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Articles by Henry Elkins

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About Henry Elkins

A keen researcher of family ancestors, Henry will be reporting on the centenary of World War One. More Posts

August: an apocalyptic month

There is a tendency to regard August as the least active of all months, the ” silly season” ,  but history shows otherwise. The dropping of the two atomic bombs on Japan, the Kuwait war and the death of Princess Diana all took place in August and war was declared both in the Great War [...]

August 27, 2015 // 0 Comments

History and character

Like many people of my vintage I conduct a futile personal campaign to hold back the ravages of Time by maintaining my membership of a local health club. To be frank, whenever I weigh the cost of doing so against the number of times I actually manage to visit said establishment, it doesn’t [...]

August 20, 2015 // 0 Comments

Lessons learned by a bloody nose

Next week will mark the seventy-third anniversary of the disastrous Dieppe Raid on 19th August 1942 by British and Canadian troops. For some time the Russians had been lobbying Britain and the Allies to open a second front in north-west Europe in order to relieve the pressure they were under from [...]

August 13, 2015 // 0 Comments

A revelation on the road to Wimbledon

Today just an observation. Writing as someone who is about as unsporty as it is possible to be, at some point during the Men’s Singles Final at Wimbledon yesterday I decided that, as a sport played by individuals – well, I must immediately qualify that by adding that, even when played in its [...]

July 13, 2015 // 0 Comments

Has it really come to this?

Having been personally genetically programmed to have no interest in sport whatsoever, today I’m straying into murky waters – but that’s one of the joys of being a Rust contributor. When I fired up my computer today, I was bombarded by sporting headlines in the media. Let’s see: The [...]

June 4, 2015 // 0 Comments

Churchill: the day Britain said no

Last night I watched a documentary on the General Election of 1945 which Labour won by a landslide. Over the years I have studied this election in some detail. The normal assembly of anti-Churchill academics, Professors Charmley and Overy gathered as well as a bleached blonde Geordie Trot activist [...]

May 26, 2015 // 2 Comments

Montgomery’s reputation

A. recent book on the Ardennes campaign, popularly known as the Battle of the Bulge, by the distinguished historian Antony Beevor  (Ardennes 1944: Hitler’s last gamble) is critical of Field Marshal Montgomery. Monty in charge of the  Northern Army hoped that everyone would be back home by [...]

May 23, 2015 // 0 Comments

Every time is different

Last night I reached home after very nearly 48 hours ‘before the mast’, which in this instance in my case meant touring northern France and Belgium with my brother and a small party of virgin – and I use that world advisedly – tourists of the battlefields and Commonwealth War Grave [...]

May 6, 2015 // 0 Comments

For conspicuous bravery

[Above: the action of the night of 20th/21st April 1915 which led to the award of the VC to 2nd Lieutenant Geoffrey Woolley] The extraordinary thing about indulging in a hobby passion such as WW1 research is how often another piece of the jigsaw falls at your feet. Last night I arrived on the south [...]

April 24, 2015 // 0 Comments

Left-arm round, mostly

Since removing myself from the Bromley suburban rat race after a three decades ‘before the mast’ in a career I loved, I have been living in the quiet hamlet of Climping in West Sussex along with Mrs Elkins, our two cats Reg and Samantha, and my treasured collection of Victorian cricketing [...]

March 13, 2015 // 0 Comments

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