Danskcolin: Saturday July 23rd 2022

08:00 Lois and I wake up in just one of the bedrooms in this massive Victorian mansion, built for one of Queen Victoria's Vice-Admirals towards the end of the 19th century. It's odd that now we're here at Headley, Hampshire, pet-sitting for our daughter Alison and family, we're still living in each other's pockets, like we do at home, spending all day and night together, but at the same time rattling around in this big house and massive 6.5 acre grounds, like two peas in a giant saucepan.

What madness!!!!

On a previous visit, in company of our daughter Alison, her husband Ed, and their children, we tracked down the grave of Vice-Admiral Parish - he's buried in the old churchyard in the village.

we find the grave of Vice-Admiral Parish

in the local churchyard

Vice-Admiral John Parish

Highlights of John Parish's career in the Queen Victoria's Royal Navy

10:00 Lois and I have only a few nominal duties to perform while we're here in Headley, so mostly we can take it easy. We have to feed the family's two cats and the tropical fish. And we have to water some of the vegetables and plants in the massive garden.

We also have to remember to put the recyclable waste out on the kerbside on Monday evening (or is it Tuesday?) for collection by the council. And we'll have to be out of our bed early on Thursday morning, because the cleaner is coming at 8:30 am. This week she'll be doing the first floor so it won't be much help if we're still in bed when she rings the doorbell - yikes! Next week she'll be doing the ground floor.

We also have to feed ourselves, so this morning we drive over to the nearby town of Grayshott, stopping in at Applegarth Farm Shop on the way, to get most of the stuff we need - all wholesome healthy stuff straight from the farm.

In Grayshott itself, we stop in at the Grayshott Wine Company to get 4 Cookshop ready-meals, and at the Sainsburys Local mini-supermarket to get some Magnum ice-creams.

That's the way you do it!

See? Simples!!!!

11:00 We come back and have a cold drink on the terrace, looking out over parts of the enormous grounds.

We also check on progress with the rebuilding of the car-port which was destroyed by Storm Eunice back in February. The guys from Red Rock have been coming every weekday to do the rebuilding. They're not here today or tomorrow (Sunday), but they'll be back at 8 am sharp on Monday morning, so we'll have to be ready for them.

we check on progress with the rebuilding of the car-port,

which was destroyed by Storm Eunice back in February

Do you remember Storm Eunice back in February? Phew, what a blaster!

flashback to February, and Storm Eunice is on the way

in from the Atlantic - YIKES !!!!!

flashback to February: the old carport

completely wrecked by Storm Eunice

15:00 Lois begins drafting her article for the Berkshire Family History Society, all about her Great-Uncle Mark, and my Great-Uncle Willy. The two never met, but by an extraordinary coincidence both were present when the British town of Ladysmith in Natal, South Africa, came under siege by the Afrikaner Army during the Boer War.

My Great-Uncle Willy was a journalist trapped in the town by the siege, and Lois's Great-Uncle Mark was in the Royal Enniskillen regiment which was sent to relieve the town in 1899-1900. What are the chances of that happening, eh? What a crazy world we live in !!!!!

a Christmas card from the besieged garrison in Ladysmith -

just over 2 months later, the town was relieved, and this

British victory proved to be a decisive turning-point in the war.

the British Empire in 1886

flashback to 1898: the journalist my Great-Uncle Willy in Maritzburg, South Africa

with his wife Alice, son Jack and two servants: my god!!!!

flashback to the 1880's: Great-Uncle Willy in happier times, in Bridgend, Glamorgan:

we see my great-grandfather John and his wife Elizabeth, with their 8 children.

Willy is at the back on the right, and my grandfather Sidney is seated on the rug

at the front on the left, with his arms folded: some body language going on there, no doubt!

Let's hope the Berkshire Family History Society agree to publish the article. By coincidence the Society's secretary emailed Lois today to say that she was two months late with paying her annual membership subscription, and the Society was threatening to expel her from the group.

What a madness it all is !!!!!

15:30 We have cups of tea and a slice of the coffee cake we bought at Applegarth's Farm this morning.

17:00 I look at my smartphone. Alison has put some nice pictures up on social media of the family's first full day on holiday on the Isle of Wight. Not all beaches are dog-friendly on the island, but they managed to find one at Bembridge, and later had lunch in Shanklin, where they're renting a cottage.

bathing, or chilling out, at Bembridge Beach...

...followed by lunch at Shanklin - pictured here

is our 15-year-old granddaughter Josie

20:00 We watch a bit of TV, an interesting programme in the series "Who Do You Think You Are", a series which traces the genealogy of celebrities. This edition is all about comic star Matt Lucas, who came to fame in the "Little Britain" series, as "wheelchair-bound" Andy Pipkin and as Dafydd Thomas, "the only gay in the village", and other characters.

We learn that Matt's grandmother, "Grandma Margot", who died in 1999 was born and brought up in Berlin. She had almost qualified to be a doctor when Hitler came to power, and she gave up her studies, having seen the writing on the wall.

Margot fled to Britain in 1939, aged 28, and she was just in time before all travel abroad was banned. Others of her family, like 300,000 other German Jews in the 1930's, sought refuge in the Netherlands, thinking they'd be safe there, but they weren't, of course, and all died at Auschwitz during the war.

Grandma Margot's family. Only Margot and Wolfgang ("Uncle Wolf"),

who both escaped to Britain, survived the Holocaust

It's fascinating tonight to see happy pictures of the large Jewish family Margot was born into, pictures from the good times. Her father was a doctor, so they were comfortably off, no doubt about that.

1913: the engagement party of one of Grandma Margot's cousins,

Grete and Max Salinger

Tonight we see Matt talking about Grandma Margot with his mother, and looking through the old pictures.

Matt's maternal grandmother, "Grandma Margot", aged 5,

photographed here in 1916

It's a reminder, isn't it, when you see these old pictures of the family's comfortable life in Berlin. Don't be complacent! Because who's to know what's waiting for you, just around the corner.

It's also quite a coincidence that another of Grandma Margot's cousins, Werner, was living with Anne Frank's family in Amsterdam at the time that the Frank family decided to leave and to go into hiding.

the registration card entry for Grandma Margot's cousin Werner,

showing that he was living as a lodger at the apartment of Otto Frank, Anne Frank's father.

And Matt even sees a short video clip of a film taken outside the apartment, a film of a neighbour's wedding party, which includes a few seconds of Anne Frank herself, looking out of the apartment window at the celebration.

Anne Frank, caught on a few seconds of film,

looking out of the family's apartment in Amsterdam

And Matt visits the apartment itself and sees the room that Grandma Margot's cousin Werner lodged in, and also the window where Anne Frank was looking out of. when the film was taken.

the apartment in Amsterdam where the Frank family lived,

before they went into hiding

Fascinating stuff!!! And it's nice tonight also to see the more serious and sensitive side of Matt Lucas himself, and to discover he's a genuinely nice guy, with a lot of warmth. Who would have guessed it, from his roles in Little Britain, eh?