Sir George & Other Things

I could not leave our little trip around Crickhowell without mentioning its most famous son.  Sir George Everest was born in Crickhowell

 Looking back at the town from the River Usk.

Sir George Everest - the man who first surveyed the Himalayan peak was born in Crickhowell in 1790 and spent his boyhood there.

It was the hills around Crickhowell which inspired him to go on, literally, to bigger and better things. He left Wales to become the Surveyor General of India. There he studied what was then only known as Peak no. 15 or, to the local Tibetan inhabitants, Chomolungma, meaning Goddess Mother of the Earth.

George Everest took part in one of the great mapping feats of history - the survey of India which began on the south cape and moved gradually up toward the Himalayas. The survey took more than twenty years to complete and the men had to carry enormous pieces of equipment weighing half a tonne apiece.

It took another twenty years to realize the true significance of George’s work, for his efforts to be truly appreciated and the mountain was finally recognised as the highest point on the surface of the Earth. Later, Mount Everest was named in his honour.

I have talked about my brothers, mostly Geoff and his antics but Buddy was also mischievous. Although the quieter of the two boys he could get up to plenty of antics of his own.  Here is one of them.

A lot of my Mother’s family would do trips down to Wales to give them a break from the bombing and the stress. Uncle Alan was in the Tank Regiment and whenever he came home on leave he would go to Crickhowell for the peace and the beauty and to really be able to relax. He had met a lovely young woman and after they became serious, he would take her to Crickhowell with him.

Like all young couples they wanted privacy and there was precious little in our home. My mother, like her mother before her, kept an open door policy, plus there were the two boys and little me. So Alan would take Betty (Bet) off for a stroll in the countryside or down by the river, somewhere private where they could be alone. Well, they were never alone. Off they would set and after a little while, Alan would look back and there was little Buddy shuffling along behind them in his oversized boots (he always had Geoff’s hand-me-downs which were always too big) laces undone and dangling. As soon as he was spotted he would stand still with a big soppy grin on his face. He had a lovely grin. Even when he was a man you could not be angry or upset with him when he turned on that smile! Anyway, it did not matter how far they walked, he was behind them! The conversation would go something like this:-

Alan: “What are you doing?”

Buddy: “Nuffink”

Alan: “Well, go and do nuffink somewhere else!”

Buddy: “Why?

Alan: “Because I said so.”

Buddy: “Don’t want to”

Alan: “Why?”

Buddy: “I want to watch you”

Alan: “Why do you want to watch us, you are too young”

Buddy: “Why am I too young”

Alan: “Ask you mother”

Buddy: “Shan’t”

Alan: “You will get a thrashing when I tell your Mum”

Buddy: “You gonna kiss her?”

Alan: “Mind your own business!”

Buddy:"I fink you are gonna kiss her”

Alan: “Get lost!”

Buddy: “Shan’t”

Alan: “Bugger off you little s.d”

After that Alan would chase him off. Buddy would run as fast as he could in his big boots and eventually be lost to sight. Alan and Bet would settle down for a kiss and a cuddle only to hear a giggle and looking up there he was again! The conversation would then be repeated but getting longer each time. Poor Uncle Alan, it happened every single time he visited Crickhowell , Buddy never tired of it and I doubt Alan and Bet ever got much courting time. Alan said that Buddy was always like his shadow. However, Alan always had a soft spot for Buddy and he used to laugh about those times and the big boots until the day he died.

Now I feel sorry.  On the 28th January I posted an entry about my favourite photographs and I picked two. There should have been three. I have a photograph of Buddy which is my particular favourite of him. It was overlooked when I did that entry because it was not amongst my other photographs but in a frame in the bedroom.  I am going to put that right now :-

It is not in good condition because my Mother had it before I did but it is greatly treasured. Buddy was working for Qantas at the time it was taken. He was a man that was liked by all, at school, at work and in whatever clubs he joined. He was sporty and active and ran in marathons all over the world.  He never made an enemy.  He wrote beautiful poetry, sketched in charcoal and painted in oils (alas I have nothing by him). He was funny, witty and intelligent. He never did a bad deed.  I am honoured to put him on this entry so that he can take his rightful place under my favourite photographs. I am also honoured and privileged that he was my brother.  I like to think of him now as that happy little boy in Crickhowell, getting up to all kinds of tricks and happy as the day was long.  His loss will remain with me always.

Finally a picture of Mike, Becky and myself in Wales.  Actually it is two pictures but I have joined them together and I am quite pleased with the effect.  Mike and Becky are standing outside Crickhowell Castle and I am in a field close to the home where I was born.

 I have really enjoyed telling you about Crickhowell.  I hope that you have enjoyed the reading.

Tag kindly made for me by Rosagin.