George and Kittie Calderon 1905
Monarch Butterfly Madeira
Book sent to George Calderon in Russia by his mother, Christmas 1895.
Michel and Vera Fokine in “Scheherazade”, 1914 (The Music And Theatre Library of Sweden, creative commons)
Colonel Sir Walter Coote Hedley c. 1920
Sir Richard Vincent Sutton c. 1913
Unpublished watercolour by George Calderon, Tahiti 1906
Captain of the 11
A happy memory of Trinity College: undergraduates breakfast together in Downy V. Green, p. 77.
Jean Ryckaert, May 1916.
George Calderon, 1912
Patrick Miles in his summer house, 11 December 2016
Basic form of the Calderon coat of arms
Christmas 1901 Cartoon by George Calderon
Figure from Gauguin’s 1899 painting ‘Tahitian Women with Mango Blossoms’ (left); George Calderon’s pencil sketch ‘Manu’ (right)
Frontis piece by Frank Calderon
K.N. Das Gupta and Margaret Mitchell in an Indian Dramatic Society production of The Maharani of Arakan, 1913?
George Calderon c.1901
The entrance to Fort Brockhurst (picture from Britain’s Past)
Recent 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: Jim Corbet
Guest Post: Laurence Brockliss, ‘George Calderon and the Demographic Revolution’
George Calderon married Kittie shortly before his thirty-second birthday. For a professional man at the turn of the twentieth century, this was not an uncommon age to wed. For the last ten years I have been leading a cross-generational study … Continue reading
Posted in Edwardian character, Edwardian literature, Edwardian marriage, Modern parallels, Personal commentary
Tagged Aileen Alison Furse, Archie Ripley, Baines dynasty, biographies, birth rate, Cambridge Scool of Historical Demography, Charlotte Talbot, Clara Calderon, Demographic Revolution, Edward Baines Junior, Edward Baines Senior, Edward VII, Elizabeth Graham, George Armand Furse, George Calderon, George Gissing, Gonville and Caius College, grammar schools, Hazel Louisa Furse, Herbert Stanhope Baines, infant mortality, J.A. Banks, Jim Corbet, John William Baines, Kim Philby, Kittie Calderon, Leeds, Leeds Mercury, Liberal Party, marriage, New Grub Street, Nina Astley, Nina Corbet, professional class, prosopography, prostitution, public schools, Sir Roland James Corbet, The Great War, Victorian professions, Wilfred Owen, William Jackson, World War I
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From the diary of a writer-publisher: 5
2 October I arrived in St Andrews as the guest of the best owner of a private archive in Britain, who had unfailingly facilitated and nurtured my work on George’s biography over a period of twenty years, and without whom … Continue reading
Posted in Edwardian character, Edwardian literature, Edwardian marriage, Personal commentary
Tagged 'Gone with a Basilisk', Acton Reynald, Anton Chekhov, biographies, biography, Brexit, Cambridge Chekhov Company, Cambridge Festival, comments, Cromwell: Mall o' Monks, Edinburgh Festival, George Calderon, George Calderon: Edwardian Genius, Jim Corbet, Kittie Calderon, Lesbia Corbet, Manya Ross, Nina Corbet, Pall Mall Gazette, Peter the Great, Queen Victoria, Russia, Samuel Hynes, Sir Walter Corbet, St Andrews, St Petersburg, Susan de Guardiola, The Cherry Orchard, The Edwardian Turn of Mind
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‘He was away, far away…’
The S.S. Aguila, a cruise ship of the Yeoward Line, dropped anchor off Funchal, the capital of Madeira, on 31 March 1913, probably around lunchtime. There were twenty-nine passengers aboard, including George Calderon. Within a couple of hours he was sitting … Continue reading
Posted in Edwardian character, Edwardian English, Edwardian literature, Edwardian marriage, Heroism and Adventure, Modern parallels, Personal commentary
Tagged acacias, Acton Reynald, African Tulip, Anton Chekhov, Archie Ripley, biographies, biography, Botanical Gardens Funchal, bougainvillea, cable cars, Canary Islands, Charles Lambe, Clara Butt, comments, Dardanelles, Funchal, Gallipoli, George Calderon, Harold Dowdall, Jim Corbet, Kittie Calderon, Las Palmas, Lesbia Corbet, Levada do Norte, Lisbon, Liverpool, Madeira, Manchester, Mary Downdall, Monarch butterfly, Monte, Monte Palace Hotel, Nina Astley, Nina Corbet, Portugal, R.M.S. 'Orsova', Reginald Astley, Revolt, S.S. Aguila, Spain, Tahiti, The Canary Islands, The Fountain, The Great War, Trinity College Oxford, Tropical Gardens Funchal, Well Walk, wicker toboggans, World War I, Yeoward Line
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Guest post: Alison Miles, ‘Living with George and Kittie since the mid-1980s’
When I first heard about George Calderon it was the mid-1980s and my time was mainly taken up with small children. However I realised that something big was starting when Patrick went to Scotland to visit an attic full of … Continue reading
Posted in Edwardian character, Edwardian marriage, Modern parallels, Personal commentary
Tagged Alison Miles, biography, Cambridge, Cap Gris Nez, comments, Eastcote, Elizabeth I, Elizabeth Pym, Foxwold, George Calderon, Jack Pym, Jim Corbet, Karen Spink, Kennington, Kittie Calderon, La Sirene, Moreton Corbet, Nina Corbet, Patrick Miles, Petersfield, Robin Britcher, Roland Pym, Scotland, Sheet, Sir Walter Raleigh, Vincent Corbet, White Raven
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Three women follow the Somme
After Kittie Calderon had done all she could to establish George’s fate at Gallipoli on 4 June 1915, and accepted that she would live by the faith that he was in a Turkish prisoner of war camp, she suffered a … Continue reading
Posted in Edwardian character, Edwardian marriage, Heroism and Adventure, Modern parallels, Personal commentary
Tagged Battle of the Somme, biographies, Captain Charles Evelyn Pym, comments, Constance Astley, Constance Sutton, Dardanelles, Dick Sutton, Evey Pym, Foxwold, Gallipoli, General Henry Rawlinson, George Calderon, Givenchy, Jim Corbet, Kittie Calderon, Nina Astley, Nina Corbet, Sir Richard Sutton, Sir Roland James Corbet, Verdun, Violet Pym, Wimereux
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Mrs Stewart of Torquay
I have been on holiday in Devon. A happy side effect is that I was able to visit what I believe to be the property that ‘Mrs Stewart of Torquay’ lived in from at least 1914 until her death in … Continue reading
Posted in Edwardian character, Edwardian marriage, Personal commentary
Tagged Brantford, Canada, comments, Dardanelles, Eliza Stewart, Gallipoli, George Calderon, Henry Stewart, James Affleck Stewart, Jane Stewart, Jim Corbet, Kittie Calderon, Lesbia Corbet, Mrs Stewart of Torquay, Nina Astley, Nina Corbet, Nina Stewart, Robert Stewart, Sir Walter Corbet, The Great War, Torquay, Vincent Corbet, World War I
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Commemoration (concluded)
Since this blog started in July last year, I have taken part in many conversations, both viva voce and online, about followers’ responses to George Calderon’s war experience, to the War as it has been unfolding, and to what I … Continue reading
Posted in Modern parallels, Personal commentary
Tagged Aeschylus, arachnophobia, Battle of Waterloo, catharsis, Clare Hopkins, closure, commemoration, comments, Commonwealth War Graves Commission, Dardanelles, Diana Princess of Wales, empathy, Foxwold, Gallipoli, George Calderon, Jim Corbet, John Hussey, John Pym, Kittie Calderon, Laurence Binyon, Lesbia Corbet, Mikhail Bakhtin, Nadezhda Mandel'shtam, Santanu Das, Søren Kierkegaard, The Great War, The Lusitania, Third Battle of Krithia, tragedy, Wilfred Owen, William Shakespeare, World War I
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Life at Hoe Benham
We may assume, then, that two days ago Kittie arrived at The Cottage at the Crossways, Hoe Benham, to stay for an indefinite period with the closest woman friend in her life, Nina Astley (Corbet). She would have travelled to … Continue reading
Posted in Edwardian marriage
Tagged Acton Reynald, Benham Valence, Boxford, Constance Sutton, Dardanelles, Gallipoli, George Calderon, Hoe Benham, Jim Corbet, Kittie Calderon, Lesbia Corbet, Nina Astley, Percy Lubbock, Reginald Astley, Sir Richard Sutton, Sir Roland James Corbet, The Crossways, The Great War, World War I
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‘We’re the Jims’
Hunter-Weston’s VIII Corps (in effect, all the British forces on the Helles front) issued its orders today, Thursday 3 June 1915. They were meticulous and ‘for the first time accompanied by a trench diagram, showing the various objectives to be … Continue reading
Posted in Edwardian character, Edwardian marriage, Personal commentary
Tagged 29th Indian Brigade, Achi Baba, Battle of the Brickstacks, Colonel Hawkins, comments, Dardanelles, Elizabeth Ellis, Gallipoli, George Calderon, Gully Ravine, Jim Corbet, King's Own Scottish Borderers, Kittie Calderon, Krithia, Shady, Sir Roland James Corbet, The Great War, Third Battle of Krithia, Tommy, World War I
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4 May 1915
On this day (a Tuesday) at Fort Brockhurst George received the following letter from Kittie’s lifelong friend Nina Astley, née Stewart, Nina Corbet by her first marriage: The Cottage at the Crossways Hoe Benham Newbury … Continue reading
Kittie’s story
As I have said before, none of George and Kittie’s letters to each other written whilst he was at Fort Brockhurst has survived (there is an envelope addressed to her by George and postmarked Gosport 3 May, but no letter … Continue reading
The note darkens
I did not notice it when I got to this point in writing the chapter in my biography, but the day-by-day ‘real time’ of the blog has brought it home to me: the note has definitely darkened by this date … Continue reading
20 April 1915
Brinsop Court. Hereford. (Statn Credenhill. Tels Burghill.) Tuesday Darling Dina, It’s absolutely unthinkable that you are not here, and I do know how you are feeling about it, but time and space are nothing, and your dear spirit just wraps me round … Continue reading
Posted in Edwardian marriage
Tagged 'Phyllis', Colonel Geoffrey Feilding, Constance Astley, Constance Sutton, Dick Sutton, Edward Brooke, Eliza Stewart, Father Waggett, Fort Brockhurst, George Calderon, Hubert Astley, Jim Corbet, Kittie Calderon, Nina Astley, Sir Richard Sutton, Sir Roland James Corbet, The Great War, World War I
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A new photograph of George Calderon
Whilst sorting his family papers, Mr John Pym recently found the photograph below, which undoubtedly shows George Calderon on the right. It is a contact print of a photograph, obviously not in sharp focus, which Mr Pym and I believe … Continue reading →