The Alexander Palace Time Machine Discussion Forum

Presumably on the basis that the wild boar is member of the pig family, and therefore that the symbol might be offensive to Muslims. Leicester has a very large Asian population - about one-thid of the total when I lived there 12 years ago.

Have the council made any inquiries of the local Muslims?

Ann

Excellent news! The Duke is out of hospital.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/prince-philip/10124624/Two-weeks-of-hospital-checks-for-the-Duke-of-Edinburgh.html

Ann

He does say something in his diary about hearing of the murders, and there is a passage in Princess Marie Louise's book in which he asks her to break the news gently to Victoria Milford Haven.

Ann

I wonder about the context for the nude picture of Boris. I see him as being at the lake with a bunch of army pals, and one of the pals took the picture as a joke. Boris has a look on his face as if he's been caught unawares.

Or perhaps it was his brother Kirill.

Ann

Agreed. nothing offensive to be seen. The intimate bits are neatly concealed by Boris's forearm.

Ann

James

For once I dare to pull you up on a minor point of detail. A German staff officer would not talk about 'von Hindenburg' but just 'Hindenburg'. In German the von is dropped when the surname is used alone, except in the case of one-syllable names. It's the same in French with de - so de Gaulle, but Lattre de Tassigny. Just to confuse matters, if Hindenburg were introducing himself, he would say 'von Hindenburg, Generalfeldmarschall'.

Ann

No problem. I think that you can now get The Beano online, if you want to explore further.

Ann

To kick off, are there any photographs of Tatiana's second husband, Alexander Korochenzov? And does anyone know anything about him beyond his being an ADC to her uncle? I read somewhere that he died of diphtheria. They had been married for less than three months.

Ann

Charles and Camilla have made an appearance in The Beano.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/prince-charles/10113653/Yikes-Prince-of-Wales-and-Duchess-of-Cornwall-tackle-the-Bash-Street-Kids.html

For non-British readers, The Beano is a comic which first appeared in 1938, and is peopled by anarchic figures such as Dennis the Menace and his dog Gnasher, the Bash Street Kids (who form Class 2B in the utterly chaotic Bash Street School), and Roger the Dodger, who spends a great deal of time avoiding anything like work.

I bought a copy of the special edition to share with my Dad, who read The Beano when it first came out, and used to join me in reading my brother's copy!

Ann

To judge from the hair, that must have been taken in the 1920s.

Ann

As far as I know, the point hasn't arisen before. The habit of giving younger sons peerages only on marriage is a fairly recent development. The last Prince of Wales who had two or more adult sons living was the future Edward VII. Albert Victor was created Duke of Clarence in 1890 and George Duke of York in 1892.

It would be perfectly possible to give Prince Harry a peerage on his father's accession. Doubtless he will be the next Duke of York, but he will have to wait for his uncle Andrew to die for that.

Ann

Blush!

Erik

I will have to check, but I think you would be talking a week as a minimum for the journey from Petrograd to Paris in wartime. Albert Stopford travelled several times from London to Petrograd in wartime, so his account will give you details of that journey.

I will certainly help you on the interplay between the Russians and the British, but will need to do some research first. We could do something about Lord Kitchener's intended mission to Russia in June 1916, when there was a real fear within the British government that Russia was likely to make a separate peace, quite possibly under the influence of Rasputin. I will see what I can cook up. There is more than one recent biography of Kitchener which should give me the background. Asquith was still Prime Minister then, and I can do a scene between Asquith and Kitchener and also scenes between Asquith and George V. If Kitchener had a meeting with the king before his departure I can do that too.

Ann

Smallish point, but worth making somewhere. The journey from Russia to France in wartime would be long and circuitous, given that all the normal pre-war routes crossed enemy territory. Probably the quickest way would be by land to Norway, then a sea crossing to Britain (with threat from  U-boats), then a Channel crossing. Perhaps Palaeologue could remark to the President that it was so much simply in peacetime, when one could go all the way from St Petersburg to Paris and change trains only because of the different gauges.

Ann

I think before, as in the immediate aftermath of  Alexander III's death Xenia would be in black and both Nicholas and Sandro would have black armbands.

Nicholas carried on wearing Colonel's insignia after his accession, so the uniform won't help much.

Ann