Harkness roses

13
Historic Anniversaries

Fear Naught

Not long after Harkness started to raise memorable, distinctive roses, it, predictably, started to
receive requests to name roses to mark special anniversaries. The first came from the Kent Branch of
The Royal Tank Regiment who asked for a rose to commemorate its 50th Anniversary. Jack was more
than happy to oblige. The Regiment played a huge part in ‘his’ war in Burma. He chose a Queen
Elizabeth/Ena Harkness cross. Launched in 1968, it was called Fear Naught after The Royal Tank
Regiment’s motto (unofficial motto is: From Mud, Through Blood to the Green Fields Beyond).

The Royal Tank Regiment won the famous Battle of The Tennis Court in Kohima (border of
Burma and India) which turned the war in favour of the allies. The last Japanese positions were in the
mined tennis court in the grounds of the Deputy Commissioner's bungalow, a no man's land with the
Japanese and the British dug in so closely together, grenades were thrown between the trenches.

In 1944 under heavy fire, after several failed attempts to storm the position, Royal Engineers
bulldozed a road to a spur behind the bungalow, winched up a tank and pushed it down the slope. It
came to rest on the baseline of the tennis court, where Sergeant Waterhouse of the 149 Royal Tank
Regiment poured a hail of fire into the Japanese bunkers at twenty yards.

A war cemetery is now over the tennis court. The original markings are preserved by the
Commonwealth War Graves Commission. At the base of a memorial cross is the inscription:
Here, around the tennis court of the deputy commissioner, the men who fought in the battle of Kohima

in which they and their comrades finally halted the invasion of India by the forces of Japan in April
1944.

To the side of this cross is a tree with a plaque.
This flowering cherry tree is of historical interest. The original tree was used as a sniper's post by the
Japanese and was destroyed in the fighting which raged round the tennis court and marked the limit of

the Japanese advance into India. The present tree is from a branch of the old one.
At the base of another memorial cross is the inscription.

When you go home
Tell them of us and say

For your tomorrow
We gave our today.

Hiroshima’s Children

A seed pollinated in 1977 will, almost a decade later, involve Harkness for the first and only time,
with something political. It will be launched as Hiroshima’s Children to mark the 40th anniversary of a
horrific tragedy. Forty years previously America dropped an atom bomb on Hiroshima in Japan.

The wife of the Japanese Ambassador to the UK who accepted the rose on behalf of Japan at
the 1985 Chelsea Flower Show wore the traditional kimono. The rose flourishes in Hiroshima but does
not do well in Britain.

In ??? when Dr Tomin Harada, an avid rose grower from Japan, visited Harkness Nursery it
turned out in conversation that he and Jack had fought on opposite sides in the same war in Burma.

Dr Harada, a surgeon in the Medical Corps, returned home to Hiroshima after the war to find
86,000 dead, mutilated and scarred survivors, his home gone and his city blackened. He set up a
practice and devoted his life to the hibakusha (victims of the bomb) who had unidentifiable illnesses
and horrific raised scars (keloids).

Dr. Harada was as deeply concerned about the psychic scars suffered by the bomb victims as he
was with their physical wounds. The hibakusha were rejected as marital partners because of their
disfigurements and fears that offspring would be born deformed. Many more worried about developing
cancer from the radiation exposure.

In an attempt to remove the keloid scars, Dr. Harada operated at the Atomic Bomb Hospital,
which he headed for decades while also running his private hospital in tandem to raise funds. As
plastic surgery was not available in Japan, in 1955, Norman Cousins, American newspaper editor of
Saturday Review, raised funds to send 200 female survivors to America for treatment. Cousins
suffered deep guilt over his country’s action and campaigned all his life for nuclear disarmament.

In 1957, Dr. Harada successfully pressed the Japanese government to enact a law to provide
free medical treatment to survivors.

Dr. Harada, for whom rose breeding was a life long passion, stressed the symbolic and medicinal
qualities of the rose in his book Rose Lore. He raised his own 'peace’ rose in the hope that it would be
planted all over the world and help erase hatred among mankind.

Dr. Harada died age 87 in Hiroshima in 1999.

Conquerors’ Gold

Considering that England was invaded it is perhaps a little surprising that The Public Record
Office asked Harkness for a rose to celebrate The Domesday Book.

In 1066 a date forever engraved on every Englishman’s heart William marched from Hastings to
London massacring inhabitants of towns which refused to surrender, circled the City then pitched
camp at Berkhamsted in Hertfordshire. Here, 600 miles above sea level, he could watch London.
Rather than witness the sack of their beloved City, the City Fathers surrendered England’s crown at
Berkhamsted.

Never-the-less, 1986 saw the introduction of Conqueror’s Gold. The name could not be improved
upon. It was a stroke of genius because it commemorates the 900th anniversary of The Domesday
Book in which William 1 made a list of anything worth plundering. It was commissioned to find out who
he could tax. ‘There was no single hide nor a yard of land, nor indeed one ox nor one cow nor one pig
which was left out’. Information on who owned what was recorded in two huge books but the rapacious
William died before it was finished.

Locals nicknamed it The Doomsday Book because in the Bible people’s deeds are written in the
Book of Life which is put before God on Judgement Day. Almost all of the 13,418 places mentioned in
the book can still be found on a present day map of England.

Not only was the name perfect, The Public Record Office (PRO) said the cross logged as
HARtwiz was also perfect because its yellow flowers become rosy red as the petals expand. The
vellum used in The Domesday Book was now yellow with age and the key words were highlighted in
light red.

On May 29th the day of the anniversary a public exhibition at The Royal Courts of Justice staged
by the PRO was opened by HM The Queen. Present were descendants of owners who held land in
1086. Peter presented The Queen with a large bouquet of Conqueror’s Gold.

Seeing Archbishop Runcie in the crowd Peter went up to him to say hello and was a taken aback
to receive the reply: ’How is your nephew getting on with my wife? She makes strong men turn pale’.
He then remembered that Robert had answered the telephone to find Mrs Runcie on the other end
asking for suggestions for suitable roses to grow in the garden at Lambeth Palace. The Harkness
family had known the Archbishop and his wife since he was Bishop of St. Albans Cathedral in
Hertfordshire. Both were avid rose lovers.

Seafarer

In 1982 Peter was visited by Dr Hope of The Marine Society who asked about the possibility of
having a rose to celebrate the bi-centenary of the death of John Hanway its founder. A man of few
words, Dr Hope happened to mention in passing that he was an atheist. After the meeting, nothing
more was heard.

Three year later, Peter and Margaret, in church in Wales on Good Friday was surprised to see Dr
Hope. Peter, who recognised him by his distinctive, bushy, eyebrows, was mystified why a self
confessed atheist was in church, in Wales.

After the service Peter spoke to him. It turned out that his wife was the church goer. The Hope’s
were invited for tea and a walk along the coastal path at the end of which the project was back on.

The rose Seafarer was launched at Chelsea in 1986. The Queen visited the Harkness stall and
as patron of The Marine Society was presented with a basket of Seafarer. Peter said he enjoyed his
longest conversation with HM thanks to a pair of bushy eyebrows.

Jonas Hanway founded The Marine Society in 1756 to train men to fight at sea when Britain was
at war with most of Europe. He thought he might as well because men who crewed his ships would be
poached – pressed - to fight in the King's Navy.

In 1756 at the beginning of the Seven Years' War against France, Austria, Russia, Sweden,
Saxony, Spain and Portugal Britain urgently needed sailors. Hanway recruited poor, unemployed
young men and orphaned boys and gave them naval training.

‘Notice is hereby given, that all stout lads and boys, who incline to go on board His Majesty’s Ships,
with a view to learn the duty of a seaman, and are, upon examination, approved by The Marine

Society, shall be handsomely clothed and provided with bedding, and their charges born down to the
ports where His Majesty’s Ships lye, with all other proper encouragement’

The Society recruited 10,000 men and boys. Each was issued with a suit of clothes, taught the
importance of personal hygiene and given a rudimentary education.

The Marine Society trained 7955 men and 4271 boys for The American War of Independence
By the time of the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805 a significant proportion of manpower for the King's
navy was being supplied, trained and equipped by The Marine Society. These men were volunteers so
far more effective than a pressed man. Admiral Lord Nelson, Britain's naval hero, knew he benefited
from having trained, motivated, disciplined and well equipped men, something no other nation had. He
acknowledged his and the nation's debt to The Marine Society by becoming a Trustee.
When the wars ended Jonas Hanway transferred his boys to merchant ships. From then on, the
Society was equally involved with both The Royal Navy and The Merchant Navy.
In 1786 just before he died Hanway bought the Beatty, converted it to a training ship, renamed it
The Marine Society and moored it on the Thames. He was the first in the world to pioneer nautical

training in a specially equipped school ship. The Marine Society still provides sea training for hundreds
of cadets every year.

An oil painting of Jonas Hanway hangs in the Marine Society offices in Lambeth. Hanway said
his sour look reflected his dislike in posing. He was buried in the crypt of St Mary's Church, Hanwell,
after an elaborate funeral designed to advertise the Marine Society's ship school as well as to honour
the founder. In 1788 an impressive memorial was placed in Westminster Abbey, the first to
commemorate a philanthropist.

City of London

In 1989 when the City of London marked the 800th anniversary of the Office of Mayor, David
Jones, Public Relations Officer and City Superintendent of Parks and Gardens, contacted Peter to
discuss a commemorative rose. David, a keen rose man, became President of the Royal National
Rose Society in 2003.

The City of London is known as The Square Mile. Its Lord Mayor should not be confused with the
Mayor of London, an elected politician accountable for Greater London (except the City). This rôle was
created in 2000. The Mayor of London is also referred to as the London Mayor which helps to avoid
confusion.

The City of London Council hired and staffed a hospitality marquee for the week of the 1988
Chelsea Flower Show in which the City of London rose was launched. Later that year Peter was
invited to open the City of London Flower Show in Guildhall.

The City of London rose still grows in the churchyard of St. Paul's Cathedral.
The City’s first and longest serving mayor, Henry FitzAilwyn, took office in 1189 but the most
famous Lord Mayor was Dick Whittington, who held office in 1397, 1398, 1406 and 1419. Contrary to
popular belief, Dick Whittington was not poor. Coming from a wealthy family, he had a successful
business. He was a Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Mercers (dealers in costly fabrics such
as silk and linen). When Whittington died he left everything to charity endowing and building
almshouses,
libraries, civic buildings and public amenities that continue to serve London today.
The Lord Mayor lives in The Mansion House opposite the Bank of England. The rare Georgian
town palace in was built in 1758.
The Lord Mayor’s Show, which takes place on the Saturday after the second Friday in
November, is the largest unrehearsed pageant in the world. It dates to 1215 when King John gave the
City a charter which stipulated that the new Lord Mayor must swear an oath of allegiance to the
Sovereign and ‘show’ himself to the people. The Lord Mayor rides in the Golden State Coach (1753)
the oldest carriage in regular use in the United Kingdom.

Savoy Hotel

1989 saw Centenary celebrations of The Savoy Hotel in the Strand London. Richard D'Oyly
Carte opened on it using the profits from the Gilbert and Sullivan operas especially the hugely
successful Mikado. The Savoy asked if Harkness could produce a rose the same delicate pink as its
then famous table napkins. As it had four years notice, the answer was yes.

Count Peter of Savoy built the palace in 1246 on land given to him by Henry III of England,
whose wife Eleanor was the Count’s niece. Savoy Palace, later the London home of John of Gaunt,
Duke of Lancaster, was burned to the ground during the Peasant’s Revolt of 1381. The freehold of the
hotel is still part of the Duchy of Lancaster, held by HM Elizabeth 11.

In 1930 the sculpture of Count Peter of Savoy was winched on top of the Savoy sign.
The first public building in the world to be lit entirely by electricity had air conditioning, central
heating, soundproof windows, telephones, ensuite marble bathrooms with constant hot and cold
running water and twenty four hour room service.
The manager was the famous César Ritz. The French chef was the legendary Auguste Escoffier
of Peach Melba and Melba Toast fame. When Ritz left to open The Ritz Hotel in London in 1905
Escoffier went with him.
On his visit in 1870, the French Impressionist Claude Monet saw and admired the paintings of
English painters such as Constable, Turner and Whistler. When he visited London again to see his son
in the autumn of 1899, views of the city in the fog inspired him to return the following year. He painted
Waterloo Bridge, Charing Cross Bridge and The Houses of Parliament in every conceivable weather
condition at different times of the day working on fifteen canvases at a time. His famous views of the
Thames were painted from the Savoy Hotel.
The Savoy American Bar served the first cocktail in London. The hotel has a 1923 photograph of
Fred and Adele Astaire dancing on the roof and others of John Wayne and Charlie Chaplin. The Savoy
Grill was a favourite haunt of Winston Churchill who took cabinet colleagues there for lunch during the
war.
Some rooms were named after famous residents. The Marlene Dietrich Room had the twelve
pink roses she insisted upon when she visited. Marilyn Monroe, Katharine Hepburn, Oscar Wilde,
Frank Sinatra, Elizabeth Taylor and Doris Day all stayed there. Vivien Leigh met her future husband
Laurence Olivier in The Savoy Grill in 1935.
Harkness invited BBC News Reader Richard Baker to launch the Savoy Hotel rose at the 1989
Chelsea Flower Show.

Queen Charlotte

Harkness launched the Queen Charlotte rose to mark the 250th anniversary of Queen Charlotte
Hospital in London. Charlotte, wife of George III, saved the charity when her son told her it was about
to close because it had run out of money.

What is now the oldest maternity hospital in Europe opened in 1739 to help unmarried, starving,
pregnant women who came in off the streets but only for a first baby. Out-patients were also seen,
especially wives of soldiers or sailors. The Hospital’s resident midwives were all men. Women were
not officially trained as midwives until 1902.

The hospital, which has moved nine times since it opened, is still in the vanguard of maternity
care. The last move was to the purpose built, current site opened by HRH The Princess Royal in 2001.
World renowned for its maternity, women’s and children’s services, it houses the Centre for Foetal
Care which uses cutting edge technology to treat unborn babies with life threatening conditions. It has
a specialist centre for women with high risk pregnancies and the largest neonatal care unit in the
country for premature and sick babies. In keeping with the times, the Centre has a variety of birthing
aids to help with natural pain relief, such as hammocks, birthing stools, Swiss balls and birthing pools.

This is where the actress Dame Helen Mirren who played Queen Charlotte in Alan Bennett’s film
The Madness of King George, was born. It was renamed Queen Charlotte and Chelsea Hospital when
it merged with the Chelsea Hospital for Women.

Charlotte had fifteen children with no miscarriages or stillbirths. Twenty-three years of her young
life were taken up with childbirth. Within a year of marriage she produced George, heir to the throne.
None of Charlotte’s six daughters had children, although rumour had it that Princess Sophia had a
secret, illegitimate, son which was adopted at birth and the Princess Royal, who married Prince
Frederick of Württemberg, had a stillborn daughter. The Princesses Augusta, Sophia and Amelia
never married. Princess Elizabeth married when she was 48, Princess Mary when she was 42.

Charlotte’s only grandchild, named after her, was the daughter of her son George (later George
IV) born to the estranged prince and princess of Wales. When she died young, in childbirth, the public
outpouring of public grief was similar to that which followed the death of Diana, another Princess of
Wales.

Charlotte and George loved each other deeply. They also loved their large family and shared
interests in the sciences, the arts, theatre, and music, as well as a sincere religious faith. George was
proud of his widely read, intelligent, queen and wanted a home where they could enjoy a private life
away from Court so in 1762 the King bought Buckingham House, in The Mall opposite St James's
Park. Today it’s known as Buckingham Palace.

Their happiness was shattered by the king's mental breakdown in 1788. The shock, which
brought Charlotte to breaking point, was worsened by his irrational hostility towards her and his
declaration that he had fallen in love with her lady in waiting. In 1811 George’s final illness meant he

was confined to a separate apartment in Windsor. For the last seven years of Charlotte’s life, she was,
in all but name, a widow with a living but blind and mentally distressed husband. A very sad end to
what had been a loving, companionable marriage.

The royal family destroyed Charlotte's private papers when she died.

By Appointment

In 1988 The Royal Warrant Holders Association sent a group to Harkness Nursery to choose a
rose to mark their 150th anniversary. Because it had rained heavily the day before to save the visitors
going home with muddy shoes, a selection of seedlings were on show in the dry.

The members chose HARvolute which was pollinated in 1981. They then asked to see the plants
growing so were escorted to a dry place where they could be seen. Instead they chose to tramp
across muddy furrows, the women in high heels, and were very happy with what they saw.

Harkness introduced By Appointment in 1990.
Ever since the Middle Ages, tradesmen who supply goods and services to the Sovereign have
received formal recognition. Later patronage took the form of Royal Charters given to the Guilds of
Trades and Crafts. These became The Livery Companies.
In 1840 when Her Majesty's Tradesmen celebrated Queen Victoria's birthday they formed an
association which became known as the Royal Warrant Holders Association. Today it acts in a
supervisory role to ensure high standards are upheld and as a channel of communication for members
in their dealings with the various departments of the Royal Household.
The Association represents companies or trades people who have supplied goods or services for
five consecutive years to HM The Queen, HRH The Duke of Edinburgh or HRH The Prince of Wales.
Her late Majesty Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother, was also a grantor; warrants granted by her
were retained for five years after her death.
Warrant holders come from a wide cross-section of British trades and industries from dry
cleaners, fishmongers, agricultural machinery manufacturers to computer software. Some firms have a
record of Royal Warrants reaching back a hundred years. Warrant holders do not provide goods or
services free to Royal households, transactions are conducted on a strictly commercial basis.
There are 850 Royal warrant holders, holding over 1,100 warrants (some have more than one).
Strict regulations govern the warrant which allows the holder to use 'By Appointment' and display the
Royal Coat of Arms on products, stationery, advertisements, printed material, premises and delivery
vehicles. A Royal Warrant is granted for five years after which it comes up for review. Advice on
granting warrants is provided by the Lord Chamberlain, head of the Royal Household, chairman of the
Royal Household Tradesmen's Warrants Committee.
HM The Queen has granted 686 Royal Warrants, HRH the Prince of Wales has granted 159,
HRH the Duke of Edinburgh has granted 37. A warrant may be cancelled at any time and is
automatically reviewed if the grantee dies, leaves the business or if the firm goes bankrupt or is sold.
The Royal Warrant Holders Association ensures that the warrant is not used by those not entitled and
is correctly applied.

Although Harkness has been supplying roses for members of the royal family for much longer
than five years, as the orders come via an agency (probably the Crown Estates Commission) not from
the Royal Parks or from the Queen's Gardener, it does no qualify to apply for a Royal Warrant.

Pride of Maldon

When Maldon, a town in Essex famous for its salt, commemorated the epic battle between the
indigenous population (Saxons) against invaders (Vikings) which took place in 991 AD, Harkness was
asked for a rose to mark its millennium.

The Battle of Maldon, headed by Byrhtnoth, a local hero with an unpronounceable name, took
place near Maldon during the reign of King Ethelred. Byrhtnoth, over six feet tall was sixty years old.
Sturdy in battle despite his advanced age, he was generous to his men and loyal to the King. He
inspired such devotion in his followers, most preferred to die avenging him than to seek safety in flight.
It was his death that made the battle of Maldon significant enough to receive notices in The Anglo-
Saxon Chronicle.

The Vikings said they would leave if they were paid to go but Royal policy toward Viking
incursions was split. Some favoured paying them off, others favoured fighting to the last man. In the
end, the Archbishop of Canterbury advised Ethelred to buy them off rather than continue the battle.
The King’s payment of 3,300 kg of silver (£10,000) was the first of many such payments known as
Dane Geld.

After the battle, Byrhtnoth's body was found with his gold-hilted sword. A statue of him is in
Maldon and there is a memorial window in St Mary's Church.

Beorhthelm's Son by J. R. R. Tolkien published in 1953 is a dialogue between two characters in
the aftermath of the Battle of Maldon. In the science fiction novel Perelandra by Tolkien’s close friend
C. S. Lewis, the protagonist (a philologist from Cambridge transported to the planet Venus) recites The
Battle of Maldon to keep up his courage while wandering in tunnels deep under the alien planet's
surface.

Remembrance

The Imperial War Graves Commission, established by Royal Charter after WWI in 1917. was
renamed The Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) in 1960. The non-profit-making
organisation, pays tribute to 1.7 million men and women of Commonwealth forces who died in two
world wars. Each of the dead is commemorated by name on a permanent memorial. Headstones are
uniform with no distinction made for military or civil rank, race or creed.

CWGC maintains graves and memorials at 23,000 sites in over 150 countries. Of the million
casualties commemorated are included the graves of 935,000 identified and 212,000 unidentified. The
names of a further 760,000 victims are on memorials to the missing. In addition to commemorating
Commonwealth forces CWGC maintains 40,000 war graves of other nationalities and 25,000 non-war
military and civilian graves.

The largest of the Commission’s memorials to the missing is the Thiepval Memorial in France. 45
metres high it carries the names of 72,000 casualties from one battle, the Somme. Designed by Sir
Edwin Lutyens, completed in 1932 it was unveiled by the Prince of Wales and the President of France.

In 1987 a representative of the CWGC arrived at the Harkness Nursery asking for a rose to mark
Remembrance Sunday. It needed to be a low growing rose which would not grow so tall it would
obscure the inscriptions on the graves, would flower a long time and was suitable to grow in many
parts of the world. She placed a trial order for several hundred patio roses. In the next five years
Harkness sent thousands more.

In 1992 when the CWGC decided it wanted its own rose, Harkness chose a compact scarlet rose
which blooms on and on and called it Remembrance. Its colour is similar to that of the poppies of
Flanders. Packaged and sent in November, boxes of 8,500 bushes to Belgium and France addressed
to Ypres, Arras, Cambrai and Suvla Bay brought pangs. How gratified the Company must feel to know
it has honoured so many brave men and women who died fighting German tyranny.

L’Aimant

In 1992 Harkness was asked for a rose to mark the 65th anniversary of L’Aimant, Coty's answer
to Chanel No. 5. Created in 1927 for his favourite mistress, Henriette Daude, the love of his life, in a
way L’Aimant (loving) cost Francois Coty his life. Henriette bore him five children. Coty and his wife
Yvonne had two. He housed numerous mistresses and illegitimate children in the Hotel Astoria, Paris
and lavished money and gifts on them.

In 1929 a divorce settlement stipulated that Coty pay Yvonne millions. When he defaulted, the
court granted her ownership of most of Coty's vast fortune. He died a recluse in 1934. ‘One thing
eluded me’ he said ‘I never managed to capture the smell of honeysuckle’.

Coty, 25, was a Corsican descendant of Isabelle Bonaparte, aunt of Napoleon Bonaparte. When
he married Yvonne Le Baron in Paris he became interested in perfumery. He went to Grasse in the
south of France where he created the fragrance La Rose Jacqueminot. On his return to Paris in 1904,
Coty tried to sell his perfume but met with little success until the day he broke a bottle accidentally on
purpose in Les Grands Magasins du Louvre, the Parisian department store. Attracted by the scent,
women queued to buy the perfume. The store rented him a place on the selling floor. Its success made
Coty a millionaire in a matter of months and established him in the perfume world.

Coty was an inspired perfumier and a brilliant marketer, the first to recognize that the bottle itself
was essential to a perfume's success. He contacted glass maker René Lalique famous for his Art
Nouveau designs and asked him for a scent bottle suitable for mass production. Lalique also designed
the bottle label printed on a gold background with raised lettering.

Before Coty, perfume was a luxury reserved for the very wealthy. He was the first to sell it in
affordable bottles. He developed Perfume City in 1909, a residential villa transformed into a large
industrial complex of laboratories and factories. 9,000 employees produced 100,000 bottles a day. By
1920, Coty owned and controlled all aspects of production, flower fields, packaging, factories, print
shops and delivery vehicles.

When American soldiers stationed in France during WWI bought his perfumes to take home for
loved ones Coty realized the importance of the huge, lucrative market and began to distribute his
products in the US.

Harkness introduced L’Aimant at the 1994 Chelsea Flower Show. It will be the fragrance winner
in the Royal National Rose Society (RNRS) trials and in Paris will win???

Tower Bridge

1995 saw Harkness launch Tower Bridge, a rose to mark the 100th anniversary of the opening of
the famous bridge over the Thames, one of London's famous landmarks.

Sir Horace Jones, who studied architecture in London, Italy and Greece, was appointed architect
to the City of London in 1864. In 1868 he designed Smithfield Meat Market which is reminiscent of a
cathedral. Open ironwork lets in the light and air and the louvre roof kept out the sun keeping the meat
cool in the days before refrigeration. The market complex was linked by the underground railway to all
the major train stations. Sir Horace also rebuilt the splendid Leadenhall Market.

Preparing a report on the need for a new bridge over the Thames, he said the best solution
would be a suspension bridge, supported from two piers, with a central opening section 200 feet wide
for large ships to pass through.

Tower Bridge took eight years to build. Within a month of work starting Sir Horace Jones died a
day after his 68th birthday.

Two massive piers were sunk into the river bed to support the construction. 11,000 tons of steel
provided the framework. This was clad in Cornish granite and Portland stone to protect the steel and to
give a pleasing appearance.

Tower Bridge was the largest, most sophisticated bascule bridge ever built (bascule is French for
see-saw). The bascules were operated by hydraulics using steam to power the enormous pumping
engines. The energy created was stored in six massive accumulators. As soon as power was required
to lift the Bridge, it was available. The accumulators fed the driving engines which drove the bascules
up and down. They took a minute to raise to their maximum angle of 86 degrees. The bascules are still
operated by hydraulic power but are driven by oil and electricity. The original steam engines are still in
their original location. The bridge is still raised every morning and every evening.

The Bridge was officially opened 30 June 1894 by the Prince and Princess of Wales (future
Edward VII and Queen Alexandra). There will not be another built for a hundred years. The Millennium
Bridge suffered technical problems when it was opened and will forever be known as The Wobbly
Bridge. Closed for two years while modifications were made to eliminate the wobble, it was reopened
in 2002.

Nipper

1996 saw the introduction of a rose called Nipper to mark the 75th anniversary of His Master’s
Voice (HMV). Sir Edward Elgar and Francis Barraud the artist who immortalised Nipper the dog,
HMV’s world famous logo, opened the first HMV shop in Oxford Street London in 1921.

Elgar was the first classical composer to take the gramophone seriously and conducted a series
of acoustic recordings of his works. The introduction of the microphone in 1925 made far more
accurate sound reproduction possible and Elgar made new recordings of most of his major orchestral
works.

In 1931 the Gramophone Company merged with Columbia Gramophone Company to form
Electric and Musical Industries Ltd (EMI). The brand name His Master’s Voice came from a painting of
that name when the world fell in love with Nipper, the little fox terrier who sits, head on one side,
listening to his master's voice coming from the horn.

The iconic image is one of the world's most recognized and best loved trademarks. The Nipper
logo first appeared in 1909. Francis Barraud, who painted him, didn’t copyright his painting and
received a paltry £100.

Nipper was a real, stray, dog found in 1884 by his brother Mark. When Mark died, Nipper (he
nipped the backs of visitors' legs) was taken in by Francis. When Nipper listened to the phonograph
(cylindrical recording/playing machine) Barraud was amused to see how puzzled he was trying to
figure out where the voice was coming from. In 1899 he painted Dog Looking at and Listening to a
Phonograph and tried to exhibit it at The Royal Academy but was turned down. Magazines didn’t want
it either nor did Edison Bell (who invented the cylinder phonograph) who said dogs don't listen to
phonographs. Later, for advertising purposes, the phonograph was changed to a wind-up
gramophone, and eventually used simply as a silhouette.

HMV Oxford Street stayed open during WWII as a collection point for old records which were re-
cycled and used to make new records. Its parent company the EMI record factory at Hayes was used
for munitions manufacturing.

In 1962, Beatles’ manager Brian Epstein, rejected by Decca and EMI, took a tape into HMV
Oxford Street recording studio to make a demonstration record. Jim Foy, who ran the studio, cut the
disc. A meeting between Epstein and George Martin of EMI Parlophone took place the next day at
Abbey Road studios. The Beatles were on their way.

Francis Barraud’s original painting hangs in the offices of EMI.

Faithful

Harkness introduced the rose called Faithful in 1998 to mark the Centenary of the Royal Army
Medical Corps (RAMC) a specialist corps in the British Army which provides medical services to British
Army personnel and their families in war and in peace. The Corps which has been present in almost
every war the army has fought also fought in ‘Jack’s’ war’ in Burma.

Its motto is In Arduis Fidelius (Faithful in Adversity). The cap badge shows the Rod of Asclepius,
the god of healing. Because it is not a fighting arm, men use weapons only in self-defence. On parade
officers do not draw swords, they hold the scabbard with the left hand while saluting with their right.
Other Ranks do not fix bayonets.

The 31 Victoria Crosses won by the Corps, include a double VC. In 1918, George V conferred
the title 'Royal' on the Corps in recognition of the enormous contribution it made in World War I.

The Second World War saw huge advances in battlefield medicine including inoculation against
malaria in Burma where troops fought in the jungle. The front from Northern Burma and Assam to the
Arakan was longer than the Russian front in Europe, treating the injured was a total nightmare. Un-
metalled roads churned to mud were completely impassable. Continuous heavy monsoon rains
caused landslides. Four-wheel drive ambulances carrying stretcher cases sank to the axles in the
deep, sticky, black, clay and had to be manhandled out. In the early days it was often a case of
resorting to mule, hand-carriage and stretcher-bearers. Crews of ambulance trains had to be armed for
protection against looters, do their own signal and point shifting and render first aid at bombed wayside
stations. Ambulance cars were machine gunned. When the injured were taken on river steamers to
hospital ships, sampans had to negotiate rapids. The ships tried to anchor within two miles of the
shore but owing to the nature of the coast, with its long, tidal creeks and shallow mangrove swamps,
this was not often possible.

For the first time, evacuating casualties by air as opposed to carrying them with the column
became possible. Commando forces air landed by gliders which were towed by Dakotas. In ten days
during April 1942 alone, ten Dakotas evacuated 1,900 troops and civilians to hospitals in Assam
across the mountainous barrier which separates Northern Burma from the Brahmaputra valley in India.
The peaks are over 10,000 feet. Casualties were also loaded on to flying boats from collapsible
dinghies. In Norseman aircraft, patients on stretchers were suspended on slings from the cabin roof.
The high winged monoplane gave easy access for stretcher bearers from all angles.

City Livery

In 2000 Harkness introduced a rose named City Livery to honour the 103 Livery companies in
London. The Livery companies are ancient trade associations. The oldest goes back to the Guilds
formed in the City long before William the Conqueror. Livery refers to the uniform worn although The
Worshipful Company of Parish Clerks and The Company of Watermen and Lightermen chose not to
apply for livery due to their ancient status. As agents for the Port of London, the Company of
Watermen & Lightermen is responsible for examining and licensing anyone who wants to work as a
waterman or lighterman on the Thames.

Guilds were closed shop trades unions inside the City walls which is why so many tradesmen
had to set up shop outside. They set the standards for trading, checking for quality of goods and
weights and measures. They controlled imports, set wages and working conditions and trained
apprentices.

The Goldsmiths Company has been assaying (testing for purity) gold and silver since 1300. From
1478 silver and gold was taken to Goldsmith’s Hall for testing. Goldsmiths still run the London Assay
Office where millions of gold, silver and platinum objects are Hall Marked.

Few Livery Halls survived The Great Fire of London in 1666. Many of those that did were
destroyed by German bombs during WWII. Now only forty Companies have Halls in London. The
oldest belongs to The Worshipful Society of Apothecaries (1672).

The Fishmongers still practice quality control, ensuring that the fish sold daily in Billingsgate
Market is fit for human consumption. Fish Hall has the dagger with which Lord Mayor William Walworth
killed Wat Tyler in 1381. Tyler was the leader of the Peasants Revolt.

By law, horses must be shod by skilled and registered persons. The Farriers' Company has a
legal duty to secure the required standards for the trade and to examine those wishing to qualify for its
diploma.

In 1515, to settle bickering, the Aldermen of the City of London settled an order of precedence for
the forty-eight Livery Companies then in existence. The oldest are known as the Great Twelve. The
Worshipful Company of Fishmongers rank fourth, The Worshipful Company of Vintners, ninth. The
Merchant Taylors and the Skinners disputed their precedence, so every year exchange sixth and
seventh place - this is the origin of the phrase ‘at sixes and sevens’. As there are now 108 Companies,
the Order of Precedence is sometimes reviewed.

The Vintners' and Dyers' Companies share swans on the Thames with the Monarch. Swan-
upping (census) takes place the third week in July every year. Just as there is a Cow Herd and a
Shepherd, there is a Swan Herd. Swans are rounded up, marked, then released. The ceremony dates
from the 1100s when swans were eaten by royalty. As recently as 1874, Queen Victoria's son sent
one to his Oxford tutor for his Christmas dinner.

Swan quills were used for writing. Goose quills were more plentiful therefore cheaper but a
swan's quill lasted longer. Queen Elizabeth I preferred to write with a swan's quill. Quills were shorn of
feathers to make writing easier (ignorant film makers use quills with feathers). Swan feathers were
used to decorate hats and swan down was used for quilts and pillows.

Today Swan Upping is for conservation purposes. Only swans with cygnets are caught and
ringed. By law, fishermen now have to use lead free weights so the number of swans is increasing.
There is no answer to the horror of a swan dying a horrible death choking on a fishing line, apart
perhaps from the RSPCA lobbying to make fishing near swans illegal.

Men row up river – hence Upping – in skiffs. Two carry the Queen's Standard, she is Seigneur of
The Swans. Two carry the flag of the Dyers' company and two the flag of the Vintners' company.

Letchworth Garden City

In 2003 Harkness named a rose to mark the Centenary of Letchworth Garden City founded by

Ebenezer Howard.

In 1871, Howard, son of a shop keeper, and two friends sailed for New York, made for Nebraska
and bought a 160 acre plot to start a homestead farm. The enterprise failed after the first – 40% winter.

Howard made his way to Chicago which was being rebuilt after a serious fire gutted it. The vast public

parks being laid out gave Chicago the name The Garden City.

Back home, Howard met George Bernard Shaw, Sidney Webb and William Morris supporters of

Fabian socialism. They remained friends for the rest of their lives.

Howard, who considered access to the countryside an absolute necessity for well-being,

despaired of the failure of cities to provide decent housing and working conditions for the poor. In 1889

he read Edward Bellamy's science fiction novel Looking Backward about an American who falls into a

trance in 1887 and wakes up in the year 2000 to find his country transformed into an ideal community

made possible by technological advances and state capitalism. A mesmerised Howard read the book

in one sitting. Bellamy's descriptions of utopian urban planning and The Garden City of Chicago
inspired Howard to found the garden city movement in England I realised …possibilities of a new
civilisation based on service to the community not on self-interest … I determined to take such part as
I could … in helping to bring a new civilisation into being’.

The following year William Morris wrote his version of utopia in News from Nowhere.

Howard, looking for a remedy to overcrowded, unhealthy, industrial cities, met George Cadbury

of Bournville and W. H. Lever of Port Sunlight who created model industrial villages.

He published Garden Cities of Tomorrow in 1902. By 1903 his utopian dream of a new society

was well on its way to being realised. He wanted a new kind of settlement which would benefit the

community. His garden cities were to be surrounded by a permanent rural belt. Each was to be self-

contained, built on land bought by trustees, used as an asset, against which the cost of development

would be raised. The value of the land would increase and periodic revaluation of the plots leased to

individuals would reap the benefit for the community, with dividends to shareholders limited to 5%. The

first dividend of 1% was not paid until 1913. Cumulative dividend arrears were not paid until 1946.

In 1903 a site at Letchworth, Hertfordshire was found and development by First Garden City Ltd

began. In keeping with his ideals only one tree was felled during the entire initial construction phase

and an area devoted to agriculture surrounding the town was included in the plan. This was the origin

of The Green Belt. Howard became famous as a pioneer in town planning. Canberra, the capital

of Australia, was influenced by LGC as was Hellerau in Germany, Tapanila in Finland, and Mežaparks

in Latvia. Walt Disney capitalised on Howard's concepts when he built EPCOT (Experimental

Prototype Community of Tomorrow). LGC also influenced the post WWII New Towns movement.

In 1919 Howard learned that a suitable site at Welwyn, Hertfordshire, 15 miles south of
Letchworth, was about to be sold by auction. He raised £5000 from friends, attended the sale, and
successfully bid for the land. Second Garden City Ltd was formed to take over and develop the estate.
In twelve years, Welwyn Garden City became a flourishing town of 10,000 residents.

Howard remained a poor man all his life. Devoid of personal ambition, he had the gift of inspiring
others. Convinced of the rightness of his ideas, he was driven by enthusiasm. Neither a town planner
nor a financier he convinced town planners and financiers of the soundness of his ideas.

George Bernard Shaw said Howard was ‘one of those heroic simpletons who do big things whilst
our prominent worldlings are explaining why they are Utopian and impossible. And of course it is they
who make money out of his work’.

Howard was appointed OBE in 1924 and knighted in 1927. The New Towns Act of 1946 fulfilled
Howard's objectives.

13
Good Causes

Compassion

Jack had not been raising his own, distinctive, roses long when, as you would expect, requests

started arriving for roses to be named to raise funds for good causes. The first was Compassion

named for REMAP, a charity dedicated to the rehabilitation of the disabled. Its name, says Peter, does

not apply to its vicious prickles, owners need thick gardening gloves when handling it. He should know,
he’s been pruning his for thirty years. It’s now 20 foot wide and 18 foot high. The rose proved popular

and remains popular.

Pat Johnson, ex Royal Engineers, who worked for ICI, had a disabled sister confined to a

wheelchair. As she needed help to get down the front steps of her bungalow when she wanted to go

out, if no-one was around she had to stay in.

Using dedication, imagination, creativity, know how and recycled materials Pat built her a ramp.

He then installed an electric hoist in the roof space above her bathroom and toilet. The year was 1964.
The huge improvement to his sister’s quality of life inspired him to enlist the help of fellow engineers at

ICI and found Remap.

Today volunteers with an engineering background still solve problems and invent gadgets which
improve people’s lives. Every year, using the same dedication, imagination, creativity, know how and

recycled materials they help 4000 victims of polio, meningitis, MS, cerebral palsy and other terrible

debilitating illnesses all over the UK.

One beneficiary could use her adapted car only if she had someone with her because once
behind the wheel she couldn’t get her wheelchair in. Richard Brown adapted a multi-channel model

aircraft system so that she could operate the controls on the wheelchair from the driving seat. A

chap who loved bowling relied on other players to push him around. Brian Pile motorised his

wheelchair using spares from a broken electric wheelchair so that he could whizz around the green
picking up woods. A lively little girl with a rare skin condition couldn’t go out without protective clothing

so Jack Rae made her a toy car fitted with an ultra violet filter screen. A woman with cerebral palsy

who loved cooking told Roger Vaughan she would love to be able to get food into and out the

microwave and the oven so he made a trolley with a tray which moves up and down and turns through

360 degrees. Another cerebral palsy sufferer longed to be able to go to the park and throw a ball for

her beloved dog. Brian Bloomfield taking inspiration from the Roman ballista, built a ball-hurling

mechanism and attached it to her chair. A stroke victim, once a keen embroiderer, could move only

one hand so Huw Thomas made a clamp by which frames of any diameter could be held rigidly so that

she could manipulate the needle.

These mini miracles go unseen and unsung but in 2008 a photograph of ex serviceman Derek

Derenaglo running on prosthetic legs at a Help for Heroes (H4H) Rugby match at Twickenham put

Remap in the public eye. Roger Thorn helped Derek qualify to represent Britain in the Discus Throwing

in the 2012 Paralympics by designing a strong, lightweight, throwing frame secured to the ground with

adjustable straps which enables him to remain seated and support his prosthetic legs while throwing.
Derek is secured to the frame with seat belts. It’s portable and light enough to take when flying to
international events.

Derek: I love the frame. When I win a medal I want everyone to know that Remap helped to
make it possible.

Compassion, a salmon pink climber, made a five year Harkness record from hybridising in 1968
to selling in 1972. Its parents are White Cockade × Prima Ballerina. The Trade ordered 216,585 ‘eyes’
so the charity raised a considerable sum from sales, helped by the fact that during the first year,
supply was restricted to charity supporters. In 1975 Harness entered Compassion in the Orléans rose
competition. This is where the cream of the world’s new roses are submitted for trials over several
years. Unaware of this, the Harkness agent in France entered the rose the following year in 1976. It
beat fierce competition to win a Gold Medal in 1979 and another in 1980. Knowing that you can’t enter
the same variety twice Harkness was mystified. It turned out that the agent had submitted Compassion
by the name it’s known in France, Belle de Londres. Harkness wrote to Orléans and explained the
error.

Fragrant, vigorous and free flowering Compassion is now a household name. The Royal National
Rose Society (RNRS) voted it the best of the best climbers. Forty years on it remains a top favourite.

Sue Ryder

Peter drove to Suffolk to meet a formidable woman to discuss a rose about to be named for her.
She was Baroness Ryder of Warsaw famous for her wartime courage and work for her charity after the
war.

When HARlino was launched as Sue Ryder, her Foundation enjoyed a two year pre-introduction
period (1981/1982) after which Harkness continued to contribute on plants sold through its own sales
efforts and on all other sales.

If you are always meaning to do a bit of voluntary work but find the flesh all too weak be prepared
to be humbled. Every time you see a Sue Ryder furniture van or pop into one of her charity shops do
you ever wonder whether there was such a person?

Sue Ryder worked for Special Operations Executive (SOE) during the war as a driver and radio
operator. In 1942 she married a young naval officer who was killed in action soon afterwards. The
following year she was sent overseas by SOE to north Africa and then to Italy.

She co-ordinated the activities of Resistance groups in countries under German occupation. She
met people of such superhuman courage and saw suffering on such a scale she vowed that when
peace came she would found a Living Memorial to commemorate them. She did. The Sue Ryder
Foundation.

Sue Ryder, one of the greatest Christian charity workers of her time possessed a dogged
determination and, so it’s said by those who knew her, a huge ego. Her work spanned five decades of
astonishing achievements and transformed the lives of hundreds of thousands. Hers is the story of
FANY’s and Bods. FANY (First Aid Nursing Yeomanry) supported BODS (Bodies) the nickname given
to the secret agents who helped Resistance Fighters. Sue Ryder Foundation ran 80 homes in any
countries with 28 in Poland and 22 in Yugoslavia. Ryder, who called residents in her Homes, Bods,
opened 18 Sue Ryder Care Centres and 500 Sue Ryder charity shops in the UK.

She bought Stagenhoe, a mansion not far from the Harkness Nursery and turned it into a holiday
home for survivors of Nazi concentration camps. It became home for forty-two Polish former prisoners,
most of whom were women who had been interned at Auschwitz and Ravensbruck. The scheme
ended in 1979 when it ran out of money.

Sue Ryder then turned Stagenhoe into a nursing home for cancer patients, the disabled,
sufferers of MS, brain damage, Parkinson’s and Huntingdon’s patients. No state aid was provided, she
had to rely on donations. Funds were raised from wine and cheese parties, coffee mornings, jumble
sales and sales of the Harkness rose.

In 1988 a new wing was opened by the Queen Mother. Stagenhoe being near her childhood
home in St. Paul’s Walden, she played here with the children of the then owner, William Bailey
Hawkins.

Sue Ryder married Group Captain Leonard Cheshire who also opened residential Homes for the
disabled. The Queen Mother’s sister in law Lady Rachel Bowes Lyon helped raise funds for the
Leonard Cheshire Home in Hitchin.

Breath of Life

In 1982 Harkness launched a rose to mark the centenary of the Royal College of Midwives. Its
forerunner, The Midwives Institute, was founded in 1881 when a midwife who worked with the poor in
London established the Society to ‘raise the efficiency and improve the status of midwives and to
petition parliament for their recognition’. The campaign faced fierce opposition from doctors whose
livelihoods were threatened by the availability of well-trained, affordable midwives.

Twenty or so years later, in 1902, the Midwives' Act for England and Wales was passed. The
Central Midwives' Board made it illegal for unqualified persons to act as midwives. In 1941 the
Midwives' Institute changed its name to become the College of Midwives and in 1947 it received a
Royal Charter.

The name Harkness suggested for the commemorative rose was Special Delivery. Told that
means a birth with complications whereas midwives aim for normal deliveries, the College magazine
Midwives Chronicle ran a competition for a more suitable name. Peter was on the judging panel. 1300
midwives entered. The winning entry was Breath of Life.

A curiosity about Breath of Life says Peter is that although its parents are bush roses their
offspring is a climber which can grow to ten foot. A pre-introduction year supply was made available
for the College to offer to members. All the plants were taken up. The charity continued to benefit from
the following two years' sales.

Avocet

1980 saw a meeting between Peter and members of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds
(RSPB) HQ in Sandy Bedfordshire. It asked for a rose to be named Avocet, after its symbol, to raise
funds.

Harkness could, of course, not offer a black and white rose but suggested HARpluto, a coppery
orange and yellow floribunda. The gardener at the RSPB meeting was not happy about the choice but
the management gave it the go ahead. Plants were sent in the autumn to all RSPB reserves. In the
summer when the gardener at Sandy saw the rose in full bloom he changed his mind and became a
fan.

The RSPB symbol, the avocet, was adopted in 1955. This beautiful bird had not been seen for a
hundred years until it returned in 1947 at Minsmere Reserve in Suffolk. With its striking black and
white plumage and upturned bill, the avocet is one of Britain’s most distinctive waders. It used to breed
all along the coast from Sussex to Yorkshire but the taking of eggs led to its disappearance as a British
breeding bird in 1842. There was a gap of 100 years before they bred again, in Ireland, in 1938. Their
preferred breeding habitat, shallow pools with low muddy islands next to the coast, is very rare.

The Society for the Protection of Birds was formed to counter the lucrative trade in feathers for
women's hats which resulted in the destruction of thousands of species whose plumes were
fashionable in Victorian times. There had already been concern about the destruction of native birds
such as the great crested grebes and kittiwakes for their plumage leading to the Sea Birds
Preservation Act of 1869 and the Wild Birds Protection Act of 1880. The trigger which led to the
foundation of the Society in 1889 was the demand for ever more exotic plumes. In its early days it was
made up entirely of women who were moved by the plight of fledglings left to starve in the nest after
their parents had been shot for their plumes. The Society was granted a Royal Charter in 1904.

Launched at the 1984 Chelsea Flower Show Avocet was given pride of place. As a proportion of
sales was donated to the Society, the RSPB Chairman, Lord Blakenham, was invited. To decorate the
stand Harkness borrowed the Society’s model of the avocet and were horrified to see the next day that
part of the beak had fallen off. The missing part was found and apologies proffered. RSPB was
unconcerned. It, apparently, happens all the time.

Harkness Marigold

In 1986 Harkness Marigold was launched to raise funds for the Riding for the Disabled
Association. Princess Anne was President.

Founded in 1965 it caters for 30,000 disabled riders in 500 Groups across the UK. 18,000
volunteers organise riding, carriage driving, vaulting (gymnastics on horseback), dressage and show
jumping.

RDA is life-changing, life enhancing to thousands missing out. Many who can’t walk, can ride.
Riding offers freedom. RDA horses and ponies provide therapy, achievement and enjoyment.

When the Association asked for a rose Harkness suggested that The Worshipful Company of
Farriers - Princess Anne was Warden - hold a lottery to find a suitable name. Roy Thompson, the
Harkness accountant was a member of the Company. The winner, Marigold Somerset, a farmer’s wife
from Sussex, suggested she combine her name with Harkness.

The parents of Harkness Marigold are Judy Garland x Anne Harkness.

Volunteer

Volunteer was launched in 1986 to raise funds for Voluntary Services Overseas (VSO).
VSO began in 1958, when Alec and Mora Dickson recruited and sent 16 volunteers in response
to a letter from the Bishop of Portsmouth asking for people to teach English overseas.
VSO now works in 90 countries and has placed over 40,000 volunteers with recruitment bases in
seven countries as a result fourteen million children are receiving a better education. It sends
professionals to share their skills with their local counterparts but no longer exclusively recruit from the
developed world, 30% come from within the country of their placement.
In 2005 Peter was asked to send Volunteer to Kunming Yunnan in south China for HM The
Queen and Prince Philip to plant in a public ceremony. The first British monarch to visit China, huge
crowds lined the route as she was driven through Kunming City. There she was given a lavish
welcome by the Chinese government which western diplomats say is very unusual.
Kunming, capital of Yunnan Province, is known as the City of Eternal Spring for its pleasant
climate and flowers which bloom all year. With a history of more than 2,400 years, it was once the
gateway to the famous Silk Road. Today it is the most popular tourist destination in southwest China.



Christingle

Christingle (from Christ Engel) introduced for The Children’s Society, raised thousands to help
vulnerable youngsters. The Society, which had the rose a year ahead of its official launch, did a
phenomenal job in selling out the advance stock. That was the good news. The bad news was that
Harkness underestimated demand. When bulk orders which could not be fulfilled flooded in from all
over the UK customers were offered a refund, another variety or asked to wait until another crop could
be grown. The majority chose to wait.

Christingle, a church service for children, is a Moravian custom. The Children's Society
introduced Christingle services into England in 1968.

Moravia, in the eastern part of the Czech Republic, borders Poland, Slovakia, Austria and
Bohemia. It takes its name from the Morava river. Its largest city is Brno. Moravians are a Slavic ethnic
group who speak various dialects of Czech. The Moravian Church originated in Bohemia in 1457, the
first Protestant Church of Europe.

The custom of Christingle began in 20th December 1747 at a children's service. The Minister told
the children that Jesus ‘…kindled in each little heart a flame which keeps ever burning….’ Each child
received a little lighted candle tied with a red ribbon to light their way to bed.

The Service is held in Moravian churches on the Sunday before Christmas, Christmas Eve or
Christmas Day. Children with lighted candles in the dark process round the Church singing a
traditional Moravian carol: Morning Star, O cheering sight!

The Moravians took the custom to Labrador, Pennsylvania, Tibet, Surinam, the Caribbean and
South Africa,

In the UK, the Christingle is an orange representing the world with a candle to represent Christ,
the Light of the World. In Moravia the candle is held in a split goose quill on which are impaled nuts,
raisins and sweets. In the UK cocktail sticks and Dolly Mixtures are used.

Armada

The National Trust asked Harkness for a rose to commemorate the 400th Anniversary of The
Spanish Armada of 1588 and to raise funds to restore Buckland Abbey in Devon the former home of
Sir Francis Drake. Harkness named the rose Armada.

It was launched by, bizarrely, the Spanish ambassador to Britain at the 1988 Chelsea Flower
Show. Did anyone not tell him that Spain lost the battle? Was he not told that sales would help restore
the home of Spain’s arch enemy, Sir Francis Drake, second-in-command of the English fleet against
the Armada? A hero to the English, to the Spanish, el Draque was nothing more than a common
pirate.

Philip of Spain was co-monarch of England until his wife Mary I died in 1558. A devout Roman
Catholic, he said Mary's Protestant half-sister Elizabeth was a heretic and illegitimate ruler. He saw it
his duty to conquer England and convert it back to the Church of Rome. Philip also hated Elizabeth
because rather than discourage Drake’s raids on his ships, she was proud of him.

Armada is a cross of New Dawn and Silver Jubilee named to mark Elizabeth II’s twenty five years
on the throne.

In May 1588, when the Armada headed for the English Channel, it consisted of 151 ships, 8,000
sailors, 18,000 soldiers, 1500 brass guns and 1,000 iron guns. The huge fleet, which took two days to
leave port, had twenty-eight purpose-built warships, twenty galleons, four galleys and four (Neapolitan)
galleasses. The remainder of the heavy vessels consisted of armed carracks and hulks. There were
also thirty-four light ships. Philip meant business.

However, Elizabeth I had an ace up her sleeve. Francis Walsingham, her Spy Master General
hated Roman Catholicism. He ordered the Lord Mayor of London to send him weekly reports of all
foreigners in the city. He also uncovered Britain’s first double agent, Sir Edward Stafford, Ambassador
to Paris, who was on English and Spanish payrolls.

Walsingham, determined to find out not if, but when Philip intended to invade, received
dispatches from his agents detailing his preparations. Walsingham's recruitment of Anthony Standen,
a close friend of the Tuscan ambassador to Madrid, was an intelligence triumph. Drake used
Standen’s intelligence to attack the Spanish fleet at Cadiz, seriously damaging the intended invasion.
Using his contacts Walsingham bribed Bankers to delay loans to Philip for a year while he neutralised
Spanish spies in Britain.

England faced the greatest sea power in the world with a tiny navy. However, its ships were
smaller so easier to manoeuvre. In August Elizabeth went to Tilbury to encourage her men and give
her famous speech:
My loving people…I am come amongst you…to live or die amongst you all…I know I have the body of
a weak and feeble woman; but I have the heart and stomach of a king – and of a King of England too,

and think foul scorn that …any prince of Europe, should dare to invade the borders of my realm…I
myself will take up arms…

When the Armada anchored at Calais, Drake filled eighty ships with flammable material, set fire
to them then sent in fire ships to break up their famous crescent formation. The Spaniards fled straight
into the gunfire of the waiting English who had nature on her side. Strong winds and heavy rain forced
Spanish ships on to the rocks near Ireland. Twenty four were wrecked. Of the Armada’s 151 ships, fifty
failed to make it back to Spain.

When England celebrated its victory with a commemorative medal inscribed God Blew and They
Were Scattered, Philip offered a reward of – by today’s standard – £2m for his life.

Peter and Margaret were invited to the re-opening of Buckland Abbey. The guest of honour,
Countess of Mountbatten, was presented with a copy of Peter’s book Modern Garden Roses and
planted a Mountbatten rose in the garden.

Perception

In the UK every day a hundred people start to lose their sight. In 1997 came Perception chosen
by the Royal National Institute for the Blind (RNIB) because of its strong perfume and tactile petals.

In 1875 Queen Victoria became the first patron of the National Institute for the Blind. Awarded a
Royal Charter it became RNIB in 1953. Its Patron is HM Queen Elizabeth 11.

The RNIB is Europe's largest Braille publisher (books, leaflets, magazines, exam papers, knitting
patterns, bills, invoices, bank statements, radio and TV listings etc.,). Braille music is in demand from
blind singers and musicians. RNIB is the only professional producer of Braille music in the UK (14,000
titles). The RNIB Helpline which deals with 50,000 enquiries a year, offers information, support and
advice to anyone with a sight problem and to their families and friends.

Thomas Armitage, a consultant surgeon, had to retire from practice in his mid-thirties because
his sight started to fail. He devoted the rest of his life to improving the terrible conditions that existed
for blind people who begged in the streets or relied on relatives for food. He knew the only way they
could improve their lot was if they could read and write.

In 1868 he held a meeting at his home to form a Society for Improving Embossed Literature for
the Blind. It concluded that Braille was the most effective. Its major advantage over other systems was
that in addition to being able to read it, blind people could also write it.

The Frenchman Louis Braille was blinded in an accident when he was four years old. When he
met a soldier who showed him how to read at night using raised dots, he came up with a way of
reading and writing for the blind.

In 1940, during WWII, Captain Sir Beachcroft Towse, Chairman of the RNIB blinded in the Boer
War opened his home as the first rehabilitation centre. The demand for switchboard operators, typists
and secretaries inspired RNIB to open a commercial college. It now also trains computer
programmers.

Bridge of Sighs

Peter went down memory lane in 2000 when he returned to his alma mater to plant Bridge of
Sighs to raise funds for Hertford College, Oxford.

Hertford Bridge completed in 1914 to connect Old College and New College in New College Lane
acquired its nickname The Bridge of Sighs because of its similarity to the famous bridge in Venice.
Although many think it looks more like the Rialto Bridge it was not intended to be a replica of either.

Mathematicians say its design was mentioned by Archimedes (of Eureka fame) in the 3rd century
BC. He pointed out that if you have a triangle with a given base and height and a smooth curve with
the same base and height, the area of the curve is 4/3 the area of the triangle. The top of Hertford
Bridge is a triangle, the bottom is a curve, a parabola. The triangle and the parabola have the same
base and height. Therefore the area of the curve at the bottom of the bridge is 4/3 the area of the
triangle at the top.

The parabola is used by stonemasons, architects and engineers. In the 1600s mathematician
Robert Hooke realised that the perfect shape for an arch, in order that it support its own weight, was a
catenary curve, the shape made by a hanging rope held at its two ends. When an arch has this shape
the thrust caused by its own weight is directed exactly along the shape of the curve but if an arch
needs to support a load spread horizontally across it, the arch needs to be a parabola. It’s said that the
best view is from the steps that head towards the Sheldonian Theatre and turn to face the bridge.

Hertford College was founded in the 1200s by Elias de Hertford when he built Hart Hall (Old
Hall). Many of the buildings date from the 1600s. When a new part was built in Victorian times it was
decided to link the old and new with a flying arch casemented bridge although the great and the good
who ran New College objected to it being built.

Peter is in good company. Old boys of Hertford College include the poet, John Donne, satirist
Jonathan Swift, who wrote Gulliver’s Travels, the Protestant William Tyndale who translated the Bible
into English and the novelist Evelyn Waugh.

Susan Daniel

In 2001 when Susan Daniel, who has sung in every major opera house in Europe, was in
Palermo she met the British Ambassadress to Rome who wanted to restore the five acre gardens of
the Residence to their original state planting roses from the 1880s.

They visited the Roseto Comunale, Rome's rose garden, regarded by many as the finest in the
world, to learn about roses. Built on an old Hebrew Cemetery on land given by the Jewish Community
to Rome the garden is in the shape of the Menorah (candlestick). Its arms form paths separating the
different varieties of roses.

Ms Daniel was invited to judge new varieties of roses at the Rome Rose Competition the
following year but could not attend because she was singing on the same night at the Rome Opera.
The offer was repeated in 2003. When Susan arrived she was paired with 'Un Naso', a 'Nose' who
taught her about the rose. One of her favourites at the event was Compassion a beautiful pink climber
raised by Harkness.

She was then invited to judge at The Hague, the most important of the annual rose competitions.
One of her co-judges was Robert Harkness. As they chatted Ms Daniel told him that the name of the
man who sold her house in London to her was Jack Harkness, the same as his late father and that the
only rose in her garden which still had its label was Ena Harkness a red rose named for his great-aunt.
When Robert said he was sure she could make room in her life for a rose, Susan she was speechless
with delight.

Asking for her list of favourite roses Robert collected three hundred in six varieties from which
Susan and he chose a rose which had been in the trial fields in Hitchin Nursery for eight years. Its
illustrious parents were both Harkness roses. Savoy Hotel a highly perfumed deep pink Hybrid Tea
and Betty Harkness the coral pink Floribunda Robert and Philip named for their mother in 1998.

Susan Daniel was launched at the 2004 Chelsea Flower Show. HM The Queen accepted ‘with
great delight’ sixty bushes to be planted in a new bed at Buckingham Palace. Susan planted one for
the Archbishop of Canterbury at Lambeth Palace and Canterbury Cathedral. The City of Milan planted
one hundred Rosa Susan Daniel at the feet of the statue of Leonardo da Vinci in front of Teatro alla
Scala in a ceremony in 2006 on Susan's birthday, the first time any singer has been honoured in this
way. Her rose is also in the Vatican Gardens, at HRH Prince Charles gardens at Highgrove, HRH the
Princess Royal’s gardens at Gatcombe Park and, of course, in Rome’s Roseto Gardens.

Miss Daniel, the only opera singer since Maria Callas to have a rose named for her, wants her
rose in the memorial garden in New York devoted to the English who died in the attack on the twin
towers of the World Trade Centre on September 11 2001.

Sales of her rose go to Help for Heroes, the organisation providing support for soldiers wounded
in current conflicts and to Bacup (Ms Daniel has twice recovered from cancer). In 2004 she recorded
an album La Vie en Rose in seven languages, to celebrate her rose.



15
The Arts

Lorna Doone

The R.D. Blackmore Society commissioned Lorna Doone to mark the Centenary of the
classic love story. A permanent memorial to the author was put up by the Lorna Doone
Centenary Committee.

Harkness launched Lorna Doone in 1972. Deep red with large floribunda double flowers, it
was raised from Red Dandy x Lilli Marlene (very apt as Lilli Marlene was a love poem written
during WWI by a German schoolteacher pining for his sweetheart). It won a Trial Ground
Certificate from the Royal National Rose Society (RNRS) and a Certificate of Recommendation
at The Hague trials.

Blackmore’s father was a curate in Oxford until tragedy struck. When Richard was two
months old, typhus carried off, among other members of the household, his mother and her twin
sister. His stories often featured homeless orphaned babies. As an adult his brother Henry
became a reclusive, lonely, eccentric who committed suicide. Their devastated father left the
village and the boys were sent to his sister in Wales. When Richard was six his father remarried
and took the brothers back.

Blackmore seems to have spent his last years quarrelling. One of his aggrieved
employees sabotaged his grape vines in revenge for being dismissed. There were also many
rows with his household staff and a running battle with the London and South Western Railway
Company.

Blackmore’s novel set in Exmoor, Devon, has inspired ten films and a TV mini-series and
will no doubt spawn many more. He invented the name Lorna. Unable to find a publisher he paid
for 500 copies to be printed and sold 300. The following year he issued a cheaper edition which
was a huge success. The novel, which has never gone out of print, made Blackmore one of the
most famous of English novelists of his day. Robert Louis Stevenson, Thomas Hardy and F.
Scott Fitzgerald all loved the book.

It spawned the Doone tourist industry including Lorna Doone biscuits and a locomotive on
the Great Western Railway. For many years Exmoor was known as Lorna Doone country. There
is a statue of ‘her’ at the entrance to the car park at Exmoor House in Dulverton. Already wealthy,
the book made Blackmore even richer. Although everyone knows Lorna Doone’s name, few
remember his.

Common in France it's rare that a book is publicly commemorated in England but it
happened in Exmoor when the R.D. Blackmore Society held a summer long celebration. A road
sign there even says ‘Doone Valley 2 miles’ leading to ‘Lorna's Cott’ and ‘Lorna Doone Farm’.

As a child, Richard Dodderidge Blackmore often visited his grandfather the Rev. John
Blackmore in Exmoor. He wrote a few novels with Exmoor connections but only Lorna Doone
became world famous. A silent film of it came out in 1922 followed by one in 1934 starring

Margaret Lockwood, one in 1951, a BBC series in 1976, a TV film in 1990 and another in 2000.
Despite staff at Exmoor National Park showing the BBC landmarks Blackmore loved and used in
the book its 2000 BBC dramatisation of Lorna Doone was filmed in Wales. Exmoor inhabitants
were, naturally, justifiably, deeply disappointed.

Blackmore said Lorna Doone was not an historical novel yet it chronicles the Monmouth
Rebellion, exploits of the bloodthirsty Hanging Judge Jeffries and the overthrow of James II in
The Glorious Revolution. The story features the lawless, violent, Doone family of Exmoor who
murder an innocent farmer in cold blood, the father of twelve year old John known as Jan Ridd
who had to take over the running of the farm and responsibility for his mother and two sisters. As
an adult he meets Lorna Doone, granddaughter of Sir Ensor Doone, forced to marry Carver
Doone against her will.

Despite the family feud, just like Juliet and Romeo, they fall in love. When it transpired that
Lorna is not a Doone but an heiress to one of the largest fortunes in the country she is required
by law, against her will, to live in London as ward of the King. Not to worry. The couple as you
might expect Lived Happily Ever After.

Lilian Baylis

In 1996 came Lilian Baylis to commemorate a truly amazing woman and her Sadler’s Wells
Theatre in Islngton north London, the theatre she brought back from the grave. She managed the Old
Vic and Sadler's Wells Theatres which evolved into the English National Theatre, ran Sadler’s Wells
Opera Company which became the English National Opera (ENO) and her Sadler’s Wells Ballet
became the English Royal Ballet.

Baylis helped her aunt run The Royal Victoria Hall known as The Old Vic near Waterloo Station.
One of her most significant achievements there was to produce a full cycle of Shakespeare's plays

She then turned her attention north of the river, took over the derelict Sadler’s Wells Theatre in
Islington and made it world famous. In the early days she was so strapped for cash she invited the
audience to throw money on stage so she could pay the actors. She loathed all forms of elitism and
frowned on dress code or dressing up to go to the theatre.

Her Gala Opening 6th January 1931 was a production of Twelfth Night. Newcomers to the stage
included John Gielgud as Malvolio and Ralph Richardson as Toby Belch. Baylis also nurtured the
careers of Laurence Olivier, Peggy Ashcroft, Sybil Thorndike, Edith Evans, Alec Guinness and Michael
Redgrave. She also scored a casting coup by featuring Charles Laughton at the theatre in 1933 after
he had become a household name because of The Private Life of Henry VIII. To exploit the audiences'
interest in the film, she cast Laughton as Shakespeare's Henry VIII.

In 1928, Baylis engaged Ninette de Valois who took on Margot Fonteyn, Robert Helpmann, Alicia
Markova and Anton Dolin.

Baylis died in 1937. At her own request her ashes were scattered and there is no memorial.
Sadler's Wells Theatre contains a small theatre named after her and the National Theatre has a Lilian
Baylis Terrace. The upper circle in the Old Vic is called the Lilian Baylis Circle. A building in West
Hampstead used by ENO for rehearsals is called Lilian Baylis House. A street alongside Waterloo
Station is named Baylis Street.

Penny Lane

A climbing rose, Penny Lane, named after the famous Beatles song written by Paul McCartney in
1967, was launched in 1998.

Its code name suffix, HAR (d) well, was propitious/prescient? Voted Rose of the Year in 1998, it’s
still selling well.

Penny Lane in Liverpool is where McCartney and John Lennon met to catch a bus into the city
centre. Green buses with Penny Lane displayed were a common sight. The fireman and fire engine
referred to in the lyrics is based upon the fire station some distance from Penny Lane is still in use.

Penny Lane street signs were constant targets of tourist theft and had to be continually replaced.
Eventually, city officials gave up and painted the street name on the sides of buildings. The Penny
Lane area now has trendy whole food outlets, cafés, bars and bistros.

In 1998 Penny Lane (HARdwell) won Rose of the Year, only one of two climbers to win the
award).

Anne Zinkeisen

When the right to name Anna Zinkeisen was offered to Josephine Walpole who wrote a book
about her it was going through international growing trials, having been submitted to St Albans,
Copenhagen and The Hague in 1980, and to Courtrai/Kortrij in 1981. It picked up prizes in all the trials
for which it was entered, a Diploma (top award) in Copenhagen, Silver Medal in Courtrai, Bronze
Medal in Baden-Baden and a Trial Ground Certificate in St Albans.

Its codename was HAR (q) uhling because the breeding line incorporated the Fruhlings (early
flowering) strain used by the German breeder Kordes.

It was introduced in 1983.
Anna (1901-1976) and her sister Doris (1898-1991) were born in Scotland to Welsh-born Clare
Bolton-Charles and Victor Zinkeisen, a research chemist whose family settled in Scotland in the
1800s.
In 1909, the family moved to Middlesex, where Doris and Anna attended the Harrow School of
Art and won scholarships to the Royal Academy. They shared a London studio during the 1920s and
30s and worked on projects including advertising posters for the London Underground.
Anna created the iconic image of the elegant male smoker on De Reszke cigarette
advertisements and packets. Their designs for the ballet were greatly admired as were their murals for
the passenger liners Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth. Those on Queen Mary can still be seen on the
ship permanently moored in Long Beach, California.
Their lives are reflected in their art, a mixture of society portraiture, animal portraiture including
horses and their riders and scenes set in the parks of London and Paris.
Anna was a successful illustrator of books and magazine covers and also worked for Wedgwood
as a ceramics designer. During WWII both enrolled as auxiliary nurses and were employed as war
artists for the British Red Cross and St John Ambulance. Anna worked in the casualty ward at St
Mary's Hospital, Paddington and painted in a disused operating theatre. She later specialised in
pathological and clinical drawing. Her painting of the famous plastic surgeon Sir Archibald McIndoe is
in the National Portrait Gallery London as are seven portraits of herself. As a medical artist she worked
with Alexander Fleming. Her later portraits include those of the duke of Edinburgh.
Anna Zinkeisen was elegant and beautiful with fair, reddish-brown hair, and green eyes.

16
The Desert Rose

Tigris R.Persica x Trier 1985

Of great botanical interest having the red persica mark at the bas e of its small yellow petals

Euphrates 1986

Xerxes 1989

Nigel Hawthorne 1989 only persica x rugosa cross in commerce

Alissar, Princess of Phoenicia

Persian Mystery

The Sun and the Heart

Jack pioneered the hybridising of rosa persica (the desert rose) and raised the first successful

hybrids since 1836. After ten years research, a genuine labour of love, he owned the largest stock

grown outside its natural habitat.
Jack’s most important contribution to the science of rose breeding manifested itself in Tigris, the

first hardy hybrid from rosa Persica introduced into commerce, Euphrates, Xerxes and Nigel

Hawthorne, the best of the fifty-three hybrids Jack raised

In 1976 he introduced Q6 a remarkable seedling (pollen parent x Harvest Home) at the Royal
National Rose Society’s (RNRS) Year of the Rose. A brilliant yellow, its distinctive deep red patch at

the base of every petal, it’s the only wild rose with this colouring. Despite having vicious thorns, no

scent, flowers for only five weeks and is a weed used for firewood where it grows in its natural habitat
in Iran, Siberia and Afghanistan, Jack’s desert rose was the rarest, most expensive in the world selling

at £50 each (in 2010, £50 from 1976 was worth £443 using average earnings). What he was really

selling was the result of ten years dedicated research.
BBC’s Tomorrow’s World featured the first successfully grown desert rose rosa persica outside

its natural habitat since a hybrid was raised in the 1830s. First introduced into Europe in 1788, it

proved too difficult to cultivate or propagate. In its natural habitat where it seeds naturally, it weathers

floods, ice, snow and baking hot sun. Growers had tried for 150 years to cultivate it in Europe. It took

Jack five.

Some plants of Q6 were saved for potting, some were planted in Harkness Nursery trial beds.

The severe winter of 1981 with 20 degrees frost froze the roots of every plant. Years of hard work was

lost. A few months later Peter Harkness suddenly remembered that he had given a Q6 plant to nearby

Princess Helena College to present to its patron, Princess Alice. Did she still have it in her garden?

She did. Was it well? It was. Peter visited her and took some cuttings. In gratitude Harkness named a

rose for her called Princess Alice.

Jack in Hitchin and Alec Cocker in Aberdeen began breeding roses around the same time and

became close friends and collaborators. Letters containing ideas, plant materials and pollen would

often wing their way between England and Scotland. Both men ran up huge bills for very long

telephone conversations.

In 1966 they became fascinated with the very rare and very difficult to work with Hulthemia
persica. They knew that only one hybrid had been recorded and that was in Paris in the 1830s. When
Alec managed to get seeds from Iran he sent half – 2130 - to Jack. It turned out that the seeds
preferred Hitchin to Aberdeen.

Jack sowed seeds in February 1967 and 1968 in an unheated greenhouse. A three inch seedling
can have a root eighteen inches long and produce runners which travel under concrete paths to
surface six feet away. He got flowers in April. By June 1970 he had 33 hybrids (27 h persica x Canary
Bird and 6 h.persica x ballerina). Ten years later he had managed to raise a mere seventy-four
seedlings of which twenty-one died before flowering and introduced four.

Peter’s wife Margaret, suggested Tigris and Euphrates. Euphrates, HARunique R.Persica x Fairy
Changeling pollinated 1980 was introduced 1986. Peter suggested Xerxes. Xerxes, HARjames
R.Persica x Canary Bird pollinated 1970 was introduced????

When the RNRS asked the popular, distinguished, actor Nigel Hawthorne a keen rose lover to
open its Rose Festival in 1988 it asked Harkness to name a rose in his honour. Mr Hawthorne lived
not far from the Harkness Nursery and was often seen in their Garden Centre and their stand at the
Chelsea Flower Show. He told Harkness he wanted an ‘unperfect’ rose. Peter thought that might be
the unique Persica Rugosa hybrid the one which he thought had been killed off in the winter of 1981.
Nigel Hawthorne, the only persica x rugosa cross in commerce was launched in 1989.

Sir Nigel Hawthorne was known around the world as the scheming civil servant Sir Humphrey
Appleby the Permanent Secretary in the BBC 1980s sitcom Yes Minister and the Cabinet Secretary in
its sequel, Yes, Prime Minister. He was nominated for a best-actor Oscar for his title role in the 1994
film The Madness of King George and won a Tony Award for his depiction of writer C.S. Lewis in the
play Shadowlands on Broadway in 1991. Knighted in 1999 he died in 2001 at his home in
Hertfordshire.

Jack very generously parted with his research materials in the hope someone else would have
more success than he had. Rose breeder Chris Warner crossed Tigris with Baby Love and got
CHEWtiggle. Introduced in 2001 it won an international award at RNRS trials, the first persica to do so.

At the 2009 Chelsea Flower Show, Harkness stars were Persian Mystery (‘Hartroy'), The Sun
and the Heart (‘Hartyre') and Alissar, Princess of Phoenicia (‘Hardison') Robert and Philip’s hybrids of
Hulthemia persica raised in the Harkness Nursery.

17
Special Mentions

Alexander

In 1967 Jack crossed seed from Tropicana/Superstar (same rose) and pollen from Ann Elizabeth
and Allgold. Logged as F577A, five years later, in 1972 HARlex was introduced as Alexander. ????, a
fellow rose grower quipped ‘you can go out on that one Jack’. Rumour has it that in 1986 it inspired the
less than inspiring Peter Mandelson to rebrand the Labour Party by replacing the red flag of
communism with the red rose of England

Jack knew Major-General Frank Naylor, churchwarden at St Margaret’s, Ridge, Hertfordshire
who told him that Field Marshal Earl Alexander of Tunis was buried there. The gravestone says simply
‘Alex’. Alexander was Jack’s commanding officer in WWII and he admired him enormously. When he
visited his grave he decided to name a rose for him. He wanted a ‘fine, upright, soldierly rose’ so
chose HARlex. The huge bushes, ten by five foot, still grow beside the grave.

Alexander, a salesmen’s dream rose, will receive ten international awards in seven countries. In
1989 it will be awarded The James Mason Gold Medal ‘for the rose that has given most pleasure over
the past fifteen years’ by the RNRS. Twenty-one years later the RHS will include it when they update
their list of Award of Garden Merit roses.

Field Marshal Alexander was sent by Winston Churchill to take supreme command of forces in
Burma. More famous for his North African campaigns against Rommel, he is said to have been
Britain’s greatest military commander since the Duke of Wellington. His funeral was held in St
George’s Chapel, Windsor.

Alexander was the son of the Earl of Caloden of Tyttenhanger near Ridge where he spent
childhood holidays and his honeymoon. The Earl died when Harold was six and his elder brother
inherited Tyttenhanger. In 1973 the Caloden family sold the estate to John S. Bonnington architects,
whose sympathetic conversion of the house won a European Architectural Heritage Year Award.