Graduation

We were up in Coventry for Oliver's Graduation Ceremony on Friday & a terrific occasion it was too! I'd arranged for us to stay up there overnight & we also took Olly & Laura out for a curry.
The Graduation ceremony was held in Coventry Cathedral, a really spectacular setting. There was a real, tangible buzz to the place right from when Oliver went to collect his gown & mortar board, the style of the gowns dates back to the 15th century, the gowns for graduates (Bachelor of Engineering) were slightly different to the doctorates etc.
We met a couple of Olly's fellow graduates outside & I took a few photos you see here. Once we were in the cathedral (only two tickets per student so Laura watched on a screen in the university building nearby with the girlfriend of one of Olly's classmates) the procession of all the lecturers and Dean & Chancellor etc walked in and up to the altar. After  a couple of brief addresses they got on with the 'handshake' from the head of the engineering faculty. It was all a very slick operation, stewards got the graduates up and in line, an orator announced the names (she did particularly well  as there were some very obscure foreign names to get here mouth round!), walked forward for the handshake and back to their seats. It was a very proud moment for us!
Back outside to the general hubbub of hundreds of students and their families etc, we'd asked Oliver to get a couple of official photos so it was off to another block for this. Again a very well run  operation to get everyone photoed. There was about six photographers working at once. This done, including a nice group shot we'd added, Oliver got rid of his gown and we repaired to The Drapers for a much needed libation.
That was the end of the official bit, we both know Oliver only really did it for us & we're really pleased he did but he did say he enjoyed the day as well. He has worked incredibly hard to get a very good First in his degree  and I think the official recognition of this ceremony is very fitting. We are very very proud of Oliver & what he has achieved.
Lounged back at the hotel for a while (Ibis, very near town centre) met in the bar for a pre curry bevy then off for a very decent meal. Made it back, not very late, I think we were all knackered! A last drink at the bar was abit farcical due to the bar maids very little grasp of English, but as they forgot to charge us I'll let them off for that!
I was up quite early and went for a walk back to the cathedral area, It was pretty well empty, you'd never have known all the congrats and mortar board flinging of the previous day had ever taken place. The burnt out remains of the medieval cathedral stand next to the modern rebuilt one of yesterdays ceremony. There is alot of history in Coventry but much was obliterated during the bombing of the Second World War particularly in 1940. I took afew photos you'll see here. We had a great time, it was a fine ceremony.

Making our way towards the cathedral.

Out of sequence this is Olly & Laura going into The Drapers after the event

Our first glimpse of Olly in his Graduation finery

Olly & Will

Procession of Lecturers etc

The 'handshake.' He's in there somewhere!

The procession leaves.

Lady Godiva, well known Coventry resident and nude lady.

An interesting memorial I walked past that I first thought was a war memorial, it actually remembers eleven people executed here in the time of Henry VIII for reasons of 'conscience.'  Probably worth further investigation.

  

An idiots guide to an Idiot: 11am. Hostilities ceased.

An idiots guide to an Idiot: 11am. Hostilities ceased.: That is the simple sentence in the war diary of the 16th Bn The Royal Warwickshire Regiment that ended the Great War. My Grandfather, Priv...

11am. Hostilities ceased.

That is the simple sentence in the war diary of the 16th Bn The Royal Warwickshire Regiment that ended the Great War.
My Grandfather, Private William Morgan had got through it though he had been wounded. He'd served as a cavalryman in the 1st (Kings) Dragoon Guards from 1908  to 1914 in India, they mobilized immediately along with the other regiments of the Lucknow Cavalry Brigade. Together with the Salkot and Mhow Brigades they formed the 1st Indian Cavalry Division, later renamed the 4th Cavalry Division.  
In mid 1917 when the KDG's were ordered back to India my Grandfather was inexplicably compulsorily transferred to the 15th Bn The Royal Warwickshire Regiment, an infantry regiment, the battalion later disbanded in the re-organisation of the army in 1918, he was transferred to the 16th battalion.  He'd seen action on the Western Front and the Italian Front and was with the Army of Occupation in Germany. He was demobbed in 1920.
 In later life when his children asked him about the war his stock answer was 'You don't want to know about that.' He spoke a little of his days in India which it would seem he enjoyed but nothing of war service, he told his sons never to volunteer for anything. He was an honorary member of The Old Contemptibles, the association for troops that were part of the British Expeditionary Force that went straight out to France on the outbreak of war, his regiment, although in France in November  1914 was part of the Indian Expeditionary Force, hence his honorary  membership, he was also in the Royal British Legion.
My other Grandad served in the 2nd Bn The Middlesex Regiment from 29th August 1914 until March 1918 when he was invalided out of the army, he too was in the thick of the action taking part and surviving the first day of the battle of the Somme and Neuve Chapelle, he won the Military Medal for bravery in October 1916 at Ancre part of the Somme campaign. I remember having two brief conversations with his about his army days but he didn't go into detail. So there you have it, the Great War was over. Now to survive the peace.  

My Grandfather top right wearing the cap badge of the Royal Warwickshire Regiment, dates photo between 1917 & 1920.His friends are from the Australian Imperial Force, Dorsetshire Regiment & the Royal Navy.

My Grandfather top row, middle wearing the full dress uniform of the 1st (Kings) Dragoon Guards. Probably taken December 1911 in Deli, India.

16/Royal Warwick's war diary detailing 11th November 1918.

An idiots guide to an Idiot: 5th November 1918

An idiots guide to an Idiot: 5th November 1918: The Great War lumbers to its close, still taking lives. The 16th Royal Warwick's are in reserve with the rest of the 13th Brigade as an...

5th November 1918

The Great War lumbers to its close, still taking lives. The 16th Royal Warwick's are in reserve with the rest of the 13th Brigade as another attack goes in. Men are still being killed, but not it seems of my Grandads battalion.
You'll see from their war diary here the 5th November was one of  movement in bad weather and probably frustration.  They were in Northern France not from the Belgium border.

An idiots guide to an Idiot: Berlin Wall

An idiots guide to an Idiot: Berlin Wall: We keep our eggs in a ceramic rumtopf thing. We have used it for Rumtopf, basically you get a load of soft fruit, bung in the same amount o...

Berlin Wall

We keep our eggs in a ceramic rumtopf thing. We have used it for Rumtopf, basically you get a load of soft fruit, bung in the same amount of sugar & liberally sous with booze ( me on an average Saturday night :) ) leave until Christmas......then find all the fruit tastes like prunes, good if you like prunes which I do! Then, as Gary & I found out, add the liquor to champagne and its bloody marvellous!
I'd used the last two eggs in my egg fried rice I made as part of our dinner. A stir fry that I have to say passed muster. Later I washed up the rumtopf thing  and turning it over to dry out ,noticed that written underneath were the words 'W.Germany.'
This instantly dates it to 1989 or before as that's when the Berlin Wall came down and East & West Germany were reunited. See! There was a reason why I called this blog 'Berlin Wall.'
 I well remember the news being alight with what was happening in Berlin, & not before time. Families were split by this wall & many died trying to get across from the Eastern sector, the East & the then USSR have a lot to answer for, and it appears in many ways little has changed!
It's around that time that the Rumanian president  Nicolae Ceausescu and his tyrant wife were killed by their own people in an uprising. The funny thing is , I recall a few years before myself and a friend (Alan P Smith) went up to London to see the full panoply of the State Visit for the a for said mentioned tyrant &  spouse!  Foot Guards and Household Cavalry abounded for this bloke who was no more than a gangster & who had his own people killed for very little reason. I've got photos , well slides ( dates me doesn't it!) of the procession so nothing I can blog, but it makes me think how could the UK have invited this monster  with all pomp & ceremony and know what he was? Surely the Secret Service would have known. This is all because an old ceramic rumtopf thing sparked a memory, & where exactly is Alan P Smith these days?