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| === Chapter 2 Beginnings === | === Chapter 2 Beginnings === |
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| I have tried to find out more about the Leipzig Gruners. We do have some documents about | I have tried to find out more about the Leipzig Gruners. We do have some documents about them, but all contact with that side of the family ended after the 1914-1918 Great War. Albert Gruner and Peter Gruner were two of five sibs. Albert born on may 5, 1840 was married to Emma whose account of their twenty-five years of marriage forms one document. She would have been a great grandaunt. The other document was a dairy account by Tante Louise about the Franco Prussian war. |
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| them, but all contact with that side of the family ended after the 1914-1918 Great War. Albert Gruner and Peter Gruner were two of five sibs. Albert born on may 5, 1840 was married to Emma whose account of their twenty-five years of marriage forms one document. She would have been a great grandaunt. The other document was a dairy account by Tante Louise about the Franco Prussian war. | |
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| Peter Georg was born on April 18, 1842. He married Eleanor Beattie in 1873. He travelled to Leipzig with her and their son Albert, aged four in 1878. Oscar would have been left behind in the care of a nanny as he was born in August 15, 1877 While there, they attended the Niebelungen Trilogy. He was an accomplished cello and piano player. Sometime after the birth of their daughter Evelyn 1878, Peter and Eleanor separated. It was rumoured that he lived with another woman. He became a naturalized British subject on December 1886.(Documented) In September of 1887 Peter from London and his brother Hans, a geologist from Berlin went to their mother’s funeral in Leipzig. There is an entry in the account where Peter went to Karlsbad in the Prague area in April of 1889. I guess it was to take the bath treatments which were popular in the latter part of the 19<sup>th</sup> century and early in the twentieth. There is no suggestion as to the type of illness he was suffering from. He died suddenly in Richmond England on May 6, 1890 aged 48 years. When he died, Emma and Peter’s brother Albert came to London for the funeral. There is a note that Eleanor was terribly affected as their son Albert was very ill with peritonitis, which lasted a year. | Peter Georg was born on April 18, 1842. He married Eleanor Beattie in 1873. He travelled to Leipzig with her and their son Albert, aged four in 1878. Oscar would have been left behind in the care of a nanny as he was born in August 15, 1877 While there, they attended the Niebelungen Trilogy. He was an accomplished cello and piano player. Sometime after the birth of their daughter Evelyn 1878, Peter and Eleanor separated. It was rumoured that he lived with another woman. He became a naturalized British subject on December 1886.(Documented) In September of 1887 Peter from London and his brother Hans, a geologist from Berlin went to their mother’s funeral in Leipzig. There is an entry in the account where Peter went to Karlsbad in the Prague area in April of 1889. I guess it was to take the bath treatments which were popular in the latter part of the 19<sup>th</sup> century and early in the twentieth. There is no suggestion as to the type of illness he was suffering from. He died suddenly in Richmond England on May 6, 1890 aged 48 years. When he died, Emma and Peter’s brother Albert came to London for the funeral. There is a note that Eleanor was terribly affected as their son Albert was very ill with peritonitis, which lasted a year. |
| === Chapter 3 Malcolm’s Early Years === | === Chapter 3 Malcolm’s Early Years === |
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| Malcolm was born in 1905, the year Saskatchewan was incorporated as a province of the Dominion of Canada. In 1910 Oscar and Alice came to Montreal with their two children, Malcolm and Douglas. They had a house at 590 Pine Avenue, very near to where Pierre Elliott Trudeau had been living since leaving the prime ministership of Canada. Oscar came to McGill as an assistant professor of pathology. That pine house was known to me, but it has since been torn down. | Malcolm was born in 1905, the year Saskatchewan was incorporated as a province of the Dominion of Canada. In 1910 Oscar and Alice came to Montreal with their two children, Malcolm and Douglas. They had a house at 590 Pine Avenue, very near to where Pierre Elliott Trudeau had been living since leaving the prime ministership of Canada. Oscar came to McGill as an assistant professor of pathology. That Pine house was known to me, but it has since been torn down. |
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| Oscar's life had been quite productive at McGill. He authored or co-authored number of articles published in journals such as the American Journal of Pathology etc. In l913 the signs of impending war were obvious and Oscar felt he should be back in England. He returned and joined the British Army medical corps and did work as a pathologist. He must have been the only pathologist in the British Army! On their return to England, Malcolm was taken to Portsmouth to see the British fleet in manoeuvres. As a young boy he expressed how impressed he was by the might of the British Navy. He would have been nine years old at the time. | Oscar's life had been quite productive at McGill. He authored or co-authored number of articles published in journals such as the American Journal of Pathology etc. In l913 the signs of impending war were obvious and Oscar felt he should be back in England. He returned and joined the British Army medical corps and did work as a pathologist. He must have been the only pathologist in the British Army! On their return to England, Malcolm was taken to Portsmouth to see the British fleet in manoeuvres. As a young boy he expressed how impressed he was by the might of the British Navy. He would have been nine years old at the time. |
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| “On 25 July 1909, the pioneer aeronaut Louis Blériot made history by becoming the first pilot to cross the English Channel in a rickety monoplane. The 37-minute flight won a £1,000 prize offered by Lord Northcliffe, the owner of the London Daily Mail, to the first man to cross the Channel in powered flight. The huge significance of Bleriot's achievement was recognized by Northcliffe who proclaimed on the front page of his newspaper the words "England is no longer an island." The Channel with modern 'flying saucer' phenomena. This article is an attempt to reconcile these two differing approaches to the subject, and set the scare in its correct sociological context with the use of original source material.” Scareships Over Britain: The Airship Wave of 1909, by Dr David Clarke) | On 25 July 1909, the pioneer aeronaut Louis Blériot made history by becoming the first pilot to cross the English Channel in a rickety monoplane. The 37-minute flight won a £1,000 prize offered by Lord Northcliffe, the owner of the London Daily Mail, to the first man to cross the Channel in powered flight. The huge significance of Bleriot's achievement was recognized by Northcliffe who proclaimed on the front page of his newspaper the words "England is no longer an island." The Channel with modern 'flying saucer' phenomena. This article is an attempt to reconcile these two differing approaches to the subject, and set the scare in its correct sociological context with the use of original source material.” Scareships Over Britain: The Airship Wave of 1909, by Dr David Clarke) |
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| Bleriot's flight marked the high point of a feverish summer in which the public had been gripped with aerial hysteria and fear of invasion from foreign hordes. The year 1909 saw the realization that the British Navy's world-wide supremacy was directly under threat, and for the first time in its history the island was vulnerable to invasion from the air. Blériot may well have been the first to cross the Channel, but just two months before his flight newspapers had suggested that the Channel had been crossed secretly, and at night, by a far more sinister aircraft - the German Zeppelin airship. In the spring of 1909 Germany's prototype airships were incapable of night reconnaissance operations over the British Coast. And yet, during four months that spring, several hundred eyewitnesses claimed to have seen "phantom Zeppelins" moving across the night sky, performing manoeuvres which were impossible for any contemporary airship or aeroplane of the day. In addition, a number of people claimed to have seen this mysterious airship at close range, hearing its whirring engines and observing its cigar-shaped gasbag and dazzling searchlight. A few even claimed to have seen and conversed with its crew. Although few of these claims were taken seriously, just six years later the first air raids, led by Zeppelins, would be launched against East Anglia, bringing the hitherto fictional horror of bombing to the very heart of England.” | Bleriot's flight marked the high point of a feverish summer in which the public had been gripped with aerial hysteria and fear of invasion from foreign hordes. The year 1909 saw the realization that the British Navy's world-wide supremacy was directly under threat, and for the first time in its history the island was vulnerable to invasion from the air. Blériot may well have been the first to cross the Channel, but just two months before his flight newspapers had suggested that the Channel had been crossed secretly, and at night, by a far more sinister aircraft - the German Zeppelin airship. In the spring of 1909 Germany's prototype airships were incapable of night reconnaissance operations over the British Coast. And yet, during four months that spring, several hundred eyewitnesses claimed to have seen "phantom Zeppelins" moving across the night sky, performing manoeuvres which were impossible for any contemporary airship or aeroplane of the day. In addition, a number of people claimed to have seen this mysterious airship at close range, hearing its whirring engines and observing its cigar-shaped gasbag and dazzling searchlight. A few even claimed to have seen and conversed with its crew. Although few of these claims were taken seriously, just six years later the first air raids, led by Zeppelins, would be launched against East Anglia, bringing the hitherto fictional horror of bombing to the very heart of England.” |