Posted by Peter R on May 22, 2006 at 10:41:55 from 62.253.128.12 user badboy.
In Reply to: Taqui Altounyan posted by Prue Eckett on May 22, 2006 at 06:44:28:
May I share with you my memories of Taqui and other's that I might have posted here before, but it's such a nice memory I hope you won't mind.
It was at the TARS Inaugural Meeting in June 1990 that Lucy Batty introduced me to Taqui and I took an instant liking to her.
We got chatting, and, as you do on these occasions, we indulged in small talk, such as where do you live and where do you come from?
I somehow knew she lived in London so I asked Taqui where exactly, "Judd Street, not far from St Pancras station," she answered, "you probably don't know it." You should have seen her face when I said I knew it very well, having been brought up not far away in Charrrington Street, and that my family came from Cromer Street which is off Judd Street.
Even more was to come; my mother's brother used to run a news stand outside King's Cross Station and to supplement his income he swept chimneys, one of London's last chimney sweeps I believe, "Do you mean Billy Barnes", Taqui said. Yes, I answered, why, do you know him? "I know him to talk to when I purchase a newspaper."
From that day Taqui and I remained good friends, and we visited her at her flat in Jessel House when I was compiling the Souvenir Guide to the 1997 AGM. I will never forget her kindness on that day to me and Val.
Somebody in TARS, I don't remember who, once said to me that these chance encounters with the origins of Swallows & Amazons - I think AR called it the chance encounters with the skirts of history - will one day bring much comfort, and they were right. I also corresponded with Susan in France and Mavis when she lived in Bradford, and a chance encounter with a painting of Bank Ground Farm led me to discover where Charlie Jolly lived, the son of the owner of Bank Ground Farm before Lucy Batty.
I contacted him and he agreed to give me and Val lunch the next time we visited the Lakes when he would tell me the story of his early life at Bank Ground Farm. He even trusted me to bring home Bank Ground Farm's Visitors Book from 1928 - the year the Altounyan family came home from Allepo on a visit to Lanehead, and because Lanehead wasn't big enough for them all they stayed at Bank Ground - and copy pages from it, and what a revelation that was for all four Altoynyan girls! This story is recounted in an early edition of Mixed Moss.
Unfortunately, Roger had passed away only two years before the formation of TARS, so I never got the chance to correspond with him, but other's, such as Roger Kendall, have.