Knotty Posted 20 July , 2019 Share Posted 20 July , 2019 8 hours ago, Uncle George said: Whenever I'm bored I travel abroad but ever so properly, Port out, starboard home, posh with a capital P! Nice one Uncle George. So far all I have worked out is that this is a line from the play Chitty Chitty Bang Bang that was sung by Grandpa Potts......I will have another go after a nights sleep. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
seaJane Posted 21 July , 2019 Share Posted 21 July , 2019 8 hours ago, Uncle George said: Whenever I'm bored I travel abroad but ever so properly, Port out, starboard home, posh with a capital P! Who’s this then ? ? ? That looks like EM Forster, but what the GW connection can be I have no idea. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marilyne Posted 21 July , 2019 Share Posted 21 July , 2019 hi all, back from the Nijmegen marches and have got some time now for research … looks like Mr Forster - if it is him - was a conscientious objector who worked for the Brititsh Red Cross during the war, looking for soldiers gone missing. M. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uncle George Posted 21 July , 2019 Share Posted 21 July , 2019 9 hours ago, seaJane said: That looks like EM Forster, but what the GW connection can be I have no idea. 1 hour ago, Marilyne said: was a conscientious objector who worked for the Brititsh Red Cross during the war, looking for soldiers gone missing. Yes indeed. Forster’s war service is sketched here: https://fantastic-writers-and-the-great-war.com/war-experiences/e-m-forster/ and here (also the source of the photograph): https://www.exploringsurreyspast.org.uk/themes/subjects/diversity/lgbt-history/fwwhomosexuality/forster-fww/ ‘Posh’ is a clumsy clue to Forster’s novel ‘A Passage to India’. Wikipedia tells us the word is sometimes (but incorrectly) thought to be “an acronym from ‘port out, starboard home’, referring to nineteenth century first-class cabins on ocean liners, which were shaded from the sun on outbound voyages east (e.g. from Britain to India) and homeward heading voyages west.” Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ron Clifton Posted 21 July , 2019 Share Posted 21 July , 2019 (edited) How about this chap? He served in both world wars, reaching the rank of lieutenant-colonel. He was noted as a prodigious diarist (over 91 years) and became a schoolteacher. He was the headmaster of the first co-educational grammar school in England. He died in Zimbabwe aged 104 and his ashes are buried in East London. Edited 21 July , 2019 by Ron Clifton Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uncle George Posted 21 July , 2019 Share Posted 21 July , 2019 33 minutes ago, Ron Clifton said: How about this chap? He served in both world wars, reaching the rank of lieutenant-colonel. He was noted as a prodigious diarist (over 91 years) and became a schoolteacher. He was the headmaster of the first co-educational grammar school in England. He died in Zimbabwe aged 104 and his ashes are buried in East London. He is Ernest Loftus. I see he’s in the ‘Guinness Book of Records’ as the most durable (is this the right word?) diarist ever. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ron Clifton Posted 21 July , 2019 Share Posted 21 July , 2019 Well done Uncle George. Loftus it is. Straying off-topic a bit, he was succeeded as headmaster by a former RAF officer. Can you identify him too? Ron Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uncle George Posted 21 July , 2019 Share Posted 21 July , 2019 1 hour ago, Ron Clifton said: Well done Uncle George. Loftus it is. Straying off-topic a bit, he was succeeded as headmaster by a former RAF officer. Can you identify him too? Ron I see he was Frank Young DFC, but I haven’t found much about him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ron Clifton Posted 21 July , 2019 Share Posted 21 July , 2019 He was the headmaster throughout my sister's and my attendance at the school. Shortly after I left, the school was made comprehensive, and Mr Young moved to become head of another grammar school nearby, where one of his teachers was our Pal. During WW2 Sqn Ldr Young flew Pathfinders under Air Vice-Marshal Bennett. But we are straying from the Great War. Ron Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted 22 July , 2019 Share Posted 22 July , 2019 Well, let's stray for a mo- Frank was my boss at Ilford County High School for Boys- he was dour-the son of a Yorkshire Methodist preacher and a Maths teacher was unilkely to be singing "Roll Out the Barrel". In retrospect, he was the fairest Head I served-he would eat you alive within his domain but leave you alone for everything else. As a Magistrate, he was-surprisingly-considered a soft touch. He was an AC until 1941, when commissioned and got his DFC after the war, July 1945, in one of the "Anyone we forgot" exercises. There is a Pathfinder site with a bit of information- 2 forced landings in Mosquitos after raids (one on a German oil refinery) late in the war. I look back on him with respect and a certain liking-the more so after the generations of untrustworthy apparatchiks that have posed as "heads" since then. Rant over-Back to 14-18. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neverforget Posted 6 September , 2019 Share Posted 6 September , 2019 Who is this??? Serbs, Romanians, Italians, French, Russians, and Belgians all have a reason to be grateful to him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neverforget Posted 7 September , 2019 Share Posted 7 September , 2019 Churchill too! Engineer and inventor. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Knotty Posted 7 September , 2019 Share Posted 7 September , 2019 (edited) Hi NF I thought I read somewhere that you were not going to be on WIT😀 Edited 7 September , 2019 by Knotty Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Knotty Posted 7 September , 2019 Share Posted 7 September , 2019 (edited) Would it be a very young Hiram Stevens Maxim? (Yes I’m still around) Edited 7 September , 2019 by Knotty Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neverforget Posted 7 September , 2019 Share Posted 7 September , 2019 12 minutes ago, Knotty said: Hi NF I thought I read somewhere that you were not going to be on WIT😀 7 minutes ago, Knotty said: Would it be a very young Hiram Stevens Maxim? (Yes I’m still around) After Monday's little adventure I was very nearly not going to be on anything, but like you, I too am still around, John, plus a couple of spare parts 😉 Not Maxim. My man is French. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uncle George Posted 7 September , 2019 Share Posted 7 September , 2019 53 minutes ago, neverforget said: After Monday's little adventure I was very nearly not going to be on anything, but like you, I too am still around, John, plus a couple of spare parts 😉 Not Maxim. My man is French. Is he August-Louis Adrian? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neverforget Posted 7 September , 2019 Share Posted 7 September , 2019 9 minutes ago, Uncle George said: Is he August-Louis Adrian? Hats off to you sir, he is indeed. Responsible for the eponymous helmet. https://fr.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Adrian Picture from here: https://www.polytechnique.edu/bibliotheque/fr/adrian-louis-x1878 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Knotty Posted 7 September , 2019 Share Posted 7 September , 2019 Well played UG. Surprised that whilst going through French inventions that the famous Etch-a-Sketch was not a USA patent, along with the stethoscope being French. You learn something new everyday. John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michaeldr Posted 7 September , 2019 Share Posted 7 September , 2019 I've enjoyed this 5 hours ago, neverforget said: Churchill too! Great subject n great clue! Well done Uncle George Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neverforget Posted 7 September , 2019 Share Posted 7 September , 2019 3 hours ago, michaeldr said: I've enjoyed this Great subject n great clue! Well done Uncle George Cheers. There's just no fooling mon oncle though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uncle George Posted 8 September , 2019 Share Posted 8 September , 2019 This chap had an astonishing career. Clue: ‘Casablanca’ has often appeared on this thread; and indeed, We’ll always have Paris. (I found this photograph on this Forum, posted by Forum Pals Kimberley John Lindsay and alantwo. I’ll link their thread and quote the original source in due course.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fattyowls Posted 8 September , 2019 Share Posted 8 September , 2019 Conrad Veidt as the only main actor in Casablanca that served in the German Army that I can think of. I'm not confident as I fear I am taking the clue too literally, but mainly because it doesn't look anything like him. I often find that this is a drawback. Pete Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uncle George Posted 8 September , 2019 Share Posted 8 September , 2019 19 minutes ago, Fattyowls said: Conrad Veidt as the only main actor in Casablanca that served in the German Army that I can think of. I'm not confident as I fear I am taking the clue too literally, but mainly because it doesn't look anything like him. I often find that this is a drawback. Pete Not him Pete, no. The clue is ‘Paris’. A clumsy clue, I give you that; but a clue nevertheless. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fattyowls Posted 8 September , 2019 Share Posted 8 September , 2019 Clumsy or otherwise a clue is a clue mon oncle; only the conclusion of the WiT? will reveal that. How about Dietrich von Choltitz? After all that we all have Paris is in large part down to him. I'm still not convinced that the slightly paunchy man in the WW2 photos looks anything like him and the regiment doesn't match, but I love Paris and I am eternally grateful that the answer to the question "Is Paris Burning?" was no. Pete Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neverforget Posted 8 September , 2019 Share Posted 8 September , 2019 Well I'm pretty sure it isn't Howard Koch, but apart from that I'm totally "lost in France" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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