Landships II

Again, only tangentially connected with our hobby, but I feel that peripheral topics have their place. I hope you find these little anecdotes entertaining.

The story begins with a visit to Warwick Castle , a few miles away from where we now live..

I was surprised to see that Warwick is not a city , merely a town. Odd, considering it is the county town of Warwickshire. But there you are.

What really surprised me was this:

Yes, that Saumur. I had no idea.

As you'll see from the Wiki article, parts of the castle date from the Middle Ages right up to the 19th century. As with many castles, the most recent parts resemble a stately home, rather than a castle. The late 19th century rooms feature the 'Royal Weekend party'. This is effectively a recreation, using very realistic wax models, of a Royal weekend party that Frances, Duchess of Warwick (lovingly known as Daisy*) arranged in 1898. Full details here.

Her Royal and distinguished guests included Prince Edward, with his son Prince George and young Winston Churchill, later to become Sir Winston Churchill, the Prime minister. And also . . . Field Marshall Lord Roberts, V.C., champion of charities for disabled ex-servicemen, and recently featured on the Landships Forum: https://landships.activeboard.com/t68575204/lord-roberts-workshops-dummy-tank/

His Lordship is shown putting on his bow tie in readiness for the evening's wining and dining. (I forgot my camera, and couldn't get a decent shot of the mannequin, so this one I've pinched off the internet will have to do.)

So there we are. A couple of unexpected coincidences on the same day. Not especially relevant, but I find these things brighten up one's day.

(*To whom the song Daisy, Daisy refers.)