Christmas 1901 Cartoon by George Calderon
Book sent to George Calderon in Russia by his mother, Christmas 1895.
Captain of the 11
Michel and Vera Fokine in “Scheherazade”, 1914 (The Music And Theatre Library of Sweden, creative commons)
Colonel Sir Walter Coote Hedley c. 1920
The entrance to Fort Brockhurst (picture from Britain’s Past)
George and Kittie Calderon 1905
George Calderon c.1901
Unpublished watercolour by George Calderon, Tahiti 1906
George Calderon, 1912
Sir Richard Vincent Sutton c. 1913
Figure from Gauguin’s 1899 painting ‘Tahitian Women with Mango Blossoms’ (left); George Calderon’s pencil sketch ‘Manu’ (right)
A happy memory of Trinity College: undergraduates breakfast together in Downy V. Green, p. 77.
Basic form of the Calderon coat of arms
Patrick Miles in his summer house, 11 December 2016
Frontis piece by Frank Calderon
Monarch Butterfly Madeira
K.N. Das Gupta and Margaret Mitchell in an Indian Dramatic Society production of The Maharani of Arakan, 1913?
Jean Ryckaert, May 1916.Recent Comments
- Patrick Miles on 4 June 1915: The Third Battle of Krithia Thank you for leaving this wonderful comment. I am so moved: you have brought the very spot almost unbearably close on this the 110th anniversary. Like George Calderon, your... (June 6, 2025 at 9:34 pm)
- Stuart Randall on 4 June 1915: The Third Battle of Krithia Thank you so much for putting this online. My great-uncle, Private William Pitt, served with the 4th Btn. Worcestershire Regiment. He was posthumously mentioned in despatches... (May 21, 2025 at 5:29 pm)
- Stephen Rust on Guest post by John Pym: Games Ancient and Modern A wonderful post. John, I've always adored your writings about Merchant Ivory and would love to chat more about them someday. I teach cinema at the University of Oregon,... (May 16, 2025 at 6:45 pm)
- Patrick Miles on Source? Dear Katy, it's lovely to hear from you again! I hope you are well down there in Kent. Would you believe it, I too typed in that first line, as I thought it was perhaps the... (May 12, 2025 at 11:45 am)
- Roger Pulvers on Source? Ah, it is simply a тайна ремесла. But, I assure you, I did not use AI. Please give the book to someone who has not read it and is in your neighbourhood. (May 12, 2025 at 9:57 am)
Category Archives: Personal commentary
Watch this Space
16/8/15. If you haven’t seen the latest cracker of a Comment from Clare Hopkins, I recommend that you do (top right)…and contribute to the discussion! I have been away for a week. This necessitated carting the manuscript with me and a … Continue reading
Posted in Personal commentary
Tagged biographies, biography, Clare Hopkins, comments, George Calderon, Kittie Calderon, Percy Lubbock, publishers, Tahiti
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Watch this Space
6/8/15. I was flabbergasted last week when the TLS featured ‘Calderonia’ a second time on its very popular blog, this time to mark our closing (see link on right under ‘Related’ to ‘Second TLS blog post’). I cannot thank Michael Caines … Continue reading
Posted in Personal commentary
Tagged appling, Constantinople, Dardanelles, Gallipoli, George Calderon, Helen Peel, Hoffman Philip, Kittie Calderon, Michael Caines, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, Robert Peel, The Great War, Third Battle of Krithia, TLS, TLS blog, War Office, World War I
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Watch this Space
31/7/15. Blogged out, I am chilling out — slightly. I’m particularly interested in the reception of Patrick Marber’s stunning play THREE DAYS IN THE COUNTRY at the National Theatre, as it is based on my literal translation of Turgenev’s A MONTH IN … Continue reading
30 July 1915: ‘Ends’
It does not seem exactly a year since the small boys Jack and Roly Pym ran across from their holiday home at Seaview on the Isle of Wight to greet George Calderon, a kind of uncle to them, who had … Continue reading
Posted in Edwardian marriage, Personal commentary
Tagged 'real time', Anton Chekhov, Ashford, biographies, biography, Captain Charles Evelyn Pym, Carl Jung, Clare Hopkins, comments, Dardanelles, Derwent May, Elizabeth Ellis, Gallipoli, George Calderon, Harvey Pitcher, Isle of Wight, Jack Pym, James Muckle, John Dewey, John Pym, Johnnie Pym, King's Own Scottish Borderers, Kittie Calderon, Louisa Scherchen, Michael Welch, Nina Astley, Nina Corbet, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, Percy Lubbock, Peter Hart, Roly Pym, Sam Evans, Seaview, Sheet, Tahiti, The Great War, Third Battle of Krithia, Violet Pym, White Raven, World War I, Ypres
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29 July 1915
29th July, 1915. The Military Secretary presents his compliments to Mrs Calderon, and begs to thank her for her letter of July 26th, and to inform her that a form of enquiry on behalf of her husband will be sent … Continue reading
Posted in Edwardian marriage, Personal commentary
Tagged American Embassy, comments, Constantinople, Coote Hedley, Dardanelles, Foreign Office, Gallipoli, George Calderon, Gertrude Bell, Hoffman Philip, King's Own Scottish Borderers, Kittie Calderon, Military Secretary, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, Percy Lubbock, The Great War, Third Battle of Krithia, War Office, 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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26 July 1915
Today, Monday 26 July 1915, Kittie wrote the above letter to Military Secretary 3 (Casualties) at the War Office. I have not transcribed it, as she has written it as clearly as possible. Even so, she has omitted an apostrophe … Continue reading
Posted in Edwardian marriage, Personal commentary
Tagged comments, Dardanelles, Gallipoli, George Calderon, King's Own Scottish Borderers, Kittie Calderon, Percy Lubbock, prisoners, Sergeant Smith, Sergeant-Major Allan, The Great War, Third Battle of Krithia, Turkey, War Office, World War I
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Flashback — and tourbillions in Time (again)
The Imperial War Museum invited me to contribute a post to their Research Blog, and I promptly accepted. I am not, of course, a military historian, and when I started researching the last ten months of George’s life I was … Continue reading
Posted in Edwardian character, Heroism and Adventure, Personal commentary
Tagged 'real time', biographies, biography, C.F. Aspinall-Oglander, Captain Grogan, Captain Hogan, Captain Paterson, Clare Hopkins, comments, Daniel Joiner, Dardanelles, Gallipoli, George Calderon, Jack Harley, King's Own Scottish Borderers, Kittie Calderon, KOSB, Major G.B. Stoney, Official History, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, Peter Hart, R.M.E. Reeves, Robert Graves, The Great War, Third Battle of Krithia, World War I
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Dialogue at a dinner
SHE: Who is this man you are talking about? ME: He’s Edwardian. SHE: Is Edwardian? Surely you mean he was Edwardian? ME: Well no, he is Edwardian. SHE: No no, you can’t say that. He was Edwardian! ME: Er… Next entry: De-appled
Katy’s hat trick
Long-term followers of this blog know that Katy George burst onto it back in March, when she came across a perfectly preserved letter of Kittie’s in a charity shop in Deal, Googled on Kittie, found us, and offered the letter … Continue reading
A friend’s published tribute
As I explained in my post of 25 June, after George’s death was officially accepted in the spring of 1919 Kittie invited his friends to write their memoirs of him, which of course included tributes, but none of these was … Continue reading
Posted in Edwardian character, Edwardian literature, Personal commentary
Tagged Annie Horniman, Dardanelles, Gallipoli, George Calderon, Kittie Calderon, Manchester, Manchester Repertory Company, Percy Lubbock, The Great War, The Manchester Guardian, Third Battle of Krithia, William Caine, World War I, Ypres
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The last blurt
I thought I had got everything out about the completion of my biography of George Calderon in my post of 18 June, but no: there is something I forgot to say and have been meaning to put on record for … Continue reading
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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Commemoration (to be concluded)
Mr Pym, who is the grandson of Violet and Evey Pym, of Foxwold, two of the Calderons’ closest friends, sent me this poem a fortnight before the anniversary of George Calderon’s death. He was not able to take part in … Continue reading
Posted in Edwardian character, Edwardian English, Edwardian marriage, Heroism and Adventure, Modern parallels, Personal commentary
Tagged Anton Chekhov, Archie Ripley, Captain Charles Evelyn Pym, Catherine Lubbock, comments, Dardanelles, Devonport, Earlham, Emmetts, Foxwold, Frederic Lubbock, Gallipoli, George Calderon, Hampstead, Horatius, John Pym, King's Own Scottish Borderers, Kittie Calderon, Laura Ripley, Percy Lubbock, The Great War, Third Battle of Krithia, Thomas Babington Macaulay, Violet Pym, Well Walk, World War I
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Watch this Space
25/8/15. If you haven’t seen the latest cracker of a Comment from Clare Hopkins, I recommend that you do (top right)…and contribute to the discussion! A special part of my in-depth research of Kittie’s life 1915-22, for the next chapter, has … Continue reading →