Author Archives: Tony

Cunard’s newest ship: MS Queen Anne

For me one of the joys of being retired is that my holidays aren’t constrained by work. So having decided to come back to UK for Paul and Carole’s group cruise, I looked at what else might be possible. I was delighted to find a 7-night cruise to Northern Spain and Cherbourg on Cunard’s new Queen Anne. To save a little money, I opted for an internal cabin. And, yes, it’s true: the total blackness meant I slept much better than in a cabin with curtains or blinds that aren’t totally lightproof.

La  Coruña

We set sail from Southampton on Sunday June 1st, 2025. After two nights and a full day at sea – formal night: black suit, shirt and tie for dinner as per the dress code – we arrived at La  Coruña. It’s an industrial and financial centre, population about 250,000. The ship docked within walking distance of the city centre and I spent a pleasant few hours exploring. There are any number of fine period buildings to be seen.

Gijón

The overnight sail took us to Gijón, population about 270,000. The key interest for me was that it’s home to one of the largest railway museums in Spain, the Asturias Railway Museum. Even better, the free shuttle bus from the ship stopped outside the museum! The museum, which opened in 1998, is housed in the old North Gijón railway station built in 1874, since extended. After spending a good couple of hours in the museum I went for a stroll through the old town before getting the shuttle bus back to the ship. The 18th century Revillagigedo Palace is a notable sight. The Town Hall and adjoining square date back to 1858-64. As with La Coruna, these are but two of many buildings of merit.

Bilbao

Our third and final Spanish port call was Bilbao, the tenth largest city in Spain, population around 350,000. Cruise ships dock at Getxo, about 20km from Bilbao. This was Queen Anne’s maiden visit. From the ship Cunard laid on a shuttle bus service to the Algorta metro station. At the time I went, passengers were being delivered to the station faster than the ticket machines could handle them, so I walked to the next station, Aiboa, which was almost deserted. From there I got the train to Abando in the city centre (15km, €4.20; £3.60; A$7.50 return). I spent some time looking round the cathedral, then took a quick walk through the city centre, once again appreciating the many historic buildings along the way. Then back to the ship.

Ariaga Theatre, Bilbao, 1890
Ariaga Theatre, Bilbao, 1890

Cherbourg

Friday was our second sea day, sailing back across the Bay of Biscay to Cherbourg in NW France. Next to where the ship docks is La Cité de la Mer, Cherbourg’s maritime museum. I spent several hours there taking in the Titanic exhibits, the aquariums and exploring the Redoutable, the first now-preserved French nuclear submarine before having a quick walk round the city centre.

As for the ship …

The order for the ship that is now Queen Anne was placed in 2017. Delivery was originally planned for 2022 but with Covid delays the maiden voyage was deferred to May 2024. With a gross tonnage of 113,000 and capacity of 2,996 passengers she is slightly larger than Cunard’s Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth.

As previously posted here, I’ve cruised on Cunard’s Queen Mary 2 and Queen Elizabeth several times and love their Art Deco interiors. Queen Anne is very different: she’s been given a contemporary look. I liked the arrows on the carpets in the corridors which point to the nearest staircase.

Away from the ‘hardware’ it’s very definitely Cunard. All the crew I interfaced with were excellent. The Insight lecturers were Andrew Ryder, historian, Barry Halliday, retired Detective Superintendent, and the theatre-filling Pam Ayres. As is my custom on Cunard ships I enjoyed the Queens Room music and dancing each evening. For dinner I was on a shared table and enjoyed the company.


During the cruise the ship travelled 1,489 nautical miles, 2,758km.

Driving Mum’s Car

Everyone who knows me knows that I enjoy visiting car museums. Back when visiting UK in 2023 I had plans to visit the Great British Car Journey, a car museum in Ambergate, Derbyshire which had opened in 2021. Alas events intervened and I never got there.

But this year, as part of my UK visit, I got there and wasn’t disappointed. The museum has around 150 cars on display and unlike some car museums the emphasis is on the ordinary: Austin, Morris, Ford, Vauxhall etc, many of the cars that were commonplace during my childhood. My ‘I Spy Cars’ and ‘Observers Book of Automobiles’ were two of my childhood treasures: I wish I still had them.

The story is split into nine ‘chapters’:

  1. 1921-39: A little car that changed the world: the Austin Seven
  2. 1945-57: A Minor miracle: the Morris Minor
  3. 1957-67: Wizardry on wheels: the Mini
  4. 1967-70: BL is formed but begins a long decline
  5. 1913-70: A family affair: Rootes – Hillman, Humber, Singer and Sunbeam
  6. 1905-2021: The Americans: Ford and Vauxhall
  7. 1970-77: Difficult times: BL is nationalised
  8. 1977-90: The lady’s not for turning: Mrs T. reluctantly refinances BL; enter the Metro
  9. 1990-today: British-owned volume car producers are no more.

Visitors are lent an tablet – the commentary is excellent, with even more information delivered if you click on the display board QR codes.

There’s a good café too.

If this was it, the Great British Car Journey would just be another medium size motor museum – The British Motor Museum, Gaydon has 400 cars. But what makes this museum different (unique?) is that you can Drive Dad’s Car!

… Or in my case, since my dad never drove (eyesight issues), Drive Mum’s Car.

On the day we visited a good number of their sixty-car drive fleet was out ready for visitors to drive, everything from a 1920s Austin Seven, a 1938 Wolseley that’s appeared in Foyle’s War, a London Black Cab, a Rolls Royce Silver Spirit, a police Jaguar with blue flashing lights, and at the other end of the scale numerous humbler vehicles. The current cost (June 2025) of a drive depends on the car chosen: they’re grouped into Classic (£54), Premium (£75) and Luxury (£85) with discounts if you drive more than one. Buying one or more drives gets you free museum admission.

For myself, I chose to drive their Hillman Imp, since it was the first car my mother ever owned, bought new in 1963 for £532. She sold it in 1966, well before I learned to drive. Had I not chosen this car, I’d probably have chosen one that I’d owned in the past.

The museum buildings are at one end of a four-acre site, home to a wire rope factory from 1876 until it closed in 1996. Each drive lasts about twenty minutes, three circuits of the site, accompanied by a supervisor. You can take passengers for a small extra charge (£10) and a souvenir photo is a very modest £9.95. Not having driven a manual car for 25+ years, I felt somewhat like a learner; thankfully I only stalled once! But a great experience.

Thanks to my friend John for providing transport; if you want to visit the museum using public transport, it’s about a 20 minute walk from Ambergate station.


My first group cruise

.. as a guest, not host, I hasten to add! The cruise was organised and hosted by Paul and Carole who run the ‘Paul and Carole love to travel’ YouTube channel which I’ve followed for several years. Check it out here. They are a very down-to-earth friendly couple from Gloucestershire, England.

I first met Paul and Carole when they visited Melbourne in January 2023 whilst on their Australian cruise and held a meetup for their supporters, handily for me here in Melbourne Docklands.

When in May 2023 Paul and Carole announced their first group cruise, on Sky Princess, from Southampton to Norway, Denmark and back, my interest was aroused. Copenhagen was the first non-UK place I ever visited by myself, back in 1985. I’d always meant to go back but never got round to it. And although Southampton is a long way from Melbourne, I could combine this cruise with seeing friends and family. So in August 2023 I signed up. To qualify as a group cruise Paul and Carole needed 30 people to sign up; in the end they got 170!

Twenty-one months later, May 16 2025, I’m in Southampton for the eve-of-cruise get-together. Then after a good night’s sleep it was off to the ship, check-in and once on board off to the Vista lounge for group registration and a chance to meet more fellow travellers. Each day we had exclusive use of this lounge from 1.30-3.30, with excellent service from the staffed bar, with a different activity each day, e.g. a ‘How well do you know Paul and Carole?’ quiz to see who’d been paying attention to their videos.

By default our group was assigned a dining time of 5.30p.m. with a section of the Soleil dining room being assigned to us. This was great: we were effectively on a cruise for 170, not 3,660 (the ship rated capacity). No one was obligated to eat here; if you wanted to eat later, in the buffet or at a speciality restaurant you were of course free to do so. Those of us who are P&C Patreons (financial supporters) were each invited to dine with Paul or Carole on one night of the cruise.

The cruise was meant to include four port stops: Kristiansand and Oslo in Norway, and Copenhagen and Skagen in Denmark, with sea days at the beginning and end of the cruise. For weather reasons we had to skip Skagen so got an extra sea day. Here’s a quick summary of our three port visits; lots of other websites cover them in more detail:

Kristiansand

This was my first visit to Norway. Kristiansand, Norway’s fifth largest city, was an easy walk from the ship. I got to see the city centre, 1885 cathedral and railway station. The brightly painted buildings near where the ship was docked are a credit to those who commissioned and designed them.


Oslo

Oslo is the capital of Norway. I could have done better here. I’d booked a ticket for the hop on/hop off bus, intending to do two circuits, the first to get an overview of the sights, noting those to stop off on the second circuit. The full circuit takes ninety minutes. Having made a rather leisurely start to the day I realised once on the bus that I’d only manage one circuit if I was to be sure of being back on board by the stated time (3.30). By alighting at one stop and walking to the next I did get to see the Opera House, Parliament, University and National Theatre, plus lots more from the bus. Next time, if ever …


Copenhagen

Here members of our group cruise had the option of taking a coach for an extended visit to the Tivoli Gardens; all aboard time wasn’t until 8.30p.m. I chose to do my own thing. Cruise ships dock a fair way from the city with a free shuttle bus running to and from the Orientkaj metro station, opened in 2020. From here I got a train to the city centre (24DKK, A$5.72, £2.75). 27,000 steps later I’d visited the National Gallery, the Royal palace and after a quick visit to the Tivoli Gardens walked along Strøget, to the historic Nyhavn. From there I walked to the Vor Krelsers Kirke (Church of our Saviour) to see its famed 400-step spire built in 1752. The last 150 steps go round the outside of the spire and, no, I didn’t climb them!


Then back to the ship for two full days at sea with plenty of onboard activities and entertainment. A great trip! Many thanks to Paul and Carole for being such good hosts, to Dan, their travel agent, who did all the admin, and, as ever, the first class Princess crew.


Map from thecruiseglobe.com. Distance travelled by ship 1,922 Nm, 3,560km

Along the Tocumwal railway line

Last time I wrote about my visit to Tocumwal, mentioning the Pacific National freight service from Tocumwal to Appleton Dock, Melbourne. The railway reached Shepparton in 1880, then was extended to Numurkah in 1881, Strathmerton in 1905 and finally to Tocumwal in 1908. Passenger services ran until 1986 but carriage of grain and livestock was the main source of revenue. So let’s go up the line from Shepparton to Tocumwal with a quick stop at each intermediate station site. Figures in brackets are the distance from Shepparton and population.

Congupna (7.1km, 620)

A now-disused siding served what is now a fertiliser depot. A mound of earth is all that is left of the former station platform. Next to the fertiliser depot there’s a park, Pony Paddock Park, and next to the park a primary school. The school has 54 pupils and a teaching staff of 8 – very different to the average city school! A plaque explains the park’s name:

PONY PADDOCK PARK

In the early days children either walked or rode ponies to Congupna Primary School. In 1922 provision was made next to the school to house students’ ponies during school hours. By 1934 some of the larger families came to school by horse and gig. The ponies were left in the Pony Paddock with feed and water and harnessed up again after school.

In 1976 the use of the Pony Paddock ceased as the family car took over. In the year 2000 the Congupna/Tallygaroopna Landcare members cleared and cleaned this paddock of all noxious weeds and trees and set about transforming this derelict area into a native park… which opened in December 2004.

Tallygaroopna (14.2km, 600)

The Goulburn Valley Stock and Property Journal, 15 March 1933, reported that:

after careful consideration and close examination of six schemes for the bulk handling of wheat within the last five months, the experts appointed by the Minister of Agriculture (Hon. J.Allan) submitted their scheme to the Cabinet last week. The scheme is estimated to cost £2,000,000, and will include the erection of 160 country silos at railway stations with terminals at Williamstown and Geelong. …  It is proposed to build silos of the following capacity at stations in the northern district: — 50,000 bushels at Rochester, Tallygaroopna, Wunghnu, Numurkah …”. The Tallygaroopna silo went into service in 1941 and was in use until 1987. The station also had stockyards for sheep and cattle.

According to the RBA inflation calculator, £2m in 1933 would be about A$250m now,

Wunghnu (23.5km, 334)

The weighbridge can still be seen as well as the silo. The Goulburn Valley Stock and Property Journal, 26 March 1941, reported:

WUNGHNU SILO Nearing Completion

The silo at the Wunghnu railway station being built by the Government to replace the grain shed is beginning to tower up, and when completed, will hold a considerable quantity of grain. The silo can be seen for some considerable distance, as it is well above the tree tops and still going up. It ought to make a wonderful look-out as well if there is a way left to get to the top.

Numurkah (30.4km, 4768)

As can be inferred from the population, Numurkah is a larger settlement than the others listed here. Next to rail tracks site Graincorp have a huge facility for processing Canola and other oilseeds, though everything is now moved in and out by road.

The station platform and footbridge still exist, and what I presume was formerly the station building is now occupied by a funeral director.

Katunga (41.0km, 996)

Another c.1940 silo. Before this was built, a good harvest could see 100,000 sacks of grain being stacked up for shipment.

Strathmerton (53.1km, 1072)

Nothing much remains except for the platform. Back in May 1899 “A very enthusiastic and representative meeting of farmers and others was” held at Strathmerton on Saturday night for the purpose of forming a league to agitate for the extension of the railway line from Strathmerton to Tocumwal.” It took some time. The Corowa Free Press, 14 July 1908, reported:

STRATHMERTON – TOCUMWAL RAIILWAY

The new railway line from Strathmerton to Tocumwal crossing the Murray was opened on Thursday last. A large crowd of residents and railway officials were present. The first train was a sheep special of 40 trucks. The new station is equipped with a good yard and facilities for loading sheep and cattle. The ordinary passenger train came in on Thursday afternoon. It is intended to have a banquet later to celebrate the event.

And for more on Tocumwal, see last month’s post.

Perhaps in time the silo art brigade will get to these silos – we can hope!


Victorian Places A-Z

Interstate mini-break: Tocumwal

Last week I went on a two-night break to Tocumwal. It’s a small town 291km/182mi north of Melbourne, on the north bank of the Murray River so in New South Wales. The town was established in the early 1860s. As with the other Murray river communities, paddle steamers were initially the way in which goods were imported and exported.

The bridge

The Murray bridge opened in 1895. It has three spans, the centre originally being liftable for navigation. The last lift for navigational purposes was in 1933. The span was last raised in 1995 to mark the bridge’s centenary, following which it was welded shut. Initially built for road traffic only, the bridge was strengthened and adapted for rail traffic in 1908. It was then used for both road and rail traffic until November 1987, when a separate road bridge was opened, and continues to carry the occasional freight train.

The railway

On the Victorian side of the river a 53km/33mi rail line from Shepparton to Strathmerton in opened 1888, later being extended to a temporary terminus on the south side of the Murray opposite Tocumwal. Following agreement between the Victorian and NSW governments this line was taken across the bridge to a new VR-operated station, Tocumwal, opened in 1908. A NSWR branch to Tocumwal opened in 1914 creating a break-of-gauge station, NSW railways being standard gauge (4’8½”,1435mm), Victorian Railways, broad gauge (5’3”, 1600mm). Note that by rail it’s about 250km to Melbourne and 760km to Sydney.

The last NSWR train to Tocumwal ran in 1986 and the entire SG line was closed in 1988. The last VR passenger service to Tocumwal ran on 8 November 1975 but the line remains open for freight traffic: Pacific National runs container and grain trains to the Port of Melbourne several times each week.

Much of the original rail infrastructure has gone but the station buildings have been given a new lease of life as the Tocumwal Railway Heritage Museum. Unlike Newport Railway Museum where I am a volunteer, there’s no rolling stock, but there are lots of maps, pictures and other items of interest.

For more on Tocumwal’s railway history, see Newsrail, May 2005.

Museums

Just out of town is Tocumwal Aviation Museum which opened in 2021. Tocumwal might at first seem to be just another small relatively unimportant place but during WW2 it saw the construction of the largest aerodrome in the southern hemisphere which was home to many aircraft and was also a vast storage and repair depot for many aircraft types including Avro Anson, Beaufort, Boeing, Dakota, Hudson, Lancaster, Lincoln, Meteor, Mosquito, Mustang, Spitfire, Beaufighter, Vampire and Wirraway. No. 7 Operational Training Unit RAAF was based at Tocumwal from 1944. After the RAAF left Tocumwal in 1960, over 700 aircraft were scrapped through until 1963. There’s an excellent pictorial here.

Chrystie’s Classics and Collectibles Museum is a place which is hard to describe. You’ll find all sorts of things here: classic cars, old agricultural implements and a vast range of collectibles.

And … last but not least

My two nights in Tocumwal bracketed Anzac Day 2025. Anzac Day commemorates the ANZAC forces landing at Gallipoli on 25 April 1915. As is the custom across Australia, the day was marked with a dawn service, then, later, the main service with guest speakers and wreath laying. The latter drew a huge crowd including all the children from local schools.



All in all an interesting and enjoyable trip, seeing and learning new things.

Tocumwal location (https://free-map.org)
Tocumwal location (https://free-map.org)

A trip to Panda Mart

During my life retail has seen numerous changes: the growth of supermarkets and retail chains, big box discount stores, IKEA, online shopping and more. New to Australia is South Africa-based Panda Mart. They opened their first Australian warehouse outlet in Cranbourne, an outer suburb, 43km (27mi) SE of the Melbourne CBD on February 27th, the occasion being marked by huge crowds necessitating additional security and police attendance.

The store, housed in what was a Masters DIY shed until its closure in 2016, has been described as a bricks-and-mortar Temu. Out of curiosity rather than needing anything, I decided to take a look. A healthy 25-minute walk from Merinda Park station got my step count up to target – not that I need have worried. From outside, the store is a totally unprepossessing sight though press reports say that a large panda mural will shortly adorn the fascia.

Inside it is huge! I walked nearly every aisle, skipping multiple rows of partyware, toys and petware . This took me a full hour, 2,265 steps!

What’s on offer? Think of a mega-size $2/pound shop but much cheaper. No clothes, no food, but you will find furniture. Lots of hardware and tools, housewares, stationery, craft supplies, artificial flowers and much more. They claim to stock 28,000 products. The pricing was, as promised, extraordinary. The base price seems to be 40c (25c US, 20p UK), though the cheapest paintbrushes were 30c.

Having initially decided to buy nothing, just look, I did succumb. My $11.60 spend bought me a premium quality paintbrush (hopefully, yet to be tested), $3.20, a spanner, $1.90, and a LED worklight, $6.50. I bought the last since the pack stated it took 3xAAA batteries and I have (not sure why) a box of 25 looking to be used. Bad news: on opening it up, it actually takes AA batteries – I had to buy some!

Conclusions:

  • Good: Vast selection of merchandise at unbelievable prices.
  • Good: See before you buy and no waiting for a mail order package
  • Good: Unlike Temu you won’t get spammed and there are minimal privacy issues
  • Bad: For some things, product quality is uncertain. In the first week, Consumer Affairs (Trading Standards) seized lots of merchandise that didn’t meet Australian standards including toys with insecure button batteries and dangerous electrical goods. There’s no excuse for this: they should know what standards apply and have already had multiple product recalls in New Zealand, whose standards are probably very similar to ours. They had lots of cordless power tools: would I trust their chargers and batteries? No. But this will probably change: when I was a child ‘Made in Japan’ was synonymous with junk.
  • Bad: As with all goods whose prices are too low to believe, you have to wonder about the working conditions and pay of those in the supply chain. That said, how many higher priced products are made in sweatshop conditions with those down the line creaming off the extra.
  • Threatened?: If Panda Mart builds a large branch chain it’s possibly bad news for Temu, AliExpress and the like, also all the $2 shops, Daiso etc. As I write this, Canadian Dollarama has just bid a generous A$259m for the Australian Reject Shop chain, with the intention of expanding from 390 to 700 stores by 2034, so they obviously think they have nothing to worry about. Kmart should be OK: they’ve worked hard to establish a good reputation for their Anko-branded goods and appliances. Time will tell.

Panda Mart’s Australian presence will double when a second store opens at Preston in Melbourne’s inner north, due to open mid-2025.

Panda Mart, 1280 Thompsons Road, Cranbourne North, 3977

A trip to Benton Rise Farm

Like most Australians, I buy nearly all my food from my local supermarket. I know that I ought to eat more fresh fruit and vegetables and with the Queen Victoria and South Melbourne markets within walking distance I’ve really no excuse. Further afield, Victoria is home to numerous farmers’ markets and farm shops.

A few weeks ago Channel 9 TV’s Postcards programme featured a farm shop with a difference, Benton Rise Farm. What’s special? The site is now home to a 1955 W-class Melbourne tram and a 1910 ‘Red Rattler’ train carriage which houses the farm shop.

752 W-class trams were built by the Melbourne & Metropolitan Tramways Board (MMTB) between 1923 and 1956, the majority at the MMTB’s Preston Workshops. Tram 1005 entered service April 1955, then was stored from 2000 to 2009 when it was returned to service, to be permanently withdrawn from service in 2015. In 2019 it was moved to its current site and is set up for children to play in.

Wooden-bodied Tait carriages, 623 in total, were built from 1910 in preparation for the electrification of Melbourne’s suburban railways. Initially they were steam hauled. Between 1917 and 1922 they were converted to run on electric power. They were progressively withdrawn from 1974, the longest-serving (including this one, 256M) lasting to 1984-85, a service life of around 70 years. They’d been banned from the City Loop from 1982 due to the fire hazard presented by their wooden bodies, so spent most of their final years on the Port Melbourne, St Kilda and Sandringham lines.

Both train and tram are – and I’m sure the owners won’t mind me saying this – in poor condition, badly needing some TLC. Hopefully they’ll get it before too long.

As for the farm, there’s a good café where I enjoyed banana bread and coffee. As said above, the railway carriage is home to the farm shop with lots of local produce on offer; I came away with locally-sourced honey and marmalade. Outside, children will enjoy seeing the sheep and goats, and there’s a playground and space to have a picnic.  


Farm address: 150 Coolart Rd, Tuerong VIC 3915

Farm website

Mamma knows South review

Hobart Revisited

On January 5th I boarded Cunard’s Queen Elizabeth for my fourth, and possibly last, time. This cruise, five nights, sailed from Sydney to Hobart, then returning via the magnificent scenery of Great Oyster Bay and the Freycinet National Park.

Hobart, the capital city of Tasmania, was first settled by the British in 1804. I’d been there twice before. My first trip was by air in 2018 when I got to see most of the sights – Mount Wellington, the Cascades Brewery, the Female Factory (women’s prison), Mawson’s Huts museum, MONA (Museum of Old and New Art) and more. My second visit was as part of my 2020 Queen Elizabeth cruise, the day being spent on an excursion to the one-time penal colony of Port Arthur.

This time, after a good breakfast (please don’t tell my GP about the sausage, egg, bacon and the rest!), I disembarked with no set plan for the day. Cruise ships visiting Hobart dock at Macquarie Wharf, just a short walk from the city centre. This season Hobart is due to see 93 cruise ship visits. On cruise ship days the terminal is home to a well-supported Makers Market.

As we left the terminal several operators were offering excursions to those who weren’t already booked on cruise company tours. As it was leaving shortly, I signed up for Gray Line’s 90-minute no-stop tour of all the key attractions as a way of refreshing my memory of my previous visits. Sitting on the open top deck it was cool and windy and I was glad I’d taken my rain jacket.

At the end of the bus tour I walked up to St David’s Cathedral which I’d not previously visited. Construction of the first church on this site began in 1817; the present cathedral, designed by English architect George Frederick Bodley, was consecrated in 1874. The tower is a later addition, only completed in 1936. Like many sandstone buildings in Hobart it still looks good, a reflection on Tasmania having some of the cleanest air in the world. The superb stained-glass windows were made by Burlison and Grylls, London, at the time one of the most highly regarded producers of stained glass in Britain.

Then on to the Maritime Museum which absorbed me so much I forgot to take any pics of the exhibits. After a late lunch I walked up to the Botanical Gardens, established in 1818. The uncertain morning weather had given way to bright sunshine and I thoroughly enjoyed the walk and time in the gardens. Then back to the ship.



Why perhaps was this my last cruise on Queen Elizabeth? For the last few years she has been homeported in Melbourne and Sydney during the Australian summer, offering a dozen or more short cruises.

From 2026 the only Cunard visits to Australia will be when one or more of our ports is on a world cruise itinerary – for example in March 2026, as part of 108-night world cruise, Queen Mary 2 will call at Sydney, Brisbane, Yorkey’s Knob and Darwin. The most expensive suite is $640,998 (US$402,219; £326,617) – still available as I write this! Alternatively, slum it in an inside cabin, just $47,510.


FDR’s Splendid Deception

FDR's Splendid Deception book cover

FDR’s Splendid Deception book cover

Last month I wrote about how I came to get interested in Franklin Roosevelt and the New Deal. My current project, to read all my New Deal books once more and then dispose of them, continues.

I’ve just finished another book, somewhat different to the others, FDR’s Splendid Deception, by Hugh Gregory Gallagher. The subtitle explains: “The moving story of Roosevelt’s massive disability and the intense efforts to hide it from the public.” The author contracted polio at the age of nineteen and has been wheelchair-bound ever since, so brings an understanding to the subject that others might not have.

Franklin Roosevelt was born in 1882 to a well-heeled family; Theodore Roosevelt, later to be President (1901-09), was a fifth cousin. FDR was destined for success and in 1913 at 31 he became Assistant Secretary to the Navy, serving in this capacity through WW1. James Cox selected FDR as his running mate for the 1920 presidential election but lost to Warren Harding.

Then disaster struck. In 1921 FDR contracted polio, which left his legs paralysed. His political ambitions were done for. Or were they?

Urged on by his wife and close advisor Louis Howe, FDR resolved to continue in public life. He laboriously taught himself to walk short distances while wearing iron braces on his legs. Until his death he would spend much of his time at Warm Springs, Georgia, believing in the recuperative powers of the waters.

FDR got his big break in 1928 when the governor of New York State, Al Smith, resigned so as to run for president. He persuaded FDR to nominate for the governorship. FDR won by a whisker, then by a more than comfortable majority in 1930. Having shown that his disability was no obstacle to political leadership, he won the Democratic nomination for the 1932 presidential election, then won the election by a handsome margin (see below).

Those who know something about FDR probably think first of his speeches and his wireless fireside chats, his wonderful delivery accentuating his fine choice of words, for example:

  • I pledge you, I pledge myself to a new deal for the American people. [First inaugural address 1933]
  • The only thing we have to fear is…fear itself [First inaugural address 1933]
  • I see one-third of a nation ill-housed, ill-clad, ill-nourished. [Second inaugural address 1937]
  • The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little. [Second inaugural address 1937]
  • Yesterday, December 7, 1941 — a date which will live in infamy—the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by the naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.

Could a wheelchair-bound person win a presidential election today? I doubt it especially if their politics were at variance from the mainstream media.

But things were different then. The picture on the front cover of the book is one of only two known to exist showing FDR in a wheelchair. To quote Gallagher’s book (pp.93,94):

During his first campaign for governor, FDR made it a rule that photographers were not to take pictures of him looking crippled or helpless. His actual words, said to some newsreel cameramen taking his picture as he was being helped out of a car in 1928, were “no movies of me getting out of the machine, boys.”

And from then on, remarkably, no such photographs were taken. It was an unspoken code, honoured by the White House photography corps. If, as happened once or twice, one of its members sought to violate it and try and sneak a picture of the President in his chair, one or another of the older photographers would “accidentally” knock the camera to the ground, or otherwise block the picture. Should the president himself notice someone in the crowd violating the interdiction, he would point out the offender and the Secret Service would move in, seize the camera and expose the film. This remarkable voluntary censorship was rarely violated.

Did the press’s self-imposed censorship matter? For the first three elections arguably not. FDR’s physical limitations did not materially affect his ability to serve as president. Indeed several surveys note him as one of the USA’s best presidents but by 1944 things were different. The demands of wartime leadership had taken their toll. FDR was not a well man as many could see. Key advisors Tommy Corcoran and Ben Cohen decided to tell their beloved leader that he should stand down and not contest the 1944 election, but when it came to it Corcoran couldn’t get the words out and Cohen, the ‘parfit gentil knight’* of the New Deal, chickened out and sent FDR a letter, which was ignored. FDR would contest and win the election but his fourth term ended just months later with his death on April 12, 1945 aged just 63.

  • Joseph Lash, Dealers and Dreamers p.452

Electoral College votes (FDR/others) and share of popular vote:

1932: 472/59, 57.4%;

1936: 523/8, 60.8%;

1940: 449/82, 54.7%

1944: 432/99, 53.4%

The book: FDR’s Splendid Deception, by Hugh Gregory Gallagher, Vandamere Press 1994, ISBN 0-918339-33-2

Remembering World War 1

November 11th 2024 – 106 years from the signing of the Armistice

Australia was more than a little involved in World War 1. Over 421,809 Australians served in the military with 331,781 serving overseas. 60,000 Australians lost their lives and 137,000 were wounded. These were all people who chose to serve King and Country: referendums on conscription were held in 1916 and 1917; both failed.

Across Australia, as in the UK, you’ll find war memorials everywhere, most usually in the form of stone pillars or honour boards listing the names of the fallen or those who served. ANZAC Day – 25th April, the date of the first Gallipoli landing – is an important day on our Australian calendar.

On this post I’ve pulled out a few photos of mine that show some unusual war memorials.

The first two photos were taken at Lakes Entrance Avenue of Honour in Gippsland (SE Victoria) when I visited in December 2021. In 1924 twenty-six Monterey Cypress pines were planted along the Esplanade to honour local soldiers who were killed In action in WW1. By the 1990s many of these trees were dying. Six stumps were preserved, with local chainsaw artist John Brady commissioned to carve memorial images in 1998.

Twenty-two years old, English-born John Simpson Kirkpatrick was an unlikely figure to become a national hero. He enlisted in the AIF, expecting this would give him the chance to get back to England; instead, he found himself at ANZAC Cove on 25 April 1915, and was killed less than four weeks later.

Famously, Simpson used a small donkey to carry men down from the front line, often exposing himself to fire. The bravery of this “man with the donkey” soon became the most prominent symbol of Australian courage and tenacity on Gallipoli.

The second, third and fourth pictures commemorate WW1 nurses. The second is another of the Lakes Entrance carvings.

The third, taken December 2021, of one of the Devenish silos, shows a modern day combat medic and a nurse from WW1.

The fourth is of the Lemnos memorial, Albert Park, Melbourne. It was unveiled on the 8th August 2015 to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the Australian nurses’ arrival on Lemnos, a Greek island, on the 8th August 1915 and was the first commemorative memorial dedicated to honouring the role of Lemnos in the Gallipoli Campaign to be erected outside of Lemnos in Greece. The memorial is located near Port Melbourne from where Australia’s diggers and nurses departed during the First World War.

Almost every one of the 50,000 Australian diggers who served at Gallipoli received medical care or rest on Lemnos. Many of those who arrived ill and wounded recovered with the care of Australia’s nurses. Amongst the over 1,300 Allied service personnel buried in Lemnos’ war cemeteries are over 200 Australian and New Zealand war dead.

The Lemnos Gallipoli Commemorative Committee, who got this memorial erected, hold an annual commemorative service at the memorial to commemorate and raise awareness of the role of Lemnos in Australia’s Anzac story,

My last picture, taken last month, is of a memorial in Victory Park, Ascot Vale, Melbourne. The plaque reads:

This statue was commissioned by Women Caring for Veterans of War Inc.
In Honour of the Enduring Sacrifice made by Women who cared for Veterans of World War 1
Unveiled on 29th August 2015


We will remember them