Men to Remember - Sunday Stamps

As Viridian had already posted Einstein, I picked the first three stamps from my world album and came up with these:

Fr Damien

Fr Damien, the Leper Priest of Molokai, was born in Belgium in 1840. In 1873 he went to work in the leper colony on Molokai, one of the Hawaiian Islands. His life among the lepers led to an intensive study of Hansen’s disease and eventually to a cure. He died from leprosy in 1889. Beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1995, he was named a saint in October 2009.

Hans Christian Sonne (150th anniversary of his birth)

 Dean Hans Christian Sonne was a Danish theologian and pastor who became parish priest in Thisted in 1864. There, he founded the Thisted market town Workers Association, later known as the Thisted Workers Association. This was the beginning of the Danish cooperative movement.

Albert Schweitzer

Albert Schweitzer was the German theologian, organist, philosopher, physician and medical missionary born in 1875 in Alsace Lorraine. He received the 1952 Nobel Peace Prize for his philosophy of “Reverence for Life.” As a missionary in Lambaréné in French Equatorial Africa he was interned by the French in WWI, but returned there in 1937. At Lambaréné, (now in Gabon), he founded and sustained The Albert Schweitzer Hospital.

One of Schweitzer quotes is well worth remembering, “Happiness is nothing more than good health and a bad memory.” Many owe their subsequent good health to him.

For more famous people please visit  Viridian's Sunday Stamps 21

Toy Dogs or Dogs' Toys on Sepia Saturday

I'll start this week with two Golden Retrievers trying to pull a toy apart:

Ellie & Sophie playing with a dog's toy shaped like a duck's head

By Brandt Luk Zorn (CC A-S Alike 2.0 Generic License)

Rather more genteel is the David Lüders portrait:

Portrait of a young boy with toy gun and dog 

 

 

(www.lot_tissimo.net)

I'm not into shooting unless you count trying (unsuccessfully) to shoot a low golf score. However it's Samwin who acts as my driver cover when he is not watching me write beside my computer monitor:

Samwin

Back to reality with Cody and Scout getting their breath back after a bout with a teddy bear. Cody will get it back when he really wants it:

Cody & Scout

Finally a lady at her toilet from the Wallace Collection in London; toy dogs know the best place to be.

Antoine Watteau (1684-1721) - La toilette

(GNU Free Documentation License)

For more contributions visit Sepia Saturday 76

Blue Infinity - Thematic Photography

I'm a bit hesitant about posting this picture. I know it's not one of mine, but it fits the blue theme so well.

Infinity Bridge over the River Tees at Stockton

If you're feeling blue then flowers may cheer ring your bell:

Bluebells

Still blue? Then visit Carmi's Thematic Photographic 147

Cornish Memorial

In the churchyard of the Church of St Mawgan-in-Pydar there is a memorial to ten men who drifted ashore in a boat, frozen to death, on 15 December  1846.

Memorial - St Mawgan Churchyard

Tregurrian beach is now called Watergate in the Bay beloved by Newquay surfers. The guide book to the Church says the men drifted ashore at Beacon Cove.

Beacon Cove near Trevarrian, Cornwall - Geoff Tydeman (CC A-S A 2.0 Generic license)

 

In 1808 the introduction of the "Dead Bodies Interment Bill" meant that a Christian burial was required for the shipwrecked, with expenses met by the county and rewards to those who discovered the bodies. The ten men, including Jemmy, were the first to be buried in the churchyard at St Mawgan in accordance with the new law.

The original memorial was replaced in 1992 by the carved replica of the stern of a boat shown in the picture.

Mediaeval Embroidery - Sunday Stamps

I never expected to be writing about embroidery; it’s amazing what Sunday Stamps can get you into.

Christmas 1976 saw the issue of a set of stamps commemorating English embroidery or Opus Anglicanum as it was called. Much sort after by the Church and the State the Vatican inventory of 1295 lists more Opus Anglicanum than any others.

Only a fraction of Opus Anglicanum has survived. Despoiled for gain, the gold was melted down and seed pearls and gems carried off.  The Reformation accounted for much destruction.

Mediaeval Embroidery - Opus Anglicanum

The 6.1/2p stamp shows the Virgin and Child, from the Clare Chasuble 1272-1294. The section shown is from the centre of the chasuble; the ground is in blue satin worked with gold and silver thread and coloured silks.

The 8.1/2p stamp depicts an Angel holding a Crown 1340-1370 taken from a pair of panels found in a Hampshire chapel. The embroidery is in bronze green velvet worked in gold and silver and coloured threads.

The Angel appears to the Shepherds (1320-1340) which is on the 11p stamp comes from part of the decoration of a vestment known as an alb. The details give glimpses of life of the times – the shepherd playing his pipes, the howling dog, the master, in cloak and gloves staring up as he listens to the angel whose message is written in the sky.

One of the finest surviving examples of Opus Anglicanum in England is the Butler-Bowden Cope (1330-1350) which includes The Three Kings presenting Gifts shown on the 13p stamp. The cope is worked on rich crimson velvet with gold and pearl arcading.

The stamps were issued on 24^th November 1976.

There are more stamps to see at Viridian's Sunday Stamps 20.

A Cornish Interlude

While in Cornwall earlier this month we visited the city of Truro where I’m pleased to say we avoided the shops.Inside the cathedral we found this painting which shows an aerial view of the county:

Cornubia -Land of the Saints (John Miller)

You cannot fail to be impressed by the city’s beautiful cathedral, of which more in later posts. It’s very difficult to get a picture of the cathedral’s exterior as it is surrounded by buildings. I did my best, but this model from inside the cathedral itself was the only ‘complete’ view I managed.

Truro Cathedral model

While we were there it was also time for the annual Daphne du Maurier festival at Fowey. Inside Truro Cathedral I found this memorial plaque to ‘Q,’ Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch .

Memorial Plaque - Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch (Q)

In 1930 Daphne, and Q’s daughter, Foy spent the night at an inn on Bodmin Moor; that visit and her meeting with the white-haired vicar of Altarnun inspired Daphne to write ‘Jamaica Inn.’

The Daphne and Quiller-Couch connection goes further. Daphne spent the last years of her life in a house call Kilmarth. From the picture windows of the house it was possible to see the sea and onwards beyond towards Frenchman’s Creek. Daphne wrote, a few years after ‘Jamaica Inn,’ what she called her only truly romantic novel. Its title ‘Frenchman’s Creek’ – a title previously used by ‘Q’.

The link continued after Q’s death when Foy asked Daphne to finish Castle Dor, a book started by her father.

Sporting Organs - Sepia Saturday.

When I was sorting the pictures I took in Cornwall last week I found two of the interior of Truro Cathedral that included the 17th-century Byfield Organ. Originally intended for the Chapel Royal at Westminster it was never installed there. A local mine owner presented the organ to Truro..

The organ pipes can just be seen to the right of the left hand pillar.

Here the organ is at the top right.

To introduce some sporting men I have to go back to 1955 with this team picture taken at the Appelby Frodingham Steel Company cricket ground in Scunthorpe:

Lincolnshire Colts v Nottinghamshire Colts (1955, I think)

I had to get into the act - centre front row.

But on 28 April 1956 at St Andrews University sports ground the photographer could not get all the fielders in the shots. You will have to accept my word that I was there at coverpoint in both.

St Andrews University v Forfarshire

Photos by Gillian Falconer

There's more to check out at: Alan's Sepia Saturday 75

Monaco to Nice - Aerial Thematic Photography

I had to go back nearly eight years for these photos. It was either that or wait to take some more in June.

This is the helipad at Monte Carlo with the chopper getting ready for the short hop over the sea to Nice.

After take-off straight over the sea the helipad is just visible.

Then the French coastline through a dirty window which the pilot 'refused' to clean - must have been a big fly or a dirty seagull.

 

Approaching Nice:

 

Terra firma!

Couldn't he have landed nearer? The wait for a bus was as long as the flight!

 

It seemed strange flying without the immersion suit I had been used to on offshore helicopter flights in Norway and out of Aberdeen.

For more aerial acrobatics visit: Carmi's Thematic Photographic 146

International Stamp Exhibition 1980 - Sunday Stamps

I have taken the easy way out this week by reproducing Britain's Second Miniature Sheet issued in 1979.

 The explanation mentions a third sheet to be published later - I don't have this!

As this is a week when you may post stamps on any theme, check out Viridian's Sunday Stamps 19   for others' choices.

Mundane Planes - Sepia Saturday

Just back after a week away in Cornwall. Route was from Leed/Bradford airport with Airsouthwest to Newquay with a short stop at Bristol on the way. The aircraft was a Dash 8-300; sorry Airsouthwest but the only photo I could find is from Japan:

All Nippon Airways Bombadier Dash 8 Q300, JA805K on Memanbetsu Airport.

Otherwise the only planes I could find are on postcards that I sent to my daughter back in the 1980s.

Postcard from a trip to Saarbrucken from Norway.

On this occasion I was routed via Amsterdam where I found this card of Schipol:

You'll find many more planes at Sepia Saturday 74

Planes, Trains and Automobiles - Sunday Stamps

First an apology. As I will be without internet access until next Saturday, I will be unable to comment on any more posts until then. I will check out all your posts next weekend.

I find my albums are inundated with planes. I don't have any commemorating the Wright brothers but I can cover the first non-stop Atlantic flight:

 

This first day cover for the Postal Union has planes, a ship and a PO van:

I like this next stamp in particular for its clarity and colour:

But my favourite plane has to be the supersonic Concorde, alas now defunct:

The plane may be British, but the colourful stamp is from Malawi:

I spent a number of years working in Norway and that accounts for my final plane(s):

For trains I have to start with Stephenson's Locomotion:

 

The meeting that established the world's first railway was held in my local town. Yarm Town Hall boasts this plaque:

Trains would not be complete for me without the Flying Scotsman (shame about the postmark):

From abroad there are trains from Mexico and New Zealand:

I was very disappointed when I looked for automobiles and only came up with this First Class stamp:

I had to resort to stamps combining the theme from USA:

And from Romania:

There's not even a car on here.

If I haven't put you off there are more on view at: Viridian's Sunday Stamps 18.

Love and Marriage - Sepia Saturday

I'd like to introduce you to Benjamin Gerrish Gray (Aged 85) and his wife Anne Eliza (nee Wiggins) posing outside their house at 4 Inverness Gardens, Kensington, London on the occasion of their Golden Wedding in 1912:

Benjamin was born in 1827 at St Johns, New Bruswick; according to one source he married Anne Eliza Wiggins in 1853. So how can 1912 be the year of their Golden Wedding? Apparently they left New Brunswick for England soon after they were married. Benjamin became a partner in the London fim of BCT Gray and Son in 1856 when he would have been 29 years old. The couple had a big family - eight children in all.

Before the Marriage Act of 1753 came into force there were many irregular or clandestine marriages performed in England especially those that took place in the London Fleet Street Prison and its environs during the 17th  and early 18th century.

 

Fleet Street Marriage from Robert Chambers Book of Days (1st Edition)

Of course there was a time when lovers eloped by chaise to Gretna Green as depicted in this set of postcards by Raphael Tuck:

 "Oilette" - By Morburre (CC A 2.0 generic license)

All's well that ends well at Gretna's Blacksmith's Shop:

By Niki Odolphie (CC A 2.0 generic license)

So if you're free and willing, you know you have to go to either the first village in Scotland if you are travelling north or the last village in Scotland if you journey south.

Of course you could check others opportunities at Sepia Saturday 73