Philippe Rushton and Gillian Hammerton

Thursday, 29 November 2012

Philippe Rushton and Gillian Hammerton Swimming in The Dead Sea,Israel in our Travel Half Way Round the World

Phil Rushton and Gillian Hammerton in Happier Days in Love and in The Dead Sea

When we were young and easy under the apple bough

Philippe Rushton and Stephen Rushton in Regents Park .Posted by Gillian Hammerton

Philippe Rushton and Stephen Rushton in Regents Park .
Photograph taken by Gillian Hammerton

Monday, 19 November 2012

Memorial Service Held For Philippe Rushton In St Pancaras Old Church.Posted by Gillian Hammerton

A Memorial Service Was Held For Philippe Rushton In St Pancaras Old Church on Remembrance Sunday 11 November 2012.Posted by Gillian Hammerton.

Phil was remembered with love .

The beautiful old church of St Pancaras Old Church was a fitting place to remember Philippe Rushton who surel died too early well before his time and will be remembered by his English friends from his university days in perhaps his haydays , when perhaps he found a measure of contentment.I believe in the end his was worn down by stress by the rocky road he chose and from which he suffered .I remember how happy we were on our travels and frankly never thought I would be on this planet without him.I admired his intellect and his determination to get an education against the odds and to bring up his son Stephen Rushton who he truly loved and was delightful.

Philippe Rushton and Stephen Rushton in Regents Park .
Photograph taken by Gillian Hammerton

St Pancaras Old Church

In gardens just behind two great London railway termini (King's Cross and St Pancras) stands a small church with a big history. St Pancras Old Church is truly old. It is reputed to be the oldest church in Britain — maybe even the oldest of all Christian churches. Once pleasantly situated on the banks of the River Fleet and overlooking a Roman encampment, the site is thought to have been used for Christian worship well before the arrival of St Augustine at the end of the sixth century. However, the name of the church (and surrounding parish) may date from that mission. The Roman martyr Pancras was beheaded in 304 AD when he was about 14 years old, and the Basilica of St Pancratius, which preserves the site his martyrdom, is close to where St Augustine lived in Rome: "Hence his devotion to the boy-saint and desire to spread his cult"

The church building covers many periods. Roman bricks and tiles and Norman masonry have been found in the North wall of the nave, and as late as the early nineteenth century the church had a modest and proportionate thirteenth-century tower complete with weather vane. But in 1822 a lavish new parish church was built closer to the city, in Greek Revival style, on what is now the Euston Road. This new church, with its impressive Ionic portico and side pavilions with terracotta caryatids, reduced the old one to the role of a Chapel of Ease, and it quickly fell into disrepair. By the time the move to restore it began, with the coming of the railways and the spreading out of London's population, it needed to be radically rebuilt. This work was carried out by the Huguenot architect R. L. Roumieu and his partner A. D. Gough in 1847-48.

The rebuilding as "ruthless," and particularly decries the removal of the old West Tower and the addition of a new tall and ornate "Belgian style" bell tower on the site of the old South porch . It records with evident relief that this tower wore badly, and the top part had to be removed, leaving it as it is today. There was "undistinguished cladding of nineteenth century ceiling plaster"inside the church, which was removed later to reveal the beautiful old timbers beneath. Another phase of refurbishment later in the Victorian period, in 1888, is recorded with disapproval as well. This may all be a matter of taste, but it does seem that the disinterrments in the graveyard were not the only indignities forced on this ancient church by the Victorians.
The simple interior is not at all Victorian in appearance. This is because the side galleries and fixed pews which had transformed the old church into a "preaching box in the evangelical tradition" were removed along with the offending ceiling cladding in the twentieth century. On the other hand, all remnants of the early centuries (a sixth-century altar stone, an eighteenth-century font cover and so on) have been lovingly preserved. Unfortunately, bomb damage during World War II and desecration by Satanists in 1985 also tell the story of our own times.

He will be missed

Friday, 9 November 2012

Phillip Rushton and Gillian Hammerton Floating About in The Dead Sea Having a Whale of a Time

Phillip Rushton and Gillian Hammerton in The Dead Sea ,Israel,having a Whale of a time,oh that ever thing could have remained that simple.We visted The Ein Harod Kibbutz situated between Mt. Gilboa and Mt. Tabor,where I had spent a year helping to develope the Kibbutz digging fig trees,building walls.

Phil had wanted to see where I had spent my time after my grandad died (my parents died when I was 6).I had read about the Holocaust and Anne Franks Diary and Lawrence of Arabia The Seven Pillars of Wisdom

and had after my grandads death,Admiral Blackler,been filled with a burning desire to help build a kibbutz.I was not Jewish but could not understand how the vile history of the Second World War had occured and young and foolish as I was wanted to make some tiny ammends.it was an incredible experience.I returned to England determined to become a lawyer to fight for human justice.Phillip entranced with my description wanted to see the land and see the kibbutz.He was an amazing companion and I am glad I took him.

Phillip travelling in Israel with Gillian without a care except where was the next ride.An amazing trek an amazing companion.

Phillip swimming in the Red Sea taken by Gillian Hammerton.

Philippe Rushton by the Red Sea : Photo taken by Gillian Hammerton.

Philippe Rushton by the Red Sea completely happy and completely beautiful.His capacity for observation was immense and enthralling photo taken by Gillian Hammerton.We slept on the beach and made camp fires and fell asleep listening to the waves when it became too dark to read and exhausted by our travels.Sometimes we were woken by stray camels on the beach.There ws utterly no light about,it was truly pitch dark,with the strangest of sounds unearthly in this strange and ancient and magical land.

My beautiful Phillip Rushton in Our Hay Days In Greece By Gillian Hammerton

Phil was a man of enormous adventure,intelligence, spirit and fun.He definately was the love of my life but as I had trained to be a lawyer in England and he wanted to go back to Canada romance ended and friendship sustained,mostly for we did not have the same political beliefs,my life became determined to focus on my career,as a barrister but he inspired me to take a psychology degree in the evening at Birkbeck College,University of London,which was amazing,and later an Msc in Pschology of Education at The Institute of Education.I thank him for this inspiration,for I became passionately fascinated by the human mind and human behaviour,but my views were not the same as his.I felt he perhaps should have been more concerned with the indigenous people their rich culture and the injustice of those without the power and audience which education and fortune had given him,but that said he was extraordinary with a giant of intellectual capacity ,but perhaps lacking a bit in common sense and the bigger picture.Frankly I think he was more at home in England and shouldnt have taken on the world.A quiet studious life being cared for,he never could cook well ,being made a fuss of and ruling the roost,but who am I to say.He was wonderful to my son whose father David Cocks QC,my older pupilmaster, abandoned as he was too busy and too important and too distanful of the responsibility of fatherhood ,and when my son rang his father who had refused to meet him when he rang him to meet the child for his birthday (the boy had never been allowed to see him and had been given only £16 a week maintenance to live on by this extremely rich prosecutor ) and he was told off for imposing ,Phil flew over hugged him, smothered him with presents and love.Now what ever you say that is a true man and a splendidly moral human being.For that I love him and always will.We did have a splendid time together and I thank the heavens for the privilege of knowing him.He was a good man.