Dusty Springfield (1939-1999)

Well the weekly post doesnt quite seem to be working out :o( Hey ho. An easy one this week after yesterdays wander through Notting Hill from Andrew Duncans Walking London a nice walk walk marred by the tourist hordes thronging Portobello Road Market which meant a minimum of browsing (no bad thing as it meant that bank balances stayed intact.) Fortunately the weather stayed OK until we retreated to S&M for coffee.
So todays plaque was spotted on Aubrey Walk tucked neatly behind the multiple plaqued Campden Hill Gardens which irked M somewhat it being towards the end of the walk and daring to be on a slope that we were required to climb.
Mum and dad never really rated Dusty preferring Aretha - and yeah I can see their point. Dusty sings of "wishin and hopin" and "I just don't know what to do with myself" and Aretha spoke of respect. A much edgier and meaningful deal altogether until you learn of Dusty's struggles against manic depression and struggling to come terms with a non-hetero sexuality at a time when these things were only just beginning to be spoken of...

Joseph T. Clover (1825-1882)

Never heard of him? Nope me neither. His blue plaque is at 3 Cavendish Place at the southern end of Harley Street home of bespoke medical care to the very VERY wealthy.
He was born in Aylsham Norfolk - note to self another plaque to look out for!
He studied at UCL alongside Lister and upon graduation became house surgeon to James Syme and then Resident Medical Officer at the University College Hospital becoming a fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1850 before setting up at the Cavendish Place house as a GP. After several years of practice he became interested in the field of anaesthesia possibly inspired by his presence at Listons first anaesthatised operation in December 1846 and became chloroformist to the University College Hospital and the London Dental Hospital, his specialisation helping to fill the vacancy left by the death of John Snow whos story Ill have to recount another time. In 1871 he reported that hed administered chloroform 7000 times and other aneasthetics 4000 times without a fatality and was sought out by the royal family among others for his expertise. He invented several pieces of equipment to aid the process and to make it more controlled some of which lasted well into the 20th century.
As one whos had a couple of procedures involving general anaesthetic a big thank you to anyone involved in the process and gratitude that we dont live in a pre-anaesthetic age.

Damn it

My will to post on a regular basis is draining at a rate of knots - actually I think its the opportunity thats lacking of late weve been returning late to the flat after opening boxes cleaning and tidying and general homemaking - as yet precious little evidence of my home being made but then as I look around me that would seem to be because most of my chattels would seem to be here in the falat as the sale appears to be making its way through treacle at the moment so a taste of childrood - David McKee has a inscribed pavement slab on the corner of Festing Road - converted to Festive Road in the series

T.E.Lawrence (1888-1935)

Tucked behind the ancient precincts of Westminster Abbey and the very nearly as ancient surrounds of Westminster School lies Barton Street home to a couple of blue plaques. At No. 14 is the plaque to T.E. Lawrence - Lawrence of Arabia.Where he rewrote The Seven Pillars of Wisdom his not quite 100% accurate account of his exploits in the dying embers of the Ottoman empire after he left the original draft on Reading Station.Its an extraordinary tale and one which certainly resonates today.
His pre-war career began with a first at Oxford during which time he travelled to both France and Syria (a trip that involved tramping for a thousand or so miles around the country) to research military architecture, his thesis was on The influence of the Crusades on European Military Architecture – to the end of the 12th century. After graduating he started a postgraduate career at oxford before being offered work as a field archaeologist with among others Leonard Woolley and Flinders Petrie.
At the outbreak of war in 1914 he was coopted into the intellegence services in Cairo as a result of his knowledge of the near and middle east. Hed been in contact with many in the ottoman administration of mesopotamia and their technical advisors when given the prevalent political alliances happened to be german. The Arab Bureau of the Foreign Office esxploited the Arab feelings of discontent under the Ottoman yoke to raise a revolt - the British realised that an uprising would tie up vast amounts of resources that the Turks would otherwise utilise against the allied powers - what would these days be called assymetric warfare.
Lawrence fought alongside the arabs under Emir Faisal councilling avoiding set piece battles instead favouring guerilla tactics - particularly attacking the Hejaz railway and then fading away before the turks could counterattack. In proximity to the arabs, fighting alongside them he came to believe in the importance of Arab independence. Ive been
In 1917 Lawrences troops with assistance from Auda ibn Tayis forces captured Aqaba now Jordans only port. Ive been fortunate enough to travel a little in Jordan - Ive overnighted at Wadi Rum that David Lean used to represent a little patch of Lawrences world in his 1962 film and that Lawrence did accually use as a base.Indeed one of the local mountains is called the seven pillars of Wisdom.
Before the end of teh war Lawrence was involved with the capture of Damascus and the setting up of a provisional arab government. It was shortlived the british and the french carving up the middle east in the Sykes-Picot agreement which also mandated Iraq as under british rule (how times change) Lawrences dream of a united arab nation stretching from Syria to Yemen died at that point.
Would the rise of radical islam have happened if the allied powers had been a little less fixated on their own self-interest? I dont know - hindsight is always 20/20 after all but the manipulation of the arabian peninsula has certainly made us no friends

Harold Abrahams (1899-1978)

I guess that most people know of Harold Abrahams through Chariots of Fire, Hugh Hudson's 1981 film of two contrasting athletes part in the 1924 Olympics. I think that Chariots of Fire was maybe the first video along with Kagemusha that I rented, we were staying with the O'Learys in Kettleborough and as a special treat had a visit to Woodbridge and a video rental shop.
One exchange from the film sttays with me. Its between Harold and his wife to be, Sybil.

Harold: I'm what I call semi-deprived.
Sybil: That sounds clever what does it mean?
Harold:It means they lead me to water but they won't let me drink.

Harold was Jewish and his sense of frustration and the need to fight against the restrictions that bound him runbs through the film. His plaque is in Hodford Road in Golders Green still a very Jewish area, cosy and middle class. He went up to Cambridge and read law at Gonville and Caius (again battling the status quo) and there his athletic potential came to the fore and was part of the British Team for the 1924 Paris Olympics. He ran the 100 metres which he won in a time of 10.6 seconds, the 200 metres where he placed 6th and the 4x100 metre relay where the British came 2nd. He broke his leg in 1925 competing in the long jump and his career came to a close. He was a sports journalist for 40 years and commentated on Athletics for the BBC, including the Berlin Olympics and was chairman of the Amateur Athletics Association and the Jewish Athletic Association.

Its these little plots of surburbia throwing up extraordinary people that I love and I genuinely think that I got an insight into what inspired Harold Abrahams to "run them off their feet"

William Abling

Isn't name that you should recognise. He was a watchmaker in the early 19th century in Wynyatt Road in Islington. The area was apparently well known for horologists. I guess a remnant of the old guild system from the middle ages. We'd wandered south from Angel tube after a bit of a wander round central London - Covent Garden to be specific. We were in town for Valentine's Day after flying in to Heathrow the previous evening after our week in Malta. The holiday was a bit of a disappointment actually. You'd think that an island that rich in history would treasure it's heritage but the government seem much more intent on milking the lucrative tourist trade. Don't get me wrong the history is there but it's pretty far down the list on the typical sunseeker's priority list - after sun, cheap booze, english-speaking natives, familiar food and the list goes on...We'd surveyed the Grand Master's Palace in Valletta now the home of the Maltese government and a rather impressive armoury of mediaeval pointyness and spent our few remaining Euros before surveying the mounting insanity of Carnival before rattling out to Sliema to collect our bags and return to the charabang thronged bus station and heading out to the airport. We took the tube into town from Heathrow which is always rather special to me although more so if you do it in the light of for preference as the sun goes down. We made it across town to Stratford where we collapsed for the night. The hotel was maybe not somewhere to spend vast amounts of time but for a night and a night when we were both exhausted it wasnt a problem. It was nice to sit in bed and watch the city come to life - not something that I usually get in my little backwater of a backwater. We tubed it into town clutching our Starbucks, our bank balances checked and headed first for Foyles and then the Radley and Tintin shops in Covent Garden before wandering round the market after discovering the late start for the shops. We spotted a couple of plaques before heading up to Angel for our target the aforementioned William Abling. Theres very little known about the man - a quick websearch brings up the fact that he was known to have lived at the house in Wynyatt Street according to the Clock Museum but they didn't know of the plaque. All very mysterious...actually I rather like that idea - a plaque devoted to someone that noone knows anything about. But thats the thing about a city isnt it - the interactions of millions of individuals and whos to say that William Abling didnt in his own way affect history because isnt that what chaos theory teaches us? That every action affects the world? Maybe at some point we'll return to the subject of John Harrison, chronometers and their affect on the history of the world....