TH2023 Ep11 01 Dame Margaret Rutherford

Season 2023 – Talk 11.01 – Dame Margaret Rutherford

In ‘Dame Margaret Rutherford’ Wendy Senior tells the story of the life of this famous British actress.

Early Life?

There is tragedy in her early life involving both of her parents. Her father is the journalist and poet William Rutherford Benn who marries Florence Nicholson on 16 December 1882 in Wandsworth, South London.

He suffers a nervous breakdown shortly after the marriage, and is admitted to Bethnal House Lunatic Asylum. They release him so that he can travel under his family’s supervision. He then murders his father, the Reverend Julius Benn, by bludgeoning him to death with a chamber pot, before slashing his own throat with a pocket knife.

Following the inquest, William Benn is certified insane and is sent to Broadmoor. He is discharged seven years later, in July 1890, and reunites with his wife.

Margaret is the only child of William and Florence and is born in 1892 in Balham.  The family plan a new life far from the scene of their recent troubles. They emigrate to Madras (now Chennai). The three year old Margaret returns to Britain to live with her aunt Bessie Nicholson in Wimbledon, after her pregnant mother hangs herself from a tree.

The family tell Margaret that her father dies of a broken heart. However, when she is 12 she learns that her father has been in Broadmoor since 1903. He stays there until he dies on 4 August 1921. She fears, for the rest of her life, that she might succumb to similar illnesses. In later years she suffers from intermittent depression and anxiety.

Education:

She first goes to Wimbledon High School (now a theatre space, the Rutherford Centre). When she is 13 she starts to board at Raven’s Croft School in Seaford.

She develops an interest in the theatre and performs in amateur dramatics, however the teachers at the school suggest that she should teach the piano.

Acting:

Her aunt, in her will, leaves a legacy that allows Margaret to enter the Old Vic School to train as an actress. In her autobiography she writes that Aunt Bessie has been her “adoptive mother and one of the saints of the world”.

She establishes a name in comedy and appears in many successful British plays and films. “I never intended to play for laughs. I am always surprised that the audience thinks me funny at all”, she writes in her autobiography.

Her first appearance in London’s West End is in 1933. It takes six years for her to become well known when she plays Miss Prism in John Gielgud‘s production of The Importance of Being Earnest at the Globe Theatre in 1939. Rave reviews follow in 1941 when she plays Madame Arcati in Noël Coward‘s Blithe Spirit.

Listen to the full story in Wendy’s talk.

This is an edited recording of a talk given to the Farnham u3a World History  Group . Sadly in a few places there is slight distortion on the recording.

It is not possible to use the images presented in the original talk because of copyright reasons.

This podcast is also available through Amazon Music, Apple PodcastsCastbox, DeezerPodchaserSpotifyStitcher and Vurbl and others.

AKM Music licenses Media Magazine for use the music in this talk.

© The MrT Podcast Studio and Farnham u3a World History Group 2018 – 2024

USRJ S3 Episode 24 Marfa to New Braunfels

Marfa to New Braunfels  –  US Rail Journeys Series 3 Episode 24

‘Marfa to New Braunfels’ covers our 400 mile journey during the late afternoon and overnight. We travel from the very wet desert west of Marfa to New Braunfels on the way to our stop at San Marcos.

To see the photographs that accompany this podcast please click on a thumbnail to open the gallery:

The desert:

As we travel east the weather starts to clear. It is still raining and the clouds are grey but the desert is no longer under water.

We pass through Valentine and see a ‘blimp’ tethered  beside a hanger. Luckily the mooring ropes look strong as anything less would have broken in the wind and rain we passed through.

We pass through Marfa and soon are back into the desert again.

Alpine:

The next city we come to is Alpine. The sun shone on my westward journey on the Sunset Limited in 2019. Not so today, it is grey, getting dark and with rain. That’s a pity for those who want to get off for a ‘smoke break’!

The community of around 6,000 has the normal large shops as well as smaller, interesting, ones. Sadly the Alpine Studio bed and breakfast has  closed, to make way for a store whereas the historic Bottle House has more bedrooms than I’d need.

Onwards into the night:

The next station is Sanderson. 153 passengers use the station in 2022, that’s roughly half a passenger per train! The original station was demolished in 2012 and in 2021 a $3 million replacement facility opened. It consists of an open-air shelter with a built-in bench, providing shaded seating, a concrete platform, a concrete parking area, and concrete walkway.

We travel through the night, through Del Rio and on to San Antonio. The train splits in San Antonio as the coaches for the Texas Eagle are detached from the rest of the train.

The Sunset Limited continues on its journey to New Orleans whilst our coaches join the rest of the Texas Eagle. We are soon on the journey northward to Chicago and breakfast beckons ……

Next up:

If you enjoy these podcasts please join me in a couple of weeks as we continue our journey on the Texas Eagle.

Links:

To visit the Amtrak website please follow this link.

This podcast is also available through Amazon Music, Apple Podcasts, Castbox , Deezer, Podchaser, Spotify, Stitcher and Vurbl and others.

Music:

AKM Music licenses Steam Railway and Corporate Winners for use in this podcast.

TH2023 Ep10 The Border Reivers

Season 2023 – Talk 10 – The Border Reivers

In ‘The Border Reivers’ David Simpson tells us about these bandits who plundered the English / Scottish border counties from the 13th Century to the Union of the Crowns in 1603.

Click a thumbnail below to view the image gallery that accompanies the talk.

Who?

Border raiders from every class in society operating in the north of England and south of Scotland. People for whom loyalty to family is much more important than to country.

The rustling of livestock their principle business. According to Bishop Leslie of Ross ‘they have a persuasion that all property is common by the law of nature; and is therefore liable to be appropriated by them in their necessity’.

Why:

In the 300 years between the end of the 13th Century and the Union of the Crowns in 1603 the border counties of Berwickshire, Roxburghshire, Dumfriesshire, Northumberland, Cumberland and Westmoreland are pretty poor and desolate.

This is not land for arable crops and so people keep cattle to provide an income and food. Neither the Scottish nor English Crowns have estates here and therefore do not have a financial interest. These lands are also far from the lawmakers of Edinburgh and London.

A dinner of spurs:

It is said that the wife of one famous Border Reiver demonstrated that her larder was empty by serving her husband his spurs on a plate instead of his dinner. The message is clear either mount up and go reiving, or go hungry.

Their legacy:

Some view the Border Reivers as loveable rogues, others compare them to the Mafia. Whatever your opinion, their legacy remains in the fortified dwellings called pele towers, their ballads and words now common in the English language such as ‘bereave’ and ‘blackmail’.

Listen to the podcast and hear the whole story from David.

Unfortunately I have not been able to remove all the coughs and some external noises.

About this podcast:

This is an edited recording of a talk given to the Farnham u3a World History  Group .

It is frequently not possible to use all of the images presented in the original talk because of copyright reasons.

This podcast is also available through Amazon Music, Apple PodcastsCastbox, DeezerPodchaserSpotifyStitcher and Vurbl and others.

AKM Music licenses Media Magazine for use the music in this talk.

© The MrT Podcast Studio and Farnham u3a World History Group 2018 – 2024