Lord Kilbracken — obituary

The Telegraph (UK) ^ | 8/15/2006

[Oztrich Boy]

I don't know where the stereotype of the "Wild Irishman" come from

[untenured]

The position earned him a certain amount of kudos with his peers, but was not appreciated by the beaks...

...for the first two years flew at every opportunity, “perfectly convinced of my own immortality, despite a number of exciting prangs, a ditching in the Firth of Forth and quite a bit of tracer.”

After a few weeks wandering around the Mediterranean, he fetched up in a dirty waterfront hotel at Ajaccio, Corsica,...

I sure wish I could speak the language this was written in.

And I hope there will always be an England (or a British Isles, anyway).

[tet68]

The best milker he christened Jayne.

Good show!

[elcid1970]

"There will always be an England"

Only if a majority of the lot of them are wonderful blokes like this lad.

[bilhosty]

A jolly good read the Brits have always had a way with obits.

[jocon307]

There's nothing like an English obit. Thanks for this interesting piece. May the good lord RIP, and kudos for him sticking up for Ireland.

[DuncanWaring]

Partial translation:

Beaks - apparently some sort of upperclassman or faculty member.
Prang - crash landing.
Ditching - water landing in an aircraft not designed for it.
Firth of Forth - estuary of the River Forth in Scotland.
Tracer - probably a reference to tracer bullets being dispatched in his general direction.
Fetched up - appeared, wound up, ended up.
Mediterranean - large body of water between Europe and Africa (OK, OK, I got carried away there)

[Winniesboy]

Dear me, what a dull life - how unlike the home life of our own dear Freepers. BTW, 'beak' was public school slang for a schoolmaster, and in particular the headmaster.

[dighton]

Ping to a colorful life and first-rate obituary.

[Constitution Day]

He knew little about Jayne Mansfield, other than that “her dimensions were apparently very unusual”, and found to his relief that his duties were mainly formal.

What a remarkable gentleman! Many thanks for the ping.

Lieutenant John Godley (centre) with his crew;
'Jake' Bennett (Observer) and Leading Airman Charles Simpson (air gunner) before their Stringbag at Maydown, 1944.

[aculeus]

He launched himself into a range of unsuccessful enterprises: growing Christmas trees, making cream cheese and selling square yards of Irish bog to Americans for a nickel apiece. He failed to make any money out of this last venture, since the cost of sending a receipt for each nickel was two nickels.

Ancient accountancy-joke punch line: "I'll make it up in volume."

Thanks for posting another great Tele obit.

[AnAmericanMother]

One minor adjustment --

"Beak" is old London slang for a police constable. In this case, it probably means the school proctors.

[AnAmericanMother]

Mr. Kipling's schoolmates referred to the schoolmasters as "ushers".

[AnAmericanMother]

Come to think of it, a judge in 18th c. London was known as the "blind beak" (he really was - supposedly could recognize 2,000 criminals by their voices) so it must be a magistrate instead of a P.C.

[fella]

He joined the Liberal Party in 1960, but in 1966 switched his allegiance to Labour, arguing that he wanted to take “more positive responsibility” than the Liberals could provide.

Hmmmm .................... " wanted to take “more positive responsibility” than the Liberals could provide. "

[Irish_Thatcherite]

Ireland Ping.

[Tax-chick]

Sir John Fielding, older brother of the novelist Henry Fielding. There's a cool series of "Blind Beak" historical mystery novels.

[Tax-chick]

Bruce Alexander is the author. Funny how that popped into my head, instead of the name of the cookbook that has the recipe for tonight's supper ... what AM I supposed to do with all those white beans?

Back to staring at the bookshelves waiting for the light to dawn ...

[AnAmericanMother]

Well, any time you start with white beans, you need to soak them in plenty of cold water for 3-4 hours.

That should give you time to remember what comes next. < g >

We're sitting in our hotel room near my daughter's college at this very moment (in beautiful downtown Cornelius.) Move-in starts at 6, but we're waiting for the early crush to die down. High speed internet in every room!