Jorge Lewinski
Guy Selby-Lowndes writes: Jorge Lewinski (obituary, February 6) conducted evening classes at the City Literary Institute in Stukely Street, Holborn.
Being a “hands-on” photographer, he was able to provide both artistic comments and technical advice on the pictures brought in by his class, which consisted of a motley collection of amateur photographers. We benefited enormously from his advice and ability to criticise with kindness; no one was put off by his comments.
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Arrigo Boldini
Captain John Campbell writes: Arrigo Boldrini (obituary, February 4) died only weeks before he was to be honoured at the dedication of the PPA Memorial in the National Memorial Arboretum in Alrewas, Staffordshire, on Sunday, March 30. He wrote to us from Ravenna in October saying: “Dear friends, I thank you very much for your invitation but my elderly (92 years old) doesn’t permit me this journey till Great Britain. I remember very well your presence, your courageous activity, your heroic contribution during our fight against Nazi-fascist hordes.”
The PPA Memorial, in the Allied Special Forces Memorial Grove, will be unveiled by Sir Robert Crawford CBE, director-general of the Imperial War Museum, paying tribute also to the Italian partisans of the 28th Garibaldi Brigade and to the 27th Lancers who fought together with the PPA as part of Lieutenant-Colonel Andrew Horsburgh-Porter’s “PorterForce”. The service will be attended by many of the remaining 15 PPA veterans.
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Lord Thomas of Gwydir
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J. R. C. McGlashan writes: As a matter of record, Lord Thomas of Gwydir (obituary, February 7) was not called up in 1939 but volunteered for the RAF in 1940. He is survived by his two daughters but, sadly, not by his two sons who both predeceased him.
He was never happier in retirement than on the Alderney golf course where he captained the “visitors” in their annual match with the “residents”. As a PoW in Stalag Luft III (1942-43) and Stalag Luft VI (1943-44) he will be remembered with gratitude by those former inmates who are still alive as a consummate actor with a faultless sense of timing and comedy. If he had chosen the stage rather than politics, he would have been not a political lord but a thespian knight.
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Colonel T. G. Brennan
G. K. Fawcett writes: The Korean War is not particularly well remembered these days, and this obituary (February 4 ) was a reminder of what took place at the Battle of the Hook in May 1953. When the 1st Battalion, the Duke of Wellington’s Regiment, came under fierce attack from a determined assault by the Chinese, Colonel Brennan used his regiment’s 25-pounders to help to repel them. Fortunately, the defence prevailed but as the first Duke of Wellington said of Waterloo: “It was a damned close-run thing.” “The Dukes” of the Korean War have never forgotten what Colonel Brennan and his 20th Field Regiment of artillery did for them.