Why was Captain Humphries going to Russia?
The CBB -> Anything Else
#1: Why was Captain Humphries going to Russia? Author: LadyGuinevere, Location: Leicester PostPosted: Sat Feb 19, 2005 6:10 pm

I know the explanation is that he was offered a job there by a friend, but this doesn't really sit very well with me. For starters, this is 1926. Russia is communist and actually doesn't exist as such (Soviet Union). Politics in the top echelons are all over the place and the politicians are very backstabbing. Things aren't good in Russia/Soviet Union then either. I can't remember what year Trotsky was exiled, but Stalin has really consolidated his power by 1927, so he already has an awful lot of influence. Unfortunately I don't have my textbooks to hand or I would have gone and looked up more stuff about that time (I'm more of a 1930s Soviet historian, though I could tell you plenty about Molotov in the 1920s!). Although Nomenklatura (really hope I remermebred the correct word) was rife in the Soviet system, I can't see things being offered to a Westerner, especially one who had been in the army, without some serious government checks. When that was found out, there would have been trouble. The White Army would have been gone by this time as well, so that can't be it either. So to me the options are: 1. Captain Humphries is a secret Communist. 2. He was doing some kind of ambassadorial work. 3. He was selling technical secrets to the Soviets. 4. No one noticed until later, and his accident in the mountains was no accident -he knew too much(!!) 5. EBD messed up. 6. EBD didn't really think to hard about it. I'm guessing the last option myself! Please forgive my ramblings Smile

 

#2:  Author: Laura, Location: London (ish) PostPosted: Sat Feb 19, 2005 6:35 pm

I vote for 6, although I rather like 4! How much would EBD have known about it, anyway? Could she just have picked a vaguely plausible country off the top of her head? Confused

 

#3:  Author: Jennie, Location: Cambridgeshire PostPosted: Sat Feb 19, 2005 6:39 pm

It was probably No 6, LadyG.

 

#4:  Author: patmac, Location: Yorkshire England PostPosted: Sat Feb 19, 2005 6:42 pm

I'll vote for 6 as well. Though I also do like 4. Wink

 

#5:  Author: claire, Location: South Wales PostPosted: Sat Feb 19, 2005 6:42 pm

Probably 6 butwill soemone please write option 4

 

#6:  Author: Lesley, Location: Allhallows, Kent PostPosted: Sat Feb 19, 2005 6:55 pm

Definitely 6 - but like everyone else I quite like 4, and it would tie in with 1, 2, or 3!

 

#7:  Author: Ally, Location: Jack Maynard's Dressing Room!! PostPosted: Sat Feb 19, 2005 7:14 pm

4 would make a wonderful drabble!! *looks pleadingly around*

 

#8:  Author: KB, Location: Melbourne, Australia PostPosted: Sat Feb 19, 2005 10:02 pm

I also doubt EBD knew much about it. Unlike the Nazis, there doesn't seem to have been as much information available at the time regarding the regime. The Nazis were often pandering to the British, and vice versa in many cases, but the Communists didn't seem to do that. I suspect that she was thinking of pre-revolution Russia and not post-revolution Soviet Union (although was that name officially used until after WWII when the Russians got control of so many countries in Eastern Europe?). If we had 'seen' Captain Humphries, he might well have been at the Tsar's court.

 

#9:  Author: Cazx, Location: Swansea/Bristol PostPosted: Sat Feb 19, 2005 10:19 pm

Oh can someone please write a drabble of number 4! Can just picture Stalin ordering Captain Humphries death as due to a Trotskyist plot... Did he die whilst the Russian Terror was ongoing too?

 

#10:  Author: KB, Location: Melbourne, Australia PostPosted: Sun Feb 20, 2005 12:27 am

He died in about 1935/6.

 

#11:  Author: MissPrint, Location: Edinburgh PostPosted: Sun Feb 20, 2005 12:39 am

I had imagined him in military intelligence or some other suitably dashing and romantic career. Oh somebody please drabble.

 

#12:  Author: Gabrielle, Location: Washington DC PostPosted: Sun Feb 20, 2005 11:36 am

Now picturing him as a dashing spy somehow he now looks like James Bond Very Happy Oh dear.

 

#13:  Author: Kathye, Location: Laleham PostPosted: Sun Feb 20, 2005 12:58 pm

Wheras I have now got it into my head that he was a spy, but actually he didnt die, but had to fake his death for them to leave Robin alone.....

 

#14:  Author: LadyGuinevere, Location: Leicester PostPosted: Sun Feb 20, 2005 5:14 pm

Hehe, I figured it would be number 6, but I was bored and it made interesting thinking Smile If no one else wants to take it on,I think I might write a drabble on it now! there was no inspiration until I read all the responses, but I'm quite tempted to now! Hmmm, not sure when the term the Soviet Union can into use (though it is my term of choise), but I'm pretty sure they became the USSR (I can never rememebr the proper order of words it stands for) after the October Revolution in 1917. And Trotsky didn't die until the mid-1930s (where he was killed by a pick-axe to the head or something like that), but he had been exiled since the late 1920s, though I can never remember which year. Probbaly 1927ish, thinking about it. I have to say, I never really looked at how much information there was in the West at the time. I supposed I just assumed there was some, since Comunism was quite feared at the time.

 

#15:  Author: Kathy_S, Location: midwestern US PostPosted: Sun Feb 20, 2005 7:26 pm

I've read that a significant proportion of educated westerners held fairly idealistic views on communism, at least up until the Hitler-Stalin nonaggression pact (1939). Presumably they weren’t aware of Stalin’s little atrocities. Confused Funny -- I don’t think of the great fear as happening until the 50s, when Joe “McCarthyism” McCarthy was directing witch hunts from the U.S. Senate. There must have been a fair amount, though, given that the U.S. passed legislation targeting Communists as early as 1940. However, Communism never crossed my mind with Robin’s dad! I just assumed Capt. Humphries was a military attaché or some such, with “friends” in the British embassy. No idea why – perhaps the title.

 

#16:  Author: joelle, Location: lancashire, england PostPosted: Sun Feb 20, 2005 7:29 pm

i remember reading a russian history book written in the 1930s in britain and it was wonderfully biast. they basically saw it as russia being "invaded" by bad guys and everyone badly suffering and no one in their right mind would stay there. never occured to me but it is strange captain humpheries going there. however ebd didnt know, it seems a strange place to send him.

 

#17:  Author: LadyGuinevere, Location: Leicester PostPosted: Sun Feb 20, 2005 8:53 pm

Kathy_S wrote:
Funny -- I don’t think of the great fear as happening until the 50s, when Joe “McCarthyism” McCarthy was directing witch hunts from the U.S. Senate. There must have been a fair amount, though, given that the U.S. passed legislation targeting Communists as early as 1940.
I remember studying 1920s America and it came up then. I'd go find my lecture notes, but I lent them for my sister in order to give her background on McCarthyism Smile
Quote:
they basically saw it as russia being "invaded" by bad guys and everyone badly suffering and no one in their right mind would stay there.
Sounds about right! Obviously it's very one-sided, but I know that was the thought later on as well.

 

#18:  Author: Jennie, Location: Cambridgeshire PostPosted: Mon Feb 21, 2005 1:15 pm

Perhaps EBD chose it because it was far enough away that Robin could be left to Madge to bring up without much interference.

 

#19:  Author: Ally, Location: Jack Maynard's Dressing Room!! PostPosted: Mon Feb 21, 2005 1:21 pm

And of course it was a way to introduce another language for Joey to be able to learn!! Wink

 

#20:  Author: Alison H, Location: Manchester PostPosted: Tue Feb 22, 2005 10:00 am

Trotsky was exiled in 1928. I very much doubt that anyone would have offered a Westerner a job in the Soviet Union in the normal course of things. I think Captain Humphries must have been a spy, although it hadn't occurred to me until now that his climbing accident was actually caused by Stalin's agents!

 

#21:  Author: KB, Location: Melbourne, Australia PostPosted: Tue Feb 22, 2005 11:08 am

Does that also implicate Dr. di Bersetti, or was that just an accident? (Is there some sort of underground way of life associated with the san that we should know of?)

 

#22:  Author: Alison H, Location: Manchester PostPosted: Tue Feb 22, 2005 11:41 am

Well it makes you wonder! In "Exile" Jem Russell goes on about this mysterious friend of his sending him coded letters warning him that the Anschluss is coming.

 

#23:  Author: Alex, Location: Manchester PostPosted: Tue Feb 22, 2005 1:13 pm

I wrote some more brilliant speculations but the computer ate them when I posted and so now you will never know. Maybe I can remember the highlights: 1 He didn't die in the accident, it was all an elaborate cover. 2 He didn't go to Russia it was a cover for something else, Germany maybe. 3 Seeing as how nobody ever met Robin's mother maybe she didn't really exist and Robin was a random baby he found somewhere (Russia), in a rather Anastasia-esque way, although not her obviosuly because the dates don't work, would explain the fact that Robin was COMPLETELY HEALTHY. But it's probably 6 from earlier.

 

#24:  Author: Alison H, Location: Manchester PostPosted: Tue Feb 22, 2005 4:58 pm

I've always had my suspicions about Robin's mother. If she was Polish, then a) how come she liked singing Russian songs even though Russia had generally been seen as oppressive in Russian Poland especially after the 1863 rebellion, b) what was she doing in Germany (didn't she meet Captain Humphries in Cologne?) and c) how come her first language was French? Robin doesn't seem to speak a word of Polish. I think she was actually a Russian aristocrat who had escaped from the revolution. Maybe she was even a minor member of the Romanov family. Perhaps she'd been exiled in Siberia and escpaed from there and that was why she became ill after "suffering terribly during the war" - maybe EBD meant the post-revolutionary Russian Civil War rather than the First World War. Maybe Captain Humphries went back there on a spying mission to try to avenge her, and he wouldn't take Robin with because he knew it could get dangerous. Think imagination is running a bit wild now. Rolling Eyes

 

#25:  Author: Katie, Location: A Yorkshire lass in London PostPosted: Tue Feb 22, 2005 6:01 pm

I'm sure I read somewhere that the upper classes in Poland and other Eastern European often spoke French, but you would think she'd speak Polish too! I much prefer the conspiracy theories, though!

 

#26:  Author: Ally, Location: Jack Maynard's Dressing Room!! PostPosted: Tue Feb 22, 2005 7:03 pm

Im beginning to wonder what other conspiracy theories we can come up with............ Wink

 

#27:  Author: LizB, Location: Oxon, England PostPosted: Tue Feb 22, 2005 7:34 pm

Maybe Mrs Humpheries didn't die but was also a spy Liz

 

#28:  Author: patmac, Location: Yorkshire England PostPosted: Tue Feb 22, 2005 8:54 pm

I'd likewise wondered about 'Mrs Humphries'. Too many discrepancies?

 

#29:  Author: Alex, Location: Manchester PostPosted: Wed Feb 23, 2005 10:08 pm

Maybe she was Anastasia? Maybe Robin became a nun because she was worried that if she had children she'd give them all haemophilia.

 

#30:  Author: Jennie, Location: Cambridgeshire PostPosted: Wed Feb 23, 2005 10:23 pm

Just one little question. Who's going to write this drabble?

 

#31:  Author: LadyGuinevere, Location: Leicester PostPosted: Wed Feb 23, 2005 10:29 pm

Jennie wrote:
Just one little question. Who's going to write this drabble?
I think I said I would if no one else wants to (will involve me re-reading my textbooks though). I have a very newborn plot bunny that can grow up if necessary Smile LOL! I didn't realise that was where small sparkling purple leaf came from! (Am I dense or what!) p-l-o-t b-u-n-n-y Laughing At least, I think that's what I wrote! Honestly, sparkling purple leaves make me think of a My Little Pony called Gusty. If anyone else wants to though, I don't mind.

 

#32:  Author: claire, Location: South Wales PostPosted: Wed Feb 23, 2005 10:37 pm

you want to call your PB Gusty feel free - you could have a plot pony instead

 

#33:  Author: Jennie, Location: Cambridgeshire PostPosted: Wed Feb 23, 2005 10:38 pm

How about an FCS communal drabble?

 

#34: Russians Author: Alison H, Location: Manchester PostPosted: Thu Feb 24, 2005 10:04 am

Come to think of it, how come there were Russian girls at the school in Tyrol? Wasn't there an Olga Petrovska? & some others? I don't think that sending people to private British schools in Austria exactly formed part of the Soviet Five Year Plans. Or maybe they were exiled members of the Romanov court as well!

 

#35:  Author: Gabrielle, Location: Washington DC PostPosted: Thu Feb 24, 2005 8:22 pm

What I really like about the CBB is that I've finally found a place where other people's imaginations run as wild as mine. Very Happy I'm going to have to do some reading on that part of Russian history.

 

#36:  Author: Lyanne, Location: Ipswich, England PostPosted: Thu Feb 24, 2005 8:35 pm

Well, I was recently reading The Chalet School and Jo (purely in the name of research, of course). Madge has just told Joey what they fear for the Robin:
Quote:
Madge got up.... "Uncle Ted?" Madge's face shadowed at this mention of the Robin's father. "Yes, he knows. Joey, remember I have trusted you...."
Hmm, I thought at the time, why should Madge's face shadow at the mention? Possibly because she knows he'll be sad, but there seems to be something more here. Madge's response seems rather abrupt. Now, I only have it in pb, so there may be more in the hb.

 

#37:  Author: KB, Location: Melbourne, Australia PostPosted: Thu Feb 24, 2005 10:10 pm

Nope, that's iall there is in the hardback, too.

 

#38:  Author: patmac, Location: Yorkshire England PostPosted: Thu Feb 24, 2005 10:54 pm

I do love conspirancy theories! Why was he still known as 'Captain' Humphries. I assume he was not still in the army? He must have been out of the army for some time to have married a Polish woman (even if she was not Polish really) and had a child. He appeared to wander at will, which seems unlikely. It must have been a cover story! He was the long lost son of Queen Victoria and John Brown. Given a rank in the army and sent abroad to hide their shame. 'Mrs Humphries' was a descendent of Jan III Sobieski, last King of Poland. They planned world domination through their daughter, Cecilia, but were thwarted by their untimely deaths, leaving her to be brought up in ignorance of her origins.

 

#39:  Author: KB, Location: Melbourne, Australia PostPosted: Thu Feb 24, 2005 11:09 pm

patmac wrote:
'Mrs Humphries' was a descendent of Jan III Sobieski, last King of Poland. They planned world domination through their daughter, Cecilia, but were thwarted by their untimely deaths, leaving her to be brought up in ignorance of her origins.
Are you sure about that? Maybe the convent piece was just a cover for whatever else she was doing - after all, how many nuns get transferred across the world to teach in a different convent for several years?

 

#40:  Author: Emperor Zhark, Location: North East PostPosted: Fri Feb 25, 2005 12:37 am

January 1937Captain Humphies was half way up a glacier in Austria. His ice pick slipped from his grip and disappeared into the blizzard below. "Never mind" he thought, and reached for the spare in his rucksack, where was it? He was sure it was there when he left the lodge.Signor Di Bersetti cried out as Humphries lost his grip and fell to his death amongst the sliding snow and ice, pulling Di Bersetti with him. sometime in 1937 Leon Trotsky arrives in Mexico under surveilance from the Stalinist government of Russia. August 20th 1940 Leon Trotsky is murdered in his office by a Stalinist agent carrying an ice pick. Shocked

 

#41:  Author: patmac, Location: Yorkshire England PostPosted: Fri Feb 25, 2005 8:53 am

That's a good one Zhark! And guess who married Trotsky's secretary .... Arthur Ransome, who was born in Leeds where EBD went to college. So we have a link between EBD and Trotsky. Case proven.

 

#42:  Author: Alison H, Location: Manchester PostPosted: Fri Feb 25, 2005 9:54 am

patmac wrote:
I do love conspirancy theories! 'Mrs Humphries' was a descendent of Jan III Sobieski, last King of Poland. They planned world domination through their daughter, Cecilia, but were thwarted by their untimely deaths, leaving her to be brought up in ignorance of her origins.
If you count the elected kings of Poland before partition, then the last king was Stanislas Poniatowski, a one-time lover of Catherine The Great. Maybe Mrs Humphries was a descendant of a secret love child of theirs, and he went to Russia with the intention of making Robin the Tsarina of Russia and the Queen of Poland.

 

#43:  Author: LizB, Location: Oxon, England PostPosted: Fri Feb 25, 2005 10:39 am

patmac wrote:
Why was he still known as 'Captain' Humphries. I assume he was not still in the army? He must have been out of the army for some time to have married a Polish woman (even if she was not Polish really) and had a child. He appeared to wander at will, which seems unlikely.
I just assumed he could keep the title 'Captain' once he was out of the army - doesn't Captain Hastings do that in Poirot?Liz

 

#44:  Author: KB, Location: Melbourne, Australia PostPosted: Fri Feb 25, 2005 12:10 pm

Commander Christy also keeps his title.

 

#45:  Author: patmac, Location: Yorkshire England PostPosted: Fri Feb 25, 2005 2:11 pm

Alison H wrote:
If you count the elected kings of Poland before partition, then the last king was Stanislas Poniatowski, a one-time lover of Catherine The Great. Maybe Mrs Humphries was a descendant of a secret love child of theirs, and he went to Russia with the intention of making Robin the Tsarina of Russia and the Queen of Poland.
And all the Catherines on the Board are members of the secret order which is still plotting to restore the monarchies in Russia and Poland. That would mean that Robin's trips to other convents for 7 or 8 months at a time were to hide the fact that she was 'busy'. Was Melanie really Robin's child?

 

#46:  Author: KB, Location: Melbourne, Australia PostPosted: Sat Feb 26, 2005 11:38 am

Just discovered what the Russians would have been called during the early CS books (just the period we want). This from Princess:
Quote:
Elisaveta stared. ‘Why?’ she asked quickly.He bowed again. ‘I trust the Gracious One will not be angry with her servant,’ he said humbly. ‘It is necessary, Highness it is very necessary. There are dangers for all of a royal house in Europe in these times.’Elisaveta was puzzled. ‘Do you mean from the Bolsheviki?’ she asked. ‘I do not think I need fear them.’
(I don't recall this being in the pb, but you should be able to find it in the transcipt. It's on p. 143 of my hb edition.)

 

#47:  Author: Kate, Location: Ireland PostPosted: Sat Feb 26, 2005 1:36 pm

LizB wrote:
patmac wrote:
Why was he still known as 'Captain' Humphries. I assume he was not still in the army? He must have been out of the army for some time to have married a Polish woman (even if she was not Polish really) and had a child. He appeared to wander at will, which seems unlikely.
I just assumed he could keep the title 'Captain' once he was out of the army - doesn't Captain Hastings do that in Poirot? Liz
There are two types of officers in the army - commissioned officers (who keep their titles) and non-commissioned officers (who can't). It's practically based on class... you can either join the army as a private or a cadet. As a private you work your way up to officer status, but that makes you lose your title when you leave the army. As a cadet (which now means you've gone to university before the army, I'm not sure if it meant that then...?) you go straight into officer-ship and you keep the title afterwards. So I guess Captain Humphries was like that. My grandad was a Captain in the army, but he didn't get to keep his title, which I always thought was horribly unfair. He'd been in the army longer and done more of the actual work than any of the commissioned officers.

 

#48:  Author: claire, Location: South Wales PostPosted: Sat Feb 26, 2005 5:41 pm

And (probably) had more respect from his men (my dad was an NCO too (although Air force not Army and not as high up as Captain I think - what are the equilivent ranks, any ne know?)

 

#49:  Author: Ann, Location: Newcastle upon Tyne, England PostPosted: Sat Feb 26, 2005 6:19 pm

patmac wrote:
And all the Catherines on the Board are members of the secret order which is still plotting to restore the monarchies in Russia and Poland.
Blimey, now that's a conspiracy theory! Shocked

 

#50:  Author: Ellie, Location: Lincolnshire PostPosted: Sat Feb 26, 2005 9:01 pm

*g* I just looooooooooove all these conspiracy theories - I always thought it was a little strange that Cpt. Humphries should be going to Russia, but I never thought of anything like this.

 

#51:  Author: Lesley, Location: Allhallows, Kent PostPosted: Sun Feb 27, 2005 10:01 pm

Kate wrote:
There are two types of officers in the army - commissioned officers (who keep their titles) and non-commissioned officers (who can't). It's practically based on class... you can either join the army as a private or a cadet. As a private you work your way up to officer status, but that makes you lose your title when you leave the army. As a cadet (which now means you've gone to university before the army, I'm not sure if it meant that then...?) you go straight into officer-ship and you keep the title afterwards. So I guess Captain Humphries was like that. My grandad was a Captain in the army, but he didn't get to keep his title, which I always thought was horribly unfair. He'd been in the army longer and done more of the actual work than any of the commissioned officers.
A commissioned officer within the Army is any rank from the Second Lieutenant upwards, it is an officer who holds the Queen's commission. Originally class based as you had to purchase the rank, it is now a little less so (Must be or they'd never have given me one!) A non-comissioned officer is anyone above the rank of Private - Lance-Corporal, Corporals, Sergeants, Staff Sergeants and Warrant Officers. They all rank below a comissioned officer in the hierachy. You may either enter the Army as a comissioned officer, or be promoted from the ranks, either way, once there you hold the Queen's comission. Within the Army it is normally only Majors and above who are allowed to retain their titles - although some of the Guards Regiments are allowed to continue calling themselves Captain (Captain Mark Phillips - Princess Anne's Ex) Captain Humphries may have been from the Guards, or he may have been in the Royal Navy where a Captain is the equivalent of an Army Captain and therefore high enough to retain the rank. Your grandfather, Kate, must have been a comissioned officer to hold the rank of Captain - but he can't have been in the Guards.

 

#52:  Author: Kate, Location: Ireland PostPosted: Tue Mar 01, 2005 9:09 pm

Lesley wrote:
Kate wrote:
There are two types of officers in the army - commissioned officers (who keep their titles) and non-commissioned officers (who can't). It's practically based on class... you can either join the army as a private or a cadet. As a private you work your way up to officer status, but that makes you lose your title when you leave the army. As a cadet (which now means you've gone to university before the army, I'm not sure if it meant that then...?) you go straight into officer-ship and you keep the title afterwards. So I guess Captain Humphries was like that. My grandad was a Captain in the army, but he didn't get to keep his title, which I always thought was horribly unfair. He'd been in the army longer and done more of the actual work than any of the commissioned officers.
A commissioned officer within the Army is any rank from the Second Lieutenant upwards, it is an officer who holds the Queen's commission. Originally class based as you had to purchase the rank, it is now a little less so (Must be or they'd never have given me one!) A non-comissioned officer is anyone above the rank of Private - Lance-Corporal, Corporals, Sergeants, Staff Sergeants and Warrant Officers. They all rank below a comissioned officer in the hierachy. You may either enter the Army as a comissioned officer, or be promoted from the ranks, either way, once there you hold the Queen's comission. Within the Army it is normally only Majors and above who are allowed to retain their titles - although some of the Guards Regiments are allowed to continue calling themselves Captain (Captain Mark Phillips - Princess Anne's Ex) Captain Humphries may have been from the Guards, or he may have been in the Royal Navy where a Captain is the equivalent of an Army Captain and therefore high enough to retain the rank. Your grandfather, Kate, must have been a comissioned officer to hold the rank of Captain - but he can't have been in the Guards.
He was definitely an NCO... maybe it's different in Ireland? Or maybe I'm mistaken about his rank. Smile

 

#53:  Author: Lesley, Location: Allhallows, Kent PostPosted: Tue Mar 01, 2005 11:33 pm

He might have been Captain of Guns - or similar - that's a sergeant post. As far as I'm aware Irish ranks are the same as British.

 

#54:  Author: Karry,  PostPosted: Thu Mar 03, 2005 11:09 am

Quote:
That's a good one Zhark! And guess who married Trotsky's secretary .... Arthur Ransome, who was born in Leeds where EBD went to college. So we have a link between EBD and Trotsky.
I am sure that I have heard that it has just been released that Arthur Ransome WAS a spy in Russia !

 

#55:  Author: Dawn, Location: Leeds, West Yorks PostPosted: Thu Mar 03, 2005 11:19 am

Auntie Karry at work wrote:
I am sure that I have heard that it has just been released that Arthur Ransome WAS a spy in Russia !
Apparently it took them 20 years to decide he wasn't Rolling Eyes http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4306595.stm

 

#56:  Author: Lyanne, Location: Ipswich, England PostPosted: Sat Mar 05, 2005 12:13 pm

In Jo of the Chalet School, the Robin is crying for her mother so Jo runs to get Madge. When I read,
Quote:
Tender arms were about her soft dark curls, so like the lost mother's, were against her cheek then Miss Bettany bore her off to be cuddled back to serenity...
I thought that if I were a suspiscious woman I would think it strange that Captain Humphries was such a good friend of the Bettanys but Jo hadn't heard of him, and I would wonder whether he were really just a good friend of their father's... or someone else in the family...

 

#57:  Author: Guest,  PostPosted: Wed Mar 09, 2005 10:04 am

Just been putting my two penn'orth in on the discussion about Napoleon. Seeing as Napoleon's well regarded in Poland, it really should have been Robin rather than Joey who was interested in him...but maybe Mrs Humphries was descended from Napoleon's child by the Polish countess Marie Walewska. Sorry, my imagination is running a bit riot this morning!

 

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