Thursday, August 14, 2008

kermudjens' kwiz ... who was this incorrigibly facetious ne'er do well ?



5 comments:

Unknown said...

John Betjeman?

Anna said...

Betjeman. Or are you being facetious about anyone not recognizing him?

tristan said...

i just wanted to share the pleasure of looking at him again ... i doubt if he could keep a straight face for very long ... as i am unable to whenever i think of him

Lucy said...

He always looked as though he belonged in an Ealing comedy didn't he?

Guess what? The comment verif. is 'amazn', which you are, of course!

tristan said...

i never met sir john BUT he was for many years the honorary president of the malmesbury civic trust, of which i became chairman for a couple of years, some time after his death

as his name was still on our letterhead, we racked our brains for the name of a living replacement who was well-known and well liked, but none of us had any bright ideas at the time

then a few months later, by co-incidence and by good luck, i was introduced to the journalist julian pettifer, who had grown up near the town, and he was pleased to chat about his memories

i wrote to him a couple of months later and asked if he'd allow us to put his name on the civic trust letterhead in place of sir john's

he replied that he'd be delighted, especially because of this rather touching coincidence ...

that he'd been a neighbour of sir john's in london, and that in the months following the death of sir john's wife Penelope Chetwode, had invited the widower to come breakfast in his flat whenever he was alone, which had been quite often enough for them to become good friends