Tubby Clayton

Philip 'Tubby' Clayton WW1 Army Chaplin opened a behind the lines club for British soldiers in 1915. Based in Poperinge it was named Talbert House after Lt Talbert of the Rifle Brigade and son of the Bishop of Winchester who was killed at Ypres in 1915. Soldiers could meet and relax regardless of rank - 'All rank abandon ye who enter here.' In those days the signal code for T was Toc not Tango so Talbert House became known as Toc H - the Army loves abbreviations. Toc H wagons began to deliver food extras and tea to troops near the front line, continuing this activity in WW2. Its symbol the Lamp became instantly recognisable to troops. If you wanted to accuse a fellow soldier of being a bit slow you would say he was ' as dim as aToc H lamp'

In 1922 Clayton became vicar of All Hallows by the Tower. He also relaunched Toc H as an international Christian friendship organisation and and became heavily involved with the Tower Hill Improvement Trust. In this capacity he was responsible for the Statue of the Roman Emperor Trajan that stands in Wakefield Gardens in front of one of the best remaining sections of London's Roman Wall. He found it in a scrap yard in Southampton and brought it back to stand in this Roman setting. (Trajan unlike his successor Hadrian never visited Britain - the current Hadrian exhibition at the BM is a must see)

All Hallows today contains the cremated remains of many Toc H members and the 'Lamp of Maintenance' from which all other Toc H lamps are lit.

Of Mayors and Monuments

When the position of Mayor of London was created the elected representative was given responsibility for Trafalgar Square. Arguments over its statuary have dominated all reportage. Firstly Ken talked of generals in the Square he had never heard of. He meant Henry Havelock -the first statue to have been created from a photograph- an officer who fought in the Sikh Wars and the Indian Mutiny and the companion piece James Napier most famous for the conquest of the province of Sind in India. They have been there since the mid-nineteenth century and Havelock even features in Zadie Smith's book White Teeth.(See below) Ken of course was preparing the way for his proposal to have a statue of Nelson Mandela in the Square. Westminster Council preferred that it be outside South Africa House. A savage war of words ensured and Prescott was called in to referee! Eventually Mandela's second representation in London went up in Parliament Square close to that other S.A. statesman Jan Smuts. He is also close that other black icon Martin Luther King. Look at the statues above the Great West Door of Westminster Abbey. They may look like they have been there for centuries but they are the Christian Martyrs of the twentieth century and the one in the middle is King. He visited London in 1964 on route to Oslo to pick up the Nobel Peace Prize and spoke at St Paul's Cathedral.

Onto the debate about the empty fourth plinth. Should there be a permanent figure on it or should it continue a revolving site for Modern Art. Before the last Mayoral election a campaign was building for a statue to go up of WW2 RAF hero Sir Keith Park on the plinth and Boris backed the idea only to change his mind once elected. The Art will continue and Park will be honoured elsewhere. Hyde Park could even be renamed after him( yes he said that) But what Art? A competition came up with two winners. Anthony Gormley will get people to stand on it for an hour for a hundred day period and Yinka Shonibare will exhibit his replica of HMS Victory in a bottle(a worthy winner). So Nelson will look down on his old ship, tool of his great victory and the site of his death. His demise is depicted on the carving at the base of his column, the one facing down Whitehall. A close look at this reveals a black seaman returning the fire of the French snipers. Black sailors were quite common in the British Navy of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. The famous anti-slavery campaigner Olaudah Equiano sailed with Nelson.

The obvious candidate for the fourth plinth is a woman. In 1897 a statue of actress Sarah Siddons was put up in Paddington Green. The first woman outside Royalty to be immortalised in London. The subsequent years have not brought many more - Boudicca, Cavell, Nightingale, Pankhurst, Mrs Booth, the Women of WW2 and surgeon Louisa Aldrich-Blake. Struggling to think of anymore stand alone exterior statues of women. Lets put up a statue of this underrepresented half of the human race in the centre of the capital. Who should it be? Time for public debate.

Used the term Indian Mutiny earlier. The British have always viewed the events that started on the 10th May 1857 in military terms. It was a mutiny of one of the East Indian Company's armies in India supported by some Indian Princes with grievances. The other armies remained loyal and the principle warrior races of the sub-continent fought on the British side. Today many Indians see it as a War of Independence which united Muslim and Hindu against a common enemy. The truth is probably somewhere in between - perhaps its time to come up with another name for the uprising. There is a Havelock Road in Southall, with a pub of the same name, that leads to the the new Gurdwara and Asian councillors on the governing Ealing Council sometimes lobby to have the road's name changed. Well councillors I'd look at upgrading your rubbish and council tax collection first or restarting the funding of the animal rescue centre in Walpole Park. Saw a poster in Southall about a year ago on the subject of the Havelock Road renaming campaign claiming that the Sikhs had fought the British during the Mutiny - not the case.

Warrior of Rome - Fire in the East

For all you fans of Roman and military history let me recommend this 2008 novel by Dr Harry Sidebottom. It is unusual in the fact that it deals with Rome's eastern frontier (where for centuries Rome fought the Parthian and later the Persian Empires) and that it is set in the third century AD.

Most Roman military fictions are set in the last days of the Republic or the early days of the Empire either in Rome or Britain. In the third century things were going badly for Rome. Usurpers were murdering Emperors at a rapid rate. Britain and Gaul broke away for a decade. An Emperor was killed fighting the Goths and another captured by the Persians. Yet the Empire survived.

The hero of the story is Roman General Marcus Clodius Ballista. There was a real life Ballista on the eastern front at this time who defeated the Persians and captured the Persian King's harem. Indeed in the book his harem is penetrated(sic) during a night raid by Ballista's troops. Fictional Ballista speaks Latin, Greek, his native Anglo-Saxon and a form of Celtic to his bodyguard. And also Persian well enough to fool his enemies in a life or death situation. That was stretching the storyline a bit far for me and also why did the ultimate betrayers follow their mad leader to disaster? But don't be put off. This is a real page turner, excellent reading which can't be put down.

Saw a fellow on the tube the other day reading Ancient Warfare - a very short introduction by Harry Sidebottom published by Oxford. It could be worth a read.

Woolwich Arsenal

The Royal Artillery is leaving Woolwich and London. As a legacy of this very long association London has been left with the Firepower Museum and Arsenal Football Club. Just before the Second World War Woolwich Arsenal was the victim of spies. The story centres on one Olga Gray a respectable middle class lady from Ealing with left- wing views. She worked on a Pacifist newspaper and was a member of the 'Friends of the Soviet Union'. Moscow spymasters recruited her as an agent and she worked at assisting Indian Communists.

In 1937 she was asked to rent a house in Holland Park This was to be used as a Soviet safe house. Plans for a new navy gun were stolen from Woolwich Arsenal and taken to Holland Park to be photographed

Unfortunately for the Communists Olga was a British double agent and her information smashed the Woolwich Arsenal spy ring.

Nawab

A Nawab was an extremely wealthy , high status governor or nobleman of the Mogul Empire in India and the term was used in the form Nabob to describe the eighteenth century British who returned home from the sub-continent having made a fortune. They liked to display their wealth and would promenade along Jermyn Street( now famous for shirts) parallel with Piccadilly dressed in Indian style dress and covered in jewelery.

While there is no statue of a Nabob in Jermyn Street today it is fitting that there is one of that dandy and leader of 18th/19th century fashion George Bryan 'Beau' Brumell.