Posted by John Wilson on June 05, 2000 at 13:31:03 from wn-d63.actrix.co.nz:
In Reply to: The blackett family posted by Richard Williamson on June 04, 2000 at 23:18:54:
Bob Blackett could have died in the 1919 flu epidemic. Or perhaps he could have died in WWI if Nancy was 12 but nearly 13, and still be Peggy’s father. Particularly if SA is kept in 1929 rather than the 1930 implied by SD. But if “Mixed Moss” was finished in August 1930, could it still have been published by December as stated in the footnote ie the publishing date does not rule out 1930 for SA? Didn’t AR sometimes have to hurry to make the Christmas market; late November going by the dates of some of the book reviews? And AR gave Captain Flint a best-seller, with “Mixed Moss” into an 8th edition by 1931.
What happened to the Turners’ parents? Jim and Mary Turner were brought up by the GA Maria Turner, so they must have lost their parents (or at least their mother?). They were brought up at Beckfoot (?); so it must have been the Turner family home inherited by Mrs Blackett (hurrah, no primogeniture favouring the eldest son, ie whether Jim was older or younger than Mary!). But the Blacketts were local, as Bob climbed the Matterhorn with Jim & Mary Turner.
Jim went to Oxford, where he got some rowing medals before he was “sent down” or sent around the world in his case! I think it would have taken more than a boat race night episode with a policeman’s helmet, perhaps he just didn’t do enough swot even for a gentleman scholar! But like George Washington he never told a lie (SA).