Names

[gradus]

Then there's the Steele Bodgers.

Not to mention the Fetherstonhaughs.

Apparently one-time MP and journalist Horatio Bottomley called upon a certain Mr Fetherstonhaugh and asked the butler if the said gentleman was at home...but pronounced his name phonetically. The butler (with the usual ice-cold hauteur) replied, "I think you mean Mr Fanshaw, sir".
To which HB replied, "Then tell him Mr Bumley is calling".

'Bumley', Virginia and Peter of blessed memory - Private Eye passim.

[Serial_Apologist]

Then there's the Steele Bodgers.

Not to mention the Fetherstonhaughs.

Apparently one-time MP and journalist Horatio Bottomley called upon a certain Mr Fetherstonhaugh and asked the butler if the said gentleman was at home...but pronounced his name phonetically. The butler (with the usual ice-cold hauteur) replied, "I think you mean Mr Fanshaw, sir".
To which HB replied, "Then tell him Mr Bumley is calling".

Oh brilliant!

[Lat-Literal]

My father once invited Eric Pickles to our home. "Haven't you got a better chair than this one?" the local Chairman [sic] of the Conservative Association demanded to know.

I have to comment.

My introduction to Eric Pickles (who I don't mind actually, sorry) was in being told by Yorkshire friends in York that he was sitting on the adjoing table in Betty's. I hadn't heard of him and think he was then head of Bradford Council. But what you have said brings more directly into mind my meeting with Harold Macmillan. When we got off the boat from Ramsey Island in 1975 and he was sitting with a pal above the otherwise empty Carefai Bay, I can't say he was at all unfriendly when I approached him. But all I had was a crumpled brown Woolworths envelope for his autograph. He turned it this way and that before exclaiming "haven't you got anything better? - what a rotten bit of a paper to sign it on". Well, the boat has limits on what you can carry - sandwiches and an envelope is about it - but it's interesting. That similar phraseology. He was full of irony and kindness with a 12 year old. It was his wit. He signed it across the narrower part either for security reasons or amusement or both. I liked him enormously and I still do, whatever his faults. He had fewer than most today.

He was also, of course, the most centre left Prime Minister in my lifetime other than possibly Wilson and the very overrated Callaghan.

[Serial_Apologist]

I have to comment.

My introduction to Eric Pickles (who I don't mind actually, sorry) was in being told by Yorkshire friends in York that he was sitting on the adjoing table in Betty's. I hadn't heard of him and think he was then head of Bradford Council. But what you have said brings more directly into mind my meeting with Harold Macmillan. When we got off the boat from Ramsey Island in 1975 and he was sitting with a pal above the otherwise empty Carefai Bay, I can't say he was at all unfriendly when I approached him. But all I had was a crumpled brown Woolworths envelope for his autograph. He turned it this way and that before exclaiming "haven't you got anything better? - what a rotten bit of a paper to sign it on". Well, the boat has limits on what you can carry - sandwiches and an envelope is about it - but it's interesting. That similar phraseology. He was full of irony and kindness with a 12 year old. It was his wit. He signed it across the narrower part either for security reasons or amusement or both. I liked him enormously and I still do, whatever his faults. He had fewer than most today.

Never seek validation from "the higher orders" is my motto. Caps are less easy to doff these days.

[Lat-Literal]

Never seek validation from "the higher orders" is my motto. Caps are less easy to doff these days.

Which if true makes the fawning at Glasto so hard to accept. Given the selling off of family silver speech, I believe that Macmillan was set to become a rioter or arsonist after Thatcher!

(Of course Mac was pro-European but so then was every single mother and even Nigel Lawson - it was a very different world)

But perhaps we could go back to names? - Eric Pickles does it for me at least in that way.

[Richard Tarleton]

'Bumley', Virginia and Peter of blessed memory - Private Eye passim.

I was asked to take Peter birdwatching on my patch once, when he was in the Northern Ireland office. Lovely man, tho' not a birder as quickly became apparent, I think it was more an excuse to get out of the office. Those being the days before mobile phones, he then had to make some important calls from the telephone in my kitchen. Met a handful of people that way. One who came regularly, his bodyguards after a sceptical start became keenly interested, got themselves binoculars and suitable attire.....

[Richard Tarleton]

But perhaps we could go back to names? - Eric Pickles does it for me at least in that way.

Sorry Lat, crossed with yours. Back to names.

[johncorrigan]

Mrs C went to Art School in Glasgow with two girls, Christine Cant and Lorna Will who shared a flat with each other in the West End. On the name plate one wag wrote BUT between Christine and Lorna's names on the door...true story!

[Lat-Literal]

Mrs C went to Art School in Glasgow with two girls, Christine Cant and Lorna Will who shared a flat with each other in the West End. On the name plate one wag wrote BUT between Christine and Lorna's names on the door...true story!

Racey.

Racy but also Racey (ish).

[vinteuil]

I was asked to take Peter [ Bottomley] birdwatching on my patch once, when he was in the Northern Ireland office. Lovely man, tho' not a birder as quickly became apparent, I think it was more an excuse to get out of the office. ....

... my similar story - I was asked to take Crispin Tickell birdwatching when he visited Bombay. I think he was interested in Tickell's warbler. In my frivolous manner I had been referring to him among our local staff as "Mr Tickle" and had rapidly to stress to them that it was actually Tick-ELL...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crispin_Tickell

.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tickell%27s_leaf_warbler

,

[Pianorak]

Interviewed on the BBC News Channel this evening: Dr Van Breeding (US medic).

[oddoneout]

Then there's the Steele Bodgers.

Not to mention the Fetherstonhaughs.

Apparently one-time MP and journalist Horatio Bottomley called upon a certain Mr Fetherstonhaugh and asked the butler if the said gentleman was at home...but pronounced his name phonetically. The butler (with the usual ice-cold hauteur) replied, "I think you mean Mr Fanshaw, sir".
To which HB replied, "Then tell him Mr Bumley is calling".

Today's Choral Evensnog had Thomas Fetherstonehaugh as one of the organists. The person doing the wittering at the end of the programme seemed to do the non Fanshaw version of his name and I couldn't help wondering if that was a mistake - is it likely that the young man in question wouldn't use the Fanshaw version? Does anyone know?

[ardcarp]

But what you have said brings more directly into mind my meeting with Harold Macmillan. When we got off the boat from Ramsey Island in 1975 and he was sitting with a pal above the otherwise empty Carefai Bay, I can't say he was at all unfriendly when I approached him. But all I had was a crumpled brown Woolworths envelope for his autograph. He turned it this way and that before exclaiming "haven't you got anything better? - what a rotten bit of a paper to sign it on". Well, the boat has limits on what you can carry - sandwiches and an envelope is about it - but it's interesting. That similar phraseology. He was full of irony and kindness with a 12 year old. It was his wit. He signed it across the narrower part either for security reasons or amusement or both. I liked him enormously and I still do, whatever his faults. He had fewer than most today.

He was also, of course, the most centre left Prime Minister in my lifetime other than possibly Wilson and the very overrated Callaghan

I share your view of Macmillan, Lat-L, but not of Callaghan who I think was a thoroughly decent man...probably too decent to survive as PM.

Incidentally:

http://www.unithistories.com/officers/rnvr_officersc.html

Scroll down to find him. My Dad's there too.

[Lat-Literal]

I share your view of Macmillan, Lat-L, but not of Callaghan who I think was a thoroughly decent man...probably too decent to survive as PM.

Incidentally:

http://www.unithistories.com/officers/rnvr_officersc.html

Scroll down to find him. My Dad's there too.

There aren't many who have held all four main offices of state. My main memory of him is as PM which admittedly was not at an easy time. As an aside, I see that Mrs May has now easily passed Bonar Law in terms of length of office and in less than two weeks she will have completed a year. The next significant milestone, though, is Douglas-Home - 362 days. One of my favourite self-penned quiz questions in the category of politics - Who was the British PM when JFK was killed? It was he and he gave a touching speech not that many recall it. And as an additional aside, the programme by Andrew Marr on the importance of painting to Churchill throughout his life - repeated last night and on the I-player - is absolutely wonderful.

Interviewed on the BBC News Channel this evening: Dr Van Breeding (US medic).

Today's Choral Evensnog had Thomas Fetherstonehaugh as one of the organists. The person doing the wittering at the end of the programme seemed to do the non Fanshaw version of his name and I couldn't help wondering if that was a mistake - is it likely that the young man in question wouldn't use the Fanshaw version? Does anyone know?

These just go to show that once the discussion begins, they leap out in the mass media with extraordinary regularity.

[ardcarp]

There's a website specialising in surnames.

http://gbnames.publicprofiler.org/default.aspx

It is particularly interesting to look up a name from the 1881 census which tends to show its geographical occurrence in an age when families stayed put.

Sdaly it does not record rare surnames. Hence some friends of ours called Gawkroger do not appear.