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@indeed-all-was-well
As a quick break between MPhil application things and the piles of Cherry Christmas Coursework waiting for me, I'm finally diving into The Biography! Hopefully I'll find time to throw together a review if/when I finish it, but so far so good when it comes to all those Pesky Childhood Questions!
Happy birthday Ory!! If only this blog hadn’t been the one to fall victim to the ravages of time and lack of it! But in the spirit of keeping Ory’s spirit alive, I thought it wouldn’t hurt to let you know that her first full length biography is due out on 1st October, and I certainly can’t wait to see what it brings out!!!
You can find more details here:https://www.thehistorypress.co.uk/publication/woman-with-the-iceberg-eyes/9780750991537/
Happy Birthday, Ory
So, this year we can actually celebrate Ory on her actual birthday! I wish I had better words to say it, but they’ve abandoned me - so happy 144th birthday, Polar Mam!
Photographer Tommy Trenchard captures South Africa's wild flower phenomenon.
When Bill and Oriana Wilson were in South Africa during the Terra Nova’s visit to Cape Town, they went for a long walk on the flower-decked veldt. Thanks for dropping this reference in my lap, BBC!
Early next morning [16th July] we had Holy Communion in the church, St Mary Magdalene; nothing could have been more happy or beautiful. All the morning went in pottering about, talking and dressing. Ory and I saw a good deal of one another… Polly and Constance were bridesmaids, Bernard was the best man. Noel proved a most excellent organizer, and so with the church fully decorated with white flowers and lilies and with plenty of music and a general feeling of happiness all round, Ory and I were married on 16th. July 1901…
Edward Adrian Wilson, Diary of the Discovery Expedition, p. 27
Life decided that the anniversary should escape my grasp, so I’m hoping this will make up for it at least to some extent! As weddings runups go, this was a particularly complicated one. Despite having been engaged for over two years, the question of whether it would go ahead depended on the question of Ted going South – should they even get married at all with the high chance that he’s not going to come back? Are they going to have time to pull it together? The answer was yes, and they pulled it together in two weeks, before having three more together before Ted was setting sail for the Antarctic.
It must be said that it’s very much a family affair. The service was taken by Ory’s father, Rev. Francis Souper, in her home church, and in conjunction with Ted’s uncle, Will Hopkins. Bernard, the best man is Ted’s brother, recently returned from the Boer War; Noel is Ory’s brother, the eldest after her; and while he was organising, their youngest brother Adrian was the organist. I’ve saved Polly and Constance til last – Polly’s one of Ted’s sisters, whilst Constance is Ory’s only sister – seen respectively on the far left and far right of this wedding photo. I’m not quite sure why the quality has Done That, but That it must do, apparently!
It seems to have gone down well with the local papers, both in Cheltenham and in Hilton. I’ll leave this post with two extracts, taken from Cheltenham in Antarctica: The Life of Edward Wilson, by David Wilson (Ted’s great nephew), and David Elder, p. 53.
“A fashionable wedding was solemnised at Hilton Parish Church, Hunts,… The bride looked charming in a dress of white satin, trimmed with chiffon and lace, and she wore a tulle veil with a wreath of real orange blossoms. She also carried a bunch of white trumpet lilies.”
“Peals were rung on the bells…. The pathway over which the bride and bridegroom walked… was strewed with flowers by the schoolchildren…”
The wedding day was fixed for July 16th., a Tuesday. Ory's finery was all prepared, and the invitations sent out. I had Ory within reach all the week before... And on Saturday 13th July we went together to Hilton and were very warmly greeted.
Edward Adrian Wilson, July 1901, Diary of the Discovery Expedition, p. 26
I thought there'd be plenty of quotes to steal here - I also foolishly assumed he'd have an entry for every day, and of course he's busy, so he didn't.
This page has Ory mentioned on what feels like every line - which, in the run-up to a wedding confirmed only 2 weeks in advance, I think is fair! I'm hoping to get another post together for that anniversary on Monday - and hopefully it'll be slightly more timely than this!
A brief reminder as it hasn't been mentioned recently: Hilton is Ory's hometown - and where they were married a few days later.
Toshi Yoshida - Spring Birds
It’s so crazy to me that so many vastly varying cultures across Europe and Asia have a basic set of wild animals in common, and the very similar cultures of Western Europe and North America can’t even agree what a robin looks like. You get North American children’s book writers using hedgehogs, of which they have no experience, because that’s just what you have in children’s books.
Anyway. This is a Great Tit (haha, yes, very funny). I get them on the bird feeder out my kitchen window, and their mating season call is a sure sign of spring. Six years ago I’d have had no idea, but now I look at this bird and feel like I have some tiny shared understanding with a very foreign place and culture, because they’ve associated it with springtime too. Wild.
I think of the primroses turning up at Birdlip... When I brought some roots home to you. I think...of the winter aconite and the crocuses in that little side-path from the park on the way to your school playground. And yet there is no sadness in all these thoughts, only a long hope and belief that I shall enjoy them again with you, my one dear Love.
Edward Adrian Wilson, Winter 1902, as quoted in Edward Wilson of the Antarctic, by George Seaver, p. 100
I hated having to condense this down, and remove all the flower and place memories from this passage - despite that, I couldn't take out the one referring to her school work. I still know so little about it that it felt right to let it stay there, as a reminder almost of how much more there is to learn.
Also that a Bill in an Antarctic winter is a bit sad and an even bigger sap!
Dominika Brudny
It is all done with the thought of you in my heart and mind all the time, and I love it all.
Edward Adrian Wilson, June 1911, as quoted in Edward Wilson of the Antarctic, by George Seaver, p 237
I’m particularly irritated that I’ve already used the quotes from just before he set out on the Winter Journey, the anniversary of which is TODAY - what a lack of foresight.
He’s talking about his latest adventures in experimenting with different painting techniques here - he’s trying to get them finished BEFORE the Winter Journey, so that will do. Nice to know that, even when he’s creating some of the most beautiful artworks, he’s still getting distracted by his wife - and they say men can’t multitask!
The little that I have done, it's all for you, and that is why I never do less than I know how.
Edward Adrian Wilson, Winter 1902, as quoted in Edward Wilson of the Antarctic, by George Seaver.
[First things first, apologies that this is so late - with about 5 minutes left of Wednesday, I realised that my scheduled post had eaten itself whilst I was at work. So much for that!]
This is a younger Bill than we’ve had as of late - this is mid-Discovery, but strangely enough, his motivations seem to have stayed pretty much the same... What a surprise!
I think having a wife who is all the world and all the next world too to me, makes it impossible for me to want another person to confide in.
Edward Adrian Wilson, Oct 31st, 1911. As quoted in Edward Wilson of the Antarctic, George Seaver.
At this point, Bill’s getting dragged in as mediator in a fun of Lots of Unhappy People With Different Ideas Try to Plan a Polar Expedition. He listens to everybody like a right saint, but he seems grateful for having his letters to Ory to escape to.
I dreamt of you singing at a piano, impromptu, to a number of people. You were trying to pick up a tune and every time you tried it ran into a sea-chantey that we sing down here, and that wasn't what you wanted. You looked lovely because you were sitting with your back to a large window through which was a perfect glory of buttercups in a lovely hayfield in bright sunshine.
Edward Adrian Wilson, Winter 1911, as quoted in Edward Wilson of the Antarctic, p. 242
I’ve been saving this one up so preciously - it runs onto the one from a few weeks ago about the May sunshine, and yet somehow it’s June?! It being Scott’s 150th though, I felt like something a bit special wouldn’t go amiss! This is probably one of the sappiest things I've read from our Bill, but I feel like it says a lot about them - it’s really quite vivid, and feels like an honest glimpse of her as herself, and not how she often chooses to depict herself!
liaselina
It is good to have been loved by you, and oh, a privilege indeed to have been allowed to love you.
Edward Adrian Wilson, on the Southern Journey, 1911, as quoted in Edward Wilson of the Antarctic, George Seaver, p. 274
Just before this quote, he speaks of getting home to his letters from all their friends and family. This letter'll reach her in time for her to write a gushing letter to Cherry-Garrard's mother about how proud she is of her Ted - on 5th April, 1912.
He'd been dead for about a week.
So, today's Natural History Museum day - another early start, but nothing like the 5am for SPRI a few weeks ago! The cataloguing lists here aren't quite as clearcut, so I'm not quite sure what to expect - there's various letters about the starting up of SPRI it seems, and the mysteriously labeled "3 lists" from Port Darwin, NZ - but it's mainly bequests Ory made during her life and in her will.
If nothing else, I'm hoping we'll get a slightly clearer idea of what she burned - or at least, what she didn't!
