A happy memory of Trinity College: undergraduates breakfast together in Downy V. Green, p. 77.
Figure from Gauguin’s 1899 painting ‘Tahitian Women with Mango Blossoms’ (left); George Calderon’s pencil sketch ‘Manu’ (right)
Jean Ryckaert, May 1916.
Unpublished watercolour by George Calderon, Tahiti 1906
George Calderon c.1901
Michel and Vera Fokine in “Scheherazade”, 1914 (The Music And Theatre Library of Sweden, creative commons)
Frontis piece by Frank Calderon
Book sent to George Calderon in Russia by his mother, Christmas 1895.
Patrick Miles in his summer house, 11 December 2016
Colonel Sir Walter Coote Hedley c. 1920
K.N. Das Gupta and Margaret Mitchell in an Indian Dramatic Society production of The Maharani of Arakan, 1913?
George Calderon, 1912
Captain of the 11
Sir Richard Vincent Sutton c. 1913
Christmas 1901 Cartoon by George Calderon
Basic form of the Calderon coat of arms
The entrance to Fort Brockhurst (picture from Britain’s Past)
Monarch Butterfly Madeira
George and Kittie Calderon 1905Recent Comments
- Jim D G Miles on From the diary of a writer-publisher: 28 Excellent entry, Dad. I like the escape room picture, of course, but the story about the Russian and the hole-in-the-wall is exceptional! (28/03/2024 at 9:58 PM)
- Patrick Miles on Short story: ‘Crox’ Thank you, dear anonymous Theo...it is so refreshing to hear the reaction of a Man of the People! Keep a good grip on those cords! 'Part II'?! The rest is secreted in lines (18/12/2023 at 10:33 PM)
- Theo on Short story: ‘Crox’ Delicious! "Are you being Served?" meets "Keeping up Appearances" via Calderotica. But Patrick, you cannot leave us dangling like that just before Christmas! One thing - c (18/12/2023 at 1:35 PM)
- Patrick Miles on Cambridge Tales 8: ‘Black Tie’ Thank you, Damian, for sharing your problem with us. It's difficult to know what to prescribe. Perhaps try examining the facts of the story (e.g. there are not 6 medics in the (20/11/2023 at 9:44 AM)
- Damian Grant on Cambridge Tales 8: ‘Black Tie’ Patrick: I read your story 'Black Tie' on Monday, and knew immediately that it didn't work for me. There was something forced, factitious; something that didn't let the elemen (17/11/2023 at 2:26 PM)
Tag Archives: British Expeditionary Force
The Somme: a memory
In July 1970, whilst waiting to hear whether I had been awarded a grant to do a Ph.D. on Chekhov, I worked for six weeks in the male wing of a ‘mental hospital’ near my home. I place the words … Continue reading
Watch this Space
6/4/16. I have now revised 96% of my book George Calderon: Edwardian Genius. The last chapter, covering Kittie’s life 1923-1950, feels too close still (I finished the second draft only two months ago) to tackle, so I am limiting myself to … Continue reading
Posted in Personal commentary
Tagged Addenbrooke's Hospital, Belgium, biographies, biography, British Expeditionary Force, Cambridge, Cambridge University Library, Clare College, commemoration, comments, Dardanelles, David Kindersley, Eric Gill, First Eastern General Hospital, George Calderon, Joseph Cribb, Joseph Griffiths, King's College, Kittie Calderon, Mediterranean Force, Philomena Guillebaud, Territorial Army, The Great War, World War I
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Watch this Space
Calderonia is an experiment in biography through a blog. It tells the story of George and Kittie Calderon’s lives from 30 July 1914 to 30 July 1915 from day to day as it happened, but exactly 100 years afterwards. It therefore … Continue reading
Posted in Personal commentary
Tagged Battle of Loos, Battle of the Somme, British Expeditionary Force, commemoration, comments, Dardanelles, Gallipoli, George Calderon, glory, Henry Vaughan, lapidary verse, Laurence Binyon, Philip Larkin, Queen's Silver Jubilee, Ted Hughes, The Great War, Verdun, Vilna, war poetry, war porn, Warsaw, Wilfred Owen, World War I
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The War
Im Westen nichts Neues is the title of Erich Maria Remarque’s famous novel, usually rendered in English as All Quiet on the Western Front. Its literal translation, however, is In the West Nothing New. The deadly sniping, sapping, night raids, shelling … Continue reading
Posted in Edwardian character, Heroism and Adventure, Personal commentary
Tagged All Quiet on the Western Front, ANZAC, Battle of Loos, British Expeditionary Force, comments, conscription, Dardanelles, Edwardianism, Erich Maria Remarque, Erich von Falkenhayn, Gallipoli, General Douglas Haig, George Calderon, Ian Hamilton, Imperial War Museum, Jack Harley, King's Own Scottish Borderers, KOSB, Mediterranean Expeditionary Force, Peter Hart, Sir John French, submarines, Suvla, The Carpathians, The Great War, Third Battle of Krithia, V.I. Lenin, Vilna, Warsaw, World War I, Ypres, Zeppelins
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15 April 1915
April 15. 1915 [France] Dear Mrs Astley — it is with the greatest grief that I write to you to tell you of your son’s death which took place at 8 a.m. this morning. It was very foggy, and your … Continue reading
Two separate biographies
As I have explained on several occasions, apart from his machine gun course on Hayling Island we know nothing specific about George’s training as a lieutenant with the 9th Battalion Ox and Bucks at Fort Brockhurst from the middle of … Continue reading
Posted in Personal commentary
Tagged Battle of Neuve Chapelle, biographies, biography, British Expeditionary Force, Fort Brockhurst, Gallipoli, George Calderon, Helles, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, The Great War, Third Battle of Krithia, Training, trench warfare, World War I, Ypres
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The military situation (1)
In the course of the First Battle of Ypres (19 October – 22 November 1914), the French, Belgian and British armies had fought Falkenhayn’s army to a standstill; but at a terrible cost. Beckett (2013) estimates German losses at a … Continue reading
Posted in Personal commentary
Tagged Belgium, British Expeditionary Force, comments, Dardanelles, Erich Ludendorff, Erich von Falkenhayn, Gallipoli, George Calderon, Herbert Asquith, Kittie Calderon, Paul von Hindenburg, Sir Henry Rawlinson, The Great War, Theobald Bethmann Hollweg, Thompson Capper, Venetia Stanley, Winston Churchill, World War I, Ypres
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Kittie
Most unusually, Kittie Calderon appears not to have gone to stay with friends at all since George embarked for Belgium on 6 October. We know this because the envelopes of George’s letters show that her housekeeper, Elizabeth Ellis, did not … Continue reading
Posted in Edwardian marriage
Tagged Acton Reynald, Antwerp, Belgium, Brinsop Court, British Expeditionary Force, Constance Sutton, Coote Hedley, Dixmude, Foxwold, John Masefield, Kittie Calderon, Mons, Nieuport, Nina Astley, Royal Horse Guards, Sturge Moore, The Blues, The Great War, VAD, World War I, Ypres, Yser
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21 October 1914
At four o’clock this morning the hospital train arrived in Dunkirk. George could not name the town in his letter to Kittie of 23 October, but we know from his letter of 15th that this was his destination. He heads … Continue reading
20 October 1914: Hell breaks loose
This morning the Germans began an offensive along the whole northwestern front from La Bassée in France to the Belgian coast. The German 4th Army was closing in on Ypres from the north and east, the 6th Army from the … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Belgium, British Expeditionary Force, General Douglas Haig, General Edmund Allenby, General Henry Rawlinson, George Calderon, La Bassée, Messines, Passchendaele, Royal Horse Guards, Sir Richard Sutton, The Blues, The Great War, World War I, Ypres, Zandvoorde
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They enter Ypres
Clearly the Blues were not the vanguard of the 3rd Cavalry Division on the march (this Division, incidentally, possessed only 12 field artillery pieces). That honour seems to have fallen to the Life Guards, who had a far more ‘interesting’ … Continue reading
Posted in Heroism and Adventure
Tagged Belgium, British Expeditionary Force, Bruges, Geluwe, General Edmund Allenby, George Calderon, Izegem, Kemmel, Life Guards, Menin, Royal Horse Guards, Sint Eloois Winkel, Sir Henry Rawlinson, Sir Richard Sutton, Taube aeroplane, The Blues, The Great War, Tielt, World War I, Ypres
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1 October 1914
The first attempt at implementing the Schlieffen Plan for defeating France had failed and Moltke was replaced as chief of the German general staff by Falkenhayn. The Germans now began a second attempt. Their intention was to invade the rest … Continue reading
The military situation
In his letter to Kittie yesterday, Calderon wrote: ‘We hear that cavalrymen on the Oise have put their horses by, and are standing in the trenches with the rest.’ This was true and highly revealing. After 9 September the German … Continue reading
The Somme: over to you
It won’t, I think, surprise followers to hear that I know next to nothing about the Battle of the Somme compared with Ypres 1 and Gallipoli, which George Calderon fought at and which we covered from day to day in … Continue reading →