#eccentricsclub

[tyneoconnell]

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As patron of the #Eccentricsclub HRH #PrincePhilip understood that #history is not made by conformists but by #eccentrics original thinkers, who dare to cut a line of their own in the way in the way they dress, live & think. In 2015 when I was in hospital being treated for a brain tumour Phince Philip as Patron of the Eccentrics Club, honoured my research into Queer History with the award of “BRITAINS MOST ECCENTRIC THINKER” #queerhistory Eccentrics throughout the world have lost one of the Last Of The Great Edwardians, #princephilip who was born on the same day in 1921 as my own father (an #raf pilot who worked in intelligence during #wwii ) His death plunged me back into grief for my father who had shared a lifelong friendship with Prince Philip . They represented the very best of a generation that put service to others ahead of personal advancement. Their quiet heroism & their championship of conservation, ingenuity & tolerance will be forever missed #ripprincephilip (at Mayfair, W1 London) https://www.instagram.com/p/CNz7nPUAHO4/?igshid=1l8ay6kophsc0

[tyneoconnell]

Convivial Evening @ #EccentricsClub toasting the #great-women of history. Alas while history is often made by women, it has in the past been written by men, with women consigned to the footnotes, either robbed of their own achievements or made the scapegoat for the failure or wickedness of their husbands or those they loved. I treasure the dear #nuns especially Sister Athenasia who ignited my imagination as a young child by adding the phrase "...or a woman close to him" whenever a man's name was written on the chalk-board, such as: "Einstein ...or a woman close to him!" I was at least educated to question the unlikely myth of history as told by men; that in a world where over just over half the population are women, the greatest achievements have been largely credited by men. Far more likely is the rational explanation that the achievements of women were wrongly attributed to husbands, fathers, or brothers, or snatched by the boys-clubs that have excluded them throughout history. More shamefully is that women are so often blamed for the crimes and sins of their husbands & made the scapegoats for the failures or wickedness of the men they've loved. Queen Marie De Medici 1573-1642 is a classic example of being wrongfully consigned to the footnotes of history & being blamed for the actions of the men she loved. She was the wife of King Henry IV of France, mother of kings & queens & the devoted grandmother of the Sun King, Louis XIV of France. Marie De Medici is also famous for bringing opera to the attention of the world moving heaven and earth to ensure #opera was performed at her marriage to King Henry IV of France in 1600 commissioning Peri to compose & perperform L'Euridice (the second opera ever written or performed) ensuring this new music was heard by the most powerful princes of Europe. Her enthusiastic patronage of this fledging musical genre changed the course of musical history. Marie de Medici was by any calculation an extraordinary woman: generous, loving, eccentric bold & innovative, but most important to me is her symbol as the classic example of what has historically been the fate of all women who dare. http://bit.ly/Eccentric6 (at The National Liberal Club)