Figure from Gauguin’s 1899 painting ‘Tahitian Women with Mango Blossoms’ (left); George Calderon’s pencil sketch ‘Manu’ (right)
The entrance to Fort Brockhurst (picture from Britain’s Past)
Monarch Butterfly Madeira
George Calderon c.1901
Colonel Sir Walter Coote Hedley c. 1920
Jean Ryckaert, May 1916.
Christmas 1901 Cartoon by George Calderon
Unpublished watercolour by George Calderon, Tahiti 1906
George and Kittie Calderon 1905
A happy memory of Trinity College: undergraduates breakfast together in Downy V. Green, p. 77.
Book sent to George Calderon in Russia by his mother, Christmas 1895.
Captain of the 11
Patrick Miles in his summer house, 11 December 2016
Michel and Vera Fokine in “Scheherazade”, 1914 (The Music And Theatre Library of Sweden, creative commons)
Basic form of the Calderon coat of arms
Sir Richard Vincent Sutton c. 1913
Frontis piece by Frank Calderon
George Calderon, 1912
K.N. Das Gupta and Margaret Mitchell in an Indian Dramatic Society production of The Maharani of Arakan, 1913?Recent 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: Personal commentary
Zillebeke Churchyard Cemetery
This week I have received and read Jerry Murland’s 2010 book Aristocrats Go to War: Uncovering the Zillebeke Churchyard Cemetery. Nothing, I think, could evoke so strongly the character and ethos of the men George Calderon was with at Ypres in … Continue reading
Posted in Personal commentary
Tagged Alexis de Gunzburg, Belgium, Colonel Gordon Wilson, George Calderon, Jerry Murland, military interpreters, Royal Horse Guards, Siege of Mafeking, The Blues, The Grand National, The Great War, Windmill Hill Camp, Winston Churchill, World War I, Ypres, Zillebeke
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Kittie’s therapy
‘So as to help him pass the day in hospital’, Kittie taught George to knit. He ‘at once grasped the possibilities offered by plain and pearl’ and started to knit a muffler, which became ‘a network of intricate patterns that … Continue reading
‘He downright cried’
One of the many symptoms of acute stress disorder is ‘hyperarousal’, e.g. irritability and outbursts of anger. About now, whilst Kittie was with him, Calderon learned that Colonel Wilson had been killed on 6 November: George was in hospital when … Continue reading
Remembrance
I wrote a piece for the parish magazine of my home town, Sandwich in Kent, about Laurence Binyon’s visit there in 1921 (see www.stclementschurchsandwich.org.uk and follow links to ‘The Signal’), and I’ve just received my copy. The issue, for November, … Continue reading
Posted in Heroism and Adventure, Personal commentary
Tagged George Calderon, The Great War, World War I
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Nurse Katharine
Several people have asked me why ‘Kittie’ is not spelt with a ‘-y’. The answer is that the spelling ‘Kitty’ is reserved for private, more intimate use, for example between Kittie and George, Kittie and Nina (‘Dinah’) Corbet, Kittie and … Continue reading
1 November 1914
Since Kittie recalled receiving a telegram ‘one Sunday morning’ saying ‘Home wounded, shot through ankle’, it probably was on 1 November 1914 that George arrived at Sussex Lodge Hospital, 27 Sussex Place, Regent’s Park, which is now the home of … Continue reading
Complex, yes
Today, Saturday 31 October 1914, George Calderon was presumably travelling in a hospital train to one of the Channel ports. The day is a black hole in his biography, but as Kittie remembered it he arrived in London on 1 … Continue reading
Posted in Edwardian character, Personal commentary
Tagged 'real time', Battle of Gheluvelt, Belgium, biography, comments, George Calderon, Kittie Calderon, Laurence Binyon, Michael Caines, military interpreters, Royal Horse Guards, Siegfried Sassoon, The Blues, The Great War, TLS blog, World War I, Ypres
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26 October 1914
Calderon found Brigadier-General ‘Black Jack’ Kavanagh last night about three miles from the front and presented his letter of recommendation from Kavanagh’s brigade major in Dunkirk. This afternoon he told Kittie the result: It is not certain that General K. … Continue reading
Posted in Personal commentary
Tagged Belgium, Brigadier-General Charles Kavanagh, comments, General Henry Rawlinson, George Calderon, Kittie Calderon, Kruiseecke, Menin Road, military interpreters, Royal Horse Guards, Sir John French, Sir Richard Sutton, The Blues, The Great War, World War I, Ypres
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23 October 1914
Today George wrote to Kittie from Dunkirk. It was his first letter to her for six days. ‘Dearest Mrs P.,’ he began, ‘I haven’t written, because there was nothing very gay to say.’ (See my posts of 29 August, 1 … Continue reading
The TLS link
At four o’clock this afternoon, Monday 19 October 1914, George and other patients set off on a very slow train to their ‘Hospital base’ at Dunkirk. It may seem odd that he had told Kittie to contact Theodore Cook, editor … Continue reading
Language issues again
The version of Binyon’s ‘For the Fallen’ published in The Times (see my post of 21 September) seems to contain a misprint in line 11: ‘stanch’ instead of ‘staunch’ (‘to the end against odds uncounted’). Last week I was in the … Continue reading
29 September 1914
It is clear from something Calderon wrote to his wife at the end of October that he did suffer from bouts of depression whilst he was an interpreter with the Blues. On this day, Tuesday 29 September, he wrote … Continue reading
‘Connected with the Hamiltons’
A hundred years ago today George V, Queen Mary, the Prime Minister, and their entourages, visited Windmill Hill Camp. The Third Cavalry Division had now been officially formed and was being reviewed by the monarch. George Calderon described it as … Continue reading
Status
There are no letters from George to Kittie on 23 or 24 September 1914. At first this seems odd, since he had been writing to her every day. They were a Wednesday and a Thursday, and you would expect him … Continue reading
‘Alle Strassen münden in schwarze Verwesung’
Apparently it was in November 1914 that Edward Thomas, with the encouragement of Robert Frost, began to write modern poems. I have known the ‘anthology poems’ of Thomas since I was a teenager, but now I am reading all his … Continue reading →