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Simon Jones

@simonjones.bsky.social
7.5K followers 3.2K following 4K posts

Writes about old, unhappy, far-off things. Late museum curator. Shows polite interest. FRHistS. simonjoneshistorian.com

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Simon Jones @simonjones.bsky.social · 12h
#OTD 30 September 1939. ‘Solving the Petrol Problem. Miss Ida Croxon, the well-known woman jockey and her two sisters Brenda and Stella, have joined the local A.R.P. organisation. All three girls are ambulance drivers.’ (Source: Fox via Ancestry.co.uk)
Black and white photo three young women stand holding the reins of three horses. They wear steel helmets and have satchels containing gas masks over their shoulders. They are dressed in shirts or sweaters and slacks.
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Simon Jones @simonjones.bsky.social · 22h
Paul Hollywood comforts Danni #Bakeoff.
Scene from Death of Stalin, Beria and Svetlana.
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Simon Jones @simonjones.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
He means English. We always play the villains in American films.
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Simon Jones @simonjones.bsky.social · 05/07/2025
Come with me to the amazing Wideford Hill Neolithic chambered cairn on Orkney. Access is via a ladder but there's a torch provided.
Photo of grass covered stone cairn.
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Slightly out of focus @normandy661944.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
West Country Manoeuvres: Camouflaged Bren Gun Carriers in a Lane, by Edward Ardizzone, 1941. IWM (Art.IWM ART LD 1494)
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Simon Jones @simonjones.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Bought for me in 1965 but this is the year I get lucky.
PREMIUM SAVINGS BOND

Issued by the Lords Commissioners of

H.M. Treasury under Section One of the National Loans Act,

1939.

NOT TRANSFERABLE

ONE POUND

ONE UNIT
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Simon Jones @simonjones.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Tommy the tortoise, the pet of Mrs Dudley Beresford, was injured by shrapnel during a German air raid on London #OTD 29 September 1917. Shrapnel is still embedded in Tommy’s shell. Source: www.iwm.org.uk/collections/...
Black and white photo of a tortoise with a lump on the back of his shell.
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Simon Jones @simonjones.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
#OTD 28 September 1943. 'Some of the officers and crew of HMS Unison seen here on deck with their jolly roger flag, after 16 months patrolling in the Mediterranean Sea.' Photo: Lt J A Hampton. (Daily Mirror via @findmypast.bsky.social)
Black and white photo submarine conning tower with crew displaying jolly roger flag with symbols representing victories.
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Davenant 📸 @marcdavenant.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
“I have a rendezvous with Death At some disputed barricade, When Spring comes back with rustling shade And apple-blossoms fill the air— I have a rendezvous with Death When Spring brings back blue days and fair…” Alan Seeger #Poetry
Poem which reads:
I Have a Rendezvous with Death
 BY ALAN SEEGER
 I have a rendezvous with Death
 At some disputed barricade,
 When Spring comes back with rustling shade
 And apple-blossoms fill the air—
 I have a rendezvous with Death
 When Spring brings back blue days and fair.
 It may be he shall take my hand
 And lead me into his dark land
 And close my eyes and quench my breath—
 It may be I shall pass him still.
 I have a rendezvous with Death
 On some scarred slope of battered hill,
 When Spring comes round again this year
 And the first meadow-flowers appear.
 God knows 'twere better to be deep
 Pillowed in silk and scented down,
 Where Love throbs out in blissful sleep,
 Pulse nigh to pulse, and breath to breath,
 Where hushed awakenings are dear ...
 But I've a rendezvous with Death
 At midnight in some flaming town,
 When Spring trips north again this year,
 And I to my pledged word am true,
 I shall not fail that rendezvous.
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Tim Daw @timdaw.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Historic England vanishing archive - details of why it is broken : www.sarsen.org/2026/09/hist...
sarsen.org
Historic England’s Vanishing Archive
Not just the aerials. The lot. Historic England still holds the negatives, the prints and the scans. What the public lost, in early Sept...
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Simon Jones @simonjones.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Presumably the makers of Dirty Harry were watching when the gun expert said Bond should have a .44 Magnum revolver.
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Simon Jones @simonjones.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
I'm discovering Arnold Bennett's novels which seem to be pretty unfashionable at the moment. In 'Riceyman Steps' (1923), ostensibly the story of a selfish bourgeois couple, he makes us see the world through the eyes of a charwoman named Elsie Sprickett. Gradually, the novel becomes hers.
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Simon Jones @simonjones.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
This reminded me the role played by the river Dives during D-Day. The destruction of bridges over the river on the night of 5-6 June 1944 by British paratroop engineers prevented German forces from reaching the main airborne landing sites east of Sword Beach.
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Slightly out of focus @normandy661944.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Jumping Tower for the Training of Polish Parachute Troops at Largo, Fife, by Edward Bawden, 1943. IWM (Art.IWM ART LD 3147)
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Dr Rebecca Tyson @tyguson.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
1. #MedievalSky, grab a lifejacket and a seasickness bag, we’re casting off on a thread about the Norman invasion fleet in 1066! 960 years ago, the Normans landed at Pevensey and established a base at the Roman shore fort which was already succumbing to erosion from the sea on its south side. 1/20
Photograph of Pevensey Castle with an information board in the foreground showing an artists impression of how the view may have looked in 1066 when the sea came almost up to the walls.
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Simon Jones @simonjones.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
My (sole) Restore Britain policy would be a law to pronounce Audi and 'Nestle's' the way we did in the 1970s.
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Simon Jones @simonjones.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Ouaf ouaf, miaou miaou.
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Simon Jones @simonjones.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
My nephew has reviewed the new album by Walt Disco for gigshack.
gigshack.co.uk
Walt Disco: walt disco Album Review | Gigshack
A review of the album walt disco by Walt Disco. Change often requires us to discard elements of the self that are disposable and make a bold, headfirst leap into the unknown. But sometimes, the oppo...
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Simon Jones @simonjones.bsky.social · 14/06/2026
A munitions worker is lifted into the barrel of a 15-inch naval gun in order to clean the rifling at the Ordnance Works, Coventry, September 1917. Photo: Horace Nicholls. #WW1 Source: www.iwm.org.uk/collections/...
Black and white photo, in a large factory, a young woman is lifted by two men into the barrel of a large gun.
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Vanda Wilcox @vandawilcox.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
resharing this as well in case people missed it... do think about applying, or share with your networks! last time we advertised, only men applied, so I would especially encourage women to think about applying as we would like to have a diverse group of editors
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Simon Jones @simonjones.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Congratulations and thank you to the BBC Radio 3 Breakfast programme for managing to play a complete classical music composition that lasted in excess of 30 minutes.
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Simon Jones @simonjones.bsky.social · 24/09/2024
The British blockade of food into Germany during the First World War extended to preventing attempts to send parcels from Britain. These are bags of rice disguised as rolled newspapers at the Postal Censor's Department, London, 24 September 1917. (Sport & General) www.iwm.org.uk/collections/...
Black & white photo young woman holding three cylindrical bags, standing in an office.
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Simon Jones @simonjones.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Nearing the end of Arnold Bennett's novel 'Riceyman Steps', set in 1919 & published in 1923. A shellshocked ex-soldier gets 14 days in prison for insulting his former divisional commander, who they called 'the Slaughterer'. It's a fairly early example of anti-high command sentiment in literature.
Riceyman Steps
"Tell me," she murmured, scarcely hoping that he would succeed in any narrative.
"Oh, it's nothin'," Joe replied gloomily. "Armistice Day, ye know. I had my afternoon, and I went out."
"Were ye in a place, Joe?"
"I had a part-time place in Oxford Street-carrying coal upstairs, and cleaning brasses and sweeping and errands. And a bed. Yes, in the basement. Sort of a watchman. Doctor he give me a testimonial. Least, he sent it me when I wrote and asked him." (No doubt whatever that she had been unjust to that doctor!) "I went down to Piccadilly to see the sights, and when it was about dark I see our old divisional general in a damn big car with two young ladies. There was a block, ye see, in Piccadilly Circus, and he was stopped by the kerb where them flower-girls are, ye know, by the fountain, and I was standing there as close as I am to you, Elsie. We used to call him the Slaughterer. That was how we called him. We never called him nothin' else. And there he was with his two rows o' ribbons and his flash women, perhaps they weren't flash, and I didn't like the look of his face-hard, ye know. Cruel. We knowed him, we did. And then I thought of the two minutes' silence, and hats off and stand at 'tention, and the Cenotaph, and it made me laugh. I laughed at him through the glass. And he didn't like it, he didn't. I was as close to him as I am to you, ye see. And he lets down the glass and says something about insultin' behaviour to these ladies, and I put my tongue out to him. That tore it, that did. That fair put the lid on. I felt something coming over me-ye know. Then there was a crowd, and I caught a policeman one on the shoulder. Oh, they marched me off, three of 'em! The doctor at the station said I was drunk, me as hadn't had a drop for three days! Next morning the beak he said he'd treat me lenient because it was Armistice Day, and I'd had some and I'd fought for the old country, but assaulting an officer of the law, he couldn't let that pass. N…
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Robert St John Smith @chance1234.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
The 'Am I Offensive?' cartoon is almost as famous as the Wipers Times itself. It appeared in the May 1916 edition, signed by Sapper Ernest J. Couzens. Over 110 years later, my latest article finally puts a face to the name. #wiperstimes #ww1 #fww robertstjohnsmith.com/post/2026-09...
robertstjohnsmith.com
Wipers Times Exposé - A Picture of Ernest James Couzens Emerges
A sketch of Ernest James Couzens appears.
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N.N. Scott @nnscott.com · 21/09/2026
Thanks for sharing these. I think many of them are graphically brilliant
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Simon Jones @simonjones.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Sunset over portaloos, Windsor Great Park.
Sunset over portaloos.
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Brian Groom @groomb.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
The Entrance to the Mersey Tunnel, 1934, painting by T. B. Forshaw (Museum of Liverpool).
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Simon Jones @simonjones.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
A beautifully clear day to fly over London today.
London from the air, Tower Bridge and Tower of London.
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Simon Jones @simonjones.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Costume jewellery diamante ring worn by Private Ernest Alfred Nicholls while performing as a female impersonator with an Australian Army concert party during the First World War. Source: www.awm.gov.au/collection/C...
Large ring heart shaped ring with about 25 glass imitation diamonds.
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Simon Jones @simonjones.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Saw this sign today for a controlled cat colony in Hondarribia.
KATU-KOLONIA KONTROLATUA

COLONIA DE GATOS CONTROLADA

Kontrolatuta gaude, eta ez abandonatuta!

¡Estamos controlados y no abandonados!

KOLONIA ESTERILIZATUA

Albaitariak gainbegiratuta eta boluntarioek zaindutakoa.

Colonia esterilizada bajo supervisión veterinaria y cuidada por voluntarios.

KATUAK EZ ELIKATU

Debekatuta dago: katuak kalean uztea, molestatzea, lapurtzea eta elikatzea.

Está prohibido bajo sanción: Abandonar, molestar, sustraer y alimentar a los gatos.

KATUAK EZ MOLESTATU

Paseatzen ari bazara, katuak ez molestatu.

Si está paseando, evite molestias a los gatos.

KOLOP

ZNRS

Informazio gehiago / Más información en

www.hondarribia.eus/katu-koloniak

ONE TOSR

=BIM'S=

Hondarribiko Udala

CTG
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Simon Jones @simonjones.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Jean Veber, ‘The Somme, 20 September 1916’, lithograph, 1916. Source: gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/b...
Drawing: shell cratered landscape in which five soldiers in a trench watch as one fires a machine gun.
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Simon Jones @simonjones.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Transfer of the ashes of unknown Verdun soldiers to the Douaumont Ossuary, 20 September 1927. Source: gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/b...
Black and white photo, long line of troops carrying coffins through featureless landscape.
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Simon Jones @simonjones.bsky.social · 09/08/2026
Of the five children, I have been able to trace three. Katrina Coombs’ father was Corporal Kenneth Alfred Coombs of the 4th Welch Regiment, killed age 22 during an attack on 19 September 1944 near Wilrijt, Netherlands. He is buried in Bergen-op-Zoom War Cemetery. 1/3
Detail of Katrina’s face from larger photo in original post. Extract from Western Gazette, 21/9/1945: 
COOMBS.-In loving and unfading memory of my dear Husband, Ken, who fell in action in Holland on September 19th, 1944. From his loving Wife (Grace), and baby Daughter (Katrina Alvin), late of Rosebery Avenue, Yeovil, now Redcar, Yorks. of
[85601
-COOMBS. - In loving memory of our dear Son and Brother, Corpl. Kenneth Alfred Coombs, Welch Regiment. killed in action in Holland on September 19th, 1944. From his loving Mum and Dad, and Arthur, Florrie, Winnie, and Clifford, and their families, Rosebery Avenue, Yeovil. [85600
Photo of headstone in war cemetery with carved cap badge and details of Corporal K A Coombs. Source: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/12726917/kenneth-alfred-coombs
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Simon Jones @simonjones.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
The airport at Hondarribia this evening. It's right on the coast and the hills you can see behind are in France.
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Simon Jones @simonjones.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Ginge at San Sebastian gave us its Blue Steel.
Cat with cheekbones lounges on wall, sea and island behind.
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Simon Jones @simonjones.bsky.social · 18/09/2024
1st Australian Tunnelling Company excavate dugouts during the 3rd Battle of Ypres, 17-18 September 1917. They work inside a crater left by the detonation of a 2.2t mine beneath German trenches in July 1915. Frank Hurley & George Wilkins, www.awm.gov.au/collection/F...
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Simon Jones @simonjones.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Clothing of a fisherman and a woman urban worker, 19-20C. Basque Museum, Bilbao.
Costume in museum, man's beret, red jacket, blue trousers, heavy boots; woman's white headscarf, check blouse, long skirt and apron.
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Dunkeld Community Archive and Chapter House Museum Trust @historicdunkeld.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
SEARCHING FOR THE MURRAY FAMILY The Parish Church in Caputh has recently been sold, and the new owner is hoping to trace the descendants of the Murray Family whose plaques reside on the church walls. Do you know anyone related to this Murray Family? Get in touch via manager@historicdunkeld.org.uk
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Simon Jones @simonjones.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Immaculate Conception, 1769. Museum of Sacred Art, Bilbao.
Finely carved and painted figure of the Virgin of which only the head and hands are finished, the remainder is an armature on which costume would be placed.
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Simon Jones @simonjones.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
It's Paris in 1960 and there's a string quartet accompanying this Yves Klein art performance. (Guggenheim Bilbao).
Black and white photo. Two naked women, one dragging the other by the arm across a large canvas on the floor, both have paint on them. A string quartet plays, an audience well-dressed people sit watching.
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Simon Jones @simonjones.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Bilbao. The former shipyard.
Wet dock with crane, cyclists in foreground, hills in background.
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Simon Jones @simonjones.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
My brain when it's buffering.
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Simon Jones @simonjones.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Many unanswered questions. ‘SHOCK FOR TWO MEN INSIDE AN “ELEPHANT”’, Illustrated Police News, 21 April 1932.
Men in elephant costume crash into shop window, crowd watches.
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Lucy Betteridge-Dyson @lmbd1418.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
I’m trying to get in contact with someone at the Household Cavalry - can anyone here help? 👀
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Simon Jones @simonjones.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Tom Sachs, Chanel Guillotine Model, 1999 (Guggenheim, Bilbao).
Model of guillotine with Chanel branding.
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Simon Jones @simonjones.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Roy Lichtenstein, 'Crak!', 1964 [Lithograph, copy of uncredited original?] (Guggenheim, Bilbao).
Enlarged cartoon, woman fires rifle 'CRAK!
NOW, MES PETITS... POUR LA FRANCE!'
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Mickey’s in Cognitive Decline @mickeybiz.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
These are amazing!
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Helen Whistberry @whistberry.northsky.social · 15/09/2026
Plethora of story ideas here. Also, many lessons in how attempting to train wild animals is a fool's game... (I, as always, am on the animal's side)
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Simon Jones @simonjones.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Destination appropriate holiday reading.
Book cover Wellington and the siege of San Sebastian 1813 bu Bruce Collins.
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