1405
Both Rudyard Kipling and the Royal Navy saw Greek sovereignty as a universal symbol of freedom.
In 1821, the Greeks declared independence from the Ottoman Empire, setting off a bloody revolution that ended in victory for the Greeks. A century later, as the Ottoman Turks shared defeat with Germany in the Great War, Kipling and the Royal Navy rubbed a little salt in wounds old and new.
Picture: © Sailko, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 3.0.. Source.
Posted March 29 2016
1406
Kipling borrowed from the Greek Independence movement to give thanks for the end of the Great War.
Kipling’s poem, published at the end of the Great War in the ‘Daily Telegraph’ on October 17, 1918, is a verse-paraphrase of the Greek National Anthem. The original was composed by Dionýsios Solomós in 1823, and ran to 158 verses.
Picture: Photo supplied by Imperial War Museums, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.. Source.
Posted March 24 2016
1407
Rudyard Kipling’s much-loved verses are a reflection on what it is that builds real character.
First published in Rewards and Fairies (1910), the verses below followed a story about George Washington’s principles of leadership, though Kipling tells us that the initial inspiration for the poem had been his friend Storr Jameson, Prime Minister of the Cape Colony in 1904-8. ‘If...’ quickly became, as it has remained ever since, one of the nation’s favourites.
Picture: By John Collier (1881), via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.. Source.
Posted March 24 2016
1408
Mild-mannered Grace Darling persuaded her father to let her help him rescue the survivors of a shipwreck.
Grace Darling was just 22 when she helped her father rescue the survivors of a shipwreck on the Farne Islands off the Northumberland coast. It was a moment of instinctive heroism that would change her life forever.
Picture: © Jim Barton, Geograph. Licence: CC-BY-SA 2.0.. Source.
Posted March 23 2016
1409
When Penda tried to burn down Bamburgh Castle, St Aidan turned the pagan King’s own weapons against him.
St Aidan (?590-651) came from the island of Iona to Northumbria during the reign of King Oswald, and remained there under Oswald’s successors until his death in 651. He settled himself on the island of Lindisfarne.
Picture: © David White, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC-BY-SA 2.0.. Source.
Posted March 20 2016
1410
At Bamburgh, John Sharp organised free healthcare and education, bargain groceries, and the world’s first coastguard service.
John Sharp’s 18th-century charitable trust at Bamburgh Castle is often dubbed a ‘welfare state’ today, but that is misleading. There were no laws or taxes, no inflated public sector salaries or party politics, just spontaneous generosity and the freedom to get the job done.
Picture: © Lisa Jarvis, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC-BY-SA 2.0.. Source.
Posted March 20 2016