Leicester "Walk of Fame"

Leicester City council has invited citizens to nominate ten notable people who have contributed to the city. Their names will be recorded on plaques posted on Halford Street, presumably the stretch on the approach to the Curve. Like many commentators, I find the idea a little cliched, but since the project is going to happen whatever I think, I'll wish it well.

No doubt the Attenborough family will be acknowledged but their generosity to the city is widely (and justifiably) recorded already. The project will serve more good if it highlights some of the less famous.

I'm backing suffragette Alice Hawkins for a second plaque (she has one at the Equity Shoes factory on Western Road where she worked; I am assuming that the building still stands). Her significance is summarised in the publisher's blurb for Alice Hawkins and the Suffragette Movement in Edwardian Leicester:

"The campaign for the suffrage is perhaps the best-known aspect of women's political fight in the early part of the 20th century, yet little is known of the local women who engaged in this struggle. Indeed, the assumption that only wealthy women were involved in the militant campaign has led not only to the distortion of the WSPU membership, but it also neglects the significant contribution made by working-class women within it. "

Recently Departed (1)

Until reading this report of his death, I was unaware of Horace "Jim" Greasley. Horace waited 60 years before telling his WWII prisoner of war story in a ghost-written book Do the Birds Still Sing in Hell? Nik Morton wrote a good review a couple of months ago and ghost-writer Ken Scott tells us more about Horace on the site where you can buy the book. Sample chapters and photos can be found on Horace's own site.

Ian Carmichael who played Lucky Jim in the 1957 film of the book died last week. The film is nowhere near as funny as the book, but it is still worth a view. Wikipedia on Ian Carmichael.

I've only recently caught up with the January edition of Motor Sport magazine which carries a tribute to Tom Wheatcroft. Alas, the article by respected motor sport historian Doug Nye is not available on the web. Tom was best known for his collection of historic racing cars and for his restoration of the Donington Park racing circuit. However, he had a rich life as a WWII soldier and property developer, described in fruity detail in his autobiography Thunder in the Park. The book appears to be back in print after a hiatus.