history

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Edward Gordon Gedge, Eileen Ruth Gedge, England, family, germany, history, TRAVELS FROM THE PAST, Uncategorized
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6

Facebook reunites mum with family of war-time German nanny

So here’s a beautiful and moving story I want to share …. It’s not a travel story as such but it’s certainly a story that’s travelled a long way and over a very long time …. Several days ago a lady from Kiel Germany contacted me via Facebook to ask if I was the granddaughter of Wing Commander Edward Gordon Gedge and his wife Eileen – which I am. Her name was Dagmar and she said she was the daughter of my mum’s nanny from more than sixty years ago and had been searching for us. Her mum Cristel cared[…]

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Amman Jordan, Blogger, Cambridge University, Eileen Ruth Gedge, history, Lebanon, Middle East
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Arab interlude – Summer in Lebanon, 1939

In 1939, my grandmother, Eileen Gedge (pictured above with my grandfather), met a wealthy Lebanese Law student called Ahmed Tewfik Bey Al-Khalil at Cambridge University where they were both studying. They became firm friends and according to family rumours, Ahmed fell in love with my grandmother – a tall, fine boned, beautiful woman, always impeccably dressed and an exceptional tennis player. Sadly my grandmother was forced to reject Ahmed’s advances as it was impossible then for her to marry an Arab.  In those days, inter-racial marriages were frowned upon in High Society. After university, they lost touch, but not before[…]

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Antwerp, Blogger, Duke Kahanamoku, Edward Gordon Gedge, Egypt, Europe, history, Olympics
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Riots Over British Gold At the 1920 Antwerp Olympics

It was an amazing Summer for Team GB at the 2016 Olympics in Brazil. Britain won 65 medals, of which 27 were gold. The British athletes left Rio on a high and there was huge congratulations all around on their success. Now imagine this is 1920, we’re at the Antwerp Olympics and the British Water polo team has just beaten Belgium to the gold medal. Instead of admitting defeat, being happy with a Silver and congratulating the British in the sporting spirit of the games, the Belgians have erupted and started a riot. Soldiers in full riot gear with bayonets and swords have entered the games to control[…]

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Ancestors, Blogger, Cavenagh-mainwarings, Edward Gordon Gedge, history, King Abbas, Kitchener, Middle East, Olympics, Whitmore Hall
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The Ancestors

I had it drummed into me from an early age that family and knowing where your roots come from are vitally important. My Grandfather, Edward Gordon Gedge, told me fantastic stories about his aristocratic life and my parents often said to me that I had ‘blue blood’ in my veins although I had no idea what they meant, and that I could trace my ancestry back to William the Conqueror.  Living in New Zealand, I didn’t have any appreciation of my ancestry until I first came to England and visited Whitmore Hall – my roots; the ancestral home in Staffordshire.  […]

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