View allAll Photos Tagged disarray
Like the nearby Fur Center and Garment Center Synagogues, the Millinery Center Synaoguge was built to serve the apparel trade. Founded in 1934 by hat makers, it was designed for a cross-section of Jewish immigrants who did not pray regularly, but wanted to say Kaddish--the prayer for the dead--during the 10-month mourning period after a family member's death. When the congregation was founded, two-thirds of the nation's hat manufacturing occured in New York. The modernist structure at 1025 Sixth Avenue was designed by H.I. Friedman and constructed in 1948. In the early 90's, the Millinery Synagogue fell into disarray, and now it has been reborn as a primarily Orthodox center. Even today, it maintains a loose connection to the garment industry, supplementing its budget by selling sheets and towels.
Wandered down to St. Joe today to photograph the lighthouse.
Had some interesting light, and the scaffolding on the outer light is in disarray. Too much ice and water to walk out there, but I did get the long lens out to get a photo.
Benteng Somba Opu (Fort Somba Opu), Barombong, Gowa, South Sulawesi, Indonesia.
Another disappointing place to visit. I will attempt to put some words in the caption later and also post a few images of the ruin and others. A showcase that ended like a fart in a hot skillet.
--- contd. ---
The complex is in a state of disarray - poor signage, unkempt compound, and some of the so-called "cultural showcase" of "rumah adat", the traditional vernacular architecture of the houses of the various ethnic groups in Makassar are in dilapidated conditions. One fine day the poorly maintained timber buildings will kiss the ground. I also suspected some locals took advantage of the lack of surveillance of the historical site to encroach and squat in some of the houses. Young children in school uniforms playing truant while puffing away, and individuals loitering and napping under some of the stilted houses. The presence of the Gowa Discovery theme park nearby doesn't bode well to promote Somba Opu as a historical destination worthy to visit. The scenario seems unwelcome. I had a bowl of "cendul" sold by a hawker under a tree and moved away as quickly as I came. In the words of the cab driver, the place is "... tidak terawat." Justice has to be done by the relevant authorities to this important historical site!
Here's a version of the historical background. You may want to indulge the details by reading some of the blogs and articles available in the net.
The administrative center of the Gowa Kingdom at Tamalate was moved to Somba Opu during the reign of Raja Gowa XIII, Pakere Tau Tunijallo ri Passukki and a fortress was built by the successor Raja Gowa IX, Daeng Matanre Karaeng Tumapa'risi' Kallonna. The rectangular fortress was further reinforced by subsequent rulers and equipped with high caliber cannons at the bastions. The fortress, one of the many that were built was ultimately bombarded by the Dutch East India Company (VOC) and was razed to the ground during the Makassar War.
There are many versions of the historic war between the two great powers - Gowa under Raja Gowa XVI, Sultan Hasanuddin Tumenanga Ri Balla Pangkana and the VOC under the command of Admiral Cornelis Speelman. The third party that contributed to the downfall of the Gowa Kingdom was Arung Palakka, the Bugis prince whom many historians suspect was Sultan Hasanuddin’s own son. Literary texts written based on narrated oral traditions led many to believe the names mentioned, Karaeng Tunisombaya was Sultan Hasanuddin and Karaeng Andi Patunru his own son. The tension starts to build up after the royal seer, Karaeng Botolempangang identifies Karaeng Andi Panturu as the prophesized enemy and was ordered be killed. Karaeng Andi Panturu fled Gowa with his half-brother, Karaeng Patta Belo and they live in fear, but with vengeance to reclaim his dignity and honor which he has lost through his long flight. The storyteller reconciles self-vindication by foreign aggression – the Dutch; with the intended purpose to euphemize the issue of betrayal to collaboration.
The downfall of Gowa in 1669 marked the end of a successful era of the great kingdom and the beginning of total Dutch hegemony in the important trading region. Sultan Hasanuddin died in Makassar on 12 June 1670 at the age of 39 and was laid to rest at the royal mausoleum at Katangka, Sungguminasa, Gowa, Makassar.
Ref. and suggested reading:
The Narrative of War in Makassar: Its Ambiguities and Contradictions, by Ivie Carbon Esteban. Sari - International Journal of the Malay World and Civilisation 28(1) (2010): 129-149.
This is our fleet before the major rethink (coming soon). A massive amount of colours and not even one single unified livery!
Hot Mess:
A state of disarray so chaotic that it's dizzying to look at. A mess that is beyond the normal range of disarray. Visual clutter that draws attention to itself.
Every generation has their own way of expressing themselves; long hair and psychedelic music, platform shoes and disco beats, or what you see in this shot.
There's a whole lot going on here and I wasn't quite sure how to title it. It looked to me like a bunch of randomness thrown together, a mess of this and that with some of the other thrown in for good measure. Is this a Conglomeration of Chaos or maybe a Soup Sandwich? I thought about if for a few seconds and the words "Hot Mess" just came together and sealed the deal.
I get the idea of individualism and wanting to stand out in the crowd, to be someone and something unique. Just don't get mad at me for saying something about it when you're the one standing there just screaming for attention.
PS:
While falling down a rabbit hole on the WWW I came across a video that would probably fit this person to a T:
This streetside stall in Penang was just closing when I arrived to sketch it - but i was also attracted to the rough texture of the wall behind, and the disarray of the canvas shade covers.
At the end of May 1942, the Free French 1st brigade occupied the southern sector of the British 8th Army's deployment in the heart of Libyan desert, facing German and Italian Axis troops. This was a key point on the extreme left of the position since it could prevent any potential encirclement from the south of Allied forces retreating in disarray from the defeat and the fall of Tobruk that had opened the road to Cairo for the German tanks.
At the end of May 1942, the Free French 1st brigade occupied the southern sector of the British 8th Army's deployment in the heart of Libyan desert, facing German and Italian Axis troops. This was a key point on the extreme left of the position since it could prevent any potential encirclement from the south of Allied forces retreating in disarray from the defeat and the fall of Tobruk that had opened the road to Cairo for the German tanks.
"Chronicles of Religious Persecution in China" | Chinese Christians' Grisly Tale (Official Trailer)
Since it came to power in Mainland China in 1949, the Chinese Communist Party has been unceasing in its persecution of religious faith. It has frantically arrested and murdered Christians, expelled and abused missionaries operating in China, confiscated and burned countless copies of the Bible, sealed up and demolished church buildings, and tried to eradicate all house churches. Recent years have also seen the CCP government's wide-scale introduction of policies aimed at the "Sinification" of Christianity. Thousands of church crosses have been demolished, many church buildings have been knocked down, and a great number of Christians in house churches have been arrested and persecuted. Christian churches in China suffer cruel and bloody persecution …
This documentary faithfully and objectively reproduces the persecution suffered by Chinese Christians at the hands of the CCP government, and focuses on describing the real experiences of two Christians who were persecuted to death by the CCP because of their belief in God. The Christians persecuted in the film are people from different sects and denominations who searched for the truth, and who heard the voice of God and thus returned to Almighty God. They walked the right path of life, yet were frantically arrested by the CCP government, tortured, and ultimately died from their mistreatment. The families of these martyrs were also monitored, threatened, and terrified by the CCP. They were not only unable to get justice for the deceased, but were thrown into disarray by the CCP's persecution. This exquisitely-shot documentary attempts to recreate what really happened at the time, and provides a profound reflection of the flagrant encroachment of the religious beliefs and human rights of Chinese Christians. It is a window to understanding the true lives of Chinese Christians and Christian families, as well as a reflection—rarely seen in recent years—of the experiences and emotions of Chinese Christians who have been persecuted as a result of their faith.
Eastern Lightning, The Church of Almighty God was created because of the appearance and work of Almighty God, the second coming of the Lord Jesus, Christ of the last days. It is made up of all those who accept Almighty God's work in the last days and are conquered and saved by His words. It was entirely founded by Almighty God personally and is led by Him as the Shepherd. It was definitely not created by a person. Christ is the truth, the way, and the life. God's sheep hear God's voice. As long as you read the words of Almighty God, you will see God has appeared.
Website: www.holyspiritspeaks.org/
YouTube: www.youtube.com/godfootstepsen
Facebook: www.facebook.com/godfootstepsen
Twitter: twitter.com/churchAlmighty
Blog: en.blog.hidden-advent.org/
Instagram: instagram.com/thechurchofalmi...
Email: info@almightygod.church
UNIFICATION OF NEPAL
Nepal was unified by King Prithvi Narayan Shah of Gorkha kingdom in the mid-eighteenth century by winning over other kingdoms and moving his capital to Kathmandu.
EARLY RULERS
Nepal's recorded history began with the Kiratis, who arrived in the Kathmandu valley in the 7th or 8th century BCE from the east. Little is known about them, other than their deftness as sheep farmers and fondness for carrying long knives. The Kirats ruled for about 1225 years (800 BCE-300 CE); they had a total of 28 kings during that time. Their first and best remembered king was Yalambar Haang, who is mentioned in the epic Mahabharata.
The first record of the word Nepal is found in ancient Indian annals such as the puranas from the 4th century A.D where an area known as 'Newal' or sometimes as 'Newar' is mentioned, referring to what is now known as the Kathmandu Valley. However, the area of the sovereign state of Nepal has changed from time to time during its history, expanding and shrinking in area since ancient times.
Of the kings originating inside or outside of modern Nepal, a common characteristic of attempting to unify Nepal from mostly west to east, along the southern track of the Himalayas and the northern plain of Ganges, can be identified. No Nepalese ruler has been recorded attempting to cross the Himalayas to expand their states into Tibet or China, and none has been recorded trying to cross the Ganges plain into modern India. For the most part, Nepalese rulers seem to have been focused on the territories that more or less comprise modern-day Nepal, between the region of Kashmir in the west and Bhutan in the east.
Nepal as a political region has been united by different kings of different kingdoms at various times in Nepalese history. Common tradition holds that among the first uniters of Nepal was a king by the name of Mandev, who ultimately controlled territory from the Brahmaputra River in the east to the Gandaki in the west. Recorded details of his unification, however, are scarce, and Mandev's actions and his very existence cannot be definitively confirmed. The same may be said for various early recorded and traditional (i.e. not necessarily recorded) rulers of Nepal, all of whose kingdoms apparently broke up when their dynasties died out. While records and documents of several such rulers do exist, a lack of interest has made their accessibility difficult and limited the number of translations and analyses.
KING PRITHVI NARAYAN SHAH
King Prithvi Narayan Shah (1723-1775) was born in the Shah dynasty of Gorkha on 11 January 1723 (27 Poush 1779 B.S.) After the death of Narabhupal shah on 25th chaitra he became the king of Gorkha. He ascended to the throne of Gorkha kingdom on 3 April 1743. He was interested in politics and diplomacy and had interests in both visiting and conquering other countries since his days as prince. He decided to enlarge his kingdom that was confined to the small Gorkha region of present-day Nepal and had an area of just 2,500 square km (approx. 50 km x 50 km). He defeated major principalities in wars and unified them under his rule starting from the 1740s ending with shifting of his Gorkha Kingdom’s capital from Gorkha region to Kathmandu in 1769. While he was successful at conquering the Kathmandu valley and the Sen kingdoms further east of the Kathmandu valley, his efforts were limited to the west of his homeland. He then attacked and absorbed dozens of other small principalities and gave a new name "Nepal" to his Gorkha kingdom. He was able to conquer some of the 22 principalities or kingdoms, known as the (thebaise raj-ya, and some of the 24 kingdoms (the chaubasi raj-ya), which were two sets of allies west of the King's homeland of Gorkha, in what is now called western Nepal.Soon after he ascended the throne of Gorkha Kingdom, Shah tricked his way into the royal household of Bhaktapur for a number of months. He wanted the rich agricultural soil of the valley, and the strategic point of the Kathmandu valley as a transit point for expanding trade with both Tibet and India. Then he planned the conquest of the valley. To this end, he decided to first capture Nuwakot, which belonged to the state of Kantipur, as a strategic point. He also foresaw that taking over Nuwakot would significantly strengthen the position of his Gorkha nation and weaken the states occupying the Kathmandu Valley. Nuwakot held strategic importance, as there was already a fort there, and it had remained as a connecting pass the valley and Tibet.
NUWAKOT
Prithivi Narayan was a very ambitious king. Along with the invasion of the Gorkha he wanted it to protect it from the Gorkha troops, so he started to unify the small kingdoms to be a single country . One year after becoming King, in 1744 AD, Prithvi Narayan Shah attacked Nuwakot but was repelled because the Gorkha army was not well equipped. In addition, conflicts of interest between the Pandeys and Basnets - two important warrior clans in the Gorkha palace - arose to add domestic political tension. Shah then made Kalu Pande "Mul Kaji (equivalent to Prime Minister)" of his state and thus strengthened his domestic political position. Almost a year later, on 2 October 1744, he attacked Nuwakot again and won, thus expanding the bounds of his Gorkha state.
KIRTIPUR
Kalu Pandey employed a strategy involving a blockade of the Kathmandu Valley, and subsequently took over the surrounding settlements and strategic positions around the valley. In the next two years (during 1745-46) he captured Mahadevpokhari, Pharping, Chitlang, Dharmasthali, Naldrum, Siranchok and Shivapuri. He then focused his attention on Kirtipur and Makawanpur, two palaces which were also strategic military targets. Kirtipur was in an elevated position with a fort surrounded by walls and jungles, an ideal place to make inroads into the valley. Shah thought that if he could take over Kirtipur, occupying the rest of the valley would be much easier. On 4 December 1757 he made his first attack on Kirtipur. In this war he lost his strong general Kalu pandey which was a great loss for gorkha. Kalu Pandey had told him that it was not the right time to attack Kritpur. His body was buried in Kirtipur. Prithvi Narayan Shah himself was nearly killed in the battle. As a result, the Gorkha army, having lost a great deal of morale, was defeated. It is said that as revenge for his two earlier defeats, The Gorkha army was repelled again in August 1765.
After two defeats, the Gorkha army changed its strategy again and surrounded Kirtipur during the harvest season, effectively laying siege to the stronghold. The Gorkha army also took over the nearby Balaju fort. After several months of this blockade, the people of Kirtipur could not even get water to drink and were forced to surrender to the Gorkha army on 17 March 1766. This time the Gorkha army took over Kirtipur without a fight. Prithvi Narayan Shah had his army cut off the noses and lips of all the people of Kirtipur.
Conquest of Southern Nepal and the Kathmandu Valley
As Nuwakot was a key point for Kathmandu’s trade with Tibet, Makawanpur in the south was equally important for trade with India. While the battle to surround Kathmandu was going on in the north, the Gorkha army captured Sindhulikot, Timilakot and Hariharpur in the south and southeast of modern-day Nepal before it entered into the Makawanpurgadhi territories. Makawanpur was captured after only 10 hours of battle in August 1762. In 1763 AD, the Gorkha army conquered seven other villages, including Dhulikhel and Banepa, and expanded the Gorkha state's border line further north. With this, the Kathmandu Valley was completely surrounded and blockaded. After all the four passes (Sanga, Baad, pati and Chandragiri Bhanjyang, also known as Char Bhanjyang) of the Kathmandu Valley were controlled by Prithvi Narayan Shah, the eventual lack of salt, oil, spices, and even clothes led to turmoil in the valley and disaster struck Kathmandu. When the local government failed to pay its soldiers, the morale of its military dwindled.
The king of Kathmandu at the time, Jaya Prakash Malla, then asked for military aid from the British in British India. In August 1767, when the forces of the British India arrived in Sindhuligadhi, the Gorkha military conducted guerrilla attacks against them. Many of the British Indian forces were killed and the rest eventually fled, leaving behind a huge amount of weapons and ammunitions, which were seized by the Gorkha army.
This boosted the morale of the forces of Prithvi Narayan Shah and further demoralized the kings of the Kathmandu Valley, among which was the king of Kantipur. In addition to this, the political situation of the valley, political wrangling inside the palace, and personal enmity had rendered the people of Kantipur very weak because Jaya Prakash Malla, the king of Kantipur, was of a paranoid nature, and his own brother and courtiers became dissatisfied with him. The state of Lalitpur had also faced chaos after the death of its king Yogendra Malla. Six pradhans (courtiers) then took power into their own hands, and put Tej Narsingh Malla on the throne; but the actual power in Lalitpur remained with the pradhans. In Bhaktapur as well, the palace of King Ranjeet Malla was in disarray due to domestic political wrangling. When Ranjeet Malla wanted to declare his two-year-old son as his heir, a queen (not through marriage) opposed it. This forced the king to declare his older illegitimate son as his heir to the throne. This only fueled conflict in the palace, as a result of which the palace was weakened further.
While the three kingdoms of the Kathmandu Valley were engaged in clashes and enmity, Prithvi Narayan Shah used this opportunity to impose an economic blockade against the entire valley region. He closed the trade route to Tibet, which passed through Nuwakot. The Gorkha army marched into the valley. On 25 September 1768, when the people of Kathmandu were celebrating the Festival of Indrajatra, Prithvi Narayan Shah won an easy victory over Kantipur.
Some historians doubt this version of the history written by the conquerors. They say that the valley was overtaken not in September but in cold December. The official version of overwhelmingly large force that captured Kathmandu is considered historically inaccurate. The truth, however, is that the powerful Pradhan courtiers of Kathmandu were promised lucrative positions in the new Kingdom in exchange for their help in killing the beleaguered king. The king realized that he had enemies galore and fled to the neighboring Bhaktapur, leaving the throne empty in Kathmandu. Upon easing his way to the throne of the Kathmandu, the very next day, he ordered the beheading of all of the Pradhan courtiers and their extended society.
Eleven days later (6 October 1768), he conquered Lalitpur. On 14 April 1769, he gained the town of Thimi and seven months later (17 November 1769) he took over Bhaktapur. In this way, the whole Kathmandu Valley came under the control of Prithvi Narayan Shah.
DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS
Prithivi narayan Shah was very effortful to have good relations with different states for making his unification campaign a success. As a representative of his father, he had a pact with Lamjung, the old age enemy. Later he himself signed a treaty with King of Lamjung through the efforts sought be Kalu Pandey. Relations with the Malla Kingdoms was also important. PNS signed separate treaties with Kantipur and Bhaktapur, which are as follow : 1) to circulate the currency of either states in both states. 2) to carry joint trade with Tibet and share the incomes. 3) to enjoy rights to depute a state representative to Tibet. 4) to allow Kantipur to use the territory of Nuwakot for trade with Tibet. (Anush)
ESTABLISHMENT OF A UNITED KINGDOM OF NEPAL
After his conquest of the Kathmandu Valley, Prithvi Narayan Shah conquered other smaller countries south of the valley to keep other smaller fiefdoms near his Gurkha state out of the influence and control of the British rule. After his kingdom spread out from north to south, he made Kantipur the capital of expanded country which was known as Kingdom of Gorkha (Gorkha Samrajya).It was renamed as Kingdom of Nepal in 1930. by King Tribhuvan Bir Bikram Shah.
Tuesday 1st July 2014.Northern Rail Sprinter 158903 heads for Leeds. Earlier I had travelled from Skipton to Carlisle on the Settle & Carlisle Line in this unit. I remember there was a problem with a leaking exhaust in one car. The side of the car was hot and there was a smell of diesel exhaust in the car. Nothing was done about it at Carlisle and the unit left as if there was no problem.
Northern Rail seemed to be having a bad day. Earlier the Railbus I travelled in over the Bentham Line from Carnforth to Skipton had a problem when part of the lining below a luggage rack fell down and hit a passenger. The passenger was not hurt but did not even get an apology being left to put the lining panel on the floor himself. At Skipton the electric services to Bradford and to Leeds were in disarray following problems with the overhead power supply. The staff on Skipton Station admitted they did not know what was going on and advised passengers to ignore the automated public address announcements. Skipton seems to be a station where there are always lots of staff walking about and talking to each other but doing nothing else.
At the end of May 1942, the Free French 1st brigade occupied the southern sector of the British 8th Army's deployment in the heart of Libyan desert, facing German and Italian Axis troops. This was a key point on the extreme left of the position since it could prevent any potential encirclement from the south of Allied forces retreating in disarray from the defeat and the fall of Tobruk that had opened the road to Cairo for the German tanks.
New York Guard Soldiers assigned to Joint Task Force COVID attend a wreath laying ceremony at the gravesite of John Jacob “RIFLE JACK” Peterson at Bethel Cemetery, Croton-on-Hudson, N.Y., on March 4, 2021. John Jacob “Rifle Jack” Peterson was a Revolutionary War patriot of African and Kitchawan descent whose heroism helped repel British forces in Croton, New York. His actions threw Benedict Arnold’s treasonous plans into disarray and led to the capture of Major Andre. (U.S. Army National Guard Photo by Spc. Marla Ogden)
Allan Donald had already announced his arrival on the world stage two months earlier, taking 5 for 29 against India in South Africa's first match after nearly 22 years of isolation. His duel with Sachin Tendulkar had been especially eye-catching, but change was still the name of the game as South Africa headed across the Indian Ocean for their first World Cup.
Clive Rice, in the twilight of a remarkable career, was controversially left out of the squad, and it was Kepler Wessels, who once donned the baggy green cap, that led the side out for their opening game against Australia. For South Africa, it was an especially poignant moment, because the SCG had hosted both their first and last Tests on Australian soil.
The match couldn't have had a more dramatic start. Donald, face daubed with zinc cream and resembling an ancient warrior, ran in smoothly and produced a magnificent delivery that shaped away from Geoff Marsh. The thin edge was seen and heard by thousands, but umpire Brian Aldridge, from New Zealand, didn't respond to the vociferous South African appeal.
Donald's first spell was a luckless one, but with Marsh barely able to time the ball off the square, and the fielding tigerish, the batsmen were never allowed to get away. Adrian Kuiper then struck twice in two deliveries, producing a peach to nail Allan Border, and by the time Donald returned, Australia were in disarray.
He duly pushed them over the edge with some wonderfully controlled pace bowling. Tom Moody went leg before, the hamstrung Ian Healy hit one into the capacious hands of Brian McMillan, and Peter Taylor had little idea about the ball that messed up his stumps. Australia limped to 170 for 9 from their 49 overs, with Donald's 3 for 34 leading an impressive bowling effort.
Wessels and Peter Kirsten knocked off the runs with more than three overs to spare, and after all those years away, South Africa were back on the big stage that they had been forced to vacate after the triumphs of the Van der Merwe-Bacher years.
Here is a lovely Yellow female (Morph) Tiger Swallowtail. Sorry my flickr friends I have been away so long, but we are in the middle of remodeling our entire lower floor of our house. We started with a need to replace the carpet, and the domino effect took over from there. Still in progress...crazy...half of the house in complete and utter disarray.
It will probably be awhile...but I have not flown away for good, just looking forward to the day it's all complete.
And now, a true First innovation I never got to experience. Before the York Citaros, there was the ‘ftr’ StreetCars. These were a innovation of 'bus rapid transit' (BRT) dreamed up by First in 2006 in order to bus travel faster and more attractive to the general public. For each service in York, Leeds, Luton Airport and Swansea, drivers - or shall I say, 'pilots' - of these StreetCars were separated from the main cab a-la tram/train/halfcab bus, with conductors being employed to facilitate the purchase of tickets. The stylistic differences carried on when passengers sat down, too: each bus had air conditioning, tinted windows, a so-called 'infotainment' system that functions like today's law-mandated audio/visual announcements.
So, what was the public's opinion of the ftr system? At launch in York, very hostile. After half of the major artery roads in York city centre had to be ripped up to accommodate the length of these buses, in their first week of service on the 4 to Acomb, 'one of the £300,000 articulated vehicles got stuck and blocked a major junction. Two of the 11-strong fleet were withdrawn with electrical faults. A broken-down vehicle blocked a dedicated lane and a leaking gas main threw services into disarray on Wednesday.' Ticketing proved problematic, and amid a dispute with university students over steep fares, passenger numbers were never high enough. By the middle of the 2010s, the concept was shelved across the group.
But that's just a glimpse at the York operation - I can't say much else about the Leeds and Swansea ftr systems. As for this, 19000 was the first vehicle of its type built for the FirstGroup fleet, having toured York in demonstrator service before settling down on the Swansea ftr for the rest of its operational life. Push comes to shove, somehow it ended up at the South Yorkshire Transport Trust. There is apparently a yard full of these things somewhere out there waiting to be sold... I don't know, I think there may be a very limited appeal for these!
A legendary vehicle for a legendary route network - though maybe not for the right reasons - preserved First Swansea 'ftr'-branded 19000, a 2006 Wright StreetCar bodied Volvo B7L new as a concept vehicle for the whole network and originally registered YK06 CZN, is seen stored outside the main warehouse of the South Yorkshire Transport Trust, albeit sans number plate.
Mindful of the stakes at play in the museum’s role as cultural conduit, Upset and Disarray investigates diverse and challenging strategies that promote innovation rather than stagnation, fluidity rather than austerity. This symposium collects timely graduate presentations that address a range of topics, reconfiguring relations between the institutional, the curatorial, and the cultural.
Keynote: Srimoyee Mitra, Art Gallery of Windsor
Professional Panel: Lisa Daniels, Josh Thorpe, and Sophie Quick
Graduate Presenters: Taylor Davison, Genevieve Flavelle, Keely McCavitt, Samantha Noseworthy, Katie Oates, and Carling Spinney.
March 11, 2016
John Labatt Visual Arts Centre, Perth Drive, Western University, London, Ontario
© 2016; Department of Visual Arts; Western University
The Lost World (20th Century Fox, 1960).
youtu.be/h1CLA-gJbmA?t=5s Trailer
Irwin Allen, the producer who would go on to make the disaster film a huge success in the seventies, brought us this Saturday afternoon fodder with giant lizards posing as dinosaurs. Starring Michael Rennie, David Hedison, Claude Rains and Jill St. John.
Intended as a grand sci-fi/fantasy epic remake of Arthur Conan Doyle's classic novel. The first film adaptation, shot in 1925, was a milestone in many ways, but movie making and special effects had come a long way in 35 years. Irwin Allen's Lost World (LW) & 20th Century Fox version was derailed on the way to greatness, but managed to still be a respectable, (if more modest) A-film. Allen's screenplay followed the book fairly well, telling of Professor Challenger's expedition to a remote plateau in the Amazon upon which dinosaurs still lived. Aside from the paleontological presumptions in the premise, there is little "science" in The Lost World. Nonetheless, dinosaur movies have traditionally been lumped into the sci-fi genre.
Synopsis
When his plane lands in London, crusty old professor George Edward Challenger is besieged by reporters questioning him about his latest expedition to the headwaters of the Amazon River. After the irascible Challenger strikes reporter Ed Malone on the head with his umbrella, Jennifer Holmes, the daughter of Ed's employer, Stuart Holmes, offers the injured reporter a ride into town. That evening, Jenny is escorted by Lord John Roxton, an adventurer and big game hunter, to Challenger's lecture at the Zoological Institute, and Ed invites them to sit with him. When Challenger claims to have seen live dinosaurs, his colleague Professor Summerlee scoffs and asks for evidence. Explaining that his photographs of the creatures were lost when his boat overturned, Challenger invites Summerlee to accompany him on a new expedition to the "lost world," and asks for volunteers. When Roxton raises his hand, Jenny insists on going with him, but she is rejected by Challenger because she is a woman. Ed is given a spot after Holmes offers to fund the expedition if the reporter is included. The four then fly to the Amazon, where they are met by Costa, their guide and Manuel Gomez, their helicopter pilot. Arriving unexpectedly, Jenny and her younger brother David insist on joining them. Unable to arrange transportation back to the United States, Challenger reluctantly agrees to take them along. The next day, they take off for the lost world and land on an isolated plateau inhabited by dinosaurs. That evening, a dinosaur stomps out of the jungle, sending them scurrying for cover. After the beast destroys the helicopter and radio, the group ventures inland. When one of the creatures bellows threateningly, they flee, and in their haste, Challenger and Ed slip and tumble down a hillside, where they encounter a native girl. The girl runs into the jungle, but Ed follows and captures her. They then all take refuge in a cave, where Roxton, who has been making disparaging remarks about Jenny's desire to marry him solely for his title, angers Ed. Ed lunges at Roxton, pushing him to the ground, where he finds a diary written by Burton White, an adventurer who hired Roxton three years earlier to lead him to the lost diamonds of Eldorado. Roxton then admits that he never met White and his party because he was delayed by a dalliance with a woman, thus abandoning them to certain death. Gomez angrily snaps that his good friend Santiago perished in the expedition. That night, Costa tries to molest the native girl, and David comes to her rescue and begins to communicate with her through sign language. After Gomez goes to investigate some movement he spotted in the vegetation, he calls for help, and when Roxton runs out of the cave, a gunshot from an unseen assailant is fired, nearly wounding Roxton and sending the girl scurrying into the jungle. Soon after, Ed and Jenny stray from camp and are pursued by a dinosaur, and after taking refuge on some cliffs, watch in horror as their stalker becomes locked in combat with another prehistoric creature and tumbles over the cliffs into the waters below. Upon returning to camp, they discover it deserted, their belongings in disarray. As David stumbles out from some rocks to report they were attacked by a tribe of natives, the cannibals return and imprison them in a cave with the others. As the drums beat relentlessly, signaling their deaths, the native girl reappears and motions for them to follow her through a secret passageway that leads to the cave in which Burton White lives, completely sightless. After confirming that all in his expedition perished, White tells them of a volcanic passageway that will lead them off the plateau, but warns that they must first pass through the cave of fire. Cautioning them that the natives plan to sacrifice them, White declares that their only chance of survival is to slip through the cave and then seal it with a boulder. After giving them directions to the cave, White asks them to take the girl along. As the earth, on the verge of a volcanic eruption, quakes, they set off through the Graveyard of the Damned, a vast cavern littered with dinosaur skeletons, the victims of the deadly sulfurous gases below. Pursued by the ferocious natives, Roxton takes the lead as they inch their way across a narrow ledge above the molten lava. After escaping the natives, they jam the cave shut with a boulder and, passing a dam of molten lava, finally reach the escape passage. At its mouth is a pile of giant diamonds and a dinosaur egg. As Costa heaps the diamonds into his hat, Challenger fondles the egg and Gomez pulls a gun and announces that Roxton must die in exchange for the death of Santiago, Gomez' brother. Acting quickly, Ed hurls the diamonds at Gomez, throwing him off balance and discharging his gun. The gunshot awakens a creature slumbering in the roiling waters below. After the beast snatches Costa and eats him alive, Ed tries to dislodge the dam, sending a few scorching rocks tumbling down onto the monster. Feeling responsible for the peril of the group, Gomez sacrifices his life by using his body as a lever to dislodge the dam, covering the creature with oozing lava. As the cave begins to crumble from the impending eruption, the group hurries to safety. Just then, the volcano explodes, destroying the lost world. After Roxton hands Ed a handful of diamonds he has saved as a wedding gift for him and Jenny, Challenger proudly displays his egg, which then hatches, revealing a baby dinosaur. The End.
The 50s had seen several examples of the dinosaur sub-genre. LW is one of the more lavish ones, owing to color by DeLuxe and CinemaScope. The A-level actors help too. Claude Rains plays the flamboyant Challenger. Michael Rennie plays Roxton, perhaps a bit too cooly. Jill St. John and Vitina Marcus do well as the customary eye candy. David Hedison as Malone and Fernando Lamas as Gomez round out the bill.
The first film version of LW was a silent movie shot in 1925: screenplay by Marion Fairfax. The film featured stop-motion animated dinosaurs by a young Willis O'Brien. Fairfax followed Doyle's text, but Fairfax added a young woman to the team, Paula White. Ostensibly trying to find her father from the first failed expedition, she provided the love triangle interest between Malone and Roxton.
Allen's screenplay tried to stick to Doyle's text as much as Hollywood would allow. It carried on Fairfax's invention of the young woman member of the group as triangle fodder. Fairfax had Doyle's ape men (ape man) but omitted the native humans. Allen had the natives, but no ape men. Allen revived the Gomez/revenge subplot, which Fairfax skipped. Doyle's story had Challenger bringing back a pterodactyl. Fairfax made it a brontosaur who rampaged through London streets (spawning a popular trope). Allen suggested the baby dinosaur traveling to London.
Willis O'Brien pitched 20th Century Fox in the late 50s, to do a quality remake of LW. He had gained much experience in the intervening 35 years, so his stop-motion dinosaurs were to be the real stars. Fox bass liked the idea, but by the time the ball started rolling, there was trouble in studioland. Fox's grand epic Cleopatra was underway, but was already 5 million dollars over budget. Cleo would nearly sink 20th Century Fox when it was finally released in 1963. To stay afloat, all other Fox films' budgets were slashed. Allen could no longer afford the grand O'Brien stop-motion.
Allen's production is often criticized for its "cheap" dinosaurs, which were live monitor lizards and alligators with fins and plates and horns glue onto them. (more on that below) These were already a bit cheesy when used in the 1940 film One Million B.C.. O'Brien is still listed on the credits as "Effects Technician," but all Allen could afford was lizards with glued on extras. Somewhat amusingly, the script still refers to them as brontosaurs and T-Rexes.
The character of Jennifer Holmes starts out promising. She's a self-assured to the edges of pushy, and is said to be able to out shoot and out ride any man. Yet, when she gets to the Amazon jungle, she's little more than Jungle Barbie, dressed in girlie clothes and screaming frequently. She even does the typical Hollywood trip-and-fall when chased by the dinosaur, so that a man must save her.
Bottom line? FW is a finer example of the not-quite-sci-fi dinosaur sub-genre. The actors are top drawer, even if some of their acting is a bit flat. Nonetheless, FW is a fair adaptation of Doyle's
classic adventure novel, given the constraints of Hollywood culture.
The Movie Club Annals … Review
The Lost World 1960
Introduction
There was absolutely nothing wrong with Irwin Allen's 1960 production of The Lost World. Nothing. It was perfect in every way. I therefore find myself in the unique and unfamiliar position of having to write a rave review about a Movie Club movie that was entirely devoid of flaws.
Faced with such a confounding task, I half-heartedly considered faking a bad review, then praying my obvious deceptions would go unnoticed. But the patent transparency of my scheme convinced me to abandon it posthaste. After all, leveling concocted criticisms at such an unassailable masterpiece would be a futile and tiresome exercise, the pretense of which would escape nary a semi-cognizant soul.
Thus, having retreated from my would-be descent into literary intrigue, I start this review in earnest by borrowing a quote from the legendary Shelly Winters, spoken during the 1972 filming of Irwin Allen's The Poseidon Adventure:
"I'm ready for my close up now, Mr. Allen.” Shelly Winters, 1972
Review
A bit of research into the casting choices of Irwin Allen, who wrote, produced, and directed The Lost World, begins to reveal the genius behind the virtuosity.
The first accolades go to Irwin for his casting of Vitina Marcus, the immaculately groomed Saks 5th Avenue cave girl with exquisite taste in makeup, jewelry, and cave-wear. No finer cave girl ever graced a feature film.
Vitina Marcus, as The Cave Girl
She was the picture of prehistoric glamour, gliding across the silver screen in her designer bearskin mini-pelt, her flawless coiffure showing no signs of muss from the traditional courting rituals of the day, her perfect teeth the envy of even the most prototypical Osmond. Even her nouveau-opposable thumbs retained their manicure, in spite of the oft-disagreeable duties that frequently befell her as an effete member of the tribal gentry.
By no means just another Neanderthal harlot, Vitina had a wealth of talent to augment her exterior virtues. Her virtuoso interpretation of a comely cave girl in The Lost World certainly didn't escape the attention Irwin Allen. In fact, he was so taken with her performance that he later engaged her services again, casting her as the Native Girl in episode 2.26 of his Voyage to The Bottom of The Sea TV series.
Leery of potential typecasting, Vitina went on to obtain roles with greater depth and more sophisticated dialogue. This is evidenced by the great departure she took from her previous roles when she next portrayed the part of Sarit, a female barbarian, in episode 1.24 of Irwin Allen's The Time Tunnel TV series.
Vitina, as Sarit
Vitina's efforts to avoid typecasting paid off in spades, as she was soon rewarded with the distinctive role of Girl, a female Tarzanesque she-beast character, in episode 3.14 of The Man From U.N.C.L.E. TV series.
Lured back from the U.N.C.L.E. set by Irwin Allen, Vitina was next cast in the role of Athena (a.k.a. Lorelei), the green space girl with the inverted lucite salad bowl hat, in episodes 2.2 and 2.16 of the revered Lost in Space TV series.
And with this, Vitina reached the pinnacle of her career. For her many unparalleled displays of thespian pageantry, she leaves us forever in her debt as she exits the stage.
For those who would still question the genius of Irwin Allen, I defy you to find a better casting choice for the character of Lord John Roxton than that of Michael Rennie. Mr. Rennie, who earlier starred as Klaatu in The Day the Earth Stood Still, went on to even greater heights, starring as The Keeper in episodes 1.16 and 1.17 of the revered Lost in Space TV series. Throughout his distinguished career, Mr. Rennie often played highly cerebral characters with
unique names, such as Garth A7, Tribolet, Hasani, Rama Kahn, Hertz, and Dirk. How befitting that his most prolific roles came to him through a man named Irwin, a highly cerebral character with a unique name.
The selection of David Hedison to play Ed Malone was yet another example of Irwin's uncanny foresight. Soon after casting him in The Lost World, Irwin paved Mr. Hedison's path to immortality by casting him as a lead character in his Voyage to The Bottom of The Sea TV series. Although Voyage ended in 1968, Mr. Hedison departed the show with a solid resume and a bright future.
In the decades following Voyage, Mr. Hedison has been a veritable fixture on the small screen, appearing in such socially influential programs as The Love Boat, Fantasy Island, Knight Rider, The Fall Guy and The A Team. Mr. Hedison's early collaborations with Irwin Allen have left him never wanting for a day's work in Hollywood, a boon to the legions of discerning fans who continue to savor his inspiring prime time depictions.
Irwin selected Fernando Lamas to play Manuel Gomez, the honorable and tortured soul of The Lost World who needlessly sacrificed himself at the end of the movie to save all the others. To get a feel for how important a casting decision he was to Irwin, just look at the pertinent experience Mr. Lamas brought to the table:
Irwin knew that such credentials could cause him to lose the services of Mr. Lamas to another project, and he took great pains to woo him onto the set of The Lost World. And even though Mr. Lamas never appeared in the revered Lost in Space TV series, his talent is not lost on us.
Jay Novello was selected by Irwin Allen to play Costa, the consummate Cuban coward who perpetually betrays everyone around him in the name of greed. In pursuing his craven calling, Mr. Novello went on to play Xandros, the Greek Slave in Atlantis, The Lost Continent, as well as countless other roles as a coward.
Although Mr. Novella never appeared in the revered Lost in Space TV series, his already long and distinguished career as a coward made him the obvious choice for Irwin when the need for an experienced malingerer arose.
Jill St. John was Irwin's pick to play Jennifer Holmes, the "other" glamour girl in The Lost World. Not to be upstaged by glamour-cave-girl Vitina Marcus, Jill played the trump card and broke out the pink go-go boots and skin-tight Capri pants, the perfect Amazonian summertime jungle wear.
Complete with a perfect hairdo, a killer wardrobe, a little yip-yip dog named Frosty, and all the other trappings of a wealthy and pampered prehistoric society, Jill's sensational allure rivaled even that of a certain cave girl appearing in the same film.
With the atmosphere rife for an on-set rivalry between Jill and Vitina, Irwin still managed to keep the peace, proving that he was as skilled a diplomat as he was a director.
Claude Rains, as Professor George Edward Challenger
And our cup runneth over, as Irwin cast Claude Rains to portray Professor George Edward Challenger. His eminence, Mr. Rains is an entity of such immeasurable virtue that he is not in need of monotonous praise from the likes of me.
I respectfully acknowledge the appearance of Mr. Rains because failure to do so would be an unforgivable travesty. But I say nothing more on the subject, lest I state something so obvious and uninspiring as to insult the intelligence of enlightened reader.
Irwin's casting of the cavemen mustn't be overlooked, for their infallibly realistic portrayals are unmatched within the Pleistocene Epoch genre of film. Such meticulous attention to detail is what separates Irwin Allen from lesser filmmakers, whose pale imitations of his work only further to underscore the point.
To be sure, it is possible to come away with the unfounded suspicion that the cavemen are really just a bunch of old white guys from the bar at the local Elks lodge. But Irwin was an absolute stickler for authenticity, and would never have allowed the use of such tawdry measures to taint his prehistoric magnum opus.
In truth, Irwin's on-screen cavemen were borne of many grueling years of anthropological research, so the explanation for their somewhat modern, pseudo-caucasian appearance lies obviously elsewhere. And in keeping with true Irwin Allen tradition, that explanation will not be offered here.
1964 - Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Season One, Episode 7 - "Turn Back the Clock", featuring Vitina Marcus as The Native Girl. Produced by Irwin Allen.
And then there was Irwin Allen's masterful handling of the reptilian facets of The Lost World, most notably his inimitable casting of the dinosaurs. His dinosaurs were so realistic, so eerily lifelike, that they almost looked like living, breathing garden variety lizards with dinosaur fins and horns glued to their backs and heads.
The less enlightened viewer might even suppose this to be true, that Irwin's dinosaurs were indeed merely live specimens of lizards, donned in Jurassic-era finery, vastly magnified, and retro-fitted into The Lost World via some penny-wise means of cinematic trickery.
But those of us in the know certainly know better than that, as we are privy to some otherwise unpublished information about The Lost World. The lifelike appearance of the Irwin's dinosaurs can be attributed to a wholly overlooked and fiendishly cunning approach to the art of delusion, which is that the dinosaurs didn't just look real, they were real.
While the world abounds with middling minds who cannot fathom such a reality, we must follow Irwin's benevolent leanings and temper our natural feelings of contempt for this unfortunate assemblage of pedestrian lowbrows. In spite of Irwin's superior intellect, he never felt disdain toward the masses that constituted his audiences. He simply capitalized on their unaffectedness, and in the process recounted the benefits of exploiting the intellectually bereft for personal gain.
The purpose of all this analysis, of course, is to place an exclamation point on the genius of Irwin Allen, the formation of his dinosaur exposé being a premier example. Note how he mindfully manipulates the expectations of his unsuspecting audience, compelling them to probe the dinosaurs for any signs of man-made chicanery. Then, at the palatial moment when the dinosaurs make their entry, he guilefully supplants the anticipated display of faux reptilia with that of the bona fide article.
Upon first witnessing the de facto dinosaurs, some in the audience think they've been had, and indeed they have. Irwin, in engineering his masterful ruse, had used reality as his medium to convey the illusion of artifice. His audience, in essence, was blinded by the truth. It was the immaculate deception, and none but Irwin Allen could have conceived it.
Indeed, the matter of where the live dinosaurs came from has been conspicuously absent from this discussion, as the Irwinian technique of fine film making strongly discourages the practice of squandering time on extraneous justifications and other such trite means of redundant apologia. For the benefit of the incessantly curious, however, just keep in mind that Irwin Allen wrote and produced The Time Tunnel TV Series, a fact that should provide some fair insight into his modis operandi.
Carl R.
SICILY, Katane. Circa 415/3-404 BC. Litra (Silver, 13mm, 0.78 g 1). Bearded head of a Silen to left, with a pug nose and a pointed animal ear, wearing a broad diadem adorned with ivy, and with his hair in wild disarray. Rev. ΚΑΤΑΝΑΙΩΝ Winged thunderbolt, upright, between two round shields. Rizzo pl. XIV, 20 (same obverse die). SNG Lloyd 913 (same obverse die). Very rare and with a remarkable head of Silenos. Minor die break on the reverse, otherwise, extremely fine.
Acquired from the Numismatic Department of Bank Leu in the 1980s.
The aristocrats who ruled the cities of Sicily during the 5th century BC used the coins of their cities as a means of competition, through the artistry of the designs they bore. They hired the finest artists to engrave the dies that were used, and many of the types that appeared on the coins were made in the finest style of the age. Great artistry was not just reserved for high value pieces: even relatively low value coins such as litrai were designed to be masterpieces in miniature. The head of Silenos on this piece is quite different from almost all the others that appear on Katanean coinage. He wears an elaborate diadem, rather than just a wreath, and instead of being bald, as are virtually all the other Silen heads at Katane, he has a luxuriant head of hair. This is certainly one of the most engaging heads of Silenos ever to appear on a coin.
NOMOSFPL13, 3
Big black bat and frightened forest cottage.
New lanterns complete in the BIndlegrim studio! Not easy to return to work with so much in disarray, but the pulling together of materials made for an interesting edition with color choices in either orange, red, or yellow...
At the end of May 1942, the Free French 1st brigade occupied the southern sector of the British 8th Army's deployment in the heart of Libyan desert, facing German and Italian Axis troops. This was a key point on the extreme left of the position since it could prevent any potential encirclement from the south of Allied forces retreating in disarray from the defeat and the fall of Tobruk that had opened the road to Cairo for the German tanks.
Windlass capstan and hawsepipe lay in disarray in the remains of the SS CUBA. California, Channel Islands NMS.
Photographer: Mark Norder.
Week 47 out of 52 Weeks for Dogs for my Colby
A belated Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!! It has been a busy time here. We are having work done inside (thus the sheet on the chair) and the house is in a state of disarray.
I thought this photo was perfect for this week because it shows Colby being his playful, little self. He loves to play tug-o-war and he loves to chase you when you have one of his toys. Once he grabs the toy, the excitement is over and he wants you to grab the toy again so the play can continue. One of his favorite play buddies is my younger daughter. They have so much fun together!!!
In the far reaches of northern Scotland, within a village where time meanders at its own tranquil pace, a series of images unfolds, painting a tableau of life's relentless march amidst the shadows of climate's dismay and the distant rumbles of war that threaten to engulf Europe. It is a Wednesday evening, draped in the quietude of rainfall, a scene reminiscent of an Edward Hopper collection—imbued with solitude, emptiness, yet a profound continuance.
A Poem:
In this hamlet 'neath Scottish skies so wide,
Where the rains whisper and the winds confide,
Looms the spectre of a world in disarray,
Yet within these bounds, life finds its way.
Upon the cusp of night, shadows merge and dance,
In the pub's warm glow, eyes steal a glance.
The hearth's soft crackle, a comforting song,
In this northern retreat, where hearts belong.
The world outside may churn and roar,
With climates wracked and the drums of war.
Yet here we stand, in this time-suspended place,
Where tomorrow's worries are but a trace.
The local pub, our living room, our sphere,
A sanctuary from doubt, from dread, from fear.
We'll return come dusk, as sure as the tide,
In the rhythm of the ordinary, we take pride.
For what are we, but passengers in time,
Through days mundane, through nights sublime?
The question lingers, in the air, it floats,
Is this all there is? In whispers, it denotes.
Yet, as we stand 'neath the gentle pour,
We find beauty in the repeat, in the encore.
For in these moments, life's essence we distill,
In the quiet of the village, in the peace, so still.
A Haiku:
Rain veils the night's face,
Quiet pub bids farewell—
Life's quiet march on.
A red-shouldered hawk (Buteo lineatus) with plumage in remarkable disarray.
Nokomis, FL (1 April 2022)
A lot of changes are about to occur in my life & I am trying to remain calm & organized so everything will go smoothly.
Despite this constant feeling of disarray, I think I am doing a decent job. I find it amusing that I do my best work under pressure.
I mean, if you can't laugh at it, you'll crack.
It turns out we haven't left Rundāle Palace in Latvia, after all.
I came across a trove of photos I took in the palace basement on the way out of the complex.
It's essentially Rundāle Palace's historical society, full of cases of artifacts, photos of the palace when the interior decoration was in a state of great disarray, and many paragraphs of text that explain numerous aspects of the interior.
In Paris, at the Louvre, there have I seen
The sumptuously-feathered angel pierce
Prone Lucifer, descending. Looked he fierce,
Showing the fight a fair one? Too serene!
The young Pharsalians did not disarray
Less willingly their locks of floating silk:
That suckling mouth of his, upon the milk
Of heaven might still be feasting through the fray.
Oh, Raphael! when men the Fiend do fight,
They conquer not upon such easy terms.
Half serpent in the struggle grow these worms
And does he grow half human, all is right.
G. Meredith
Where, opposite Downing Street in the autumn 1997, Charlie Whelan (Gordon Brown's long-since sacked spin-doctor), with a pint in one hand and a mobile phone in the other, "clarified" Government policy on the Euro to several newspapers after a Gordon Brown interview that contained a sceptical tone on joining the Euro in 1999 - headlined "Brown saves the Pound" in The Times.
Whelan, on the Government's behalf, effectively ruled out joining before at least 2001 with his "clarifications", and the Government's carefully thought out "sit on the fence" approach to joining the Euro was thus thrown into total disarray, forcing the Prime Minister to rule out joining until at least after the next General Election in 2001, 4 years later. 9 years later we still haven't joined and it could be argued that this pub had the central role that Parliament would normally have in such a momentous decision - a seminal moment in New Labour spin.
John Gordon Hargrave (6 June 1894 – 21 November 1982), (woodcraft name 'White Fox'), was described in his obituary as an 'author, cartoonist, inventor, lexicographer, artist and psychic healer'. As Head Man of the Kibbo Kift, he was a prominent youth leader in Britain during the 1920s and 1930s. He was a Utopian thinker, a believer in both science and magic, and a figure-head for the Social Credit movement in British politics.
Born in Midhurst, Sussex, into an itinerant Quaker family, Hargrave was the son of painter Gordon Hargrave and his wife Babette Bing, of Jewish Hungarian descent. A bohemian childhood, spent partly in the Lake District, left him with a passion for Nature and a fierce propensity for self-education through reading books and observing the world around him. In 1908, the family moved to Latimer where, in 1909 Hargrave joined the First Chorleywood Scouts, a group of Baden Powell's Boy Scouts. In 1910 his career as a published book illustrator began when a few of his vignettes appeared in an edition of Gulliver in Liliiput, published by Thomas Nelson & Sons, a commission almost certainly arranged through the patronage of Lady Chesham. He was also given a year-long trial as a cartoonist on the Evening Times. He became a devotee of the naturalist Ernest Thompson Seton, and one of the leading Scout authorities on Woodcraft. His interests in scouting, nature and art combined to produce the book that made his name, or rather his scouting name of 'White Fox'. This was Lonecraft published by Constable in 1913 and introducing the characteristic 'White Fox' style of no-nonsense text, interspersed with pictures and diagrams. Rising up the Scout hierarchy, Hargrave produced a succession of scouting and woodcraft books for C. Arthur Pearson Ltd, who offered him a position of staff artist in 1914, his first salaried job.
When World War I broke out, Hargrave joined the Royal Army Medical Corps, and saw action at the Battle of Gallipoli. Hargrave's Quaker pacifism was reinforced by the horrors of war. The experience convinced him that modern civilisation had gone awry and he voiced his feelings in his angry polemic of 1919, The Great War Brings It Home. This was a call to action for all groups concerned with the health and character of future generations. Hargrave called for a new national scheme for character-building and physical training, and the result was the foundation of the Kindred of the Kibbo Kift in August 1920. Intended as a movement for all ages and genders, the Kibbo Kift provided a co-educational, and therefore progressive, alternative to the Boy Scouts. Hargrave was initially appointed 'Head Man' as a temporary measure, but by 1924 had succeeded in becoming the undisputed leader. As Head Man he imported into the Kindred his interest in ritual and art, along with his own views about self-education, science, magic, and healthy behaviour. He was a strong believer in Darwinian evolution, holding that Kibbo Kift training would produce morally upright and healthy individuals, through whom the human race as a whole would evolve into a better state. He believed that building better individuals was the way of building a better society, thus standing apart from those on the left and right who believed in the State as the main vehicle for social change. Hargrave's vision of the better society to come owed much to his Quaker roots: he saw a future society without war, poverty or wasted lives, all kept together by the self-discipline of enlightened individuals.
The Kindred of the Kibbo Kift took its name from an old Kentish term for a feat of strength[5] and it attracted support from a number of progressive thinkers, including: Patrick Geddes, Evelyn Sharp, H. G. Wells, and Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence. Membership remained fairly small (600-800) in the 1920s and included many teachers, art teachers and youth workers. Many developed an intense personal loyalty to Hargrave, remaining with him throughout the Kindred's transformation into the Green Shirts, and the Social Credit Party.
In the 1920s Hargrave's work as an artist was dominated by the designs, drawings and diagrams he produced for the Kibbo Kift. All express his fascination with 'symbology', the use of symbols or stylised representations to convey meaning. He controlled the visual style of the movement, designing the 'official' robes, badges, symbols, theatre sets and regalia himself: although individual members were encouraged to design and make their own personal totems. He had less success as an artist outside the movement, despite trying to establish himself as a portrait or landscape painter. In 1924 he exhibited a selection of his 'symbolic paintings' 'an attempt to express through the medium of paint Ideas rather than Objects in themselves'. During the late 1920s and 1930s, he worked as a freelance commercial artist in the advertising industry, producing layouts for Lever Brothers, whose advertising manager Colin Hurry was a friend; and for Carlton Studios, where he worked on campaigns for Watney's and Boot's the Chemist amongst others. He continued to sell illustrations to book publishers, including some cover work for Mills & Boon in 1922.
Hargrave enjoyed more public success as a novelist, publishing a best-seller Harbottle: a Modern Pilgrim's Progress from This world to That Which is to Come in 1924, and following this up with a succession of popular novels published by Duckworths. Many are stylised fables borrowing structures from books that Hargrave admired (Harbottle is based on John Bunyan, and Young Winkle (1926) is based on Rudyard Kipling's Kim). Entirely original, however is Hargrave's 1935 experimental modernist masterpiece Summer Time Ends. This symphonic text aspired to the condition of radio and film, weaving its characters' speech in and out of refrains and rhythms. The book was well received in America (John Steinbeck was a fan), and was praised by Ezra Pound, by this time a Hargrave admirer.
In 1924 Hargrave was introduced to the economic theory of Social Credit, the creation of C. H. Douglas. Hargrave took up the creed with fervour, attracted by its seemingly-scientific 'truth' and its sense of mission. Social Credit changed Hargrave's belief in the reformed individual as the key to a better society: the key was actually, he now believed, a reformed economic system. By the late 1920s he had re-purposed the Kindred to be a 'megaphone' for social credit, bringing the esoteric economic theory to the public at large.
The remaining Kibbo Kift members were transformed into a fighting force, still disciplined and healthy but now engaged in 'unarmed military technique'. Hargrave joined up with the Legion of the Unemployed in Coventry in 1930, and furnished them with green shirts and berets. By 1932, the Kibbo Kift were also in the green uniform, together forming the Green Shirt Movement for Social Credit. The Green Shirts soon became part of the street politics of the 1930s, engaging in battles with both Oswald Mosley's British Union of Fascists, the Black Shirts, and the Red Shirt supporters of the Communist Party of Great Britain.[3] Hargrave designed a striking new flag for his Social Credit movements, the green and black double K device, which he christened the 'Key Symbol'. He also introduced a strong element of theatricality into the Green Shirts' political protest, with ritual marches round the Bank of England, drumming, 'street chalking' and publicity stunts such as throwing a green brick into 11 Downing Street.
Initially staying out of parliamentary politics, Hargrave changed his mind in 1935, re-branding the Green Shirt movement as the Social Credit Party of Great Britain and Northern Ireland for the purposes of fighting the 1935 General Election. He was also impressed by the success of the Social Credit Party of Alberta (Canada). Douglas opposed the entry of the movement into parliamentary politics. Hargrave soon travelled to Alberta, frustrated at the lack of progress that the Social Credit government there was making. He was appointed an economic adviser to the Government of Alberta, and was disowned by Douglas. He left Canada in 1936, returning to find the Social Credit Party in disarray after the Public Order Act 1936 banned the wearing of uniforms by non-military personnel. Undeterred, Hargrave steered the Social Credit Party into a more evangelical mood, adopting quasi-religious slogans ('God's Providence is Mine Inheritance') and organising public 'Services of National Regeneration'. He broke with Ezra Pound, an episode which underlined his opposition to Fascism.
The Social Credit Party was mothballed during the war, although Hargrave tried to keep his ideas alive through a weekly newsletter,The Message from Hargrave. He was urged to stand for Parliament in the 1945 election, but did not: only returning to public politics in 1950 when he stood as a candidate in Hackney North and Stoke Newington in the 1950 general election. The 551 votes he received convinced Hargrave to give up, and by 1951 he had disbanded the Party.
In 1937 Hargrave became obsessed with solving the technological problems of using maps in moving aeroplanes. By 1938 a prototype of the Hargrave Automatic Navigator was ready to file with the Patent Office and articles of association had been prepared for 'Hargrave Aviation Ltd.'. The prototype was tested during the war, with government approval, but lack of capital meant that the invention was not developed further. The invention lay fallow until 1976 when Hargrave sued the British Government, claiming that the moving map display supplied by Britain to the supersonic Concorde, was in fact his Automatic Navigator. His claim was taken up by journalists, resulting eventually in a Public Enquiry. Hargrave insisted he was only asking for recognition, rather than any financial recompense, but the Public Enquiry found against him.
During the war, Hargrave had returned to his interest in science and magic (he always considered both as equally valid methods for harnessing the forces of nature). He became convinced of his own powers and set up as a healer, offering a variety of techniques. Chief among these were the use of 'Therapeutic Psychographs', abstract artworks created by Hargrave which were prescribed to his patients with instructions to stare at the artwork for a set period of time every day.
In the 1950s Hargrave earned a living as a cartoonist, working under the name of 'Spiv' or sometimes just 'H'. His work appeared in Cavalcade, The Sketch and Time and Tide. He was commissioned to write the entry on Paracelsus for the Encyclopædia Britannica (Hargrave had published The Life and Soul of Paracelsus in 1951). He submitted a stream of manuscripts, radio plays and film scripts to producers and publishers, always searching for opportunities to realise his ideas: he continued to believe that Social Credit was the solution to the world's economic problems. John Hargrave died on 21 November 1982, aged 88 at his home in Branch Hill Lodge, Hampstead.
Hargrave married Ruth Clark, the daughter of the engineer William Clark on 28 November 1919. Their marriage produced one son although the couple were divorced in 1952. He remarried in 1968, his new wife being the actress Gwendoline Florence Gray.
John Hargrave's personal papers, including his diaries and unpublished mss., are held at the British Library of Political and Economic Science. His artwork, including designs for the Kibbo Kift, work as a commercial artist and family photographs are held in the Museum of London (the Kibbo Kift Collection). Model III of Hargrave's Automatic Navigator is held in the Science Museum.
Hampstead Cemetery, Fortune Green Lane,
London NW6 1DR
recycle or reincarnate
Here's my latest installment in this series. These are re-worked and tweaked even further with more and more layering and I think the meaning is even clearer here... even though it's so layered... interesting concept!
Last autumn, we went to the cemetery as an outing on a Sunday afternoon, having heard that it was absolutely frightening up there... that is to say, the union city/cemetery workers had been on strike since the spring and there had been no work done up there in months... the whole city was up in arms, not only because the cemetery was very unkept and completely over-grown, but because the newly-departed loved ones were unable to be buried, because of not being able to cross the picket lines... crazy stuff... It's totally amazing to us that this was part of our everyday world and no one could do anything about it and so it became part of our common experience. It's amazing to me that we as a society can accept things and allow them to happen and somehow put our hands in the air and say, oh well, there's nothing we can do about it... but bitch...
And so, after having avoided the situation for months, (we don't get the paper or listen to the news at all... and so get our daily events from family and friends...) we decided to see what all the fuss was about... and what an adventure it turned out to be.
The place was a wonderland to an artist's eyes... but, not so fun for family members whose loved ones were buried under feet of tall grasses. We found a complete mess... what a great statement it all made: decay, disarray, death, memorials, all along this wonderful mountain top at the center of our fabulous city. And so, I began to think about the necessity of taking these incredible amounts of acres of beautiful land and burying dead bodies there... with all the graves stones barely visible it seems questionable to me about the value of this long-standing ritual... why was it necessary to us as humans? what was it about?
And so as we moved through the tall grasses, further and further up the hill we found an open field with nothing... I was intrigued and went straight for it... once I got there and as I walked around, I fell into a slight hole, and then another and another... it took me a while to discover that there were small flat graves under my feet... older graves stones, flush to the ground that had been buried under several feet of leaves and tall vegetaion... what a find!
I proceeded to unearth these markers one by one in a row! my hands filthy from the wet soil and mildew! But, I LOVED it...
I cried out to my husband to record the moment, and so, these photos were originally taken by my husband Sol Lang for me. I tweaked them... working on these photos lovingly and respectfully until their meaning became clear to me.
This is about recycling and reincarnation. We are recycling our bodies and feeding the earth. Giving back in a sense. Allowing our souls to also recycle or reincarnate!
.
Last night we were looking at photos and Jessie remarked that they don't have very many pictures with me. And she's right...so I think I will have to remedy that. More pictures with the girls. Going to make it a point to do that this year.
On a side note, doing this shot and taking a break from having to come up with and shoot something creative is a huge relief. There are so many things in disarray right now. It's not because I'm doing 365. But doing 365 does take away from doing other things that I need to do. I'm losing/misplacing things (keys, bills, etc.) more than ever. My desk is a mess and so is the garage. I'm in the process of building a raised vegetable garden which is taking me longer than it should, so I have wood boards, screws, and tools all over the garage. I need to get back on track with my workouts.
I won't be quitting 365(at least not yet...haha) as I am enjoying it. But I may be putting considerably less effort (from what I'm use to) until things are back on track.
In the far reaches of northern Scotland, within a village where time meanders at its own tranquil pace, a series of images unfolds, painting a tableau of life's relentless march amidst the shadows of climate's dismay and the distant rumbles of war that threaten to engulf Europe. It is a Wednesday evening, draped in the quietude of rainfall, a scene reminiscent of an Edward Hopper collection—imbued with solitude, emptiness, yet a profound continuance.
A Poem:
In this hamlet 'neath Scottish skies so wide,
Where the rains whisper and the winds confide,
Looms the spectre of a world in disarray,
Yet within these bounds, life finds its way.
Upon the cusp of night, shadows merge and dance,
In the pub's warm glow, eyes steal a glance.
The hearth's soft crackle, a comforting song,
In this northern retreat, where hearts belong.
The world outside may churn and roar,
With climates wracked and the drums of war.
Yet here we stand, in this time-suspended place,
Where tomorrow's worries are but a trace.
The local pub, our living room, our sphere,
A sanctuary from doubt, from dread, from fear.
We'll return come dusk, as sure as the tide,
In the rhythm of the ordinary, we take pride.
For what are we, but passengers in time,
Through days mundane, through nights sublime?
The question lingers, in the air, it floats,
Is this all there is? In whispers, it denotes.
Yet, as we stand 'neath the gentle pour,
We find beauty in the repeat, in the encore.
For in these moments, life's essence we distill,
In the quiet of the village, in the peace, so still.
A Haiku:
Rain veils the night's face,
Quiet pub bids farewell—
Life's quiet march on.
Tombstone of Francis Cochrane and family. Mount Pleasant Cemetery, Toronto, Canada. Fall morning, 2020. Pentax K1 II.
Francis Cochrane was a businessman and politician. He spoke so seldom in Parliament that his nickname was Silent Frank. The town of Cochrane, Ontario was named after him.
Many details of this curious individual are provided at the links:
www.biographi.ca/en/bio/cochrane_francis_14E.html
COCHRANE, FRANCIS, businessman and politician; b. 18 Nov. 1852 in Clarenceville (Saint-Georges-de-Clarenceville), Lower Canada, second son of Robert Cochrane, a farmer, and Mary Ann Hunter; m. 16 Aug. 1882 Alice Lavinia Dunlop (Dunlap) in Pembroke Township, Ont., and they had two sons and a daughter; d. 22 Sept. 1919 in Ottawa.
The details of Frank Cochrane’s first 40 years are obscure. A son of Methodist parents, he was educated in the separate school at Saint-Thomas-de-Foucault (Noyan). According to family lore, he worked for a time in a department store in Chicago but was fired after a fist-fight with his supervisor. In the late 1870s he ended up in his maternal uncles’ general store in the Ottawa valley lumbering community of Pembroke. He soon joined the local hardware business of Dunlop and Chapman, and in 1882 he married Alice Dunlop. The couple moved upriver to Mattawa, where Frank took charge of a new branch of the company. He prospered enough to establish his own hardware and mining supply store in Sudbury, the emerging nickel-copper centre of northeastern Ontario; he located there in the fall of 1890, with Alice and their children joining him a year later.
Cochrane parlayed his store into Cochrane Hardware Limited, described at his death by the Sudbury Star as “one of the largest commercial institutions of its kind in the province, with branch stores all over the North Country.” An early reflection of his success was the completion in 1894 of the Cochrane Block, an imposing, three-storey brick building. Cautioned that it was too grand for the struggling town, he remained optimistic; 20 years later he would preside over the opening of an even more impressive headquarters in a considerably bigger Sudbury.
As Cochrane became established, he diversified his activities. One of his most profitable investments was in hydroelectricity. In 1902 he and local prospector William McVittie incorporated the Wahnapitae Power Company to develop generating sites. Two years later it won the contract to supply Sudbury, and it would continue to do so until 1929, when the Cochrane family sold its shares to the Hydro-Electric Power Commission of Ontario for more than $1 million. Again in partnership with McVittie, Cochrane speculated in various mineral properties, the most valuable being the so-called Frood Extension, purchased in 1908 and sold to the Mond Nickel Company in 1910 for $200,000.
As successful a businessman as Cochrane was, his historical significance lies primarily in his political career. A lifelong Conservative – family members recalled hosting Sir John A. Macdonald* in Mattawa – Cochrane was appointed Sudbury’s enumerator for the 1891 census, a patronage plum reserved for the party faithful. One of the “company of 100 associates” who successfully petitioned Queen’s Park for the incorporation of Sudbury as a town in 1892, he rose to greater prominence three years later, when he headed the organization of the local agricultural society and board of trade. In January 1896 he formally entered municipal politics by winning a seat on council for the predominantly English-speaking ward of McCormick. He served three terms as mayor (1897, 1898, 1902), each time defeating his Liberal critic, James A. Orr, editor of the Sudbury Journal. Competent and highly regarded, Cochrane stressed growth, accommodation with the area’s mining powers, and fiscal responsibility, policies very much in line with his business interests.
Cochrane ventured beyond municipal politics in 1902, when he contested the new constituency of Nipissing West in the provincial general election. With some justification, based on the poll results, he attributed his defeat to the advantage of the bilingual Liberal candidate, Joseph Michaud, in the riding’s French-speaking sections. The experience nevertheless proved valuable since it drew him into official party circles and brought his organizational skills to the attention of Conservative leader James Pliny Whitney.
Although active behind the scenes, Cochrane did not run in the election of January 1905, in which Adolphe-Osias Aubin defeated Michaud. Within days, however, rumours began to circulate that premier-designate Whitney intended naming Cochrane to his cabinet as spokesman for northern Ontario, possibly as minister of a new portfolio (mines). In February an accident delayed the appointment: when boarding a moving train near Sudbury, Cochrane slipped and his right leg was severed below the knee. His rehabilitation took several months. In May Whitney announced the conversion of the crown lands portfolio into a new department, Lands and Mines (later Lands, Forests, and Mines). Cochrane was sworn in as minister at the end of the month; the deputy minister continued to be Aubrey White. On 13 June Cochrane was returned by acclamation in a by-election in Nipissing East, its member, Charles Lamarche, having resigned in a move that may have been prearranged. Cochrane’s appointment was received with scepticism by the press in southern Ontario. The Liberal Globe of Toronto, for example, commented that he had no legislative experience and no “wide-spread prominence in any other sphere of activity.”
Cochrane’s six years as minister, though not without controversy and some failures, would be the most satisfying period of his political career. From the outset he was determined to play an aggressively interventionist role in the management of Ontario’s natural resources. Shortly after taking office, for instance, he cancelled five dormant pulp-and-paper agreements and put the concessions up for auction. Similarly, he rescinded a number of unworked claims being held on speculation by invoking a little-known section of the Mines Act that required proof of a mineral deposit. His most enduring accomplishments were the new Mines Act, approved by the legislature in April 1906, and the related Supplementary Revenue Act, passed a year later.
The product of extensive public consultation, the Mines Act was an attempt to meet miners’ demands for a more equitable system for exploiting mining lands. Emphasizing decentralization and uniformity, it divided the province into mining divisions, eliminated the leasehold system, and delineated a single and relatively inexpensive process for the acquisition of properties. Alarmed by the paucity of provincial revenues derived from the silver strikes in the Cobalt district, Cochrane, like Whitney, was determined to ensure that Ontario received the “people’s share” of the wealth generated by its mines. Particularly controversial was the provision in the revenue act for an annual tax on mining profits, the first in Ontario’s history. Mining companies lobbied furiously against the innovation. Under pressure, Cochrane agreed to change it from a flat to a progressive tax, making it more palatable to small firms. In the case of the Sudbury-based International Nickel Company, however, the change was privately offset by an agreement that temporarily circumvented the progressive clauses [see Almon Penfield Turner].
A consummate politician, Cochrane carefully tended his northeastern fiefdom – “Greater Ontario” he preferred to call it. Each summer he toured the region, building a Tory organization of considerable strength, often accompanied by cabinet colleagues or southern journalists. Government largesse in the form of colonization roads, railway subsidies, educational aid, and settlement assistance found its way to the area in ever-greater quantities. Particularly favoured was Sudbury, which in 1907 was designated the seat of a new judicial district; a year later, in part because of provincial assistance, it was linked to Toronto by both the Canadian Pacific Railway and the Canadian Northern. Political opponents charged that Cochrane was not above lining the pockets of his acquaintances, citing especially the government’s decision in 1906 to award $130,000 to his brother-in-law David Alexander Dunlap in the settlement of a mining-claim dispute at Cobalt. Cochrane’s political assiduity paid off handsomely in the election of June 1908. He was easily returned in his new constituency, Sudbury, and thanks in large part to his organizational ability, the party swept the other 10 northern ridings. Whitney immediately reappointed Cochrane to Lands, Forests, and Mines, and later, in gratitude, cabinet named the new town-site at the junction of the Temiskaming and Northern Ontario Railway and the National Transcontinental in his honour. (A northern township had also been named for him, in 1905.)
Cochrane’s growing reputation for organization led Robert Laird Borden*, leader of the federal Conservatives, to call on him to assist in the party’s Ontario campaign in the general election of October 1908. A tireless worker, he accompanied Borden on several swings through the province. The Conservatives won only the same number of seats there as in 1904, but there was a bright spot in northern Ontario, where, as a result of Cochrane’s efforts, the party’s representation increased from one to three of the four ridings. This involvement, an important step in Cochrane’s career, strengthened his ties to Borden and oriented him towards the federal arena. Perhaps for this reason and because major legislative changes had been made in 1906–7, his second term in the Whitney government was less consequential than his first. Its most notable accomplishment was the revision of forestry policy in 1910 to augment revenues.
In 1911 the highly contentious reciprocity agreement between the United States and the Liberal government of Sir Wilfrid Laurier heightened the likelihood of an early general election. As a result Cochrane’s exertions on behalf of the federal Conservatives increased substantially. His summer tour of his constituency extended to the rest of the province, and in August he was named chair of the party’s election committee for Ontario. In September the Tories made their long-awaited breakthrough, winning 73 of the province’s 86 seats (including all four in the north), a result Borden attributed to Cochrane.
In a manner reminiscent of the provincial scenario of 1905, Cochrane had not run in 1911, but with victory was to come a portfolio in the new government. He resigned from the Ontario cabinet in October. Once again a safe seat was found for him: George Gordon, the member for Nipissing, resigned (later to be elevated to the Senate) and Cochrane was speedily acclaimed. In Frank Cochrane, Borden had an mp of acumen and loyalty. His appointment to the Department of Railways and Canals was also an acknowledgement of the support tendered by Whitney’s provincial machine, although the new minister soon established that he was more than Whitney’s man in Ottawa.
Cochrane’s term as minister (1911–17) proved a good deal more frustrating than his years in the Whitney administrations. The labyrinthine politics of the quasi-public, quasi-private world of railways were trying, but doubly so when the folly of constructing two transcontinental lines (the Canadian Northern and the National Transcontinental/Grand Trunk Pacific venture), where the existing one (the Canadian Pacific) sufficed, was fast becoming apparent. From the outset Cochrane faced a series of seemingly unresolvable problems: the managerial troubles of the Intercolonial Railway in the Maritimes; the exorbitant construction costs of the government’s National Transcontinental, which were revealed by a royal commission in 1912–14 and which underlay the Grand Trunk’s refusal to lease the line upon its completion in 1915; the repeated petitions for financial assistance from the Grand Trunk/Grand Trunk Pacific tandem and the Canadian Northern; and the insistence of western Conservatives that Ottawa initiate the construction of the Hudson Bay Railway, a project Cochrane thought premature.
These issues had enormous financial and political implications for the government, and Cochrane’s ability to act was severely constrained by the views of his ministerial colleagues and the prime minister. He shared the concern of Borden and Minister of Finance Sir William Thomas White* over the plight of the Canadian Northern, and was much more antagonistic than the rest of cabinet towards the Grand Trunk conglomerate. Complicating his work too was the Liberal-controlled Senate, which, several times in 1912–13, defeated measures coming from his department, for instance a plan to provide assistance to the provinces for developing Canada’s highway system.
Efforts by Cochrane to deal with the perplexing rail situation were thrown into disarray in 1914 by World War I, which diverted financial and political resources away from railways. At the same time, by intensifying competition among the three transcontinentals, the war exacerbated the financial difficulties of the Canadian Northern and the Grand Trunk, and forced the prime minister to move toward nationalization, essentially taking the matter out of Cochrane’s hands. In May 1916 White announced temporary assistance to the CN and the GT; the following month a royal commission was appointed to make recommendations on Canada’s railways. Businessman that he was, Cochrane was not particularly enthusiastic about the majority recommendation delivered in May 1917 in favour of government acquisition of the two troubled railways, but like many of his cabinet colleagues he went along with it as the best option.
Not surprising for someone in his sixties, deteriorating health limited Cochrane’s activities during the war. In late 1913 he had had a nervous breakdown which required hospitalization, followed by a Mediterranean cruise in the spring of 1914. As well, he began to suffer the debilitating effects of Bright’s disease and had to take extended leaves. Worrisome too was the fact that his sons were overseas with the Canadian Expeditionary Force. A visit to the Western Front in the winter of 1915–16 aggravated his health and spawned rumours the following summer of his resignation.
Despite everything, Cochrane remained on the job, largely out of loyalty to Borden, who valued but did not necessarily follow his advice. A case in point occurred in the spring of 1915, when the ever-partisan Cochrane urged the prime minister, without success, to take advantage of the government’s popularity and call a wartime election. Predictably, Cochrane welcomed Borden’s announcement of conscription in May 1917 but he strongly opposed his efforts to form a coalition with the Liberals the following summer. It was somewhat surprising that Borden included Cochrane as a minister without portfolio in the Union government created in October. The explanation lay in part in the bonds between the two men and partly in Borden’s desire to retain Cochrane’s organizational skills for the upcoming election. Cochrane’s health did not permit him to play more than a secondary, advisory role in this campaign though he himself was easily returned in December for the new riding of Temiskaming.
Cochrane’s last years were especially unhappy. Convinced, probably with good reason, that Borden had promised him the chair of the board created to manage the government-owned railway system, including the recently nationalized Canadian Northern (but not yet the Grand Trunk), he was embittered in September 1918 when David Blythe Hanna* was nominated instead. Cabinet had reportedly been divided on the appointment, with Borden arguing that Cochrane’s health would not have stood up to the task. Compounding Cochrane’s devastation was the death of his younger son, Ogden Dunlap, in January 1919 from injuries sustained in a military training accident. Cochrane never recovered from the loss. Greater Ontario’s first, and some would argue greatest, politician died on 22 September in Ottawa. He was buried beside Ogden in Mount Pleasant Cemetery in Toronto.
Frank Cochrane was an exceptional individual, full of contradictions. By popular consensus a mild-mannered man, the six foot three inch hardware merchant was prepared to use physical force if necessary: according to Montreal financier Sir Herbert Samuel Holt*, Cochrane “could clean out a drunken sleeping car quicker than anyone I’ve seen in my life.” A chauvinistic booster of the north, he used his influence to further the regional ambitions of Sudbury, his place of business, but he never actually owned a home there or anywhere else in the region. A partisan of the first rank, he angered fellow Conservatives by refusing to dispense patronage blindly. A master electoral strategist, he never contested the same constituency twice. An unpretentious merchant from the backwoods, he became the trusted confidant of a premier and a prime minister. Most remarkable of all perhaps, he was a politician and a minister who spoke so sparingly in parliament that he earned the sobriquet Silent Frank. Canadian politics have seldom seen the like of him since.