Dannyboy

In Sydney on conference duty at the moment (and my cockles certainly don't need warming, cos the weather here is _great_), but I will raise a glass to all of your efforts, and especially PP's, come November 11. Well done.

Artist's Rifles - originally Middlesex volunteers, then a battalion of the London Regiment (1908-1937), then a battalion of the Rifle Brigade, then Territorial SAS: details here

I had a look on 'Soldiers Died in the Great War' - the CD database which includes additional details about the British dead of 1914-18 - at the National Archives yesterday. It is searchable by place of birth and of abode. The former returned 293 soldiers who had told enlisting officers that they were born in Dulwich. I didn't have time to do more than a quick scan through about half the records, but most of them still lived close by when they joined up or were conscripted. Almost all of them were infantrymen serving in 'southern' regiments - the London Regiment, the Middlesex, the Royal West Kents, the East and West Surreys. Some had travelled quite a way to enlist - including one man living in Peckham who went to Enfield to enlist in the Middlesex Regiment at the start of the war (presumably he knew someone already in it). Fascinating, and despite the paucity of really detailed information, very moving - only at this level that the reality of mass bereavement starts to become even partially comprehensible. I was a bit rushed for time, but I'll try to get back to it and get a list of names (for birthplace and abode) printed off.

ratty - depends where your Dad's house was in E1, but the Tower Hamlets Local History library on Bancroft Road has a copy of the local 'bomb map' which is very striking. I've got a (much photocopied) version I use for teaching - if you pm me your postal address, I'll send you a copy. It won't tell you when though - I think that is probably a National Archives/London Metropolitan Archives job.

Very glad that you've been able to find some time to keep working on it pp - good effort! 1914-1919 is pretty standard for war memorial dates - not just because of the (very small) forces that went to Russia, but because the actual peace (rather than the 11 November Armistice) wasn't signed until July 1919. I don't doubt that some of those who put up the memorial might have seen service. But if the Dulwich Volunteer Battalion amalgamated with the Surrey Rifles, the likelihood is that it happened (at least officially), well before the First World War. The Surrey Rifle Volunteer Battalions were amalgamated/renamed into the Queen's Royal Regiment (West Surreys) in 1881 - and the battalion list doesn't have a Dulwich unit: http://regiments.org/regiments/uk/inf/002WSurr.htm. Local volunteers might have thought of themselves as a 'proper fighting force' - and they might either have gone together to a local TA battalion pre war, or joined up with the regulars together in 1914. But no official 'Dulwich Volunteer Battalion' (or 'Surrey Rifles' come to that) saw active service in the First World War. The list of wartime battalions and service here - http://www.1914-1918.net/queens.htm - suggests to me that if pre-war volunteers did join up together in the West Surreys they would either have added to the war establishment of the Territorial units formed in Croydon, or joined the Service battalions of the regiment formed in Battersea, Brixton and Lambeth. There's an account of the wartime career of two junior officers from Clapham, one of whom joined the Battersea battalion of the WSR, here: http://www.1914-1918.net/heroes/lane_robson.htm. It might be worth contacting the Surrey regimental association and the county history section. But remember that although theoretically geographically bounded, in fact recruitment was very flexible and confused. Volunteers from SE London might well have joined the London Regiment, the West Kents, the East Surreys or even the Middlesex Regiment - and that's just the infantry. Once conscription was introduced in 1916 (and that's probably the _political_ reason for putting 'Volunteer' on a memorial), local affiliations were further reduced. Other than reasons of historical precision, I'm not sure that whether it was a 'fighting force' or not matters. We've got to remember both the variety of military service and the total nature of the First World War. Plenty of those who were in uniform never saw action, or did so only at a distance. Many of those on the Home Front rendered service that was as valuable even though they never bore arms (arguably, in that sort of conflict, the work of accountants and logisticians behind the lines is as important for deciding victory as anything else). The politics of local war memorials are interesting, however, and worthy of further investigation and research. Macroban - I take it this is an archival listing? Where is it from?

The only reason I can see for playing 'I've had the time of my life' at your funeral is if you're going to get a Patrick Swayze-alike to do that lift with the coffin and carry it out to the applause of the mourners. I can't quite see this working for my corpse, though, unless I die from a really bad wasting disease or the lifter is more Capes than Swayze. What about the mighty ?

Disco Inferno already lined up for my cremation. Burn baby burn! More seriously - have to be a choice between Ike Quebec playing Blue and Sentimental - probably a bit long, bit cheesy by title, but a good tune to sob to - and the Cowboy Junkies' Lost my Driving Wheel - should have all my loved ones bawling their eyes out. Just need to start saving up to make sure I can cryogenically freeze them, then thaw them out to play it live.

Ultraconsultancy - surely these words have different derivations? I'm no linguist, but north of the tay and east of the spey doesn't seem likely to me to have the same Anglo-Saxon roots as quente. Incidentally, you can buy a great Chaucer T-shirt with 'How quente' on it, though I don't know anyone with the courage to wear it. Lounge, anyone?

*crawls through door, shoulders tight round ears, muttering to himself* Why is that the people who live above me put their small child in clogs on the days I work from home? And why is it that the only time when the little darling is not running up and down the length of the flat, they turn on their stereo with the bass up? I mean, it must be asleep, right? Only, how is it sleeping with that noise? I DON'T UNDERSTAND. *Tatiana, with knowing look, sets up a pint of best and a double gin* *necks both* Same again luv.

From experience, I'd say that once your car is identified as being 'breakable in to' it will keep happening. My poor Citroen AX (obviously empty and worth zilch) survived 4 years in Bow without a scratch. Within a month of moving to the top end of LL, I had the door levered open twice. Once was for the tax disc, the second time seemed to be just for sh*ts and giggles. The third time, the sods put a brick through the window and tried and failed to hot-wire it. I was standing looking at it in despair when a cop showed up... only to ask me if I could provide full ID to prove it was mine. I was tempted to ask why anybody other than the owner would be standing in the rain in a suit, trying to get a 17 year old car with the driver's seat full of glass to work. Sigh. Ended up scrapping it. An alarm might work, but if the car's become a learning device for the little scrotes, you need to find somewhere dramatically different to park it.

I've been trying to persuade work that I really _need_ a deactivated SMLE, gas mask and tin helmet to use as learning aids in my Great War seminar. When I win that argument, I'll go in.

Yeah, saw it on the way down Oxford St (in the other direction) on the 176. Nice looking ladies, and obviously extremely grateful for the sunshine. Caused tourist in front of me to use up half his memory card in digital photographs and have a barney with his unamused wife. Some sort of interweb thingy, is it?

Aha, Dulwich Mumski! Just as well there isn't a Rose of Volgograd competition: I'm sure you'd walk it :) Actually, I was thinking of a Dulwich entrant for the male escort section. I'm not sure if it would be fair to the other female contestants to allow any of the gorgeous women of Dulwich to enter the Rose competition itself.

Definitely not London. Personally I'd go for Limerick Rose, but bearing in mind past winners, Florida Rose should probably shade it. More importantly, it looks like they're still picking male Escorts to accompany the Rose (surely they could have found a better word?). Obviously we need to arrange a Dulwich entrant. Anyone feel suitably qualified?

'Judges consider many different attributes of the Rose including, in the words of William Mulchinock?s song The Rose of Tralee, an indefinable quality that captures ?the truth in her eyes?. The Rose of Tralee International Festival celebrates modern young women in terms of their aspirations, ambitions, intellect, social responsibility and Irish heritage.' I don't know what truth is in 1985's eyes, but it's a dark, disturbing one.