Call me Darling and other eponymous heroes...
Posted: Sun Aug 15, 2021 9:37 am
My addled noodle was drawn to the following news this morning.
Even we, young, South African heathens, were taught of Grace's virtue and courage, in our schools, alongside tales about people like Wolraad Woltemade et al, all of whom who had dared the cruel sea and saved souls in peril from the foamy green brine. Now I hadn't given much thought to Grace since I scribbled her tale in my spidery, smudged, left handed script, in my Croxley notebook at the tender age of 6, but I read on about her today, and was saddened to see that she died of consumption at the age of 26. So much for she or heroism, the grim reaper scythes his dread way through the ranks of both the cowards and the brave, uncaring, like a scythe through the wheat in Darling, which is a small, rather pretty little town in the South Western Cape wheat belt. Named after Sir Charles Henry Darling, one time governor in the Cape, whose colonial career faltered later in life, after he commited the unpardonable crime, of offering fishing rights to the French in far off Newfoundland. Plus ca change it seems! We are all still at sea in the face of such matters...
https://www.theguardian.com/culture/202 ... ue-heroineA ferocious gale blew across the north-east coast of Britain on the night that made Grace Darling a star of popular history. She was to become a beacon of bravery for the Victorians when she set out in a small rowing boat to help the distressed passengers of the sinking SS Forfarshire.
Now she is to be celebrated with a large art installation in Northumberland, commissioned by the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) museum that bears her name.
Even we, young, South African heathens, were taught of Grace's virtue and courage, in our schools, alongside tales about people like Wolraad Woltemade et al, all of whom who had dared the cruel sea and saved souls in peril from the foamy green brine. Now I hadn't given much thought to Grace since I scribbled her tale in my spidery, smudged, left handed script, in my Croxley notebook at the tender age of 6, but I read on about her today, and was saddened to see that she died of consumption at the age of 26. So much for she or heroism, the grim reaper scythes his dread way through the ranks of both the cowards and the brave, uncaring, like a scythe through the wheat in Darling, which is a small, rather pretty little town in the South Western Cape wheat belt. Named after Sir Charles Henry Darling, one time governor in the Cape, whose colonial career faltered later in life, after he commited the unpardonable crime, of offering fishing rights to the French in far off Newfoundland. Plus ca change it seems! We are all still at sea in the face of such matters...