My family has an early connection to Oz in the person of Nathaniel Lucas, a cousin many generations removed who arrived at Botany Bay in January 1788 on the First Fleet. The continent had been discovered and claimed by Captain Cook during his circumnavigation, but was completely unexplored when the British Government decided, on the basis of zero knowledge of suitability, to appoint Captain Philip as Governor in charge…
My father’s 21st birthday party on 19th August 1908 was a splendid occasion at Warnham Court, the estate in Sussex owned by my grandfather, most notable for the astounding array of ladies’ hats. Friends and relations assembled from far and wide to celebrate; and very likely to take advantage of the gathering of male family members to play cricket. Guests at my father's 21st birthday party. Cricket was a…
This week’s episode relates the romantic details of a highly unusual love story. How many girls select their future husband at the age of seven? My Scottish maternal grandfather Colonel Herbert Brander CB spent his entire career in the Indian Army with the 32nd Sikh Pioneers, rising to be its Commandant. (His adventurous story is told in my book “Waziristan to Tibet” which is available from Barnes & Noble.)…
The entrance hall in Warnham Court, my grandfather’s house in Sussex - where I lived as a child with my parents, Geoff and Aileen, and my younger brother Rupert, as well as my Uncle and Aunt and their children - was flanked on one side by the Dining Room, a spacious room with east and south windows affording wonderful views across the deer park; and on the other by…