The Goldmine.
  • Spy vs Spy
    • At Fox River
    • Patty and the Tet Offensive
    • Pale and Interesting >
      • More pale and interesting
      • Older, still pale, possibly only interesting to a couple of people
    • The Heckler and Koch Affair
    • Spy vs Spy
  • Peeling the Onion
  • Old unhappy far-off things
    • Wipers and the Ypres League
    • Fanny and Cobber.
    • In Memoriam
  • Slightly Saltirical
    • A Dexter Hand
    • The Boar-Worshippers
  • Taken by the Hand
    • Geranium Days
    • The Lockhart Papers
    • A Martial Aspect
    • O Perfect Love >
      • Sonnets Unplugged
      • Stout Cortez
    • Tea and an Ascot
  • Childe Harold
    • Monikers >
      • The Sandman and Sleipnir
    • Bos Indicus
    • Three things in a field >
      • Dance With A Bull
  • Eureka (Stockade)
    • Two for Joy
    • At the Bottom of the Garden >
      • Coins of the Realm
  • Superstitious Nonsense
    • Leaves of Tea
  • The Best of Times
    • The Space Race >
      • C.P.Snow
  • Sorry luv, I missed that.
  • Valley Girls
    • Britten, B et al >
      • Gammon and Spinach
      • The Blue Flowers >
        • The Beautiful People
        • The girls from 9DY Rangi Ruru >
          • The Fires of Hell and other Works of Art
        • The Cat's Paw and other Feline Fables
        • Flowers in Bloom
      • The Moon and Daisies
      • Snowmaiden Revelry
  • Sitting on Custard
  • The Long White Grass
    • Somewhere...
  • I have pictures
  • The Queen's Cake
  • A Portrait by Hoppner
  • The Iron Fist.
    • Slow twitching gams.
  • Whips and Whatnot
  • Showering with Friends

Old unhappy far-off things.

Men on horses.

Picture
The Battle of Beersheba.
Apparently it went quite well (for one side, at least) and you can read more about it in the oracle. No-one related to me was there, as far as I know. But in 1885 my great-grandfather (William Barwick) went with the NSW contingent to the Sudan to fight there. He also served with the Australian Bushmen during the Boer War where his horsemanship was useful. (William died in 1958, aged 95 years.)

Picture
Kitchener, Jellicoe, Haig.
Picture
Courcelette, France. This battle was the one in which Walter Blythe, the brilliant handsome poet son of Anne of Green Gables, died.

Jellicoe of Scapa

Picture
At the base of the Oamaru War Memorial
I have been given to understand that the deck armour should have been thicker, and that other mistakes were made. (The war was nearly lost in a day.) However, Jellicoe survived,  and was Governor-General of New Zealand some years later.
 I have a book called 'Jutland Cottage' by that prolific and highly entertaining author, Angela Thirkell. Thirkell adopted Trollope's Barsetshire setting and characters, but wrote in her own time and has thereby left an extraordinary (possibly) record of English life pre- and post-World War II. I don't suppose anyone reads her now, except as a curiosity. She also wrote 'Trooper to the Southern Cross'. That's about some other battles, also long ago.