The Postcard
A postcard bearing no publisher's name, although they do state on the back of the card that it was printed in England.
The card was posted in Tottenham on Wednesday the 4th. May 1960 to:
Mr. D. Burns,
35, Polwarth Gardens,
Edinburgh,
Scotland.
The message on the divided back of the card was as follows:
"Hello Dave,
Arrived safely on Monday
at 7.00 pm.
The weather is really lovely,
I could do with a month of
this.
I hope the customers are
treating you alright.
Never mind, Dave, your
holidays are next.
Doris x"
The town mansions on the left were demolished in the 1960's in order to make way for a very heavily used dual carriageway that feeds into a large roundabout which is a pollution and accident blackspot. The western end of Green Park (shown in the photograph) was also sacrificed to the roundabout.
The Wellington Arch and the Royal Artillery Memorial in the foreground are now isolated in the middle of the very busy roundabout.
The Royal Artillery Memorial
The designer of the memorial, Charles Jagger, who had experienced life in the trenches, went against the idealistic, heroic sculptures of the time and chose very realistic images. He once said:
"Experience in the trenches persuaded
me of the necessity for frankness and
truth".
There are four bronze figures of artillery soldiers on the monument depicting the reality of war.
Three figures stand at ease; one even leans back against the parapet, his cape hanging over his outstretched arms, suggesting exhaustion or contemplation.
Another reads letters from home. The fourth figure is the body of an artilleryman, laid out and shrouded by a greatcoat, his helmet placed upon his chest.
Charles Jagger
Charles Sargeant Jagger, the eldest son of Enoch Jagger, a colliery manager, was born in Kilnhurst, South Yorkshire on the 17th. December, 1885. Charles was the elder brother of David Jagger (1891 - 1958) who was an acclaimed portrait painter.
-- Charles Jagger - The Early Years
Charles left school aged fourteen to learn the craft of engraving on silver with the Sheffield firm of Mappin and Webb. He also studied at the Sheffield School of Art in the evenings.
In 1907 Charles won a scholarship to the Royal College of Art, South Kensington. After four years there as a student and assistant to Professor Edward Lantéri, a travelling bursary enabled him to study for some months in Rome and Venice.
-- Charles Jagger in the Great War
In 1914 he won the Rome scholarship in sculpture. However, on the outbreak of the First World War, he decided to to enlist in the Artists' Rifles instead.
In 1915 Jagger was awarded a commission in the 4th. Battalion of the Worcestershire Regiment, and was sent to Gallipoli.
Later he was transferred to the 2nd. Battalion of the Worcestershires who were entrenched on the Western Front in France.
In November 1915 Charles was shot through the shoulder and sent home to Great Britain. While recovering in England he married Violet Constance Smith.
Jagger returned to the front line, and in 1918 he was awarded the Military Cross for his actions at the Battle of Neuve Église during the German Spring Offensive.
During the battle he was severely injured by a gunshot through the chest, just two inches above his heart. He was also gassed, and once again he received medical treatment in England.
-- 'The First Battle of Ypres'
Instead of being sent back to France, Jagger was commissioned by the British War Memorials Committee to produce a large relief, entitled 'The First Battle of Ypres'.
After the Great War Jagger established a studio in South Kensington. His work was dominated by his experience in the trenches.
-- 'Tommy and Humanity'
Jagger's next major work was 'Tommy and Humanity'. According to Charles' biographer:
'The bold modelling of the Tommy, combined
with the energy and strength the figure
conveyed, was an outstanding achievement.
The expressiveness of this work was an
instant success at the Royal Academy, where
it was exhibited in 1921, and resulted in many
more commissions.'
-- 'No Man's Land'
In 1923 he produced the relief, 'No Man's Land'. After being cast in bronze it was presented to the Tate Gallery in 1923.
Jagger admitted that his art reflected the admiration he felt for the work of Alfred Gilbert and Auguste Rodin.
-- Criticism of Jagger's Work
His career rose to distinction in the 1920's, but the voice of modernism tended not treat him kindly. The critic Roger Fry wrote:
'Nothing approaches the commonness,
the effective, brutal, catch-penny vulgarity
of his work'
And yet, Jagger was not so far out-of-step with the other post-beaux-arts sculptors of his day. He preached the union of sculpture with architecture, and took as his standard the relief sculpture of ancient Assyria.
-- Further Work by Charles Jagger
Over the next seven years Jagger completed war memorials in Manchester (1921); Southsea (1921); Bedford (1921); Great Western Railway War Memorial (1922); Brimington (1922); London Royal Artillery Memorial (1921–5); Anglo-Belgian War Memorial (1922–3); Nieuwpoort (1926–8); Cambrai (1927–8); and Port Tawfiq (1927–8).
During this period Charles Jagger produced statues of the Duke of Windsor (1922), Lord Hardinge (1928) and Ernest Shackleton (1932).
Alfred Mond, the founder of Imperial Chemical Industries, commissioned four large stone figures symbolic of industries for the company headquarters in Millbank.
-- The Death of Charles Jagger
Charles Sargeant Jagger died of pneumonia at his home, 67 Albert Bridge Road, Battersea, on the 16th. November 1934.
Sir Mick Jagger
With an ususual name like Jagger, you would expect Mick to be involved somewhere down the line, and sure enough, he is -- Charles Jagger is Mick's great-granduncle, with Charles' brother David Jagger being Mick's great-grandfather.
Another of Sir Mick’s relatives is Joseph Hobson Jagger, a distant cousin, who was The man who broke the bank at Monte Carlo.
Joseph's job as a spindle-maker at a West Yorkshire mill gave him the idea that roulette wheels were sure to be biased if they spun on wooden spindles. He won so much that a casino had to close.
To read about Richard Jarecki (1931 - 2018), an American physician who also famously exploited the bias in roulette wheels, please search for the tag 46APN32
The Wellington Arch
The Wellington Arch, also known as Constitution Arch or (originally) as the Green Park Arch, is a Grade I-listed triumphal arch by Decimus Burton that forms a centrepiece of Hyde Park Corner in central London.
It stands on a large traffic island with crossings for pedestrian access. When constructed (1826–1830) the arch stood in a different location nearby; it was moved to its current site in 1882–1883.
The arch originally supported a colossal equestrian statue of the 1st. Duke of Wellington by the sculptor Cotes Wyatt, as a result of which it has acquired the name "The Wellington Arch." A bronze quadriga (an ancient four-horse chariot) by Adrian Jones has surmounted the arch since 1912.
History of the Wellington Arch
Both the Wellington Arch and Marble Arch (originally sited in front of Buckingham Palace) were planned in 1825 by George IV to commemorate Britain's victories in the Napoleonic Wars.
During the second half of the 1820's, the Commissioners of Woods and Forests and the King resolved that Hyde Park, and the area around it, should be renovated to match the splendour of rival European capital cities, and that the essence of the new arrangement would be a triumphal approach to the recently completed Buckingham Palace.
The committee of the project, led by the Prime Minister, Lord Liverpool, and advised by Charles Arbuthnot, selected Decimus Burton as the project's architect. In 1828, when giving evidence to a Parliamentary Select Committee, Arbuthnot explained that he had nominated Burton:
"Having seen in the Regent's Park, and elsewhere,
works which pleased my eye, from their architectural
beauty and correctness".
Burton intended to create an urban space dedicated to the celebration of the House of Hanover, national pride, and the nation's heroes.
The renovation of Hyde Park, Green Park, and St. James's Park began in 1825, with the demarcation of new drives and pathways, subsequent to which Burton designed new lodges and gates, viz. Cumberland Gate, Stanhope Gate, Grosvenor Gate, the Hyde Park Gate/Screen at Hyde Park Corner, and, later, the Prince of Wales's Gate, Knightsbridge, in the classical style.
There were no authoritative precedents for such buildings, which required windows and chimney stacks, in the classical style, and, in the words of Guy Williams:
"Burton's reticent treatment of the supernumerary
features and of the cast iron gates and railings was
greatly admired".
At Hyde Park Corner, the King required:
"Some great ceremonial outwork that would
be worthy of the new palace that lay to its rear".
The King accepted Burton's proposal for a gateway and classical screen, along with a triumphal arch, which would enable those approaching Buckingham Palace from the north to ride first through the screen and then through the arch, before turning to descend Constitution Hill and enter the forecourt of Buckingham Palace through Nash's Marble Arch.
The screen became the neoclassical Hyde Park Gate/Screen at Hyde Park Corner, which delighted the King and his Committee, and which the architectural historian Guy Williams describes as:
"One of the most pleasing architectural works
that have survived from the neo-classical age".
The triumphal arch has been described as "One of London's best loved landmarks".
Burton's original design for the triumphal arch, which was modelled on the Arch of Titus at Rome, was more technically perfect, and coherent with the Screen, than that of the arch that was subsequently built.
Burton's original design, however, was rejected by the Committee – who had envisaged a design based on the Arch of Constantine, on which Nash's Marble Arch had been modelled – because it was not sufficiently ostentatious.
Burton created a new design, "to pander to the majestic ego", which was much larger and which was accepted on the 14th. January 1826, and subsequently built as the present Wellington Arch.
The arch has a single opening, and uses the Corinthian order. Much of the intended exterior ornamentation was omitted as a cost-saving exercise necessitated by the King's overspending on the refurbishment of Buckingham Palace, which was underway at the same time.
A contemporary account, written in anticipation of its completion to its original plan, describes what was intended:
"The entabulature is loft and elegant, with a richly
sculptured frieze, and a row of boldly projecting
lions' heads on the cymatium, marking the centres
of columns and other sub-divisions of the order.
Above the entablature, on a lofty blocking course,
is raised an attic, the body of which is embellished
with a sculptural representation of an ancient triumph.
On each of the columns is a statue of a warrior, and
on the summit of the acroterium which surmounts the
attic is a figure in a quadriga or ancient four horse
chariot."
However the arch was left devoid of decorative sculpture as a result of the moratorium in 1828 on public building work. Instead, despite the strong objection of Burton, was mounted with an ungainly equestrian statue of the Duke of Wellington by Matthew Cotes Wyatt, the son of the then recently deceased James Wyatt, who had been selected by the statue's commissioner, and one of its few subsequent advocates, Sir Frederick Trench.
The bronze by Matthew Cotes Wyatt, which surmounted the arch, was, at 40 tons and 28 feet (8.53 m) in height, the largest equestrian figure ever made.
However Matthew Cotes Wyatt was not competent: Guy Williams contended that "He was not noticeably talented", and the Dictionary of National Biography states:
"Thanks to royal and other influential patronage,
Wyatt enjoyed a reputation and practice to which
his mediocre abilities hardly entitled him".
Trench, and his patrons the Duke and Duchess of Rutland, had told public subscribers to the statue that it would be placed on top of Burton's triumphal arch at Hyde Park Corner.
Burton expressed his opposition to this proposal "as plainly and as vehemently as his nature allowed" consistently over successive years, because the ungainly statue would "disfigure" his arch.
He claimed that the statue was much too large for the arch and the surrounding neighbourhood. He also noted that the statue would have to be placed, contrary to all classical precedent, across, instead of parallel with, the roadway under the arch.
Burton had envisaged that his arch would be topped with only a small quadriga whose horses would have been parallel with the road under the arch. Burton's objections were extensively endorsed by most of the aristocratic residents of London.
A writer in The Builder asked Lord Canning, the First Commissioner for Woods and Forests, to ban the project:
"We have learnt, and can state positively, that Mr. Burton
has the strongest objection possible against placing the
group in question on the archway... and that he is taking
no part whatever in the alteration proposed to be made
in the upper part of the structure to prepare it to receive
the pedestal... Mr. Burton, through the mildness which
characterizes him, has not expressed this opinion so
loudly and so publicly as he ought to have done.... an
opinion prevails very generally, that he is a party to the
proceedings, and this has induced many to be silent
who would otherwise have spoken."
The Prime Minister, Sir Robert Peel, contended that another site would be preferable, and proposed, on behalf of the Crown, to offer an alternative location, but the statue's subscribers rejected all alternative proposals.
Every single MP except Sir Frederick Trench wanted the statue to be placed elsewhere. Canning wrote:
"The remonstrances which reach Her Majesty's
Government against the proposed appropriation
of the arch are so many and so strong, the
representations of its architect, Mr. Burton, in the
same sense, are so earnest, and the opinion of
every other eminent architect, artist, or other
competent authority who has been consulted on
the subject is so decided against the placing of
the Wellington statue on the arch."
Decimus Burton himself wrote:
"The arch would, I consider, suffer greatly in importance
if the colossal statue in question be placed there, because
it would become a mere pedestal.
The want of proportion in the proposed surmount, compared with the columns and other details of the architecture, would show that they had been designed by different hands, and without reference for each other. I have desired to witness
the completion of this building, as originally designed by me, and as approved by the Lords of the Treasury, yet I would prefer that the building should remain for the present in its forlorn and bare state, rather than a colossal equestrian
statue should be placed upon it.
I fear that if this appropriation of the building should be decided upon, a proposition would soon be made for removing altogether the facades of columns, the slender proportions of which would appear so incongruous and
out of proportion compared with the prodigious
dimensions of the statue".
Burton had realized that the disciples of Pugin and advocates of Pugin's anti-classicism would remove all classical elements from his arch if permitted the opportunity to do so.
Despite Burton's objections, the Wellington statue was placed on the arch in autumn 1846; Williams contends that the product was "ridiculous". The Builder contended:
"Down, unquestionably, it must come. As the network
of timber is removed, spar by spar, from before it, so
does the folly of the experiment, the absurdity of the conjunction, and the greatness of the sacrifice become apparent.
Its effect is even worse than we anticipated – the
destruction of the arch by the statue, and of the statue
by its elevation on the arch, more complete.
Every post brings us letters urging renewed efforts to
remove the figure to another site".
The issue of the removal of the statue became national. However, the Government failed to remove the statue, despite having professed, when it had been placed, that they would do so if it provoked serious aversion.
Foreign intellectuals who visited London identified the incongruous fusion of the statue and the arch as:
"Spectacular confirmation of the
artistic ignorance of the English".
Guy Williams writes that
"The arch at Hyde Park Corner is a visible reminder
of one of the fiercest attacks that have ever been
launched in the worlds of art and architecture.
The face of London might have been very different
now – freer, perhaps, of the 'monstrous carbuncles'
so disliked by the present Prince of Wales – if Decimus
Burton had been a little more pugnacious, and so better
equipped to stand his ground".
The Quadriga
During 1882, traffic congestion at Hyde Park Corner required Burton's arch to be moved to the top of Constitution Hill to create space for traffic. Burton's great-nephew Francis Fearon suggested that the moving of the arch would be a good opportunity to remove the Wellington statue from the arch. Fearon contended that the:
"The arch should be relieved once
and for all of its unsightly load".
The campaign led by Fearon was successful: Wyatt's incongruous statue was removed to Aldershot, and its place on Burton's arch, which was moved to Constitution Hill in 1883, was occupied by a Quadriga by Captain Adrian Jones.
Jones' statue is not nearly as elegant as Burton's designed statue intended for the arch, but it is more coherent with the arch than Wyatt's statue, and its figures, unlike those of Wyatt's statue, are aligned with the roadway under the arch.
Jones's statue is based on a smaller original which caught the eye of Edward VII at a Royal Academy exhibition. The sculpture depicts Nike, the winged goddess of victory, descending on the chariot of war, holding the classical symbol of victory and honour, a laurel wreath.
The face of the charioteer leading the quadriga is that of a small boy (actually the son of Lord Michelham, who funded the sculpture). The angel of peace was modelled on Beatrice Stewart.
The statue is the largest bronze sculpture in Europe.
Public Access to the Arch
The arch is hollow inside, and until 1992 housed the smallest police station in London. Transferred to the ownership of English Heritage in 1999, the arch is open to the paying public.
The arch offers three floors of exhibits detailing its history, exhibition space, and high terraces on both sides with views of the surrounding area.
One half of the arch functions as a ventilation shaft for the Hyde Park Corner road underpass, constructed in 1961–1962.
A Surplus Grain Sale
So what else happened on the day that Doris posted the card?
Well, on the 4th. May 1960, the United States signed an agreement to sell 17,000,000 metric tons of surplus grain to India over a four-year period, in exchange for $1,276,000,000.
Lucille Ball
Also on that day, Lucille Ball was granted a divorce from Desi Arnaz by a court in Santa Monica, California.
