and soon withdrew. Also at 7.30am 99 Bde began to move forward to support the attack but orders for an advance by the brigade were cancelled and 2nd Div began to consolidate on it’s captured trenches. 6 Bde was withdrawn to re-org.

forum.irishmilitaryonline.com/showthread.php?t=9058&p...

 

14th (Reserve) Battalion

Formed at Brentwood in September 1915 from depot companies of 13th Bn.

Moved to Northampton in January 1916 and went on in the May to Aldershot.

1 September 1916 : converted into 98th Training Reserve Battalion of 23rd Reserve Brigade at Aldershot.

www.1914-1918.net/essex.htm

 

I suspect therefore Private Billin fell in the company of many from the 13th Essex, rather than the 14th Essex as shown on the church roll of honour as that unit never made it to france and had already effectively ceased to exist.

 

William Chilvers………………………………...1st Norfolks

 

Name: CHILVERS, WILLIAM

Rank: Lance Corporal Regiment/Service: Norfolk Regiment Unit Text: 1st Bn.

Age: 37 Date of Death: 31/07/1916 Service No: 3/10187

Additional information: Son of Mr. and Mrs. Chilvers, of Garden House, Newton, St. Faith's, Norwich; husband of Anna Elizabeth Gray (formerly Chilvers), of 12, Thoroughfare Yard, Magdalen St., Norwich.

Grave/Memorial Reference: Pier and Face 1 C and 1 D. Memorial: THIEPVAL MEMORIAL

CWGC www.cwgc.org/search/casualty_details.aspx?casualty=760002

 

No match on Norlink

 

No obvious match on the 1911 or 1901 census However on the 1911 census there is a William born circa 1857 in Norwich now recorded in St Faiths district.

 

On the 1891 census that William is living at 52 Albany Road in the Parish of St Clements and is a Brush Finisher by trade. His wife is Amelia, aged 33 and a General Shop-keeper from Norwich. The eldest of their children is our man, “Willy”, aged 12 and born Norwich. Their other children are:-

Maud…………….aged 9.………………born Norwich

George…………..aged 8.……………….born Norwich

May……………aged 6.…………………born Norwich

Amelia…………aged 3.…………………born Norwich

Henry…………..aged 1.…………………born Norwich.

 

The Chilvers also have a lodger living with them, Harriet Harwood, (aged 25 and a Boot Machinist from Norwich), and her one year old daughter, Rosa.

 

On the 1901 census the family have moved to 69 Spencer Street in the Parish of St James with Pockthorpe. “Willie” has moved out, not surprisingly really as the family has grown to include

Nellie………….aged 9.…………………born Norwich

Laura………….aged 7.………………….born Norwich

Fred……………aged 6.…………………born Norwich

Edith V…………aged u/1.………………born Norwich

 

I initially found a baptismal record for a William Chilvers, but in the light of the above this is possibly the right person, its just that the dates don’t tie up. A William Chilvers, son of a William (Brush Finisher by occupation) and Amelia, took place at St Stephens, Norwich on 27th January 1879, and his birth date was given as 11th August 1877, which does not marry up to any of the other dates above. The family were living at Butcher’s Court, St Stephens.

 

I believe William’s brother Henry is recorded on the St Faiths War Memorial, which ties in with the family location in 1911

www.flickr.com/photos/43688219@N00/2871580378/

 

The 1st Norfolks were relieving a fellow Brigade Unit, the 1st Bedfords, on the day that Private Chilvers died.

 

31st July 1916

 

OPERATION ORDERS NO.7 1/BEDFORDSHIRE RGT. Ref. Sheet LONGUEVAL 31st July 1916

1. The Battn. will be relieved at dark by 1/NORFOLK Rgt.

2. On Relief Battn. will withdraw to area East of Church, where they will get into SLIT Trenches they dug on arrival in LONGUEVAL last night.

3. O.C. Coys. will report their arrival in this area to Battn. H.Q.

4. O.C. Coys. will send one guide each to Bn.H.Q. at once to guide NORFOLK coys up.

5. Later (about 11 p.m.) the 1/CHESHIRE RGT. will arrive in the area.

6. On arrival of 1/CHESHIRE Rgt, coys will withdraw independently to POMMIERS Redoubt, without being relieved.

7. O.C. Coys. will report the final departure of their coys to Bn.H.Q.

Report on Operations 30 July - 1st August 1916. REF. Sheet LONGUEVAL 1/BEDFORDSHIRE RGT 30.7.'16 6.45 P.M.

Orders received to reinforce in LONGUEVAL 2/K.O.S.B. holding Line. 1/R.W.Kents in support. Leading platoon moved off at 6.53 p.m. and reached LONGUEVAL at 7.45 p.m. relieving 1/R.W.KENTS 10.12 p.m. O.C. 2/K.O.S.B. reported that his men were retiring from Line S.11.d.9/5 to S.11.c.5/8. A & C Coys were directed to proceed with guides of K.O.S.B. to hold & consolidate this line. B & D Coys were directed to hold line S.11.d.9/5 to S.17.b.0/9. It was proposed to withdraw K.O.S.B. into reserve at dawn. 11.45 p.m. Message received by O.C. K.O.S.B. that GORDONS 51st DIVISION were in Sunken Road & that K.O.S.B. were to bomb towards them. 31.7.'16 12.10 A.M. Enemy started intense bombardment 12.45 A.M. Orderly returned from A & C Coys & reported K.O.S.B. Guides could not show them the way up to front line. O.C. A & C Coys were instructed to establish themselves on the Line B.C.D.E. (S.11.d.4/8 to S.11.c.5.5) & to send out patrols to ascertain if any K.O.S.B. were holding forward line. 2.30 A.M. All Coys reported heavy casualties [2 officers Killed & several wounded]. B & D Coys reported themselves to be in position as ordered from S.11.d.5/5 to S.11.b.0/9. Two wounded prisoners were taken by 'A' Coy. Reinforcements had been asked for at 10.54 A.M. O.C. D Coy reported that he had been able to get in touch with Division on right. O.C. C Coy reported that owing to mist darkness & shell fire it was impossible to recognise the line B.C.D.E, that he was in touch with K.O.S.B. & would establish himself in the forward position at dawn. Telephone communication established between Bn. H.Q. & front line 6.25 A.M. Order received from Bde to relieve K.O.S.B. who were to move into reserve. O.C. C.Coy. reported by Telephone that his patrols were unable to get forward. Two Machine Guns enfilading NORTH STREET & heavy sniping from his front. Companies were now as follows: - D.Coy from PICCADILLY to NORTH ST. on DUKE ST. B.Coy. continuing this line into DELVILLE WOOD. A.Coy. crossroads NORTH ST./FLERS RD. to ORCHARD. C.Coy. in support of A.Coy. with refused flank about S.11.d.8/3 & two platoons North of FLERS Rd. about S.11.d.4/4. C.Coy. were still endeavouring to gain touch with 2nd Divn. The position taken up could be seen from the opposite ridge & any movement attracted heavy shell fire. There was also considerable sniping from the direction of FLERS Rd. 6.0. P.M. 1/NORFOLK RGT. arrived and relieved 2/K.O.S.B. and the forward BEDF. coys, who were moved back to reserve position E. of Church. 10.30 P.M. 1/CHESHIRE RGT. arrived & relief of 1/BEDF. R. was completed by Midnight. 1/BEDF. R. returned to POMMIERS REDOUBT. 11 P.M. A patrol from C.Coy. trying to get into touch with 2nd Division approached the German line in NORTH of DELVILLE WOOD & attracted a big burst of fire.

Source www.bedfordregiment.org.uk/1stbn/1stbtn1916appendices.html

 

William John Chilvers………………………… .1st Rifle Brigade

 

Name: CHILVERS Initials: W J

Rank: Rifleman Regiment/Service: Rifle Brigade Unit Text: 1st Bn.

Date of Death: 29/03/1918 Service No: S/37032

Grave/Memorial Reference: I. J. 17. Cemetery: POINT-DU-JOUR MILITARY CEMETERY, ATHIES

CWGC www.cwgc.org/search/casualty_details.aspx?casualty=257132

 

The index to the Great War Roll of Honour confirms that Rifleman Chilvers was a William J.

 

No match on Norlink

 

There is a William John born circa 1899 in Norwich and now recorded in the district of Forehoe on the 1911 census, but otherwise there are plenty of William’s from Norwich and of the right sort of age. This individual, aged 2, is recorded at 99, Norfolk Street, in the Parish of St Stephens. This is the household of his parents, John Rackham, (aged 50 and a Gardener from Morton, Norfolk), and Anna Chilvers, (aged 23 and from Norwich)

 

Divisional Battle Honour

First Battle of Arras. 28 Mar 1918

 

At 3am on Thursday 28 March the early morning stillness was shattered by the chaotic din of a terrific German bombardment. Shortly after 7am German infantry attacked. Unaided by fog and, in places, going forward in mass formations, they met with devastating fire from British artillery and well-sited machine guns.

South of the Scarpe German infiltrations via communication trenches forced 3rd and 15th Divisions back from their front lines by 8.30am; gradual withdrawals were made to the rear of the Battle Zone; despite great pressure no effective breakthroughs were made. The greatest German efforts were made north of the Scarpe: attacking across difficult ground enemy infantry successfully progressed up the valley between 4th and 56th Division positions forcing British fighting withdrawals to the Battle Zone; despite repeated attacks the line held.

www.cwgc.org/spring1918/content.asp?menuid=34&submenu...

 

Charles Goulder………………………………....1st Norfolks

 

Name: GOULDER, CHARLES

Rank: Private Regiment/Service: Norfolk Regiment Unit Text: 1st Bn.

Age: 35 Date of Death: 27/07/1916 Service No: 3/8037

Additional information: Son of Henry and Sophia Goulder, of 49, Fishergate St., Norwich; husband of Sarah Goulder, of I, Tiger Yard, Fishergate St., Norwich.

Grave/Memorial Reference: Pier and Face 1 C and 1 D. Memorial: THIEPVAL MEMORIAL

CWGC www.cwgc.org/search/casualty_details.aspx?casualty=786634

 

No match on Norlink

 

The 23 year old Charles , a Shoe Finisher from Norwich, is recorded on the 1901 Census at 49 Fishergate Street in the Parish of St Edmund. This is the household of his Step-father, William Eames, a 63 year old Tailor and Licensed Victualler from Bedford, and mother, Sophia Eames, (aged 53 and a Publican from Norwich). Making up the household is Charles brother John H Y Goulder, aged 26, and like his brother, a shoe finisher from Norwich.

 

Charles isn’t obviously on the 1891 Census., but on the 1881 one the “40” year old Sophia Goulder is a widow, living at what looks like Little Bull Close in the Parish of St Paul, with no occupation, and head of a household of 8, of which Charles is the youngest. Sophia also seems to be absent from the Genes Re-united transcription of the 1891 census, both as a Goulder and as an Eames.

 

Charles was baptised in the church of St Simon and St Jude on the 5th February 1878. His birth date was shown as the 26th December 1877. His father is listed as John Henry, a Labourer, and his mother is Sophia. They are listed simply as residing in the Parish of St Pauls.

 

Note none of these dates and ages from the Census & Baptismal record tie in with him being 35 in 1916, so I guessed he must have lied about his age.

 

Thursday 27th July 1916. Day 27

 

Delville Wood

 

At 7.10am after a one hour barrage on Delville Wood the 1st Bn, KRRC and 23rd Bn, Royal Fusiliers of 99 Bde, 2nd Div began their advance from the south. By 9am they had occupied a line 50 yards from the northern edge of the wood. At 9.30am a German attack forced back the right side of the line slightly so that it ran just east of King St.

 

In conjunction with 2nd Div, 1st Norfolk Regt and 1st Bedfordshire Regt of 15 Bde, 5th Div attacked the west end of the wood and Longueval village. The Bedfords linked up with 2nd Div in the northern end of the wood. Longueval was occupied almost as far as Duke Street

 

That night 17th Middlesex and 2nd South Staffords (6 Bde) relieved 99 Bde. 95 Bde relieved 15 Bde.

Source forum.irishmilitaryonline.com/showthread.php?t=9058&p...

 

REPORT ON OPERATIONS 26/28 JULY 1/BEDFORDSHIRE Rgt 26.7.'16 11.15.P.M.

The Battalion left its Bivouac POMMIERS REDOUBT and marched to Brigade Advanced H.Q. Here owing to very heavy Barrage & poison Gas shells in the Valley the Battalion halted for two hours. The Barrage was still intense but a fresh wind made advance possible & only two cases of gas poisoning have been reported. Shell fire was moderately severe in the valley and increased as the old German Second line Trenches were approached. 27.7.'16 [Capt. PARKER wounded] 3.50 A.M. Battn arrived in position of assembly in German 2nd Line Trenches and improved cover 5.30 A.M. Operation Orders received & communicated to Company Commanders. 7.0 A.M. A & B Coys in accordance with orders, left to take up their position in Reserve trenches at LONGUEVAL. 7.40 A.M. Report received from O.C. 1/NORFOLKS that owing to heavy shell fire, he required assistance 8.20 A.M. OC 1/BEDFORDSHIRE Rgt arrived at H.Q. 1/NORFOLK Rgt in LONGUEVAL having arranged for A & B Coys to assault the second line in conjunction with NORFOLKS & for C & D Coys to pass through & take third line. O.C. 16/ROYAL WARWICKSHIRE Rgt was requested to occupy front line trenches when these were vacated by C & D Coys. A & B Coys had at 7.30 A.M. occupied first line at 'E' & reserve trenches at 'B'. 9.00 A.M. C Coy arrived at E D Coy arrived at B and A Coy pushed across towards German Redoubt at F where the two leading NORFOLK Coys were being held up [100 prisoners surrendered here] Lt. FYSON with his platoon attacked house at G and took 32 prisoners. 9.5 A.M. C Coy advanced across PRINCES Street but were held up by Machine Gun fire from House at Cross Roads (I). This house was taken by a party of NORFOLK bombers. At the same time, two platoons of A Coy reached position marked H & K near FLERS Road where they were in touch in [sic] the ROYAL FUSILIERS on their right. A German counterattack was met with LEWIS Gun & Rifle fire, the estimated Enemy Casualties being 50. Several small posts were observed on the Ridge, apparently protected by wire. 9.30 A.M. C Coy crossed PRINCES STREET and took up a position parallel with NORTH Street joining up the two leading NORFOLK coys. They were unable to progress further owing to heavy Machine Gun fire from DUKE Street. They consolidated their position. 1 Officer & 30 men went forward from B Coy at C to reinforce a Coy of NORFOLKS at A. This coy was held up by Machine Gun fire from direction of DUKE Street & was unable to advance. STOKES Mortar Battery was asked to cooperate, but did not come into action. Later, heavy Artillery was asked to bombard this post. While awaiting this & the opportunity to advance, B & D Coys endeavoured to improve their cover under a hurricane bombardment.

 

6.30 P.M. ROYAL FUSILIERS on right, owing to heavy shell fire, retired and out line at K & H was slightly withdrawn to cover exposed flank. 7.0 P.M. B Coy received orders to retire to German Second Line trenches, leaving one platoon to hold line at A. A similar order was sent to D Coy but did not reach there and a second order was sent at 8.0 P.M. 9.0 P.M. C Coy tried to establish itself on East side of NORTH ST. but had to withdraw. They consolidated in touch with NORFOLKS & the SOUTH STAFFORDS of 2nd Division 28.7.'16 6 A.M. 1/D.C.L.I. & 1/E.SURREYS arrived & took over the line & the Battalion withdrew to POMMIERS Redoubt.

 

15th Infy. Bde. 1st Bedfords

The Brigadier-General Commanding wishes to express to all ranks of the Brigade his great admiration at the magnificent manner in which they captured the Village of LONGUEVAL yesterday. To the 1st NORFOLK Regiment and the 1st BEDFORDSHIRE Regiment and some of the 16th ROYAL WARWICKSHIRE Regiment, who were able to get into the enemy with the bayonet, he offers his heartiest congratulations. He knows it is what they have been waiting and wishing for many months. The 1st CHESHIRE Regiment made a most gallant and determined effort to reach their objective and failed through no fault of their own. The way in which the Troops behaved under the subsequent heavy bombardment was worthy of the best traditions of the British Army The Brigade captured 4 Officers and 159 other ranks 28/7/1916

Source www.bedfordregiment.org.uk/1stbn/1stbtn1916appendices.html

  

Walter Green………………………………........1st Norfolks

 

Name: GREEN, WALTER

Rank: Private Regiment/Service: Norfolk Regiment Unit Text: "B" Coy. 2nd Bn. Age: 33 Date of Death: 09/12/1915 Service No: 3/10638

Additional information: Son of Osborne Green, of Norwich; husband of Alice Maud Campbell (formerly Green), of 6, Peacock St., Norwich.

Memorial: DOIRAN MEMORIAL

CWGC www.cwgc.org/search/casualty_details.aspx?casualty=1649433

 

Note - different Battalion.

 

No match on Norlink

 

The 18 year old Walter, a Printers Labourer from Norwich, is recorded on the 1901 census at 76 Silver Street, in the Parish of St James, Pockthorpe. This is the household of his brother-in-law, Jacob Sexton, (aged 31 and a Boot & Shoe Maker from Norwich.), and presumably his sister, Jacob’s wife, Rose Sexton, (aged 28 and from Norwich).. As well as four Sexton children, the household also contains Rose and Walter’s brother, Robert, (aged 21 and a Builder’s labourer from Norwich), and their father, Osborn Green, a 57 year old widowed Gas Works Labourer from Norwich.

 

On the 1891 census, the 47 year “Osborne” was already a Widower, although described there as an Engine Driver at a Gas Works. The address is difficult to decipher, but looks like 8, Harwardson’s Yard, in the Parish of St Paul.

 

Walter appears to have been baptised in the church of St James with Pockthorpe on the 15th March 1885. His birth date is given as 23rd July 1882. His parents are shown as “Osmond” and Martha. The father’s occupation is shown as Labourer. The family live at “Stewardsons” Yard.

 

Note to self - I’m sure I’ve seen something like Hawardsons Yard down Magdalen Street - go and check.

 

Not quite sure how Private Green ended up being commemorated on the Doiran. His unit was besieged in Kut in Iraq at this time if he was a 2nd Battalion man, or in the trenches on the Somme if he was a 1st Battalion man.

 

Ernest Grimwood………………………………..7th Norfolks

 

Name: GRIMWOOD, ERNEST JAMES

Rank: Private Regiment/Service: Norfolk Regiment Unit Text: 7th Bn.

Age: 18 Date of Death: 12/08/1916 Service No: 9675

Additional information: Son of Mrs. Annie Grimwood, of 5, Thoroughfare Yard, Magdalen St., Norwich.

Grave/Memorial Reference: Pier and Face 1 C and 1 D. Memorial: THIEPVAL MEMORIAL

CWGC www.cwgc.org/search/casualty_details.aspx?casualty=787840

 

Brother of Robert below

No match on Norlink

 

The 2 year old Ernest is recorded on the 1901 census at 15 Handford Cut, Ipswich. This is the household of his parents, William, (aged 31 and a Boot Machinist from Ipswich), and Annie, (aged 28 and from Ipswich). Their other children are:-

Annie…………………….aged 4.……………….born Ipswich

Horace…………………aged 7.…………………born Ipswich

Robert…………………..aged 6.…………………born Ipswich

William…………………aged 9.…………………born Ipswich

 

Neither Ernest or Robert appear to be on the 1911 Census.

 

Saturday 12th August 1916. Day 43

 

7th Norfolk Regt and 9th Essex Regt captured Skyline Trench.

forum.irishmilitaryonline.com/showthread.php?t=9058&p...

(It must subsequently have been re-taken by the Germans. As the Oxs and Bucks Light Infantry seem to have sustained heavy casualties “taking” Skyline trench on the 14th and holding it against the subsequent counter-attacks until relieved. The 1st/1st Bucks Regiment also seemes to have been engaged in an attack to take the Skyline Trench on the 14/15th August)

 

Robert Grimwood……………………………….8th Norfolks

 

Name: GRIMWOOD, ROBERT

Rank: Private Regiment/Service: Norfolk Regiment Unit Text: 8th Bn.

Age: 20 Date of Death: 19/07/1916 Service No: 16154

Additional information: Son of Mrs Annie Grimwood, of 5, Thoroughfare Yard, Magdalen St., Norwich.

Grave/Memorial Reference: Pier and Face 1 C and 1 D. Memorial: THIEPVAL MEMORIAL

CWGC www.cwgc.org/search/casualty_details.aspx?casualty=787844

 

Brother of Ernest above

 

No match on Norlink

 

See Ernest above for census details

 

Wednesday 19th July 1916. Day 19

 

Delville Wood

 

Fighting continued in Delville Wood all day. 53 Bde (18th Div) had been sent to reinforce 9th Div. 8th Norfolks attacked from south west of Longueval at 7am and occupied the southern part of Delville Wood. The 10th Essex, 6th Royal Berkshire Regt and 8th Suffolks were sent to the attack with little success.

Source forum.irishmilitaryonline.com/showthread.php?t=9058

 

6th Royal Berkshire War Diary for the day

3.30AM - Bn arrived at S22d Valley. CO rejoined with orders which were read and explained. Bn ready to move off at 4AM.

5.14 - Norfolks report Zero time to be 6.15AM.

5.40 - Norfolks commence to move off towards LONGUEVAL which was over a mile off. Enemy shell road to LONGUEVAL with field guns. Long halts cause delay and congestion in road.

7.5 - No 13 Platoon D Coy Berks moves off as leading platoon of the Bn. Enemy shelling road heavily with guns of all calibre. Many casualties from shell fire. Norfolks not yet attacked though barrage lifted.

9.0 - Entrance to village reached.

9.49 - B9 stating Barrage will lift at 11AM received.

10.50 - BM12 " " " " 11AM by 50 yards a minute received.

11.40 - Norfolks report S portion of wood clear. Battn starts to move on to wood.

11.55 - Bn in position in S portion of wood and in touch with Essex on right but very weak owing to heavy losses from shell fire. MG opened fire on to the leading platoons of D Coy from the NW corner of the Southern half of wood. This gun had not been reported by Norfolks.

NOON - CO arranged for rebombardment to start at 1pm for 30 minutes and for assault to take place after.

1pm - Heavies falling short among our own men. Shrapnel bursting short.

1.30pm - Barrage lifted. It was impossible to tell that a bombardment was on as the rate of fire was so slow and Coys had to be informed that it was time to attack. Germans brought heavy barrage on PRINCES ST line and opened with MGs on advancing troops. D Coy unable to advance owing to MG from a house somewhere on their left. C & B advanced about 150yds but suffered heavy casualties and were finally forced to drop back to the lines PRINCES ST where they started to dig in.

1.50 - Owing to heavy fire on working parties AC & B Coys forced to retire to original line - about 80 yds S of PRINCES ST.

2.15 - Coys ordered to consolidate on the line they hold. Bde calls for situation - reported verbally see back of message B729.

2,36 - Situation explained to Suffolks and Stokes Gun asked for but not received.

3.5 - Situation explained to Bde. MGs sent into the line proposed to hold. 4 guns under 2Lt Gilbert.

3.37 - Situation sent to Bde - work of consolidation of the line 120yds S of PRINCES ST complete. Efforts being made to deepen the line 40yds S of PRINCES ST.

4.10 - Preparations complete for further effort to advance on our left but owing to inability to get in touch with Suffolks on left advance was impossible. Reported to Brigade.

4.45 - Our heavies dropping short and causing casualties among our own men. Reported to Brigade.

5.30 - Situation reported to Brigade.

6.45 - Casualties reported to Brigade.

8.40 - Situation reported to Brigade.

9.40 - 2Lt GC Hollis arrived with details of arrangements for attack by RW Fus at dawn - circulated to other Battns for information.

9.50 - German counter attacked on left edge of wood and in the village - rifle and machine gun fire for ten minutes - attack apparently driven off.

10.40 - Details of new attack received from Bde.

10.45 - Details of change in dispositions received from Norfolks and arrangements made to comply with this.

10.50 - BM45 received from Bde and timed at 8.45pm. As Norfolks message was later and after conference with Essex it was decided to act on the Norfolks information. Wires to Brigade all broken.

11.50 - Heavy shelling by Germans.

Source www.thewardrobe.org.uk/wardiary.php

 

Jack Grigglestone……………………………….1st Norfolks

 

Name: GRIGGLESTONE Initials: J

Rank: Private Regiment/Service: Norfolk Regiment Unit Text: 1st Bn.

Date of Death: 20/12/1914 Service No: 6361

Grave/Memorial Reference: Panel 4. Memorial: YPRES (MENIN GATE) MEMORIAL

CWGC www.cwgc.org/search/casualty_details.aspx?casualty=907979

 

No match on Norlink

 

There is a 17 year old John Grigglestone on the 1901 census, who is listed at 7, Fishergate in the Parish of St Edmunds. John’s occupation is shown as “Soldier”. This is the household of his widowed mother, Mary Ann, (aged 38 and a Dressmaker from Norwich). Making up the household is her other son, William, aged 14 and a Boot Finisher from Yarmouth.

 

There is also a 7 year old John, born Ballater, Scotland, who is listed at 49, Peacock Street, in the Parish of St Paul. This is the household of his parents, George, (aged 45 and a Cabinet Makers Clerk, from Berr in Ireland), and Isabella, (aged 37 and from Fuchibridge in Scotland). Their other children are:-

Geoffrey……………………aged 1.……………………born Norwich

Henry P…………………….aged 10.…………………born Tricomalee, Ceylon

Isabella……………………..aged 3.…………………..born Norwich

William…………………….aged 5.…………………..born Ballater, Scotland

 

On the 1911 census, the individual who was a soldier now appears to be listed as a “Jack”. There is no trace of the younger John.

 

Battalion War Diary

17/12/14-28/12/14 Relieved DCLI at MESSINES. Very bad, wet approach

1914-1918.invisionzone.com/forums/lofiversion/index.php/t...

*There is no reference to any casualties during this period. While fellow Brigade unit the 1st Cheshire’s records no action, there is this in the War diary of the 1st Bedfords, another Brigade Unit.

 

20 Dec 1914 Heavy bombardment of enemy's trenches, to cooperate with attack from other parts of our line, during yesterday, & to a lesser extent today. Enemy did not respond with much rifle fire, but shelled our trenches. About 12 yards of our front trench blown in by heavy explosive shell, & machine gun damaged. 2 men killed, 2 wounded by 'snipers'.

Source: www.bedfordregiment.org.uk/1stbn/1stbtn1914diary.html

 

William G Guyton………………………………3rd Lincs

 

Name: GUYTON, WILLIAM GEORGE

Rank: Private Regiment/Service: Lincolnshire Regiment Unit Text: 1st Bn.

Age: 24 Date of Death: 22/10/1915 Service No: 15599

Grave/Memorial Reference: I. 9. Cemetery: DIVISIONAL CEMETERY

CWGC www.cwgc.org/search/casualty_details.aspx?casualty=93259

Note - different Battalion

 

No match on Norlink

 

The 1911 census has a William Guyton, born circa 1891 in Norwich and still resident there.. However, this individual doesn’t appear to be on the Genes Re-united transcription of the 1901 census for England & Wales., and he was probably just to young to have made the 1891 census.

 

Bit of background on the family name can be found here

guyton.co.uk/Page_8.html

 

Robert Hawes……………………………….......Royal Engineers

 

Most likely

Name: HAWES Initials: R P

Rank: Pioneer Regiment/Service: Royal Engineers Unit Text: 126th Field Coy.

Date of Death: 17/09/1916 Service No: 84676

Grave/Memorial Reference: IV. D. 61. Cemetery: HEILLY STATION CEMETERY, MERICOURT-L'ABBE

CWGC www.cwgc.org/search/casualty_details.aspx?casualty=271203

 

The Great War Roll of Honour confirms that Pioneer Hawes is a Robert P.

 

There are several possible Robert’s with a Norwich connection on both the 1901 and 1911 census, but none are down as a Robert P. and there is nothing currently in the most likely searches of the Baptismal records - (baptised Norwich, date range 1881 - 1901, surname Hawes).

 

No match on Norlink

 

The 126th Field Company were attached to the 21st Division and supported the brigades of that Division in the attacks and counter-attacks at Fler-Courcelette during the period 15th - 22nd July.

Source www.reubique.com/126fc.htm

 

www.firstworldwar.com/battles/flers.htm

www.historyofwar.org/articles/battles_flers_courcelette.html

 

Alfred Walter Jay……………………………….Australian Infantry Force

 

Name: JAY, ALFRED WALTER

Rank: Private Regiment/Service: Australian Infantry, A.I.F. Unit Text: 50th Bn.

Age: 23 Date of Death: 26/09/1917 Service No: 3421

Additional information: Son of Walter and Eliza Jay, of 8, Peacock St., Norwich, England.

Grave/Memorial Reference: Panel 7 - 17 - 23 - 25 - 27 - 29 - 31. Memorial: YPRES (MENIN GATE) MEMORIAL

CWGC www.cwgc.org/search/casualty_details.aspx?casualty=924472

 

No match on Norlink

The 8 year old Alfred, born Norwich, is recorded on the 1901 census at 46 Peacock Street, in the Parish of St Saviours. This is the household of his parents, Walter, (aged 37 and a Bricklayers Labourer from Norwich), and Eliza, (aged 30 and from Norwich).

 

Alfred was baptised in St Clements on the 18th September 1892. His parents were listed as Walter, a labourer by trade, and Eliza. No date of birth is listed. The family were living at Peacock Street.

 

The Army Records can be seen on line at the Australian National Archive

naa12.naa.gov.au/NameSearch/Interface/ItemDetail.aspx?Bar...

naa12.naa.gov.au/scripts/Imagine.asp?B=7372245

 

Alfred Walter Jay, a seamen by trade, enlisted at Adelaide, South Australia on the 26th January 1917 as part of the ninth re-enforcements of the 50th Battalion. He gave his age as 25th, his birthplace as Norwich in the UK, and his next of kin as his mother, Eliza Jay, of no 8, Peacock Street, Norwich.

 

He is described as 5 feet 6 inches tall, weighing 150lbs, with brown hair, blue eyes and a fresh complexion.

His distinctive marks include tattoo’s on both upper arms.

 

He embarked at Adelaide on the 10th February 1917, on HMAT “Seeang Bee”, arriving at Devonport on the 2nd May. The same day he “marched in from Australia” to the 13th Training Battalion at Codford . By the 6th August he was dispatched to France for his final training.

 

On the 7th September he was marched out to his unit, who record him as being taken on strength on the 10th. On the 26th he is recorded as being killed in action.

 

His records note that he was buried half a mile west of Westhoek - (the grave must have been destroyed in subsequent fighting as he is now commemorated on the Menin Gate memorial.

 

In his will, in which he bequeaths everything to his mother, he lists his Australian bank account, so it doesn’t look as if he was a seaman stranded in Australia. The records include a receipt signed by Eliza Jay for his personal effects.

 

Early in 1917, the battalion participated in the advance that followed the German retreat to the Hindenburg Line, and attacked at Noreuil on 2 April. For his actions at Noreuil Private Joergen Jensen was awarded the Victoria Cross. Later that year, the focus of AIF operations moved to the Ypres sector in Belgium. There the battalion was involved in the battle of Messines between 7 and 12 June and the battle of Polygon Wood on 26 September. Another winter of trench routine followed.

Source : www.awm.gov.au/units/unit_11237.asp

 

50th Battalion War Diary

 

One of the appendices of the War Diary for September 1917 is the Commanding Officer’s report on the Battalions actions from 22nd to 27th September on ridge S E of Zonnebecke.

 

On the 22nd Sept the Bn was billeted in Canal area.

 

Prior to moving forward packs and all baggage were dumped, all ranks being then ready to move wearing “Fighting Order”. From the Canal area, routes forward to YPRES and WESTHOEK were reconnoitred by Officers and N.C.O’s of all Coys. A red stripe was painted on the back of Steel Helmet for 50th Bn, attacking Red Line and Blue for 49th and 51st Bn attacking Blue Line.

 

The Bn move to YPRES on the 23rd September 1917.

Two bombs, extra 100 rounds S.A.A & 4 sandbags per man, also 80 picks and 80 shovels were issued to each company. At 6.30 pm the Bn left for WESTHOEK & relieved the 52nd Bn, relief being completed by 10.20 pm, the 52nd Bn moving forward & taking over front Line.

 

On 24th Sept. routes from WESTHOEK to Front Line were reconnoitred by all officers, number of NCO, scouts and runners. Ground to be captured was well looked over & valuable information given by 52nd Bn officers.

 

On 25th Sept, Orders for attack were issued. Bn was given a 540 yard Frontage and had to attack to a depth of 750 yards. Task being to capture first objective, “RED LINE”, 49th & 51st Bn. then moving through to their Objective, “BLUE LINE”, 300 yards in advance of RED LINE.

 

Attack was carried out on four lines, each Coy in 100 YDS frontage.

Order of battle being from right to left, - “A”, “B”, “C” and “D” Coys.

Total number taking part in attack being 19(?) officers, 530 Other Ranks.

 

An extra water bottle and two days preserved rations were issued at 9 p.m on 25th Sept.

Casualties to midnight on 25th Sept. 14 O.R. killed, 1 Off 15 O.R wounded.

 

26th September 1917. Bn left WESTHOEK 1 am moving by platoons in single file 100 Yds interval between Platoons to front line and were formed up on tape ready to attack by 4.30 am.

Zero was at 5.50 am.

To this time there were no casualties.

Moving to position of assembly and forming on the tape were well done. Bn had a good start for the attack. On advancing under barrage troops in a few instances moved to close and casualties were sustained a few also being by short shooting of some batteries.

Barrage generally was very good.

Troops gained objective at 6.50 am, very few casualties to this time had been caused.

With a few exceptions no general resistance was met with. Germans surrendering very freely, one party of enemy only holding a group of four concrete dugouts causing most trouble, but were cleared up by previously detailed mopping-up party. 2 M.G’s, 3M.T.M’s & 15 enemy being captured from these dugouts. Mopping up did not cause much trouble, dugouts and all other likely places were bombed. Mopping up platoons of all Coys reported mopping up completed & rejoined their Coys about 10 minutes after objective had been reached.

Direction was easily maintained, connecting files between Head of Column being of assistance beside direction being maintained from left Flank. 4th Bde. The Bn.guiding section was also of assistance.

 

Consolidation was not difficult, digging was easy though wet & not much trouble was caused by enemy shelling., M.G’s or snipers.

 

The Bn dug in by establishing a series of posts which were afterwards connected up making an almost a continuous trench of an average depth of 6ft, sandbags being used for making fire steps.

 

Strong posts were constructed one on each flank, Left flank being covered by 3 Vickers, 2 T.M’s, Right Flank by 1 T.M.

 

Retaliation on front line was not heavy until about a hour & a half after zero hour when RED LINE and area behind was fired on continuously by 5.9’s and 4.8’s and indirect M G fire. Snipers & M G fire by this time

Had become very consistent, and were causing a great deal of trouble to Front Line and Support Line.

 

As this Bn was holding RED LINE nothing very definite can be said, although counter-attacks were made on both flanks and S.O.S signals being sent up. Our artillery response was almost immediate.

 

Although effect of M.G. barrage could not be observed the barrage was very thick, well maintained, and sounded good.

 

All communications from front line to rear were done by runner, it being not practicable to use & maintain telephonic communication. Visual work was attempted but owing to no suitable cover it was impossible to work through from front line.

 

Communication to aeroplane from front line was done by lighting RED FLARES 20 minutes after objective had been gained. From Battalion H.Qrs to Bde the communication was mostly maintained by telephone, runners being used on special occasions. Two messages were dispatched from same place & time to same destination, one by pigeon and one by telephone. Phone message arrived two minutes before pigeon. This was the only message sent by pigeon.

 

R.A.P was established really too far away from the objective but owing to lack of suitable accomodation this was unavoidable, consequently long carries were necessary making evacuation of wounded slow & giving much extra work to Regimental StretcherBearers.

 

It is thought than an improvement in the medical arrangements would have been an addition of bearers from a Field Ambulance.

 

The Battalion was relieved by Coys from Battalions of 49th and 51st on the morning of 27th September 1917, relief being completed by 5.50 am.

 

The 50th Bn then moved to old front line, being relieved from there by 46th Bn at 10 pm on 27th Sept.1917.

 

Counter attack was attempted at 6.45 pm on this night. Attack was evidently made on a broad frontage, S.O.S signals going up from our two flanks. No S.O.S was fired from the Bde frontage and enemy was not seen on our front.

 

Our artillery S.O.S barrage was most intense and presumably attack did not develop but was dispersed by artillery.

 

Total Casualties from operations

 

4 Officers

174 Other ranks

Killed

 

35 Other Ranks

 

Wounded

 

4 Officers

139 Other Ranks.

 

Source: www.awm.gov.au/cms_images/AWM4/23/AWM4-23-67-15.pdf

 

Wednesday 26th September 1917 - Day 52

 

Rainfall 0.5mm

 

Today marks the start of the Battle for Polygon Wood, lasting until 3rd October.

 

Zero Hour was 5.50 am.

 

4th Australian Div

 

The Australians attacked at 6.45 am almost an hour after Zero Hour. Whether this was planned or not I don’t know.

 

13 Bde

 

13 Bde attacked with the 50th Bn, supported by 49th and 51st Bns. On their way to the Green Line the 50th captured 2 machine guns and 19 prisoners. They then advanced to the Blue Line . 51st Bn moved up and captured the Brick Yard in Zonnebeke, in touch with 3rd Div. At 4 pm and 6 pm , German troops massing for a counterattack were dispersed with artillery.

forum.irishmilitaryonline.com/showthread.php?t=11535&...

 

www.aif.adfa.edu.au:8080/showPerson?pid=152718

 

William Henry Jewson (Major)…………………4th Norfolks

 

Name: JEWSON, WILLIAM HENRY

Rank: Major Regiment/Service: Norfolk Regiment Unit Text: 4th Bn.

Age: 42 Date of Death: 19/04/1917

Additional information: Son of George and Mary Jewson, of Tower House, Bracondale, Norwich.

Grave/Memorial Reference: Panels 12 to 15. Memorial: JERUSALEM MEMORIAL

CWGC www.cwgc.org/search/casualty_details.aspx?casualty=1645790

 

There is a picture of Major Jewson on Norlink

norlink.norfolk.gov.uk/02_Catalogue/02_013_PictureTitleIn...

 

The accompanying notes read:-

Major Jewson was the eldest son of Alderman George Jewson of Norwich. He was killed in action 18th April 1917

(Note - this date is different to CWGC by a day)

 

The 1911 census has a Henry Jewson, born Tombland Norwich and recorded in Norwich, born circa 1876. The same individual doesn’t appear to be on the 1901 or 1891 or 1881 census.

 

On the 1901 census his parents are listed at 10 Cotman Road, Thorpe St Andrews. His father George is a timber merchant from Hertfordshire, his mother Mary. J from Norwich. The Jewsons have these children living with them:-

Dorothea………………..aged 16.………………..born Norwich

John C…………………..aged 11.………………..born Norwich

Kathleen S T……………aged 13.………………..born Norwich

 

As well as two live in servants. Which raises the question of where was Henry. If he was at boarding school, was it outside England and Wales, and why send a child away at the age of 4/5. If the Jewson’s had their children public school educated, why was John at home.

 

Oh the joys of the internet - some of the missing period is accounted for by the Roll of Honour site for the former pupils of The Leys School, Cambridge.

 

Jewson was born in 1876. Son of George and Mary Jewson, of Tower House, Bracondale, Norwich. He came to The Leys in 1891 at the age of 15 and went into School House.

On leaving school, Jewson worked for the family timber business in Norwich and was well known for his religious and philanthropic commitments. He founded and led a Boys Brigade Company and held a commission in the Territorial Army.

At the outbreak of war, Jewson re-joined the Norfolk Regiment, serving with distinction in the Dardanelles, Egypt and Palestine. He was killed in action during the Battle of Gaza on 19 April 1917. He was aged 42 and had reached the rank of Major.

Source: www.roll-of-honour.com/Cambridgeshire/CambridgeLeysSchool...

 

The history of the 1/4th and 1/5th Territorial Battalions in the Great War is so closely connected that it is possible and desirable to avoid repetition by dealing with both in the same section. They were together in the same brigade during the whole of the operations in which they took part in Gallipoli, Egypt, and Palestine, and even for a few days were amalgamated in a composite battalion.

The order for mobilization reached both battalions on the evening of August 4, 1914, a few hours before the formal declaration of war. Next morning the 1/4th Battalion assembled at the Drill Hall in Chapel Field, Norwich, and was billeted in the City of Norwich Schools on the Newmarket Road.On August 11th, the 1/4th Battalion left by special train for Ingatestone in Essex.

 

Listed amongst its officers at the time of mobilisation was Captain W H Jewson.

Source: user.online.be/~snelders/sand.htm

 

19th April 1917 During the 2nd Battle of Gaza,

 

Facing the Tank Redoubt was the 161st Brigade of the 54th Division. To their right were the two Australian battalions (1st and 3rd) of the Imperial Camel Corps Brigade who had dismounted about 4,000 yards from their objective. As the infantry went in to attack at 7.30am they were joined by a single tank called "The Nutty" which attracted a lot of shell fire. The tank followed a wayward path towards the redoubt on the summit of a knoll where it was fired on point blank by four field guns until it was stopped and set alight in the middle of the position.

The infantry and the 1st Camel Battalion, having suffered heavy casualties on their approach, now made a bayonet charge against the trenches. About 30 "Camels" and 20 of the British infantry (soldiers of the 5th (territorial Battalion of the Norfolk Regiment) reached the redoubt, then occupied by around 600 Turks who immediately broke and fled towards their second line of defences to the rear.

The British and Australians held on unsupported for about two hours by which time most had been wounded. With no reinforcements at hand and a Turkish counter-attack imminent, the survivors endeavoured to escape back to their own lines.

To the right (west) of Tank Redoubt, the 3rd Camel Battalion, advancing in the gap between two redoubts, actually made the furthest advance of the battle, crossing the Gaza-Beersheba Road and occupying a pair of low hills (dubbed "Jack" and "Jill"). As the advances on their flanks faltered, the "Camels" were forced to retreat to avoid being isolated.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Battle_of_Gaza

 

More than a thousand one hundred of the men of the 54th posted killed wounded or missing were from the two Norfolk regiment battalions, equating to 75% of their strength. Eastern Daily Press "Sunday" section May 5, 2007

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Battle_of_Gaza

 

John King……………………………….............1st Lincs

 

Name: KING, JOHN

Rank: Private Regiment/Service: Lincolnshire Regiment Unit Text: 1st Bn.

Age: 19 Date of Death: 09/06/1918 Service No: 51970

Additional information: Son of E. Charles and Matilda King, of 11, Long's Yard, Fishergate, Norwich.

Grave/Memorial Reference: XVII. F. 17. Cemetery: TERLINCTHUN BRITISH CEMETERY, WIMILLE

CWGC www.cwgc.org/search/casualty_details.aspx?casualty=4026031

 

The first rest camps for Commonwealth forces were established near Terlincthun in August 1914 and during the whole of the First World War, Boulogne and Wimereux housed numerous hospitals and other medical establishments. The cemetery at Terlincthun was begun in June 1918 when the space available for service burials in the civil cemeteries of Boulogne and Wimereux was exhausted. It was used chiefly for burials from the base hospitals, but Plot IV Row C contains the graves of 46 RAF personnel killed at Marquise in September 1918 in a bombing raid by German aircraft. In July 1920, the cemetery contained more than 3,300 burials, but for many years Terlincthun remained an 'open' cemetery and graves continued to be brought into it from isolated sites and other burials grounds throughout France where maintenance could not be assured.

CWGC www.cwgc.org/search/cemetery_details.aspx?cemetery=202753...

 

No match on Norlink

 

The 1 year old John, born Wroxham, is recorded on the 1901 census at 5, Baileys Yard, Norwich, in the Parish of St Pauls. This is the household of his parents, Edward Chas, (aged 27 and a basket maker from Limpenhoe, Norfolk), and Matilda, (aged 22 and from Stalham). The Kings also have a daughter, Annie Lama, aged 3 and born Belaugh.

 

The 1st Lincs were part of the 21st Division. According to the Regimental Warpath web-site, the Division includes amongst its battle honours

Battle of the Aisne. 27 May-7 Jun 1918, including the attack on Bligny and Bois des Buttes.

www.warpath.orbat.com/divs/21_div.htm

The German attack succeeded in pushing the Allies across the Aisne and down as far as the Marne at Chateau Thierry, capturing the towns of Soissons and La Fere-en-Tardenois as they did so.

www.1914-1918.net/bat24.htm

Absolutely fascinating thread here about the battle, although 1st Lincs only get mentioned in passing

1914-1918.invisionzone.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=44335

 

By late May the battalion was holding positions in the Romigny sector when it was warned at 8:00pm on the 26th to expect a German assault the following morning. For the next three days the 1st Lincolns withheld repeated attacks by large numbers of German troops. When the battalion was ordered to fall back on the 29th at 7:00pm only 8 officers and 42 men remained unwounded and with the battalion

Source: www.21stdivision1914-18.org/georgewilliamboyall.htm

 

Arthur Leeste……………………………….......2/4th Norfolks

 

No surname Leeste or Leest or Leste on the CWGC database

No Leeste on the Great War Roll of Honour

No match on Norlink

No match for this surname on the 1901 or 1911 census or common variants. There is a surname Least, but they seem to live almost entirely in the North East.

 

2/4th Battalion

Formed in Norwich in September 1914 as a Second Line Battalion. Disbanded in UK in June 1918.

www.1914-1918.net/norfolks.htm

  

A recent ponderance of mine (about a year old) has been that genes store fractal memories, both relating to evolution re all the steps back to our genetic ancestors origins and also re experiences. It seems to me that fractals are a type of language and everything, material and immaterial can be represented by them in 'form'. I think that it is these fractal memories stored in the genes that direct evolution. I think it could also explain things of a pseudoscientific nature such as alleged 'past life' memories and transplant memories etc.

Meanwhile re 'evidence of fractal memory' in animals

Bees create hives which are mathematically correct structures and 'fractals'. I am suggesting that the knowledge of the mathematical requirements of building the hive is stored in their genes as 'fractal memory'. If not 'genetic memory' then how does this knowledge pass from parent to offspring?

Most animals have innate knowledge...how does 'innate' work if not via the genes? Innate knowledge must surely be stored as memory in the genes? My uneducated explanation (and please excuse if me if this is old news and I'm stating the obvious) is that evolution starts with the simplest fractal and as things became more complex, so did fractals. I beleive all living things have stored within their genes the genetic fractal memory of every earlier fractal development that their species went through. I believe all things can in the end be presented in fractals. It's a language if you like. Everything in this universe, material and not can be represented in form by a fractal. Thus fractal memory is 'everything' memory. Events etc. Memory of our genetic ancestors. I think that the fractal gene memory that I speak of here is what prompts evolutionary change. Ie. The genes are aware of the events of the hosts life and make changes accordingly for the benefit of the offspring. Note the 'awareness' is not conscious awareness as we understand it but the same type of 'automatic' functioning we see in robots which make 'corrections' to their behaviour when they bump into things.

We 'humans' have problems seeing events in terms of maths or 'fractals' because of our 'perception' but in reality it is just 'maths', so not all that bizarre that the gene which is a fine tuned computer can make adjustments in it's 'output' based on the 'input' . Think of this entire world as a digital programme and it all makes sense. Evolution is a software update and nothing more than that.Memory of our genetic ancestors. We discuss a model of memory for visual form which treats the memory 'trace' as a set of procedures for reconstructing earlier visual experience. The

procedures, Barnsley's Iterated Function System (IFS), construct an image from a collection of operators (affine transformations). From this perspective, remembering and imagining are processes whose dynamics are captured by

the iterative rules. Changes in memory for visual experience are described as changes in the parameters and weights of the reconstruction operators. The model is used to discuss known phenomena and effects in the empirical literature on memory for visual form. Fractals, as all present know, are irregular geometric objects that yield detail at all scales. Unlike Euclidean, differentiable, objects that smooth out when zoomed into, fractals continue to reveal features as more closely regarded. Fractals also have "self-similarity"

which, in one meaning refers to the presence of parts that resemble the whole, or to the continual repetition of a feature. Benoit Mandelbrot (1983) not only invented the term fractal, but advanced the position that fractal geometry is the geometry of nature. Eliot Porter, the nature photographer,

upon reading Gleick's (1988) account of Mandelbrot's work, realized he had been taking pictures of fractals in nature for decades. To promote the point, he collaborated with Gleick on a collection of photographs for a book titled Nature's Chaos (Porter & Gleick, 1990). The slides shown here are

samples from that book. From a Darwinian perspective, we propose that our sensory receptors evolved in the presence of fractal objects, bathed in and powerfully shaped by them. It makes sense to us, then, that fractal geometry should be adopted in the study of perception and memory for

visual form (cf. Gilden, Schmuckler, & Clayton, 1993). Yet contemporary psychophysical studies of perception are dominated by Euclidean measures, and modern theories of visual form, such as Biederman's (1987) object recognition theory, have Euclidean objects (spheres, cubes, etc.) as

primitives ("geons"). A general model. We first present a general, abstract, model of memory for visual form from this perspective, and then consider a more specific version (see figure 1). We assume, first, that memory is not a passive list of attributes, but rather is a set of mental procedures. These

procedures, when activated, allow a reconstruction of a semblance of the original experience. There are two classes of memory dynamics; those involved in remembering and imagining, and those involved in forgetting. These are very different procedures. The first is initiated by some query of

memory, arising internally or externally. It is relatively fast and interacts with ongoing cognitive demands and simultaneous visual experience. The second process, altering memory, is the result of subsequent experience. It acts to alter procedure parameters.

It has been demonstrated that higher order recurrent neural networks exhibit an underlying fractal attractor as an artifact of their dynamics. These fractal attractors offer a very efficient mechanism to encode visual memories in a neural substrate, since even a simple twelve weight network can encode a very large set of different images. The main problem in this memory model, which so far has remained unaddressed, is how to train the networks to learn these different attractors. Following other neural training methods this paper proposes a gradient descent method to learn the attractors. The method is based on an error function which examines the effects of the current network transform on the desired fractal attractor. It is tested across a bank of different target fractal attractors and at different noise levels. The results show positive performance across three error measures.

 

www.vanderbilt.edu/AnS/psychology/cogsci/clayton/papers/C...

Alexander Reford, a great-grandson of Elsie Reford, has managed the Reford Gardens since 1995, taking responsibility for their preservation and development. An historian by profession, educated at the universities of Oxford and Toronto, he has published many articles relating to Canadian history. He is chairman of the Association des jardins du Québec and a co-founder of the International Garden Festival, held each year at the Reford Gardens.

 

Visit : www.refordgardens.com/

  

Elsie Stephen Meighen - born January 22, 1872, Perth, Ontario - and Robert Wilson Reford - born in 1867, Montreal - got married on June 12, 1894.

 

Elsie Reford was a pioneer of Canadian horticulture, creating one of the largest private gardens in Canada on her estate, Estevan Lodge in eastern Québec. Located in Grand-Métis on the south shore of the St. Lawrence River, her gardens have been open to the public since 1962 and operate under the name Les Jardins de Métis and Reford Gardens.

  

Born January 22, 1872 at Perth, Ontario, Elsie Reford was the eldest of three children born to Robert Meighen and Elsie Stephen. Coming from modest backgrounds themselves, Elsie’s parents ensured that their children received a good education. After being educated in Montreal, she was sent to finishing school in Dresden and Paris, returning to Montreal fluent in both German and French, and ready to take her place in society.

 

She married Robert Wilson Reford on June 12, 1894. She gave birth to two sons, Bruce in 1895 and Eric in 1900. Robert and Elsie Reford were, by many accounts, an ideal couple. In 1902, they built a house on Drummond Street in Montreal. They both loved the outdoors and they spend several weeks a year in a log cabin they built at Lac Caribou, south of Rimouski. In the autumn they hunted for caribou, deer, and ducks. They returned in winter to ski and snowshoe. Elsie Reford also liked to ride. She had learned as a girl and spent many hours riding on the slopes of Mount Royal. And of course, there was salmon-fishing – a sport at which she excelled.

 

In her day, she was known for her civic, social, and political activism. She was engaged in philanthropic activities, particularly for the Montreal Maternity Hospital and she was also the moving force behind the creation of the Women’s Canadian Club of Montreal, the first women club in Canada. She believed it important that the women become involved in debates over the great issues of the day, « something beyond the local gossip of the hour ». Her acquaintance with Lord Grey, the Governor-General of Canada from 1904 to 1911, led to her involvement in organizing, in 1908, Québec City’s tercentennial celebrations. The event was one of many to which she devoted herself in building bridges with French-Canadian community.

 

During the First World War, she joined her two sons in England and did volunteer work at the War Office, translating documents from German into English. After the war, she was active in the Victorian Order of Nurses, the Montreal Council of Social Agencies, and the National Association of Conservative Women.

 

In 1925 at the age of 53 years, Elsie Reford was operated for appendicitis and during her convalescence, her doctor counselled against fishing, fearing that she did not have the strength to return to the river.”Why not take up gardening?” he said, thinking this a more suitable pastime for a convalescent woman of a certain age. That is why she began laying out the gardens and supervising their construction. The gardens would take ten years to build, and would extend over more than twenty acres.

 

Elsie Reford had to overcome many difficulties in bringing her garden to life. First among them were the allergies that sometimes left her bedridden for days on end. The second obstacle was the property itself. Estevan was first and foremost a fishing lodge. The site was chosen because of its proximity to a salmon river and its dramatic views – not for the quality of the soil.

 

To counter-act nature’s deficiencies, she created soil for each of the plants she had selected, bringing peat and sand from nearby farms. This exchange was fortuitous to the local farmers, suffering through the Great Depression. Then, as now, the gardens provided much-needed work to an area with high unemployment. Elsie Reford’s genius as a gardener was born of the knowledge she developed of the needs of plants. Over the course of her long life, she became an expert plantsman. By the end of her life, Elsie Reford was able to counsel other gardeners, writing in the journals of the Royal Horticultural Society and the North American Lily Society. Elsie Reford was not a landscape architect and had no training of any kind as a garden designer. While she collected and appreciated art, she claimed no talents as an artist.

 

Elsie Stephen Reford died at her Drummond Street home on November 8, 1967 in her ninety-sixth year.

 

In 1995, the Reford Gardens ("Jardins de Métis") in Grand-Métis were designated a National Historic Site of Canada, as being an excellent Canadian example of the English-inspired garden.(Wikipedia)

 

Visit : en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elsie_Reford

 

Visit : www.refordgardens.com/

 

LES JARDINS DE MÉTIS

 

Créés par Elsie Reford de 1926 à 1958, ces jardins témoignent de façon remarquable de l’art paysager à l’anglaise. Disposés dans un cadre naturel, un ensemble de jardins exhibent fleurs vivaces, arbres et arbustes. Le jardin des pommetiers, les rocailles et l’Allée royale évoquent l’œuvre de cette dame passionnée d’horticulture. Agrémenté d’un ruisseau et de sentiers sinueux, ce site jouit d’un microclimat favorable à la croissance d’espèces uniques au Canada. Les pavots bleus et les lis, privilégiés par Mme Reford, y fleurissent toujours et contribuent , avec d’autres plantes exotiques et indigènes, à l’harmonie de ces lieux.

 

Created by Elsie Reford between 1926 and 1958, these gardens are an inspired example of the English art of the garden. Woven into a natural setting, a series of gardens display perennials, trees and shrubs. A crab-apple orchard, a rock garden, and the Long Walk are also the legacy of this dedicated horticulturist. A microclimate favours the growth of species found nowhere else in Canada, while the stream and winding paths add to the charm. Elsie Reford’s beloved blue poppies and lilies still bloom and contribute, with other exotic and indigenous plants, to the harmony of the site.

 

Commission des lieux et monuments historiques du Canada

Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada.

Gouvernement du Canada – Government of Canada

 

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It is not my intention to write my way through four hundred years of Maxwell occupation, but there are a few interesting facts to relate. When Aymer de Maxwell became the first Maxwell laird of Kirkconnell (the Maxwells added the extra 'L' on the end), none of the existing buildings stood here. MacGibbon & Ross state that 'the tower is of a period not earlier than the sixteenth century. Aymer already owned Kelton, on the other bank of Nith, and it is quite possible the Maxwells continued to live there for a while.

 

The most interesting period of Maxwell of Kirkconnell history, coincided with the Reformation and the years that followed it. Like the Kirconnels of that ilk, the Maxwells were strong supporters of 'holy church' and great benefactors to the abbey and church of New Abbey in particular. The family remained 'good Catholics' at the Reformation and the fact that they were able to do so may be a reflection of their generosity towards the church over many generations, although it is noticeable that as church land was parceled up and given away to new lay owners, none of it returned to the Maxwells of Kirkconnell.

 

The Maxwells of Kirkconnell were not alone in this part of Galloway in continuing to support 'papistrie', indeed such was the support for and protection provided to the Catholic church among the leading families in the area, that it happened in this district of Scotland, as it happened in the Lancashire districts of England, that the laws against Catholics were not enforced, because where so large a proportion of the inhabitants were Catholics, few persons were found ready to enforce them.

 

In 1562 John Knox was appointed by the Kirk Commissioner for Galloway and drew up a "monster inditement" against the clergy who remained faithful to their flocks and ordination vows. Despite the legal perils of their situation, priests up and down the district remained undaunted. Of these the most courageous was Gilbert Brown, at one time Abbot of New Abbey.

 

During the Christmas holidays 1601-1602 the inhabitants of Dumfries had openly attended the celebration of Mass, for which the most important were cited to appear in Edinburgh, but, as Calderwood says, "they were for the most part suffered to return home without punishment." The Government, however, ordered the Guard to hunt down Abbot Brown, who was at length captured near New Abbey in 1605. The country people rose in arms to rescue him, but were overpowered by Lord Cranston and his guardsmen. The former Abbot was imprisoned first at Blackness Castle, and later in Edinburgh Castle.

 

The Privy Council Records narrate how Archbishop Spottiswoode four years later "went with a party to the town of New Abbey, and there broke into the house of Mr. Gilbert Brown, former Abbot of New Abbey, and having found a great number of popish books, copes, chalices, pictures, images, and such other popish trash, he most worthily and dutifully, as became both a prelate and a councillor, on a mercat day, at a great confluence of people in the high street of the burgh of Dumfries, did burn all those copes, vestments,and chalices, delivering up the books to Maxwell of Kirkconnell, to be afterwards dealt with. The Privy Council allowed this to be good service on the part of the archbishop, and granted him a gift of the books left unburned." Abbot Brown, I am pleased to relate, survived to die in Paris in 1610, aged 100.

 

Kirkconnell has a chapel to this day, but during the Reformation, the chapel was in the comparative safety of the top of the old tower (the room used to be so full of people that they had to kneel down the corkscrew stairs). Mass continued to be celebrated here for long after the Reformation - and not in complete secrecy. It was well known that when Mass was to be said here, a man wrapped in a white sheet appeared at night in the avenue between the large holly-trees, and those who were in the secret knew what this signal meant, whilst the rest of the passers-by were terrified and thought it was a ghost. This explains why a white lady is said to appear in the avenue and the holly-trees themselves were popularly known as the “Mass Bushes."

 

The Catholic atmosphere, however, which was so strong at Kirkconnell itself, did not extend very far afield, as the following story demonstrates. "About 1745 a faithful servant of the family, named Lottomer, died, and was buried in Sweetheart Abbey. But so great was the bigotry and the bitterness against Catholics that next morning his dead body was found to have been brought back to Kirkconnell and cast on the dunghill. The Colonel, who commanded the troop of Dragoons at that time stationed in the house, was most indignant, and wished to have the poor man re-buried in the Abbey by his soldiers and guarded. The Laird of Kirkconnell however, did not wish this: "We will bury him here," said he, "in consecrated ground, where he will rest in peace," which was accordingly done. The burial place was in front of the house on a little knoll, which was always said to be consecrated ground, as it was believed that a little chapel, dedicated to St. Connel, had stood there in bygone days (and from which of course, the place gets its name). There Lottomer was laid, two flat stones marking the place, but, except to those who are familiar with the scene, "Lottomer's grave" is unknown."

Aircraft movements relating to the end of the State Visit to the UK by the President of the United States, bringing Trump back from Chequers prior to boarding Air Force One.

 

The formation consisted of three US Army Chinook helicopters, US Marine Corps VH-3 Sea King (Marine One) and the National Police Air Service H-145 helicopter.

 

Air Force One and two C-32 jets departed Stansted.

 

Photos taken off Belmer Road, Stansted Airport.

Please relate to this thread for test details:

www.rangefinderforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=45878

 

BTW this is one of my favourite roses: a David Austin rose "Abraham Darby". This one is from the first spring flowering, so it is quite pink, while later during the season the reflowerings are more salmon-apricot. The scent is a gorgeous mix of old rose and mixed fruit.

Difference #2 relates to the renovation history. In 2003, this Fry's was renovated — two years before 627 — with a nicer version of what 627 eventually got. One of the big differences was that the electronics section, which in the original Smitty's layout was located just inside the right side entrance, got its drop ceiling removed and painted black. As in #627, electronics later moved out to make room for Tully's and then Starbucks, but unlike #627, this cafe has its TV still.

There are many ways in which a why question can be answered. The word itself relates to a questioning, reasoning, exclamation. A pause in the life to point something out or draw attention to the extraordinary in some way.

 

Why can be both up and down. Why can evoke purpose, passion and spark ideas, new thoughts, new action.

 

But sometimes a why is confused. Sometimes a why is both hopeless and helpless. Sometimes the rest of the world looks on with a why so big it changes everything.

 

On Thursday 3rd September 2015, The Independent newspaper in the UK printed a full page colour photograph as it's lead story. The image was of a 3 year old Syrian refugee called Alan Kurdi, he was lying facedown at the edge of the Aegean sea whilst a Turkish Officer Sgt. Major Mehmet Ciplak was approaching him, about to discover Alan had drowned at sea along with his mother Rehanna and his 5 year old brother Ghalib.

 

Damian sent me the photo by messenger. He just wrote "I can't stop crying". As soon as I saw it, I had the same reaction. An utter despair of "He is a baby, he never asked for this, he is alone, where is his mum?" and then the comparisons, of all the children that represents for us personally. And the horror that confronts us all- he is a fellow human being and he reached 3 years old before his life was cut short because the water overpowered him. He was in the water because he hasn't been afforded the security of a safe place to call home because Syria is a warzone and so his family were forced to take steps to escape.

 

The BBC have written a very good article about the power of the photograph and why it cut through the world both vividly and viral. www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-34150419

 

And so we are left to reconcile our own thoughts to this. I have read and heard so many different points of view but I am increasingly frustrated by those who claim to assert the position of ''we are full up''. Just because we are born into a lifestyle and a country does not mean that by default WE own it all. Equality for all will only exist when diversity and inclusive thinking exists across the masses and doing the right thing means stepping in and helping out before a baby washes up on the shores of Turkey.

 

As part of the article by the BBC, Will Wintercross (an award-winning war photographer for the Daily Telegraph) makes the comment:

 

"Pictures like this are taken all the time, but not necessarily filed all the time because they are so graphic," he says. "Most will hardly ever be seen by anyone."

 

"In Syria you see so much that's gory that you start to filter out what's not worth photographing ... You just know some pictures will never be used."

 

This really just underlines my own thoughts and feelings towards photography- it must be relevant and real. Whether that be joy, or sadness, pleasure or pain. I am sure there are 1000 Alan's whose deaths have all mattered and counted. When we see a neat little bar chart of filtered statistics we are unable to SEE the true horror existing in the lives of people on the same planet as us. These photos must be taken, no matter if no one has the courage to publish them, they need to represent, remember and announce to the world that this life happened.

 

I am using this self-portrait to enter the SNAP photo festival (#snapphotofest) competition.

www.snapphotofestival.com/

 

I feel that I have reached a place where I am ready to go beyond evoking a feeling and an idea, a smile or an emotion and I now want to take my photography to the level of making it matter. Because people matter. Because their lives matter. Because there is something within me that drives me harder, makes me think further and makes me question WHY to everything I see and I need to find a way of connecting the dots and organising my thoughts enough to make that move.

For the best part of the last year, I have been posting shots of Kent churches on Twitter, to break up the torrent of horrible news relating to COVID, Brexit and our Dear Leader, and in doing so, I have discovered many churches I visited at the start of the project, needed to redone.

 

Goudhurst, is, apparently, the highest point in Kent, or so Jools tells me. I will just check that with Wikki: Hmm, it seems not. That is Betsom's Hill north of the M25 near to the border with London. Goudhurst is not even in the top ten.

 

I can confirm we approached the village along a long hill from a river valley, finally climbing up the narrow high street, getting round the parked cars and finding a space nearly big enough for the car near to the church.

 

On the other side of the road from the church, a series of very Kent houses and buildings, all decorated with pegtiles, in the Kent fashion, and to the south, the imposing structure of The Star and Eagle Hotel.

 

The church sits in it's large graveyard, pretty as a picture on a sunny summer's afternoon as on my first visit, but on a grey, late autumn afternoon, just as the light fades, it loses some of its charm.

 

The church itself is resplendent with it's honey-coloured stone, squat tower and spreading aisles on both sides.

 

There is a welcome notice on the door in the west end of the tower stating that the church is always open and all are indeed, welcome.

 

Its a fine touch.

 

Inside, it is light and spacious, so spacious to have to grand leather sofas in the nave, not sure if this is for glamping, or for some other reason, but they're doing no harm.

 

There are several fine wall monuments and brasses, and a wooden memorial to a couple set under a window from the 16th century.

 

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Seen from afar Goudhurst is Kent's answer to Rye - a small hilltop village over which broods the lovely church. Its west tower, dating from the seventeenth century, is rather low, but the honey-coloured sandstone is particularly beautiful here. We enter the church through the tower, and are impressed by the way in which the width and height of the nave and its aisles combine to make such a noble structure. There are two remarkably fine wooden effigies dating from the sixteenth century, carved and painted and set into a purpose-built bay window. Nearby, in the south chapel, the walls are crammed with monuments and there are three brasses, one of which is covered by a stone canopy - not particularly grand but unexpected and functional.

 

www.kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Goudhurst

 

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GOUDHURST

LIES the next parish southward from Marden. The northern part of it, as far southward as the stream formerly called Risebridge river, which flows from Bedgebury to Hope mill, and a smaller part likewise on the other side of it, adjoining to the rivulet called the Bewle westward, is in the hundred of Marden, and lower division of the lath of Scray; the rest of the parish southward of the first-mentioned stream, is in the hundred of West, alias Little Barnefield, and lath of Aylesford, comprehending the whole of that hundred. So much of this parish as is within the borough of Faircrouch, is in the hundred of Cranbrook; as much as is in the boroughs of Pattenden, Lilsden, Combwell, and Chingley or Bromley, is in the same hundred of West, alias Little Barnefield; and the residue is in the hundred of Marden. It lies wholly within the district of the Weald, and in the division of West Kent.

 

The borsholders of the boroughs of Highamden, Pattenden, and Hilsden, in this parish, are chosen at the court-leet holden for the manor of East Farleigh, and the inhabitants owe no service but to that manor; only a constable for the hundred of West Barnefield may be chosen out of such parts of them as lay within it for that hundred. The manor of Maidstone likewise extends into this parish, over lands as far southward as Rise-bridge.

 

THE PARISH OF GOUDHURST is very pleasantly situated, being interspersed on every side with frequent hill and dale. The trees in it are oak, of a large size, and in great plenty throughout it, as well in the woods, as broad hedge-rows and shaves round the fields. The lands are in general very fertile; the soil, like the adjoining parishes, is mostly a deep stiff clay; being heavy tillage land, but it has the advantage of a great deal of rich marle at different places, and in some few parts sand, with which the roads are in general covered; and in the grounds near Finchcocks, there is a gravel-pit, which is the only one, I believe, in this part of the county. There is much more pasture than arable land in it, the former being mostly fatting lands, bullocks fatted on them weighing in general from 120 to 130 stone. It is well watered with several streams in different parts of it, all which uniting with the Teis, flow in one channel, along the western side of this parish, towards the Medway. The eastern and southern parts of it are much covered with thick coppice wood, mostly of oak. The turnpike road from Maidstone over Cocksheath through Marden, leads through the upper part of this parish southward, dividing into two branches at Winchethill; that to the left goes on to Comborne, and leaving the town of Goudhurst a little to the right, joins the Cranbrooke road a little beyond it. That to the right, having taken into it a branch of the Woodgate road from Tunbridge, near Broadford-bridge, goes on to the town of Goudhurst, and thence eastward to Cranbrooke and Tenterden; and the great high road from Lamberhurst through Stonecrouch to Hawkhurst, and into Sussex, south-east, goes along the southern bounds of this parish.

 

The parish is about eight miles long and four broad. There are about three hundred houses in it, and somewhat more than five inhabitants to a house. It is very healthy; sixty years of age being esteemed, if not the prime, at least the middle age of life; the inhabitants of these parts being in great measure untainted with the vices and dissipation too frequently practised above the hill.

 

There are two heaths or commons here; the one called Pyles-health, and the other Killdown, in West Barnefield hundred.

 

THE TOWN, or village of Goudhurst, stands in the hundred of Marden, about half a mile within the lower or southern bounds of it, on an hill, commanding an extensive view of the country all around it. It is not paved, but is built on the sides of five different roads which unite at a large pond in the middle of it. The houses are mostly large, antient and well-timbered, like the rest of those in this neighbourhood, one of them, called Brickwall, belongs to the Rev. Mr. Thomas Bathurst. Within memory there were many clothiers here, but there are none now. There is some little of the woolstapling business yet carried on.

 

On the summit of the hill, on which the town stands, is the church, a conspicuous object to the neighbouring country, and near it was the marketplace, which was pulled down about the year 1650, and the present small one built lower down, at the broad place in the town near the pond. The market was held on a Wednesday weekly, for cattle, provisions, &c. till within memory; it is now entirely disused, there is a fair held yearly in the town, upon the day of the assumption of our lady, being August 26, for cattle, hardware, toys, &c. This market and fair were granted in the year of king Richard II. to Joane, widow of Roger de Bedgebury, the possessors of which estate claim at this time the privilege of holding them, by a yearly rent to the manor of Marden.

 

At the hamlet of Stonecrouch is a post-office of very considerable account, its district extending to Goudhurst, Cranbrooke, Tenterden, Winchelsea, Rye, and Hastings, and all the intermediate and adjoining places, to which letters are directed by this Stonecrouch bag.

 

ALMOST adjoining to the town eastward, on the road leading to Tenterden, there is A HAMLET, called LITTLE GOUDHURST, in which there is an antient seat, called TAYWELL, which for many generations was possessed by a family of the name of Lake, who bore for their arms, Sable, a bend between six crosscroslets, fitchee, argent. In the north isle of this church, under which is a vault, in which this family lie buried, there is a marble, on which is a descent of them. The last of them, Thomas Lake, esq. barrister-at-law, resided here, but dying without issue male, his daughters and coheirs became possessed of it; one of whom married Maximilian Gott, esq. and the other Thomas Hussey, esq. whose son Edward Hussey, esq. of Scotney, now possesses the entire see of this estate, which is demised for a long term of years to Mr. Olive, who has almost rebuilt it, and resides in it.

 

AT A SMALL DISTANCE southward from the abovementioned seat, is another, called TRIGGS, which was for several descents the residence of the Stringers, a family of good account in the different parts of this county. John Stringer, esq. son of Edward Stringer, of Biddenden, by Phillis his wife, daughter of George Holland, gent. resided here in king Charles I.'s reign, and married Susanna, daughter of Stephen Streeter, of Goudhurst, by whom he had Stephen, of Goudhurst; John, gent. of Ashford, who left a daughter and heir Mary, married to Anthony Irby, esq. Edward and Thomas, both of Goudhurst; the latter left two sons. Thomas and Edward, and a daughter Catherine, who married William Belcher, M. D. by whom the had Stringer Belcher, and other children. The Stringers bore for their arms, Per chevron, or, and sable, in chief two eagles displayed of the second, in the base a fleur de lis of the first.

 

Stephen Stringer, the eldest son of John, resided at Triggs in the reign of king Charles II. and was succeeded in it by his second son Stephen Stringer, esq. who kept his shrievalty here in the 6th year of queen Anne. He died without male issue, leaving by Jane his wife, daughter of John Austen, esq. of Broadford, four daughters his coheirs, Jane, married to Thomas Weston, of Cranbrooke; Hannah to William Monk, of Buckingham. in Sussex, whose eldest daughter and coheir married Thomas Knight, esq. of Godmersham; Elizabeth married Edward Bathurst, esq. of Finchcocks, and Anne married John Kirril, esq. of Sevenoke. (fn. 1) This seat was afterwards alienated to Francis Austen, esq. of Sevenoke, whose son Francis Mottley Austen, esq. of Sevenoke, is the present owner of it.

 

THE MANOR OF MARDEN claims over the greatest part of this parish; part of it, being the dens beforementioned, are within the manor of East Farleigh, and the remaining part, called Wincehurst-den, is within the manor of Gillingham, near Chatham. Although that part of this parish which lies within the hundred of West Barnefield, being the most southern part of it, contains those places which are of, by far, the greatest note in it, yet, for the sake of regularity in my description, I shall begin with those in the hundred of Marden, partly already described, and having finished that, proceed next to the hundred of West Barnefield, and the matters worthy of notice in it.

 

BOKINFOLD is a manor of large extent, situated in the hundred of Marden, having formerly a large park and demesnes belonging to it, which extended into the parishes of Brenchley, Horsemonden, Yalding, Marden, and Goudhurst, the house of it being situated in that of Yalding, in the description of which parish the reader will find an ample account of the former state and possessors of it. (fn. 2) It will, therefore, be sufficient to mention here, in addition to it, that the whole of this manor coming at length into the possession of Sir Alexander Colepeper. He in the 3d year of queen Elizabeth levied a fine of it, and three years afterwards alienated that part of this manor, and all the demesnes of it which lay in Brenchley, Horsemonden, Yalding, and Marden, to Roger Revell, as has been mentioned under the parish of Yalding, and THE REMAINDER OF IT in this parish, held of the manor of Marden, to Sharpeigh, whose descendant Stephen Sharpeigh passed that part of it away in 1582, to Richard Reynolds, whose son and heir John Reynolds, about the 41st year of queen Elizabeth, conveyed it to Richard Eliot, and he, about the year 1601, alienated it to Thomas Girdler, who the next year sold it to John Reynolds, and he, in the 5th year of king James, transmitted it to John Beale, who, about 1609, passed it away to John Harleston, of Ickham, and he settled it by will on Richard Harleston, who in like manner devised it to his kinsman Richard Bishop, and he, soon after the death of king Charles I. sold it to Mr. Stephen Stringer, of Triggs, in Goudhurst, whose son, of the same name, was sheriff anno 6 queen Anne, and left five daughters his coheirs, of whom Elizabeth, the third, married Edward Bathurst, esq. of Finchcocks, and on the division of their inheritance, he, in her right, became possessed of this manor. He died in 1772, upon which this estate came to his son, the Rev. Thomas Bathurst, rector of Welwyn, in Hertfordshire, the present owner of it. A court baron is regularly held for this manor.

 

In 1641 the archbishop collated Richard Amhurst, clerk, to the free chapels of Bockinfold and Newsted annexed, in the archdeaconry of Canterbury, then vacant and of his patronage. (fn. 3)

 

COMBORNE is an estate, situated in the northernmost part of this parish, adjoining to Winchet-hill, in the hundred of Marden likewise; which place of Winchet-hill was antiently the original seat in this county, of the family of Roberts, of Glassenbury.

 

An ancestor of this family, William Rookherst, a gentleman of Scotland, left his native country, and came into England in the 3d year of king Henry I. and had afterwards the surname of Roberts, having purchased lands at Winchet-hill, on which he built himself a mansion, calling it Rookherst, after himself. This place came afterwards to be called Ladiesden Rokehurst, alias Curtesden, and continued the residence of this family till the reign of king Richard II. when Stephen Roberts, alias Rookherst, marrying Joane, the daughter and heir of William Tilley, of Glassenbury, removed thither, and the remains of their residence here are so totally effaced, as to be known only by the family evidences, and the report of the neighbourhood.

 

But their estate at Winchet-hill continued several generations afterwards in their descendants, till it was at length alienated to one of the family of Maplesden, of Marden, in whose descendants this estate, together with that of Comborne adjoining, continued down to Edward Maplesden; esq. of the Middle Temple, who died in 1755, s. p. and intestate. Upon which they descended to Alexander Courthope, esq. of Horsemonden, the son of his sister Catherine, and to Charles Booth, esq. the grandson of his sister Anne, as his coheirs in gavelkind, and on a partition of those estates between them, Winchet-hill was allotted to Charles Booth, esq. afterwards Sir Charles Booth, of Harrietsham-place, who died possessed of it, s. p. in 1795, and his devisees, for the purposes of his will, are now in the possession of it; but Comborne was allotted to Alexander Courthope, esq. since deceased, whose nephew John Cole, esq. now possesses it.

 

FINCHCOCKS is a feat in this parish, situated within the hundred of Marden, in that angle of it which extends south-westward below Hope mill, and is likewise within that manor. It was formerly of note for being the mansion of a family of the same surname, who were possessed of it as early as the 40th year of Henry III. They were succeeded in it by the family of Horden, of Horden, who became proprietors of it by purchase in the beginning of king Henry VI.'s reign, one of whom was Edward Horden, esq. clerk of the green cloth to king Edward VI. queen Mary, and queen Elizabeth, who had, for some considerable service to the crown, the augmentation of a regal diadem, added to his paternal coat by queen Elizabeth. He left two daughters his coheirs, Elizabeth, married to Mr. Paul Bathurst, of Bathurst-street, in Nordiam, and Mary to Mr. Delves, of Fletchings, who had Horden for his share of the inheritance, as the other had this of Finchcocks. He was descended from Laurence Bathurst, of Canterbury, who held lands there and in Cranbrooke, whose son of the same name, left three sons, of whom Edward, the eldest, was of Staplehurst, and was ancestor of the Bathursts, of Franks, in this county, now extinct, (fn. 4) of the earls Bathurst, and those of Clarenden-park, in Wiltshire, and Lydney, in Gloucestershire; Robert Bathurst, the second, was of Horsemonden; and John, the third son, was ancestor of the Bathursts, of Ockham, in Hampshire. Robert Bathurst, of Horsemonden above-mentioned, by his first wife had John, from whom came the Bathursts, of Lechlade, in Gloucestershire, and baronets; and Paul, who was of Nordiam, and afterwards possessor of Finchcocks, from whose great-grandson William, who was a merchant in London, descended the Bathursts, of Edmonton, in Middlesex. By his second wife he had John, who was of Goudhurst, ancestor of the Bathursts, of Richmond, in Yorkshire. In the descendants of Paul Bathurst before-mentioned, this seat continued down to Thomas Bathurst, esq. who by his will devised this seat and estate to his nephew Edward, only son of his younger brother William, of Wilmington, who leaving his residence there on having this seat devised to him, removed hither, and rebuilt this seat, at a great expence, in a most stately manner. He resided here till his death in 1772, having been twice married, and leaving several children by each of his wives. By his first wife Elizabeth, third daughter and coheir of Stephen Stringer, esq. of Triggs, he had three sons, Edward, who left a daughter Dorothy, now unmarried, and John and Thomas, both fellows of All Souls college, in Oxford, the latter of whom is now rector of Welwyn, in Hertfordshire. Before his death he conveyed this seat and estate by sale to his son by his second wife, Mr. Charles Bathurst, who on his decease in 1767, s. p. devised it by will to his brother, the Rev. Mr. Richard Bathurst, now of Rochester, the present possessor of it. This branch of the family of Bathurst. bore for their arms the same coat as those of Franks, in this county, and those of Cirencester, Lydney, and Clarendon, viz. Sable, two bars, ermine, in chief three crosses pattee, or, with a crescent for difference; but with a different crest, viz. Party per fess, and pale, a demi wolf argent, and sable, holding a regal crown, or; which I take to be that borne by Edward Horden, whose heir Paul Bathurst, their ancestor, married, and whose coat of arms they likewise quartered with their own.

 

¶AT NO GREAT DISTANCE from Finchcocks, in the same hundred, lies a capital messuage, called RISEDEN, alias GATEHOUSE, which formerly belonged to a family named Sabbe, one of whom, Simon Sabbe, sold it, before the middle of the last century, to Mr. Robert Bathurst, from whom it descended down, with an adjoining estate, called TRILLINGHERST, to another Robert Bathurst, who died in 1731, and lies buried in this church, whose daughter Mary sold them both to Sir Horace Mann, bart. the present possessor of them.

 

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