Brownsea Island, Poole Harbour, Dorset UK.

 

Brownsea Island, Poole Harbour, Dorset UK.

A National Trust Property.

 

Brownsea Castle, also known historically as Branksea Castle, was originally a Device Fort constructed by Henry VIII between 1545 and 1547 to protect Poole Harbour in Dorset, England, from the threat of French attack. Located on Brownsea Island, it comprised a stone blockhouse with a hexagonal gun platform. It was garrisoned by the local town with six soldiers and armed with eight artillery pieces. The castle remained in use after the original invasion scare had passed and was occupied by Parliament during the English Civil War of the 1640s. By the end of the century, however, it had fallen into disuse.

 

In 1726 the castle was converted into a private residence by William Benson, despite complaints from the town of Poole. Benson and the subsequent owners extended the original blockhouse to form a country house, landscaping the surrounding island to create ornamental gardens and lakes. The 19th century saw continued building work by the castle's occupants, including the entrepreneur Colonel William Waugh, who erected various Jacobethan-styled extensions. A serious fire in 1896 gutted the castle, which was restored by Major Kenneth Robert Balfour. The wealthy stockbroker Charles Van Raalte led a lavish lifestyle at Brownsea at the start of the 20th century, using it to house his collection of antique musical instruments.

 

Brownsea Castle was purchased by Mary Bonham-Christie in 1927. She allowed the property to fall into disrepair and by the time of her death in 1961 it was in a very poor condition. It was then purchased by the National Trust and leased to the John Lewis Partnership, who restored it over many years. In the 21st century it is still used by the Partnership as a corporate hotel for their employees and retired staff.

  

Text courtesy of Wikipedia.

 

Brownsea Island, Poole Harbour, Dorset UK.

A National Trust Property.

 

Brownsea Castle, also known historically as Branksea Castle, was originally a Device Fort constructed by Henry VIII between 1545 and 1547 to protect Poole Harbour in Dorset, England, from the threat of French attack. Located on Brownsea Island, it comprised a stone blockhouse with a hexagonal gun platform. It was garrisoned by the local town with six soldiers and armed with eight artillery pieces. The castle remained in use after the original invasion scare had passed and was occupied by Parliament during the English Civil War of the 1640s. By the end of the century, however, it had fallen into disuse.

 

In 1726 the castle was converted into a private residence by William Benson, despite complaints from the town of Poole. Benson and the subsequent owners extended the original blockhouse to form a country house, landscaping the surrounding island to create ornamental gardens and lakes. The 19th century saw continued building work by the castle's occupants, including the entrepreneur Colonel William Waugh, who erected various Jacobethan-styled extensions. A serious fire in 1896 gutted the castle, which was restored by Major Kenneth Robert Balfour. The wealthy stockbroker Charles Van Raalte led a lavish lifestyle at Brownsea at the start of the 20th century, using it to house his collection of antique musical instruments.

 

Brownsea Castle was purchased by Mary Bonham-Christie in 1927. She allowed the property to fall into disrepair and by the time of her death in 1961 it was in a very poor condition. It was then purchased by the National Trust and leased to the John Lewis Partnership, who restored it over many years. In the 21st century it is still used by the Partnership as a corporate hotel for their employees and retired staff.

  

Text courtesy of Wikipedia.

 

Brownsea Castle, also known historically as Branksea Castle, was originally a Device Fort constructed by Henry VIII between 1545 and 1547 to protect Poole Harbour in Dorset, England, from the threat of French attack. Located on Brownsea Island, it comprised a stone blockhouse with a hexagonal gun platform. It was garrisoned by the local town with six soldiers and armed with eight artillery pieces. The castle remained in use after the original invasion scare had passed and was occupied by Parliament during the English Civil War of the 1640s. By the end of the century, however, it had fallen into disuse.

 

In 1726 the castle was converted into a private residence by William Benson, despite complaints from the town of Poole. Benson and the subsequent owners extended the original blockhouse to form a country house, landscaping the surrounding island to create ornamental gardens and lakes. The 19th century saw continued building work by the castle's occupants, including the entrepreneur Colonel William Waugh, who erected various Jacobethan-styled extensions. A serious fire in 1896 gutted the castle, which was restored by Major Kenneth Robert Balfour. The wealthy stockbroker Charles Van Raalte led a lavish lifestyle at Brownsea at the start of the 20th century, using it to house his collection of antique musical instruments.

 

Brownsea Castle was purchased by Mary Bonham-Christie in 1927. She allowed the property to fall into disrepair and by the time of her death in 1961 it was in a very poor condition. It was then purchased by the National Trust and leased to the John Lewis Partnership, who restored it over many years. In the 21st century it is still used by the Partnership as a corporate hotel for their employees and retired staff.

Brownsea Castle, also known historically as Branksea Castle, was originally a Device Fort constructed by Henry VIII between 1545 and 1547 to protect Poole Harbour in Dorset, England, from the threat of French attack. Located on Brownsea Island, it comprised a stone blockhouse with a hexagonal gun platform. It was garrisoned by the local town with six soldiers and armed with eight artillery pieces. The castle remained in use after the original invasion scare had passed and was occupied by Parliament during the English Civil War of the 1640s. By the end of the century, however, it had fallen into disuse.

 

In 1726 the castle was converted into a private residence by William Benson, despite complaints from the town of Poole. Benson and the subsequent owners extended the original blockhouse to form a country house, landscaping the surrounding island to create ornamental gardens and lakes. The 19th century saw continued building work by the castle's occupants, including the entrepreneur Colonel William Waugh, who erected various Jacobethan-styled extensions. A serious fire in 1896 gutted the castle, which was restored by Major Kenneth Robert Balfour. The wealthy stockbroker Charles Van Raalte led a lavish lifestyle at Brownsea at the start of the 20th century, using it to house his collection of antique musical instruments.

 

Brownsea Castle was purchased by Mary Bonham-Christie in 1927. She allowed the property to fall into disrepair and by the time of her death in 1961 it was in a very poor condition. It was then purchased by the National Trust and leased to the John Lewis Partnership, who restored it over many years. In the 21st century it is still used by the Partnership as a corporate hotel for their employees and retired staff. wikipedia

Well presuming "she's" a Doe! And pretty sure "she's" a Sika! No obvious signs of anything boyish...but I could be wrong on all counts! 😁

  

Seeking the sika

 

Sika deer were introduced to Brownsea Island in 1896 but it wasn't long before they swam across Poole Harbour and colonised parts of Dorset. Now their numbers are so great that they threaten the habitats of other wildlife.

 

In the 19th Century it was fashionable among the landed gentry to introduce exotic animals to large estates. The sika or cervus japonicus were brought to Brownsea from Japan when the island was owned by an MP named Major Kenneth Balfour.

 

The deer were not contained and a failure to realise that deer can swim meant it wasn't long before they made it ashore to the mainland. Many made the crossing in 1934 to escape a terrible fire which swept across the island.

 

By the 1970s some of the deer had swum back and their population on Brownsea has grown since then. Many instead set up home in the woodlands and heaths of the Purbecks and in particular the Arne peninsula, on the shores of Poole Harbour.

 

David Kenyon of the British Deer Society said, "They've settled into a habitat which suits them. They enjoy the woodland. They forage very well in scrubland and once they're out in the British countryside they do very well."

 

Habitat damage

 

Sika deer can grow up to 120cm tall, weigh up to 60kg and have a lifespan of about 15 years. They have a red-brown coat and the stags have antlers which are shed in the spring.

 

They co-exist alongside native deer such as roe and fallow but they cause considerable damage to young trees.

 

This has been a particular problem at the RSPB reserve on the Arne peninsula which was established to protect the Dartford Warbler. Much of their habitat was destroyed by the wandering deer and that put the birds which were under protection at risk.

 

A management plan is now in place at Arne to ensure a comfortable existence for both

birds and deer.

 

Deer tracking

 

The sika are not now confined to Brownsea or the Arne peninsula. With escapees from Brownsea and another collection introduced to Hyde House near Wareham, colonies of deer have now gone as far west as Dorchester and into the New Forest.

 

A research project by a team at Bournemouth University is now underway to track them using special collars with GPS technology.

 

The rut

 

The sika is not an aggressive species, except during the rutting season which takes place in the autumn. The stags have a distinctive whistle and will fight each other for the female. Anyone getting too close at this time risks being set upon.

 

David Kenyon from the British Deer Society has this advice; "All species of deer are fairly secretive. Although those at Arne and Brownsea have become used to humans they are still wild animals and that should be bourne in mind particularly with the rut at this time of year. Don't approach a stag."

 

A century on, the landowner who brought the sika to Brownsea might be surprised to discover just how far they have ventured. They may not be native to Dorset but they've certainly made themselves at home here.

The island sits in the middle of Poole Harbour, with dramatic views to the Purbeck Hills. Thriving natural habitats, including woodland, heathland and a lagoon, have created havens for wildlife, such as the red squirrel and a huge variety of birds, including the sandwich tern. You'll find peacocks and hens wandering near the 19th-century church.

The island is steeped in history. Several industries have thrived on Brownsea Island over the years, including cattle farming, daffodil farming and pottery. You'll see remnants of all of this on the island - with Pottery Pier still surrounded by shards of the ceramics that were once crafted there. You can also see the remains of the village of Maryland, which once housed scores of workers and their families.

 

The Outdoor Centre is the place to go for camping, overnight stays and a range of activities from archery and mini-golf to low ropes and orienteering. It welcomes thousands of Scouts and Guides form all over the world - making a pilgrimage to the birthplace of the Scouting and Guiding movement. It was on Brownsea Island that Lord Baden Powell developed his idea for Scouting and trialled some early Scout-style camps. The Outdoor Centre also offers day learning for schools and other groups. *The Outdoor Centre will be closed for the rest of the 2020 season.

In 1726 the castle was converted into a private residence by William Benson, despite complaints from the town of Poole. Benson and the subsequent owners extended the original blockhouse to form a country house, landscaping the surrounding island to create ornamental gardens and lakes. The 19th century saw continued building work by the castle's occupants, including the entrepreneur Colonel William Waugh, who erected various Jacobethan-styled extensions. A serious fire in 1896 gutted the castle, which was restored by Major Kenneth Robert Balfour. The wealthy stockbroker Charles Van Raalte led a lavish lifestyle at Brownsea at the start of the 20th century, using it to house his collection of antique musical instruments.

 

Brownsea Castle was purchased by Mary Bonham-Christie in 1927. She allowed the property to fall into disrepair and by the time of her death in 1961 it was in a very poor condition. It was then purchased by the National Trust and leased to the John Lewis Partnership, who restored it over many years. In the 21st century it is still used by the Partnership as a corporate hotel for their employees and retired staff.

Brownsea Castle, also known historically as Branksea Castle, was originally a Device Fort constructed by Henry VIII between 1545 and 1547 to protect Poole Harbour in Dorset, England, from the threat of French attack. Located on Brownsea Island, it comprised a stone blockhouse with a hexagonal gun platform. It was garrisoned by the local town with six soldiers and armed with eight artillery pieces. The castle remained in use after the original invasion scare had passed and was occupied by Parliament during the English Civil War of the 1640s. By the end of the century, however, it had fallen into disuse.

 

In 1726 the castle was converted into a private residence by William Benson, despite complaints from the town of Poole. Benson and the subsequent owners extended the original blockhouse to form a country house, landscaping the surrounding island to create ornamental gardens and lakes. The 19th century saw continued building work by the castle's occupants, including the entrepreneur Colonel William Waugh, who erected various Jacobethan-styled extensions. A serious fire in 1896 gutted the castle, which was restored by Major Kenneth Robert Balfour. The wealthy stockbroker Charles Van Raalte led a lavish lifestyle at Brownsea at the start of the 20th century, using it to house his collection of antique musical instruments.

 

Brownsea Castle was purchased by Mary Bonham-Christie in 1927. She allowed the property to fall into disrepair and by the time of her death in 1961 it was in a very poor condition. It was then purchased by the National Trust and leased to the John Lewis Partnership, who restored it over many years. In the 21st century it is still used by the Partnership as a corporate hotel for their employees and retired staff. wikipedia

In the late C14 the manor of Kingston was acquired by the Grey family through marriage with the Maurward heiress. By the late C16, Christopher Grey had completed a new manor house (Oswald 1959; Pevsner and Newman 1972), but in the early C18 this house was superseded by a new mansion to its west built for George Pitt of Stratfield Saye, Hampshire (qv), who had married the heiress Lora Grey. The design of George Pitt's mansion, which was begun c 1717 and completed by 1720, has been attributed to both Thomas Archer, and John James of Greenwich (Oswald 1959; Pevsner and Newman 1972), and remains uncertain.

 

When George Pitt, a cousin of William Pitt, Earl of Chatham, died in 1734, Kingston Maurward was inherited by his elder son, William. This William Pitt died without an heir in 1774, and the estate passed to his younger brother, John Pitt of Encombe, Dorset (qv), who had, since 1734, laid out an extensive park and pleasure grounds there with the advice of William Pitt, Lord Chatham. Between 1774 and his death in 1787, John Pitt made extensive alterations to both the house and its setting, laying out the park and forming the lake in the valley below the mansion. In 1787, Kingston Maurward was inherited by John Pitt's elder son, William Moreton Pitt, who entertained King George III at the house during the King's visits to Weymouth, and in 1794, apparently at the King's suggestion, cased the early C18 brick mansion in Portland stone. Perhaps as a result of the cost of this, and other improvements, William Moreton Pitt sold his Encombe estate in 1806, but continued to live at Kingston Maurward until his death in 1836, when the estate was inherited by his son, William Grey Pitt. In 1845, William Grey Pitt sold Kingston Maurward to Francis Martin MP, whose wife educated the young Thomas Hardy, who was born at neighbouring Higher Bockhampton, in the house. The house later served as Hardy's model for Knapwater House in his novel Desperate Remedies (1871). Francis Martin sold the estate in 1853 to James Fellows, who, with his widow and son, James Herbert Fellows (who took the name Benyon in 1897), owned the property until 1906, when it was sold to Major Kenneth Balfour. He parted with the estate in 1914, when it was purchased by Cecil Hanbury, who had made a considerable fortune in business in Shanghai, and who had inherited the Villa La Mortola on the Italian Riviera. Immediately after the conclusion of the First World War, Hanbury, later Sir Cecil Hanbury, and his wife, began to lay out a series of formal gardens to the west of the mansion. These gardens were substantially complete by 1920 (Mowl 2003). During the 1920s, Sir Cecil and Lady Hanbury entertained leading politicians and also Thomas Hardy, who had built his own house, Max Gate, c 1.25km south-west of Kingston Maurward.

 

Sir Cecil Hanbury died in 1937. Lady Hanbury continued to live at Kingston Maurward, despite the requisition of the house and park during the Second World War, when it served as an important base in preparations for the D-Day landings. The troops relinquished the property in 1945, and in 1947 Lady Hanbury sold it to Dorset County Council for use as a Farm Institute; she herself moved to La Mortola to oversee an extensive post-war restoration programme.

 

The Dorset Farm Institute, later to become an Agricultural and Horticultural College, opened at Kingston Maurward in 1949. The Institute undertook an extensive programme of repairs and consolidation, while from 1990 the gardens and pleasure grounds have been restored along historic lines (guidebook). The greater portion of the site remains (2004) in institutional use, while the C16 manor house is in private ownership.

Serialising Part Eight of J.B. Muller’s ‘The Burghers’

Edition: March 17, 2008

 

In the Land of the Palmyra Palm: The Genesis of the Jaffna Burghers -

 

The beginning of the Burgher Community in Jaffna, then known as Jaffnapatnam, began with the Portuguese occupation of the Peninsula led by Dom Andre Furtado de Mendoça in 1591, and that was further consolidated by its annexation in 1619 under Dom Filipe D’Oliveira. One of the factors that aided the Portuguese from 1619 to 21 was the presence of a pro-Portuguese native Catholic group in Jaffnapatnam that helped the Portuguese to end the so-called Jaffna kingdom said to have begun in medieval times.

 

The highest-ranking Portuguese official at Jaffnapatam was the Captain-Major or Capitão-major, and his authority was independent of the Captain-General resident in Colombo. He exercised the functions of both a Treasurer and that of an Auditor. He was also the chief judicial officer and the Collector of Customs. A Secretary or Escrivao assisted this important official.

 

The defence of the Peninsula was secured by two castles or fortresses, the first one being named Nossa Senhora das Milagres or Our Lady of Miracles at Jaffna town. The second fortress was at Kayts, then known as Cais [meaning quay]. All in all, the Portuguese kept a military force of more or less 200 men to maintain their administration over the North.

 

The names of a few Portuguese casados have been preserved in the tombos: Donna Anna Camella, Francisco Cabreira de Seixas, Thomé de Mello, Sebistiam Roiz, Matheus Viera de Avreu, Hyeronimo de Paiva, Antão Vaz Freire, and several others, such as Alfonso, D’Anderadoe, De Bares, Barra, De Brita, Cardosa, Chainho, Chianho, Consalves, Corea, Da Vara, De Croes, De Croese, D’Croos, Delivera, Dias, De Faja, Feras, Ferera, Ferere, Fernando, Gomes, Gonsalves, Gonsalvos, D’Mella, D’Livera, Loco, D’Mainho, D’Maral, De Mel, De Neto, Pires, Pinto, Perera, Pezoto, Rodrigo, Rosairo, D’Rosairo, D’Silva, De Sosa and Baptista.

 

The Portuguese casados took wives from among the local population and founded families who were entirely Catholic in faith. In time a considerable community of mixed parentage rose and generally married among themselves. These are the Portuguese Burghers of Jaffnapatam in the 17th and 18th centuries. In the 19th century most of them migrated to Colombo and Negombo where they made a fresh start. In the intervening period, especially after Jaffna was taken by the Dutch in 1658, those Europeans who served in the military married into these families of mixed parentage. The new families carried names from Northwestern Europe — Holland, Germany, Flanders, Walloonia, Prussia, Denmark, the Frisian Islands, Sweden, Switzerland, Luxembourg, and France.

 

The Dutch appeared in Sri Lankan waters in 1602, captured the Portuguese fortress of Batticaloa in 1639 followed the same year by the fort at Trincomalee. This was the beginning of the end of Portuguese power and the rise of Dutch power and both powers contributed to the fashioning of what is, today, known as the Burgher Community.

 

In 1694, the Dutch authorities in Jaffnapatnam took a census of the inhabitants and this revealed that there were 109 European heads of families and 87 heads of families of mixed descent that included Portuguese, Malay wives, and those wives who had come hither from the East Indies Archipelago. This reveals that the people of the then city of Jaffna were an already heterogeneous lot with many different bloodlines. It is reasonable to assume that this pattern held good for the other towns along the coast that were occupied by the Dutch, i.e. Colombo, Kalutara, Bentota, Galle, Matara, Tangalle, Hambantota, Batticaloa, Trincomalee, Pooneryn, Delft, Hammenheil, Mannar, Kalpitiya, Puttlam, Chilaw and Negombo.

 

The European family names originating from Jaffna that survive amongst the Burgher Community in Sri Lanka today are:

 

Bulner, D’ Croon, (Kroon), Ernst, Fransz (De Fransz), Fretz, Grenier, Honter, Jansz, Keegel, Kiel, Koch, Martyn, Mauritz, Müller, Nagel, Neydorff, Ohlmus, Pietersz, Prins, Reimers, Sansoni, Thuring, and Toussaint.

 

Kroon is a Dutch name meaning ‘crown,’ Franz means ‘French’ and here it means ‘son of a French (man), Grenier (attic, loft), Koch (cook), Honter, Mauritz and Müller are all German names, Nagel means ‘nail,’ Grenier means attic or loft, Koch simply means ‘cook,’ and Muller means ‘miller,’ Jansz means ‘son of Jan,’ Pietersz means ‘son of Peter,’ Sansoni is Italian and Toussaint is French!

 

The Families of mixed European and Oriental parentage included:

 

Alfonso, Anthonisz, Claasz, Corea, de Croes, Delivera, Dias, Fernando, Gonsalves, Jansz, D’Livera, De Mel, Pietersz, Pinto, Rosàiro, D’Rosàiro, and D’Silva.

 

Amongst the mixed family names Alfonso and Fernando are Spanish, Anthonisz is ‘son of Anthony’ in Dutch, Claasz is ‘son of Claas,’ Corea is ‘belt or strap’ in Portuguese, and so on.

 

Because the socio-economic and political centre under the British was Colombo many of the Burghers in Jaffna, Mannar, and Trincomalee migrated to the South where they quickly re-established themselves integrating successfully with the Burghers who had considered Colombo their own creation and city.

 

Over the past 300 years since that census was taken, many of these families have intermarried to such an extent that it is well nigh impossible to differentiate between the European and the Mixed. However, all or most of them today are members of the larger Burgher Community as defined by their culture, which is not wholly European nor entirely Oriental but a happy blend of both that is unique in that it is found nowhere else on the planet.

 

Lagoon of the Singing Fish: The Beginnings of the Batticaloa Burghers

 

Matecalo, Mada Kalapuva, Batticaloa, on the Eastern Coast is home to one of the earliest settlements of Burghers on the Island.

 

Here, betwixt the Bay of Bengal and the world famous Lagoon of the Singing Fish once lay ‘Dutch Bar,’ a very old settlement of the people called ‘Batticaloa Burghers.’ The Portuguese called this place ‘Batecalou,’ the Dutch called it ‘Matecalou,’ and the British finally settled it by calling the place ‘Batticaloa’ though its original name was ‘Mada Kalapuva’ which meant ‘muddy lagoon.’ It had also been called ‘Puliyan Doova.’

 

The Portuguese presence on the Island could be divided into three phases — The Portuguese-Sinhalese Alliance from 1505 to 1551; the Portuguese Protectorate of Sri Jayavardhannapura-Kotte from 1551to 1597 and direct Portuguese rule from 1597 to1658. The entire period marked the change-over of the country to a New Order, dragging it from its stultified medieval situation into the modernizing phase from which it has not yet fully emerged. The Portuguese impact has manifested itself in the spheres of civil administration, judicial structure, the organization of the naval and military forces, education, drama, music, song, dance, language and literature, traditions and customs, religion, personal names, dress, cuisine, flora, furniture, and architecture. All of this, taken together, is also part of the Burgher heritage and especially of the Portuguese Burghers of Batticaloa.

 

The Burgher Community had its beginnings here in sometime after 1568. When Dutch Admiral Yoris Von Spilbergen arrived here in 1602 and was conducted to Senkadagala Nuvara or Kandy, his motley European crew quickly married the Portuguese-Sinhalese Euro-Asian girls who were said to be alluringly beautiful and irresistible and founded families and this is amply borne out by the fact that almost all these Burghers possess Northwestern European names.

 

However the Portuguese and Catholic influence was strong and has always been strong and it prevailed over the Dutch and British periods.

 

The Portuguese do not appear to have introduced the Catholic Faith at the point of a sword — that being a modern canard spread by bigoted elements. The first people that the missionaries concentrated on were the wives and children of the casados as they constituted a strong and reinforcing element in the social structure then prevailing.

 

Some of the purely Iberian, (that is Portuguese and Spanish) names remaining in this Community in Batticaloa are:

 

Alphonso, Alvares, Alvarez, Alvis, Andradi, Andrado, Anderadoe, Andrady, Bacho, Batcho, Baptist, Baptiste, Carney, Castelino, Castillo, Christo, Cosmé, Croox, Crooz, Crooze, Cruez, Crusz, Cruz, Cruze, De Alvis, De Andrado, De Lima, Delima, De Paul, (De Paulo) De Rosairo, De Rosayro, Dias, Diaz, Dibera, Diasz, Domingo, Donpaul, Fenando, Ferdinandes, Ferdinandez, Ferdinando, Martin, Martyn, and Rasquinho.

 

According to Ms. Shihan de Silva Jayasuriya, author of “Tagus to Taprobane,” most, if not all Portuguese soldados (soldiers) married local women and became casados or permanent settlers in the Island. They built homes away from their country of origin and created structures that reminded them of Portugal. The members of the Community in the Batticaloa District are expert builders, passing on their skills from father to son, from generation to generation, and these skills were made use of by both the Dutch and the British.

 

The members of the Community who have remained and are scattered in Akkaraipattu, Kalmunai and the smaller towns in the Batticaloa District are mainly craftsmen such as carpenters, joiners, stonemasons, bricklayers, plasterers, painters, tailors, printers, book binders, gunsmiths, mechanics, tinkers, pipe fitters, tillers, blacksmiths, welders and so on. Those who have moved out of the District and gained an education are accountants, stenographers, journalists, members of the Roman Catholic clergy and managers. Their struggle to come out of relative obscurity and marginalization has been long and hard but this has not affected their normal good spirits or excellent sense of humour.

 

As a cultural minority within a minority they have preserved their own peculiar dialect of the portugues baixo, the words of the songs they normally sing when they sing and dance to the tunes of the Caffiringha Bailar (Baila amongst the Sinhalese) such great favourites as “Singellenona” (Sinhalese Lady), “Korra Jannethiae,” which is a song about a mestiço girl, Joanita and her admirer, Suramba; “Bastianha,” a song named after the heroine, “Chekoetie,” about a hero named Samson; and “Ama die Nona Ferencena,” which is about the love of Lady Francina. This provides evidence that the Portuguese ancestors of this Community came from the North of Portugal.

 

The Burghers of Batticaloa have also preserved the Portuguese Lancer’s dance. According to Ms. Vijaya Lakshmi, no event be it the coming of age of a girl, a wedding, or a birthday, saint’s day, Natal or Christmas, is complete without music, song and dance and these people celebrate a wedding for four days. Several members of the Community are master violinists and musicians. They also have their own social, intellectual and cultural organization, the Batticaloa Portuguese Burgher Union that conducts all its meetings in portugues baixo, their own Creolized version of the Portuguese language as they spoke it in the 16th century. Minutes of meetings are kept in that language, prayers are recited in it, and they maintain a library of Portuguese books.

 

As a community of Burghers they have fiercely preserved their heritage and culture and done so with apologies to none. They are proud to be Burghers (whatever the colour of their skin) because they know that their culture, their language, and their religion, and then, their remote European ancestry and mixed parentage on this Island, define them. They know that they are a part of the history of both Europe and Sri Lanka now for 500 years!

 

Several members of the Community have been active in local politics, notably M.C. Pieters, F.R. Ragel, and E.J. Barthelôt.

 

On the 26th of December at a few minutes past nine O’clock in the morning, the dreadful Indian Ocean tsunami swept over this hapless community taking 154 lives in less than 10 minutes. It was a grievous blow but the people rallied round their leader, Sonny Ockersz, and lost no time in beginning the task of restoring normalcy. They had to rebuild their shattered homes and equally shattered lives. Here, both The Burgher Association and the Dutch Burgher Union of Ceylon were quick to respond with food, clothing, building materials, tools and implements, cement, and cash and the Burghers of Batticaloa took it up from there.

 

The Burghers of Bandarawela and Me: Personal reminisces of a remembered yesterday

     

Bandarawela, the Bandarawela of my boyhood is a place of warm, golden sunshine, slanting rays in the afternoon that touched me with warmth ever so lightly, of deep blue skies, cottony white clouds, a wonderful dry coolness, and endless hills, mountains, and clearwater streams of fresh, cold water. It was also a place where the air was scented by the blue and red gums and the cypress trees, where birds sang incessantly, where dazzling butterflies floated by and of peaches, cherimoya, avocado, and mandarins straight off the trees. It was a spotlessly clean town then, where the shopkeepers knew us by name and where the butchers and fishmongers never dared to give us short weight or offal. The grass was always green, the cows fat with full udders, and the pigeons noisy. The few crows seen occasionally were big and black and impudent.

 

We lived to the South of the town within walking distance of the Sinhalese village of Kabillawela South with its varichi houses covered with straw roofs. The paddy fields were everywhere, intricately terraced, and harvest time was a special time when we boys went to the kamathas to participate in the threshing.

 

I was nurtured in Bandarawela since I was three months old. My beautiful sister-in-law, Pansy Rôdé nee Hamilton accompanied by a Sinhalese ayah, Claudia, whom I always called ‘Kala’, took me there to my father Terry Müller, [the ‘Terryboy’ of Carl Muller’s famous trilogy beginning with ‘The Jam Fruit Tree.’]. My father, whom I always called ‘Papa’, lived with my sister Bubsy (Therese) and my brother Maurice and I, his last son, was supposed to light up his lonely life. But, alas, I was instantly banished to the back parts of the bungalow, not to be either seen or heard by him. He loved my mother too deeply for words and was furiously angry that she had left him to live with another man in Colombo where she craved the bright lights and social life of the City more than the tranquility and solitude of Bandarawela and its host of retired Burghers and Europeans who had decided to live in Ceylon to the end of their days.

 

Pansy’s elder sister, Emerald, married a Walles in Colombo. I remember taking a trip with her to Ravenscraig Estate, off Nawalapitiya, where her cousin Thatto Jones lived, mismanaging that tea plantation in grand style. Old Thatto was too addicted to the bottle. Emerald had three daughters, Deanna, Olivia, and Rebecca and a son whose name I don’t remember. Deanna married St. Clair Koch.

 

When I became aware of the people around me I learned that most, if not all, liked me very much. Papa discovered that I didn’t know much English when I was nine years old! Why? I had been prattling along in Sinhala and Kala’s broken English for years, unnoticed and when he called out to me one day: “Where are you?” I answered: “I here on the paddia uda.” That answer got me a caning and he promptly took me to Sivaraj & Co., near the Post Office, and bought a copy of Blackie’s English Reader, Book One, and my learning of that language started that day and I vividly remember standing up and repeating the words after him and getting caned on my legs every time I stumbled over a word — and, I had never even learned my ABCs, ever!

 

My uncle, John Vivian Müller, ‘Viva,’ and my mother’s sister, Aunty Opal (One Langenberg) also lived in Bandarawela, on the road to Badulla with their children; Patricia, fondly known as ‘Pattiya,’ then Johnny, then Pamela, and finally Winston (named after Churchill, one of Uncle Viva’s heroes). Johnny fell from a guava tree onto a pruned tea bush and had to have dozens of pieces of tea wood extracted from his chest, throat and face in a painful series of operations at the Badulla General Hospital. He carried the scars all his life.

 

I had my mother’s brother, Uncle Andrew and Aunty Bubsy, and their three girls, Rozanne, Sonia, and Charmaine, on Haputale Estate where Uncle was Head Tea Maker. Aunty Bubsy’s sister, Merle Rogers, also lived with them. Then, I had my mother’s sister, Aunty Kalu, married to Douglas Förster, an ex-Railway guard, with my cousins, Malcolm, Virginia, Frederick (Bunkey), Dayle and Starlynne. Malcolm fell in love with Merle and because he couldn’t get married to her, committed suicide by skidding his motorbike on

 

Welimada Road

.

 

Mr. Aldons was Periya Dorai on Nayabedde Estate, up

 

Poonagala Road

, where we lived in one of Papa’s four bungalows called “St. Moritz.” Dr. Blaze, his wife and sister also lived off

Poonagala Road

. Up the road was Mr. Oswald R. Arnolda, Uncle Ozzie and Aunty Birdie with their daughter, Bernice, and Aunty Birdie’s brother, Oliver Kelaart — Ollie to all. Their neighbours were the Pereiras and their son, Howard, was one of my friends. Then there was Mr. and Mrs. Andries, and Mrs. Andries’ father, old Archibald Leitch, and their two children. Further along from where Dr. Blazé lived were Mr. and Mrs. Meyer, and Mrs. Meyer’s brother, Mr. Toussaint, who had been an agricultural officer in the Fiji Islands where he had contracted malaria. Taking quinine had made him quite deaf. The peculiarity that distinguished Mr. Toussaint (Mrs. Meyer’s brother) was that he walked with a marked hop like he was stepping over some obstacle in his path. Further along that road were Dr. Nathanielsz, a dentist, and his wife and children and Mrs. Solomons, a lonely widow.

 

The Eastern parts had Mr. and Mrs. Smith and their fascinating collection of all kinds of poultry. Papa privately called Mr. Smith ‘blacksmith’ because he was ebony brown whilst his wife was milk white! Up that road lived Dr. R.I.C. Hepponstall, the retired DMO. His house was the only one that had a swimming pool and he drove an Austin Somerset tourer with the top down. His sister, Mrs. Gogerley worked at the Bandarawela Hotel as its Housekeeper. She also had a willowy daughter whom she guarded like a dragon.

 

Down Heel Oya were Mr. and Mrs. Edema. He was a Railway Guard and had invented a machine to make string hoppers using the principle on which the brake worked on the train. Mrs. Edema found an abandoned girl-child at the Haputale hospital (Pankettia) and adopted the orphan as her daughter. The girl child was almost black but had beautiful features. My Aunty Opal, too, found an abandoned girl-child at the same hospital, adopted her, and called her Esther. When she grew up, she married Lloyd Hope of the Navy, a well-known boxer. They now live in Kandy.

 

At Bindunuväva was Shinska Euphraums from Galle married to Mr. Knight, a Yorkshireman who spoke totally unintelligible English. Her blind brother used to come home to tune my sister, Bubsy’s piano. Their house was named “Buitenzorg.”

 

In the vicinity lived Mr. Altendorff, retired from the Police, with his wife, son Wilhelm, and daughter, Audrey. Wilhelm was blond haired and blue eyed and was a terror to all because he wasn’t afraid even of the Devil himself!

 

At Millers Department Store in the heart of town worked the two Dunsford sisters, absolute beauties. Along the

 

Colombo Road

was the Downall family, very much to themselves and seen only on Sundays when they marched to Church.

 

Down below, on Ambatenne Estate, were Mr. & Mrs. Herft. He was the Superintendent.

 

On the next hill above the Estate lived Dr. and Mrs. Scharenguivel in a huge bungalow that faced the austere Methodist Church. Then, way down

 

Welimada Road

, on Wye Estate, were Mrs. Van Rooyen and her two blond haired and blue eyed daughters. Before one got to that estate was the Bridge family and both Iona and Philip were classmates of mine when I was in the Carmelite Convent and later, at St. Joseph’s College. A family of Tisseras and a Mr. Williams also lived along

Welimada Road

and they were friendly people.

 

Down the Ettampitiya road was Mr. Martin, a young SD on Uva Highlands. Down that way was the Witham Family on Tidenham Barrow Farm working for the Marshall’s. The Withams were great tennis players and pillars of the Bandarawela Tennis Club.

 

At the bottom of the town, above the

 

Badulla Road

were the Colin-Thômes from Galle who were somewhat aloof. Further up, on

Grange Road

lived Mr. and Mrs. Frugtneit. Whether they had any children, I didn’t know.

 

The Railway Burghers were an interesting lot. There was Driver Stork, a big, brawny, blue-eyed chap with his petite wife. Their children, Randy and Christine were my playmates. Often, Mr. Stork would allow us to ride in the cab of the ‘B’ Class steam engine he drove between Bandarawela and Badulla and Bandarawela and Nanu Oya. Those were thrilling experiences. Near the Police Station in Railway Quarters lived Engine Driver Scharenguivel, his wife and children and I never found out whether he was related to Dr. Scharenguivel. Other Railway families were the Ferdinands, the Melders, the Bulners and the Herfts. One of the Ferdinand boys, Jessie, was a Police Constable and the only Burgher PC we knew. His brother Ramon was a fireman on the Railway. Another Railway family was the Carneys but I never fathomed what Mr. Carney did in the Railway. Perhaps he was in the Running Shed oiling and greasing the ‘B’ Class engines, two of which were always stationed at Bandarawela.

 

The Police had Mr. One Cuylenberg, fair, blue-eyed, always smiling and a very friendly person as long as you were on the right (his) side of the Law. Then there was the ASP, Mr. Ivor Douglas Marshall One Twest, my maternal grand-uncle who was a massive man who rode around Badulla town on a white horse that had been gifted him by Khan Bhai of Passara. This Afghan moneylender had expected Uncle Ivor to favour him but when a serious complaint of intimidation was lodged against Khan Bhai, Uncle Ivor rode to the estate, tied the fellow’s hands and led him back to Badulla, trotting behind Uncle Ivor’s horse, sweating and panting and also footsore!

 

The Irrigation Department’s chief clerk was Mr. Forbes, a thin, lanky fellow with a fair, plump wife and her adorable sister on whom I had a crush for some time after I had finished schooling at St. Joseph’s College.

 

At the beginning of

 

Grange Road

was the dispensary and surgery of Drs. Trevor and Ruth Anghie who lived at Diyatalawa, which was also the home of Electrical Engineer Moreira. His daughter was a classmate of mine in the convent along with Rita Anderson, whose father was Capt. Anderson of the Army, Wilma and Zeeliya Berenger. Their brothers, Elmo and Hillary, were college-mates along with Franz and Leslie Atwell, the De Rooy boy, Newton Nevis, Ross, Cecil Cruz, the Pappili chap, and Kenneth Payoe. Many of us were Junior Cadets who went on to be Senior Cadets under the tutelage of Alfred Bowie-Richardson and later, P.H.L. Charles. Later, I came to know Andrew Balfour [who managed a beautiful little farm at Boralanda] whom I now understand, is in Australia along with many mentioned here. Others who had settled at Bandarawela were Mrs. Malaby and her brother and sister, Mr. and Miss Grigg who ran an Old English style farm with geese, guinea fowl, poultry, rabbits, turkeys, and some beautiful Bassett hounds. Mr. Grigg was a former member of the Ceylon Planter’s Rifle Corps and he presented me with his Colt .38 breech-loading rifle sans ammunition. This was ‘borrowed’ from me by the son of Mr. St. John, (pronounced ‘Senjen’). Mr. St. John was the father-in-law of Urban Raymond, a tenant in one of Papa’s houses. Another tenant was Rex Martensteyn, his wife, son Roger, and daughter Christine. Rex worked at the ASP’s office as a clerk. Below our houses lived Frank, Herman, and Christie Gomez, three brothers with their sisters, all by themselves. Frank and my brother, Maurice, were friends – ‘amba-yaluvoo.’ I also remember Capt. Dr. Trevor van Twest from the Military Hospital at Diyatalawa who had a crush on Virginia Förster but nothing came of that infatuation.

 

Besides Mrs. Malaby and the Griggs, Mr. and Mrs. Haynes, a retired couple, lived on the

 

Bindunuvava Farm Road

and came out only on Sundays to attend Church and do their shopping at Millers. Mr. Thwaites, a famous botanist, was the neighbour of the Meyers and to the North was ‘Mar Lodge’ with Mr. and Mrs. Tutien Nolthenius. Mr. Nolthenius was a Dutchman married to a Burgher and they kept a beautiful home with a genuine thatched roof over it. I used to go for walks with Papa and we used to admire their half-timbered house built in the Tudor style and the garden with its hollyhocks and daisies, its ponds with ducks and geese paddling up and down. It was a picture-book house.

 

A retired British Railway Guard was Mr. Gibbs, tall, well built, with silvery white hair and an enormous white moustache, who always wore tie-and-coat and a pith helmet. Mr. George Taylor was a retired planter who rode a battered old AJS motorcycle. He always wore a crumpled khaki cloth hat on his head and had twinkling blue eyes. Khaki-suited Mr. M.W. Crofton was a surveyor who did surveys for Papa on our property at

 

Poonagala Road

. He always looked dishevelled as if he had worn clothes that hadn’t been ironed for years and years. A chap named Erskine used to talk with Papa and me but I never divined what on earth he did. Mr. Crutchley was another Railway Burgher — Engine Driver. Mrs. Strong lived behind the church of the Ascension, and had a son, the always-smiling Mr. Mauritz. I never figured out why she was ‘Mrs. Strong’ and her son was ‘Mr. Mauritz.’ On

Welimada Road

were the only pure Portuguese Burghers we knew, fair like Europeans, in a large bungalow called “St. Sebastian” — the Fernandos. They all immigrated to Australia. At the bottom of the town were Mr. and Mrs. Landers. Mr. Landers was an engineman on an estate. Mr. Elias came from the direction of Diyatalawa. He wore shorts with stockings and a cloth hat and smoked a pipe. Papa told me that he was a perfect Jew and that he loaned money on interest, though Papa was not one of his debtors. Mr. Keyt ran an auction room in a garage at the Mount Pleasant Housing Scheme that belonged to D.J. Horadagoda. Mr. Keyt lived at the back of the garage and was Papa’s friend. Finally, there was Mr. Woods who looked after Broughton Estate and lived near the Police Station.

 

On the three-mile drive lived Mr. and Mrs. Mack (‘Balu-mak’ to us naughty boys) and Mrs. Mack’s spinster sister, Lottie Jansz. The three of them used to dress up, Mr. Mack in a spotless white shirt, starched collar and all, subdued tie, and a cream-coloured tussore suit with the creases on his trousers, razor sharp with buck-and-tan shoes. They were good friends of Papa. There were also many Burghers married to Sinhalese and Tamils, like for example Wendy Witham who was married to John Molligodde, the PD of Gonamotava Estate, and my cousin Pamela Müller who married a young Tamil planter.

 

Overlooking the town was Mr. and Mrs. Barbut with their son, Anslem and daughter, Stella, who worked as a ‘hello’ girl at the Bandarawela Post Office telephone exchange.

 

Fred Christiansz was one of my friends. His sister, Joyce, worked at Walker Sons & Co., Ltd., Bandarawela, as a stenographer-typist. Fred’s daddy was Head Tea Maker at Craig Estate.

 

Papa’s best friend was B.T. ‘Rajah” Schuiling and his wife, May, who owned Sutherland Estate at Ella. May had been married before to an Italian, Mr. Vicarasso who changed his name to ‘Henry.’ They had two beautiful daughters, Mavis and Helen and a son, Earle. Rajah had one son, Anton, who eventually emigrated to Australia. Mavis married Cyril Gardiner and Helen, Lt. Cdr. Nathanielsz of the Navy. Their neighbour on Newburgh Estate was Mr. Congreve who today owns Wye Estate and Farm, Bandarawela.

 

Down

 

Welimada Road

at Diganatenne were the Sladens, old planter Hubert Edward Harvey Sladen and his four sons and one daughter, Lily, who attended the convent along with Virginia Förster who was her best friend.

 

The Foreman at Ceylon Motors was Mr. Eaton, a painfully thin man who was often referred to by Papa as ‘half-eaten,’ to the great annoyance of that good man. Another nice person was Cecil Inch, an estate conductor with his brood of five or six daughters, one of whom, Patsy, married Frederick ‘Bunkey’ Förster.

 

There were the twin brothers Cosmas and Damian Thomas and Christie Gomez got in a fight with Cosmas over something and hit him so hard that Cosmas fell down and struck his head on a rock stone and died. Christie went to jail where he served time — seven year’s hard labour — for manslaughter not amounting to murder.

 

We boys had a gang and called ourselves the ‘Magnificent Seven’: Altendorff, Forster, Scharenguivel, Ferdinands, De Rooy, Atwell, and Berenger. Our friends were the Paynes, son and daughter of Capt. Payne, Brian Wilson, Anton Ebert, the Percy and Anton Unwin brothers, and any other Burgher boy (or girl) that came to Diyatalawa in any family attached to the Army, Navy, or Air Force. We also had a band, ‘The Skifflers,’ with an old tea chest, a broom handle and a cord to serve as the base, several guitars, a tabla, and an odd assortment of spoons, forks and old pots and pans for percussion, an old bugle, and castanets. Did we make music? You bet, we did, and we were experts in Portuguese baila – Kaffiringha. Ainsley Scharenguivel, who enlisted in the Air Force, was an excellent guitarist and sang love songs as he serenaded Dawn Ferdinands, the love of his life.

 

Burghers visited each other’s homes, informally, as was the practice in Sri Lanka and that constituted their social life. They also attended dances at the Bandarawela Hotel, the Bandarawela Tennis Club, and the Public Services Club. My sister met Daniel Wilson Cowan, a Scotsman at one of these dances at the Bandarawela Hotel, married him, and after having two children, Deirdre and Jeanne, then left to settle in Dunfermline, Scotland, where she had another six children whom I don’t know.

 

My elder sister, Bubsy, (Therese), painted in water colours and I vividly recall one she did of some geraniums. Papa thought so well of it that he had it framed and hung in the verandah-parlour of ‘Lone Star Lodge,’ one of his bungalows. She also played the piano like my mother who not only played but sang beautifully as well.

 

Maurice eventually married Christobel Codipilly, a Sinhalese Catholic schoolteacher at the convent who was a Nargis look-alike. I married Lily Sladen and had Claire, Carolyn, Esmè and David after which we divorced. I remarried [a Sinhalese girl from Thiranagama, near Hikkaduwa] and have Lance.

 

Claire is a schoolteacher and married Ivan Rambukwelle, also a schoolteacher; Carolyn, a Montessori schoolteacher married Sujeeva Ranasinghe, a master motorcycle mechanic and garage owner; Esme married and settled down in Amsterdam, the Netherlands; David married Silverine Subandrio.

 

All the Burghers were Christians and attended St. Anthony’s Church, which was Roman Catholic, or the Anglican Church of the Ascension, the Methodist Church, and latterly, the Finnish Pentecostal Church started by Bro. Linnea.

 

The Burghers of Bandarawela were an educated, driven, dedicated, loyal, creative, well-connected people who lived peacefully and honourably with all their neighbours, associating as their individual temperaments permitted. They ranged from the rich and well to do to the relatively poor and exerted a tremendous influence on the Sinhalese, Tamils, Moors and Malays. Hospitable, no one was turned away from their doorsteps whatever the time of day.

 

They ate, drank, argued, fought, loved, talked, danced, sang, and lived life to the full, cheerfully and with a tremendous sense of humour and bonhomie remembered now only by the older generation rapidly dying out and the few of us who remain to ‘hold the fort.’

     

The book priced at Rs. 1500 is available at Barefoot, The Burgher Assn. Headquarters, Harold Jansz (Mabroc), Lake House Bookshop (Hyde Park Corner), Lanka Hands, Odel Outlets, Rohan’s (Liberty Plaza), Sarasavi Bookshops, Sooriya Bookshop, Vijitha Yapa Bookshops, Visidunu Prakasakayo.

    

It is also available as an ‘Audio Book’ of three CDs at Rs. 690 at Netseequal, 773,

 

Pannipitiya Rd

, Battaramulla.

An outdoor bronze sculpture of former British prime minister David Lloyd George by Glynn Williams stands in Parliament Square in London, United Kingdom.

 

This statue, which stands 8 feet (2.4 m) tall, was unveiled in October 2007 and was funded by the David Lloyd George Statue Appeal, a charitable trust supported in part by the Prince of Wales.

 

David Lloyd George, 1st Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor,[a] OM, KStJ, PC (17 January 1863 – 26 March 1945) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1916 to 1922. A Liberal Party politician from Wales, he was known for leading the United Kingdom during the First World War, for social-reform policies (including the National Insurance Act 1911), for his role in the Paris Peace Conference, and for negotiating the establishment of the Irish Free State. He was the last Liberal Party prime minister; the party fell into third-party status shortly after the end of his premiership.

 

After becoming active in local politics, Lloyd George gained a reputation as an orator and a proponent of a Welsh blend of radical Liberal ideas, which included support for Welsh devolution, for the disestablishment of the Church of England in Wales, for equality for labourers and tenant farmers, and for reform of land ownership. In 1890 he narrowly won a by-election to become the Member of Parliament for Caernarvon Boroughs, in which seat he remained for 55 years. He served in Henry Campbell-Bannerman's cabinet from 1905. After H. H. Asquith succeeded to the premiership in 1908, Lloyd George replaced him as Chancellor of the Exchequer. To fund extensive welfare reforms he proposed taxes on land ownership and high incomes in the "People's Budget" (1909), which the Conservative-dominated House of Lords rejected. The resulting constitutional crisis was only resolved after two elections in 1910 and the passage of the Parliament Act 1911. His budget was enacted in 1910, and the National Insurance Act 1911 and other measures helped to establish the modern welfare state. In 1913, he was embroiled in the Marconi scandal, but he remained in office and promoted the disestablishment of the Church of England in Wales until 1914, when its implementation was suspended in response to the outbreak of the First World War.

 

As wartime chancellor, Lloyd George strengthened the country's finances and forged agreements with trade unions to maintain production. In 1915, Asquith formed a Liberal-led wartime coalition with the Conservatives and Labour. Lloyd George became Minister of Munitions and rapidly expanded production. Amongst other measures, he set up four large munitions factories as a countermeasure to the shell crisis of the previous year. The so-called 'National Filling Factory' in Renfrewshire was named 'Georgetown' in Lloyd George's honour. In 1916, he was appointed Secretary of State for War but was frustrated by his limited power and by clashes with the military establishment over strategy. Amid stalemate on the Western Front, confidence in Asquith's leadership as prime minister waned, and he resigned in December 1916. Lloyd George succeeded him as prime minister, supported by the Conservatives and some Liberals. He centralised authority by creating a smaller war cabinet, a new Cabinet Office and what he called his "Garden Suburb" of advisers. To combat food shortages he implemented the convoy system, established rationing, and stimulated farming. After supporting the disastrous French Nivelle Offensive in 1917, he had to reluctantly approve Field Marshal Haig's plans for the Battle of Passchendaele, which again resulted in huge casualties with little strategic benefit. Against the views of British military commanders, he was finally able to see the Allies brought under one command in March 1918. The war effort turned in their favour in August and was won in November. In the aftermath, and following the December 1918 "Coupon" election, he and the Conservatives maintained their coalition with popular support. Earlier that year his government had extended the franchise to all men and some women.

 

Lloyd George was a major player in the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, but the situation in Ireland worsened that year, erupting into the Irish War of Independence, which lasted until Lloyd George negotiated independence from the UK for the Irish Free State in 1921. At home, he initiated reforms to education and housing, but trade-union militancy rose to record levels, the economy became depressed in 1920 and unemployment rose; spending cuts followed in 1921–22, and in 1922 he became embroiled in a scandal over the sale of honours and the Chanak Crisis. The Carlton Club meeting resulted in backbench support for the Conservatives to end the coalition and to contest the next election alone. Lloyd George resigned as prime minister and never held office again, but continued as the leader of a Liberal faction. After an awkward reunion with Asquith's faction in 1923, Lloyd George led the Liberals from 1926 to 1931. He put forward innovative proposals for public works and other reforms in a series of coloured books, but made only modest gains in the 1929 election. After 1931, he was a mistrusted figure heading a small rump of breakaway Liberals who were opposed to the National Government. In 1940, he refused to serve in Winston Churchill's War Cabinet. He was elevated to the peerage in 1945, shortly before his death.

 

Early life

David George was born on 17 January 1863 in Chorlton-on-Medlock, Manchester, to Welsh parents William George and Elizabeth Lloyd George. William George had previously been married to Selina Huntley, who died in 1855 aged 36. William and Elizabeth's first child was a son, David, born in September 1860, who only lived 12 hours.

 

William George had been a teacher in both London and Liverpool. He also taught in the Unitarian-administered Hope Street Sunday Schools, where he met Unitarian minister James Martineau.  In March 1863, on account of his failing health, William George returned with his family to his native Pembrokeshire. He took up farming but died in June 1864 of pneumonia, aged 44. David was just over one year old.

 

William's widow, Elizabeth George, sold the farm and moved with her children to her native Llanystumdwy in Caernarfonshire, where she lived in a cottage known as Highgate with her brother Richard. Richard Lloyd was a shoemaker, a minister (first in the Scottish Baptists and then in the Church of Christ), and a strong Liberal. Richard Lloyd was a towering influence on his nephew until his death in 1917 and was the first to encourage his nephew to take up a career in law and enter politics. David adopted his uncle's surname to become "Lloyd George" Lloyd George was educated at the local Anglican school, Llanystumdwy National School, and later under tutors.

 

He was brought up with Welsh as his first language;[4] Roy Jenkins, another Welsh politician, notes that, "Lloyd George was Welsh, that his whole culture, his whole outlook, his language was Welsh." Though Lloyd George cited the influence of his childhood throughout his career, biographer John Grigg argues that his childhood was nowhere near as poverty-stricken as he liked to suggest.

 

Though brought up a devout evangelical, Lloyd George privately lost his religious faith as a young man. Biographer Don Cregier says he became "a Deist and perhaps an agnostic, though he remained a chapel-goer and connoisseur of good preaching all his life." He was nevertheless, according to Frank Owen, "one of the foremost fighting leaders of a fanatical Welsh Nonconformity" for a quarter of a century.

 

Legal practice and early politics

Lloyd George qualified as a solicitor in 1884 after being articled to a firm in Porthmadog and taking Honours in his final law examination. He set up his own practice in the back parlour of his uncle's house in 1885. Although many prime ministers have been barristers, Lloyd George is, as of 2024, the only solicitor to have held that office.

 

As a solicitor, Lloyd George was politically active from the start, campaigning for his uncle's Liberal Party in the 1885 election. He was attracted by Joseph Chamberlain's "unauthorised programme" of Radical reform.  After the election, Chamberlain split with Gladstone in opposition to Irish Home Rule, and Lloyd George moved to join the Liberal Unionists. Uncertain of which wing to follow, he moved a resolution in support of Chamberlain at a local Liberal club and travelled to Birmingham to attend the first meeting of Chamberlain's new National Radical Union, but arrived a week too early.  In 1907 Lloyd George would tell Herbert Lewis that he had thought Chamberlain's plan for a federal solution to the Home Rule Question correct in 1886 and still thought so, and that "If Henry Richmond, Osborne Morgan and the Welsh members had stood by Chamberlain on an agreement as regards the [Welsh] disestablishment, they would have carried Wales with them"

 

His legal practice quickly flourished; he established branch offices in surrounding towns and took his brother William into partnership in 1887. Lloyd George's legal and political triumph came in the Llanfrothen burial case, which established the right of Nonconformists to be buried according to denominational rites in parish burial grounds, as given by the Burial Laws Amendment Act 1880 but theretofore ignored by the Anglican clergy. On Lloyd George's advice, a Baptist burial party broke open a gate to a cemetery that had been locked against them by the vicar. The vicar sued them for trespass and although the jury returned a verdict for the party, the local judge misrecorded the jury's verdict and found in the vicar's favour. Suspecting bias, Lloyd George's clients won on appeal to the Divisional Court of Queen's Bench in London, where Lord Chief Justice Coleridge found in their favour. The case was hailed as a great victory throughout Wales and led to Lloyd George's adoption as the Liberal candidate for Carnarvon Boroughs on 27 December 1888.  The same year, he and other young Welsh Liberals founded a monthly paper, Udgorn Rhyddid (Bugle of Freedom).

 

In 1889, Lloyd George became an alderman on Carnarvonshire County Council (a new body which had been created by the Local Government Act 1888) and would remain so for the rest of his life.  Lloyd George would also serve the county as a Justice of the Peace (1910), chairman of Quarter Sessions (1929–38), and Deputy Lieutenant in 1921.

 

Marriage

Lloyd George married Margaret Owen, the daughter of a well-to-do local farming family, on 24 January 1888.

 

Early years as a member of Parliament (1890–1905)

Lloyd George's career as a member of parliament began when he was returned as a Liberal MP for Caernarfon Boroughs (now Caernarfon), narrowly winning the by-election on 10 April 1890, following the death of the Conservative member Edmund Swetenham. He would remain an MP for the same constituency until 1945, 55 years later. Lloyd George's early beginnings in Westminster may have proven difficult for him as a radical liberal and "a great outsider". Backbench members of the House of Commons were not paid at that time, so Lloyd George supported himself and his growing family by continuing to practise as a solicitor. He opened an office in London under the name of "Lloyd George and Co." and continued in partnership with William George in Criccieth. In 1897, he merged his growing London practice with that of Arthur Rhys Roberts (who was to become Official Solicitor) under the name of "Lloyd George, Roberts and Co."

 

Welsh affairs

Kenneth O. Morgan describes Lloyd George as a "lifelong Welsh nationalist" and suggests that between 1880 and 1914 he was "the symbol and tribune of the national reawakening of Wales", although he is also clear that from the early 1900s his main focus gradually shifted to UK-wide issues. He also became an associate of Tom Ellis, MP for Meirionydd, having previously told a Caernarfon friend in 1888 that he was a "Welsh Nationalist of the Ellis type".

 

Decentralisation and Welsh disestablishment

One of Lloyd George's first acts as an MP was to organise an informal grouping of Welsh Liberal members with a programme that included; disestablishing and disendowing the Church of England in Wales, temperance reform, and establishing Welsh home rule. He was keen on decentralisation and thus Welsh devolution, starting with the devolution of the Church in Wales saying in 1890: "I am deeply impressed with the fact that Wales has wants and inspirations of her own which have too long been ignored, but which must no longer be neglected. First and foremost amongst these stands the cause of Religious Liberty and Equality in Wales. If returned to Parliament by you, it shall be my earnest endeavour to labour for the triumph of this great cause. I believe in a liberal extension of the principle of Decentralization."

 

During the next decade, Lloyd George campaigned in Parliament largely on Welsh issues, in particular for disestablishment and disendowment of the Church of England. When Gladstone retired in 1894 after the defeat of the second Home Rule Bill, the Welsh Liberal members chose him to serve on a deputation to William Harcourt to press for specific assurances on Welsh issues. When those assurances were not provided, they resolved to take independent action if the government did not bring a bill for disestablishment. When a bill was not forthcoming, he and three other Welsh Liberals (D. A. Thomas, Herbert Lewis and Frank Edwards) refused the whip on 14 April 1894, but accepted Lord Rosebery's assurance and rejoined the official Liberals on 29 May.

 

Cymru Fydd and Welsh devolution

Historian Emyr Price referred to Lloyd George as "the first architect of Welsh devolution and its most famous advocate" as well as "the pioneering advocate of a powerful parliament for the Welsh people". Lloyd George himself stated in 1880 "Is it not high time that Wales should the powers to manage its own affairs" and in 1890, "Parliament is so overweighted that it cannot possibly devote the time and trouble necessary to legislate for the peculiar and domestic retirement of each and every separate province of Britain". These statements would later be used to advocate for a Welsh assembly in the 1979 Welsh devolution referendum. Lloyd George felt that disestablishment, land reform and other forms of Welsh devolution could only be achieved if Wales formed its own government within a federal imperial system. In 1895, in a failed Church in Wales Bill, Lloyd George added an amendment in a discreet attempt at forming a sort of Welsh home rule, a national council for appointment of the Welsh Church commissioners. Although not condemned by Tom Ellis MP, this was to the annoyance of J. Bryn Roberts MP and the Home Secretary H. H. Asquith MP.

 

He was also a co-leader of Cymru Fydd, a national Welsh party with liberal values with the goals of promoting a "stronger Welsh identity" and establishing a Welsh government. He hoped that Cymru Fydd would become a force like the Irish National Party. He abandoned this idea after being criticised in Welsh newspapers for bringing about the defeat of the Liberal Party in the 1895 election. In an AGM meeting in Newport on 16 January 1896 of the South Wales Liberal Federation, led by D. A. Thomas, a proposal was made to unite the North and South Liberal Federations with Cymru Fydd to form The Welsh National Federation. This was a proposal which the North Wales Liberal Federation had already agreed to. However, the South Wales Liberal Federation rejected this. According to Lloyd George, he was shouted down by "Newport Englishmen" in the meeting, although the South Wales Argus suggested the poor crowd behaviour came from Lloyd George's supporters. Following difficulty in uniting the Liberal federations along with Cymru Fydd in the South East and thus, difficulty in gaining support for Home Rule for Wales, Lloyd George shifted his focus to improving the socio-economic environment of Wales as part of the United Kingdom and the British Empire. Although Lloyd George considered himself a "Welshman first", he saw the opportunities for Wales within the UK.

 

Uniting Welsh Liberals

In 1898, Lloyd George created the Welsh National Liberal Council, a loose umbrella organisation covering the two federations, but with very little power. In time, it became known as the Liberal Party of Wales.

 

Support of Welsh institutions

Lloyd George had a connection to or promoted the establishment of the National Library of Wales, the National Museum of Wales and the Welsh Department of the Board of Education. He also showed considerable support for the University of Wales, that its establishment raised the status of Welsh people and that the university deserved greater funding by the UK government.

 

Opposition to the Boer War

Lloyd George had been impressed by his journey to Canada in 1899. Although sometimes wrongly supposed—both at the time and subsequently—to be a Little Englander, he was not an opponent of the British Empire per se, but in a speech at Birkenhead (21 November 1901) he stressed that it needed to be based on freedom, including for India, not "racial arrogance".  Consequently, he gained national fame by displaying vehement opposition to the Second Boer War.

 

Following Rosebery's lead, he based his attack firstly on what were supposed to be Britain's war aims—remedying the grievances of the italicno and in particular the claim that they were wrongly denied the right to vote, saying "I do not believe the war has any connection with the franchise. It is a question of 45% dividends" and that England (which did not then have universal male suffrage) was more in need of franchise reform than the Boer republics. A second attack came on the cost of the war, which, he argued, prevented overdue social reform in England, such as old-age pensions and workmen's cottages. As the fighting continued his attacks moved to its conduct by the generals, who, he said (basing his words on reports by William Burdett-Coutts in The Times), were not providing for the sick or wounded soldiers and were starving Boer women and children in concentration camps. But his major thrusts were reserved for the Chamberlains, accusing them of war profiteering through the family company Kynoch Ltd, of which Chamberlain's brother was chairman. The firm had won tenders to the War Office, though its prices were higher than some of its competitors. After speaking at a meeting in Birmingham Lloyd George had to be smuggled out disguised as a policeman, as his life was in danger from the mob. At this time the Liberal Party was badly split as H. H. Asquith, R. B. Haldane and others were supporters of the war and formed the Liberal Imperial League.

 

Opposition to the Education Act 1902

On 24 March Arthur Balfour, just about to take office as Prime Minister, introduced a bill which was to become the Education Act 1902. Lloyd George supported the bill's proposals to bring voluntary schools (i.e. religious schools—mainly Church of England, and some Roman Catholic schools in certain inner city areas) in England and Wales under the control of local school boards, who would conduct inspections and appoint two out of each school's six managers. However, other measures were more contentious: the majority-religious school managers would retain the power to employ or sack teachers on religious grounds and would receive money from the rates (local property taxes). This offended nonconformist opinion, then in a period of revival, as it seemed like a return to the hated church rates (which had been compulsory until 1868), and inspired a large grassroots campaign against the bill.

 

Within days of the bill's unveiling (27 March), Lloyd George denounced "priestcraft" in a speech to his constituents, and he began an active campaign of speaking against the bill, both in public in Wales (with a few speeches in England) and in the House of Commons. On 12 November, Balfour accepted an amendment (willingly, but a rare case of him doing so), ostensibly from Alfred Thomas, chairman of the Welsh Parliamentary Liberal Party, but in reality instigated by Lloyd George, transferring control of Welsh schools from appointed boards to the elected county councils. The Education Act became law on 20 December 1902.

 

Lloyd George now announced the real purpose of the amendment, described as a "booby trap" by his biographer John Grigg. The Welsh National Liberal Council soon adopted his proposal that county councils should refuse funding unless repairs were carried out to schools (many were in a poor state), and should also demand control of school governing bodies and a ban on religious tests for teachers; "no control, no cash" was Lloyd George's slogan. Lloyd George negotiated with A. G. Edwards, Anglican Bishop of St Asaph, and was prepared to settle on an "agreed religious syllabus" or even to allow Anglican teaching in schools, provided the county councils retained control of teacher appointments, but this compromise failed after opposition from other Anglican Welsh bishops. A well-attended meeting at Park Hall Cardiff (3 June 1903) passed a number of resolutions by acclamation: county council control of schools, withholding money from schools or even withholding rates from unsupportive county councils. The Liberals soon gained control of all thirteen Welsh County Councils. Lloyd George continued to speak in England against the bill, but the campaign there was less aggressively led, taking the form of passive resistance to rate paying. 

 

In August 1904 the government brought in the Education (Local Authority Default) Act giving the Board of Education power to take charge of schools, which Lloyd George immediately nicknamed the "Coercion of Wales Act". He addressed another convention in Cardiff on 6 October 1904, during which he proclaimed that the Welsh flag was "a dragon rampant, not a sheep recumbent". Under his leadership, the convention pledged not to maintain elementary schools, or to withdraw children from elementary schools altogether so that they could be taught privately by the nonconformist churches. In Travis Crosbie's words, public resistance to the Education Act had caused a "perfect impasse". There was no progress between Welsh counties and Westminster until 1905.

 

Having already gained national recognition for his anti-Boer War campaigns, Lloyd George's leadership of the attacks on the Education Act gave him a strong parliamentary reputation and marked him as a likely future cabinet member. The Act served to reunify the Liberals after their divisions over the Boer War and to increase Nonconformist influence in the party, which then included educational reform as policy in the 1906 election, which resulted in a Liberal landslide. All 34 Welsh seats returned a Liberal, except for one Labour seat in Merthyr Tydfil.

 

Other stances

Lloyd George also supported the Romantic Nationalist idea of Pan-Celtic unity and gave a speech at the 1904 Pan-Celtic Congress in Caernarfon.

 

During his second-ever speech in the House of Commons, Lloyd George criticised the grandeur of the monarchy.

 

Lloyd George wrote extensively for Liberal-supporting papers such as the Manchester Guardian and spoke on Liberal issues (particularly temperance—the "local option"—and national as opposed to denominational education) throughout England and Wales.

 

He served as the legal adviser of Theodor Herzl in his negotiations with the British government regarding the Uganda Scheme, proposed as an alternative homeland for the Jews due to Turkish refusal to grant a charter for Jewish settlement in Palestine.

 

President of the Board of Trade (1905–1908)

In 1905, Lloyd George entered the new Liberal Cabinet of Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman as President of the Board of Trade.

 

The first priority on taking office was the repeal of the 1902 Education Act. Lloyd George took the lead along with Augustine Birrell, President of the Board of Education. Lloyd George appears to have been the dominant figure on the committee drawing up the bill in its later stages and insisted that the bill create a separate education committee for Wales. Birrell complained privately that the bill, introduced in the Commons on 9 April 1906, owed more to Lloyd George and that he himself had had little say in its contents.  The bill passed the House of Commons greatly amended but was completely mangled by the House of Lords. For the rest of the year Lloyd George made numerous public speeches attacking the House of Lords for mutilating the bill with wrecking amendments, in defiance of the Liberals' electoral mandate to reform the 1902 Act. Lloyd George was rebuked by King Edward VII for these speeches: the Prime Minister defended him to the King's secretary Francis Knollys, stating that his behaviour in Parliament was more constructive but that in speeches to the public "the combative spirit seems to get the better of him".  No compromise was possible and the bill was abandoned, allowing the 1902 Act to continue in effect. As a result of Lloyd George's lobbying, a separate department for Wales was created within the Board of Education.

 

Nonconformists were bitterly upset by the failure of the Liberal Party to reform the 1902 Education Act, its most important promise to them, and over time their support for the Liberal Party slowly fell away.

 

At the Board of Trade Lloyd George introduced legislation on many topics, from merchant shipping and the Port of London to companies and railway regulation. His main achievement was in stopping a proposed national strike of the railway unions by brokering an agreement between the unions and the railway companies. While almost all the companies refused to recognise the unions, Lloyd George persuaded the companies to recognise elected representatives of the workers who sat with the company representatives on conciliation boards—one for each company. If those boards failed to agree then an arbitrator would be called upon.

 

Chancellor of the Exchequer (1908–1915)

On Campbell-Bannerman's death, he succeeded Asquith, who had become prime minister, as Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1908 to 1915.  While he continued some work from the Board of Trade—for example, legislation to establish the Port of London Authority and to pursue traditional Liberal programmes such as licensing law reforms—his first major trial in this role was over the 1909–1910 Naval Estimates. The Liberal manifesto at the 1906 general election included a commitment to reduce military expenditure. Lloyd George strongly supported this, writing to Reginald McKenna, First Lord of the Admiralty, of "the emphatic pledges given by all of us at the last general election to reduce the gigantic expenditure on armaments built up by the recklessness of our predecessors." He then proposed the programme be reduced from six to four dreadnoughts. This was adopted by the government, but there was a public storm when the Conservatives, with covert support from the First Sea Lord, Admiral Jackie Fisher, campaigned for more with the slogan "We want eight and we won't wait". This resulted in Lloyd George's defeat in Cabinet and the adoption of estimates including provision for eight dreadnoughts. During this period he was also a target of protest by the women's suffrage movement, for he professed personal support for extension of the suffrage but did not move for changes within the Parliament process.

 

People's Budget, 1909

In 1909, Lloyd George introduced his People's Budget, imposing a 20% tax on the unearned increase in the value of land, payable at the death of the owner or sale of the land, and 1⁄2 d. on undeveloped land and minerals, increased death duties, a rise in income tax, and the introduction of Supertax on income over £3,000. There were taxes also on luxuries, alcohol and tobacco, so that money could be made available for the new welfare programmes as well as new battleships. The nation's landowners (well represented in the House of Lords) were intensely angry at the new taxes, mostly at the proposed very high tax on land values, but also because the instrumental redistribution of wealth could be used to detract from an argument for protective tariffs.

 

The immediate consequences included the end of the Liberal League, and Rosebery breaking friendship with the Liberal Party, which in itself was for Lloyd George a triumph. He had won the case of social reform without losing the debate on Free Trade. Arthur Balfour denounced the budget as "vindictive, inequitable, based on no principles, and injurious to the productive capacity of the country."  Roy Jenkins described it as the most reverberating since Gladstone's in 1860.

 

In the House of Commons, Lloyd George gave a brilliant account of the budget, which was attacked by the Conservatives. On the stump, notably at his Limehouse speech in 1909, he denounced the Conservatives and the wealthy classes with all his very considerable oratorical power. Excoriating the House of Lords in another speech, Lloyd George said, "should 500 men, ordinary men, chosen accidentally from among the unemployed, override the judgement—the deliberate judgement—of millions of people who are engaged in the industry which makes the wealth of the country?". In a break with convention, the budget was defeated by the Conservative majority in the House of Lords. The elections of 1910 narrowly upheld the Liberal government. The 1909 budget was passed on 28 April 1910 by the Lords and received the Royal Assent on the 29th. Subsequently, the Parliament Act 1911 removed the House of Lords' power to block money bills, and with a few exceptions replaced their veto power over most bills with a power to delay them for up to two years.

 

Although old-age pensions had already been introduced by Asquith as Chancellor, Lloyd George was largely responsible for the introduction of state financial support for the sick and infirm (known colloquially as "going on the Lloyd George" for decades afterwards)—legislation referred to as the Liberal Reforms. Lloyd George also succeeded in putting through Parliament his National Insurance Act 1911, making provision for sickness and invalidism, and a system of unemployment insurance. He was helped in his endeavours by forty or so backbenchers who regularly pushed for new social measures, often voted with Labour MPs. These social reforms in Britain were the beginnings of a welfare state and fulfilled the aim of dampening down the demands of the growing working class for rather more radical solutions to their impoverishment.

 

Under his leadership, after 1909 the Liberals extended minimum wages to farmworkers.

 

Lloyd George was an opponent of warfare but he paid little attention to foreign affairs until the Agadir Crisis of 1911. After consulting Edward Grey (the foreign minister) and H. H. Asquith (the prime minister) he gave a stirring and patriotic speech at Mansion House on 21 July 1911. He stated:

 

But if a situation were to be forced upon us in which peace could only be preserved by the surrender of the great and beneficent position Britain has won by centuries of heroism and achievement, by allowing Britain to be treated where her interests were vitally affected as if she were of no account in the Cabinet of nations, then I say emphatically that peace at that price would be a humiliation intolerable for a great country like ours to endure. National honour is no party question. The security of our great international trade is no party question.

 

He was warning both France and Germany, but the public response cheered solidarity with France and hostility toward Germany. Berlin was outraged, blaming Lloyd George for doing "untold harm both with regard to German public opinion and the negotiations." Count Metternich, Germany's ambassador in London, said, "Mr Lloyd George's speech came upon us like a thunderbolt".

 

Marconi scandal 1913

In 1913, Lloyd George, along with Rufus Isaacs, the Attorney General, was involved in the Marconi scandal. Accused of speculating in Marconi shares on the inside information that they were about to be awarded a key government contract (which would have caused them to increase in value), he told the House of Commons that he had not speculated in the shares of "that company". He had in fact bought shares in the American Marconi Company.

 

Welsh Disestablishment

Lloyd George was instrumental in fulfilling a long-standing aspiration to disestablish the Anglican Church of Wales. As with Irish Home Rule, previous attempts to enact this had failed in the 1892–1895 Governments, and were now made possible by the removal of the Lords' veto in 1911, and as with Home Rule the initial bill (1912) was delayed for two years by the Lords, becoming law in 1914, only to be suspended for the duration of the war. After the Welsh Church (Temporalities) Act 1919 was passed, Welsh Disestablishment finally came into force in 1920. This Act also removed the right of the six Welsh Bishops in the new Church in Wales to sit in the House of Lords and removed (disendowed) certain pre-1662 property rights.

 

First World War

Lloyd George was as surprised as almost everyone else by the outbreak of the First World War. On 23 July 1914, almost a month after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and on the eve of the Austro-Hungarian ultimatum to Serbia, he made a speech advocating "economy" in the House of Commons, saying that Britain's relations with Germany were better than for many years.  On 27 July he told C. P. Scott of the Manchester Guardian that Britain would keep out of the impending war. With the Cabinet divided, and most ministers reluctant for Britain to get involved, he struck Asquith as "statesmanlike" at the Cabinet meeting on 1 August, favouring keeping Britain's options open. The next day he seemed likely to resign if Britain intervened, but he held back at Cabinet on Monday 3 August, moved by the news that Belgium would resist Germany's demand of passage for her army across her soil. He was seen as a key figure whose stance helped to persuade almost the entire Cabinet to support British intervention.  He was able to give the more pacifist members of the cabinet and the Liberal Party a principle—the rights of small nations—which meant they could support the war and maintain united political and popular support.

 

Lloyd George remained in office as Chancellor of the Exchequer for the first year of the Great War. The budget of 17 November 1914 had to allow for lower taxation receipts because of the reduction in world trade. The Crimean and Boer Wars had largely been paid for out of taxation, but Lloyd George raised debt financing of £321 million. Large (but deferred) increases in Supertax and income tax rates were accompanied by increases in excise duties, and the budget produced a tax increase of £63 million in a full year.  His last budget, on 4 May 1915, showed a growing concern for the effects of alcohol on the war effort, with large increases in duties, and a scheme of state control of alcohol sales in specified areas. The excise proposals were opposed by the Irish Nationalists and the Conservatives, and were abandoned.

 

Minister of Munitions

Lloyd George gained a heroic reputation with his energetic work as Minister of Munitions in 1915 and 1916, setting the stage for his move up to the height of power. After a long struggle with the War Office, he wrested responsibility for arms production away from the generals, making it a purely industrial department, with considerable expert assistance from Walter Runciman. The two men gained the respect of Liberal cabinet colleagues for improving administrative capabilities, and increasing outputs.

 

When the Shell Crisis of 1915 dismayed public opinion with the news that the Army was running short of artillery shells, demands rose for a strong leader to take charge of munitions. In the first coalition ministry, formed in May 1915, Lloyd George was made Minister of Munitions, heading a new department. In this position, he won great acclaim, which formed the basis for his political ascent. All historians agree that he boosted national morale and focussed attention on the urgent need for greater output, but many also say the increase in munitions output in 1915–16 was due largely to reforms already underway, though not yet effective before he had even arrived. The Ministry broke through the cumbersome bureaucracy of the War Office, resolved labour problems, rationalised the supply system and dramatically increased production. Within a year it became the largest buyer, seller and employer in Britain.

 

Lloyd George was not at all satisfied with the progress of the war. He wanted to "knock away the props", by attacking Germany's allies—from early in 1915 he argued for the sending of British troops to the Balkans to assist Serbia and bring Greece and other Balkan countries onto the side of the Allies (this was eventually done—the Salonika expedition—although not on the scale that Lloyd George had wanted, and mountain ranges made his suggestions of grand Balkan offensives impractical); in 1916, he wanted to send machine guns to Romania (insufficient amounts were available for this to be feasible). These suggestions began a period of poor relations with the Chief of the Imperial General Staff, General Robertson, who was "brusque to the point of rudeness" and "barely concealed his contempt for Lloyd George's military opinions", to which he was in the habit of retorting "I've 'eard different".

 

Lloyd George persuaded Kitchener, the Secretary of State for War, to raise a Welsh Division, and, despite Kitchener's threat of resignation, to recognise nonconformist chaplains in the Army.

 

Late in 1915, Lloyd George became a strong supporter of general conscription, an issue that divided Liberals, and helped the passage of several conscription acts from January 1916 onwards. In spring 1916 Alfred Milner hoped Lloyd George could be persuaded to bring down the coalition government by resigning, but this did not happen.

 

Secretary of State for War

In June 1916 Lloyd George succeeded Lord Kitchener (who died when the ship HMS Hampshire was sunk taking him on a mission to Russia) as Secretary of State for War, although he had little control over strategy, as General Robertson had been given direct right of access to the Cabinet so as to bypass Kitchener. He did succeed in securing the appointment of Sir Eric Geddes to take charge of military railways behind British lines in France, with the honorary rank of major-general. Lloyd George told a journalist, Roy W. Howard, in late September that "the fight must be to a finish—to a knockout", a rejection of President Woodrow Wilson's offer to mediate.

 

Lloyd George was increasingly frustrated at the limited gains of the Somme Offensive, criticising General Haig to Ferdinand Foch on a visit to the Western Front in September (British casualty ratios were worse than those of the French, who were more experienced and had more artillery), proposing sending Robertson on a mission to Russia (he refused to go), and demanding that more troops be sent to Salonika to help Romania. Robertson eventually threatened to resign.

 

Much of the press still argued that the professional leadership of Haig and Robertson was preferable to civilian interference that had led to disasters like Gallipoli and Kut. Lord Northcliffe, owner of The Times, stormed into Lloyd George's office and, finding him unavailable, told his secretary "You can tell him that I hear he has been interfering with Strategy and that if he goes on I will break him", and the same day (11 October) Lloyd George also received a warning letter from H. A. Gwynne, editor of the Morning Post. He was obliged to give his "word of honour" to Asquith that he had complete confidence in Haig and Robertson and thought them irreplaceable, but he wrote to Robertson wanting to know how their differences had been leaked to the press (affecting to believe that Robertson had not personally "authorised such a breach of confidence & discipline"). He asserted his right to express his opinions about strategy in November, by which time ministers had taken to holding meetings to which Robertson was not invited.

 

The weakness of Asquith as a planner and organiser was increasingly apparent to senior officials. After Asquith had refused, then agreed to, and then refused again Lloyd George's demand to be allowed to chair a small committee to manage the war, he resigned in December 1916. Grey was among leading Asquithians who had identified Lloyd George's intentions the previous month. Lloyd George became prime minister, with the nation demanding he take vigorous charge of the war.

 

Although during the political crisis Robertson had advised Lloyd George to "stick to it" and form a small War Council, Lloyd George had planned if necessary to appeal to the country. His Military Secretary Colonel Arthur Lee prepared a memo blaming Robertson and the General Staff for the loss of Serbia and Romania. Lloyd George was restricted by his promise to the Unionists to keep Haig as Commander-in-Chief and the press support for the generals, although Milner and Curzon were also sympathetic to campaigns to increase British power in the Middle East. After Germany's offer (12 December 1916) of a negotiated peace, Lloyd George rebuffed President Wilson's request for the belligerents to state their war aims by demanding terms tantamount to German defeat.

 

Prime Minister (1916–1922)

The fall of Asquith as prime minister split the Liberal Party into two factions: those who supported him and those who supported the coalition government. In his War Memoirs, Lloyd George compared himself with Asquith:

 

There are certain indispensable qualities essential to the Chief Minister of the Crown in a great war. ... Such a minister must have courage, composure, and judgment. All this Mr. Asquith possessed in a superlative degree. ... But a war minister must also have vision, imagination and initiative—he must show untiring assiduity, must exercise constant oversight and supervision of every sphere of war activity, must possess driving force to energize this activity, must be in continuous consultation with experts, official and unofficial, as to the best means of using the resources of the country in conjunction with the Allies for the achievement of victory. If to this can be added a flair for conducting a great fight, then you have an ideal War Minister.

 

After December 1916 Lloyd George relied on the support of Conservatives and of the press baron Lord Northcliffe (who owned both The Times and the Daily Mail). Besides the Prime Minister, the five-member War Cabinet contained three Conservatives (Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Lords Lord Curzon, Chancellor of the Exchequer and Leader of the House of Commons Bonar Law, and Minister without Portfolio Lord Milner) and Arthur Henderson, unofficially representing Labour. Edward Carson was appointed First Lord of the Admiralty, as had been widely touted during the intrigues of the previous month, but excluded from the War Cabinet. Amongst the few Liberal frontbenchers to support Lloyd George were Christopher Addison (who had played an important role in drumming up some backbench Liberal support for Lloyd George), H. A. L. Fisher, Lord Rhondda and Sir Albert Stanley. Edwin Montagu and Churchill joined the government in the summer of 1917.

 

Lloyd George's Secretariat, popularly known as Downing Street's "Garden Suburb", assisted him in discharging his responsibilities within the constraints of the war cabinet system. Its function was to maintain contact with the numerous departments of government, to collect information, and to report on matters of special concern. Its leading members were George Adams and Philip Kerr, and the other secretaries included David Davies, Joseph Davies, Waldorf Astor and, later, Cecil Harmsworth.

 

Lloyd George wanted to make the destruction of the Ottoman Empire a major British war aim, and two days after taking office told Robertson that he wanted a major victory, preferably the capture of Jerusalem, to impress British public opinion.

 

At the Rome Conference (5–6 January 1917) Lloyd George was discreetly quiet about plans to take Jerusalem, an object which advanced British interests rather than doing much to win the war. Lloyd George proposed sending heavy guns to Italy with a view to defeating Austria-Hungary, possibly to be balanced by a transfer of Italian troops to Salonika but was unable to obtain the support of the French or Italians, and Robertson talked of resigning.

 

Nivelle affair

Lloyd George engaged almost constantly in intrigues calculated to reduce the power of the generals, including trying to subordinate British forces in France to the French General Nivelle. He backed Nivelle because he thought he had "proved himself to be a Man" by his successful counterattacks at Verdun, and because of his promises that he could break the German lines in 48 hours. Nivelle increasingly complained of Haig's dragging his feet rather than cooperating with their plans for the offensive.

 

The plan was to put British forces under Nivelle's direct command for the great 1917 offensive. The British would attack first, thereby tying down the German reserves. Then the French would strike and score an overwhelming victory in two days. It was announced at a War Cabinet meeting on 24 February, to which neither Robertson nor Lord Derby (Secretary of State for War) had been invited. Ministers felt that the French generals and staff had shown themselves more skilful than the British in 1916, whilst politically Britain had to give wholehearted support to what would probably be the last major French effort of the war. The Nivelle proposal was then given to Robertson and Haig without warning on 26–27 February at the Calais Conference (minutes from the War Cabinet meeting were not sent to the King until 28 February, so that he did not have a prior chance to object). Robertson in particular protested vehemently. Finally, a compromise was reached whereby Haig would be under Nivelle's orders but would retain operational control of British forces and keep a right of appeal to London "if he saw good reason". After further argument the status quo, that Haig was an ally of the French but was expected to defer to their wishes, was largely restored in mid-March.

 

The British attack at the Battle of Arras (9–14 April 1917) was partly successful but with much higher casualties than the Germans suffered. There had been many delays and the Germans, suspecting an attack, had shortened their lines to the strong Hindenburg Line. The French attack on the Aisne River in mid-April gained some tactically important high ground but failed to achieve the promised decisive breakthrough, pushing the French Army to the point of mutiny. While Haig gained prestige, Lloyd George lost credibility, and the affair further poisoned relations between himself and the "Brasshats".

 

U-boat war

Shipping

In early 1917 the Germans had resumed unrestricted submarine warfare in a bid to achieve victory on the Western Approaches. Lloyd George set up a Ministry of Shipping under Sir Joseph Maclay, a Glasgow shipowner who was not, until after he left office, a member of either House of Parliament, and housed in a wooden building in a specially drained lake in St James's Park, within a few minutes' walk from the Admiralty. The Junior Minister and House of Commons spokesman was Leo Chiozza Money, with whom Maclay did not get on, but on whose appointment Lloyd George insisted, feeling that their qualities would complement one another. The Civil Service staff was headed by the highly able John Anderson (then only thirty-four years old) and included Arthur Salter. A number of shipping magnates were persuaded, like Maclay himself, to work unpaid for the ministry (as had a number of industrialists for the Ministry of Munitions), who were also able to obtain ideas privately from junior naval officers who were reluctant to argue with their superiors in meetings. The ministers heading the Board of Trade, for Munitions (Addison) and for Agriculture and Food (Lord Rhondda), were also expected to co-operate with Maclay. 

 

In accordance with a pledge Lloyd George had given in December 1916 nearly 90% of Britain's merchant shipping tonnage was soon brought under state control (previously less than half had been controlled by the Admiralty), whilst remaining privately owned (similar measures were in force at the time for the railways). Merchant shipping was concentrated, largely on Chiozza Money's initiative, on the transatlantic route where it could more easily be protected, instead of being spread out all over the globe (this relied on imports coming first into North America). Maclay began the process of increasing ship construction, although he was hampered by shortages of steel and labour, and ships under construction in the United States were confiscated by the Americans when she entered the war. In May 1917 Eric Geddes, based at the Admiralty, was put in charge of shipbuilding, and in July he became First Lord of the Admiralty.  Later the German U-boats were defeated in 1918.

 

Convoys

Main article: Convoys in World War I

Lloyd George had raised the matter of convoys at the War Committee in November 1916, only to be told by the admirals present, including Jellicoe, that convoys presented too large a target, and that merchant ship masters lacked the discipline to keep station in a convoy.

 

In February 1917 Maurice Hankey, the secretary of the War Cabinet, wrote a memorandum for Lloyd George calling for the introduction of "scientifically organised convoys", almost certainly after being persuaded by Commander Reginald Henderson and the Shipping Ministry officials with whom he was in contact. After a breakfast meeting (13 February 1917) with Lloyd George, Sir Edward Carson (First Lord of the Admiralty) and Admirals Jellicoe and Duff agreed to "conduct experiments"; however, convoys were not in general use until August, by which time the rate of shipping losses was already in decline after peaking in April.

 

Lloyd George later claimed in his War Memoirs that the delay in introducing convoys was because the Admiralty mishandled an experimental convoy between Britain and Norway and because Jellicoe obtained, behind Maclay's back, an unrepresentative sample of merchant skippers claiming that they lacked the skill to "keep station" in convoy. In fact, Hankey's diary shows that Lloyd George's interest in the matter was intermittent, whilst Frances Stevenson's diaries contain no mention of the topic. He may well have been reluctant, especially at a time when his relations with the generals were so poor, for a showdown with Carson, a weak administrator who was as much the mouthpiece of the admirals as Derby was of the generals, but who had played a key role in the fall of Asquith and who led a significant bloc of Conservative and Irish Unionist MPs.

 

The new Commander of the Grand Fleet Admiral Beatty, whom Lloyd George visited at Invergordon on 15 April, was a supporter of convoys, as was the American Admiral Sims (the USA had just entered the war). The War Cabinet on 25 April authorised Lloyd George to look into the anti-submarine campaign, and on 30 April he visited the Admiralty. Duff had already recommended to Jellicoe that the Admiralty adopt convoys after a recent successful convoy from Gibraltar.

 

Most of the organisations Lloyd George created during the First World War were replicated with the outbreak of the Second World War. As Lord Beaverbrook wrote, "There were no road signs on the journey he had to undertake." The latter's personal efforts to promote convoys were less consistent than he (and Churchill in The World Crisis and Beaverbrook in Men and Power) later claimed; the idea that he, after a hard struggle, sat in the First Lord's chair (on his 30 April visit to the Admiralty) and imposed convoys on a hostile Board is a myth; however, in Grigg's view the credit goes largely to men and institutions which he set in place, and with a freer hand, and making fewer mistakes, than in his dealings with the generals, he and his appointees took decisions which can reasonably be said to have saved the country. "It was a close-run thing ... failure would have been catastrophic." 

 

Russian Revolution

Lloyd George welcomed the Fall of the Tsar, both in a private letter to his brother and in a message to the new Russian Prime Minister Prince Lvov, not least as the war could now be portrayed as a clash between liberal governments and the autocratic Central Powers. Like many observers, he had been taken by surprise by the exact timing of the revolution (it had not been predicted by Lord Milner or General Wilson on their visit to Russia a few weeks earlier) and hoped—albeit with some concerns—that Russia's war effort would be invigorated like that of France in the early 1790s.

 

Lloyd George gave a cautious welcome to the suggestion (19 March on the western calendar) by the Russian Foreign Minister Pavel Milyukov that the toppled Tsar and his family be given sanctuary in Britain (although Lloyd George would have preferred that they go to a neutral country). From the very start the King's adviser Stamfordham raised objections, and in April the British government withdrew its consent under Royal pressure. Eventually, the Russian Royal Family were moved to the Urals where they were executed in 1918. Lloyd George was often blamed for the refusal of asylum, and in his War Memoirs he did not mention King George V's role in the matter, which was not explicitly confirmed until Kenneth Rose's biography of the King was published in 1983.

 

Imperial War Cabinet

An Imperial War Cabinet, including representatives from Canada, Newfoundland, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and India, met 14 times from 20 March 1917 to 2 May 1917 (a crisis period of the war) and twice in 1918.[99] The idea was not entirely without precedent as there had been Imperial Conferences in 1887, 1894, 1897, 1902, 1907 and 1911, whilst the Australian Prime Minister Billy Hughes had been invited to attend the Cabinet and War Committee on his visit to the UK in the spring of 1916. The South African Jan Smuts was appointed to the British War Cabinet in the early summer of 1917. 

 

Passchendaele

Lloyd George set up a War Policy Committee (himself, Curzon, Milner, Law and Smuts, with Maurice Hankey as secretary) to discuss strategy, which held 16 meetings over the next six weeks. At the very first meeting (11 June) Lloyd George proposed helping the Italians to capture Trieste, explicitly telling the War Policy Committee (21 June 1917) that he wanted Italian soldiers to be killed rather than British.

 

Haig believed that a Flanders Offensive had a good chance of clearing the Belgian coast, from which German submarines and destroyers were operating (a popular goal with politicians), and that victory at Ypres "might quite possibly lead to (German) collapse". Robertson was less optimistic, but preferred Britain to keep her focus on defeating Germany on the Western Front, and had told Haig that the politicians would not "dare" overrule both soldiers if they gave the same advice. Haig promised he had no "intention of entering into a tremendous offensive involving heavy losses" (20 June) whilst Robertson wanted to avoid "disproportionate loss" (23 June).

 

The Flanders Offensive was reluctantly sanctioned by the War Policy Committee on 18 July and the War Cabinet two days later, on condition it did not degenerate into a long drawn-out fight like the Somme. The War Cabinet promised to monitor progress and casualties and, if necessary call a halt, although in the event they made little effort to monitor progress until September. Frustrated at his inability to get his way, Lloyd George talked of resigning and taking his case to the public.

 

The Battle of Passchendaele began on 31 July, but soon became bogged down in unseasonably early wet weather, which turned much of the battlefield into a barely passable swamp in which men and animals sometimes drowned, whilst the mud and rain severely reduced the accuracy and effectiveness of artillery, the dominant weapon of the time. Lloyd George tried to enlist the King for diverting efforts against Austria-Hungary, telling Stamfordham (14 August) that the King and Prime Minister were "joint trustees of the nation" who had to avoid waste of manpower. A new Italian offensive began (18 August), but Robertson advised that it was "false strategy" to call off Passchendaele to send reinforcements to Italy, and despite being summoned to George Riddell's home in Sussex, where he was served apple pudding (his favourite dish), agreed only reluctantly. The Anglo-French leadership agreed in early September to send 100 heavy guns to Italy (50 of them French) rather than the 300 which Lloyd George wanted—Lloyd George talked of ordering a halt to Passchendaele, but in Hankey's words "funked it" (4 September). Had he not done so his government might have fallen, for as soon as the guns reached Italy Cadorna called off his offensive (21 September).

 

At a meeting at Boulogne on the 25th of September, Lloyd George broached with Painlevé the setting up of an Allied Supreme War Council then making Foch generalissimo. Law had written to Lloyd George that ministers must soon decide whether or not the offensive was to continue. Lloyd George and Robertson met Haig in France (26 September) to discuss the recent German peace feelers (which in the end were publicly repudiated by Chancellor Michaelis) and the progress of the offensive. Haig preferred to continue, encouraged by Plumer's recent successful attacks in dry weather at Menin Road (20 September) and Polygon Wood (26 September), and stating that the Germans were "very worn out". In October the wet weather returned for the final attack towards Passchendaele. At the final meeting of the War Policy Committee on 11 October 1917, Lloyd George authorised the offensive to continue, but warning of failure in three weeks' time. Hankey (21 October) claimed in his diary that Lloyd George had deliberately allowed Passchendaele to continue to discredit Haig and Robertson and make it easier for him to forbid similar offensives in 1918

 

Supreme War Council

Lloyd George played a critical role in the Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour's famous Declaration: "His Majesty's government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country."

 

The Italians suffered a disastrous defeat at Caporetto, requiring British and French reinforcements to be sent. Lloyd George said he "wanted to take advantage of Caporetto to gain "control of the War". The Supreme War Council was inaugurated at the Rapallo Conference (6–7 November 1917). Lloyd George then gave a controversial speech in Paris (12 November) at which he criticised the high casualties of recent Allied "victories" (a word which he used with an element of sarcasm). These events led to an angry Commons debate (19 November), which Lloyd George survived.

 

In reply to Robertson's 19 November memo, which warned (correctly) that the Germans would use the opportunity of Russia's departure from the war to attack in 1918 before the Americans were present in strength, Lloyd George wrote (wrongly) that the Germans would not attack and would fail if they did. That autumn he declared that he was willing "to risk his whole political reputation" to avoid a repetition of the Somme or Passchendaele.

 

In December 1917 Lloyd George remarked to C. P. Scott that: "If people really knew, the war would be stopped tomorrow. But of course, they don't know, and can't know."

 

Death

Lloyd George died of cancer at the age of 82 on 26 March 1945, with his wife Frances and his daughter Megan at his bedside. Four days later, on Good Friday, he was buried beside the river Dwyfor in Llanystumdwy. A boulder marks the grave; there is no inscription; however, a monument designed by the architect Sir Clough Williams-Ellis was subsequently erected around the grave, bearing an englyn (strict-metre stanza) engraved on slate in his memory composed by his nephew W. R. P. George. Nearby stands the Lloyd George Museum, also designed by Williams-Ellis and opened in 1963.

All information is provided in good faith but, on occasions errors may occur. Should this be the case, if new information can be verified please supply it to the author and corrections will then be made.

  

This memorial has been compiled with additional information by kind permission of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission

Also from Ancestry.co.uk

  

1939 - 1945

  

In Memoriam

  

Kenneth Albert BROWNE, Sergeant 1470773, 11th Battery 3rd Searchlight Regiment, Royal Artillery died 27th September 1941 aged 23. He was the son of Thomas Browne and Marcella Cassells of Belfast, Ireland. He is at rest in Knockbreda Cemetery, County Down

  

John McKee CRAIG, Engine Room Artificer 5th Class D/MX 511289, Royal Navy on H.M.S. Kite (U 87) killed in action at sea 21st August 1944. The ship was sunk by U-Boat 344, Captain Ulrich Pietsch. He is commemorated on the Plymouth Naval Memorial, Devon.

  

Robert James DEANS, Flight Sergeant, Wireless Operator, Air Gunner 1306056, 150th Squadron, Royal Air Force (VR) died 3rd September 1942 aged 26. He was one of a crew of 5 in a Wellington bomber, bound for Karsruhe. The plane was shot down off the French coast, with the loss of all the crew, He was the son of James and Rebecca Deans and was the husband of Florence Ena Deans, of Kettering, Northamptonshire, England. He is at rest in Dieppe Canadian War cemetery, Hautot-Sur-Mer, Seine-Maritime, France

  

Thomas GRIBBEN, Sergeant 1333297, 12th Squadron, Royal Air Force , died 13th June 1944 aged 22. He was part of a crew of a Lancaster MkIII bomber. He was the son of William and Agnes of Belfast. He is at rest in Ijsselmuiden general Cemetery, Overijssel, Netherlands.

  

www.626-squadron.co.uk/willem29.htm

  

Robert Charles HANNA, Sergeant, Pilot, 816023, 245th Squadron, Royal Auxillary Air Force died of wounds 3rd September 1940 aged 23. He was the son of Robert and Mary of Belfast. He is at rest in Knockbreda Cemetery, Belfast Northern Ireland.

  

G JACKSON (It may be the following person) George Balfour Sydney JACKSON, Leading Airman, FAA/FX 80569, of Fleet Air Arm, Royal Navy, H.M.S. Daedalus (Shore Base). He was killed on died 17th January 1941 aged 19. He was a passenger on steam passenger ship Almeda Star. The ship was sunk with the loss of all crew and passengers by U-Boat 96. He was the son of Sydney Herbert and Marjorie Sinclair Jackson of Belfast. He is commemorated on the Lee-on-Solent Memorial, Hampshire.

  

S A JONES (There are seven S A Jones listed with the CWGC WW2) All except the following, the records show either address of parents or wife. No Belfast connection is shown. The following listing had no parents etc noted.

Corporal T/126631, Sydney A JONES, Royal Army Service Corps died 24th February 1944. He is at rest in Naples War cemetery, Italy.

  

Herbert Mason JORDAN, Leading Seaman D/J19351, Royal Navy on H.M.S. Dorsetshire died 5th April 1942 aged 46. He was the husband of Lilian Gertrude of Belfast, Northern Ireland. He is commemorated on the Plymouth Naval Memorial, Devon.

  

Frederick Allen KENNEDY, Gunner 1468556, 9th Battery, 3rd Searchlight Regiment, Royal Artillery died between 29th and 30th May 1940 aged 30 . He was the son of John and Annie K and was the husband of Eveline of Woolton, Liverpool. He is at rest in Dunkirk Town Cemetery, Nord France.

  

J S KENNEDY. There are several J.S.Kenndys listed for WW2 with the CWGC, but none show any connection with Belfast or Northern Ireland, however it may well be this person - Fusilier 6982911 James KENNEDY, Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers died at sea on the 23rd March 1941 aged 22. He was the son of John and Susannah and husband of Martha of Belfast, Northern Ireland. He is commemorated on the Brookwood Memorial, Surrey.

  

John Calvert KINNIN, Corporal 7012389, 2nd Royal Ulster Rifles died 17th February 1942 aged 27. He was the son of Isaac and Emily of Belfast. He is at rest in Carnmoney Cemetery, County Antrim, Northern Ireland.

  

David Henry LANDA, Able Seaman D/SSX 16190 Royal Navy of H.M.S. Glorious, died at sea on the 8th June 1940 aged 23. He was the son of Jacob and Ena nee McGavock of (in 1911) 4, Adele Street, Belfast, Northern Ireland. He is commemorated on the Plymouth Naval Memorial, Devon.

  

West Stewart MASON, Sergeant, Air Gunner 1480500, 103rd Squadron, Royal Air Force died 15th October 1942 aged 26. He was the son of John Stewart and Isabella Mason of Belfast, Northern Ireland. His father, in 1911 was living with his parents at 8, Kimberley Street, Ormeau Road, Belfast. He is at rest in Rheinberg War Cemetery, Nordrhein Westfalen, Germany.

  

Reginald Norman MORGAN, Captain 176458, 1st Airborne Battalion, Royal Ulster Rifles died 7th June 1944 aged 31 at Normandy, France. He was the son of Richard and Emily of Belfast, Northern Ireland. He is at rest in Bayeux War Cemetery, France

  

George Clare PETERS, Sergeant Air Bomber 657052, 51st Squadron, Royal Air Force (VR) died 27th April 1943 aged 32. He was born in Scarriff, County Clare to Richard and Catherine Peters of Belfast. In 1911 he was living with his parents and siblings at the Royal Irish Constabulary Barracks (Police Station) Quin Town, his father was a Police Sergeant. He is rest in Rheinberg War Cemetery, Nordrhein Westfalen, Germany.

  

Robert George POLLY, Assistant Storekeeper, Merchant Navy, Naval Auxillary Personnel, on H.M.S. Foylebank which was bombed in Portland Harbour on the 4th July 1940. He is commemorated on the Liverpool Naval Memorial, Lancashire.

  

Joseph Edward Gough QUINN (MC), Chaplain 4th Class, 91404, Royal Army Chaplains' Department died 23rd September 1943 aged 29. He was the son of the Revd. Chancellor James Quinn, R.U.I., B.A., and Muriel A. M. Quinn, of St. Jude's Rectory, Belfast. M.A. (Oxon.), Exhibitioner of Shrewsbury School and Scholar of Christ Church. Lecturer in Honours Schools of Theology and of Modern History, Chaplain of St. Peter's Hall. He is at rest in Salerno War Cemetery, Italy.

www.chch.ox.ac.uk/cathedral/memorials/WW2/joseph-quinn

  

Thompson Baird QUINN, Sub Lieutenant, Royal Naval Reserve, H.M.S. Rawalpindi, died 23rd November 1939 aged 23. He was the son of James and Elizabeth Jane of 72 Ravenhill Park, Belfast, Northern Ireland. London Gazette dated 28th June 1946 -

For good services while serving in H.M.S. RAWALPINDI, sunk in action against a greatly superior German force, on 29th November, 1939: Posthumous Mention in Despatches.

He is commemorated on the Plymouth Naval Memorial, Devon.

  

Arthur Francis SCAMMELL, Staff Sergeant, Armourer, 7582888, Royal Army Ordnance Corps, died 15th July 1941 aged 31. He was born in Kent in 1910 to Francis William and Alice Maude Scammell, of Rosetta, Belfast, Northern Ireland and husband of Minnie Scammell of 8, Hardcastle Street, Belfast. In 1911 he was living with his parents in Egypt. Military 1911 census. He is at rest in Damascus Commonwealth War Cemetery, Syria.

  

Frederick Eustace STRONGE, Pilot Officer 79997, Royal Air Force (VR) died 23rd October 1940 aged 32. He was the son of James Taylor and Mary Helen Stronge and

husband of Mary.

He is at rest in Donaghadee Church of Ireland Churchyard, County Down, Northern Ireland.

  

"Greater love hath no man than this that a man lay down his life for his friends" St John XV.13

 

The Postcard

 

A postcard published by Empire View Productions of Doncaster bearing an early view of the Boating Lake at Great Yarmouth.

 

On the back of the card the publishers state that the view is a real photograph by Charles N. Jamson.

 

The card was posted in Norwich on Monday the 7th. September 1936 to an address in Maryland Road Wood Green. What the recipient read over 80 years ago was as follows:

 

"Many thanks for letter. Would

have answered ere this, but

only got back from hospital on

Wednesday, and came here

for a week on Friday so will

write to you when I get back

dear.

Much love, E.L."

 

Great Yarmouth

 

Great Yarmouth is a seaside resort and minster town in Norfolk straddling the River Yare, 20 miles (30 km) east of Norwich. A population of 38,693 in the 2011 Census made it Norfolk's third most populous place.

 

Its fishing industry, mainly for herring, fell steeply after the mid-20th. century, and has all but vanished. North Sea oil from the 1960's brought an oil-rig supply industry that now services offshore natural gas rigs. More recent offshore wind power and other renewable energy have created further support services.

 

Yarmouth has been a seaside resort since 1760, and a gateway from the Norfolk Broads to the North Sea. Tourism was boosted when a railway opened in 1844, which gave visitors easier, cheaper access and triggered some settlement.

 

Wellington Pier opened in 1854 and Britannia Pier in 1858. Through the 20th. century, Yarmouth was a booming resort, with a promenade, pubs, trams, fish-and-chip shops and theatres.

 

There is also the Pleasure Beach, the Sea Life Centre, the Hippodrome Circus and the Time and Tide Museum, as well as a surviving Victorian seaside Winter Garden in cast iron and glass.

 

Great Yarmouth in the Past

 

The town was the site of a bridge disaster and drowning tragedy on the 2nd. May 1845, when a suspension bridge crowded with children collapsed killing 79. They had gathered to watch a clown in a barrel being pulled by geese down the river. As he passed under the bridge the weight shifted, causing the chains on the south side to snap, tipping over the bridge deck.

 

Great Yarmouth had an electric tramway system from 1902 to 1933. From the 1880's until the Great War, the town was a regular destination for Bass Excursions, when 15 trains would take 8000–9000 employees of Bass's Burton brewery on an annual trip to the seaside.

 

During the Great War, Great Yarmouth suffered the first aerial bombardment in the UK, by Zeppelin L3 on the 19th. January 1915. That same year on the 15th. August, Ernest Jehan became the first and only man to sink a steel U-Boat with a sail-rigged Q-ship, off the coast of Great Yarmouth.

 

Great Yarmouth was bombarded by the German Navy on the 24th. April 1916. The town also suffered Luftwaffe bombing during World War II because it was the last significant place Germans could drop bombs before returning home.

 

Nevertheless despite war damage, much is left of the old town, including the original 2,000-metre (1.2 mi) protective medieval wall, of which two-thirds has survived. Of the 18 towers, 11 are left.

 

On the South Quay is a 17th.-century Merchant's House, as well as Tudor, Georgian and Victorian buildings. Behind South Quay is a maze of alleys and lanes known as 'The Rows'. Originally there were 145. Despite bombing, several have remained.

 

Great Yarmouth was badly affected by the North Sea flood of 1953. More recent flooding has also been a problem, with four floods in 2006, the worst being in September. Torrential rain caused drains to block and an Anglian Water pumping station to break down. This caused flash flooding in which 90 properties were flooded up to a depth of 5 ft (1.5 m).

 

Great Yarmouth Sights and Amenities

 

The Tollhouse with its dungeons, dating from the late 13th. century, is one of Britain's oldest former jails and oldest civic buildings. Major sections of the medieval town walls survive around the parish cemetery and in parts of the old town.

 

Great Yarmouth Minster (The Minster Church of St Nicholas, founded in the 12th. century as an act of penance) stands in Church Plain, just off the market place. It is the third-largest parish church in England, after Beverley Minster in East Yorkshire and Christchurch Priory in Dorset.

 

Church Plain also has the 17th.-century timber-framed house, in which Anna Sewell (1820–1878), author of Black Beauty, was born.

 

The market place, one of the largest in England, has been operating since the 13th. century. It is also home to the town's shopping sector and the famous Yarmouth chip stalls. The smaller area south of the market is used as a performance area for community events.

 

The Scroby Sands Wind Farm of 30 generators is within sight of the seafront. Also visible are grey seals during their breeding season. The country's only full-time circus, the Hippodrome Circus, is just off the seafront.

 

The Two Piers

 

Great Yarmouth has two piers, Britannia Pier (which is Grade II listed) and Wellington Pier. The theatre building on the latter was demolished in 2005 and reopened in 2008 as a family entertainment centre, including a ten-pin bowling alley overlooking the beach.

 

Britannia Pier holds the Britannia Theatre, which during the summer has featured acts such as Jim Davidson, the comedian Jethro, Basil Brush, Cannon and Ball, Chubby Brown, the Chuckle Brothers and the Searchers. It is one of the few end-of-the pier theatres surviving in England.

 

The Winter Gardens

 

The Grade II listed Winter Gardens building sits next to the Wellington Pier. The cast iron, framed glass structure was shipped by barge from Torquay in 1903, purportedly without the loss of a single pane of glass. Over the years, it has been used as ballroom, roller skating rink and beer garden.

 

In the 1990's it was converted into a nightclub by Jim Davidson, and has since been used as a family leisure venue. It is currently (2020) closed. In the meantime it has been named by the Victorian Society as a heritage building at risk of disrepair.

 

The Marine Parade

 

Great Yarmouth's seafront, known as 'The Golden Mile' attracts millions of visitors each year to its sandy beaches, indoor and outdoor attractions and amusement arcades.

 

Great Yarmouth's Marine Parade has twelve Amusement Arcades within 2 square miles. Their names draw heavily on Las Vegas and include: The Flamingo, Circus Circus, The Golden Nugget, The Mint, The Silver Slipper, The Showboat, Magic City, Quicksilver and The Gold Rush.

 

In addition to the two piers, tourist attractions on Marine Parade include Joyland, Pirates' Cove Adventure Golf, Yesterday's World, the Marina Centre, Retroskate, the Arnold Palmer Putting Green, the Sea Life Centre, Merrivale Model Village and the Pleasure Beach and Gardens.

 

The Great Yarmouth Floral Clock

 

Alas, the clock in Marine Parade is no more - it had to be removed in 2005 following repeated attacks by mindless vandals.

 

The Yarmouth In Bloom group, who had regularly planted flowers and attended the displays, were dismayed by the continual trampling of plants and breakages to the clock hands, and decided that enough was enough.

 

The Venetian Waterways

 

In August 2019, the Venetian Waterways and gardens re-opened. The waterways, running parallel to the main beach, were a feature constructed as a work-creation scheme in 1926–1928, consisting of canals and formal gardens, with rowing boats, pedalos and gondolas.

 

The waterways had been allowed to silt up, decay and become abandoned. With a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund of £1.7 m and the labour of volunteers, the flowerbeds have been restored with 20,000 plants, and the 1920's cafe has been restored. That and the boat hire are being run by a social enterprise.

 

The Nelson Monument

 

The South Denes area is home to the Grade I listed Norfolk Naval Pillar, known locally as the Britannia Monument or Nelson's Monument. This tribute to Nelson was completed in 1819, 24 years before the completion of Nelson's Column in London. The monument, designed by William Wilkins, shows Britannia standing atop a globe holding an olive branch in her right hand and a trident in her left.

 

There is a popular assumption in the town that the statue of Britannia was supposed to face out to sea but now faces inland due to a mistake during construction, although it is thought she is meant to face Nelson's birthplace at Burnham Thorpe.

 

The monument was originally planned to mark Nelson's victory at the Battle of the Nile, but fund-raising was not completed until after his death, and it was instead dedicated to England's greatest naval hero. It is currently surrounded by an industrial estate but there are plans to improve the area.

 

Charles Dickens

 

Charles Dickens used Great Yarmouth as a key location in his novel David Copperfield and described the town as 'The finest place in the universe'. The author stayed at the Royal Hotel on the Marine Parade while writing the novel.

 

Great Yarmouth Museums

 

The Norfolk Nelson Museum on South Quay houses the Ben Burgess collection of Nelson memorabilia and is the only dedicated Nelson museum in Britain, other than one in Monmouth. Its several galleries look at Nelson's life and personality, and at what life was like for men who sailed under him.

 

The Time and Tide Museum in Blackfriars Road was nominated in the UK Museums Awards in 2005. It was built as part of a regeneration of the south of the town in 2003. Its location in an old herring smokery harks back to the town's status as a major fishing port.

 

Sections of the historic town wall stand opposite the museum, next to the Great Yarmouth Potteries, part of which is housed in another former smoke house. The town wall is among the most complete medieval town walls in the country, with 11 of the 18 original turrets still standing.

 

Other museums in the town include the National Trust's Elizabethan House, the Great Yarmouth Row Houses, managed by English Heritage, and the privately owned Blitz and Pieces, based on the Home Front during World War II.

 

Buddy Holly

 

So what else happened on the day that the card was posed?

 

Well, the 7th. September 1936 marked the birth in Lubbock, Texas of Buddy Holly, rock and roll musician.

 

Buddy died on the 3rd. February 1959 when the light aircraft in which he was travelling crashed soon after takeoff.

 

The crash killed Buddy, Ritchie Valens, The Big Bopper, and pilot Roger Peterson in a tragedy later referred to by Don McLean as 'The Day the Music Died'.

 

Other Musicians Who Died in Aircraft Crashes

 

Musicians and air travel are not a great combination. In addition to the three musicians listed above, the following died when their plane crashed:

 

--- The Big Bopper

 

--- Patsy Cline

 

--- Cowboy Copas

 

--- Jim Croce

 

--- John Denver

 

--- Hawkshaw Hawkins

 

--- Buddy Holly

 

--- Randy Hughes

 

--- Glenn Miller

 

--- Ricky Nelson

 

--- Otis Redding

 

--- Ritchie Valens

 

Air travel has been particularly unkind to the world of music; many other less famous musicians have also died in plane crashes.

 

Hobart Zoo

 

Also on that day, the last known Tasmanian tiger died at Hobart Zoo.

 

Robert Balfour

 

The 7th. September 1936 also marked the death of Kenneth Robert Balfour, British politician.

Kimberly-Clark Purchasing Professionalism Seminar, October 14-16, 1981. Located at the Valley Inn. Front row, left to right: John Wagner from Lakeview, Arthur Dee from Brown-Bridge, W. Curtis Beard from Waynesboro, Dottie Epperson from Coosa, Carol Stevenson from Corporate, Mary Jo McKinney from Conway, Mary Lippert from Lakeview, Vicki Brower from Corporate, Irene Czop from Spotswood, Kenneth Simpson from Corporate, Joshua Walker from Corporate and C. V. Speziale from Terrace Bay. Second row: Donald Leith from Neenah Paper, Jon Wright from Internal Audit, James Brud from Corporate, Jonathon Sutter from Balfour, Jerry Purcel from Internal Audit, Jack Anderson from Corporate, Gary Smith from Lee, Richard Nickel from Lee, Gordon McDonald from Munising, David Kneip from Corporate, Frederick Ashenbrenner from Corporate, Robert Pelton from New Milford, Roger Balthazor from Aviation and Ronald Kuntz from Mt. Holly Springs. Third row: Stephan Bordon from Corporate, William Mattes from Corporate, Ronald Barron from Corporate, Scott Sharkey from Corporate, Robert Lambie from Corinth, Lawrence Heesakker from Corporate, Harry Ideus from Corinth, Larry Seeley from Corporate, Richard Loescher from Corporate, Murdo Campbell from Toronto, R. E. Heimerman from Munising, Lester Damery from Kapukasing, Raymond Patterson from Kapukasing and Duane Arness from Windom. Fourth row: Kenneth Yeager from West Carrollton, Edwin Peck from Corporate, Thomas Fronek from Memphis, Lewis Hewlett from Beech Island, Carl Burden from Dallas and Phillip Wilkeson from Fullerton. Fifth row: Warren Griffith from Corporate, Donald Myers from D. F. South Plant, Joseph Fetyco from Coosa and later D. F. South Plant, Gary Thorstead from Brown-Bridge, Barry Swanson from New Milford, Donn Stevens from West Carrollton, James Wolff from Memphis, Larry Steeps from Conway, W. Thomas Bonn from Newark, Frank Phillips from Roswell, Mel White from Terrace Bay, K. Randall Hutchinson from Coosa and Gerald Haunschild from Corporate.

Brownsea Castle, also known historically as Branksea Castle, was originally a Device Fort constructed by Henry VIII between 1545 and 1547 to protect Poole Harbour in Dorset. The castle remained in use after the original invasion scare had passed and was occupied by Parliament during the English Civil War of the 1640s. By the end of the century, however, it had fallen into disuse.In 1726 it was converted into a private residence by William Benson, despite complaints from the town of Poole. Benson and the subsequent owners extended the original blockhouse to form a country house, landscaping the surrounding island to create ornamental gardens and lakes. The 19th century saw continued building work by the castle's occupants, including the entrepreneur Colonel William Waugh, who erected various Jacobethan-styled extensions. A serious fire in 1896 gutted the castle, which was restored by Major Kenneth Robert Balfour. The wealthy stockbroker Charles Van Raalte led a lavish lifestyle at Brownsea at the start of the 20th century, using it to house his collection of antique musical instruments. Brownsea Castle was purchased by Mary Bonham-Christie in 1927. She allowed the property to fall into disrepair and by the time of her death in 1961 it was in a very poor condition. It was then purchased by the National Trust and leased to the John Lewis Partnership, who restored it over many years. In the 21st century it is still used by the Partnership as a corporate hotel for their employees and retired staff.

Information sourced from Wikipedia.

 

edited by Jack David, Robert Lecker & Ken McLean.

 

Downsview, fall 1977.

 

5-9/16 x 8-5/8, 112 sheets ivory bond perfectbound into white rectogloss card wrappers, all except inside covers & last page printed black offset.

 

cover collage by Ludwig Zeller.

45 contributors ID'd:

Margaret Atwood, James Bacque, Ian Balfour, Douglas Barbour, Caroline Bayard, Grahame Beakhust, Betty Birch, Nicole Brossard, Ildiko De Papp Carrington, Michael Darling, Frank Davey, Jack David, Gwendolyn Davies, M.Demels, Gail Donald, Paul Dutton, R.G.Everson, Gail Fox, Keath Fraser, Barbara Godard, Jamie Hamilton, R.L.Hogg, Harry Howith, Leo Kennedy, Stephen Kline, David Latham, Robert Lecker, Dorothy Livesay, Jean Mallinson, Dermot McCarthy, Ken McLean, Kenneth McNaught, Marianne Micros, bpNichol, Margaret Pappert-Martinello, viva Ravel, Laurie Ricou, Bruce Serafin, J.R.Tim Struthers, Eric Thompson, Jeanette Urbas, J.A.Wainwright, Jack Warwick, Bruce Whiteman, Robert Zend.

 

Nichol inclusions:

i) "bushes" (poem; reprinted in full in (iii(4c)) below)

 

also includes:

ii) The Oral Tradition and Contemporary Fiction, by Barbara Godard (pp. 46-62; prose essay; references Nichol pp.51/52)

iii) bpNichol: The Life of Letters & the Letters of Life, by Douglas Barbour (pp.179-19o; prose essay in 5 numbered parts & notes:

--1. "I may as well make my bias utterly clear from the beginning: when it" (with quotes relevant to Nichol from:

----a. bpNichol, by Frank Davey

----b. Interview with Frank Davey, by Frank Davey & Elizabeth Konucar

----c. ""in the mist of life we are in death" draco", by bpNichol

----d. In Search of New Myths, by Stephen Scobie

----e. "sleepless night nothing takes shape", by bpNichol)

--2. "Undoubtedly one's appreciation of the martyrology, Books III & IV" (with quotes by Nichol from:

----a. "driving west thru albion's hills adjala climbing"

----b. "surely when they fell"

----c. "POETRY BEING AT A DEAD END POETRY IS")

--3. "At the beginning of Books III & IV, Nichol quotes a letter from a friend" (with quotes by David Phillips (a) & Nichol (all else):

----a. "this is the 16th straight day of sunshine"

----b. INTERVIEW/ bpNichol (from Capilano Review 8/9)

----c. "there has been that which i've been told"

----d. "i am not what i appear"

----e. "i wanted a portrait of a man" (misquote of line 4)

----f. "drove along the highway" (misquote of part of line 7)

----g. "more than meets the eye meets the ear"

----h. "love"

----i. "'you have to pay old debts"

----j. "four hours monday in the sun to ottawa"

----k. "supper at sean's"

----l. "where is my place in this world father"

----m. "starting from vancouver" (part of line 19 misquoted)

----n. "how is it done how is it said the head sheds the lies its lived by"

----o. "an issue of names"

----p. "a frog drops in the pond"

----q. "we gather round to talk at night"

----r. "last take")

--4. "In what we might call an afterword to Book II, Nichol gives a short" (with quotes by Nichol from:

----a. "is nothing but a history"

----b. "orange"

----c. "bushes" (see (i) above)

----d. "so it is that you traverse a continent"

----e. "in vocation"

----f. "speech"

----g. "within the difference"

----h. "whatever dies"

----i. the martyrology book 4)

--5. "I have been reading the martyrology for five years or more, and I (with quotes by Nichol from:

----a. the martyrolgy book 4

----b. "speech" (in full in text))

___________________________

 

note: the layout for at least Barbour's pages is totally fucked, the pages running 179-184, 187, 188, 185, 186, 189, 19o; it was reprinted corrected in the next issue

 

Produced and directed by Henry Cornelius

largest of the islands in Poole Harbour owned by the National Trust with the northern half managed by the Dorset Wildlife Trust. Much of the island is open to the public and includes areas of woodland and heath with a wide variety of wildlife, together with cliff top views across Poole Harbour and the Isle of Purbeck.

 

The island was the location of an experimental camp in 1907 that led to the formation of the Scout movement the following year.

 

After the Dissolution of the Monasteries, control of Brownsea passed to the Crown. Henry VIII recognised the island's strategic importance of guarding the narrow entrance to the expanding port of Poole. As part of a deterrent to invasion forces from Europe, the island was fortified in 1547 by means of a blockhouse, which became known as Brownsea Castle.

In the following centuries, the island passed into the hands of a succession of various owners. In 1576, Queen Elizabeth I made a gift of Brownsea to one of her court favourites and rumoured lover, Sir Christopher Hatton.[10] During the English Civil War, Poole sided with Parliament and garrisoned Brownsea Castle. Colonel Thomas Pride, the instigator of Pride's Purge– the only military coup d'état in English history – was stationed on the island in 1654.

 

Sir Robert Clayton, a Lord Mayor of the City of London and wealthy merchant became owner in the mid-1650s and after his death in 1707 the island was sold to William Benson, a Whig Member of Parliament and architect. He converted the castle into a residence and was responsible for introducing many varieties of trees to the island.

 

In 1765 Sir Humphrey Sturt, a local landowner and MP purchased the island, which in turn passed to his sons. Sturt expanded the castle and records.

 

Sir Augustus John Foster, a retired British diplomat, bought the island in 1840. Foster experienced bouts of depression and died in Brownsea Castle in 1848 when he slit his throat.

 

In 1852 Brownsea was again up for sale and was sold for £13,000. It was purchased by William Waugh, a former Colonel in the British Army in the belief he could exploit the white clay deposits on the island to manufacture high-quality porcelain.

 

A three-storey pottery was built in south-west corner of the island together with a tramway to transport the clay from clay pits in the north. He hoped the clay would be of the same quality as the nearby Furzebrook clay, but it turned out to be suitable only for sanitary ware. The company employed more than 200 people, but by 1887 the venture closed owing to a lack of demand and the poor quality of the clay.

 

After falling heavily into debt the Waughs fled to Spain. The island was acquired by creditors and sold in 1873 to George Cavendish-Bentinck, who added Jersey cows to Brownsea and expanded the island's agriculture. He filled the island with several Italian renaissance sculptures, some of which still decorate the church and the quay.

 

After his death, the island was sold to Kenneth Robert Balfour in 1891. Following the introduction of electric lighting, the castle was gutted by fire in 1896. It was subsequently rebuilt, and in 1901 Balfour put the island up for sale.

 

The island was purchased by wealthy stockbroker Charles van Raalte who used the island as a residential holiday retreat. During this time the castle was renovated and served as host to famous visitors such as Guglielmo Marconi.

 

Robert Baden-Powell, a close friend of the van Raaltes, hosted an experimental camp for boys on the island in the summer of 1907. Brownsea was largely self-supporting, with a kitchen garden and a dairy herd. Many of the pottery factory workers had stayed on after it closed, farming and working for the owners.

 

Charles van Raalte died in Calcutta in February, 1908 and his wife eventually sold the island in 1925.

 

In 1927 it was purchased at auction by Mary Bonham-Christie for £125,000. A recluse by nature, she ordered a mass eviction of the island's residents to the mainland. Most of the island was abandoned and gradually reverted to natural heath and woodland. In 1934, a wild fire caused devastation after burning for a week. Much of the island was reduced to ashes, and the buildings to the east were only saved by a change of wind direction.

 

Traumatised by the event, Bonham-Christie banned all public access to the island for the rest of her life.

 

During the Second World War large flares were placed on the western end of the island to mislead Luftwaffe bombers away from the port of Poole. The decoy saved Poole and Bournemouth from 1,000 tonnes (160,000 st) of German bombs, but the deserted village of Maryland was destroyed.

 

In April 1961, Bonham-Christie died at 98 years old and her grandson gave the island to the Treasury to pay her death duties. Concerned the island could be sold to commercial developers, a campaign was started by local conservationist, Helen Brotherton, with the aim of purchasing the island to protect its natural habitats. The National Trust subsequently agreed to take over responsibility for the island if enough funds were raised and in 1962 it purchased Brownsea for £100,000.[24] Work was carried out to prepare the island for visitors; tracks were cleared through areas overgrown with rhododendrons and firebreaks were created to prevent repetition of the 1934 fire. The Dorset Wildlife Trust leased a nature reserve on the north of the island, the Scout and Guide Movements were allowed to return and the castle was renovated and leased to the John Lewis Partnership for use as a staff hotel. The island was opened to the public in May 1963 by Olave, Lady Baden-Powell, the Chief Guide, at a ceremony attended by members of the 1907 camp. Soon after Brownsea Island was opened to the public, it was attracting more than 10,000 visitors a year.

 

Larger boats means that today the island attracts some 110,000 visitors annually.

This is one of the 1st things you see on the approach to Brownsea Island, Brownsea Castle also known as Branksea Castle.

It was originally a device fort. Or Artillary forts, built by Henry VIII between 1545 and 1547, it later years it was occupied by the British parliament in the 1640`s during the English civil war, but then fell into disrepair by the end of the century.

It was not until 1726 when William Benson bought and turned into a private residence. Benson and the subsequent owners extended the original blockhouse to form a country house, landscaping the surrounding island to create ornamental gardens and lakes. The 19th century saw continued building work by the castle's occupants, including the entrepreneur Colonel William Waugh, who erected various Jacobethan-styled extensions. A serious fire in 1896 gutted the castle, which was restored by Major Kenneth Robert Balfour. The wealthy stockbroker Charles Van Raalte led a lavish lifestyle at Brownsea at the start of the 20th century, using it to house his collection of antique musical instruments.

Brownsea Castle was purchased by Mary Bonham-Christie in 1927. She allowed the property to fall into disrepair and by the time of her death in 1961 it was in a very poor condition. It was then purchased by the National Trust and leased to the John Lewis Partnership, who restored it over many years. In the 21st century it is still used by the Partnership as a corporate hotel for their employees and former staff.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenneth_Robert_Balfour (Great-grandpa)

Brownsea Castle, also known historically as Branksea Castle, was originally a Device Fort constructed by Henry VIII between 1545 and 1547 to protect Poole Harbour in Dorset, England, from the threat of French attack. Located on Brownsea Island, it comprised a stone blockhouse with a hexagonal gun platform. It was garrisoned by the local town with six soldiers and armed with eight artillery pieces. The castle remained in use after the original invasion scare had passed and was occupied by Parliament during the English Civil War of the 1640s. By the end of the century, however, it had fallen into disuse.

In 1726 the castle was converted into a private residence by William Benson, despite complaints from the town of Poole. Benson and the subsequent owners extended the original blockhouse to form a country house, landscaping the surrounding island to create ornamental gardens and lakes. The 19th century saw continued building work by the castle's occupants, including the entrepreneur Colonel William Waugh, who erected various Jacobethan-styled extensions. A serious fire in 1896 gutted the castle, which was restored by Major Kenneth Robert Balfour. The wealthy stockbroker Charles Van Raalte led a lavish lifestyle at Brownsea at the start of the 20th century, using it to house his collection of antique musical instruments.

Brownsea Castle was purchased by Mary Bonham-Christie in 1927. She allowed the property to fall into disrepair and by the time of her death in 1961 it was in a very poor condition. It was then purchased by the National Trust and leased to the John Lewis Partnership, who restored it over many years. In the 21st century it is still used by the Partnership as a corporate hotel for their employees and retired staff.

Private KENNETH MACLEAN

Originally from the Isle of Lewis

Last address in Lewis: 1 Brenish,

Brother of Mrs D. Bethune, 18 Balfour Street, Leith, Scotland. Son of Murdo and Margaret Maclean.

Service unit: 2nd Battallion Auckland Regiment, New Zealand Expeditionary Force

Service number: 12/3714

Date of death: 3 October 1916 at the age of 33

Killed in action

Interred: Caterpillar Valley (New Zealand) Memorial

Local memorial: Uig, Timsgarry

This garden was created by Kenneth Balfour, resident and one time Mayor of Marlow. He gave it to the people of Marlow in memory of his mother May Balfour. At the end of the garden is Marlow Place

Balfour Rd, Portsmouth

Memorial plaque for Margaret Anne Balfour, who died 1901, the wife of Kenneth Robert Balfour, MP for Christchurch

G20 Soshanguve crossing!!!! {{@}}how to Join illuminati 6666 for Money:!!! +27632807647 fourways LIMPOPO, GAUTENG, MPUMALANGA, Klipspruit West, Zakariyya Park, Eldorado Park, Lenasia South,Lawley

 

G20 Soshanguve crossing!!!! {{@}}how to Join illuminati 6666 for Money:!!! +27632807647 fourways LIMPOPO, GAUTENG, MPUMALANGA, Klipspruit West, Zakariyya Park, Eldorado Park, Lenasia South,Lawley Devland,Ennerdale, Naturena, Meredale, Alveda, Aeroton, Orange Farm, Alan Manor, Kibler Park, Mondeor Ridgeway, Ormonde, Rispark, Crown Gardens, Winchester Hills KOKSTAD Warburton Lejweleputswa District.Thabo Mofutsanyane Fezile Dabi ‎Nkangala Gert Sibande District Ehlanzeni District Emalahleni Local Ngaka Modiri Molema Dr. Kenneth Kaunda Dr. Ruth Segomotsi Mompati Bojanala Platinum Mbombela (JWH-073, JWH-200)

White River Hogsback Ruimsig secunda Randburg Boksburg Benoni Johannesburg ,Soweto ,Kempton Park Benoni Johannesburg ,Soweto ,Kempton+27632807647,Roodepoort, Midland ,Sandton, Fochville Edenvale ,Centurion, Ssd Solution Alberton ,Vanderbijlpark, Krugersdorp ,Western Cape, Cape Town Somerset West KwaZulu Natal, Durban, Pietermaritzburg, Free State, Bloemfontein ,Welkom Mpumalanga, Nelspruit ,Witbank ,Eastern Cape, Port Elizabeth, Chemical Ssd Solution East London North West, Rustenburg ,Potchefstroom ,Limpopo, Polokwane ,Tzaneen ,Northern Cape, Port Nolloth Kimberley, Aankoms Acornhoek Amersfoort Anysspruit Argent Avoca Avontuur Badplaas Balfour Balmoral Bankkop Barberton Belfast Berbice Bethal Bettiesdam Branddraai Braunschweig Breyten Brondal Bushbuckridge Carolina Chrissiesmeer Davale Delmas Diepdale Diepgezet Dullstroom Dundonald +27632807647 Eerstehoek Ekulindeni Elukwatini Embhuleni Emphuluzi Enkhaba Ermelo Fernie Glenmore Graskop Greylingstad Hartebeeskop Hazyview Hectorspruit Kaapmuiden Kinross Komatipoort KwaMhlanga Lochiel Loopspruit Lydenburg Machadodorp Malelane Mbhejeka Mbombela Middelburg ModdergatmNgodwana Ohrigstad Perdekop Piet Retief Pilgrim's Rest Sabie Secunda Siyabuswa Skukuz Standerton Trichardt Vaalbank Volksrust Wakkerstroom Waterval Boven Waterval Onder White River Witbank Pietermaritzburg Cape Town Durban Johannesburg Soweto Pretoria Port Elizabeth Tembisa East London Vereeniging Katlehong Soweto Pretoria Centurion Mamelodi Vanderbijlpark, Vereeniging, Germiston, Boksburg, Durbun, United Kingdom Welcome Bellville Cape Town Durban Kempton Park Khayelitsha Kimberley Klerksdorp Mitchell's Plain Mthatha Nelspruit Newcastle Pietermaritzburg Pinetown Polokwane Port Elizabeth Potchefstroom +27632807647 Randburg Roodepoort Rustenburg Sebokeng Soshanguve Springbok Stellenbosch Tembisa Thohoyandou Umlazi Upington

Welcome Witbank Eastern Cape Free State Gauteng KwaZulu-Natal Limpopo Mpumalanga

North West Northern Cape Western Cape Gauteng KwaZulu- Natal Limpopo Mpumalanga

Bloemfontein Mantsonyane, Lesotho,

For those who are interested in making money, every good thing comes with money, comes with extra effort , All u need to do is Spiritual work and every wicked power delaying your progress wants clear and good things will come to you like, money, favor from people, open doors, business breakthrough, good job. Etc. For more info you can call +27632807647 Note: Its not a child’s play, its for those who are desperate and ready to make a change in their life. Above all its 220 dollar to Join SERVICE TO HUMANITY Call Agent NASEEF +27632807647 (۝) We are seeking that special wisdom and knowledge that would set us free from the bondage to dull and dreary everyday life, while strengthening us in body, mind and spirit, and bringing us the material rewards of wealth, love, and success. The AQEERAH Brotherhood is a true brotherhood of secret knowledge and power. membership into our fraternity is free and normally through a thorough screening. we are here to liberate those who need wealth, riches, power, prosperity, protection and success in all ramification. Agent Ben brotherhood offers all initiate members growth, wealth, fame, power, prosperity and success in all areas of heart desires. we do not demand human sacrifice, the use of any human parts or early personal death as a precondition for you to become our member. we are not suppose to be on the internet but because of questions and comments like:+27632807647 I WANT TO JOIN OCCULT IN SOUTH AFRICA. I WANT TO JOIN REAL OCCULT IN BOTSWANA . I WANT TO JOIN OCCULT TO MAKE MONEY. I WANT TO JOIN OCCULT FOR MONEY. I WANT TO JOIN OCCULT FOR MONEY RITUAL. I WANT TO JOIN OCCULT IN AFRICA TO BE RICH. I WANT TO JOIN GOOD OCCULT FRATERNITY IN BILLIONAIRES SOUTH AFRICA /BOTSWANA. I WANT TO JOIN GREAT ILLUMINATI IN SOUTH AFRICA FOR RICHES. I WANT TO JOIN ILLUMINATI OCCULT IN SOUTH AFRICA OR BOTSWANA. I WANT TO JOIN ILLUMINATI BROTHERHOOD IN SOUTH AFRICA OR BOTSWANA. HOW TO JOIN OCCULT IN SOUTH AFRICA. HOW TO JOIN REAL OCCULT IN BOTSWANA. HOW TO JOIN OCCULT TO MAKE MONEY. HOW TO JOIN OCCULT FOR MONEY. HOW TO JOIN OCCULT FOR MONEY RITUAL. HOW TO JOIN OCCULT IN AFRICA TO BE RICH. HOW TO JOIN GOOD OCCULT FRATERNITY IN SOUTH AFRICA. HOW TO JOIN GREAT ILLUMINATI IN BOTSWANA FOR RICHES. HOW TO JOIN ILLUMINATI OCCULT IN SOUTH AFRICA OR BOTSWANA HOW TO JOIN ILLUMINATI BROTHERHOOD IN SOUTH AFRICA OR . HOW TO MAKE MONEY ONLINE. HOW TO MAKE MONEY IN UGANDA. HOW TO MAKE MONEY IN GHANA. HOW TO MAKE MONEY BY JOINING OCCULT. HOW TO MAKE MONEY BY JOINING ILLUMINATI. FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO:want to join occult in south Africa how can i join secret society or cult to make money how can join occult for riches i want to be rich but i do not know how etc. how do i do money ritual how do i join good occult that will not affect me and my family forever we are now here for you. Kindly Whatsupp us on(+27632807647 or email: naseefbahwan7@gmail.com for details on what to do MONEY,POSH CAR,MAGIC RING,MEMBERSHIP ID,GREEN ****,CERTIFICATE AND GOWN WEBSITE: naseefbahwan7.blogspot.com

Brownsea Castle, also known historically as Branksea Castle, originally a Device Fort constructed by Henry VIII between 1545 and 1547 to protect Poole Harbour in Dorset, England, from the threat of French attack.

 

Located on Brownsea Island, it comprised a stone blockhouse with a hexagonal gun platform, garrisoned by the local town with six soldiers and armed with eight artillery pieces. The castle remained in use after the original invasion scare had passed and was occupied by Parliament during the English Civil War of the 1640s. By the end of the century, however, it had fallen into disuse.

 

In 1726 the castle was converted into a private residence by William Benson, despite complaints from the town of Poole. Benson and the subsequent owners extended the original blockhouse to form a country house, landscaping the surrounding island to create ornamental gardens and lakes. The 19th century saw continued building work by the castle's occupants, including the entrepreneur Colonel William Waugh, who erected various Jacobethan-styled extensions. A serious fire in 1896 gutted the castle, which was restored by Major Kenneth Robert Balfour. The wealthy stockbroker Charles Van Raalte led a lavish lifestyle at Brownsea at the start of the 20th century, using it to house his collection of antique musical instruments.

 

Brownsea Castle was purchased by Mary Bonham-Christie in 1927. She allowed the property to fall into disrepair and by the time of her death in 1961 it was in a very poor condition. It was then purchased by the National Trust and leased to the John Lewis Partnership, who restored it over many years. In the 21st century it is still used by the Partnership as a corporate hotel for their employees and retired staff.

Brownsea Castle, also known historically as Branksea Castle, originally a Device Fort constructed by Henry VIII between 1545 and 1547 to protect Poole Harbour in Dorset, England, from the threat of French attack.

 

Located on Brownsea Island, it comprised a stone blockhouse with a hexagonal gun platform, garrisoned by the local town with six soldiers and armed with eight artillery pieces. The castle remained in use after the original invasion scare had passed and was occupied by Parliament during the English Civil War of the 1640s. By the end of the century, however, it had fallen into disuse.

 

In 1726 the castle was converted into a private residence by William Benson, despite complaints from the town of Poole. Benson and the subsequent owners extended the original blockhouse to form a country house, landscaping the surrounding island to create ornamental gardens and lakes. The 19th century saw continued building work by the castle's occupants, including the entrepreneur Colonel William Waugh, who erected various Jacobethan-styled extensions. A serious fire in 1896 gutted the castle, which was restored by Major Kenneth Robert Balfour. The wealthy stockbroker Charles Van Raalte led a lavish lifestyle at Brownsea at the start of the 20th century, using it to house his collection of antique musical instruments.

 

Brownsea Castle was purchased by Mary Bonham-Christie in 1927. She allowed the property to fall into disrepair and by the time of her death in 1961 it was in a very poor condition. It was then purchased by the National Trust and leased to the John Lewis Partnership, who restored it over many years. In the 21st century it is still used by the Partnership as a corporate hotel for their employees and retired staff.