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Happy Independence Day! Third of July fireworks.
Manchester, New Hampshire
July 2018
Oympus Pen E-P3
M.Zuiko Digital 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 R II MSC
Happy Independence Day! Third of July fireworks.
Manchester, New Hampshire
July 2018
Oympus Pen E-P3
M.Zuiko Digital 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 R II MSC
Cadets greet family and friends for the first time in 37 days, July 8, 2019, at Fort Knox, Ky. Third Regiment Cadets are reuniting with family and friends today to celebrate the end of their time at Advanced Camp. | Photo by Amy Turner, CST Public Affairs Office
Krepcik posted a great Shiva article at my blog with a cool animation (sw)
www.stuartwildeblog.com/khris-krepcik/2009/6/13/christ-sh...
(for further information please go to the end of page and by clicking on the link you will get them!)
University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna
Motto tradition and innovation
Founded in 1817
State sponsorship
Location Vienna, Austria
Rector Werner Hasitschka
About 3,000 students
Employees about 850 of which about 140 professors
www.mdw.ac.at site
The University of Music and Performing Arts 2007
Columned hall to staircase, Kaiserstein
Pillar staircase around open shaft, Kaiserstein
Institute building and former main building, including the Academy Theater, Lothringerstraße 18
The University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna (mdw) is an Austrian university located in third District of Vienna highway (Landstraße), Anton-von-Webern-Platz 1. It claims to be the greatest art university in Austria and greatest university of music worldwide. Approximately 3,000 students are supported by more than 850 teachers. It is since 2002 structured into 24 institutions offering the artistic, artistic-scientific and purely scientific doctrine. Since 2002 Werner Hasitschka is rector.
History
Already 1808 was discussed on the establishment of a conservatory of Music according to Parisian model (Conservatoire de Paris). The 1812 founded Society of Friends of Music in Vienna this venture had set as it main task, so that already in 1817 a singing school could be launched, which laid the headstone for such an institution. Thus the year 1817 is considered the official founding year of the mdw. In 1819 with the Engagierung (engagement) of violin professor Joseph Böhm instrumental lessons have been started.
With short interruptions during the 19th Century the curriculum was expanded massively, so that in the 1890s more than 1,000 students could be counted. In 1909, this private institution was nationalized on resolution of the emperor and was now kk Academy of Music and Dramatic Art.
With the nationalization it also received an own house: in collaboration with the Vienna Konzerthaus Society from 1912 in Liszstraße a building together with a sample stage (today Academy Theater) was built, into which already in January 1914 could be moved. After World War I, the institution was called State Academy (1919). In 1928, the Academy has been extended to a drama seminar (Reinhardt-Seminar) and a music educational seminar. Between 1938 and 1945 it was continued as a Reichshochschule (Academy of the German Reich) by exclusion of Jewish teachers and students.
After the war, in 1946 the institution again became an art school, from 1970 to 1998 it was called University of Music and Performing Arts, since 1998 it is a university.
In 1952 Walter Kolm-Veltée established special training for film design. In 1960, a film class, led by Hans Winge, was added. In 1963, the two courses were combined into the newly founded "Film and Television Department". There were other additional courses, and since 1998, the department is also known as the Vienna Film Academy.
Building
In addition to its headquarters, the mdw-campus at Anton-von-Webern-Platz in the third district, are other branches in 3rd District in Ungargasse 14, am Rennweg 8, in the Metternichgasse 8 and 12 as well as in the Lothringerstraße 18. In the first district of Vienna teaching locations are situated at Karlsplatz 1 and 2, at the Schubertring 14, at the corner of John Street/Seilerstätte and in the Singerstraße 26. Furthermore, in the 4th District in Rienößlgasse 12, in 13th district in the Schoenbrunn Palace Theater as well as at the Palais Cumberland in the Penzingerstrasse.
Campus
The monumental functional purpose building in the sober, classicist forms of Hofbauamtes located at the former Wiener Neustadt channel (rapid rail line), is located at the Anton-von-Webern-Platz 1. 1776 there on the suggestion of Emperor Joseph II. an animal hospital was built in the former Jesuit dairy farm. 1821-1823 followed a new building by Johann Nepomuk Amann, being planned a sprawling complex. The main building with a long façade extends to the left Bahngasse, there are numerous additions. A major contract received the Kaisersteinbrucher master stonemasons, the spacious entrance hall with Tuscan columns, pilasters and mullioned pillars, the spacios pillar staircase around open shaft, all made of light Kaiserstein with typical blue translucent embeddings - a special room for friends of the emperor stone (Kaiserstein). By 1996, the building was the seat of the University of Veterinary Medicine and its predecessor institutions.
In 1996 the building was chosen as the new seat of the University, and completely renovated by architect Reinhardt Gallister. The historic structure was preserved, elements such as glass, wood and stone are the defining stylistic devices and modern technology and equipment was connected with good room acoustics. Studios, classrooms and halls can be rented externally, too.
Disciplines of study
Composition and Music Theory
Conducting
Sound engineer
Instrumental study
Church Music
Educational Studies
Singing and opera directing
Performing Arts
Film and Television
Doctoral Studies
Summer Campus
The isa - International Summer Academy is the musical summer campus of the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna. More than 200 students from over 40 nations are taking part in two weeks of master classes of the highest calibre in the Semmering region and in Vienna. The summer campus was founded in 1991 as an initiative of Michael Frischenschlager. The isa arose from the euphoria over the fall of the Iron Curtain with the aim, exceptionally talented young students, mainly from the Central and Eastern European countries (CEE countries), allow musical encounters and build international relationships. Since 2005 Johannes Meissl is artistic director of the isa.
Institutions
Institute for Composition and Electro-Acoustics
Institute for Music Conducting
Institute for Analysis, Theory and History of Music
Institute for Keyboard Instruments (podium/concert)
Institute for Bowed and other String Instruments (podium/concert)
Leonard Bernstein Institute for Wind and Percussion instruments
Joseph Haydn Institute for Chamber Music and Special Ensembles
Institute for Organ, Organ Research and Church Music
Institute for Singing and Music Theater
Institute for Drama and Acting Direction (Max Reinhardt Seminar)
Institute for Film and Television (Film Academy Vienna)
Institute for Music Education
Institute for Music and Movement Education and Music Therapy
Institute of Musical Style Research
Institute of Popular Music
Institute Ludwig van Beethoven (keyboard instruments in music pedagogy)
Hellmesberger - Institute (string & other bowed instruments in Music Education)
Institute Franz Schubert (wind and percussion instruments in Music Pedagogy)
Institute Antonio Salieri (singing in Music Pedagogy)
Institute Anton Bruckner (music theory, ear training, ensemble direction)
Institute for Folk Music Research and Ethnomusicology
Institute for Viennese Sound Style (Musical Acoustics)
Institute for Music Sociology
Institute of Culture Management and Cultural Studies (IKM)
Science
Apart from artistic training form the scientific institutions (or full professors and university lecturers with great teaching qualification - venia docendi) a significant part of the university's work. A special feature of the MDW is the high interconnectedness of science and art. The right to award doctorates is the foundation of a university, and is realized at the MDW in the PhD graduate program. Departments of scientific work in this connection are:
Dramaturgy
Film Studies
Gender Studies
History and Theory of Popular Music
Gregorian chant and liturgy
Historical Musicology (including analysis, music theory and harmonic research)
Stylistics and performance practice
Cultural Business Operations
Musical Acoustics
Music Education
Sociology of Music
Music Theory
Music Therapy
Systematic musicology within interdisciplinary approaches
Folk Music Research, Ethnomusicology
Known graduates
Claudio Abbado
Barbara Albert
Peter Alexander
Christian Altenburger
Maria Andergast
Walter Samuel Bartussek
Johanna Beisteiner
Erwin Belakowitsch
Achim Benning
Zsófia Boros
Thomas Brezinka
Florian Brüning
Rudolf Buchbinder
Friedrich Cerha
Gabriel Chmura
Mimi Coertse
Luke David
Yoram David
Jacques Delacôte, French conductor
Jörg Demus
Helmut German
Johanna Doderer
Iván Eröd
Karlheinz Essl
Matthias Fletzberger
Sabrina Frey
Beat Furrer
Rudolf Gamsjäger
Raoul Gehringer
Nicolas Geremus
Wolfgang Glück
Wolfgang Glüxam
Eugen Gmeiner
Walter Goldschmidt
Stefan Gottfried
Friedrich Gulda
Robert Gulya
Ingomar Auer
Christoph Haas (born 1949), Swiss conductor
Georg Friedrich Haas
Hans Hammerschmid
Gottfried Hemetsberger
John Hiemetsberger
Robert Holl
Mariss Jansons
Leo Jaritz
Mariama Djiwa Jenie, concert pianist and dancer
Thomas Jöbstl
Thomas Kakuska
Bijan Khadem-Missagh, violin
Angelika Kirschschlager
Hermann Killmeyer
Patricia Kopatchinskaya
Leon Koudelak
Bojidara Kouzmanova
Tina Kordić
Klaus Kuchling
Rainer Küchl
Gabriele Lechner
Wolf Lotter
Gustav Mahler
Edith Mathis
Zubin Mehta
Tobias Moretti
Tomislav Mužek
Helmut Neumann
Josef Niederhammer
Ernst Ottensamer
Erwin Ortner
Rudolf Pacik
Harry Pepl
Günter Pichler
Josephine Pilars de Pilar
Peter Planyavsky
Stefanie Alexandra Prenn
Armando Puklavec
Carole Dawn Reinhart
Gerald Reischl
Wolfgang Reisinger
Erhard Riedlsperger
Jhibaro Rodriguez
Hilde Rössel-Maidan
Michael Radanovics
Sophie Rois
Gerhard Ruhm
Kurt Rydl
Clemens Salesny
Heinz Sandauer
Klaus-Peter Sattler
Wolfgang Sauseng
Nicholas Schapfl
Agnes Scheibelreiter
Heinrich Schiff
Michael Schnitzler
Peter Schuhmayer
Christian W. Schulz
Wolfgang Schulz
Ulrich Seidl
Fritz Schreiber
Kurt Schwertsik
Ulf-Diether Soyka
Christian Spatzek
Arben Spahiu
Götz Spielmann
Othmar Steinbauer
Hermann Sulzberger (b. 1957), Austrian composer
Roman Summereder
Hans Swarovsky
Jenő Takács
Wolfgang Tomböck
Karolos Trikolidis, Greek-Austrian conductor
Mitsuko Uchida
Timothy Vernon (b. 1948), Canadian conductor
Eva Vicens harpsichordist from Uruguay, lives in Spain
Annette Volkamer
Johanna Wokalek
Adolf Wallnöfer
Gregor Widholm
Bruno Weil
Hermann Wlach
Paul Zauner
Herbert Zipper
de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universit%C3%A4t_f%C3%BCr_Musik_und...
When I drove across the Big Mac Bridge on Friday, a Coast Guard ice breaker was was leading two freighters through the Straits. This is the "Alpena", a mile or two behind the "Tergurtha".
Summertime sunset view of the Oregon Trail and Lytle Boulevard from the trail to the viewpoint at Keeney Historic Site, July 31, 2018, by Greg Shine, BLM.
At Keeney Historic Site, a one-third mile walk to the overlook of the Keeney Pass footpath provides an excellent panorama of one day's journey for the Oregon Trail emigrants.
Their day typically began at Fort Boise on the Snake River and ended fifteen miles north at the Malheur River. Fort Boise, built in 1834 and initially supervised by the Hudson's Bay Company as a trading post, served to provide the emigrants with a few supplies and a place to make wagon repairs. It was there that the wagons forded the Snake River.
Upon crossing the river, the emigrants took their first steps in a frontier which later became the State of Oregon in 1859. Many rested and camped at Fort Boise before traveling on to the next source of water, the Malheur River and its hot springs at present day Vale, Oregon.
The emigrants' journey from the Snake River to the Malheur Crossing was not an extremely difficult day's passage as compared to other legs of the journey. The pass was gentle, but there was no water along the way and the trail was hot and dusty. The words of John T. Kerns in 1852 reflect the thoughts of those who passed this way:
"Had an unusual allowance of dust to the mile today, but got the most of it off before night...The girls have as dirty faces as any body...Thanks be to the rewarder of troubles, 460 more miles will get us dirty-faced boys and girls out of this dirty faced kingdom.”
Through these tired words one can still sense the optimism which lies behind them. The majority of their trip was over, but the end was not yet in sight. To the emigrants, it was just another day and they were that much closer to their final destination.
The hot springs at the Malheur Crossing provided the opportunity to bathe and wash clothes at the end of the long day's travel. There was also suitable water for the cattle and oxen. Some might stay for an extra day to better rest themselves and their livestock, yet, the need to move on was still critical. Still ahead of them lay one of the most torturous portions of their journey...the Blue Mountains.
The threat of an early snowfall and the need to build a winter's shelter at journey's end pushed the emigrants on to their destination and the beginning of a new life in western Oregon.
Remnants of the original grass and shrub communities encountered by the Oregon Trail emigrants at Keeney Pass can still be seen. In the bottom of the draw, the tall giant wildrye grass and basin big sagebrush occupies deep soils. Today, annual species such as cheatgrass and tumblemustard have replaced many of these native plants.
Rising out of the drainage to the east, across Lytle Boulevard, a native upland plant community consists of Wyoming big sagebrush, numerous grasses, and herbaceous forbs. Scattered shrubs of bitterbrush, rabbitbrush, spiny hopsage, and purple sage also dot this area. In May, flowers of red Indian paintbrush, yellow Oregon sunshine, and blue sand penstemon brighten the landscape.
As you walk up the footpath, note the crested wheatgrass on the hillslope to your left. A native of Russia, it was seeded here in the 1960's to restore vegetative cover and help prevent erosion. It is favored as a nutritional feed by cattle and certain wildlife species.
The Oregon Trail pioneers saw less wildlife here, in contrast to what they observed during their travels through forests and wetlands along their way. A welcome sight may have been mule deer or antelope in small scattered groups. Black-tailed jackrabbits, badgers, and coyotes were the main species commonly encountered by the weary travelers. The non-native chukar partridge and pheasant seen here today were not introduced until the twentieth century.
The site is named for Jonathan Keeney. In 1831, at the age of 19, Keeney left Missouri to explore the Rocky Mountains with a company of men. Shortly after, he joined Jim Bridger of the American Fur Company and traveled throughout the west trapping and trading.
In 1846, after returning to Missouri, Keeney took his family and headed across the plains, serving as a guide to the wagons which accompanied them. In the following years, he traveled several different places, practicing such professions as gold panning and cattle driving. Keeney came to eastern Oregon, and in 1863, established a ferry along the Snake River just above the site where Fort Boise stood.
In fall of the same year, he acquired some land and built a wayside inn at the site of present day Vale. Although no rooms were rented, the log cabin provided a place for travelers to rest. The inn was later sold to Louis B. Rinehart.
In 1872, Rinehart replaced the log structure with a stone house which became known as the Vale Inn and was a gathering place for social activities. The stone house still stands today, and can be visited in the town of Vale.
Today, the site is part of the Oregon National Historic Trail and is protected as the Oregon Trail - Keeney Pass Area of Critical Environmental Concern. The area is also designated a Historic District and registered in the National Register of Historic Places since 1975.
More information:
The National Historic Oregon Trail Interpretive Center
22267 Oregon Hwy 86
Baker City, OR 97814
541-523-1843
BLM_OR_NH_Mail@blm.gov
After the initial life in East London, 33571 SN58CHL was one of a large batch sent to work in Leicester. In early 2015, half of them were swapped with slighter newer Volvo saloons and sent to Bristol where in June 2015, it was seen layover at Temple Meads.
It now has a fourth home being sent to work at Weston super Mare and gaining the orange Excel livery.
14/08/2020. Ladies European Tour 2020. Aberdeen Standard Investments Ladies Scottish Open. Renaissance Club, North Berwick, East Lothian, Scotland. August 13-16 2020 Sanna Nuutinen of Finland during the third round. Credit: Tristan Jones.
Symphonie Fantastique
Munch, Charles
RCA Victor LPM-1900
1955
Found this beautiful cover staring up at me at estate sale crying out my name.
About the Cover
The album cover is a reproduction of an original oil painting by Jane Sinnickson. Recognized for a highly individualized technique, she has paintings in public and private collections throughout this country and Mexico. Jane Sinnickson, who attended Cincinnati Art Museum and is represented in exhibitions of paintings at the Cloisters, the Cincinnati Art Museum and the Silvermine Guild, has long been an admirer of Berlioz, and in this work she pays tribute to the composer and his love for the Irish actress, Henrietta Smithson.
I took this picture using the rule of the thirds technique. There is the sky, building, and the car.
Three zebra doves (Geopelia striata) cluster together on a rock wall absorbing the last bit of warmth from the setting sun.
The General Grant is the third-largest sequoia tree in the world! - Anniversary Trip 2016
Sequoia National Park established on September 25, 1890, adjacent to Kings Canyon National Park in California.
The park is famous for its giant sequoia trees, including the General Sherman dominating the Giant Forest, by volume, it is the largest known living single stem tree in the world, and is also among the oldest. The General Grant tree is the largest giant sequoia in the General Grant Grove section of Kings Canyon National Park and the awe-inspiring beauty is the third-largest sequoia tree in the world! The National Park Service incorporated the Giant Forest into Sequoia National Park in 1890, the year of its founding, promptly ceasing all logging operations in the Giant Forest.
LEAVE NO TRACE
All rights reserved ©Pix.by.PegiSue
While in training at STEAM Works Studio, I created a rudimentary rover with a simple program: don't run into anything.
Secret Cinema Presents: The Third Man
Photo by Graeme Wilmot
Facebook: Graeme Wilmot Photography
Flickr: bluerockpile
Twitter: @bluerockpile
our camping spot on the third night. there was the most amazing nightsky this night - but i had no tripod with me. :[
Hugh Todd Naylor Gaitskell, CBE, PC, MP (9 April 1906 – 18 January 1963) was a British Labour politician who held Cabinet office in Clement Attlee's governments, and was the Leader of the Labour Party and Leader of the Opposition from 1955 until his death in 1963. He was responsible for introducing prescription charges in the National Health Service, which caused Aneurin Bevan to resign from the Cabinet in 1951.
He was born in Kensington, London, the third and youngest child of Arthur Gaitskell (1870–1915), of the Indian Civil Service, and Adelaide Mary Gaitskell, née Jamieson (died 1956), whose father, George Jamieson, was consul-general in Shanghai and prior to that had been Judge of the British Supreme Court for China and Japan. He was educated at the Dragon School from 1912 to 1919, at Winchester College from 1919 to 1924 and at New College, Oxford, from 1924 to 1927, where he gained a first class degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics in 1927.
His serious interest in politics came about as a result of the General Strike of 1926, and he lectured in economics for the Workers' Educational Association to miners in Nottinghamshire. Gaitskell moved to University College London in the early 1930s at the invitation of Noel Hall, and became head of the Department of Political Economy when Hall was appointed Director of the National Institute of Economic and Social Research in 1938. He also worked as a tutor at Birkbeck College.
Gaitskell was attached to the University of Vienna for the 1933–4 academic year and witnessed first-hand the political suppression of the social democratic workers movement by the conservative Engelbert Dollfuss's government in Vienna in February 1934. This event made a lasting impression, making him profoundly hostile to conservatism but also making him reject as futile the Marxian outlook of many European social democrats. This placed him in the socialist revisionist camp.
In the 1935 General Election, he stood for Chatham as the Labour candidate, but was defeated by the Conservative Leonard Plugge.
During World War II, Gaitskell worked with Noel Hall and Hugh Dalton as a civil servant for the Ministry of Economic Warfare which gave him experience of government. For his service, he was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1945. He was elected Labour Member of Parliament (MP) for Leeds South in the Labour landslide victory of 1945.
He quickly rose through the ministerial ranks, becoming Minister of Fuel and Power in 1947. He then served briefly as Minister for Economic Affairs in February 1950. His rapid rise was largely due to the influence of Hugh Dalton, who adopted him as a protégé.
In October 1950, Stafford Cripps was forced to resign as Chancellor of the Exchequer due to failing health, and Gaitskell was appointed to succeed him. His time as Chancellor was dominated by the struggle to finance Britain's part in the Korean War which put enormous strain on public finances. The cost of the war meant that savings had to be found from other budgets, and a controversial decision was made to introduce charges for prescription glasses and dentures on the National Health Service.
In addition, purchase tax was increased from 33% to 66% on certain luxury items such as cars, television sets, and domestic appliances, while entertainment tax was increased on cinema tickets. At the same time, however, taxation on profits was raised and pensions increased to compensate retirees for a rise in the cost of living, while the allowances for dependent children payable to widows, the unemployed, and the sick, together with marriage and child allowances, were also increased. In addition, a number of small items were removed from purchase tax, while the amount of earnings allowed without affecting the pension was increased from 20 shillings to 40 shillings a week.
The budget caused a split in the government and caused him to fall out with Aneurin Bevan who resigned over this issue, seeing the prescription charges as a blow to the principle of a free health service. Bevan was later joined by Harold Wilson and John Freeman who also resigned. Later that year, Labour lost power to the Conservatives in the 1951 election.
Gaitskell later defeated Bevan in the contest to be the party treasurer. After the retirement of Clement Attlee as leader in December 1955, Gaitskell beat Bevan and the ageing Herbert Morrison in the party leadership contest.
Gaitskell's election as leader coincided with one of the Labour Party's weakest periods, which can be partly attributed to the post-war prosperity that Britain was experiencing under the Conservatives. His time as leader was also characterised by factional infighting between the 'Bevanite' left of the Labour party led by Aneurin Bevan, and the 'Gaitskellite' right.
During the Suez Crisis of 1956, in one of the highlights of his career as leader, Gaitskell passionately condemned the Anglo-French and Israeli military intervention to secure the Suez Canal. Gaitskell had himself told the Prime Minister, Sir Anthony Eden, and the Chancellor of the Exchequer Harold Macmillan at a dinner with King Faisal II of Iraq on 26 July 1956, that he would support the use of military action against the Egyptian dictator Colonel Gamal Abdel Nasser, but warned Eden he would have to keep the Americans closely informed. The Conservatives later accused Gaitskell of betrayal when he publicly condemned the military operation in November. Gaitskell's position had become more cautious during the summer, and he had suggested the dispute with Egypt should be referred to the United Nations. In two letters to Eden sent on 3 and 10 August Gaitskell condemned Nasser, but warned that he would not support any action that violated the United Nations charter. In his letter of 10 August, Gaitskell wrote: "Lest there should be any doubt in your mind about my personal attitude, let me say that I could not regard an armed attack on Egypt by ourselves and the French as justified by anything which Nasser has done so far or as consistent with the Charter of the United Nations. Nor, in my opinion, would such an attack be justified in order to impose a system of international control over the Canal - desirable though this is. If, of course, the whole matter were to be taken to the United Nations and if Egypt were to be condemned by them as aggressors, then, of course, the position would be different. And if further action which amounted to obvious aggression by Egypt were taken by Nasser, then again it would be different. So far what Nasser has done amounts to a threat, a grave threat to us and to others, which certainly cannot be ignored; but it is only a threat, not in my opinion justifying retaliation by war."
The Labour Party had been widely expected to win the 1959 general election, but did not. Gaitskell was undermined during it by public doubts concerning the credibility of proposals to raise pensions and by a highly effective Conservative campaign run by Harold Macmillan under the slogan "Life is better with the Conservatives, don't let Labour ruin it", which capitalised on the economic prosperity of Britain. This election defeat led to questions being asked as to whether Labour could ever win a general election again, but Gaitskell remained as leader.
Following the election defeat, bitter internecine disputes resumed. Gaitskell blamed the Left for the defeat and attempted unsuccessfully to amend Labour's Clause IV—which its adherents believed committed the party to further nationalisation of industry, while Gaitskell and his followers believed it had become either superfluous or a political liability. He also, successfully, resisted attempts to commit Labour to a unilateralist position on nuclear weapons – losing the vote in 1960 and then rousing his supporters to "fight, fight and fight again to save the party we love". The decision was reversed the following year, but it remained a divisive issue, and many on the Left continued to call for a change of leadership. He was challenged unsuccessfully for the leadership by Harold Wilson in 1960 and again in 1961 by Anthony Greenwood.
Battles inside the party produced the Campaign for Democratic Socialism to defend the Gaitskellite position in the early 1960s. Many of the younger CDS members were founding members of the SDP in 1981. Gaitskell alienated some of his supporters by his apparent opposition to British membership of the European Economic Community. In a speech to the party conference in October 1962, Gaitskell claimed that Britain's participation in a Federal Europe would mean "the end of Britain as an independent European state, the end of a thousand years of history!" He added: "You may say, all right! Let it end! But, my goodness, it's a decision that needs a little care and thought."
He died in January 1963, aged 56, after a sudden flare of lupus erythematosus, an autoimmune disease. His death left an opening for Harold Wilson in the party leadership; Wilson narrowly won the next general election for Labour 21 months later.
The abrupt and unexpected nature of his death led to some speculation that foul play might have been involved. The most popular conspiracy theory involved a supposed KGB plot to ensure that Wilson (alleged by the supporters of these theories to be a KGB agent himself) became prime minister. This claim was given new life by Peter Wright's controversial 1987 book Spycatcher, but the only evidence that ever came to light was the testimony of a Soviet defector, Anatoliy Golitsyn. Golitsyn was a controversial figure who also claimed, for example, that the Sino-Soviet split was a deception intended to deceive the West. His claims about Wilson were repeatedly investigated and never substantiated.
He was married from 1937 to Anna Dora Gaitskell, who became a Labour life peer one year after his death. They had two daughters: Julia, born in 1939, and Cressida, born in 1942. Gaitskell had a number of affairs, including with the socialite Ann Fleming, the wife of James Bond creator Ian Fleming.
In private, Hugh Gaitskell was said to be humorous and fun loving, with a love of ballroom dancing. This contrasted with his stern public image. He was a member of the Steering Committee of the Bilderberg Group.