This story is about the aftermath of WW1 and the devastating effect it had on both the men and women of Britain. 26/7/24
Also as men died on Flanders field many women never had a chance to get married. Many of those that did marry always saw the dead lover as their true love and it ruined their marriage.
You get the example of Daniel's brother a good student in Latin, Greek classics and could speak French perfectly and could have taught French and knew languages of India but ended up an alcoholic in poverty.
Daniel Pitt and Hugh Basset had been fighter pilots in WW1 they were now living in Taprobane Ceylon and miss the extreme of the action that brought then alive and could have killed them. He also shot 3 friends who were suffering in a burning plane as well as 2 of the enemy. In Ceylon here were a lot of graves of children who died of Yellow Fever. They now ran a tea plantation and tea factory. Most of the local population were Buddists and Hindus but there were many Catholics who converted under the Portuguese and had Portuguese sir names but Tamil first names.. Many of them had been low cast Hindus and this was an escape from that.
2 of Daniels brothers' had died in the Boer War. His mother was French and he spoke French besides the languages of Ceylon. After a daughter, his wife gave birth to a baby with omphalocele that died at birth or did the midwife smother it immediately? Ceylon the mountains are so high that he had to keep adjusting the carburetor regularly. (Over 8000 feet) His wife Rosie had been a nurse in the war and she tried to help the natives when they were sick but they would only come to her after their medicine mans cures failed. She could not persuade them to get inoculated. Many deaths were from childbirth. Daniel was convinced that the British Empire would eventually fall as all empires in history get exhausted and fall. The Empire was starting to turn into the Commonwealth already.
In the Great War Oily Wragge had been a prisoner of the Turks and a slave labourer in Anatolia .They were captured as the reinforcement never arrived in time. He experienced floods , sand flies, stomach cramps and dysentery. They had a death march along the same road as the Armenians died. He was trying to recover from the trauma. Mr. Brissel the American Consol who sent prisoners disinfectant and sheep to eat, but died of cholera that he caught from the Benedictine Monks in Bagdad. Bodies are buried deep to prevent grave thieves and the deeper the slower it rots'
1930 Sir Henry Seagrave a Major in WW1 set the land speed record of 204 mph (320km) He died setting the water speed record on Lake Windemere.
Daniel was content in Ceylon and had a mistress Samahadara whose family accepted the situation. Later she had a kid she named Daniel and Daniel's friend Hugh said he would make sure the kid got an education. The letter informing Daniel arrived in England at Rosie who read it and burned it, not informing Daniel. His Rosie decided she wanted to take the children back to England to be with her parents. In Ceylon there were British Schools more British than back home. Rose and Daniel separated as a result of him having to change careers, but she would not divorce him for religious reasons.
Christabel (Rosie's sister)and Gaskell are a lesbian couple and Bohemian artists.. Actually Christabel lost her lover in WW1. She entices Daniel, falls pregnant by him twice. Twice they live in France and return with an adopted son, who both look like Daniel. Christabel says she never realized as a kid that one would have to subterfuges, compromises, secrets and liesto be able to live. Felix and Felicity were Christabel's son and daughter by Daniel. The children realized that they looked similar to Daniel's Ester and Bertie.
The poetry of Rupert Brooke and T.S.Eliot were greatly admired at this time.
Hamilton Mc Cosh, Rosie's father leaves a will supporting his 7 mistresses and each of their children besides his wife and family. This was a big embarrassment in the family. Mrs. Mc Coshes children thus had half brother and sister that they didn't know.
1930 Mixed swimming of men and women started at the Lido in Hyde park. The German foreign minister convinced France that German militarism was over. Iraq was given independence. Racism was officially outlawed in Britain.
1900 and 1931Swift Convertible cars were made in Coventry.
Aircraftsman Shaw was Lawrence of Arabia who was a Brough motorcycles fanatic. These were made in Nottingham between 1919 and 1940.
Lord Mayors show a stampede of 4 elephants when they saw a fake lion and 30 people were hurt. Later a R101 burned at Beauvias 47 killed including British Air Minister of Labour, Christopher Thomson 5 years later the Hindenburg was destroyed by fire putting the end to airship travel.
Daniel tried marketing motorbikes in Germany and in Berlin where he heard Josephine Baker and watched the dancer La Jana and Margo Lion a Jewish actress from Istanbul who acted in Kurt Weil music and with Marlena Dietrich.
1933There was no money to be made in motorbikes and once Hitler came to power. He describes that Hitler conscripted half the men and the rest worked with the Unions under government control. His German friends were all taken in by Nazi propaganda. He left Germay and helped a Jewish professor and family get to England.
1937 In the Soviets there the show trails and the greatest mass political executions in history. In Spain war with one side killing priests and the other killing intellectuals. Oswald Moseley's Brown shirts were meeting violent resistance and Ramsey Mc Donald died. He had been British Prime Minister till 1935 and was too ill to carry on . The only good thing that happened that year was the Coronation of George VI.
With the war rationing had made it easier to avoid the appearance of poverty. Living in a rural area was also not safe as bombers accidently or purposely was drop bombs early to avoid ack ack.
Fritz Kreisler was a Viennese born Jew who got to the USA at the age of 12. People though they should not listen to his music as it was German.
S S Aguila (eagle)in 1917 was carrying fruit and passengers from Lisbon and the Canaries when German U28 sank it. In 1941 the Aguila another ship with the same company, on it way to Gibraltar was sunk including the 12 WRENS on it. This included Daniels daughter Esther.
RAF Tangmere was an important airforce base near Chichester and Douglas Bader (he wrote Reach for the Sky) was based here. In 1940 it was hit by a Stuka attack.
Shropshire Mary Web country she was famous for the novel Gone to Earth and it later became a movie. It inspired Stella Gibbon to write Cold Comfort Farm.
1940 and 1942 Norwich was bombed but cultural sights were the target rather than military targets to bring down British morale. The Colman Mustard factory, the Caley chocolate factory burned down and the cemetery and synagogue were destroyed.
Lysander airplane used before WW2
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