Keelings v's Sedlescombe 31st August 2014

We all met at the Brickwall (George’s favourite hostelry) for lunch, generously supplied by Mum & Dad and the whole team was present!  Nine Keelings and 2 ringers supplied by Kate Keeling (Will Crompton & Steve Watkins).  The weather was fine, barometer climbing  and all set fair.

The match started promptly following the loss of the toss by Paul, we were put into bat.  It all started well enough with an opening stand of 69.  Only ending with the loss of Josh’s wick for 40 (top Keeling score).  Will Cromption then came in and the score continued to 96 until he fell for 15.  From here things turned rather grave and the only highlights of what followed (a middle order collapse tailgated by a tail end capitulation?) were Harry’s 12 and Luke’s unbeaten 19. Long and the short of it saw us coming in early for tea, all out for 137.

We had batted for 38 overs, quite a lot for not many runs?  The general view though was that this was a little thin!

And so it proved.  In their 31st over Sedlescombe went past our score and secured victory.  In almost all areas of the game I feel we probably have to admit defeat, EXCEPT in that most important of areas ‘Esprit de Corps’.  In this area, with our never say die attitude and bulldog spirit, we aced ‘em.  So Hussar for the Keelings and heads up for next year.

And now for some history -  Having checked with the archivist I can report the following (slightly uncertain) ‘facts’:

The first fixture of this match was post war and a one off, happened sometime between 1947 and 1950.  Grandpa, Jack Keeling, was captain and the pitch at that time was down where the A21 is now.

The next match was not played until (we think) 1966, Dad was captain and Trevor Keeling and Howard Palmer played aged 12?.  It has been a pretty constant fixture since then.

So, we are either nearing the 50th anniversary or (at a stretch) on the 67th!! Nearing the 50th is what I’d go for.
Comments
I've read today you've got 11 Keelings and it's a world record, is the story on-line somewhere?
Posted by: Dave Thompson | August 26, 2016 at 06:57 PM

Harumph. See what happens when you go the Brickwall. It's under the curse of Keeling.
Posted by: george keeling | September 08, 2014 at 06:24 AM

Paul is the mostest! Long live Paul !
Love Mum...
Posted by: Jenifer Keeling | September 07, 2014 at 04:54 PM

Rallying news

Some news from Somerset. Edward and his seven friends have completed their 1,000 mile bike ride from Trafalgar Square to Casino Square in Monaco, arriving after thirteen days on the road and camping all the way through France en route. Ironically they had to push their bikes for the very last bit because it is illegal to ride a bike in Casino Square and there are masses of police who patrol the streets there. I drove their support vehicle all the way and I was very impressed by the strength of all of them completing their daily ride, coping with mechanical breakdowns and camping each night. Four of the lads have their father serving in the navy, army or air force and they have raised nearly £15,000 sponsorship for SSAFA which is a charity that supports injured servicemen and their families. Many thanks to everyone who supported that.

Arthur is pushing on from Almaty in Khazakstan now, after staying with Alice for a night or two. He is aiming to cross into Russia briefly and then drop down into Mongolia and head for Ulaan Battoor which is the destination for him and his buddy in their Nissan Micra and that will put about 10,000 miles under their belts. Then they are aiming to drive home, mostly through Russia before hitting western Europe again. Alice, thank you for harbouring them and also your very kind message since their departure. Tom

The Battle - Jacobs car rally

Mum and Dad always taught their children never to waste time: Every Sunday there would be a cry, "The cars are ready". Up to eight small boys would run to get in a car. Mum drove hers, Dad his, with us packed in. They raced each other to church, overtaking, fast and safely, in the narrow Sussex lanes. We cheered them on: "Come on Mum, you can overtake  here!". We arrived, breathless with excitement, about a minute before the priest came out of the sacristy. The return journey was similar. Eight boys ran out of church, Mum and Dad leading the charge. It was very important to be first out of the car park because there were not many overtaking places. One Sunday Dad, who was the less ruthless of the pair, picked up a tardy boy and left the car park second. To be fair, Mum's car was not so powerful, so she needed every trick in the book. Driving like Stirling Moss, Dad caught up with Mum at the junction of Stream Lane, Riccars Lane and the A21. The photo shows the approach. Cars are whizzing by at high speed. The approach is very steep so hand brake skills are needed. You can barely see the cars coming in from each side, so you must get the front wheels just over the line and usually stop. Sly Dad had seen the opportunity. Mum was stopped for traffic and he drove up beside her at the line. There were shrieks of delight. A gap came, tyres squealed and Dad got away in front. From there, it was an easy run home with well known blocking techniques deployed.

Deadly junction: http://goo.gl/maps/vkJyC#

My mother did not meekly submit to this display of male prowess. The next week she and team were again first out of the car par. We came to the A21 line with Dad hot on our heels. Mum in the middle of the left of the road, front wheels on the line. As ever the traffic was heavy and Dad was incoming. Mum shouted, "Open the doors!" Four doors swung open to more shrieks. There was no way for another car to get safely to the line. They were blocked. Mum and her team were victorious. The roast beef and Yorkshire pud tasted better than ever that day. From that day on, childish overtaking at that junction was not fair play.*

Being the son of this crazy pair, I took the lesson to heart and thought. Surprise and cunning go a long way. When, at the age of 13, in my childish opinion, god seemed about as likely as Father Christmas, I played the anti-race. When the cry, "The cars are ready", came, I stayed on the sofa reading the Sunday Times. One of the drivers came back for me and said, "Are you coming?" I said, "No". There was no time, they gracefully accepted defeat. The race was on.

Comment

Laughed out loud reading this! Good tale and brought the memories flooding back. I scent a challenge, perhaps each of the brothers should try to come up with a similar tale of the lunacy involved in growing up in a family of 8 boys with such forgiving parents and the amazing freedom we enjoyed?

Posted by: Paul | July 23, 2014 at 08:06 AM

Mons duplex: Golia and Aco

TWO TRIPS
On Sunday Arthur headed off on the Mongol Rally, at the beginning of his 10,000 mile drive from London to Ulaanbaatur the capital of Mongolia. He is travelling with Will James, a friend from school and they are travelling in a Nissan Micra (a bit smaller than Mum and Dad's cars and it is packed to the roof with rations and spare parts). From the pictures of the launch on the Mongol Rally website it is evident that silly, crazy and very crazy cars are definitely the order of the day for this trip. Their route will take them through the landscapes of Europe to Istanbul and then through Turkey. From there to Georgia, Azerbaijan and across the Caspian Sea. Then they start their trek across the plains and mountains of Asia, through most of the 'stans including Kazakhstan where they hope to see Alice. I hope we will hear from them as they go, facebook, postcard or a message on The Blog please! All being well Siobhan and I expect Arthur back on 7th September, in time for university!

On Friday Edward will leave on his bike ride from London to Monaco. This will be a 1,000 mile ride with seven of his school friends, taking thirteen days. They will be zipping along in their lycra suits, sweating under the blazing french sun (hopefully). I think David Petri used to refer to a group of riders on racing bikes as an 'arse' of cyclists and certainly their position with heads down and bums up will still bear testament to this. I will be driving the support vehicle all the way and another dad will do the first six days with me. One of the dads has lent us a long wheel based landrover, so we will be chugging along at an agricultural speed, hoping for not too many emergency phone calls. We have booked into campsites for most of the nights and will arrive in Monaco on 6th August.

Many thanks to Rob for tips and advice and a mechanical guide to the Nissan Micra. I hope they will be able to use the maintenance manual as a comfort blanket and not need to make use of it too often. Also thanks to George providing a satellite phone for Arthur. In one of those quirks of life the phone did not work, so unfortunately it has stayed in England. Also I hear that Alice managed to meet Arthur in London (handy or what) before his departure and give him a few pieces of regional advice. Real thanks to all of you.

Keeling vs Mongolia and everywhere inbetween

Hi Arthur
That's great. I just remembered that you can post to 8-brothers.net by sending an email to a secret email address. There it is. You can attach pictures to the email and they should go up to. I tried it with this one of another mongolia maniac. Dont forget to resize pictures so that they are sensible for the web. Use Microsoft Paint or something.

Hi everyone
Arthur is going on the the Mongol rally. Expect a few photos and stories from strange places in the next few weeks ....

Woo Hoo!
George

On 11 July 2014 19:53, Arthur Keeling wrote:

Hi George,

Brilliant....the sat phone arrived this afternoon. Thank you SO MUCH.
I have got it charging at the moment and will have a 'play' tomorrow. If I have any questions, I'll be in touch, probably I'll call you.

In the final hectic stages of our trip and might need to change our route to go through Azerbijan instead of Iran. Hey ho.
Love Arthur

Comment
I'm glad big uncle is keeping an eye out.....Granny.

Posted by: Jenifer Keeling | July 13, 2014 at 06:22 PM

Bin's away

Yesterday I returned home from my busy retired morning to put our 2 wheelie bins away. You can imagine my surprise to find that our brown one was missing. It is as solidly constructed and almost as tall as me. I looked everywhere but could not find it and even wondered if the neighbours had taken a fancy to it. Later in the afternoon I saw a card on the doormat. It was from the council. It read "We apologise that your bin was accidentally lost in the back of our collection vehicle today. We will deliver another bin to you as soon as possible !!!" Love 'em

Comment
love it!

Posted by: david | June 18, 2014 at 12:47 PM

I think Trevor had a letter published in the times about this. Ed.

Archie in Africa II

I'm indulging myself a bit and writing a sequel to my earlier blog entry on recent medical work in Africa.

I've now been here for 10 weeks and have finished working at the Shree Hindu Mandal Hospital (SHMH), Dar es Salaam. The SHMH is a private hospital and in theory is very good with lots of clever gadgets, an intensive care unit (ICU) and other magic. The reality is that no one knows how to work the gadgets and the ICU is just an air-conditioned room with a working door. If you find yourself in Tanzania - and sadly probably a lot Africa - I would suggest that if you're a bit ill (e.g. malaria, manflu, hangover) you will probably be ok, but if you are actually quite poorly you will need to keep your unwell wits about you constantly. If you need surgery, just get back home any way you can. Is this a little racist? Am I being bit of a tit? Certainly not. Here's why.

I'm sure there are some great Tanzanian doctors - I don't want to condemn them all - but here is a story of the most spectacular surgical cock-up. It's more of a 'balls-up' actually:

I was on duty looking after the post-surgery patients, on this occasion a 50 yr old gent post-prostatectomy, I should add that this procedure has nothing to do with testicles (for the docs: in tanz they do an open lower abdo procedure not turp). Patient was doing well but on examination had a rather mysterious bandage over his balls. So I had a look and I found just the one testis (for the docs: men normally have two). So this was not expected. I had a thoughtful scratch of my chin - after carefully removing my gloves, of course - and looked to see if his notes could shed any light on this unusual finding, before cautiously questioning the patient... He too clearly expected his full package intact but had no idea this was not the case (!!!). So I re-examined him. Again. And again....until he was as confused as I was. I then went to see the surgeon.

This unforgivably incompetent surgeon had done the wrong operation. The poor patient was not only left with his original problem but had a crown jewel removed for fun. I don't know what will become of this but I know the surgeon is trying very hard to wash his hands of the affair and I very much doubt the unfortunate, paying patient will ever feel satisfactorily compensated. Nightmare!

So we should all be grateful for our health system in England that, at least, attempts to be just and ethically run, with fewer scalpel wielding maniacs. For anyone that has had or will have an op in England, you should be reassured by the impeccably high standards of our surgeons. They do a great job and I'm grateful for that. If I was my Uncle Paul Keeling I'd call the whole thing "marrrrrrrrvelous."

I'll be back in Blighty on Saturday. Hurrah! What an adventure it's been. While being here I've seen near-extinct rhinos in Ngorongoro Crater and witnessed lions devouring an elephant in the Serengeti. On a $10 snorkelling trip in Zanzibar (thanks for the tip Kate!) we had a snorkel and the way back intercepted some impressively leaping dolphins. Not content with watching, I promptly leapt in front of their sine-wave trajectory and had a splash with this rather intimidatingly curious and numerous pod of monsters. 38 in total. Surely there are only a few places where such fantastically wild opportunities present themselves?

Thanks for all the support and kind words over the past 10 weeks, it's been a blast but I'll be glad to be back (just in time for the World Cup), and start the long adjustment to normality.

THE END

Comment
Hey Archie, Great story and poor old chap with one ball. Yes, thank mankind (the European variety), for the wonderful world we live in.

Posted by: george | June 06, 2014 at 07:50 PM

JV @ St James Theatre w/ Cabaret Fantastique

Archie in Africa

Having just finished my medical degree, at that Keeling favourite the University of Bristol, I've taken the opportunity to stretch my legs a bit, get a tan and work abroad.

I have been doctoring in rural Malawi travelling to extremely poor, mud hut style villages. I've treated lots of malaria and other exciting tropical diseases. Since then I've come to Dar es Salaam in Tanzania, via some pretty cracking beaches, and now work in a hospital where my patients now come to me and not the other way round. With death looming everywhere, the value of life here is much lower than back home and it's been a challenge to see so many of my, often young, patients pass away. But there have been some happy endings too. And overall the experience has been a positive one.

(The medicine here is complex as it is fascinating. But probably less fascinating to the reader. I am sending a private catalogue of medical intrigue to Dr Trev and can, of course, forward this to anyone else who has interest).

On a lighter note there truly is so much to tell, in particular this extraordinary journey. I feel this 'Greek Tragedy' of mine will amuse more than any tale of daring and chivalry would. (Of which there have been loads, of course.)

Getting from Nkhata Bay to Dar es Salaam, with my pal Sam. Vast distances we're talking. So my first mistake was to step onto a tiny, Fred Flintstone-style minibus for such a titanic journey. Now in Africa they have most painfully bad habit of waiting until every inch of bus is full of paying passengers before they can leave. This time we waited 3 hours before even starting this marathon test of endurance. The bus was so crammed full that people were sticking heads and limbs out windows to avoid folding in half. African resilience is astounding. And of course this wasn't just a human bus, we were also transporting chickens and goats. Obviously pissing and shitting everywhere. And throw in a few infants, also pissing and shitting everywhere. And then the music came on. Now I actually happen to quite like African music but this is another terrible African habit: they put it on so loud that you hear nothing else. This otitis-inducing sound would not be turned down once throughout the whole dam journey.

So finally after 3 hours of fannying about the engine turns on and we leave. Marrrrvelous. Except we don't really leave as we've spent so much fuel on the speakers that after 45mins we have to turn back to town, refuel and start again.

So finally we leave.

It's no ones fault that the roads are so bad, but no one cared less than our driver who would send his stupid bus soaring to a cacophony of screams every 100 yards whenever he accelerated into the numerous giant pot-craters that lined the road. Going at 70mph+ on a 'motorway' this game of his backfired and eventually we flew majestically off of the road (into dense African jungle, no less) to an ensemble of screams and accompanying appropriately mad music. Thankfully, we landed the right way up. But the axle had snapped in half. It was the middle of the night and we were in the middle of nowhere. Now we had to contend with the possibility of being eaten by a lion and, more likely, by a thousand mozzies. However, in a quite impressive, but anxious, mere 5 hours later we were fixed and on the road again.

Next. Any chance of sleep was ruined not only by the enduring music but also by a stroppy elderly lady (plus child) who, in the mayhem, had moved next to me. Not only did she keep changing her clothes, quite explicitly, she also insisted on lying down and making a little bed on my shoulder and lap. My frustration/exhaustion/lack of linguistic skills was no match for her powerful African attitude and I could only be English: polite and annoyed.

What terrible journey wouldn't be complete with out a terrible traffic jam? On reaching Dar es Salaam, we had the biggest, African migration-style traffic jam. Motionless for hours in baking African sun. Any air-con?? Don't. Be. Silly!

We did eventually arrive of course. But our predicted 12 hour journey had become a colossal 28 hours of minibus.

So there you have it - the worst journey ever. I hope you enjoyed that story, I certainly didn't.

Seriously though as a beginner in Africa I must confess that, minibuses aside, I have genuinely fallen head over heels for the two countries I have visited. Forgive the cliche but to anyone who has never visited, it is a beautiful beautiful place in geography, culture and people. It is a marvellous alien world that is only undermined by a lack of infrastructure and leadership. But in Africa's wild unpredictability it also lends itself a truly unique opportunity for adventure. I have certainly had a few. And I haven't yet been to the Serengeti (going in 12 days).

With Dad, Polly and Fred visiting South Africa this year, Dr Trev sorting out Zambia and probably other expeditions I'm unaware of, I feel this is an exciting year for Keelo-African relations.

Amen to that!

From Africa with love

Archie.

Comments
Amazing! Hope you're having a great time, I'm very jealous! If you get the chance to go over to Zanzibar, definitely go-lovely lovely beaches and an oasis in the craziness of Africa!
Enjoy the rest of the trip! X
Posted by: Kate | May 20, 2014 at 08:18 PM

Keep having an amazing time and I look forward to news from the Serengeti. Tom
Posted by: Tom | May 13, 2014 at 08:41 AM

Great tale, keep the bush telegraph's drum beating. c
Posted by: Paul | May 12, 2014 at 02:28 PM

Not just a doctor then. Hoping Africa leaves you idle enough to write another chapter. x
Posted by: david | May 12, 2014 at 10:33 AM

fantastic!

Posted by: george | May 12, 2014 at 10:08 AM

Paddock Wood Half Marathon

Van ran the Paddock Wood Half Marathon yesterday – Sunday 30th March – and did all 13.2 miles in 2.24 – her target was 2.30 – and so was really pleased, but ... she hated the whole thing and cried at the end in pain – sadly, no one was there to see her cross the line, so we'll have to take her word about the tears. She got a wonderful medal at the end of it all which made up for the pain and distinct lack of any mother’s day card from her attentive boys.

Thanks from her and the charities all you nice sponsors helped, St Michaels Hospice and the Bodiam church St Giles. You raised £1,500! Anyone who meant to but forgot can still do so here.

http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/VanessaKeeling

Comment
Bravo van!

Posted by: Archie | May 08, 2014 at 07:19 AM

JV - Marcel Lucont

New Year and new challenge

Slightly pathetic to only be running a HALF marathon but I am not a runner and so that is the challenge - 13.1 miles on Sunday 30th March.  it is a way to raise some much needed money for 2 charities both incredibly close to my heart.  St Michael's Hospice is the most amazing place, full of love, positivity and lots of humour.  Two thirds of their funds rely on donations and fund raising, I know first hand what an extraordinary place it is and am priveleged to spend half a day a week there.  The other charity is St Giles' Church, Bodiam - one of those beautiful old churches at the heart of the village, welcoming anyone and everyone.  I can assure you that the money will go towards the building and not the church hierarchy.

If I have asked you before to sponsor me, please ignore this as I am fully aware of the amount of 'asks' everyone gets.

http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/VanessaKeeling

Thank you in advance -  Van xxx

What I saw in the shop today

I popped down my local Turkish supermarket today and look what I saw. The owner, Omar Ben Salaad I think he said, swore they only contained crab meat, so guess what you are getting for Christmas?

Crab meat all round
ööööööööööööööö

Comments
Quite by accident I found myself on your (and your family)Posts complete with all the archive material that was most interesting.I was born in Silvertown (London) in 1927, emigrated to New Zealand with my fiance in 1949 My beautiful talented fiance became my wife in 1952. We then emigrated to Australia where I now live on my own following the demise of my wife 8 years ago. This is one of those unusual contacts that some times happen in life . So, it's hello to you George Keeling from George Keeling.
Posted by: george.j.l.keeling | June 18, 2014 at 04:39 AM

Fantastic find!! Save on postage and just send a torn off scrap of the label with 'Karaboudjan' written on the back xP

Posted by: Paul | December 11, 2013 at 09:14 AM

did the owner tell you to make way for him because he is the most respected man in Baghar? sidi
Posted by: Tom | December 11, 2013 at 11:24 AM

Four Screws Loose

Family meeting

While we were in Berlin Harry, Archie and I decided it would be fun to organise another get together for the family and this will happen on 2nd November. Harry is fixing for Hurlingham to accommodate us for lunch. The idea is that people can turn up there from about 1200 and then have lunch (details to follow but everyone will need to pay for themselves). Then we can generally mill around and enjoy ourselves. Please let Harry know if you will be attending so he can make a booking. His computer / iphone was not working properly last night, hence me sending this message. Look forward to seeing as many as poss on the 2nd. Tom
Harry: 07725 329107 harry.keeling@rolls-royce.com

Comments
Slight alteration to the plan:
The event has been shifted to the evening and will be at Dad's (Simon's) house. More details will follow, but it will start from 19:30.
Please let me know on harry.keeling@rolls-royce.com if you want to come so I can get an idea of numbers.
Harry
Posted by: Harry | October 09, 2013 at 02:36 PM

I hear that 7 of the 8 brothers are so poor that they can not afford £50 for a very good charity. So they probably won't turn up.
I can help! If they give me their bank details I will send them each a £100 out of my Nobel prize money. Email me here: higgs@higgs.boson

Tina C (JV at the St James' Theatre)

Hottest News Ever - We're off to the Stars

Yes. Ever. Since mankind began. It turns everything upside down, it has been mankind's dream since we first looked up at the stars.

Today I learnt three things. Two are personal and I love them both, the third, well, I do not understand why it has not been headlines worldwide. Sorry Syria, you are boring.

New Scientist reports that NASA are working on a 'warp drive'. Yep, what Captain Kirk uses to power the USS Enterprise. The research is led by Harold 'Sonny' White and he plans to start experiments very soon. It will exploit a loophole in Einstein's law of General Relativity.

So, if they are right, we will be able to

• Travel to Mars in 5 minutes
• Go to Alpha Centauri and come back in one year
• Send probes to the centre of the galaxy to check out all that dark matter
• Find a nice planet to stick all the bad guys on where they can live unhappily ever after

Spread the word!

Vikki Stone (JV at the St James' Theatre)

Lucky Bad Boy Arthur B Gibbs

Or is that Arthur Godfrey Fossett Gibbs?

Altogether there were 247,061 officers in the British army in World War I; 164,255 survived.  There were probably a good deal less who survived three years. Arthur Gibbs did not shirk his duty. He could not even shelter behind his bath because some other lucky chap was carrying it.

So he was very lucky. But why was he never promoted?
And oddly he remained a lieutenant all that time (1) when officers were famously dying like flies, . (What was the life expectancy of a junior officer?) I have only found one point in his letters (p 207) where he ever sounds disgruntled. He wrote: "Perhaps it is just as well that I don’t write much on those occasions: if I did you might get permanent depression from reading what I should write, and I might be court-martialled for writing exactly what I thought about the staff and all their work."

But I reckon he told the staff what he thought of them and all their evil stupid work and the grand children of Queen Victoria, the Russian tsar, the German kaiser and the English king were evil and stupid (2). What cousins would slaughter their friends and countrymen for a ridiculous theory of attrition?

So he never got promoted. My opinion of the Gibbs branch has up-ticked enormously. They make the Keeling lot look like pussies.

Arthur Gibbs knew and did what was right, even when everybody was against him.  I followed his example all my life. I'm very proud and pleased that I have found a new hero and that he's my grandfather.

Here's the plate he somehow gave me after he died. I suppose that is something heroes can do. Cool.

Robert and Trevor have or had similar plates to these.

I will give mine to whoever of AGB's descendants does as well as him. I might have to leave one of you to be the judge.

Notes
1) Brave Lucky Boy Arthur Gibbs was temporarily promoted to Captain for four weeks, then demoted. He was quite annoyed about that. (p 393 of the letters, he was sort of promoted Aug 16 1918)

2) From 'The Better Angels of our Nature' by Steven Pinker & Wikipedia. The Flynn effect the substantial and long-sustained increase in both fluid and crystallized intelligence test scores measured in many parts of the world from roughly 1930: "If a teenager now went back to 1910, he or she would have an IQ of 130". Reversing that, the Russian tsar, the German kaiser and the English king as measured now would have IQ's of about 70. They would have to be kept in special care.

Comment
My own take is this – an educated guess and no more:
1) Survival: I am nor sure one can approach the likelihood or otherwise of survival of an individual purely on a statistical basis. There will have been plenty of lieutenants who were on active service in France who had relatively safe jobs, such as ‘embarkation officers’, lieutenants in charge of transport animals, and those in the artillery to take some examples. In Arthur’s case I believe that his job in charge of the proppers, repairing trenches night in night out, was undoubtedly dangerous – the march up to the front line was itself hazardous and being in the front line trenches in need of repair must have had its own separate hazards in addition to the normal ones of sniper and artillery fire. However, I would expect an analysis to show that his job was relatively safer than that of his colleagues who had to lead reconnaissance missions into no man’s land and also assaults ‘over the top’. If one looks at the History of the Welsh Guards by Dudley Ward one sees that most of his contemporaries in the Battalion were very severely wounded or killed in the typical manner of the slaughter – shrapnel from high explosive and whilst carrying out some form of reconnaissance or assault.

2) the lack of promotion (he would have started as 2nd Lieutenant and been promoted to full Lieutenant) I think reflects the size of the body of men under his direct command. Therefore, insofar as he continued to do the same job of commanding the proppers on their nightly visits to repair the trenches, promotion was not going to come his way. Also, presumably, there would have been an expected quota of 2nd Lts., Lts., and Captains within a Battalion. I cannot recall the circumstances of his temporary promotion to Captain, but it often happened when there was simply a shortage of survivors to occupy the relevant quota.


Posted by: Howard Palmer QC | July 29, 2013 at 01:52 PM

Immigration advice please!

Hello

Does anyone know anyone who works in immigration law or might know anything about the workings of the Canadian visa system?

I'm moving to Canada for a year in September (if all goes to plan) with my boyfriend who's got a job in Montreal and we have a couple of questions about the visa application process that we cannot seem to get answered by the internet - or by the infuriating automated Canadian embassy helpline service.

If anyone knows anyone who might know anything, we'd be really grateful for some advice.

Thanks, and love to you all

Poppy

xx