Although Tommy Green (1885 – 1971) and some of the main supporting characters are invented for the novel, many are real people, appearing in or being spoken about in an accurate way. For example:

 

BASHO, Matsuo (1644-1694): The leading poet of the Japanese Edo period. He developed the form which became the Haiku.  

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BENEDICT XV, Pope (1854-1922): Giacomo Della Chiesa became Pope Benedict XV in 1914, one month after the outbreak of war. His efforts to mediate for peace failed.

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BETHAM, Edward (1709-1783): The Reverend Edward Betham was the Rector of Greenford Magna at the Church of The Exaltation of The Holy Cross between 1769 and 1783. He died unmarried and his supposed indirect descendant ‘Mazod Betham’ is a character invented for the novel. The name ‘Mazod’ (also spelt in other ways like ‘Maiset’ and Myzod) is, I believe, of Scottish origin. My own grandmother was christened ‘Myzod.’ In 1780, Betham founded the first school in Greenford, which still bears his name as ‘The Edward Betham Church of England Primary School’ and is still often popularly known as ‘The Clock School’, even though new premises were built, following the beginning of state elementary education in 1876 and again after 1925, because of the increasing population of the area.  The original structure (now a private residence) still stands, close to the Infants’ Department in Oldfield Lane.

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BETJEMAN, John (1906-1984): Born in London of Dutch descent, Betjeman became a very popular poet in the Twentieth Century, having a particular interest in Architecture. Following Cecil Day Lewis in 1972, he became Poet Laureate. His poem Middlesex is a comment on the suburbanization of the County.

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CAILLAUX, Henriette (1874-1943): She was the second wife of former French PM Joseph Caillaux. On 16 March,1914, she shot and killed Gaston Calmette, the editor of Figaro. Her trial at the Paris Court d’Assises began on 20th July 1914, continuing until a few days before the outbreak of war. She was acquitted on the grounds of crime passionel. The president of the French Republic, Raymond Poincaré made a deposition at Madame Caillaux’s trial. This trial, rather than the events leading to War in Europe, and not only in France, was the big newspaper story in late July, 1914.

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CAILLAUX, Joseph (1863-1944): He was leader of the Radical Party and, until 1912, Minister of Finance. His progressive views alienated conservative elements, and he was attacked via leaks about his affair with Madame Calmette before their marriage.

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CALMETTE, Gaston (1856-1914): The editor of Le Figaro was shot by Henriette Caillaux following a campaign against her husband by the newspaper, which included the publication of private letters. She feared that one would be published that revealed their premarital affair.

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CHAMBERLAIN, Joseph (1836-1914): He was originally a Radical Liberal politician, beginning with his election to Birmingham Council in 1867. This later became a city, and he was elected Mayor in 1873. His local success and dynamism brought him into national politics, but he resigned in 1886, opposing William Gladstone’s Irish Home Rule proposals. Later he became an ally of Conservatives and was known for his strongly Imperialist views. He was the father of the later Conservative Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain.

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CHAPLIN, Charles Spencer (1889-1977): Charlie Chaplin is still too famous through his films to need any kind of introduction. However, less well-known is his difficult childhood. Together initially with his half-brother, Syd, he did spend 18 months from June 1896 at the Central London School for Paupers (‘The Cuckoo School’) in Hanwell.

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CHAPLIN, Sydney John: (1885-1965) Charlie’s half-brother (original surname Hill). The two (they shared a mother – Hannah Chaplin, née Hill) had a close relationship, Syd later becoming Charlie’s business manager). He left ‘The Cuckoo School’) before Charlie, being sent on the training ship, HMS Exmouth.

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EVERETT III, Hugh (1930-1982): In his 1957 PhD Thesis, he proposed the Relative State Formulation, or the Everett Interpretation (popularly known as ‘The Many Worlds Theory’).

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FERDINDAND, Franz, Archduke of Austria-Hungary (1863-1914): He was the Heir Presumptive of the throne of Austria-Hungary when, on 28th June, 1914, he was assassinated by Gavril Prinzep in Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia. This led to Austria-Hungary’s declaration of war against Serbia on 28th July 1914 and, in the following days and months, to what later became known as The First World War. The British Empire (there was no United Kingdom then) declared war on Germany on 4th August1914. Other countries had already declared war by this date.

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GIESL, Baron (Wladimr Giesl Freiherr von Gieslingen) (1860-1936): In later life, he was an Austria-Hungarian Diplomat. In late July, he delivered the ultimatum to the Serbian government in Belgrade, then left the city as he had been instructed.

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GREY, Edward Sir (1862-1933): Foreign Secretary in the British Liberal Govenments in power between 1905 and 1916. He is remembered for his ‘lamps are going out over Europe…’ remark on 3rd August 1914.

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HINDRUM, Captain: A retired Navy man, he was responsible for discipline during Charlie Chaplin’s stay at ‘The Cuckoo School.’

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HOHENBURG, Sophie, Duchess of, (1868-1914): She was the morganatic wife of Franz Ferdinand, killed along with him in Sarajevo. A ‘Morganatic’ marriage is simply one between persons of unequal rank where neither the spouse nor children of the marriage inherit, in Royal morganatic marriages, any entitlement to reign. Sophie was not permitted to act as a full Royal consort, but there was a loophole, in that she could accompany her husband when he was acting in a military rather than a Royal capacity. Franz Ferdinand therefore arranged the Sarajevo event as a military inspection.

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JAURÈS, Jean (Auguste Marie Joseph Jean Léon Jaurès) (1859-1914): He was the French Socialist Leader from 1902 until his assassination in 1914. His views were widely influential on the Left throughout Europe, including in Germany.

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LENIN, Vladimir (Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov) (1870-1924): Following the execution of his brother in 1879, Lenin became a revolutionary politician. He was the founder and leader of the Russian Bolshevik Revolutionary movement, becoming head of the Soviet Union following the success of the October 1917 Revolution. This ousted the Provisional Government which had been in power since the Revolution of the previous February. In 1922, Lenin became the first President of the Soviet Union.

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LOWE, Amy (1874-1925): She was the younger sister of some distinguished brothers, notably the astronomer Percival Lowell. Well into her thirties, she became a serious poet, both in free and formal verse. In England, she met and was much influenced by her fellow American Ezra Pound, although later had a dispute with him, centered on their shared interest in Imagist Poetry.

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MALVY, Louis (1875-1949): He was the Interior Minister of France in March 1914, right through to October 1917. Along with Joseph Caillaux he was charged with treason in November 1918 and exiled for five years but served as Interior Minister again for a short period in 1926.

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MARX, Karl (1818-1883): A German born Philosopher and the author The Communist Manifesto (1848) and the three volume Das Kapital from 1867 to 1894. Marxist ideas have had much influence for all generations since he put his Communist philosophy forward. He is buried in Highgate Cemetery, formerly within the County of Middlesex.

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PERKIN, William Henry (1838-1907): ‘Archie Perkin’ is a character in the story but his supposed indirect ancestor, William Perkin, is real. He was a chemist who discovered how to make the first synthetic commercial organic dye, known as ‘Mauveine,’ so laying the foundation of the synthetic commercial organic dye industry. This revolutionised the World of Fashion. Perkin founded a dye factory in 1857, on land near the Black Horse Inn in Greenford in 1857. However, in 1872 there was an explosion at the factory. This killed two men, causing the factory to be closed. In 1880 the premises were sold.

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POUND, Ezra (1885-1972): Pound was a highly regarded American poet and critic who did much to advance modernist views on both sides of the Atlantic. He was particularly associated with the Imagist School and is thought of as the man who introduced the Japanese form of the Haiku to the Western World.

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PRINZEP, Gavril. (1894-1918): He was the killer of Archduke Ferdinand. Prinzep was one of a revolutionary group of six students, dominated by Bosnian Serbs. These are often inaccurately said to have been members of ‘The Black Hand,’ a much larger revolutionary group which was itself plotting an assassination. There does seem to have been some murky contact between members of the two groups nevertheless. The students probably had some ‘unofficial’ help in the form of weapons supplied by individual members of the larger group. The first attempt to carry out the assassination was by bomb. This failed. However, the motorcade later experienced a mix-up of route, giving Prinzep an unexpected opportunity to shoot the Royal couple. He then tried to shoot himself but was quickly arrested. Prinzep was sentenced to 20 years imprisonment on 28th October 1914 (he was too young for the death penalty) but died in prison on 28th April 1918 from Tuberculosis.

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STALIN, Josef (Josef Djugashvili) (1878-1953): Lenin’s successor as Leader of The Soviet Union. Before 1917, he was regarded as ‘fixer’ for Lenin’s Bolsheviks – he met Lenin in 1905. He raised funds through bank robberies and other criminal activities, as well as acting as the editor of Pravda (‘Truth’) from 1912. On Lenin’s death, as General Secretary of the ruling party, he was well-placed to manoeuvre himself into the position as Leader. He moved against potential rivals, especially Leon Trotsky, who was removed from the Central Committee, then exiled, and finally shot when abroad. Stalin’s radical economic and other policies led to widespread famine, particularly in Ukraine, during the early nineteen-thirties. Stalin was responsible for millions of deaths.

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THE LAWGIVER, Suleiman (1494-1566): Following his father Selim I as Sultan of The Ottoman Empire in 1520, Suleiman (known as ‘The Magnificent’ in the Western World) was the ruler of that Empire at its peak.

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TROTSKY, Leon (Lev Davidovich Bronstein) (1879-1940): Trotsky was a leading figure in the 1905 Revolution. He became a strong presence within Lenin’s Bolsheviks from 1917, even though for a time he had been earlier associated with the Menshevik element. He was seen as a potential successor to Lenin in 1924, but was outmaneuvered by Stalin, exiled, and finally assassinated in Mexico City during 1940 by Stalin’s agent Ramón Mercader.

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VICTORIA, QUEEN (Alexandrina Victoria of Hanover) (1818-1901): She was the last of the Hanoverian monarchs of the British Empire, ruling from 1837 until her death in 1901 (famously in the arms of her grandson, Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany). She married Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha in 1840, and was succeeded by her eldest son, Albert Edward of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, who ruled as King Edward VII. He was succeeded in 1910 by his own second son, George Frederick Ernest Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, who ruled as King George V. In 1917, King George V changed the family surname to ‘Windsor’ because of the war. This is the name it still retains.

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VILLAIN, Raoul (1885-1936): He was a member of the Ligue des jeunes amis de l'Alsace-Lorraine nationalist group. The aim of this group was recovery of the former French provinces of Alsace and Lorraine. As such, Villain was opposed to the pacifist efforts of Jean Jaurès. This led to the Frenchman’s assassination on the evening of  31st July 1914. He was shot in Le Croissant, through a window. Villain was brought to trial in 1919 but, in the spirit of triumphalism after the war, he was pardoned.

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WELLS, Herbert George (1866-1946): Wells was a prominent author and social critic, with over fifty books and many short stories to his credit. He wrote in a variety of genres, although is probably best remembered for his ‘scientific romances’. The first of these, and his first novel, was The Time Machine, published in 1895.