120Yards hurdle medal

When I was a child there used to be quite a few of these around the house..This is the only one I have, dated in 1936 .It is a medal dad won at Gresham's school for the 120 yd hurdles when he came second.It is in its original box

Dad,s favourite sport was Rugby Union followed by cricket but I remember  he also enjoyed watching athletics especially running 

Crosland bible

I have never seen a Crosland family bible but this is the nearest thing too it, I suppose.
Helen sent it to me via dad about 15 years ago. Her Dad, Percy Crosland had been given it as a child at Oakes Baptist Church Sunday School ,Lindley, Huddersfield on Feb 25th 1900.It was then passed onto Helen on 16th Jan 1930.
Our great grandfather had attended Oakes Baptist chapel for a number of years and had obviously sent his sons Percy and Herbert to Sunday School

Graduation Day

Dad first went upto Oxford at in 1939 but left at the end of the summer term 1940 in order ro join the army.having served in various places including Burma he rejoined Balliol College Oxford in I think 1946 and graduated in 1949
Mum remembers it being a very hot day and she sat in the balcony to watch dad graduate BA in Modern Greats -Politics Philosophy and Economics- with a 2-1.She wasnt keen but mum felt she had to wear a hat anyway. Note dads mortar board.

It must have felt a great achievment to finish something he had started 9 years earlier and which had been interupted by war.

Below are some recent memories from Eric Lubbock one of dads great friends at Balliol who became a Liberal MP and then a member of the House of Lords, as Lord Avebury

Many thanks for sending me the extracts from your father's book, which brought back memories. His nickname was Master, mine was Dean, Pat Scally's was Warden, and Dave Robinsin had a similar title which I can't remember. Your mother was called 'Aunt' for reasons I also can't recall. I wonder if she could remind us?

The bright yellow flying jacket I bought in a second hand shop came in very useful in the bitterly cold winter of 1947.It was fill length, ankles to shoulders, with zips to get inside it.

I remember Tommy Balogh, mentioned by your father as being very scathing to students who didn't come up to his standards. There was a story that when a bad student came to him for a tutorial, finding nobody in the room, he started reading his essay, only to be stopped after a few sentences by a voice from the cupboard: "Go away you horrible little man, I never want to see you again". So your father was let off quite lightly. I also remember well and with respect Cyril, the head porter, and Curly Dryden, the bald landlord of The George in the village of Dorchester, visited in your father's MG on weekends.

It was shaming to read how anti-gay we were in those days, but as your father does say, we weren't racists. Seretse Khama, subsequently the first President of Botswana after independence, was a good friend of mine, and he invited me to their independence celebrations in the late 60's.

I also think now that it was a pity we spent so much time drinking. I've been teetotal since 1973, and also gave up cigarettes in 1976, and coffee, cake, biscuits and sugar in 1977, partly because I became a Buddhist. Maybe I learned a few things from life, some of them long after leaving Balliol.

The Begum Aga Khan

We have some rich relatives
Gran Nicolls brother Ed went to India in the time of the Raj and became in mums words very grand and very rich.
Grans husband Bob did not like him much, mainly because he stayed in India in the first world war instead of coming home to fight.
His Grandaughter is Sally Croker Poole.Mum remembers as a 14 year old visiting her at her parents home in Surrey. Sally at that stage was crawling around the floor as a baby.
Sally grew up, became a model, married a member of the Scottish gentry ,divorced him and then converted to Islam, and married the Aga Khan ,divorcing following the birth of 3 children
A couple of pictures of her in her earlier life and then more recently.
She is mums first cousin once removed we think.

More info here;

Early life
Princess Salimah Aga Khan was born on 28 January 1940 at New Delhi, India, as Sarah Frances Croker-Poole. She is the daughter of Lt.-Col. Arthur Edward Croker-Poole. She married, firstly, Lord James Charles Crichton-Stuart, son of Sir John Crichton-Stuart, 5th Marquess of the County of Bute and Lady Eileen Beatrice Forbes, on 25 June 1959. She and Lord James Charles Crichton-Stuart were divorced in 1968. She married, secondly, Prince Karim Aga Khan IV, son of Prince Aly Khan and Hon. Joan Barbara Yarde-Buller, in 1969. During her marriage to His Highness The Aga Khan, her official name was Her Highness Begum Salimah, although she remained informally known as Sally. Following their divorce in 1995, she kept the title of "Princess".

[edit] Charitable career
She is now a child-welfare activist and a prominent supporter of the charity SOS Children's Villages.[1] As part of her welfare activity she has also visited Afghan refugees in Pakistan[2] as well as victims of the 2005 earthquake.[3]

She has also been active in the Aga Khan Development Network.

[edit] Personal life
She has three children with the Aga Khan Princess Zahra Aga Khan (b. September 18, 1970), Prince Rahim Aga Khan (b. October 12, 1971), Prince Hussain Aga Khan (b. April 10, 1974).

Today she lives in London with Philippe Lizop, the French lawyer who secured her divorce settlement

The studio

Took a few photos of dads studio,when I saw Ann yesterday.Also one of the living room which is unchanged note the picture of Aram in the background

There is a humidifier in the studio which should keeep the pictures in good condition

Also got this unusual photo of Dad which I think dates from his Oxford days first time round say 1940

letters home

Dads letters
Above is a picture of many of the letters dad sent home to his family from this country while in the army.

They reveal a little bit more about him but are otherwise fairly mundane.

He was always after cigarettes,he sometimes asked for money to pay mess bills, he didnt enjoy the training. He was passed for a commission and was an officer for a while ,He appears to have spent sometime in the Marines in Lympston then Plymouth! He wanted at some point to transfer to the Lancashire Fusiliers (or was he joking?)
The letters show a lot of affection for his family including Helen which surprised me.

There is also a letter from Oxford assuring Percy that dad's place at Balliol would be kept open for him and he would be welcome back after the war

Muriel Crosland dad's mum

Muriel was alaways a bit of a mystery to me.
All I knew what that she died while dad was away in Burma. I dont know how.
Her fisrt husband was a Redmayne and was in the army, and he had killed himself.
( mum thinks by jumping out of a window )Muriel then married Percy Crosland.
The only other thing mum knew about her was that she was large and that in an age when few women drove -she drove a sports car!

Dad always gave me the impression he wasn't very close to his mum and dad, but today I saw some letters he had written when he had joined the army .They date from 1940 and 1941.The letters I think are pretty affectionate.
Anyway following Helens death late last year Susan kindly   sent some photos to Ann who passed them onto me and here they are !
She is not that large (at this stage anyway!)
The other picture is the classic one Was it taken on her wedding day.Was the picture of Percy taken the same day?

Thanks to Dwee for adding this
Interesting, I have heard that Dad adored his mother, and was very angry and upset when she died/ (peritonitis on the kitchen table), Grandpa had insisted that they operate on her there, I think probably she wasnt keen to go into hospital either.Did you know also that she married a bigamist,Muriel was also a great animal lover, and a free spirit by all accounts. She was certainly regarded as quite a beauty in her youth.