It’s almost midnight and it’s still raining. I looked in amazement at the weather map tonight and saw a seemingly endless band of rain over the Midlands. Fifty miles south of here they had the equivalent of the whole month’s rainfall in one day. My grandmother used to blame bad weather on Russian satellites and, with all that happens these days I’m beginning to wonder if that could be true. I’m quite prepared to blame the Russians for anything from bad weather to electoral fraud and anything in between.
My day has mainly been taken up with researching the Lidgett family of Lincoln and the City of Lincoln tribute Medals that bear their name. There were three Lidgetts, all family and all called Thomas. There was also Charles, who died young after being worn out by dysentery on military service. The trick lay in sorting out which Lidgett was which, as several other showed up in the area and needed checking. I also checked up the medal itself, but there is very little on it in the papers. I know I have seen an article on it, and have a copy of it, but I can’t lay my hands on it. They had a homecoming banquet for about 4,000 men in an aircraft hanger but I can’t find details. It’s annoying. I really should keep better notes.
I’ve also been checking up on Horace Stewart, who wrote his name inside the lid of the box the un-named medal came in. Born in Lincolnshire, 1899, son of a gamekeeper. Served in Northamptonshire Regiment and the Nottinghamshire & Derbyshire Regiment (Sherwood Foresters). Qualified for a pension after the war for something I can’t decypher. Lived in Shropshire, Wale and Stevenage in the years after the war but ended up back in Lincoln, where he world as a Male Nurse (Mental) as the 1939 List tells us. Active in local politics, he died in 1982. It’s a short version of a life story that obviously has a lot more to it than I can find.
Julia, meanwhile, has been more practical and more gainfully employed. I came down to find a bowl of dried apricots soaking in something, and realised it was Christmas cake day. It has been baked and cooled and is now maturing. I now have to live with the knowledge that we have cake in the house and I am not allowed to touch it.
