Christmas 1901 Cartoon by George Calderon
Basic form of the Calderon coat of arms
Figure from Gauguin’s 1899 painting ‘Tahitian Women with Mango Blossoms’ (left); George Calderon’s pencil sketch ‘Manu’ (right)
Jean Ryckaert, May 1916.
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?
Frontis piece by Frank Calderon
Patrick Miles in his summer house, 11 December 2016
Sir Richard Vincent Sutton c. 1913
A happy memory of Trinity College: undergraduates breakfast together in Downy V. Green, p. 77.
Captain of the 11
Monarch Butterfly Madeira
The entrance to Fort Brockhurst (picture from Britain’s Past)
George Calderon, 1912
Book sent to George Calderon in Russia by his mother, Christmas 1895.
George and Kittie Calderon 1905
Unpublished watercolour by George Calderon, Tahiti 1906
Michel and Vera Fokine in “Scheherazade”, 1914 (The Music And Theatre Library of Sweden, creative commons)
George Calderon c.1901Recent Comments
- Patrick Miles on Guest post by Philip Andrews-Speed: The concept of path dependence explains much in today’s world All this is HIGHLY relevant to my question, Philip -- thank you yet again. I must say, to the uninformed observer like myself it seems as though China studiously cultivates... (October 28, 2026 at 3:42 pm)
- Philip Andrews-Speed on Guest post by Philip Andrews-Speed: The concept of path dependence explains much in today’s world Thank you, Patrick. I will answer your question indirectly. It can be argued that China's political and legal cultures continue to reflect a mix of Confucian and Legalist... (October 28, 2026 at 11:58 am)
- Patrick Miles on Guest post by Philip Andrews-Speed: The concept of path dependence explains much in today’s world Excellent summary, Philip, thank you enormously as my O Level history of China is very thin. This is political culture, but what about other forms of culture? Could their... (October 27, 2026 at 2:48 pm)
- Philip Andrews-Speed on Guest post by Philip Andrews-Speed: The concept of path dependence explains much in today’s world A trite answer, Patrick, that makes no reference to path dependence would be that after decades of chaos the Party leadership sought stability. After the collapse of the... (October 27, 2026 at 2:39 pm)
- Patrick Miles on Guest post by Philip Andrews-Speed: The concept of path dependence explains much in today’s world Thank you so much, Philip, for your time in writing these succinct and admirable responses. I was very interested to read that Pierson switched from 'increasing returns'... (October 27, 2026 at 12:24 pm)
Category Archives: Uncategorized
Another big ‘Cauldron’
Rather late in the day, I asked my research assistant to look into the eldest of George Calderon’s brothers, Alfred Merigon Calderon, who was born on 7 June 1861, seven years before George, and was known to have emigrated to … Continue reading
Birthday
Today, 2 December 1914, was George Calderon’s forty-sixth birthday. He most likely celebrated it over tea with Kittie and his mother; possibly a sister or brother also looked in. His mother, Clara Calderon (1836-1921), was the sister of painter George … Continue reading
29 November 1914
Today, a Sunday, George Calderon presented in person the white and pale blue blanket that he had knitted for his god-daughter Elizabeth Pym. Her christening took place at Brasted in Kent and the other godparents were Cecil Dawnay and Hannah … Continue reading
22 November 1914
It is Sunday, and presumably a quiet time at Sussex Lodge Hospital, so George Calderon writes to the Sturge Moore children: Dear Riettte and Dan, Thanks for your interesting letters — and to Mrs Moore too. I hope to be … Continue reading
Nuts and bolts
By and large, I believe readers don’t want to hear about the nuts and bolts of writing biography (the ‘difficulties’), they want to read the biography. However, readers of this blog may be interested in a typical example… I know … Continue reading
The ‘Godfather in War’ visits
As Kittie put it, Calderon’s ‘great wish on getting back was to see Colonel Hedley and triumph over him’. (For Coote Hedley, see my post of 26 August.) The reason for this was that, in Kittie’s words, ‘on some occasion … Continue reading
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Tagged Alexis de Gunzburg, Alexis Gunzberg, Belgium, Brigadier-General Charles Kavanagh, Colonel Gordon Wilson, Coote Hedley, George Calderon, Kittie Calderon, military interpreters, Royal Horse Guards, The Blues, The Great War, World War I, Ypres, Zillebeke, Zwarteleen
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25 October 1914
George wrote to Kittie this morning from his billet at, presumably, Nieuwkerke: off this morning on motor trucks with the bully beef. I shall find Gen. Kavanagh tonight. I hope he’ll accept me. Perhaps I shall find the place taken … Continue reading
Another ‘Russian connection’
It is also surprising that in his letter of yesterday Calderon did not mention Captain Fitzgerald, with whom he had shared a hotel room at Ypres. This ‘full-blooded Irishman, black and hairy’ had, we presume, accompanied George to Dunkirk with … Continue reading
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Tagged Alexis Gunzberg, Ballets Russes, Belgium, Bernard Pares, Captain Fitzgerald, Colonel Gordon Wilson, Diaghilev, Dmitri de Gunzberg, Dunkirk, George Calderon, military interpreters, Royal Horse Guards, School of Russian Studies, Steenwerck, The Blues, The Great War, World War I
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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
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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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Nuns fall for the Calderonian charm
The motor lorries arrived at 3 in the morning. Sick and wounded were put in; a pleurisy case; a man from our Brigade with rheumatic fever from our so-called ‘billets’. He had been lying two days in an ambulance wagon … Continue reading
15 October 1914
On this day George wrote his next long letter to Kittie, ‘from a low estaminet by a muddy village wayside’. During the night Captain Fitzgerald of B Squadron had ‘dropped something heavy on his foot in the dark stables and … Continue reading
12 October 1914
From the Château […] we went on to what they were pleased to call a ‘billet’ in the country, but it was only a bivouack, except for myself, who, having a cold, slept in the kitchen on straw. The others … Continue reading
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Tagged Belgium, Boulogne, Calais, George Calderon, Izegem, Lendelede, Royal Horse Guards, Rumbeke, Sir Richard Sutton, The Blues, The Great War, The Life Guards, World War I, Ypres
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Pause and enigma
The Calderon quotations that feature in my preceding two posts come from a letter George wrote to Kittie today, 11 October 1914, which was a Sunday. This was now the pattern: every few days he would write her a long … Continue reading
10 October 1914
Up at 3.30 to go out on a Patrol with [Sergeant] Mackintosh, to see that the country was clear of Germans for the Regiment to move. Out (with a little cocoa inside) between misty grey fields; very keen eyed at … Continue reading
The sexiest couple in Europe
Many passenger lists from a hundred years ago are available online, but it seems that those for ‘normal’ voyages within Europe were not preserved except in special circumstances. Thus I haven’t been able to establish exactly when the Fokine family … Continue reading →