June 30, 2014

Samuel John Gurney Hoare

1st Viscount Templewood GCSI, GBE, CMG, PC, OWL (24 February 1880 – 7 May 1959), more commonly known as Sir Samuel Hoare, was a senior British Conservative politician who served in various Cabinet posts in the Conservative and National governments of the 1920s and 1930s. He was Secretary of State for Air during most of the 1920s and briefly again in 1940. He is perhaps most famous for serving as Foreign Secretary in 1935, when he authored the Hoare–Laval Pact with French Prime Minister Pierre Laval. In 1936 he became First Lord of the Admiralty, then served as Home Secretary from 1937 to 1939 and was British ambassador to Spain from 1940 to 1944.

Now the Hoares are in the Lounge, too.

-- Mal

June 26, 2014

Call out the instigators...

Hard to believe sometimes that we were really that innocent. Well, some of us, I mean.

-- Mal

June 6, 2014

Scotty at Normandy

6 June 1944: Lieutenant James Doohan of the 13th Canadian Field Artillery Regiment landed on Juno beach. In the course of moving his men to their firing position he shot two enemy snipers. Then while making the rounds at 2330 that night, he was shot by a sentry with a Bren machinegun, resulting in the amputation of his right middle finger (you have to look hard for that, he usually hides it in films). After healing up from that adventure, he became a pilot-observer for the 1st Canadian army.

Tough dude.


-- Mal