Category: History

The Creations

After my ancestor, Patrick Bellew, was created Baron Bellew in the Peerage of Ireland in 1848 only three more Irish Peerages were handed out. That doesn’t sound quite right, but you know what I mean; namely Lord Fermoy (1865), Lord Rathdonnell and the Duke of Abercorn (both 1868).

Between the Wars

You may recall that Alan Brooke was frustrated by Alexander’s lack of strategic vision in the North African and Italian campaigns in the Second World War (Trials and Tribulations). Was he being unfair?

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Gimcrack

Last month I alluded to two new “Bonking Biogs” and human nature being what it is, read the shorter of the two first: Gimcrack, A Rake’s Progress by Tony Scotland.

Who Won the War?

Who won the war? There is a strong argument that without massive American production of ships, ‘planes, guns and munitions (materiel), Germany would have won the war; even Stalin thought so.

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Bertie Goes to Bungay

Only one’s closest friends welcome Bertie as an overnight guest. This is his fourth time away, and two of the previous stays were in France. So far, it has gone well.

Franklin and Winston

Reading Doris Kearns Goodwin’s magisterial (no other word could do it justice) No Ordinary Time, I am struck by the similarities and differences between Franklin and Winston during the war.

Cork and Orrery

In September 1941 after supper at the White House, “a jolly party”, Franklin Roosevelt asked his guests to name four outstanding leaders. Eleanor chose: Anne Hutchinson, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Emily Dickinson and Carrie Chapman Catt. Franklin nominated: Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Teddy Roosevelt and the Earl of Orrery.

Our Man in New York

While I read about Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt I am getting another perspective in Henry Hemming’s Our Man in New York.

A Special Relationship

I once played Piquet, an elegant card game with a scoring system as readily learnt as Real Tennis. Churchill in later life played a lot of Bezique especially when he was Prime Minister in his last term, 1951 – 1955. Franklin Roosevelt favoured Poker during his second and third terms in office.

Franklin and Eleanor

Having lived the war with Alan Brooke I am doing it all over again with Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt. A friend, the same friend who gave me Tommy Lascelles’ diaries, has given me No Ordinary Time – Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt: The Home Front in World War II by Doris Kearns Goodwin.