Paul O’Donnell

@paodonnell.bsky.social

1678 Followers 667 Following

History, Ships, Manufacturing and Trade Policy. Attempting a PhD (the left and the navy in early C20/interwar Britain) twenty years later than is traditional.

Diary entry for 1 July 1942 recording Alanbrooke’s frustration at being pressured into action in Western Europe before he was ready
Four ship models in a glass case. All are late C19 naval vessels. Three were built in London, one by Youngs and two by Thames Iron Works.
The memorial to Lady Mary Wortley Montague in Lichfield Cathedral. It notes, among things, that she trialled the first smallpox vaccine on her own children.
Brisbane Road, Leytonstone Orient just about hanging in against a bad Burton Albion side.
Machines and stands at the NEC. It was busier than this picture makes it look
The East end of a beautiful neoclassical church with choir dressed in black singing. They are overlooked by a memorial to Josiah Childs, the sculpture is as good as he was bad
A very young Orient XI playing a Dulwich Hamlet at their Champion Hill ground. The main stand is illuminated against a grey sky flecked with light.
Barrow Town Hall, a very grand late Victorian (1887) gothic civic building in Red Sandstone. Set against a beautiful spring blue sky.
The view from the back of the Away enclosure at Luton Town’s Kenilworth Road ground. It isn’t very good.
An excerpt from Merrie England by Robert Blatchford in which he suggests replacing coal with tidal power because coal is polluting and dangerous. It was published 1893 and was a huge bestseller.
The crowd at a gig by the band Gene, yesterday. (Very) Many of them them are men of a certain age.
A replica of a C17 galleon berthed, at Liverpool, next the a double decker bus enabling a speedy size comparison
A plastic bowl with 15, variably shaped, homegrown pears in it.
A perfect blue sea bay, almost enclosed by mountains, with the flag of Montenegro flying in the foreground
A note from Winston Churchill wishing Mr and Mrs Alexander a Happy (and victorious) New Year. For 1940…
A cricket ground on a beautiful evening
A picture a Wembley way thronged with expectant Orient fans. Well mostly corporate sponsorship banners tbh
A half finished glass of chocolate stout expertly paired with a packet of Terrys Chocolate Orange mini eggs
A ‘Biber’ one man German Submarine of WW2 on display at IWM Duxford. This one was captured in 1944. It’s, sadly deceased, crewman, was Hans Langsdorff, the son of the Captain of the Graf Spee. He was twenty years old.
An image of Delia Smith’s Christmas book, the essential manual to cooking a giant, dry, tasteless bird for twelve people
Marble monument depicting a mourning women fixed to the wall of Lichfield Cathedral
Brisbane Road at fever pitch for the next thrilling instalment in Leyton Orient’s deeply mediocre season
A copy of The Fateful Years by Hugh Dalton which chronicles the descent towards war in the face if fascism in the 1930s
A sign on a canteen table saying ‘reserved for Isaac Newton’
A battle scarred wooden figurehead of seated elegant lady in the Island Museum of Brac