The Liverpool That Time Forgot.
Liverpool was a proud city once. Rightfully so.
King John founded Liverpool when the Magna Carta was still just a twinkle in the Baron’s eyes. 1207, if you are interested. The Wirral was a Viking stronghold – even today, 50% of the men of the Wirral have Viking DNA. There is something to be said for inbreeding after all.
Liverpool raised tough men. They built ships, they dug canals, they manhandled stone to form the Docks, and some truly extraordinary buildings. Herman Melville wrote:
“Previous to this, having only seen the miserable wooden wharves and shambling piers of New York… in Liverpool I beheld long China walls of masonry; vast piers of stone; and a succession of granite-rimmed docks, completely enclosed. The extent and solidity of these structures seemed equal to what I had read of the old pyramids of Egypt. In magnitude, cost and durability the docks of Liverpool surpass all others in the world… for miles you may walk along that riverside, passing dock after dock, like a chain of immense fortresses.”
By the time of the First World War, 40% of the world’s shipping trade went through Liverpool.
When Europe exploded into War in 1914, at a time when German bombers couldn’t reach Liverpool, Liverpool men proudly joined the ‘King’s Liverpool Regiment’ to help to protect the womenfolk and children of other cities.
They prayed on the beaches of northern France before entering the trenches. 13,000 of them never returned. The Bishop of Liverpool’s son was one of those. Noel Chavasse. The only man in the entire British Isles to win not one, but two, Victoria Crosses for his extraordinary bravery during that conflict.
The womenfolk were scarcely idle. They raised money, and staffed, entirely with volunteers, the ‘Liverpool Merchants’ Hospital’ at Etaples in northern France, immortalised in C.S. Lewis’ book ‘Spirits in Bondage’.
So Liverpool has much to be proud of as a city, that should be remembered during this centenary of World War 1.
On Saturday, they mounted their ‘remembrance’ of all this bravery and ‘told the story’ of World War One as it was experienced in Liverpool.
100,000 people lined the streets to learn of their ‘proud heritage’.
A 25′ high marionette of a grandmother walked the docks in search of her granddaughter. Much hilarity followed ‘when her head came loose whilst breaking wind’ according to the BBC. With her head fixed back on, she was put in a wheelchair (What! No mobility scooter?) and taken through the Chinese Quarter (inclusivity!) to Newsham Park, where she was reunited with her 25′ high marionette daughter and the mechanical dog Xolo (a great hit with the children, the BBC reports).
There, the little girl sat beside grandmother to listen to her tell a story involving meteors and killing dinosaurs.
There were complaints about all this, naturally. The Anarchists were beside themselves.
They were offended by the capitalist running–dog lackeys appearing in their city offering ‘official merchandise’.
Stock up on Giant goodies at World Museum. We have a selection of merchandise for sale which commemorates this magical weekend including mugs, books. official programme and gorgeous prints. Gifts are also available online including this amazing little girl giant coaster.
The people of Liverpool seemed to enjoy this spectacle:
Eileen Schofield, from Leek, said it was “so lovely to see the people of Liverpool embrace the Giants”.
“The highlight for us will be the grandmother spitting, farting and drinking.“
I can’t follow that. Raise a glass to the memory of Noel Chevasse. Victoria Cross holder, twice over.
He gave his life for the freedom to be remembered via a French puppet ‘spitting, farting, and drinking’.
Lest we forget indeed.
- Johnny Monroe
July 28, 2014 at 10:45 am -
Couldn’t the organisers of this event have expanded it a little so that the giant figures competed in a WWI-themed ‘Jeux Sans Frontieres’? The trenches could have been recreated, with five competing giants representing the Allied nations stumbling over No Man’s Land, each attempting to reach an oversized Victoria Cross before being shot down by the Germans. Pity Stuart Hall’s not available to commentate at the moment.
- Moor Larkin
July 28, 2014 at 10:45 am -
Liverpool was often said to be Ireland’s second city, after Dublin. When I was there last year (or was it the year before?) one Sunday, by Lime Street Railway Station – I heard the sound of pipes and drums and the next thing, there was a sort of “Orange Parade” coming down the hill, or it may have been the “other side”, no idea. Anyhow, everyone seemed to be having fun and the marchers looked very proud and well turned out. I suppose such local interests would be viewed as divisive by the City Fathers nowadays however, so best avoided.
Didn’t Liverpool have a “giant spider” staggering about a few years back? City of the Giants indeed….
- JuliaM
July 28, 2014 at 11:39 am -
The giant spider was awesome!
- Mudplugger
July 28, 2014 at 11:02 pm -
Does it have a web-site ?
- Mudplugger
- JuliaM
- EyesWideShut
July 28, 2014 at 11:44 am -
Well, to play Devils’ Advocate, there’ s a school of thought which says the meaning of freedom would include the right to hold vulgar puppet-shows. Freedom as Donald Rumsfeld reminded us is a messy business. Generally-speaking, totalitarian regimes are very concerned with imposing their concept of “dignified public expression” on the masses and enforcing solemn commemorations of the Dead of the Fatherland. No farting grannies for them.
I’m not convinced that WW1 was about “freedom”anyway.
- acuriousyellow
July 28, 2014 at 11:51 am -
Alas, I was there Anna, and couldn’t for the life of me figure out how this piece of entertainment, (sorry, ‘art’ I’m told) had the slightest connection to 1.Liverpool and 2. the first world war. If thats the best the council can spend our money on shame on them, Keep up the good work, Anna so glad you seem to be on the mend.
- Robert Edwards
July 28, 2014 at 12:40 pm -
Five will get you ten that people like Derek Hatton have never heard of Noel Chavasse VC & bar, and even if they had, he would be dismissed as a soft Southern toff, being from Oxford.
People like Frank Field, of course, would know all about him and revere him.
Odd, really, but the LiverpoolClassAction tweet rather says it all…
- Don Cox
July 28, 2014 at 12:41 pm -
“I’m not convinced that WW1 was about “freedom”anyway.”
It certainly wasn’t. But you might say it was a war against Prussian militarism. Or, from the Kaiser’s point of view, a war against the overweening might of the British Empire.
Or was it just a family squabble?
- jonseer
July 28, 2014 at 12:55 pm -
Or according to some German pals ” a war to prevent the Germans building a Berlin /Baghdad railway” (Oil?)
- EyesWideShut
July 28, 2014 at 1:06 pm -
It should be remembered as a European and global disaster, in my view.
But in the absence of such an emphasis, I will settle for farting grannies
- Moor Larkin
July 28, 2014 at 1:11 pm -
The French were after some payback for the 1870 debacle I imagine. Britain’s intended policy was “Splendid Isolation” and to let them fight amongst themselves.
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/greatwar/g2/backgroundcs1.htm- rowan
July 28, 2014 at 5:41 pm -
The theory of generational dynamics would say that Moor Larkin is most correct – each crisi period comes round 70 or 80 years after the previous one, when all those who remember the horrors of all-out war have died. WW1 seems to have been, as others have said, a bit of a family scrap and even seems to have taken many European political leaders by surprise, how quickly things got out of hand. Which perhaps explains why the Germans capitulated so suddenly at the end, no one was really in the mood for such a huge fight and older, saner heads prevailed in the end. By WW2 we are now nearly 70 years from the 1870s crisis period and belligerence is the order of the day.
Jonseer also makes a good point, that WW1 also marks the start of the middle east conflict period (which is why generational dynamics has many countries there on a different crisis timeline to western Europe and the USA) as the ottoman empire disintegrated and oil was discovered in the Saudi desert.
Those who are good at Maths will have noticed that WW1 ended about 70 years before the Iran Iraq wars really got viscious. And, more worryingly, that WW2 ended about 70 years ago…. and going by the Liverpool nonsense above, we are indeed led by idiots who will blindly lead us into destruction yet again. If humans do learn from their mistakes, it is only so they can repeat the mistake with endless variations. Then we say, all straight faced, “but it’s different this time”.
- Johnny Monroe
July 28, 2014 at 6:31 pm -
‘…each crisis period comes round 70 or 80 years after the previous one, when all those who remember the horrors of all-out war have died.’ Extremely valid and crucial point. After Waterloo, the British Army didn’t engage in another European conflict until the Crimean War, a gap of almost forty years, and perhaps signficantly breaking-out a year after the death of Wellington. Outside of the odd colonial scuffle, nobody on the British side had any experience of war and it showed. Similarly, as soon as Britain had its first post-World War II Prime Minister who hadn’t participated in that or WWI – Margaret Thatcher – we were at war with Argentina. Blair, Brown and Cameron may have perfected their solemn expressions for the cenotaph photo-ops, but their distance from first-hand involvement in any sort of conflict has a direct influence on the ease with which they can commit British forces to battle. In the 50s, 60s and 70s, old soldiers were in government; now they’re in care homes.
- Johnny Monroe
- rowan
- EyesWideShut
- jonseer
- Jim
July 28, 2014 at 12:47 pm -
Such a depressing and sad story. How cowardly, to to feel that “I suppose we ought to do something to mark the war” and then to opt out by producing such a disrespectful show. And for it to be watched by people who don’t even realise their dignity and worth are being ridiculed.
- Gil
July 28, 2014 at 12:51 pm -
They seem to be doing other things too, e.g. “Liverpool Libraries Commemorate the First World War”, July 14 video report on British Forces News.
- Rightwinggit
July 28, 2014 at 1:15 pm -
Ah, Royal deluxe…
Remember the giant elephant in London? - Suffolker
July 28, 2014 at 2:36 pm -
This puppet show is irrelevant, silly and completely misplaced.
It is an annual mild surprise to me that, even in these changed times, we continue to honour and commemorate our war dead on Armistice Day (or Remembrance Day) with a degree of respect and sober reflection. However, when it comes to remembering the “War to End All Wars”, the country feels it must descend into vulgar, Disneyfied sentimentalism, with emphasis on addressing and including many modern-day obsessions.
I am of an age where my grandfather flew in the RFC, and a good number of friends, relatives and other acquaintances (of both sexes) had served in the Great War. If they were to see this ludicrous spectacle, and the doubtless awful other “celebrations” to come, most would be simply appalled; though I expect there would be a degree of sardonic humour as well.
- The Blocked Dwarf
July 28, 2014 at 7:27 pm -
“with emphasis on addressing and including many modern-day obsessions.”
Ahh, a fellow Radio 4 listener I think? The ‘News this day in 1914’ slot just before PM has me SHOUTING at the radio most evenings and it crys out for “Forward sister women” as it’s backing music.
- The Blocked Dwarf
- Cascadian
July 28, 2014 at 6:00 pm -
This is exactly what Clegg and Camoron wanted. A Basil Fawlty “don’t mention the war” remembrance that must offend no-one except the British families who suffered deaths in their family due to military service.
The greatest sadness are the drones that attend these events and believe the farting grannie to be worthy of their attention.
- binao
July 28, 2014 at 7:23 pm -
Always difficult where the so called arts are concerned; should we be spending taxpayers money on this or that bit of nonsense, or mend the pavements? Perhaps the squeeze on local government funding will in time focus some minds a bit, but you get what you vote for, and there seems to be a bit of latent Billy Smart’s Circus somewhere in most councils.
My large village P.C. is naming it’s pond The Memorial Pond, planting poppies, and having a little commemoration do.
If we must do something, it seems about right to me. - Demetrius
July 28, 2014 at 7:44 pm -
Grandfather enlisted into the Kings Liverpool Pals in September 1914. Quite what he might have thought I can only guess. He never mentioned his service. Thanks to the net I have been able to download the War Diaries of the units he served in from the National Archives, a day by day record. Perhaps the organisers should have taken a look at the Kings Liverpool War Diaries before deciding what to do.
- Engineer
July 28, 2014 at 9:21 pm -
A lot of Liverpudlians lost their lives at sea, too.
My great-grandfather, born and brought up in Liverpool, first went to sea as a deckhand on sailing ships. He ended his career with a Master’s certificate for passenger liners, serving with Cunard. During WW1, he was torpedoed twice, surviving both attacks, though the ships he was on at the time didn’t. Family tradition is that he was a bridge officer on the Lusitania when it was sunk, though I’ve never found any documentary evidence to support that.
As to giant farting grannies – well, the less said the better, probably.
- gareth
July 28, 2014 at 11:01 pm -
I have followed the current narrative of EU expansionism into Ukraine, the Russian (and their East Ukrainian supporters) reaction and their paranoia. And the lies, dissembling, foolishness, stupidity and group-think of those on all sides who pretend to govern. I hope that we are not on a similar path as of 100 years ago. I fear though that we might be, with farting grannies just part of the sleepwalking.
- Jonathan Mason
July 28, 2014 at 11:27 pm -
I lived in Liverpool from 1969 to 1975. At this time there was great disruption and industrial action due to the fact that the very well-paid union jobs as dockers were coming to an end as bulk unloading of ships was being replaced with containerization–nah, that will never catch on. A number of younger more creative workers diversified into becoming entertainers in the burgeoning “pop” music industry or footballers after the maximum wage was abolished in 1959, but not everyone could become Ken Dodd, Ringo Starr, or indeed Freddie Starr.
In 1970 the University of Liverpool Senate House was occupied for a couple of weeks by students protesting the university’s investment holdings in South Africa and in Barclay’s Bank. Eventually it all ended and 10 students who were deemed to have been the leaders of the enterprise were rusticated from the university. One of them, whom I was acquainted with was a well-spoken young fellow called Jon(athan) Snow. I always wondered what became of him after he was sent down and if he was ever heard from again.
- Ms Mildred
July 29, 2014 at 9:46 am -
Liverpool like Bristol has a colourful past of trade and seafaring. Art galleries, docks, impressive buildings. An iconic river front. Two famous football clubs. It has had a downside. Poverty, a reputation in surrounding towns for spawning scally wags. I come from Warrington. An upside, lots of wonderful comedians. The Fab Four. I remember driving through acres of shuttered shops decorated with sprayed graffitti. Deserted council estates on the Warrington edge of town after Fords packed up…weary of endless strikes. Then it has New Brighton, the Wirral, Southport near to. John Lennon airport. It is a wonderful place to live, or should be. A farting grandma puppet is the epitomy of uncouth. I am puzzled. Why drag yourself down to such to such depths? Do Liverpool grannies TRUMP, our Lancashire word for it in my childhood? I never heard the fart word until I was older.
- Johnny Monroe
July 29, 2014 at 9:54 am -
Trump! I haven’t heard anyone say that for years! Fart was almost regarded as a swear-word on a par with ‘bloody’ when I was a kid. Trump was used far more commonly.
- Johnny Monroe
- Moor Larkin
July 29, 2014 at 10:11 am -
Browsing reveals that Liverpool must have some kind of ongoing deal with these French guys. They had the giant spider in 2008, then in 2012 they had a Titanic 3-dayer, with the same little girl and her dog (a “memorial” that seemed as inspired by Ridley Scott as it was by commemorating tragedy), but that time the girls was with her Uncle or something. Now…. this. It seems to draw big crowds for the spectacle every time. I was watching a youtube about the spider and it looked as though it was snowing! Even though it was September! Those hardy scousers were standing there gawping nonetheless – under their umbrellas, watching the giant puppets. It seems to be all about spectacle.
- Ms Mildred
July 30, 2014 at 10:48 am -
My visiting relative informs me that trumping granny swears a lot too when her internals work properly! Some mums she knows will not take their little ones to this procession because of this bad language. They can take this swearing as the seal of approval for using bad language. This procession is not new, as pointed out. Perhaps it is a new take on our ‘walking days’ which we did as children connected to our churches. Swearing puppets definitely forbidden. The orange parades were impressive then. We always went Liverpool shopping then so we saw the parade. No bother in the later forties and fifties. Bowler hats, sashes and splashes of orange and well behaved onlookers. These activities have a long slow attrition as customs change over the years
- Henry the Horse
August 2, 2014 at 8:46 pm -
The great problem is how to commemorate the Great War? I can hardly think of any line which doesn’t see those who died in it having wasted their lives no matter what heroism they showed. It was a terrible tragedy but official celebrations have never and will never do ‘tragedy’ so the carnival instead is hardly surprising. It will all be a lot easier a generation or two down the line when WW2 is the distant edge of memory.
- Moor Larkin
August 4, 2014 at 1:04 pm -
Curious to hear Radio 5 bigging up the BBC “commemorative events”. There was reportage of how a ceremony from Belgium would be taking place. Then followed a brief resume of the German attempt to reproduce the Franco-Prussian war of 1870 by a quick strike through Belgium to get to Paris just like they did in 1870 (bypassing the Maginot Line). What was most surprising was the after-comment by one of the 5-Journalists, whose voice makes him sound as if he’s just as old as me, remarking, “Ah! Now I understand why my Grandad always spoke so patronisingly about “little” Belgium. What a waste of time it is writing history books if nobody ever reads them I thought.
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