Yesterday's Business

georgian group london hq
Georgian Group's London headquarters

Your correspondent was nursing a small Guinness hangover this morning having spent several hours reminiscing &c. with an old friend at the Prince of Teck in Earl’s Court. I had not seen this old china for over 20 years. He was over from Canada for his old unit’s Remembrance reunion last Saturday and very indignant that the Teck, one of our haunts from the 80s, was no longer the blood, guts and sawdust pub of yore. But he partially got over it after one or two pints of Spitfire (I berated him mildly for not partaking of the London Pride).
Many hours earlier, my day kicked off with a meeting at the Georgian Group in Fitzroy Square. This went very well and I’m looking forward to introducing mutual benefits for London Historians members and theirs (which includes me) in the near future. We’ll announce these when they come on stream. The Georgian Group is a splendid organisation which I’d recommend to anyone interested in that period of our history.

On to the Imperial War Museum which, as any London historian kno, was formerly Bethlem Hospital (Bedlam) from mid-19th to mid-20th centuries, roughly speaking. Their people graciously met me without any appointment having been made and we agreed to work on mutual benefit opportunities between their august institution and London Historian members. Watch this space. The actual purpose of my visit was to see the newly-opened Ashcroft collection of Victoria and George Crosses. What an eye-opener. There are easily over a hundred of them, mostly still with the full medal sets from their heroic recipients and each with a fascinating story of extrordinary courage. The exhibition is free and I commend it to you most highly.

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