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Grace Darling

At this time of appalling weather it seems right to remember Grace Darling as our hero of the week. A Victorian child naming a British heroine would cite Grace, born during this week in 1815; today some vacuous ‘celebrity’ would be proferred. But Grace Darling’s heroism was very real, and very physical: in 1838 she risked her life in horrific weather rescuing nine survivors from a shipwreck off Bamburgh, rowing to their aid with her father. As with contemporary starlets her depiction by the press was distorted – she was drawn rowing in billowing and demure crinolines; and as so often her fame became a burden, though briefly as she died of tuberculosis just four years after her heroic feat.

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Brit Quote:
Invention, it must be humbly admitted, does not consist in creating out of voice, but out of chaos - Mary Shelley
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On this day:
Edward I Expels Jews from England - 1290, Authority of the pope declared void in England - 1536, British Cops’ 1-2-3 in Olympic Tug o’ War - 1908, Mein Kampf Published - 1925, Great Martinstown Downpour - 1955, First UK Broadcast of Big Brother - 2000
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