Kassel
Kassel (; in Germany, spelled Cassel until 1926) is a city on the Fulda River in northern Hesse, in central Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Regierungsbezirk Kassel and the district of the same name, and had 201,048 inhabitants in December 2020. The former capital of the state of Hesse-Kassel, it has many palaces and parks, including the Bergpark Wilhelmshöhe, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Kassel is also known for the "documenta" exhibitions of contemporary art. Kassel has a public university with 25,000 students (2018) and a multicultural population (39% of the citizens in 2017 had a migration background).
History.
Kassel was first mentioned in 913 AD, as the place where two deeds were signed by King Conrad I. The place was called "Chasella" or "Chassalla" and was a fortification at a bridge crossing the Fulda river. There are several yet unproven assumptions about the origin of the name. It could be derived from the ancient "Castellum Cattorum", a castle of the Chatti, a German tribe that had lived in the area since Roman times. Another assumption is a portmanteau from Frankonian "cas", meaning ‘valley’ or ‘recess’, and "sali" meaning ‘hall’ or ‘service building’, which can be interpreted as ‘(town) hall in a valley’.
A deed from 1189 certifies that Cassel had city rights, but the date when they were granted is not known.
The first castle in Kassel was constructed in 1277, later replaced by a Renaissance castle, the Kassel City Palace, which burned down in 1811.
In 1567 the Landgraviate of Hesse, until then centered in Marburg, was divided among four sons, with Hesse-Kassel (or Hesse-Cassel) becoming one of its successor states. Kassel was its capital and became a centre of Calvinist Protestantism in Germany. Strong fortifications were built to protect the Protestant stronghold against Catholic enemies. Secret societies, such as Rosicrucianism, came to the rise, with Christian Rosenkreutz's work "Fama Fraternitatis" first published in 1617. In 1685 Kassel became a refuge for 1,700 Huguenots, who found shelter in the newly established borough of Oberneustadt. Landgrave Charles, who was responsible for this humanitarian act, also ordered the construction of the "Oktogon" (Hercules monument) and of the "Orangerie". In the late 18th century, Hesse-Kassel became infamous for selling mercenaries (Hessians) to the British crown to help suppress the American Revolution and to finance the construction of palaces and the Landgrave's opulent lifestyle.
The Brothers Grimm lived in Kassel in the early 19th century, where they collected and wrote most of their fairy tales. At that time, around 1803, the Landgraviate was elevated to a Principality and its ruler to "Prince-elector". Shortly after, it was annexed by Napoleon and became the capital of the short-lived Kingdom of Westphalia under Napoleon's brother Jérômein 1807. The Electorate was restored in 1813.
Having sided with Austria in the Austro-Prussian War to gain supremacy in Germany, the principality was annexed by Prussia in 1866. The Prussian administration united Nassau, Frankfurt and Hesse-Kassel into the new Prussian province of Hesse-Nassau. Kassel ceased to be a princely residence but soon developed into a major industrial centre as well as a major railway junction. Henschel & Son, the largest railway locomotive manufacturer in Germany at the end of the nineteenth century, was based in Kassel.
In 1870, after the Battle of Sedan, Napoleon III was sent as a prisoner to the Wilhelmshöhe Palace above the city. During World War I, the German military headquarters were located in the Wilhelmshöhe Palace. In the late 1930s, Nazis destroyed Heinrich Hübsch's Kassel Synagogue.
During World War II, Kassel was the headquarters for Germany's Wehrkreis IX, and a local subcamp of Dachau concentration camp provided forced labour for the Henschel facilities, which included tank production plants. There was also a camp for Sinti and Romani people (see "Romani Holocaust"). Allied prisoners of war from the Stalag IX-A POW camp were deployed to forced labour in the local arms industry in violation of the Geneva Conventions. The most severe bombing of Kassel in World War II destroyed 90% of the downtown area, and some 10,000 people were killed and 150,000 were made homeless. Most of the casualties were civilians or wounded soldiers recuperating in local hospitals, whereas factories survived the attack generally undamaged. Karl Gerland replaced the regional Gauleiter, Karl Weinrich, soon after the raid.
The Allied ground advance into Germany reached Kassel at the beginning of April 1945. The US 80th Infantry Division captured Kassel in house-to-house fighting during 1–4 April 1945, which included numerous German panzer-grenadier counterattacks, and resulted in further damage to bombed and unbombed structures alike.
Post-war, most of the ancient buildings in the city centre were not restored, and large parts of the inner city area were completely rebuilt in the style of the 1950s. A few historic buildings, however, such as the Museum Fridericianum, were restored.
In 1949, the interim parliament ("Parlamentarischer Rat") eliminated Kassel in the first round as a city to become the provisional capital of the Federal Republic of Germany, which the western city of Bonn won.
In 1964, the town hosted the fourth "Hessentag" state festival.
In 1970, the Chancellor of West Germany Willy Brandt and the prime minister of the German Democratic Republic Willy Stoph met in Wilhelmshöhe Palace for negotiations between the two German states. In 1991, the central rail station moved from "Hauptbahnhof" ("main station") to "Kassel-Wilhelmshöhe", the former now being used exclusively for regional trains. The city had a dynamic economic and social development in the recent years, reducing the unemployment rate by half and attracting new citizens.
Economy.
Several international operating companies have factories or headquarters in the city (Volkswagen, Mercedes Benz, SMA, Wintershall, Krauss-Maffei Wegmann, Rheinmetall, Bombardier). The city is home to several hospitals; the public Klinikum Kassel is one of the largest hospitals in the federal state.
Geography.
Kassel is the largest city in the north of the federated state of Hesse in the south-western part of Germany, about 70 kilometers northwest of the geographic center of Germany.
It is located on both sides of the river Fulda. Kassel's deepest point is in the north-eastern Fulda valley at 132.9 m above sea level.
The urban area of Kassel is divided into 23 local districts, each of which has a local council with a local mayor as chairman. The local councils are elected every five years by the population of the local districts. The local advisory board can be heard on all important issues affecting the local district. However, the final decision on a measure rests with the Kassel city council.
Neighboring communities.
Around Kassel is the administrative district ("Landkreis") of Landkreis Kassel. The following cities and municipalities border the city of Kassel (starting clockwise in the north): Ahnatal, Vellmar, Fuldatal, Staufenberg, Niestetal, Kaufungen, Lohfelden, Fuldabrück, Baunatal, Schauenburg, Habichtswald. Of these, Vellmar and Fuldatal in the north, Kaufungen in the east, Lohfelden in the southeast and Baunatal in the south are growing closer to the urban area.
Culture.
The first German observatory was built in Kassel in 1558, and a later version from 1714 survives as the Bellevue Palace. The "Ottoneum", the first permanent German theatre building, was built in 1606. The old building is today the Natural History Museum, and the now-called Staatstheater Kassel is located in a nearby building that was constructed in the 1950s.
Since 1927, Kassel has been home to Bärenreiter, a music publishing house distributing compositions of several critically acclaimed classical musicians.
Since 1955 the "documenta", an international exhibition of modern and contemporary art, has been held regularly in Kassel. The "documenta" now takes place every five years. As a result of the "documenta 6" in 1977, Kassel became the first city in the world to be illuminated by laser beams at night (Laserscape, by artist Horst H. Baumann). This laser installation is nowadays still visible at weekends. Artworks from former editions of the "documenta" (mainly sculptures) can be found in multiple places in Kassel; among those are the "7000 Oaks", a work of land art by the German artist Joseph Beuys. The latest/current edition of the "documenta", known as "documenta 15", ran from 18 June until 25 September 2022.
Climate.
Kassel experiences an oceanic climate (Köppen: "Cfb") close to marine climates, with a more notable continental influence than Berlin. Using the 1961–1990 normal and 0 °C isotherm, the city already had a humid continental climate ("Dfb").
Demographics.
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Kassel has a population of about 200,000, and is the 3rd largest city in Hesse state and the only large city in the North Hesse region.
Kassel is often called the city that located on the center of Germany due to its position.
Kassel first reached its first population peak of over 100,000 in 1899, and its second in 1943 with about 225,000. Kassel was destroyed during World War II and became an industrial city in 1950s. Today, Kassel is home to multiple companies and universities.
Sights.
The bombing raids of 1943 destroyed 90% of the city center. The city center was almost completely rebuilt during the 1950s and is a combination of renovated or reconstructed old buildings and architecture of the 1950s. Outside the city center, the suburbs are dominated by 19th-century architecture. Timber-framed old towns are situated in suburbs like Harleshausen and Bad Wilhelmshöhe. The oldest monument is the Druselturm; the Brüderkirche and the Martinskirche are also, in part, of medieval origin. The towers of the Martinskirche are from the 1950s.
Churches.
St. Martin, Kassel.
The main Protestant church of Kassel, it was begun in 1364 and finished in 1462. Severely damaged by British bombing in 1943, it was later reconstructed in a more modern style between 1954 and 1958.
St. Bonifatius, Kassel.
St. Bonifatius was designed and built in 1956 by Josef Bieling.
Bergpark Wilhelmshöhe.
The complex includes Wilhelmshöhe Palace (with the Antiquities Collection and Old Masters), the Hercules monument, and the Lions Castle.
Wilhelmshöhe Palace above the city was built in 1786, by landgrave Wilhelm IX of Hesse-Kassel. The palace is now a museum and houses an important collection of Graeco-Roman antiques and a fine gallery of paintings comprising the second largest collection of Rembrandts in Germany. It is surrounded by the beautiful Bergpark Wilhelmshöhe with many appealing sights. The complex was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2013.
The Hercules monument is a huge octagonal stone structure carrying a giant replica of Hercules "Farnese" (now at Museo Archeologico Nazionale in Naples, Italy). From its base down to Wilhelmshöhe Palace runs a long set of artificial cascades. Every Sunday and Wednesday afternoon at 14:30 (from May until October), the famous water features take place, which start at the Oktagon, and during a one-hour walk through the park visitors can follow the water's way until they reach the lake of the Wilhelmshöhe Palace, where a fountain of about marks the end of the features.
The "Löwenburg" ("Lions Castle") is a replica of a medieval castle, also built during the reign of Wilhelm IX. After the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71, Napoléon III was imprisoned in Wilhelmshöhe. In 1918, Wilhelmshöhe became the seat of the German Army High Command (OHL); it was there that the military commanders Hindenburg and Ludendorff prepared the German capitulation.
Staatspark Karlsaue (Karlsaue Park).
The Karlsaue is a large park along the Fulda River that is part of the European Garden Heritage Network. Established in the 16th century, it is known for the Orangerie, a palace built in 1710 as a summer residence for the landgraves. Today, the Orangerie contains the Museum of Astronomy and Technology, with a scale model of the Solar System spanning the entire park and beyond.
In addition, the Park Schönfeld contains a small, municipal botanical garden, the Botanischer Garten Kassel.
Art museums.
Europe's first public museum, the Museum Fridericianum, was founded in 1779. By the end of the 19th century, the museum held one of the largest collections of watches and clocks in the world.
Other art museums in Kassel include:
Sports.
Hessen Kassel is the football club in the city, who plays in the Hessenliga after being relegated from the Regionalliga Südwest in the 2017/2018 season. The city's own football stadium, the Auestadion was built in 1953 and is able to hold 18,737 people. It is located in the south of Kassel at the quarter Südstadt, next to the Karlsaue.
Kassel has a long ice hockey tradition, but it was not until 1977 that the Kassel ice rink (Eissporthalle) opened on a private initiative. The Kassel Huskies were founding members of the DEL in 1994, belonging to the league from 1994 to 2006 and again from 2008 to 2010. In 1997, they were runners-up in the championship playoffs, losing to Adler Mannheim, and reached the semi-finals on three more occasions. The Huskies ran into financial difficulties and dissolved in 2010. The "Young Huskies", which is a junior and youth hockey club, decided to enter a men's team in the Hessenliga. This is the fifth division and the lowest men's competition in the state of Hesse. The new club was expecting no more than 3,000 supporters for the first home game in the Hessenliga. However, they had over 5,000 supporters come to watch.
Transport.
Kassel has seven tram lines (1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8), with trams arriving usually every 15 minutes. The city also operates a light rail Stadtbahn network called "RegioTram" using Regio Citadis low-floor trams which run on both tram and main line railway tracks with three lines (RT1, RT4, RT5). Moreover, a number of low-floor buses complete the Kassel public transport system. The introduction of low-floor buses led to the development of the Kassel kerb which improves the accessibility at bus stops.
The city is connected to the national rail network at two stations, Kassel Central, and Kassel-Wilhelmshöhe. The traditional central station (Hauptbahnhof) has been reduced to the status of a regional station since the opening of the Hanover-Würzburg high-speed rail line in 1991 and its station (Kassel-Wilhelmshöhe) on the high-speed line at which the InterCityExpress (ICE) and InterCity services call as well as Nightjet and Flixtrain.
Kassel is connected to the motorways A 7, A 49 and A 44.
The city is served by Kassel Calden Airport.
Politics.
Mayor.
The current mayor of Kassel is Sven Schoeller of Alliance 90/The Greens, who was elected in March 2023. He succeeded Christian Geselle (SPD), who had been in office since 2017.
City council.
The Kassel city council ("Stadtverordnetenversammlung") governs the city alongside the Mayor. The most recent city council election was held on 14 March 2021, and the results were as follows:
Education and research.
University of Kassel.
The University of Kassel is a public higher education institution and was founded in 1971 as a so-called reform university. It is the newest university in the state of Hessen and has an urban inner-city campus between the city center and the Northern city district. There were around 25,000 students enrolled at the university in 2018, 3,359 of them non-Germans. Two hundred and twenty-four students obtained their doctorate from the university in 2017.
The university offers a range of study programs, and several English master's programs as well as two short-term international programs, the Summer University and the Winter University. The Kunsthochschule Kassel (University of Fine Arts) is also part of the university with a satellite campus directly at the Karlsaue park in the Southern city district.
Courts.
Several courts are located in Kassel, including:
Twin towns – sister cities.
Kassel is twinned with:
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References.
Notes.
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External links.
 Media related to at Wikimedia Commons
 travel guide from Wikivoyage

John Dury
Scottish Calvinist minister and intellectual
John Dury (1596 in Edinburgh – 1680 in Kassel) was a Scottish Calvinist minister and an intellectual of the English Civil War period. He made efforts to re-unite the Calvinist and Lutheran wings of Protestantism, hoping to succeed when he moved to Kassel in 1661, but he did not accomplish this. He was also a preacher, pamphleteer, and writer.
Early life.
He was the fourth son of the exiled Scottish presbyterian minister Robert Durie; John was brought up in the Netherlands, at Leiden, attending the university there. He was in Cologne, at the Walloon Church, 1624-6, and subsequently at Elbląg (Elbing). He was a close associate of Samuel Hartlib, a native of Elbląg, whom he met there, and shared his interest in education. According to Richard Popkin, another key influence was Joseph Mede, from whom Dury took a method of scriptural interpretation; this interpretation has been challenged by recent research claiming that Dury developed his "Scriptural Analysis" before meeting with the works of Mede. While at Elbing he translated an anti-trinitarian work of Samuel Przypkowski into English.
From 1628 Dury petitioned Gustavus Adolphus for help in the cause of Protestant unity. He spent much time from 1630 to 1661 wandering through Europe, working for ecclesiastical peace between Calvinists and Lutherans. Through an introduction from Hartlib, he also met Comenius, who spent some years in Elbing as well.
Up to 1633, Dury had Anglican support from George Abbot. In that year, Abbot died and was replaced by William Laud, with whom Dury had a much more difficult relationship; Christopher Hill states "Laud had no use for the efforts of Comenius, Dury and Hartlib to reunite Protestants". Dury was ordained in 1634, and went to Sweden, supported by 38 English Puritans. The networking of Dury and Hartlib in the 1630s brought them close to Oliver Cromwell, through Oliver St John (a relation by marriage, and friend) and the Godmanchester preacher Walter Welles, a neighbour.
Dury then travelled widely in northern Europe, and was tutor to Mary, Princess of Orange in the Hague. He had a long though unproductive meeting with René Descartes in 1635; also in the Netherlands he was an associate of Adam Boreel and Petrus Serrarius, and an influential figure.
In Civil War and Commonwealth England.
At a key moment in English and European politics, Dury in August 1641 published "Concerning the Work of Peace Ecclesiastical", urging Protestants to unite across national boundaries. This work was dedicated to his patron Sir Thomas Rowe, and had been written in 1638. In 1639 Viscount Mandeville was writing to Dury, in the context that the situation in particular of German Protestants was being mooted and linked to the possibility of the English and Scottish churches could organise or broker such a union.
In 1641, Dury and Comenius came to England; an invitation had been mooted in a sermon by John Gauden in 1641, at the start of the Long Parliament. The backers of the scheme to bring Comenius then included John Pym and Lord Brooke as well as Mandeville.
Dury gave a well-known sermon to the Parliament on 26 November 1645, "Israels Call to March out of Babylon into Jerusalem". He was given an official appointment, as tutor to the younger children of Charles I; from 1646 these had been in the care of Algernon Percy, 10th Earl of Northumberland.
After the war in England had ended, he argued both for religious toleration, and for acceptance of the Parliamentarian regime. He incurred the displeasure of the Westminster Assembly, to which he belonged, for his part in the 1648 publication (with Hartlib and John Goodwin) in the translation of part the theological work "Satanae Strategemata" of Jacob Acontius on toleration. He called on the Ranter Abiezer Coppe to repent, and helped in drafting his recantation. He provided arguments in pamphlets of March and October 1649 for supporting the Rump Parliament. Hill places Dury with Anthony Ascham and Marchamont Nedham as propounding the theory that Parliament had legitimacy conferred by God because it held power "de facto". Barbara Lewalski calls Dury's arguments 'Hobbesian'. Hill considers that the failure of Cromwell's plan to create a unified Protestant church in England of the 1650s put paid to Dury's ecumenical ideas.
In 1652 he translated John Milton's "Eikonoklastes" into French as "Eikonoklastēs, ou, Réponse au livre intitulé Eikon basilikē". In 1655 Milton quoted from letters of Dury in his "Pro se defensio contra Alexandrum Morum".
In 1654 he was sent as a diplomat by Oliver Cromwell to Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland. In 1652/3 he had travelled with Bulstrode Whitelocke to Sweden.
He also worked with Whitelocke as a deputy librarian, from 1649, of the collection going back to Jane Lumley. His book of 1650 on librarianship, sometimes said to be the first such work, came out of his experience in this post.
Jews and Hebraists.
Dury met Manasseh ben Israel in 1644, and heard from him an account of Antonio de Montesinos's alleged discovery of the Ten Tribes in America. Dury wrote in favour of a Hartlib Circle project, for a College of Jewish Studies. Parliament was lobbied for funds. The proposed faculty were Johann Stephanus Rittangel, Christian Ravius and Menasseh ben Israel.
In 1649 Dury addressed a further inquiry to Manasseh on the subject of the Ten Tribes, which resulted in the publication of "The Hope of Israel". In 1650 appeared Thomas Thorowgood's "Jewes in America"; Dury read it in manuscript, and contributed to later editions. He included information on the Karaites, in whom he had a particular interest, from Rittangel.
Dury is considered to have been one of those around Cromwell influencing the decision to allow Jews to enter England officially (they were expelled by Edward I). He was the cautious author of a pamphlet of 1656, "A Case of Conscience: Whether It Be Lawful to Admit Jews into a Christian Commonwealth", in it he laid down certain conditions that Jews must fulfil in order to be admitted (no blasphemy or proselytism etc). To a question put to him by Hartlib, as to the general lawfulness of their admission, Dury replied in the affirmative; but from the point of view of expediency, he considered that circumstances as to a particular time and place might render their admission unwise.
Irenicism and millenarianism.
Dury's long ecumenical efforts have earned him a name as an irenicist. This territory he shared, to an extent, with his contemporary Hugo Grotius. Dury made contact with Grotius through his follower Samson Johnson (1603–1661). That relationship soured, since Dury had a hand in Johnson's dismissal as chaplain to Elizabeth, Queen of Bohemia, suspected of Socinianism. According to historian Hugh Trevor-Roper,
"Dury, like Grotius, was an idealist, but their ideals were not quite the same. He wished to achieve not reunion for the peace of the Church but union of all Protestants for the holy war: in particular union of Lutherans and Calvinists".
Dury’s irenicism and philosemitism can be understood as interrelated aspects of an expansionist Protestant cause focussed on Britain, Ireland, continental Europe, and the Atlantic world. In this understanding, the Portuguese Jews (and American Indians) appear as victims of Spanish Catholicism in desperate need of Protestant help.
Richard Popkin and Jefferey Jue have argued that Dury was a millenarian. His millenarian views are said to have pointed to 1655 as apocalyptic. Against that view it has been argued that Dury warned readers about attempts to predict the onset of the Millennium. In his preface to the millenarian tract "Clavis Apocalyptica" Dury seems to come out against the idea of a political millenarianism and to defend a more "moral" interpretation of millenarianism.
Pansophism and alchemy.
Alchemy was within the interests of the Hartlibian group, and both Dury and his wife were involved. In 1649 they were quizzing Worsley on distillation. In the first half of 1651 Dury was a witness to George Starkey, in an apparent transmutation, and then recommended Starkey to Moriaen.
Family.
In 1645 he married Dorothy Moore (née King), an Irish Puritan widow. Dorothy Durie (sic), daughter of Sir John King and Catherine Drury, was a noted writer on education and the role of women in the church. The match was arranged by Dorothy's niece, Katherine Jones, Viscountess Ranelagh (1615–1691), daughter of Richard Boyle, 1st Earl of Cork, and wife of Arthur Jones, 2nd Viscount Ranelagh. To be precise on the somewhat tenuous relationship, Arthur Moore, Dorothy's first husband, and Frances Jones née Moore, mother of Arthur Jones, were brother and sister, both children of Garret Moore, 1st Viscount Moore. By this marriage Dury was connected to Robert Boyle, brother of Lady Ranelagh.
Their daughter Dora Katherina Dury (1654–77) was Henry Oldenburg's second wife. Dorothy also had two sons by her first husband.
Notes.
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Alexander Dury
British soldier
Major-General Alexander Dury (1704 – 1758) was a British soldier who fought in the War of the Austrian Succession. Although he attended a religious academy he chose to make the army his career, rising to the rank of Major General in the First Regiment of Foot Guards. He was killed whilst leading the British rearguard at the Battle of Saint Cast in Brittany at the age of 54.
Early life.
He was born in Edinburgh on 10 December 1704, and christened the next day. He was a son of the Huguenot immigrants Theodore Du Ry (born in France in 1661) and Mary-Anne Boulier De Beauregard.
Dury attended the Geneva Academy, with Antoine Maurice (later professor of divinity) as his mentor. The academy was founded by Calvin and, at the time Dury was there, had the primary aim of training ministers. Dury, however, studied languages and "belles lettres": his outstanding intellectual abilities had been acclaimed and he was admired for the brilliant exposition of his thesis ‘De Terrae Motu’ [On the Earthquake]. He returned to Britain at the end of May 1721."
Personal life.
Dury married Isabella Turnor at St Mary Abbots Church, Kensington on 24 July 1753. They had two sons:
The pedigree of the Dury family, from the mid-seventeenth century, is available online. Several had military careers.
Alexander Dury's portrait was painted by Sir Joshua Reynolds in 1758. Dury wrote his will on 11 May 1758. After his death his extensive library was auctioned over a period of four days. Dury's library "reflected both his wealth and his strong, continuing enthusiasm for his books on war"; some 120 titles on war accounted for more than a fifth of his collection.
Military career.
Dury's father, Theodore (naturalised in 1706), was a military engineer in Hugh Mackay’s Foot, designing the fortification of Stirling Castle and elsewhere, and was able to afford commissions for both his sons. Thus, Alexander Dury was commissioned into the First Regiment of Foot Guards on 24 June 1721. He was appointed First Major on 10 October 1747; Lieutenant-Colonel on 9 May 1749; and Major General on 15 Feb 1757.
Early in his career, Dury was assigned to special intelligence duties. One such was the detention in 1744 of the elderly and infirm Colonel William Cecil. Cecil been gathering data on the numbers of Jacobite sympathisers in England who would rally to support Marshal Saxe in his invasion of England, and was sent to The Tower. Dury was also involved with the arrest of an even more important Jacobite, James Barry, 4th Earl of Barrymore.
Dury's next notable assignment came the following year. During the Battle of Fontenoy in 1745 the Duke of Cumberland was annoyed by what he considered to be ill treatment of English wounded and prisoners by the French, in breach of the agreement on prisoners of war reached with Noailles some two years earlier. However Saxe argued that the English were already in breach of the agreement by confining at the Round Tower, Windsor Castle, the prestigious Marshal Belle-Isle and his brother, who had been captured in Hanover. It was decided to free the Belle-Isle brothers, and Dury was immediately detailed to escort them back to France. He first took his distinguished charges to London where, incognito, they were given a tour of some of the main sights. After returning to the Palace of Westminster and the Abbey, and then a good supper, they were taken to see the Doggett's Coat and Badge rowing race on the Thames (and not to see Swan Upping as reported by Whitworth). More sightseeing took place next day and, on the following morning, the Marshal's party was escorted out of London to Blackheath, and thence to Canterbury and Dover. The returning Maréchal was warmly welcomed in Calais, where he presented Dury with a gold-hilted sword.
Alexander Dury took part in the Battle of Lauffeld in 1747, and then at the siege of Maastricht in 1748. Ten years later he was in charge of a brigade of Guards which was to sail to northern France. The object was a series of “descents” (diversionary raids) which would draw the French forces away from central Europe - in particular Hanover.
One such attack was the raid on Cherbourg in August, in which the French put up little resistance and the port and forts were razed. After their success the British moved west for a descent on St Malo, but this failed and many men were lost. They then moved to St. Cast in Brittany, arriving on 11 September 1758. Disaster struck: during the battle the British lost more than twice as many men as the French, as they fled back to their vessels. Alexander Dury was killed that day while trying to help his men get aboard.
References.
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Ian Dury
British new wave singer (1942–2000)
Ian Robins Dury (12 May 1942 – 27 March 2000) was an English singer, songwriter and actor who rose to fame in the late 1970s, during the punk and new wave era of rock music. He was the lead singer and lyricist of Kilburn and the High Roads, the Kilburns, Ian Dury and the Blockheads and Ian Dury and the Music Students.
Early life and education.
Ian Dury was born at 43 Weald Rise in Harrow, at that time in Middlesex. His early years were spent in Harrow Weald (although it's often misreported that he was born in Upminster, Essex, an impression he often encouraged) and in Mevagissey, Cornwall, during the Blitz. His father, William George Dury (born 23 September 1905 in Southborough, Kent, died 25 February 1968 in Victoria, London), was a former boxer, coach and bus driver, and chauffeur for Rolls-Royce. His mother, Margaret "Peggy" Cuthbertson Walker (born 17 April 1910, Rochdale, Lancashire, died 20 December 1994 in Hampstead, London), was a health visitor, a doctor's daughter and the granddaughter of an East Donegal Ulster Protestant landowner. Bill and Peggy married in 1939 and set up home in Belsize Park, London.
Bill Dury was absent for work for long periods, so Peggy often took Ian to stay with her parents in Mevagissey. After the Second World War, the family moved briefly to Switzerland, where Ian's father was chauffeuring for a millionaire and the Western European Union. In 1946, Peggy brought Ian back to England and they relocated to Cranham, near Upminster in Essex, to live with Peggy's sisters. Although he saw his father on visits, they were never to live together again.
At age seven, Dury contracted polio, most likely, he believed, at Westcliff Swimming Pool in Southend-on-Sea during the 1949 polio epidemic. After six weeks of isolation in the Royal Cornwall Infirmary, Truro, Ian was moved by ambulance back to Essex, to Black Notley Hospital in Braintree, where he spent eighteen months regaining his strength and mobility. Polio caused paralysis on the left-hand side of his body which led to a permanent disability.
Ian attended Chailey Heritage Craft School, East Sussex, from 1951 till 1954. Chailey was a hospital school for disabled children that had an ethos of toughening up its students, often by leaving the less physically able to find their own way up off the floor. Arguably, this harsh approach contributed to the tough and determined person Dury became. Chailey taught trades such as cobbling and printing, but Dury's mother wanted him to focus on academic studies, so Aunt Moll (Mary Walker), a Buckinghamshire Education Officer, arranged for him to attend the Royal Grammar School, High Wycombe. Ian found this school a challenge and recounted being punished for misdemeanours by being forced by prefects to learn long tracts of poetry until a housemaster found him sobbing and put a stop to it:
<templatestyles src="Template:Blockquote/styles.css" />I had to go into a box room where the suitcases were stored and learn 80 lines of "Ode to Autumn" by yer man Keats. If I got a word wrong I had to go back, they added that to the end of the sentence and after five nights of this my head had definitely gone. He left school at 16, having achieved GCE 'O' levels in English Language, English Literature and Art to study art and design at Walthamstow College of Art, where he met lifelong friend, pop artist and teacher Peter Blake. In 1963 Ian began an MA in painting at the Royal College of Art, graduating in 1966.
Art career.
In 1967 Dury took part in a group exhibition, "Fantasy and Figuration", alongside Elizabeth Rathmell, Pat Douthwaite, Herbert Kitchen and Stass Paraskos at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London.
Between 1966 and 1973 he was an art teacher at Luton College of Technology and at Canterbury College of Art. He also painted commercial illustrations for "The Sunday Times" in the early 1970s.
Music career.
Kilburn and the High Roads (1971–1975).
Dury formed Kilburn and the High Roads (a reference to the road in North West London) in 1971, and they played their first gig at Croydon School of Art on 5 December 1971. Dury was vocalist and lyricist, co-writing with pianist Russell Hardy and later enrolling into the group a number of the students he was teaching at Canterbury College of Art (now the University for the Creative Arts), including bassist Humphrey Ocean.
Managed first by Charlie Gillett and Gordon Nelki and latterly by fashion entrepreneur Tommy Roberts, the Kilburns were popular on London's pub rock circuit and signed to Dawn Records in 1974 but, despite favourable press coverage and a tour opening for English rock band The Who, the group failed to rise above cult status and disbanded in 1975.
Kilburn and the High Roads recorded two albums, "Handsome" and "Wotabunch!".
Going solo (August – September 1977).
The single "Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll", released 26 August 1977, marked Dury's Stiff Records debut. Although it was banned by the BBC, it was named Single of the Week by "NME" on its release. The single issue was soon followed, at the end of September, by the album "New Boots and Panties!!" which achieved platinum status. "Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll" was not listed on the album's track list, yet it was nonetheless present as track 1 on side 2 of some later 1977 pressings).
The Blockheads (October 1977 – present).
Under the management of Andrew King and Peter Jenner, the original managers of Pink Floyd, Ian Dury and the Blockheads quickly gained a reputation as one of the top live acts of new wave music.
The Blockheads' sound drew from its members' diverse musical influences, which included jazz, rock and roll, funk, and reggae, and Dury's love of music hall. The band was formed after Dury began writing songs with pianist and guitarist Chaz Jankel (the brother of music video, TV, commercial and film director Annabel Jankel). Jankel took Dury's lyrics, fashioned a number of songs, and they began recording with members of Radio Caroline's Loving Awareness Band – drummer Charley Charles (born Hugh Glenn Mortimer Charles, Guyana 1945), bassist Norman Watt-Roy, keyboard player Mick Gallagher, guitarist John Turnbull and former Kilburns saxophonist Davey Payne.
In October 1977 Dury and his band started performing as Ian Dury and the Blockheads, when the band signed on for the Stiff "Live Stiffs Tour" alongside Elvis Costello & the Attractions, Nick Lowe, Wreckless Eric, and Larry Wallis. The tour was a success, and Stiff launched a concerted Ian Dury marketing campaign, resulting in the Top Ten hit "What a Waste" and the hit single "Hit Me with Your Rhythm Stick", which reached No. 1 in the UK at the beginning of 1979, selling just short of a million copies. Again, "Hit Me" was not included on the original release of the subsequent album "Do It Yourself". With their hit singles, the band built up a dedicated following in the UK and other countries and their next single "Reasons to be Cheerful, Part 3" made number three in the UK.
The band's second album "Do It Yourself" was released in June 1979 in a Barney Bubbles-designed sleeve of which there were over a dozen variations, all based on samples from the Crown wallpaper catalogue. Bubbles also designed the Blockhead logo.
Jankel left the band temporarily and relocated to the US after the release of "What a Waste" (his organ part on that single was overdubbed later) but he subsequently returned to the UK and began touring sporadically with the Blockheads, eventually returning to the group full-time for the recording of "Hit Me with Your Rhythm Stick"; according to Mickey Gallagher, the band recorded 28 takes of the song but eventually settled on the second take for the single release. Partly due to personality clashes with Dury, Jankel left the group again in 1980, after the recording of the "Do It Yourself" LP, and he returned to the US to concentrate on his solo career.
The group worked solidly over the 18 months between the release of "Rhythm Stick" and their next single, "Reasons to Be Cheerful, Part 3", which returned them to the charts, making the UK Top 10. Jankel was replaced by former Dr. Feelgood guitarist Wilko Johnson, who also contributed to the next album "Laughter" (1980) and its two hit singles, although Gallagher recalls that the recording of the "Laughter" album was difficult and that Dury was drinking heavily in this period.
In 1980–81 Dury and Jankel teamed up again with Sly and Robbie and the Compass Point All Stars to record "Lord Upminster" (1981). The Blockheads toured the UK and Europe throughout 1981, sometimes augmented by jazz trumpeter Don Cherry, ending the year with their only tour of Australia.
The Blockheads disbanded in early 1982, after Dury secured a new recording deal with Polydor Records through A&R man Frank Neilson. Choosing to work with a group of young musicians which he named the Music Students, he recorded the album "Four Thousand Weeks' Holiday". This album marked a departure from his usual style and was not as well received by fans for its American jazz influence.
The Blockheads briefly reformed in June 1987 to play a short tour of Japan, and then disbanded again. In September 1990, following the death from cancer of drummer Charley Charles, they reunited for two benefit concerts in aid of Charles' family, held at The Forum, Camden Town, with Steven Monti on drums. In December 1990, augmented by Merlin Rhys-Jones on guitar and Will Parnell on percussion, they recorded the live album "Warts & Audience" at the Brixton Academy.
The Blockheads (minus Jankel, who returned to California) toured Spain in January 1991, then disbanded again until August 1992 when, following Jankel's return to England, they were invited to reform for the Madstock! Festival in Finsbury Park; this was followed by sporadic gigs in Europe, Ireland, the UK and Japan in late 1994 and 1995. In the early 1990s, Dury appeared with English band Curve on the benefit compilation album "Peace Together". Dury and Curve singer Toni Halliday shared vocals on a cover of the Blockheads' track "What a Waste".
In March 1996 Dury was diagnosed with cancer and, after recovering from an operation, he set about writing another album. In late 1996 he reunited with the Blockheads to record the album "Mr. Love Pants" (1997). Ian Dury and the Blockheads resumed touring, with Dylan Howe replacing Steven Monti on drums. Davey Payne left the group permanently in August and was replaced by Gilad Atzmon; this line-up gigged throughout 1999, culminating in their last performance with Ian Dury on 6 February 2000 at the London Palladium. Dury died six weeks later on 27 March 2000.
The Blockheads have continued after Dury's death, and continue to play live gigs as of 2023[ [update]].
Other solo work.
Dury continued to record other work without the Blockheads, including "Lord Upminster" (1981); "Apples" (1989) and "The Bus Driver's Prayer & Other Stories" (1992). He also released a single album with the Music Students, "4,000 Weeks' Holiday" (1984).
His 1981 song "Spasticus Autisticus" – written to show his disdain for that year's International Year of Disabled Persons, which he saw as patronising and counter-productive – was banned by the BBC from being broadcast by the BBC before 6 pm. The lyrics were uncompromising:
<poem>
 So place your hard-earned peanuts in my tin
 And thank the Creator you're not in the state I'm in
 So long have I been languished on the shelf
 I must give all proceedings to myself</poem>
The song's refrain, "I'm spasticus, autisticus", was inspired by the response of the rebellious Roman gladiators in the film "Spartacus", who, when instructed to identify their leader, all answered, "I am Spartacus", to protect him. According to George McKay, in his 2009 article "Crippled with nerves" (an early Dury song title), for "Popular Music":
<templatestyles src="Template:Blockquote/styles.css" />Ian Dury, that 'flaw of the jungle', produced a remarkable and sustained body of work that explored issues of disability, in both personal and social contexts, institutionalisation, and to a lesser extent the pop cultural tradition of disability. He also, with the single "Spasticus Autisticus" (1981), produced one of the outstanding protest songs about the place of disabled people in what he called 'normal land'.
Dury described the song as "a war cry" on "Desert Island Discs". The song was used at the opening of the London 2012 Paralympics.
In 1984, Dury was featured in the music video for the minor hit single "Walking in My Sleep" by Roger Daltrey of The Who.
Musical influences and style.
Dury's self-styling and chief musical influence was his hero since childhood, American rock and roll and rockabilly artist Gene Vincent. After hearing Vincent's hit single "Be-Bop-a-Lula" in the 1956 musical comedy film "The Girl Can't Help It", he idolised him. Vincent also wore a leg brace, although Dury said he did not know this until later. Vincent is mentioned in one of Dury's earliest songs, "Upminster Kid" (on the 1975 Kilburn and the High Roads album "Handsome"), with the words "Well Gene Vincent Craddock remembered the love of an Upminster rock 'n' roll teen". Vincent had died four years earlier.
More well-known is the single "Sweet Gene Vincent" from his first solo album, "New Boots and Panties!!" in 1977. He wrote the lyrics after spending six weeks of research on Vincent, which included reading two biographies. His songwriting partner Chas Jankel had to trim it considerably, after Dury's original version, Jankel joked, "would have taken around 15 minutes to perform". The opening lyrics to the song were:<templatestyles src="Template:Blockquote/styles.css" />Blue Gene baby / Skinny white sailor, the chances were slender / The beauties were brief / Shall I mourn your decline with some Thunderbird wine / And a black handkerchief? / I miss your sad Virginia whisper / I miss the voice that called my heart.
Dury was a lover of music hall, another of his heroes being Max Wall. Dury developed a unique style that mixed music hall with punk and rock and roll, and crafted an on-stage persona that entertained his audiences.
Dury's lyrics are a combination of lyrical poetry, word play, observation of British everyday life, character sketches, and sexual humour: "This is what we find ... Home improvement expert Harold Hill of Harold Hill, Of do-it-yourself dexterity and double-glazing skill, Came home to find another gentleman's kippers in the grill, So he sanded off his winkle with his Black & Decker drill". The song "Billericay Dickie" rhymes "I had a love affair with Nina, In the back of my Cortina" with "A seasoned-up hyena Could not have been more obscener".
Acting and other activities.
Dury's confident and unusual demeanour caught the eyes of producers and directors of drama. His first important and extensive role was in Farrukh Dhondy's mini-series for the BBC "King of the Ghetto" (1986), a drama set in London's multi-racial Brick Lane area with a cast led by a young Tim Roth.
Dury had small parts in several films, probably the best known of which was Peter Greenaway's "The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover" (1989), as well as a cameo appearance in Roman Polanski's "Pirates" (1986). He also appeared in the Eduardo Guedes film " Rocinante" (1986), the German comedy (lead) "Brennende Betten" (Burning Beds) (1988), Alejandro Jodorowsky's "The Rainbow Thief" (1990), and the Sylvester Stallone science fiction film "Judge Dredd" (1995). His other film appearances included roles in "Number One" (1985) starring Bob Geldof, the Bob Hoskins film "The Raggedy Rawney" (1988), and "Split Second" (1992) starring Rutger Hauer and Kim Cattrall. He also appeared alongside fellow lyricists Bob Dylan and Tom Waits, respectively, in the movies "Hearts of Fire" (1987) and "Bearskin: An Urban Fairytale" (1990), also by Eduardo Guedes. His later films included the comedy "Different for Girls" (1996), and "" (1996), directed by Tim Pope, who had directed a few of Dury's music videos.
Dury also wrote a musical, "Apples", staged in London's Royal Court Theatre. In 1987 he appeared as the narrator (Scullery) in "Road", also at the Royal Court. Among the cast was actress and singer Jane Horrocks, who cohabited with Dury until late in 1988, although the relationship was kept discreet.
Dury wrote and performed the theme song "Profoundly in Love with Pandora" for the television series "The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13¾" (1985), based on the book of the same name by Sue Townsend, as well as its follow-up, "The Growing Pains of Adrian Mole" (1987). Dury turned down an offer from Andrew Lloyd Webber to write the libretto for "Cats" (from which Richard Stilgoe reportedly earned millions). The reason, said Dury, "I can't stand his music."
<templatestyles src="Template:Blockquote/styles.css" />... I said no straight off. I hate Andrew Lloyd Webber. He's a wanker, isn't he? ... [E]very time I hear 'Don't Cry for Me Argentina' I feel sick, it's so bad. He got Richard Stilgoe to do the lyrics in the end, who's not as good as me. He made millions out of it. He's crap, but he did ask the top man first!
When HIV/AIDS first came to prominence in the mid-1980s, Dury was among celebrities who appeared on UK television to promote safe sex, demonstrating how to put on a condom using a model of an erect penis. In the 1990s, he became an ambassador for UNICEF, recruiting stars such as Robbie Williams to publicise the cause. The two visited Sri Lanka in this capacity to promote polio vaccination. Dury appeared with Curve on the "Peace Together" concert and CD (1993), performing "What a Waste", with benefits to the Youth of Northern Ireland. He also supported the charity Cancer BACUP.
Dury appeared in the "Classic Albums" episode that focused on Steely Dan's album "Aja". Dury commented that the album was one of the most "upful" he had ever heard, and that the album "lifted [his] spirits up" whenever he played it.
Dury also appeared at the end of the Carter USM track "Skywest & Crooked" narrating from the musical "Man of La Mancha".
Illness and death.
Dury was diagnosed with colorectal cancer in 1996 and underwent surgery, but tumours were later found in his liver, and he was told that his condition was terminal.
In 1998, his death was incorrectly announced on XFM radio by Bob Geldof, possibly due to hoax information from a listener. In 1999, Dury collaborated with Madness on their first original album in fourteen years on the track "Drip Fed Fred". It was one of his last recordings, though he also performed again with the Blockheads in mid-1999 at Ronnie Scott's in Soho. This was a special performance recorded for LWT's "South Bank Show" and the audience were invited fans and friends of the band and crew. His deteriorating condition was evident and he had to take rests between takes and be helped on and off stage.
Ian Dury and the Blockheads' last public performance was a charity concert in aid of Cancer BACUP on 6 February 2000 at the London Palladium, supported by Kirsty MacColl and Phill Jupitus. Dury was noticeably ill and again had to be helped on and off stage.
Dury died of metastatic colorectal cancer on 27 March 2000, aged 57, in Hampstead, London. He was cremated after a humanist funeral at Golders Green Crematorium with 250 mourners at the service, including fellow musicians Suggs and Jools Holland and other "celebrity fans" such as Member of Parliament (MP) Mo Mowlam.
An obituary in "The Guardian" called him "one of few true originals of the English music scene". Suggs, the lead singer of Madness, called him "possibly the finest lyricist we've seen". The Ian Dury website opened an online book of condolence shortly after his death, which was signed by hundreds of fans.
Legacy.
Dury's son, Baxter Dury, is also a singer. He sang a few of his father's songs at the wake after the funeral, and has released six of his own albums, including "It's a Pleasure" (2014), "Prince of Tears" (2017) and "The Night Chancers" (2020).
In 2002, Jemima Dury organised a "musical bench" designed by Mil Stricevic to be placed in a favourite viewing spot of Dury's near Poets' Corner, in the gardens of Pembroke Lodge, in Richmond Park, south-west London. The back of the bench is inscribed with the words "Reasons to Be Cheerful", the title of one of Dury's songs. The QR codes on the arms of the bench allow visitors to listen to a track listing of his songs on one side and his appearance on Desert Island Discs on the other.
In 1999 the autobiographical documentary "On My Life", directed by Mike Connolly, was released. The film, in which Dury recalls his life and career, intercut with concert footage, includes contributions from painter Peter Blake, Jemima and Baxter Dury, and members of the Blockheads. The programme was first broadcast in 1999, then again in August 2009 and March 2025 on BBC Four.
Between 6 January and 14 February 2009 a musical about his life, entitled "Hit Me! The Life & Rhymes of Ian Dury", was premiered and ran at the Leicester Square Theatre in London.
A biopic titled "Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll" starring Andy Serkis as Dury was released on 8 January 2010, and was nominated for several awards. Ray Winstone and Naomie Harris also appeared. The title of the film is derived from Dury's 1977 7" single "Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll". Also in 2010 music journalist Will Birch published "Ian Dury: The Definitive Biography" which was well received.
A musical, "Reasons to be Cheerful", was produced by the Graeae Theatre Company in association with Theatre Royal Stratford East and New Wolsey Theatre. Set in 1979 the musical featured Dury classics in a "riotous coming-of-age tale". The 2010 production was supported by the Blockheads, while Sir Peter Blake donated a limited edition print of the "Reasons to be Cheerful" artwork.
Interviewed by the "Evening Standard" in 2010, son Baxter said his father "was like a "Polaris missile"... "He would seek out someone's weakness in seconds, and then lock onto it. That's how he controlled his environment. It was very funny, in a gruesome kind of way ... if it wasn't you he was picking on. But it was a strange obsession, too. Like, why do you want to be like that? He was never really physically violent – he was a small disabled guy – but there was a lot of mental violence."
Speaking to BBC Radio 2 in February 2021, English pop star Robbie Williams cited Dury as his biggest inspiration as a lyricist. Williams sings on the final track of the posthumously released album "Ten More Turnips from the Tip".
Personal life.
Dury married Elizabeth "Betty" Rathmell on 3 June 1967 in Barnstaple, Devon, and they had two children, Jemima and Baxter, in 1969 and 1971, respectively. In 1973 Dury left the family, who were living at the time in a Buckinghamshire village, and moved back to London to pursue his music career.
He lived with his partner Denise Roudette for six years after he moved back to London, renting 40 Oval Mansions in Kennington, which "The Guardian" referred to as "one of London's most notorious squatted buildings" and Dury himself dubbed "Catshit Mansions".
Dury and Rathmell divorced in 1985 but remained close. Starting in 1986 he had a year-long relationship with actor Jane Horrocks, whom he met while they both performed in Jim Cartright's play "Road" and they remained friends until his death.
Dury married sculptor Sophy Tilson in 1998, with whom he had two children.
Discography.
<templatestyles src="Div col/styles.css"/>
Studio albums
References.
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Guy Dury
English cricketer and British Army officer
Guy Alexander Ingram Dury (4 December 1895 – 10 August 1976) was an English cricketer and British Army officer. He served in both world wars with the London Regiment and the Grenadier Guards, winning the Military Cross during the First World War. He was a first-class cricketer who played for the British Army cricket team and the Free Foresters.
Early life and World War I.
The son of the first-class cricketer Theodore Dury and his wife Helen Isabella Ingram, Dury was born at Harrow-on-the-Hill. He was educated at Harrow School, where he played for the school cricket team in 1913 and 1914. He enlisted in the 4th Battalion, London Regiment in January 1915 as a second lieutenant. He served during World War I, firstly with the London Regiment where he gained the rank of temporary lieutenant in September 1915. He served in the later stages of the war with the 3rd Battalion of the Grenadier Guards, and was given the temporary rank of captain in April 1918. In June 1918 he received the Military Cross for "conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty". Dury ran forwards from the support trenches to direct the defence of two forward posts under heavy machine gun fire.
During the Battle of Albert in August 1918 he led his company in an attack that cleared the German trenches and captured a village. Later in the day he fell victim to German gassing and was temporarily blinded. One of his men later recalled that while recovering in the bed next to Dury in hospital he was reprimanded by him for stating that he was "In the Grenadiers" rather than the more formal "Grenadier Guards".
In February 1918 he was one of just twenty guests at the wedding of ballerina Phyllis Bedells to fellow Grenadiers officer Ian MacBean.
Later military career.
Following the war, he was selected to play for H. D. G. Leveson Gower's cricket team in a first-class match against Cambridge University at Eastbourne in 1919. Having relinquished the temporary rank of captain in January 1920, Dury had his prior rank of lieutenant backdated in February 1921, with seniority to August 1917. He was selected to play first-class cricket for the British Army cricket team against Cambridge University at Cambridge in May 1922. He was promoted to the rank of captain in September 1923, having served as an adjutant vice-captain since May 1922. Dury made a third and final appearance in first-class cricket for the Free Foresters in June 1926 against Oxford University at Oxford, during which he made a half century with 51 in the Free Foresters first-innings. He retired from military service on 27 September 1931, retaining the rank of captain.
Following the outbreak of World War II Dury was recalled to the army. Serving once more with the Grenadier Guards, he was promoted to the rank of brevet major in May 1942. Dury served as the first commandant of a prisoner of war camp near Penrith, Cumbria, that held the German survivors of the sinking of the "Bismarck". Two "Luftwaffe" officers later made a daring escape from the camp in which they managed to steal an RAF training plane from RAF Kingstown. After they ran out of fuel and were recaptured near Great Yarmouth, Dury is said to have remarked: "One really has to take off one's hat to them ... I really regret having to lock them up."
He exceeded the age to be recalled in August 1948, was removed from the reserve list of officers, and was granted the honorary rank of lieutenant colonel.
Personal life.
Dury married Rose Mary Dorothy Vernon-Harcourt (who had been a widow for 14 years) on 12 August 1949. He died at Eastbourne in August 1976.
References.
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John Dyer
Welsh Church of England cleric, poet and painter
John Dyer (1699 – 15 December 1757) was a painter and Welsh poet who became a priest in the Church of England. He was most recognised for "Grongar Hill", one of six early poems featured in a 1726 miscellany. Longer works published later include the less successful genre poems, "The Ruins of Rome" (1740) and "The Fleece" (1757). His work has always been more anthologised than published in separate editions, but his talent was later recognised by William Wordsworth among others.
Life and career.
Youth.
John Dyer was the fourth of six children born to Robert and Catherine Cocks Dyer in Llanfynydd, Carmarthenshire, five miles from Grongar Hill. His exact birth date is unknown, but the earliest existing record of John Dyer dates his baptism on 13 August 1699 – within fourteen days after his birth as was the tradition of the time – in Llanfynnydd parish. His grandfather was churchwarden there and his father was a highly successful solicitor in Llanfynnydd and owned several properties in the neighbourhood. Presumably for financial opportunity and greater living space for six children, the family moved in 1710 to the mansion of Aberglasney in the nearby parish of Llangathen.
Dyer was first educated in an unknown school in the countryside before attending Westminster School under Dr. Robert Freind. Dyer's dislike for Westminster was chronicled in a 1714 entry in his "Journal of Escapes": "Ran from school and my father, on a box of the ear being given me strolled for three or four days – found at Windsor." He retained little of what he learned, as evidenced later by his unfamiliarity with the Latin authors that were a school staple.
After Westminster School, Dyer worked in his father's office, learning the business. His talent in the field of law was evidenced by the lawsuits in which he was involved and he was the only one of four sons to have managed his property well. John's father, who wanted his son to pursue a career as solicitor, subdued the poet's longing to channel his creativity through painting and writing. Ralph M. Williams comments that it was upon his return to Aberglasney "that we first begin to know something of his personality and see for the first time the conflict in him between the dreamy romantic and the practical man of business that runs through his life." Having grown up among the ancient stoneworks in the Aberglasney grounds, it was not surprising that Dyer had developed an interest in antiquities and the love of nature that characterises his work.
Robert Dyer's death on 8 July 1720 ended John's apprenticeship to the law and he was not named in his father's will, releasing him from handling the lawsuit riddled estate bequeathed to his brother, also called Robert. John then left Aberglasney for London in 1720 or 1721 to pursue painting and poetry.
Painting and poetry.
In London, Dyer apprenticed himself under the artist Jonathan Richardson. Richardson's fundamental principle of painting was that all aspects of learning, from reading, observation of nature, studying works by masters in painting and writing poetry were necessary to provide artists with inspiration. As a result, Dyer retained such interests and translated his studies into verbal landscape art. His first attempt in writing Miltonic octosyllabic couplets was addressed to his mentor, "An Epistle to a Famous Painter", the same measure as in his second version of "Grongar Hill". It was under Richardson that Dyer met his coffee house group of friends, Thomas Edwards, Daniel Wray, George Knapton and Arthur Pond. Pond would later be referred to in "The Fleece" (IV. 265).
Dyer, with Richardson's blessing, sailed to Italy in 1724 to continue his studies and made his way straight to Rome, where he admired its objects of antiquity. The Pantheon was a favourite building and preoccupied his time during the trip, while the Colosseum and the Baths of Caracalla were also held in high regard. Among sculptures and reliefs, he notes the Hercules, the Apollo, the "Venus de Medici," the Laocoön group, Trajan's column, the temple of Pallas, the arches of Titus and Constantine and the Borghese Dancers (now in the Louvre). Such were the inspirations or objects of interest in Dyer's poem "The Ruins of Rome", written in 1740. But though he appreciated the beauties about him, his staunch Protestantism was appalled by what he regarded as the superstitious practices of Catholicism: "God of our Fathers, keep us from the ways of these foul hirelings," he exclaimed in a poetic fragment written at the time.
While there, Dyer fell ill with a malarial fever caught in the Campagna and began to contemplate his future. Resuming his journey northwards, he visited the ruins of Otricoli, where he found inspiration for his poem signifying this shift of mood, "Written at Ocriculum in Italy, 1725". Continuing on his journey to Florence, his visits to museums and buildings there instigated a shift in his interests from the classical to the Renaissance period to create one of his few surviving paintings, a copy of Antonio da Correggio's masterpiece, "Madonna Adoring the Christ Child."
On Dyer's return, a selection of six of his poems were published in Richard Savage's "Miscellaneous Poems and Translations" (1726), which largely consisted of the work of the coterie that had gathered about Aaron Hill, one of those literary groupings typical of the 18th century whose work interconnected and was often cross-referential. This was evident in the many 'collected' editions of Dyer's poems published after his death that were prefaced by poems addressed to him by these friends, in answer to or answered by the shorter poems of Dyer's placed at the end. Thus Dyer's poem "To Mr Savage, son of the late Earl Rivers", exhorting him to bear up under misfortune, is answered by Savage's "An epistle to My John Dyer in answer to his from the country". And Dyer's paean to living in country obscurity, "To a friend in town", becomes a Horatian exchange when complemented by Aaron Hill's "The Choice".
Another cluster of poems about Dyer's portrait of Martha Fowke, who went under the name of Clio in the group, is particularly rich. Both Dyer's "A Country Walk" and "The Inquiry" mention her with singular devotion. So also does "To Clio from Rome" (which remained uncollected in 18th century editions) with its reference to "the wreathed urn among the vines, whose form my pencil now designs." This comes aptly, since Dyer had recently painted her. Martha's reply apologises for her tardiness and compliments both his poetic and artistic tributes: "Your claim demands the bays in double wreath, Your poems lighten and your pictures breathe". Savage too paid his tribute "To Mr John Dyer, occasioned by seeing his picture of the celebrated Clio" in which, going beyond outward likeness, "You eye the Soul". The most that Dyer himself will admit in his epistle "To a Famous Painter" (his teacher Jonathan Richardson), also written from Rome, is the modest confession that "As yet I but in verse can paint".
Several later poems that only exist in manuscript were addressed to different ladies. His epistle "