‘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 he invented as he went along’. In the middle of the muffler he knitted a short piece of plain with ‘a little pot or “cauldron” in the centre, as his signature’. The link between ‘Calderon’ and ‘cauldron’ is in the Calderon coat of arms. As Kittie explained, it contains ‘five little cauldrons with flags in them — which signified that in some very early wars of Spain the Calderon of that day brought five companies of men each a hundred strong and victualled them’.
Basic form of the Calderon coat of arms
Because ‘Calderon’ is such a common Spanish name (some claim it is the equivalent of ‘Pot’, or ‘Tinker’, i.e. cauldron-maker), there are numerous forms of the family escutcheon. The above is the core design, described in the 1753 family history as (in George’s father’s translation): ‘Five Calderons (cauldrons) sable on field or (others say argent) and for bordure eight St Andrew’s Crosses on field gules […] with five standards gules above the handles of the Cauldrons.’
It may be recalled that on 18 October 1914 George had referred to an ancestor’s friendship with St Francis of Assisi. But such mentions of his lineage are extremely rare, as George considered himself an Englishman through and through. The sudden appearance of the cauldron on the muffler is therefore interesting. It may be the origin of what can only be called the posthumous ‘mythology’ of George’s self-sacrifice — a mythology that was, however, a real comfort to those whom he left behind.
Today, 11 November 1914, the Germans launched attacks all along the Ypres front. This was in fact the climax of the First Battle of Ypres. They broke through the British line in numerous places and the situation became critical again. However, desperate counterattacks, notably at Nonnebosschen Wood, restored the front by nightfall.
Next entry: 14 November 1914
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George and Kittie Calderon 1905
Jean Ryckaert, May 1916.
Figure from Gauguin’s 1899 painting ‘Tahitian Women with Mango Blossoms’ (left); George Calderon’s pencil sketch ‘Manu’ (right)
George Calderon c.1901
Sir Richard Vincent Sutton c. 1913
Captain of the 11
Colonel Sir Walter Coote Hedley c. 1920
Book sent to George Calderon in Russia by his mother, Christmas 1895.
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?
Michel and Vera Fokine in “Scheherazade”, 1914 (The Music And Theatre Library of Sweden, creative commons)
The entrance to Fort Brockhurst (picture from Britain’s Past)
Unpublished watercolour by George Calderon, Tahiti 1906
Monarch Butterfly Madeira
Christmas 1901 Cartoon by George Calderon
A happy memory of Trinity College: undergraduates breakfast together in Downy V. Green, p. 77.
Patrick Miles in his summer house, 11 December 2016
Basic form of the Calderon coat of arms
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 he invented as he went along’. In the middle of the muffler he knitted a short piece of plain with ‘a little pot or “cauldron” in the centre, as his signature’. The link between ‘Calderon’ and ‘cauldron’ is in the Calderon coat of arms. As Kittie explained, it contains ‘five little cauldrons with flags in them — which signified that in some very early wars of Spain the Calderon of that day brought five companies of men each a hundred strong and victualled them’.
Basic form of the Calderon coat of arms
Because ‘Calderon’ is such a common Spanish name (some claim it is the equivalent of ‘Pot’, or ‘Tinker’, i.e. cauldron-maker), there are numerous forms of the family escutcheon. The above is the core design, described in the 1753 family history as (in George’s father’s translation): ‘Five Calderons (cauldrons) sable on field or (others say argent) and for bordure eight St Andrew’s Crosses on field gules […] with five standards gules above the handles of the Cauldrons.’
It may be recalled that on 18 October 1914 George had referred to an ancestor’s friendship with St Francis of Assisi. But such mentions of his lineage are extremely rare, as George considered himself an Englishman through and through. The sudden appearance of the cauldron on the muffler is therefore interesting. It may be the origin of what can only be called the posthumous ‘mythology’ of George’s self-sacrifice — a mythology that was, however, a real comfort to those whom he left behind.
Today, 11 November 1914, the Germans launched attacks all along the Ypres front. This was in fact the climax of the First Battle of Ypres. They broke through the British line in numerous places and the situation became critical again. However, desperate counterattacks, notably at Nonnebosschen Wood, restored the front by nightfall.
Next entry: 14 November 1914
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