Originally Posted by
VonWreckedoften
Is your avatar of a Bavarian aircraft, given the fuselage colours? Whereabouts are your family from in Bavaria?
For various reasons, partly the Catholic link, partly because of the nature of the countryside in that part of Germany, I have always found myself drawn to the place for all my mainstream wargaming interests, starting with the 30 Years War, then the wars of Louis XIV, then into the Napoleonic era, and I've recently found myself looking at the late 1860s/1870s. Such a shame they never had a navy.....
A little boring story for any surviving relatives you might have back in Bavaria. As a young man, I played rugby for the old boys side of my school in Wimbledon (south west London); one day we had a chap turn up with a strong European accent, who wanted to play rugby, but was possibly the weediest guy I have ever seen (we actually had trouble finding kit for him). Unfortunately, his physique meant that - even at our (very) low standard - he was just going to get hurt, but he achieved renown as something of a character at the club. First, we found out that he was a supply teacher (maths and physics) at Eton College, the UK's premier private school - after games, he would supervise the bar and add up the cost of each round of drinks as the (several) bar staff called them out. Then we found out he was an amazing chess player - one night he withdrew from training and retired to the clubhouse, where we later found he had set up six tables with chess boards on them; he then proceeded to play - and beat - six of us (five of them Oxford/Cambridge graduates, and me - the dunce!) whilst watching a nature documentary on the clubhouse TV. Eventually. he announced he was going back to Germany, so we had a going away party for him, at the end of which - quite drunk - he pointed at the photo-portrait of The Queen behind the bar, and said, "Maybe I will come back when you have got rid of that usurper and replaced her with my cousin!" None of us knew what he meant, but he was aware of my historical interests and Irish background, so he said to me: "I'll trust you to find out the significance of that!" A little while later, we found some of his kit left in one of the changing rooms and I 'phoned Eton to get it back to him; during that conversation, I found out that his surname was Wittelsbach! His cousin was (still is, I think) Franz, Grand Duke of Bavaria and the current head of the House of Stuart. As in Bonnie Prince Charlie. Apparently, the Grand Duke has renounced his claim to the British throne, and is childless, but he has a younger brother who has several children, the eldest of whom - a boy - is the first Stuart to be born in the British Isles (London) in over 300 years!
All the best, and thanks for the welcome!
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