Something about a soldier

Posted by on March 10, 2008 8:07 PM

Uniforms are much in the news, but more on that as we progress. Going for a soldier has generally been an unpopular career choice throughout history; drunken, licentious and irrerverent- Kipling rather summed it all up in 'Tommy Atkins'.

Concepts of a uniform system of (usually) regimental dress came around relatively recently, during the Civil Wars when colonels of regiments paid to uniform their men - the ubiquitous red coat became habitual after the formation of the New Model Army in 1645. Before that fighting men were distinguished by badge or livery - medieval footsoldiers wore a coat bearing their Lord's emblem or blazon.

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The Witches of Edlingham - Apology Needed?

Posted by on March 2, 2008 6:43 PM

Witches are again in the news, admittedly after a fairly substantial absence. Many of my generation will recall the superb Hammer version of 'Witchfinder General' with Vincent Price as Matthew Hopkins, winnowing the alleged ranks of the imps of Satan in East Anglia during the Civil Wars.

The obsession with witches persisted until well into the twentieth century - in 1944 a medium, Helen Duncan, was gaoled for offences under the 1735 Witchcraft Act after an allegation of treason foundered. In fact she had revealed in the course of a seance that HMS Barham had gone down with 861 souls on November 25th 1941. This was not public news as the Admiralty had chosen to try and conceal the fact of her loss and the casualties.

Even in the febrile climate of 1941, with Britain under enormous pressure, this seems rather far-fetched, an apology is now being canvassed.

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'Your Papers Please' - a short history of the infamous ID card

Posted by on February 27, 2008 10:33 AM

ID cards are, or have been very much in the news. Some will be watching the rather good BBC serial 'The Last Enemy' currently being screened on Sunday evenings. The producers clearly do not like (a) the government (b) the survelliance society and (c) ID cards. I

I'm with them on all three; as a right-leaning libertarian, I deprecate the continued efforts by our increasingly centralist and authoritarian government to further undermine the rule of law and further curb the liberties of its citizens.

The burden of my argument is simply this. Until now the British police and essentially citizens in unform whose powers are not greatly extended beyond those available to civilians. They have been seen, rightly and to their great credit, as servants of the community. With ID cards that changes; we would not have the right to ask each other to produce but the police would, thus the relationship with the rest of us citizens shifts - the police become agents of the state and that is altogether sinister.

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Dumbing Down the Dumbed Down

Posted by on February 24, 2008 7:43 PM

Well, my piece on Berwick seems to have provoked some stir and, Jim Silvey if you had any notion of history, you might not be so keen for the Scots to take on the Northumbrians, you tried many times in the past and got hammered every time - nothing personal of course.

And you've got the Barnett Formula which must count as a win in anybody's book. Happy to cross broadswords at any time. Tell me did we English wave out hankies at the Battle of the Standard (1138); Halidon Hill (1333), Neville's Cross (1346), Homildon (1402), Flodden (1513), Solway Moss (1542) or Pinkie (1547)?

Now I'd ask to direct your attention to the pernicious practice of dumbing-down in museums. A friend pointed out to me that, in Bolton Museum, curators are now described as 'Collection Rationalisation Officers' - PC, as might be expected, rules.

There is a view amongst liberals that museum visitors, like other non-apparachiks, are to be patronised and not-over-taxed (in a word, contempt). This is intended or stated as being intended to promote diversity, a much abused word, which our masters have transformed from lightness to a leaden curse.

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Battling for Berwick

Posted by on February 19, 2008 7:19 PM

Berwick-upon-Tweed is much in the news; the town, having settled its long feud with Czarist Russia is contemplationg, not for the first time in its long history, where its true identity lies.

A recent pole suggests a putative majority of the citizens might prefer to revert to their Scottish origins. It may be the cynical amongst will detect a greater note of self-interest; obviously care for the elderly, university tuition etc are infinitely more attractive in the Scottish model.

Yet, I would urge caution - should Alba regain independence from Albion then, presumably, the great boon of the Barnett Formula will vanish - as an Englishman, I would pray that it does, before the two nations go to war over ownership of North Sea OIl. An independent Scotland, sundered from the great Earth Mother of the English taxpayer, would not be able to afford such largesse.

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'Allo, 'Allo

Posted by on February 12, 2008 6:48 PM

The Mid-Northumberland Yeomanry were on the streets in AFV (tha't armoured fighting vehicle for any of you who haven't seen a US war movie), last weekend in support of Ponteland Rep who are doing 'Allo, 'Allo this week (Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday & Saturday, 715 at the Memorial Hall in Ponteland).

It never ceases to surprise me as a re-enactor (anorak) how startlingly indifferent people remain when confronted by Germans, Free French and a fair sized gun mounted AFV. We attended a large out-of-town garden centre/retail emporium to confront and offer leaflets to the living dead entering and emerging.

Is it me; or is there something dreadfully depressing about these places, do they not represent a microcosm of our doomed, apostate society sinking into a credit crunch fuelled oblivion? Why do we spend time and money we don't have at inflated rates of usury in such depressing temples of tosh?

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A Very English Pogrom

Posted by on February 6, 2008 7:42 PM

Recently, we've had the annual Holocaust Memorial Day; scarcely an occasion for celebration but a necessary reminder as to the consequences of bigotry and tyranny. Something we need to be particularly aware of as the media nd the state gently sroke the fires of developing racial divide here.

Intolerance is not a phenomenon to which we have been constantly immune. Jacqui Smith, should her proposal for an extended period of detention succeed, will have effectively undermined the rule of law which has taken us a thousand years to acquire by atacking one of its constant pillars, no arrest without trial.

This, coupled with the introduction of ID cards should the measure ever prove feasible, will go a long way toward creating the kind of police state we tend to excoriate in other countries. History provides some illuminating lesons, alarmingly close to home.

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Reiver's Day of Truce

Posted by on January 30, 2008 11:32 AM

'Alas that day I'll ne'er forget'. Thus the balladeer sings of the 'Raid of The Reidswire' - a celebrated fracas which erupted at a truce day on 7th July, 1575.

The complexities and deceits involved in border politics during the Elizabethan age were Byzantine in their entanglements and none more entangled that Sir John Forster, the English Middle March Warden.

By the third quarter of the sixteenth century Sir John was also in his seventies; a doughty fighter who'd borne arms against the Scots all of his adult life and who had been active in suppressing the rebellion of the Northern Earls in 1569 - 1570, he was corrupt to a degree most current politicians would easily recognise.

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Specism and the Steel Bonnets

Posted by on January 23, 2008 12:44 PM

You will all be heartened to hear, as I was, that the PC lobby have invented another 'ism' - specism which may be defined as the act of placing higher moral or ethical value on one species over others suggesting, say, that Newcastle supporters were, in evolutionary terms, ahead of their Wearside rivals, perish the thought; besides 'we're in Heaven - we've got Kevin'.

This is condemned by the thought police as an extension of the logic of racism, the same sort of injustice that discriminates by gender and race. Typical PC tosh of course and as arid as any other of their mantras. What has this to do with local history, aside from giving me a welcome chance to mount another offensive against popular liberal culture. I suspect it has rather a lot to do with history, particularly with the evolution of the Border Reivers, the Steel Bonnets of legend.

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For Liberty alone...

Posted by on January 18, 2008 1:46 PM

A fellow was lecturing yesterday at the National Army Museum ("NAM") in Chelsea. Why does anyone live in London? Judging from a very brief peek into shops in Kensington, the cost of a medium sized handbag would buy you a decent flat up here. At the risk of trotting out another well, if not over-used, expression, the best view to be had of London is looking back as the train slides out of King's Cross - mind you they've made a pretty good job of St. Pancras, nifty landing at Heathrow yesterday too.

My subject was the Battle of Bannockburn 1314, that's the one battle in the 'The Three Hundred Years War' between us Northumbrians and the Scots that the Jocks can clain, pretty fairly, to have won. Obviously if Alex Salmond and the other Bravehearts achieve their desire then prseumably it will all kick off again, time to get the trusty broadsword out from the thatch.

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A Very British Atrocity

Posted by on January 9, 2008 7:49 PM

I'm currently writing a book on the Massacre of Glencoe in 1692. Yes, I know it's been done before, most notably by John Prebble in 1966 but a lot has happened in the intervening four decades which leads me to see the events of 13th February 1692 in a slightly different light.

The 1990's witnessed what we now term 'ethnic cleansing' - the ECHR defnes this, for judicial purposes, as something akin to but not necessarily the same as genocide. There are a series of defined actions which together constitute ethnic cleansing, a bit like a beginner's handbook:

The area to be 'cleansed' must be isolated and cleared of friendlies; the key figures in the victim group must be culled, social and political leaders are killed whilst those capable of bearing arms are segregated and then done away with, whilst non-combatants are expelled from the area - simple really.

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The Ghostly Bridal

Posted by on January 2, 2008 7:05 PM

As midwinter closes in it seems right (dare I say 'appropriate') to have a ghost story; Northumberland's long and violent history has produced a fair crop; the Ghostly Bridal of Featherstone is something of a classic, worthy of Sheridan Le Fanu or perhaps M.R. James

The de Featherstone-Haughs appear in the thirteenth century, their hall-house stood on the present site; pretty woodland where the Hartley Burn flows into the North Tyne. As the Scottish wars drew long and savage a strong tower was added around 1330.

Featherstone sufficiently impressed Cadwallader Bates for him to enthuse it was the finest in the county and the family themselves were active in tumultous border affairs and affrays. In October 1530 Albany Featherstonehaugh, then County Sheriff, was murdered by the Ridleys. A later scion, Timothy, served his king with distinction, being knighted for his good service before he finally fell in the rout at Worcester.

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The 'Other' Home Guard

Posted by on December 20, 2007 1:16 PM

In 1940 Britain faced what was arguably the greatest threat in her history since the last greatest threat, Napoleon, or perhaps the Armada? Hitler was probably more potent than either. He had gobbled up Norway, Denmark, now Holland, Belgium and France. The British Expeditionary Force ("BEF") had managed to escape from the continent by the miracle of Dunkirk, a miracle that rather neatly obfuscated the fact of a shattering military defeat and the collapse of France.

At that point Britain, defeated, isolated, un-prepared and singularly unready, stood alone. The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact appeared to have assured a convenient Nazi/Communist entente and a German attack on Russia seemed the remotest of possiblities. The USA, with its own strong pro-Nazi lobby, stood aloof.

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Anoraksm foreva!

Posted by on December 11, 2007 8:17 PM

Continuing my earlier theme and, to be fair, I'm entitled - I've got thirty years worth of experience to 'share' (the correct modern idiom I think). We share everything these days, Aids, CJD, your personal banking details, so why not historical re-enactment, got to be more fun than HMRC and David Abrahams.

I was, earlier in the day, a crystal clear winter's morning, in full fifteenth century fig, doing a photo shoot for English Heritage near Wooler; the air was needle sharp and North Northumberland provided that particular intimacy which comes with a still, clear mid-winter's day.

The bats had been a problem apparently, and everyone has to be nice to bats; I'd offered to bring a shotgun along and save all the fuss but you can't do that anymore, bats have rights, lucky devils.

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Anorak, moi?

Posted by on December 4, 2007 7:49 PM

Some of you, probably those of a similar vintage may have seen an excellent book by the 'Guardian' correspondent Harry Pearson - ''Achtung Schweinehund; a journey through the author's love afffair with model soldiers.

Well, I can identify with that and the only thing wrong with the book was that I didn't think of the idea first and, being a Tory, it takes a lot to persuade me to read anything from someone who writes for the 'Guardian'.

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Blackshirts

Posted by on November 28, 2007 4:04 PM

This week, apart from the Government's latest tribulations, has seen much attention fixed on the Oxford Union debate where Nick Griffin, leader of the fascist BNP and David Irving, fantasist and pariah, were invited to talk. This may have been a brave or foolish decision, depending on one's point of view.

In the event, the business turned out to be something of a damp squib; the debate so truncated and harassed by protesters as to be largely without impact; whether this is a good or a bad thing again is highly subjective, according to perceptions.

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Apology needed?

Posted by on November 22, 2007 1:17 PM

I was thinking about the battle of Flodden, fought on 9th September, 1513, after a wet and dismal summer (sounds familiar). I've forgotten why the sanguinary events of that particular day sprang to mind, perhaps I felt the need to apologise to someone for something and an apology to the Scots might have seemed, in liberal patois, 'appropriate'.

On the other hand they've got the Barnett Formula and don't seem to want to apologise to us, so perhaps one cancels the other out. I'll be leading a guided walk around the field in September 2008 but I suspect what jogged my memory was, in fact, talking about an entirely different fight - the Battle of Evesham in 1265

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The Sword in the Stone

Posted by on November 15, 2007 6:43 PM

I'm currently writing a book on the 2nd Barons' War 1264 - 1267 and was thinking of illustrations for the arms & armour section - part of the problem these days is that the larger museums and archives charge exorbitant reproduction fees.

In an age where publishers seek to shift more of the cost burden onto the author, this effectively implies that most of the major collections are priced out of the market. However...

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Neville's Cross

Posted by on October 24, 2007 11:17 AM

Those of us who enjoy dates may recall that 17th October marks the anniversary of this famous local fracas, fought in 1346.

At this time the Hundred Years War was just gathering pace and, in that August, the English had resoundingly hammered the French at Crecy.

Even in this dismal epoch of political correctness, which brooks no opposition, beating up the French is still permitted. We apologise to all ethnic minorities everywhere, whether we've offended their great-grandfathers or not but the French are still fair game. Praise the Lord.

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Kinder-transport

Posted by on October 17, 2007 8:17 AM

On the 28th of this month I'll be offering a presentation at the Newcastle Limmud, to be held at Royal Grammar School.

This will focus on two particular aspects of the Holocaust which affected our region; both very different - the Kinder-transport, that influx of young refugees who arrived before the war as escapees from the Nazi tyranny and, the part a battalion of the DLI = 113 Light Anti Aircraft Regiment Royal Artillery (DLI) TA played in the grim task of liberating Belsen.

This latter episode was the subject of a BBC TV drama-documentary earlier in the week.

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Steel Bonnets ride again

Posted by on October 12, 2007 9:07 AM

A fellow was giving a talk on the Border Reivers last evening to Fenham Local History group, amazingly enough in Fenham, in the pleasant surroundings of the art deco library building.

I blame George MacDonald Fraser for the enduring popularity of te reivers as it was he who ressurrected them in 'Steel Bonnets', written, if I'm right in 1971.

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Che Lives

Posted by on October 9, 2007 10:50 AM

Well, actually no he doesn't; yesterday marked the fortieth anniversary of the death of this revolutionary icon; when I was a lad only the junior golfers didn't have one of those iconic posters up on their bedroom wall.

Radio 4 had a remarkable interview with the revered guerrilla's CIA interrogator; the one who received the order from the Bolivian government not to spare his captive's life.

In the circumstances, like Elvis and Princess Diana, this proved to be a huge PR coup.

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