#henshingly r croft

[kanski03]

            CHARACTERS :    LORD HENSHINGLY R. CROFT

The eldest son of Lord Eldridge Croft II, Earl of Abbingdon and prominent figure of Britain’s industrialist-era, and Lady Margot Peletier, a famous stage actress from France, Henshingly Croft was born in 1884, followed closely behind by two younger sisters, Florence and Maude, in 1886 and 1887.

Like his father, Henshingly Croft was a staunch academic, rather than a creative like his mother, with whom he clashed quite famously, finding himself at-odds with her wildly extroverted and irrepressible nature. However, unlike his father (whom had an archetypal Type B personality, dabbled in and out of various pursuits, and was not overly concerned about his social status), he was comparatively rigid, ambitious, organised, and almost unhealthily obsessed with the swift trajectory of his career. Even so, the two were particularly close throughout his childhood, until Lord Eldridge Croft’s death in 1899.

Once having finished his Cambridge University education in 1904, with family name and connections as well as a reputation of his own, Lord H. Croft found it relatively easy to fall into gainful employment, whilst establishing himself as a prominent member of the Liberal Party, being elected as an MP for Spelthorne in 1910. Being a charismatic man, as well as possessing a certain amount of intrigue, Lord H. Croft found himself to be very popular with both his constituents and his peers, seen as a man of solid repute, in spite of the general regard towards Jewish people in Britain at the time.

In 1911, he met and married a Spanish-Guatemalan socialite, Aemilia de Millau.

Inevitably, his political career was to be put on-hold during the Great War, wherein he served as a Lieutenant in the British Army from 1914. However, this interval was a relatively short one, for he would return to England after being injured in the the Battle of Gallipoli, suffering extensive burns to his left arm and left leg. From then on, he would need to walk with a cane for the rest of his life.

In 1916′s General Election, he was reelected as MP for Spelthorne. Liberal Prime Minister David Lloyd George welcomed him into his Cabinet, appointing him as Lord Privy Seal and Leader of the House of Lords. 

In the meantime, Lady A. Croft fell pregnant with their first and only child, giving birth to their daughter, Lara, in 1917. The pregnancy and birth, however, was fraught with difficulties, and she would be diagnosed with ‘puerperal insanity’.

The family eventually relocated to Shimla, India, once Lord H. Croft was appointed the position as Viceroy of India in 1923. In 1926, mother and daughter were declared missing, Lady A. Croft’s body being found a week later. Two weeks after that, having also been presumed dead, Lara would wander into the family’s property.

Following her death and the sensationalised accounts printed in British newspapers at the time, Lord H. Croft withdrew from public society. A few months after returning to England, having buried Lady Aemilia Croft in the Undercroft of Croft Manor, he sent his daughter to attend boarding school and, later, a finishing school in Switzerland. Once having done so, he dismissed his daughter’s Ayah, Shruthi Nadar, once Lara left Croft Manor, not bothering to pay for her board or travel back to India, in spite of her years of faithful service towards the family, and her being one of the few loving role models Lara had.

Eleven years later, in 1937, having lived the past decade as a recluse and neglected his role as a father, Lord H. Croft’s body was found by his valet, having died from an apparent suicide. The circumstances surrounding his death, however, continue to be surrounded by much contention.

[virtual-lara]

Collection of Information from the official Tomb Raider 1 Website

If you've ever gone back in Web Archive history for the official Tomb Raider website, you may have come across the front page for Tomb Raider 1, but due to the age, any links have been lost and many pages are now inaccessable. After searching for very, very old fansites, we've come across 3 that have filled in these blanks. The following post will go through these lost pages. Hopefully you will find this as interesting as we did.

The left above image is dated Dec '96, the right above image is dated Jan '97. Note how 'Lara's Page & Calendar', 'Features' and 'Contests' is added in just over a month. The websites that I will be referring to are: the official Tomb Raider website and the following fansites: Saint Francis Folly C. 1996-1997 | Robert Wheeler's Tomb Raider Archives C. 30/11/1996-2001? (later hosted by Croft Times) | Tomb Raider Unleashed 1997-1997

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Lara's Page

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- OFFICIAL LINK - Dated as early as Jan 1997 | SFF | TR Unleashed | TR Archives

We believe that this included the very first draft of a biography for Lara. Sadly it does not appear, so we can only ever be 99% certain but the information was saved due to the very early fansites - TR Archives especially as he created pages using exact/very similar titles to the official website. All three listed fansites give the same details:

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NAME: Lara Croft

DATE OF BIRTH: 14th February 1967

PLACE OF BIRTH: England

HEIGHT: 5'7''

WEIGHT: 8 Stone, 11 lbs (about 55Kgs)

FIGURE: 38" Bust, 22" Waist, 34" Hips

HAIR: Brown

EYES: Brown

BACKGROUND: Lara the daughter of Lord Henshingly Croft, was raised to be an aristocrat from birth. After attending finishing school at the age of 21, Lara's marriage into wealth had seemed assured, but on her way home from a skiing trip her chartered plane had crashed deep in the heart of the Himalayas. The only survivor, Lara learned how to depend on her wits to stay alive in hostile conditions a world away from her sheltered upbringing. Two weeks later when she walked into the village of Tokakeriby her experiences had had a profound effect on her. Unable to stand the claustrophobic suffocating atmosphere of upper-class British society, she realised that she was only truly alive when she was travelling alone. Over the eight following years she acquired an intimate knowledge of ancient civilisations across the globe. Her family soon disowned their prodigal daughter, and she turned to writing to fund her trips. Famed for discovering several ancient sites of profound archaeological interest she made a name for herself by publishing travel books and detailed journals of her exploits.

DISCOVERIES: 1993 - The Lost Ark of the Covenant. 1996 - The Alantian Scion.

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VL Thoughts: The inclusion of a discovery date for the Ark is very interesting. Perhaps the developers felt that they needed to date the item in the mansion. Other than that, nothing's too surprising.

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Calendar

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- OFFICIAL LINK - Earliest capture: Jun 1997 | TR Archives

You could visit the Calendar page each month (starting from Jan 97) to see that month's page, featuring clickable links to wallpapers, new sounds and details of any upcoming releases, including other Core/Eidos games. Check out the TR Archives link just above to see 6 months of the calendar. A later capture of the TR Archives fills in the remaining 6 months, but only December works now and the design starts to change, ready for TR2!

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Storyline

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- OFFICIAL LINK - Earliest capture: Jun 1997

No need for any fansite on this one as this page is available!

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Lara Croft has just returned from a hunting trip in the Himalayas where, having bagged a 12-foot tall yeti, she's itching for a new challenge. While enjoying a little R & R, she's contacted Jacqueline Natla, a conniving business woman who convinces Lara to recover a mysterious artifact from the tomb of Qualopec in Peru.

Wasting no time, Lara sets out on her quest to find one of the three pieces of the ancient Atlantean Scion, a talisman of incredible power. After disovering the fragment things get ugly, Lara finds herself face to face with one of Natla's hired goons. Using her cunning wits and athletic strenghth, Lara escapes!

As she delves into the reasons why Natla would double cross her, she uncovers a mystery that reaches back before the dawn of recorded time to the treachery that destroyed the Atlantean civilization and the disasters that struck the world when it fell.

Enter the Tomb Raider world in 15 massive 3D environments within four lost civilizations:

- Vilcabamba... A civilization that flourished for hundreds of years in the Peruvian rainforests of South America. Guide Lara through the lost Incan city while battling wolves, bats, bears, raptors, and more.

- Labryinth...The Golden Age of Greece, and later Rome. Here Lara battles lions, alligators, crazed monkeys and more as she explores ruins of this ancient civilization.

- Egyptian...Where the vast power of Egypt rose with the pyramids. Explore buried pyramids and a hidden sphinx while fighting pumas, crocodiles, and some surprising mystical monsters.

- Atlantean...The pyramid of Atlantis where the mystery unfolds. Play and see!!!

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VL Thoughts: There are a couple of cool things. Firstly, here is an early source to date Lara's escapade for Bigfoot, but later in 2003 when the AOD Official Companion book is released, it is dated to 1995. But a location is mentioned - the Himilayas and Bigfoot is incorrectedly called a Yeti, the latter would be geographically more accurate. Secondly, the locations of the levels are broken up into zones, as mentioned in an early '96 draft recently released by Paul Douglas. Note the Labryinth levels. It was not an accident that St Francis Folly includes a mix up of Norse/Greek/Roman characters.

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Features

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- OFFICIAL LINK - Earliest capture: Jun 1997

No need for any fansite on this one as this page is available!

This page contains a listing of elements about the game, camera, enemies and levels etc. It also includes various 3D patches and demos, too much for us to list here.

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Extra pages

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- OFFICIAL LINK (Sounds) - Earliest capture: Jun 1997 | OFFICIAL LINK (Wallpapers) - Earliest capture: Jun 1997 | TR Archives

There were wallpapers, soundbites and even movies available on the official website but they're not listed on the front page. We believe that these pages would have been linked to via the calendar pages. Tomb Raider Archives lists out the sounds and even the movies. To avoid making this post any longer, check out the link above. We have a little bit of info on the wallpapers. In TR Archives' fansites list (dated 4th June 97), there is a fansite called Game Schtuff's Tomb Raider page. This particular website says that there are 8 wallpapers (backed up by TR Arc) but this site shows them. Sadly only two images load.

VL Final Thoughts: We couldn't find the 'Contests' or 'Screenshots' pages, and although most of this data is now known, it's nice to see it on the official website with an early date. If you've reached the end of this article, we hoped that you've enjoyed looking back in TR1 history as we have raiding the archives!

[kanski03]

         THE FRUITS OF HER LABOURS.

Leaving behind no known family, survived only by her paternal grandmother, Lady Margot Peletier (once the matriarch of the Croft family) until she died in 1957, Lara Croft’s legacy beyond the mystery of her disappearance is not immediately apparent, and yet she contributed much to the society and culture of not just Britain, but the vast breadth of her reach around the globe.

Besides inspiring a still on-going novel series, what is perhaps lesser-known are; her charity work; her contributions to the protection of cultural artefacts during the Second World War; her trailblazing exploratory expeditions, as well as the research and manufacturing grants she provided, so as to fund the advancement of mountaineering technology and equipment that would ensure the safety of future mountaineers and explorers.

         THE A.F.A.

Upon receiving her inheritance after the death of her father in 1937, Lady Croft founded her charity, Alms For Ayah (The A.F.A), so as to offer aid and reparations for the many Ayahs (these were predominantly Indian women, employed to work as the full-time caregivers of British children) left abandoned and living in diaspora as a result of their employment with British families — a problem Lord Henshingly R. Croft, her own father and a former-Viceroy of India, contributed towards.

Though the A.F.A was not the only foundation of its type, the other being ‘Ayah’s Home’, it was the only one of its kind whose operations were not led by missionaries, whose charity was only given under the proviso that those who wanted their aid were open to converting to Christianity. Instead, in spite of its name and its formation being an act of Tzedakah on Lady Croft’s part, the A.F.A stressed freedom of religious choice as a necessity. Initially operating in The Croft Mews of South Kensington in London, demand would soon dictate the necessity for a larger hub to comfortably accommodate the A.F.A’s residents, which expanded with the inclusion of the country’s other displaced Asian nurse-maids of China, Indonesia, and Malaysia.

Thus, only two years later in 1939, Lady Croft purchased a new property in Saint Pancras, London, which she named ‘Alms House’. Selected thanks to its close proximity to King’s Cross and London St. Pancras Train Stations, both finding and travelling to-and-from Alms House proved far more convenient for its residents than it had been at its former headquarters. This was done in good time, too, for the Second World War would make international travel for civilians almost impossible, as well as prompting well-to-do households to cut their living costs, even if only for the sake of appearances.

Eventually, Alms House would become defunct as a hostel when its last temporary residents either returned to their original homeland or acquired assuredly protected work in Britain. Those who didn’t, be it due to age or other circumstances (particularly given to the considerable civil unrest in the recently partitioned India and Pakistan), were encouraged to stay at Alms House for as long as needed. Lady Croft promoted the use of the building as both a permanent home and the headquarters of a Worker’s Union.

In 1990, Alms House opened as a museum, though maintained private ownership. Alms House does not receive government funding, nor has it ever done so.

         A WARTIME CONSERVATIONIST.

Details pertaining to Lady Croft’s work during the Second World War were eventually released by MI5 in 2013, where it was revealed she regularly journeyed to Axis territories, locating the hidden locations of a great many treasures plundered by the Nazis for Hitler’s Führermuseum. Bringing them back to Britain so they might be protected for the duration of the war, along with pieces evacuated from various museums, they were kept in The Undercroft of Croft Manor.

Once peace in Europe was announced, she was tasked with detecting the rightful proprietors of such pieces, whilst continuing to searching for the countless treasures still lost. Works and artefacts that remained unclaimed were thus put on loan to various European museums, under the proviso that should they be claimed by an individual proven to be the rightful owner, they were to unquestionably be returned.

         A PEACETIME FUTURIST.

Whilst being an prolific explorer and mountaineer still presents itself as naturally hazardous, Lady Croft took on such endeavours at a time when the equipment and hardware that we now take for granted simply didn’t exist; even during the 1953 ascent of Mount Everest, the ice axes were very similar to those used in the 1920s, tents were still based on pre-war designs, and clothing was still made of natural fibres.

Understanding the dangers mountaineering posed all too well, Lady Croft kept a watchful eye on the development of even the most seemingly simple pieces of equipment.

She invested in fibre research and development, along with its eventual mass production, notably being responsible for the expansion of Nylon ropes that, prior to her intervention, were only being produced in America until 1949. She also funded the research that led to Edelrid’s Kernmantle rope design, having invested in the company when it was still in its infancy. Kernmantle ropes would finally be implemented first in 1953, the year of Lady Croft’s disappearance. Since then, Kernmantle has become an industry standard.

Additionally, she made monetary contributions to the expansion of Black Diamond Equipment, Lt., an American company established by John Salathé that specialised in the development of extremely strong and reusable pitons, manufactured from high-carbon chrome-vanadium steel.

Lady Croft considered investing in these companies and ideas as being of the utmost importance, aware that innovations relevant to the field would save countless lives.