I met a very interesting chap in a Suffolk pub last night, but more of that later. I'd been listening to a talk in the local church by an expert on Heraldry. It has a language all of it's own for sure. Heraldry really brings it home that, in those days of yore, it wasn't about what you were, but who you were, that got you up the ladder of wealth, power and respectability in the world. You could be a total duffer but providing you came from the right family you'd have respect, political clout and a long line of suitors wanting to marry you. Thank goodness it's all changed nowadays because now, if you have too much power and wealth, all you end up with is a news empire and an invitation to give evidence at the Leveson Enquiry.
However, there was a downside. When I got home I got out the computer and a calculator and worked out that if Richard the Third had won the Battle of Bosworth in 1485 and all his descendants had behaved themselves, there was a good chance that today, I'd be Queen.
As for the chap I met in the pub, he was an ex met police officer who joined about ten years before me but served on my old division. He was in the mounted branch but only served seven years before changing career. His father, however, did make a full career out of the Met. He featured prominently in this book. We'll be keeping in touch. Amazing who you can end up chatting to in a small pub in an even smaller village, when all you expected was to learn a bit about Heraldic symbology. It was a fortuitous meeting for sure.
5 comments:
Rather like nights out, I'd say most of the best acquaintances made are entirely accidental.
You should be on commission, HD. By some amazing coincidence I was looking at this book on Amazon a little over a week ago and trying to decide if I wanted to order it and another one called "Just the Job, Mate". You can't ignore a coincidence like this so I think I will buy it. I'll send you a quid as a recommender's fee.
@Dave, how funny and a co-incidence back at you, because yesterday having looked up that Sweeney officer, I bought "The Brave Blue Line" by Dick Kirby, on Amazon
Looking back over my 32 years in uniform I was often grateful, in my middle and later service, that my mentors in the Met were inspiring, fearless (at least they didn't show any) wise and wonderful men - even the more mischievious and slightly villainous were good company.
I have to say that as my experience and time in the job grew, it started to dawn on me that I would never see their like again, then it dawned on me that I was like them too, or trying to be in my own way, because I liked `their way`, it worked well. I took my grounding in the Met with me to the county force I transferred to and it never left me. To the day I retired my mates would often add `of course he transferred from the Met`, into our conversations! I'm a Londoner anyway, so I welcomed the association even though sometimes they meant it in a less than complimentary way! They were just jealous!!
Sometimes I wonder if I might be descended from a Stuart bastard. I've heard there were lots and lots of those. Their legitimate issue all died out.
JTG: Best keep schtum about that;)
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