Posted by Robert Dilley on May 03, 2003 at 16:51:56 from 206.186.189.59 user rdilley.
In Reply to: Re: Bob Blackett posted by Jim McDowell on May 03, 2003 at 16:01:34:
One thought to add to this fascinating discussion. If Beckfoot had been an active farm in 1914 Bob Blackett would presumably have been considered to be in a "protected occupation" (like miners) and not called up for armed service. He may not have gone to war at all, or gone only at the end. If Nancy was already born before 1918 he might have worried what she would think of her father's avoiding fighting and volunteered after Molly had conceived Peggy. I'll leave it to the timeline experts to see if that would work.
This actually mirrors my father's behaviour in WWII. He was a London policeman and exempt from call-up. Eventually he decided my older brothers, then 9 and 10, would be ashamed at his not going to war and joined the air force after impregnating my mother with me. I only knew him through pictures until I was nearly four when he returned from India. Apparently I caused my mother maximum embarrassment one day on the London underground, by enthusiastically greeting an American airman who got on as "Daddy" (well, the uniform must have looked the same).
I have no recollection of anything in the stories to indicate that Bob Blackett might still be alive. And it has always seemed to me that Captain Flint's behaviour towards Molly Blackett is more that of a younger than of an older brother, though I would be hard-put-to to document exactly why.
Incidentally, the ice on Superior between our shore and an island a quarter-mile offshore finally disappeared on May 1, though there are still large stretches visible further out in Thunder Bay. Not quite time for swimming yet.