1917

1917

This was the year when:
* Germany announced that its U-Boats will open up to unrestricted submarine warfare (i.e. target civilian ships as well as military vessels)
* The first woman was elected to the US Congress (Jeannette Rankin, Montana)
* VI Lenin returned to Petrograd (now known as Saint Petersburg) from his exile in Finland
* Forty-eight people died in riots in Illinois as lower-paid black labourers clashed with whites
* The British Royal Family changed its name from ‘The House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha’ to ‘Windsor’ in the face of anti-German sentiment
* An explosion at a munitions factory in London killed 73 and injured over 400
* The sea defences at the Devon village of Hallsands were breached leading to every house becoming uninhabitable (some things don’t change)
* A fire in Thesaloniki, Greece destroyed a third of the city leaving 70,000 homeless (some things just don’t change)
* Sir Edward Elgar wrote ‘The Fringes of the Fleet’.

Joining us on this planet in 1917 were:
* Anthony Burgess
* Vera Lynn
* Raymond Burr
* John F Kennedy
* Dean Martin
* John Lee Hooker
* Arthur C Clarke and
* John (Jack) Griffiths – who much later became grandfather to The Lovely S.

Leaving us that year (amongst others):
* Mata Hari the Dutch spy (executed)

There’s a reason for me doing this digging around.

Today was the funeral of John (Jack) Griffiths, the late grandfather to The Lovely S.

And it’s difficult to comprehend the events that have occurred during his lifetime, hard to imagine the things he’s seen.

The political, social and economic events.

The achievements of human endeavour.

The technological, governmental, medical.

I didn’t really know him – except well enough to judge that he was a very individual person.

He’d had a wide-ranging, varied life and – undoubtedly – had experienced some interesting times.

I’m sorry for the lost chance – the missed opportunity that has passed me by.

I had access to an invaluable source of information and I kept thinking ‘I’ll get around to it’.

I failed to get around to it.

B.