Jean de Selys Longchamps (1912-1943)

Very much enjoyed our little Brussels interlude with much to see, nice to find the Belgian quirky sense of humour still alive and strong. We spent a fair bit of time tracking Herge and his greatest creation Tintin with a very good itinary bought from the Tourist Office on Rue Royale.
Yes Tintins home is unnamed but Herge as any great artsist wrote what he know and what he knew was Brussels so the backdrop of middle 20th Century Brussels. We ventured out to Boitsfort where M's mum was brought up and found rather satonishingly that it was one tram stop, a 5 minute walk from Herges house where he lived from 1939 to 1953 in a period that saw him produce 10 books from King Ottokars Sceptre to Explorers on the Moon.
We also strolled along Avenue Louise - a major artery and shopping venue on the way back and saw the rather striking monument to Jean de Selys Longchamps, a Belgian nobleman who fled to France when Belgium was overrun by the German Army, after being interned by the Vichy authorities he escaped to Britain and was accepted for training as a pilot. He was posted to 609 Squadron which flew Hawker Typhoons. On 20th January 1943 he attacked the Gestapo building located on Avenue Louise in an unauthorised mission for which he was demoted to Pilot Officer but was also awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for the action.
He sadly didnt see the end of the war - dying on 16th August 1943 after his aircraft crash landed at RAF Manston.

Kelso Cochrane (1927-1959)

Last yeasr riots in london meant according to some that London would never be the same again, a clain that Peter Ackroyd pooh-poohed citing the cities long history of civil disturbance. I guess you could go all the way back to the Boudiccan revolt and probably further. there are two dates that appear over and over 1666 and 1940 both of which saw a substantial proportion of the city destroyed. i cant see 2011 ever joining the list.
The 1958 race riots seem to have been overlloked in all the hysterical media jawing over last year. The death of Kelso Cochrane in 1959 (probably by a British Union of Facsists member) triggered repercussions both negative - the Afro-Caribbean communities of West London rose against an institutionally racist community and positive the institution of the of annual Notting Hill carnival in an attempt to express their solidarity, their cultural identity.
Kelso Cochrane is remembered by a plaque on the side of the Earl of Portobello pub just across the road from where he was stabbed. A site that Oswald Mosley later used as a site for one o his hate-mongering speecehes. Looking at the cretins of the EDF it doesnt seem that weve progressed that much...

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...

2012 - Its all going horribly wrong

Well not really. Im hoping that the Chinese New Year will change things for the better. Ive had a couple of days off this week after I came down with a cold / chest infection and this after piling into a crash barrier after misjudging the exit ramp from the A14 in the dark.
Were starting to formulate some (modest) travel plans for the year, plus this year there are also the Lympics. Were taking mum to the Olympic stadium on her birthday. Coming into London from the East is actually pretty exciting though you dont see so much from the train - watching the extraordinary structures grow - The Olympic stadium, the Velodrome, the Aquatic centre and the Anish Kapoor sculpture. The surrounding area is still pretty derelict though criss-crossed by canals - the motorways of the Victorian era.
Hopefully we'll be embarking on our first expedition in a couple of weeks - probably to Portobello Road / Notting Hill using Andrew Duncan's excellent Walking London book. I picked up Derek Sumeray's Track the Plaque last year but have yet to try it Duncans book gives a round experience of the area that youre wandering round and yes there are little enclaves of like minded individuals that are congregated togethre i.e. the musical community in St John's Wood but often its the weird and wonderful juxtapositions of plaques that make fir the interest.
Besides those we’re planning a trip to Brussels and the Tintin museum plus possibly a couple more city breaks – maybe within the UK and maybe relatively close to home – Amsterdam, Paris or Western Germany. After our Mexico trip were taking it a little bit easy with a view to a big trip in 2013.
In the meantime we endure the delights of the British winter. I still don’t understand why people take summer holidays (well obviously if you have kids then you fit in with school holidays) when winter is just so pants. Still the days are getting longer (he says in a desperate attempt to convince himself) Both M and I have been a little down, suffering from the post holiday blues (not to mention various sneezes and wheezes) – the drawback of a good break is the contrast between it and the return to work.

2012 - The last year

Well it is according to the Mayans who were beeeeg astrology fans - aligning their buildings to admit sunlight on auspicious days - creating observatories (the one at Chichen itza is particularly fine) it may well be that their temples were remodelled every 52 years, the Calender round. The Mayans like a lot of civilizations used the calender to govern their activities especially agriculture. Anyhoo the Mayan calander runs out on 21st December this year.
My first choice of holiday destination was kind of out of the question - Ethiopia being in the middle of another dreaful famine that seems somehow to have dropped off the worlds radar. So we decided to venture across the pond and after a week in the user-friendly urban sprawl of Mexico City had a couple of weeks in the Yucatan Peninsula previously home to the aforementioned Mayans. Yucatan is one of the poorer states of Mexico and the inhabitants show their ancestry, broader, flatter faces, darker skins. Mayan (or rather a modern version of it is still spoken. Indeed the written plaques in the many historic sites are written in three languages - Spanish, English and Mayan. Theres a strong seperatist tradition and people are justly proud of their history and their culture. A history thats seen them oppressed and downtrodden more often than not.
We didnt get very far really. We had stays in Valladolid, Merida (the state capital) and Azamel the yellow city and enjoyed them all before returning via not so lovely Cancun and Mexico City. And yes there were plenty of cultural markers including one to Fransisco Canton - builder of what is now the Anthroplogical Museum in Merida then one of the monumental piles built on the Paseo de Montejo - the Meridan answer to the Champs Elysee by the massively rich, their wealth created by henequen which produced sisal.
Canton was governor of the state of Yucatan from 1898-1902 a time that encompassed the end of the Caste War that had been raging for 50 years after Jacinto Pat and Cecilio Chi raised a rebellion against those of Spanish descent who had political and economic control of the area. Of course it could be argued that the caste war was simply a precurser of the larger Mexican Revolution against the landed classes that was on the horizon...

Reverend P.T.B. "Tubby" Clayton (1885-1972)

Another trip to London courtesy of work and astonishingly we decided not to brave the shopping hordes on Oxford Street but instead did a circular walk from Tower Hill through the deserted city or rather City and deserted it certainly was once we walked across Trnity Square home of the merchant navy memorial dotted with poppies after the recent remembrance day ceremonies. Trinity Square was home to Trinity House who were granted a charter by Henry VIII in 1514 - They look after the countries lighthouses and pilots hence the association with the Merchant Navy.Trinity Square was also the place of execution for many who had lost the great game of power and intrique from 1381 to 1747 who were spared death at the end of the rope due to their rank. It was the axe for them although they were many pubic executions conducted as a deterrant to all who opposed the powers that be.
Off to one side of Trinity Square is the blue plaque to the excellently named Philip Thomas Byard Clayton - born in Queensland he was educated at St. Paul's and Exeter College Oxford where he got a first in Theology. He was appointed priest of St. Mary's Church Portsea in 1910. In 1915 he became an army chaplain. He and another chaplain, Neville Talbot opened a rest house for troops in Poperinge, Belgion - Talbot House - translated by army signallers as Toc H. After the war Clayton wanting recreate the cameraderie found by all ranks visiting the establishment founded the Toc H movement - dedicated to four principles - Friendship, to love widely, - Service, to build bravely, Fairmindedness, to think fairly and The Kingdom of God, to witness humbly. The first Toc H house was built in Kensington in 1919 and several others quickly followed aiding those returning from war. Clayton became vicar at All Hallows by the Tower and travelled widely encouraging new investment in his idea.
The Toc H movement is still going strong - it has branches across the world and has kept true to Clayton's original vision.

Willie Rushton (1937-1996)

I think that my memories of Willie Rushton are of his narrating the Winnie the Pooh stories for Jackanory when was a wee'un.
It was only later when I became aware of I'm sorry I haven't a clue that I became of his place in radio history as joint inventor of Mornington Crescent and indeed his place in a groundbreaking generation of I was going to say comics but commentators I guess may be nearer the mark of the sixties satire boom and therefore as a bit of an iconoclast
I'm only an amateur player of Mornington Crescent myself so can only wonder at the likes of Tim Brooke-Taylor and Barry Cryer (a close friend of Rushton's) technical mastery of the game.I always get jammed into an opposing grommit somewhere around victoria :o(
He also gets a HUZZAH for his admittedly minor role in Those Magnificent Men in their Flying machines.
My Sundays aren't the same without I'm sorry i haven't a clue. Yes I enjoy Desert Island Discs and Ill listen to Just a Minute but even without Chairman Humph nothing comes close to ISIHAC.
There are other plaques sited in Tube Stations none of which commemorate a positive - the Kings Cross Fire in 1987 or the 7/7 terrorist attacks - Ruston's plaque at Mornington Crescent is a rather more smile inducing one.
There are quite a few comics blue plaques around - hopefully a few more to be viewed.