Category Archives: Personal history

Timothy O’Brien – an RAF painting

28 May 2024 – Dr Sophie Louisa Bennett, PhD Conservation Biology (Lincoln 2016), MA Modern and Medieval Languages – German and Swedish (KC 1987, Cantab 2020), Diploma in Translation – German into English (City University/Institute of Linguists 1998)

A reproduction of a painting by Timothy O’Brien of Lancaster and two Spitfires with Tattershall Castle in the background. Date unknown. Photo of own section of an old greetings card (?): Sophie Louisa Bennett with Panasonic Lumix

I did some tidying up today – much needed but prompted only a slight pause, pursed lips and eye-rolling in loved ones. Just one box and one drawer in which I’d kept a variety of oddities for years. An overspill from drawers in the room next door where I’d cleared some space for a new occupant. Old letters (and cards in all likelihood) – ‘gamla brev‘ (what other type is there?) as the box at the top of Malin’s wardrobe read in calligraphised handwriting. I found her again, the 1986 version, and the original paperwork from an application for an international pen-friend during my lower 6th.

The International Youth Service paperwork for obtaining a pen-friend from ‘overseas’ in 1986. Photo of own application for a Swedish penfriend: Sophie Louisa Bennett with Panasonic Lumix

Amongst the paperwork was evidence of purchases from years of online shopping, including BHS – now surely counting as something historically valuable. Receipts and delivery notes for Christmas presents. Items from the Body Shop – Monoi oil with its warm rich comforting smell. Cards and gifts and household goods from the RSPB, SPANA, Natural Collection, Atlas (clothing for real men), La Redoute etc etc.

There were also some labels from presents – both birthday and Advent/Christmas – ones I’d thought particularly lovely and put aside temporarily for sorting at some point in the future… Not the near future as it happened.

A mouth-painting of the Brandenburg Gate from friends in Germany which had accompanied a box of numbered tea sachets, one for each day of December up to Christmas Eve. Some evidently old greetings cards on which Mum had used pinking shears to create a label, with all her/their love.

A depiction of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin – painted with the mouth by Thomas Kahlau, with German from Willy Brandt: “What belongs together is now growing together, as one” which is a reference to the unification of Germany and the great city of Berlin itself. Photo of card sent from Belm: Sophie Louisa Bennett with Panasonic Lumix

Then, having shuffled through various papers, pieces of card and notes, I came across a very curious find, both ‘serendipitous’ and poignant: a reproduction of a painting by Timothy O’Brien, of the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight, showing a Lancaster and two Spitfires. With Tattershall Castle behind in the background. I have a vague memory of finding this small picture in a frame I bought secondhand from a charity shop years ago. I had evidently taken it out and kept it because of family history – my paternal grandfather who reached the rank of Squadron Leader during the Cold War and had been ‘in Lancasters’ amongst other aircraft.

Who knows how I re-discovered this today. I thought of the Spitfire pilot and the plane and the people who have cared for both over many years.

A reproduction of a painting by Timothy O’Brien showing Spitfires and a Lancaster. Photo: Sophie Louisa Bennett with Panasonic Lumix

England, England – a Bank Holiday history

28 May 2024 (written on 26 May) – Dr Sophie Louisa Bennett, PhD Conservation Biology (Lincoln 2016), MA Modern and Medieval Languages – German and Swedish (KC 1987, Cantab 2020), Diploma in Translation – German into English (City University/Institute of Linguists 1998)

My DIY till receipt from a famous DIY chain in the UK. Photo: Sophie Louisa Bennett with Panasonic Lumix

Friday afternoon, late May, imminent Bank Holiday. So, what do we like to do on Bank Holidays in the UK? Ah, yes… Around the time the school run starts and traffic builds up on the roads in and out of town. Dad had decided this was the right time to visit a large, nationally-known retailer of certain goods we needed, due to breakages and maintenance. Having dawdled along in the traffic, we reached our destination.

I was soon browsing the shelves of the paint section of that DIY store in town. B without Q on this occasion (few customers and self-service you see). Off Tritton Road where the first tanks were tested. The store is huge – hangar-like with plenty of headspace above unused and floorspace full of row-upon-row of fascinating supplies. Big enough to house many aircraft or tanks, but perhaps not a boat.

I had only visited – with my father – for paint and brushes and was deliberating over which shade to take – a shade of white or cream. ‘Natural’. To ward off moisture and mould. As I was minding my own business, quietly a couple approached from behind. A man and a woman evidently looking for paint supplies from the opposite shelf behind me. From where I couldn’t see. I heard however some Russian and the exclamations of “Smottree!” Familiar, second person imperative – although not said in an particularly insistent manner – for “look!”.

Yes, take a look at what’s on offer in a ‘hangar’ in a small-ish (but-much-larger-than-it-used-to-be) town in the East Midlands. The Russian-speaker said more – which I didn’t catch or understand since I have only the rudiments of Russian. He – the S.O. – was evidently non-committal. And she, deliberating and without a sensible response, said in a calmly indecisive fashion: “Yah n’yeh z’n-eye-yooh“. I didn’t look round. She didn’t know in the end what to pick – which shade of white or cream or whatever she thought she wanted – although the word ‘Magnolia’ passed her lips. If this had been Russia under the Soviets she wouldn’t have had a problem, now, would she? Nyet.

But this was England, May 2024, and there was so much choice. So much freedom… Just look. They looked, but didn’t buy and walked away. That was their prerogative. I selected my purchases, paid and left. Dad could not find everything he wanted and so visited a large independent garden centre nearby the following day.

That following day the old Spitfire crashed. I thought to myself: there goes another piece of England, my England. And this would take more than a lick of paint to restore. In fact, some of the damage would be irreparable.

Dr Sophie Louisa Bennett, O&C Russian GCE/’O’ level (1987) – Grade A (taught by the daughter of Ukrainian immigrants): Yeah, amazing how much, or how little, you remember sometimes. One of my other favourite words (apart from the one for mushrooms) is tree-nadsat (no, nothing to do with trees or woodland), also voss-cress-enya, rozh-d’yest-voh, d’yen rozh-d’yen-eeyah, voss-seem.

Chet-teary (well, Chet isn’t so much teary as craggy, I would say). Yah eee-gr’eye-yooh. Yah plaque-eye-yooh.

Full of Eastern Promise.

Shakespeare in Love – In Love with Shakespeare?

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Reise nach Moskau – a board game bearing memories

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