One of the people they treat in casualty is an MP (with a young and icky wife, Mrs. Cowdrie) , and on that thin gruel, I give you:Lord Ninian Crichton-Stuart (Did his parents not consider possible nicknames??)
Lieutenant-Colonel Lord Ninian Edward Crichton-Stuart (15 May 1883 – 2 October 1915) was a British Member of Parliament (MP) killed in the First World War. He was the second son of John Crichton-Stuart, 3rd Marquess of Bute and Hon. Gwendolen Mary Anne Fitzalan Howard.
He left the army after his marriage to the Hon. Ismay Preston in 1906 to concentrate on politics. In 1907 he was adopted as the Unionist candidate for the United Boroughs of Cardiff, Cowbridge and Llantrisant. He lost the election to D.A. Thomas in January 1910 but was successful in winning the seat in the December 1910 election.
In 1912 he took command of the 6th Battalion, the Welsh Regiment. He was killed in action on 2 October 1915, while leading the 6th Welsh in a night attack on the Hohenzollern Redoubt, near La Bassée, aged 32.
Lord Ninian married the Hon. Ismay Lucretia Mary Preston, daughter of Jenico Preston, 14th Viscount Gormanston and Georgina Jane Connelan, on 16 June 1906; they had 4 children.
After his death, his widow remarried on 30 April 1917 Captain Archibald Henry Maule Ramsay (4 May 1894 - 11 March 1955), later a Scottish Unionist MP for Peebles and South Midlothian 1931-1945; he is better known today as one of the most prominent British fascists(!!!). Ramsay and his wife had four sons together. Mrs Ramsay died 16 February 1975 aged 92, and was survived by six of her eight children.
I"m a little fascinated by the wife...Ismay. Her first husband was an MP...and so was her second. What are the odds? Was she the power behind the throne? Is so, why a fascist?
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| My favorite MP. |
The council house (also called council estate or council housing), otherwise known as a local authority house, is a form of public or social housing. The term is used primarily in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. Council houses were built and operated by local councils to supply uncrowded, well built homes on secure tenancies at reasonable rents to primarily working class people. Council house development began in the late nineteenth century and peaked in the mid-20th century, at which time council housing included many large suburban "council estates" and also many urban developments featuring tower blocks. Some of these developments did not live up to the hopes of their supporters, and now suffer from urban blight.
When Louise and Aldo travel to Scotland they take a break and he points her to a place behind the 'potted palms'. It kind of makes her sound like a pet in need of a pet 'convenience'. I don't know if it's because I've always lived in the western part of the U.S. or if it's because I'm from a solidly middle-class background...but I can't think of one place that I've been to where the euphemisms were behind 'potted palms'. That said, I can tell you where nearly every, easy to get to from the freeway, toilet is between me and Betty Keira (200+ miles) and between me and Salt Lake City, Utah (800+ miles). I'm learning the ones between me and Byron, Wyoming (900+ miles). 
While we're on the subject of car travel, what did Betty have against having the radio on in the car? I'm not sure I can think of one example of having a radio, tape deck (8-track or cassette) or CD player on in a car. Some of the RDDs or REDs have mobile phones of some sort or another...but they don't ever discuss having tapes or CDs. I find that seeing what another person carries in their car can tell a lot about a person. Riding in Betty Keira's mini-van I can depend on at least one Neil Diamond CD - and her new Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi soundtrack. My van is much more likely to have home-burned mix CDs (I used to ask my #2 son to burn me a CD or two before trips. We share a somewhat similar taste in music - so he could put a lot of what he liked on them - thus introducing his aged mother to new favorites). A little over a year ago I got Dr. van der Stevejinck an ipod player - the kind that plugs into the lighter. We can now listen to most of our music library...and I do have enough skill (barely) to create play lists.We get to see Litrik and Francesca, crossover characters, from not only The Secret Pool, but also The Girl With Green Eyes.
My biggest problem with No Need to Say Goodbye is Zöe. It's not so much that she's annoying (which she is), it's that Louise has no compunction with trying to set her up with a man old enough to be her father...the man that she finally realizes she, Louise, loves. Granted, his age may not be given, but we can safely assume he's in the 35-39 year old age range. How do you get over the plot device, 'But Zöe's only 19 ?!?'
Betty Barbara here--
ReplyDeleteIn theory, British Council Housing is a step up from the US Public Housing, in that Council housing was supposed to be for the working class and US public housing was generally for those on welfare/public assistance.
In actuality, it so depended on the size and scope of the housing project. Whoever decided that towers and blocks of towers was a Good Idea had rocks in his head. (Almost all of the tower housing in the US has been taken down and replaced with low-level apartments or townhouses--see above mention of 'urban blight'!)
Betty Barbara here--
ReplyDeleteOh yes! re: knowing where all the rest stops are on often traveled roads. And usually, where all the McD's/Burger Kings/ etc. are too!
I have fond memories of travels in the Deep South in the 50's and 60's and stopping at the Stuckey's stores (Pecan candies and clean rest rooms!!) And, in the era before every gas station having a mini-mart, knowing which gas stations had clean rest-rooms. Hey, cross-country travel in the pre-Interstate days was a real adventure, I tell you.
I watch a lot of British crime shows on Netflix and the towers that remain are depicted as a bare step up from a crack house! Sad.
ReplyDeleteMy father was an Army man, then a long-haul trucker. We're talking Discipline. Order. HUGE BLADDER CAPACITY!
Remember, my father was the only male with a wife and six daughters. And his rule was, get out when the car stops for gas, get to the bathroom, do your business and be back in the car when I come from the men's room. My oldest sister was married before I was born so it was rare (but it did happen) that he traveled with all of us at once, but still, we're talkin' 5 women compared to gassing the car, paying for it and dad going.
At the time I was born, Mom and Dad owned a fishing lodge in Northern Ontario. Many weekends found them zooming up after dad got off work on Friday night and he'd drop off mom and whichever girls came along, do whatever heavy repair work needed to be done, review the books with my uncle and then he'd zoom back home on Sunday. It was about a 10 hour trip back then.
My sisters Helen & Jean were about 14 & 15 back then. (They were 15 & 16 when I was born) and they were the ones who ALWAYS had to try Dad's patience. We would stop (the ONLY stop) at the Thousand Islands bridge (Rainbow Bridge? Peace Bridge? One is at Niagara Falls - I forget just now - I think Rainbow is at 1000 Is.) and he'd get gas and bait and everyone would do the Potted Palms trip and probably get a drink or a snack. It'd be around midnight or after, depending if Dad had gotten a nap before we headed from home.
By this time, J & H were both sneaking smoking, so they waited until all the rest had left the bathroom before they lighted up. Just HAD to have smokes. Dad was furious that they weren't ready so he got everyone else in the car, drove a mile up the road and parked. For 2 hours.
The girls were FRANTIC.
Point was made!
Kim & I grew up with that example - we were ALWAYS ready!
me<><
I'm on the clock here (traveling with Betty Ross) so I'll do this as bullets:
ReplyDelete- Betty Henry's MP was Glenda Jackson, the actress.
- Anyone else watching Law & Order, UK? There have been council flats in a few episodes.
- I believe the potted palms weren't euphemisms but actual potted palms, with the door to the "Ladies" tucked discreetly behind them! But The Great Betty was of the same generation as Betty Henry's mum, who used the euphemism, "Spend a penny" for going to the Ladies'. That dates back to the bad old days when you actually needed to put one of those huge pennies in the stall door to access the toilet.
I always took Zoe as a commentary on the way The Young People refer to men as "fab" and "lovely" etc. -- the point being that at 19, Zoe keeps saying how much she likes Aldo in language that The Great Betty (and thus her stand-in, the heroine) and us would deem romantic when in the UK it's just overly enthusiastic.