Current Gallery

Variety Theatre, Dr. Walford Bodie

Dr. Walford Bodie 1869 - 1939, One of the most famed and controversial Music Hall performers of his day. Known as the Electrical Wizzard, he would often start his shows by passing high voltage electrical current through his body (actually harmless static electricity) and once employed the use of an electric chair. In this illustration he seems to be curing crippled children to walk again through the power of electricity...and love! A friend of Harry Houdini

© Mary Evans Picture Library 2015 - https://copyrighthub.org/s0/hub1/creation/maryevans/MaryEvansPictureID/10268977

Khaki Chums Christmas Truce Cross, St Yvon, Belgium

At Christmas 1914, over the 24th/25th December, a truce was held here between the 1st Battalion the Warwickshire Regiment and the 7th Bavarians in which Bruce Bairnsfaher took part. The Khaki Chums (The Association of Military Remembrance) Cross was placed here on the 85th Anniversary of the truce and in December 2003 it was replaced by the current wooden cross. Since about that time the habit of placing footballs at memorials in the area began. The practice even extended to Messines (Mesen). Date: 2015

© Holts Battlefield Collection / Mary Evans

Claridges Hotel

Claridges was founded in 1812 as Mivarts Hotel, in a conventional London terraced house, and it grew by expanding into neighbouring houses. In 1854, the founder (the father of biologist St. George Jackson Mivart) sold the hotel to a Mr and Mrs Claridge, who owned a smaller hotel next door. They combined the two operations, and after trading for a time as Mivarts at Claridges, they settled on the current name. Date: 1875

© Mary Evans/Peter & Dawn Cope Collection Mary Evans/Peter & Dawn Cope Collection