For those of us with the dubious pleasure of having BBC TV progs on tap we had a treat last week in the cleverly dramatized account of the WW1 trench newspapers. It was witty, poignant and just about everything that makes for spell binding viewing. The papers are in book form and being snapped up or on Christmas lists.  

War time humour did the rounds for  a while. I recall my father getting me a set of cartoons called 'The Two Types' - one of the characters looking rather like Michael Caine in baggy cords and thick soled desert loafers. I wonder what happened to it? Thrown with much else I now want to make space for a load of stuff that I don't.

Not actual trench newspapers, P, but your post made me immediately think of Bruce Bairnsfather and his creation of "Old Bill". A skillful illustrator and cartoonist, Bairnsfather was invalided out from the trenches in 1915 and started to produce cartoons for 'The Bystander' magazine humourously depicting life at the front. His efforts were not initially viewed with approval by the War Ministry, but he had a large appreciative following amongst the rank and file, and he certainly helped boost The Bystander's sales.

Probably his best known cartoon is: "Well, if you knows of a better 'ole, go to it":



 
Which actually prompted a hit musical comedy, "The Better 'Ole", which started its London run in 1917 and even made it to Broadway the following year.


And in much the same vein there's this cartoon (very much of its time), captioned, "The Growth of Democracy - Colonel Sir Valtravers Plantagenet gladly accepts a light, during a slight lull in a barrage, from a private in the Benin Rifles":

I've posted this before, I think, on the old BBC messageboard, but it's perhaps worth posting again.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-492372/Great-war-memoirs-trench-soldier-reveal-Blackadder-humour.html

Slightly off at a tangent, my late mother had a cousin called "Mons" after the Word Ward I Battle of Mons. Apparently such names were not unusual.  When World War II broke out and Mons was called up his mother expressed grave concern.  However they lived by the sea [in North Wales] and Mons's mother later said to my grandmother "It's okay Maggie, he's on minesweepers he'll be alright".  I've lost contact with that branch of the family but my Mum said Mons survived World War II - but all things considered minesweepers must have been one of the most dangerous environments possible.

I've never heard of anyone being called after a battle before, LiR!

I'm getting a new moggy next week. I think I shall call him Bosworth.

If naming children after battles caught on, it could make for an interesting school register. I've been imagining Rowan Atkinson reading out such a list:

Actium

Borodino

Carabobo

Culloden

Dien Bien Phu

Flanders

Flodden

Frigidus

Goose Green

Mursa Major

Okinawa

St. Albans (first)      
                                (twins)
St. Albans (second)

Thermopylae

Ulundi

For those too young to remember (unlikely around here):

Jenkin's 'ere, sir!

Very witty Temperance.  And that's a clever one Nordmann  (do I get some "creep" points for that??) Just joking, I do understand the reference.  It always puzzled me how Captain Jenkins had the vinegar or whatever pickling fluid to hand at the appropriate time - not that I didn't feel sorry for him losing his ear.  My Mum taught me to pickle onions for salads using a mixture of vinegar, sugar and water but I'm not sure how well-established the sugar trade was in the time of Captain Jenkins.

Addendum:  My cat who is a rescue cat has a more prosaic name, "Pebbles".  As she was 8 when I took her on I thought it might not be appropriate to change her name.  Have you ever watched any of the dcjanelle youtube channel Murkin and kittens videos. They have the Aah and cute factor (if one likes cats and dogs - probably not if one isn't really that keen on pets).  (By the way I know with a different spelling "Murkin" can be something iffy but in this case it is the name of a dog.

Welcome aboad LadyinRetirement. We do in fact have several merkins infesting the bar here, living off the dropped remains of pickled gannets and pork scratchings .... though I think they're probably more whiffy than iffy. And they're probably getting very hungry now as we don't seem to have so many p*ss-ups these days, and the trebuchet hasn't been used for ages.

Welcome indeed LadyinR, sorry to be so slow in saying Hello but I've just had time to look in here briefly before rushing off to voluntarily indulge in the kind of physical exertion that I wouldn't be prepared to countenance if it were paid employment. When I get back, I'm usually too jiggered to do more than slump inelegantly on the couch. I'm typing this before my aching shoulders seize up entirely; sodding Romans, what did they ever do for us that I should have to dig up one of their rotten roads?

Days of port and gannets - where did they go?

A Roman road ferval, how exciting. Photos, I demand photos!

Er....pretty please.      
There a nice smile should do it.  Oh and one of these as well

Welcome LIR, I tried to welcome you yesterday but the site fell over, In my direction anyway, I hope you enjoy our little site. Temp, I have been thinking about your new moggy and his name, Bosworth has a nice sound about it but perhaps we could think of something a bit less depressing, from Richards point of view anyway, why dont you have a competition and ask for suggestions? my suggestion is Plantagenet.

Hi Gran. I am not getting my posh moggy any more. He has gone to someone else.

So it'll be a crazy, half-feral, hissing-and-spitting rescue cat again, no doubt. Story of my life.

Bosworth might therefore be a very suitable name, especially re worms; but your suggestion, Plantagenet, would have been good choice for the posh little thing (he was a British Blue).



Plantagenet



Bosworth (with friend)

Off-topic - sorry, Priscilla.

Sad about your posh cat Temp, maybe if you wait until spring there will be another one available. By the way Priscilla, how do you receive the BBC programmes on tap?

Gran - BBC progs on tap because I now live in UK  am fully licenced and open at all hours and still fairly sound in mind and in reasonable working order all things considered and can fight my way to taking over the controls... on a good day  when there's no sport on and it doesn't rain and flood all my stored belongings as recently happened but not the TV.

Thanks to everybody who welcomed me to the site.  My cat is (as I think I said) a rescue cat.  She had actually not been mistreated but her original owner was an older lady who had to go into care.  I had a problem with some of Pixie's and Dixie's relations just shy of two years ago and I thought well I could give a cat a home and discourage the squeaky ones.  I think Cats' Protection thought I'd be a suitable owner for Pebbles because she had already been with a "mature" owner.  Believe me, Temperance, rescue cats can act as though they are poshos.  I tried feeding mine stuff from the £1 shop and she turned her nose up.  She's never caught any squeaky ones but at least they disappeared after I acquired her.

Temperance wrote:

Hi Gran. I am not getting my posh moggy any more. He has gone to someone else.

So it'll be a crazy, half-feral, hissing-and-spitting rescue cat again, no doubt. Story of my life.

It may be for the best Temp, some posh fancy breeds can have a lot of hereditary problems and you'll end up spending a fortune at the vet. Normal moggies are far more sturdy and resilient, and a rescue cat or dog is at least doing something constructive to help even if in a small way.

Can I suggest that you get two moggies? I've found that cats are calmer and better behaved if they have a non-human companion around the place as well. I'll never have a mono-cat again, currently I've got 3!

ferval wrote:

Welcome indeed LadyinR, sorry to be so slow in saying Hello but I've just had time to look in here briefly before rushing off to voluntarily indulge in the kind of physical exertion that I wouldn't be prepared to countenance if it were paid employment. When I get back, I'm usually too jiggered to do more than slump inelegantly on the couch. I'm typing this before my aching shoulders seize up entirely; sodding Romans, what did they ever do for us that I should have to dig up one of their rotten roads?

Days of port and gannets - where did they go?

Hi Ferval,

'Fraid my physical activity apart from gardening and tidying up the house periodically when I get virtuous (muttering and moaning to myself as I do so) is an occasional "Walk for Health".  A lady I know from the local University of the Third Age was telling me about some voluntary work she does with a group that are restoring a canal.  I asked if she did office work and she said "I drive the dumper truck"!!!!  She has my admiration.  I did used to go to a keep fit group organised by the said U3A but unfortunately our teacher has hurt her leg so the class has been put on ice at least temporarily.  You also have my admiration.