Reducing injections for US children :(

I’ve cited Kat Lay’s “What effect will Donald Trump’s childhood vaccine recommendations have in the US and beyond?” Since appointed in 2025, Secretary Health & Human Services Robert Kennedy Jr sought to loosen vaccine regulations. Kennedy is a leading vaccination sceptic who has for years increa-sed dishonesty about vaccines. A study found he was the top super-spreader of Covid-19 vaccine deception on Twitter/X in 2021. He tried to reshape US vaccination schedules but his attempts were blocked by federal judges. So reporters were told that judges’ rulings were not the same as an Executive Order. In a CNN interview, Kennedy insisted he’d never questioned the MMR vaccine’s efficacy. The proposed changes were to give parents choice, not to limit access to vaccines.

Pres Trump signs order to reduce childhood vaccines & reduce autism 

and Sec of Health Kennedy is the witness

Aug 2026, WSJ

A new Executive Order from US Pres Donald Trump wants wide changes to childhood vaccine recom-mendations. His plans would result in fewer vaccines being recommended overall; the combined measles, mumps and rubella/MMR vaccine being replaced with 3 separate vaccines, and all childhood immunisations being administered during separate medical visits widely spread out. Is there any science behind the Order? And what are the likely implications?

The main outcome could be parental uncertainty, American Academy Paediatrics said, with conflicting messages delaying vaccinations. Noting measles cases are already at a 35-year high in US, the concern was that with any extra delay, more children could be harmed with deadly vaccine-preventable diseases. Clearly an executive order has no legal effect on the public, but it’s likely to pressure US states to change vaccination requirements before children can attend schools. And it prepares for legal challenges against states that implemented their own vaccine recommendations.

The Order won’t be copied in other countries, said Prof  of Global Health & Development, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. No country wants to deal with the costly outbreak responses that occur, but the short-term risk is that non-USA parents get the false impression that the vaccines offered aren't safe. The long-term risk is that poor information will lead to lower vaccination rates in the nation, and the world will see a resurgence of previously prevented diseases. Finally non-vaccinated U.S children might visit other countries and spread diseases abroad.

Why did Trump do this? He’d often claimed that vaccinations causes autism and made the same link when signing this Order. After the Order, World Health Organisation-WHO reiterated the science-based process used to set child immunisation schedules in many nations. WHO told a press conference that vaccine schedules must be made by science experts, free of political control.

Do MMR vaccines cause autism? Prof Child Public Health at Uni College London found no link in any scientific studies; in fact the vaccine has saved millions of lives. False claims linking the MMR vaccine and autism were made by British Dr Andrew Wakefield in 1998 in Lancet Medical Journal. His paper was retracted and Wakefield was struck off the UK’s medical register. But he’s been lauded by anti-vaxxers and he attended Trump’s 1st inauguration.

Is there any science supporting the breaking up of MMR vaccines into separate injections? The 3 vaccines have never been administered as separate doses to young children in U.S policy, so that policy’s safety statements are untrue; just by delaying protection it could be a serious step backwards for protecting children’s health. Giving them separately.. leads to risking children’s health.

Prof Paediatrics at Bristol Uni asked would these proposals affect vaccination rates? Studies of communities with low vaccination rates typically find that, while hesitancy can be an issue, accessibility also plays a role eg getting children to many health appointments. Spacing vaccines across separate visits increases the likelihood of delayed or missed doses, leaving children susceptible for longer.

ACRC trials poster

Protect yourself and your family from measles with vaccinations

Instagram

Trump signed an Executive Order to limit childhood MMR vaccines, claiming a link between vaccines and autism. Decades ago children got only a small fraction of the vaccines required today, he said. In those times, people were much healthier and of course the high rates of autism now observed did not exist. The President has long cast doubt on the safety of MMR vaccines, even though studies found no connection between MMR vaccines and autism.

Medical experts criticised Trump’s Order, saying it could reduce vaccination rates & expose children to disease. The Order recommends that the number of childhood vaccines drop to 11 from today's 18, given by American Academy of Paediatrics: measles, mumps, rubella, diphtheria, tetanus, polio, chicken pox etc. Trump's Order isn't as a mandate, since injections required for school attendance are set by the states, not by the federal government.

Trump stated the MMR vaccine could be quite lethal if given at once, comparing it to pouring a bottle of soda into a child's body. FDA noted a single dose of MMR is 0.5ml so when a reporter asked for evidence of the lethal claim, Trump said What I've heard is that there are some people that say it is that way. We're reducing the vaccines, and they’ll be done in a series of visits to the doctor.

Paediatrician prepares to administer a measles vaccination

during Washington's outbreak

Mother Jones

Centres for Disease Control and Prevention/CDC reported the MMR vaccine carries little risk of febrile seizures for todd-lers; those with health issues eg severe allergies should consult doctors beforehand. Getting the vaccine has proven much safer than getting measles/mumps/rubella. CDC found no published scientific evidence that shows any benefit in separating the mixed MMR vaccine into 3 individual shots. Experts say that allowing time between injections makes children more likely to contract diseases then or more likely to miss later appointments. (I’ve the best memory in this nation yet embarrassingly I forgot to return for my 6th Covid injection!!). Nashville’s Vanderbilt Uni School of Medicine reported the more future bookings made, the harder for doctors to track, plus it would add to expenses.

Trump officials have said the order means U.S children would receive fewer than the number recommended by the existing vaccine schedule. Pres of American Academy of Paediatrics Dr Racine said Trump's Order was not based on quality science. Delaying injections is risky; measles will spread once children go back to school.

A Danish 2002 MMR Study, in New England Journal Medicine, tracked 537,303 children born 1991-8. Another nationwide cohort study evaluated 657,461 children born 1999-2010, carefully looking at children with high-risk factors. The 2025 study, published in Annals of Internal Medicine, analysed data from 1.2 million+ children born 1997–2018. The three Danish studies found no association, reaffirming that the MMR vaccine does not increase autism risk.

It's not my business what other nations do, but I have 3 first cousins in US & would be devastated if their babies died.

Kroyer's loveliest art in France & Denmark

Kroyer, Hip, Hip, Hurrah! 1888, 
Gothenburg Museum of Art, Sweden

Impressionism was at first a French art movement, starting in the second half of the C19th. Impressionist techniques included visible, thick brush strokes of pure colour, creating a vibrant effect, and capturing the essence of the subject matter rather than focusing on minute details. Impressionists often painted outdoors to capture the effects of sunlight on their subjects, favouring natural poses and domestic scenes, creating a sense of freshness and normalcy. Even after thousands of artists from other nations flooded into France to learn from the Impressionists, these artists took French Impressionist techniques back home with them.

Peder Krøyer (1851-1909) was a Norwegian born lad who moved to Copenhagen for school and then studied at the Royal Danish Academy of Art. In his 20s, Krøyer travelled widely in Europe. While  in Paris, Kroyer was particularly impressed by the Impressionists who were already making a name for themselves - Manet, Monet, Renoir, Degas and Sisley. Kroyer spent his formative years travellng in France from 1877-81 but then he had to go back to Denmark in 1882, where his taste for Impressionism stayed with him.

Kroyer, Artists' Luncheon at Skagen, 1883,
Granger Collection, New York

The group of Scandinavian artists formed an art group in Skagen at the tip of Denmark’s Jutland in the 1880s-early 1890s. I wonder what the rather conservative fishermen of this remote fishing village thought about the big city artists, with their alcohol and their women. Anyhow, because of Kroyer’s experience as a well travelled, well trained artist in French taste, he became leader of the Skagen community. His work during the 1880s was fresh, often showing a peaceful life on the beach, often celebrating art with all his artist friends, usually with food and drink at hand. Consider for example The Artists' Luncheon 1883. Here you can see the Skagen artists eating a convivial, boozy lunch at Brøndum's Hotel. His art was also influential.

Denmark does not have a hot climate, so I wondered why so many paintings had summer picnics, summer outdoor lunches and summer walks on the beach. The answer was that Kroyer divided his time between a holiday home in Skagen each shortish summer and his flat in Copenhagen where he worked on his large commissions each longish winter.  So see his famous works depicting local fishermen working along Skagen beach, including Men of Skagen setting out for night fishing (1884) and Fishermen hauling nets North Beach, Skagen (1883), which highlighted the tough Danish conditions and physical labour of coastal life.

Fishermen hauling nets North Beach Skagen, 1883

Wiki

Anna Ancher and Marie Krøyer on Skagen beach, 1890s,

Private collection. Wikimedia

I am very loyal to my favourite artists. And now another Kroyer painting has grabbed my attention and I need to annouce my newest Favourite Painting Of All Times. At least for now! Hip, Hip, Hurrah! 1888 is a large work that is in the Gothenburg Museum of Art in Sweden. The painting shows members of the guild of Skagen Painters, socialising as they were wont to do, in the open gardens. For me, Hip, Hip, Hurrah! is typical of the work produced by the Skagen Painters, focusing as it does on the play of light in the rather limited landscape. Gothenburg Museum asks people to compare Hip, Hip, Hurrah! with Renoir's Luncheon of the Boating Party, and in both composition and subject matter. And another comparison. Hip, Hip, Hurrah! had many of the same people we saw in Artists' Luncheon at Skagen 1883.

Summer evening at Skagen - painter and wife,1899

Artvee

Because the 1888 work took some years to paint, Swedish art collector Pontus Fürstenberg bought the painting before it was completed. Fürstenberg later donated his treasure to the Gothenburg Museum of Art, where it remains today.

The film PS Krøyer - What A Life! was made in Denmark in 2008. I have not seen the documentary so my summary comes from MUBI. Krøyer was the undisputed centre of the Skagen painters. He was famous; lionised and married to the most beautiful woman in Copenhagen. The film was a tribute to an artistic prodigy whose excellence brought Danish art to an international level. Krøyer brought a whole new way of life to Skagen; as the artists’ colony was created, so the party could begin. Everybody wanted to go there. Hip Hip Hurrah! became the symbol of the two decades of happiness and unity in the 1880s-90s.

Only when his mother’s insanity started to manifest itself did Krøyer's beautiful life start to unravel. His wife left him and with her, the foundation of his idyllic existence disappeared. But he had to live on. Fortunately he had steady, loving support until the very end. Kroyer died in 1909.

**

I went on a history cruise in the past and loved it. Avalon Cruises’ special interest trips have lectures and cultural activities on board that relate to the towns that art buffs love. In deference to Kroyer I would most like to spend time on the “Seine River Cruise” that leaves Paris, sailing to Vernon, for a guided visits to Claude Monet’s gardens at Giverny. On to Joan of Arc’s historic Rouen, where the excursion is to the Normandy land­ing beaches. There is an optional excursion to the Impres­sion­ists’ coastal town of Honfleur. In the medieval town of Conflans, visit  Vincent van Gogh’s gateway to Auvers-sur-Oise. In Paris see Notre Dame Cathedral, the Louvre, Arc de Triomphe, Opéra, Madeleine, Champs Elysées and the Eiffel Tower.  Enjoy a cabaret show at Toulouse Lautrec’s Moulin Rouge. The 8-day cruise leaves Paris regularly throughout April-August.

Old Harbour, Honfleur

Honfleur was where Monet, Courbet, Dubourg, Boudin, Bazille, Corot, Sisley and others painted. It was also the home of Musée Eugène Boudin.

Map of France and Denmark

note Honfleur to Skagen to Copenhagen 

40 Objects 40 Years display, Freud Museum

In his essay Civilisation & its Discont­ents 1929, Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) had analysed the aggressive cruelty that changed men into sa­vages. Aft­er Hit­ler took power in Germany in 1933, as much as he recog­nised these trends, Freud was reluctant to apply them to Vienna. Even when the Nazis burnt all the books in 1933 by hated authors, including Freud! Yet he supported his sons Oliver (1891–1969) & Ernst (1892–1970), to leave Ber­lin and to move to London in 1933.

I invite you to reread Freud's escape: Nazi Vienna->London 1938. Austrian Chancellor Engelbert Doll­fuss DID ban the Nazi Party in June 1933, but he was assassinated by local Nazis a year later. Even then desperately hoped that Doll­fuss’ succ­ess­or would continue policies of ind­ep­end­ence and basic decency. Why? Freud’s revol­u­t­ionary visions into the uncharted sub­conscious mind SHOULD have prepared him for the dark forces moving ahead.

Anna and dad Sigmund Freud, Vienna, 1920

Freud Museum, London

Sigmund didn't believe that Aus­tria would come under German rule! Yet in 1938 German soldiers were massing on Austria's border, annexing Austria into the 3rd Reich. Many Jews urgently fled to safety, but Freud was 81 and very ill with cancer; and U.K migration quotas remained inflex­ible.

Why had Freud not left Vienna quickly? Because he’d spent his apol­it­­ical life­ claiming that Nazi sturm and drang was mere noise, the outward man­i­festation of messy inner liv­es. Note Hitler appeared on the balcony of Vienna’s imper­ial Hof­­burg Palace to declare the Anschluss in March 1938 i.e absorption of Austria into the 3rd Reich. Vienna was fill­ed with excited Nazi sup­p­orters, thugs looted Jewish shops, damaged synagog­ues and attacked Jews. And ruined Freud’s International Psychoanalytic pub­lish­ing house.

While Freud believed in­sight would return to his be­loved cult­ur­ed Vienna, everyone in Freud’s circle tried to get him to leave. Note these fol­low­ers risked their OWN political capital, personal income and physic­al safety to save him. Anna Freud (1894-1982) had ministered to all her father’s needs while man­aging her own pioneering child psycho-analyst pract­ice. She dealt with the new Nazi overlords who were extort­ing money from notable Jews seeking to emig­rate. But she would never have left her dad. Physician-neurologist Ernest Jones (1879-1958) tire­lessly pro­moted Freud’s ideas in Europe. When he heard the threat to Freud, Jones flew to Vien­na to bend British immigration rules. US’s ambassador to France William Bullitt Jr (1891-1967) had been Freud’s patient in the 1920s. Their friendship devel­oped later, through collaborating on a Pres Wood­row Wilson biography; the U.S even demanded Freud’s safe release. Dr Max Schur was treating Freud’s jaw can­c­er. Schur’s loyalty was clear when he delayed his own family’s exit! 

Marie Bonaparte (1882-1962), grandniece of Napoleon & wife of Prince George of Greece-Denmark, had been Freud’s pat­ient be­fore she too became a psychoanalyst. She rushed to Vienna, paying the Nazis for Freud’s huge flight tax.

The refugees boarded the Orient Express in June 1938, 3 months after Hitler annexed Austria, and they noted that tension inten­sified as the train rolled through Ger­many via Munich and Dachau. At 3AM the train reached the border where the Ger­man bor­der guards glan­ced at his docum­ents, then into France with Bonaparte, then continuing to London.

Freud's four sisters in Vienna 1941

Holocaust Historical Society

Of Freud’s children, Anna and Martin had been taken by the Gestapo, but lived. Freud’s 4 sisters Rosa, Marie, Pauline & Adolfine stayed and were exterm­inated.

Freud's home in Maresfield Gardens, Hampstead

Later the Freud Museum

Note the Blue Heritage Plaques

The remaining Freuds moving to London, in Maresfield Gardens Hampstead in July. They brought their belongings, AND an amazing intellectual world. Freud spent the last year of his life with the objects that shaped his views about mental health. His London study has been preserved just as he left it, including thousands of books. And he avidly collected 2,500 Egyptian, Greek & Roman figures, & Asian artefacts that showed his interest in ancient life.

In London Freud was too ill to work and died with a year. Anna, a pioneering child psychologist, continued to live there until her death in 1982. According to her wishes, it opened as a permanent Museum in July 1986, with the entire contents of her father’s study and library left intact. So let’s visit Freud’s home-museum in London this year.

Freud's psychoanalytic couch surrounded by his books and art objects

Freud Museum

 

Freud’s couch from Vienna came in 1938 because it had been the centre of his psycho-analysis practice, blurring the line between work and home. Thus the couch had been essential in recreating end-of-century atmosphere Vienna, remaining in Freud’s study in the London Museum today. And explore the amazing books and collectibles next to the couch.

The exhibition, Protected: 40 Objects 40 Years, displays the life & work of the great Freud family marking the Museum’s 40th anniversary. Novelist Esther Freud and others from the world of culture & psychoanalysis have chosen objects from Museum archives to celebrate the event. These objects tell the story of the Museum, the history of psychoanalysis and of exiled family life. Esther Freud chose a young letter from her dad-artist Lucian Freud (Sigmund’s grandson), who wrote to his parents (Ernst Freud & Lucie Brasch) whilst he was away at English boarding school. Some of the artefacts were hidden from sight in the museum’s attic and are being shown for the first time in a collection curated by Briony Davis. One of the pieces on display is a metal porcupine, a momento of Freud’s trip to the USA in 1909, picked as a reflection on confusions of intimacy. See animal figures in relief, chosen by Neuberger, who was fascinated to find such an item in Freud’s personal collection.

One wall of Freud's library

Freud Museum, London

 

See a C13th copper Chanukah lamp, featuring a Hebrew inscription about light from Proverbs. The psychoanalyst was famously ambivalent about his Jewish heritage so this lamp was probably never lit by him; rather it was and appreciated as a cultural and historical artefact, not religious.

 

Chanukah lamp with 3 animal medals and Hebrew letters in relief

13th century, Northern France or Germany

The Freud Museum London

Following Freud’s own vision, the Museum Director’s aim was to create chances for everyone to learn about and from psychoanalysis. They urged the cultural commentators to be wide-ranging in their choices, about the past of course and also about the contemporary relevance of their chosen object. Other objects on display include a battered leather suitcase belonging to the Freuds’ live-in maid Paula Fichtel and the hand-written recipe book belonging to Freud’s wife Martha for Viennese apple strudel etc. And see Anna’s sewing machine and her patterns for cardigans, plus her embroidery and lacework. She saw weaving and embroidery invaluable crafts, alongside the serious work of psychoanalysis.

The exhibition is presenting lectures and tours in the anniversary year, and they are also building the Freuds’ beloved garden into a mental health refuge.

 

Sam Neill, brilliant films & tv series

Born Nigel Neill in 1947 in Omagh, Nth Ireland to an English mother and a New Zealand father serving in the British army. His family moved to Christchurch N.Z in 1954 where Sam went to school. He became Sam because there were several Nigels at school, saying “I moved more easily as a Sam”.

Sam Neill and Meryl Streep as Michael & Lindy Chamberlain,

Evil Angels, 1988

Sam Neill went on to study English literature and acting at Canterbury Uni. He began acting in Canberbury Uni productions, then moved to Wellington to the Downstage Theatre as a professional actor, being paid $35 a week. Neill acted in some tv films and shorts for New Zealand in the 70s before winning his first lead role in the locally produced thriller Sleeping Dogs 1977, receiving inter-national acclaim in the first New Zealand film to open in the US. Soon after that he landed a leading role in My Brilliant Career 1979 directed by Gillian Armstrong; played the son of the devil in Omen III 1981; in the  1988 biopic Evil Angels, as Lindy Chamberlain’s husband Michael with Meryl Streep; and in The Hunt for Red October 1990. His role in Ivanhoe 1982 boosted Neill in Sweden where the film’s on TV every New Year’s Day for 40 years. In fact he built his career as dashing romantic leads and magnetic villains. He truly arrived on the international film stage as Damien Thorn in Omen III.

 

Sam Neill & Judy Davis on My Brilliant Career, 1979 

Michael Ochs Archives

He soon moved to Australia, landing another internationally lauded role with My Brilliant Career 1979. He was one of the leading candidates to succeed Roger Moore as James Bond and screen-tested in 1986, but lost out to Timothy Dalton. He was nominated for a Golden Globe for his spy role in the 1983 miniseries Reilly, Ace of Spies.

He went on to star in some films of varying success for the following 45 years, incl Dead Calm, Hunt for Red October and The Piano 1993. Neill came to widespread international attention in 1993 with his role as the New Zealand settler Alisdair Stewart in Jane Campion’s Oscar-winner The Piano. Neill, well known for his role as palaeontologist Dr Alan Grant in Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park 1993, a role originally offered to Harrison Ford. Neill played Alan Grant again in two Jurassic Park sequels. 

My favourite was The Piano. In mid-C19th a mute woman went along with her young daughter and prized piano for an arranged marriage to a farmer in New Zealand, but was soon lusted after by a farmworker. Jane Campion was the director and it starred Holly Hunter, Harvey Keitel & Sam Neill.

Dr Alan Grant and Tyrannosaurus Rex, Jurassic Park,1993, 

by Murray Close 

Neill shaped a career playing memorable romantic leads & captivating villains with 150+ credits in 50 years, incl Dead Calm 1989, Jungle Book 1994, In the Mouth of Madness 1995, Event Horizon 1997, Bicentennial Man 1999, The Dish 2000 and Peter Rabbit 2018. Neill also worked on tv, incl miniseries Merlin 1998. The Tudors mini-series 2007, as the corrupt Maj Chester Campbell in Peaky Blinders tv drama 2013 and The Twelve miniseries 2022.

Sam Neil and Holly Hunter, The Piano

Sam Neill was the New Zealand actor whose career spanned Oscar winners and famous films, so he dreaded any prospect of retirement. He won Officer of the Order of the British Empire 1991 for his services to acting and a Distinguished Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2007. Years later, the New Zealand’s honours system allowed recipients to convert his Order of Merit into a knighthood, Sir Sam accepted a knighthood in 2022.

Actor Rachel Griffiths, who cast Neill as Michelle Payne’s horse trainer father in her directorial debut Ride Like A Girl, also commented on social media. Two Paddocks is the label under which Neill has been making wine for decades, a pursuit he took as seriously as acting. When not working, Neill split his later years between his Surry Hills home and his farm in New Zealand, where he kept rescue animals and produced wine from his vineyard. Based in Central Otago Sth Island, it created classy pinot noirs and average Picnic range.

Aust Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on X mourned Neill’s passing. “Sam starred in so many beloved Australian stories and he earned a special place in Australian hearts. Wry and thoughtful, Sam fought illness with the same dignity, humour & conviction that gave strength to his performances.

New Zealand prime minister Christopher Luxon said “Sam started out when there was barely a film industry in this country to speak of. For 50+ years he took New Zealand stories to the world and his talents helped make our film industry into what it is today, one of our greatest cultural exports. His work will be watched and loved long after us.” NZ’s foreign affairs minister Winston Peters said Neill was a Kiwi icon whose work in both local & Hollywood films entertained people globally for decades.

In 2023 Neill’s memoir, Did I Ever Tell You About This? revealed he'd been undergoing chemo-therapy for a year after being diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma blood cancer. By the time his Memoirs were published in March 2023 his cancer was in remission, but he underwent monthly chemotherapy for the rest of his life; he signed a contract with the drug company that if he was alive in 4 months, the treatment was free. Neill explained it was an aggressive form of blood cancer with fewer than half of those diagnosed surviving 5+ years. But it this was not the cause of death.

He wrote that he later went into remission after undergoing a trial with a new chemotherapy drug. In 2023 he wrote “I’m not afraid to die, but it would annoy me. Because I’d really like another decade or two. We’ve built all these lovely terraces, we’ve got these olive trees and cypresses, and I want to be around to see it all mature. And I’ve got my 6 lovely little grandchildren. I want to see them get big.”

The extended family group shared the tragic news of Sam’s passing in July in Sydney. Surrounded by family and passing with dignity, Sam was survived by 4 children & 8 grandchildren.

Martin Ferrero, Sir Richard Attenborough, Jeff Goldblum, Sam Neill, Laura Dernin Jurassic Park,

Yahoo Life

favourite U.K suffragette: Leonora Cohen

Police court summons and photo, Nov 1911

Photo credit: Leeds Museums & Galleries

Leonora Throp Cohen (1873–1978) was born in Leeds to Canova & Jane Throp. Her father was a stone carver but died in 1879 when Leonora was only 5, after he devel­op­ed TB of the spine. This left her widowed mother to raise the 3 young children. Her seamstress mother worked to provide for the family, especially difficult since Leonora also developed TB

Leonora apprenticed as a milliner and while she was working as a mil­l­inery buyer, she met Henry Cohen. He was a jeweller's assistant in central Leeds and the son of Jewish immigrants from Warsaw. Married in 1900, the couple's first child Rosetta died on her first birthday but thankfully in 1902, they had a healthy son Reginald. For the next nine years, the small family enjoyed a peaceful life as Henry's business as a jeweller and watchmaker flourished. 

Because her mother Jane had been a widowed seamstress struggling to raise the children alone, it was obvious to Leonora that her mum had few rights as a woman living in Britain. Life was hard because women had little control over their own lives. So it was her mother's lack of empowerment that had radicalised the young woman. 

At the time of Cohen's first job as a milliner, there was a campaign for better working conditions for women. This affected Cohen and her view of the treatment of women in the working world. Thankfully husband Henry was supportive of her fight for women's rights. 

Cohen later donated her scrapbook, many papers, craftwork, photos and other momentos to Abbey House Museum Leeds. Her scrapbook provided an insight into what inspired her to become a suffragette and indicated her interested in current affairs via an article about Nurse Edith Cavell's death

One cabinet from the Leonora Cohen section of Abbey House Museum.

The green dress is covered in Suffragette symbols, and the logo of the Women’s Social & Political Union

In 1909, she joined Leeds branch of Women's Social & Political Union/WSPU, founded by Emmeline Pankhurst in 1903. Later, Cohen was in The Bodyguard to Mrs Pankhurst.

In 1911, Cohen joined in a rally that was packed out with support­ers. And the mounted police. When she protested by throwing a rock at a government-building window, she was promptly arrested and placed in Holloway Prison for seven days. Spending time behind bars only in­creased her passion to fight for women’s right to vote. She de­fend­ed herself in court and even though found guilty, the authorities re­leased her. As Cohen began to take bolder steps as a suffragette, her family supporting her allegiance.

In 1913 Cohen took more vigorous action. At a protest at the Tower of London, she followed a group of school children inside, acting as a teacher. Hidden under Leonora’s coat was an iron bar, taken the night before and filed off for the purpose. Leonora used this bar to smash a glass showcase containing in­signia of the Order of Merit in the Tower’s Jewel House. She tied a note to the bar: My Prot­est to the Government for its refusal to Enfranchise Women, but continues to torture women prisoners. Deeds Not Words. 100 years of Constitutional Pet­ition, Resolutions, Meetings & Processions have Failed. Lenora Cohen 

Cohen was re-arrested, but decided to make a stand by going on a hunger strike, & not speaking out in anger. Because of the Cat & Mouse Act, Cohen was released from prison after a few days to allow her to recover from her hunger strike.

In 1913 suffragettes Annie Kenney & Flora Drummond asked for WSPU members to speak to leading politicians David Lloyd George and Sir Edward Grey at Westminster. The delegates described the terrible pay and working conditions that they suffered and their hope that a vote would enable women to challenge the status quo. Voting women would have power to demand higher wages, just as men had done.

During WW1 Leonora threw herself into the war effort, without other distractions. She worked in a munitions factory where she set up a trade union branch for women workers and defused strikes. She also established a charity, raising money for surgical appliances for women who had been injured in munitions factories.

A coalition government passed the Representation of the People Act 1918, enfranchising all men, and women over 30 who met minimum property qualifications. The Conservative gov­ernment passed the Representation of the People (Equal Franchise) Act 1928, giving the vote to all women over the age of 21 on equal terms with men. 

Cohen, a dedicated trade unionist, became the Leeds district org­aniser of the National Union of General and Municipal Workers and served a term as president of the Leeds Trades Council. By 1923, Cohen became the first woman president of the Yorkshire Federation of Trades Councils. In 1924 she was appointed a magistrate, one of the first women appointed to the bench and a JP for decades. In 1928, she was awarded the Order of the British Empire.

Blue Plaque on Leonora Cohen's home 

Leeds, Wiki

Suffragette Memorial honoured those fighting for women's suffrage,

unveiled in 1970

in the Christchurch Gardens, London

Leonora Cohen retired to north Wales. In 1970, she attended the unveiling of the Suffragette Memorial in London, along with other famous suffragettes and Labour politicians. Since Cohen lived to 105, long enough to become a role model for the 1970s feminists and Coh­en was brought back into the public eye. Brian Harr­ison inter­viewed 200+ people, including Cohen, as a part of his project Oral Evidence on the Suffragette and Suffragist Movements.

Before she died in 1978, Cohen donated all her mem­orabilia to Abbey House Museum, Leeds. The Times newspaper pub­lished her obit­uar­y, covering The Tower Suffragette’s imprisonment and hunger strike, and long career as a trade unionist and magistrate. She was seen as a regional act­ivist who was willing to be gaoled for the cause. And that later she became a very important trade unionist and magistrate

I am a great grandmother !!!

My maternal grandmother had 3 daughters, the oldest being my mother. My mother had 3 children, with me being the oldest. I knew that having a baby was more important to my family than having the most elaborate wedding in Melbourne or earning a Nobel Prize for Medicine, so they were delighted when I delivered two handsome and intelligent sons. 

Between the two boys, I have 5 handsome and intelligent grandchildren, very easy for me. No dirty nappies but I had the grandchildren one day a week and their parents looked after them during the rest of week. Plus grandma (me) was responsible for music events at school, walks though art galleries, and selection of history and travel journals.

Great grandson, born Ap 2026

Now a surprise! We are great grandparents! The baby was born last week, of average weight (3.2 ks) and reddish eyebrows and eyelashes like his father, grandfather and great grandfather. He is so handsome! My husband will take him to cricket and football matches, as long as I take the little one to the beach house and teach him to swim. And like his father, grandfather and great grandfather, he will barrack for Carlton Football Club.

Of course he has to barrack for Carlton :)

We understand that every family has to lose their grand parents, aunts and uncles, parents, siblings and cousins, and that eventually there is no choice but to get on with life as best as possible. We go to the cemetery every year on each anniversary but surround ourselves with photos in between time. Below is a photo of our 52 year old son who closed his business after the October War broke out in 2023 and volunteered to pick fruit on kibbutz while the young men went into the army. We are very proud of him for volunteering, but we miss him still.

Son volunteering on a kibbutz

just before he passed away at 52

Jane Austen's Hampshire home and family

In High School I read and loved two of Jane Austen (1775-1817)’s most famous novels. But this was all fiction I assumed, and not Jane’s real life. Her father died suddenly in 1805 and left no property or income to his daughters. And since his wife and 2 daughters were not allowed to work, the women were left dependent on the support of family men. Luckily Jane's brother Edward had been adopted by his cousins, inheriting their estate called Chawton House Hamps and becoming financially secure himself.

Jane Austen lived and wrote in Chawton, Hampshire

built c1690 and later renovated

London Perfect

                                            

By 1807 Edward moved the women into his 2-storey red brick home, providing happy and productive years of Jane’s life. Each day included looking after Jane’s mother, writing at a small table, eating together, games with the nieces and nephews, piano playing, sharing long walks, going to church and sharing sewing with sister Cassandra in the evening.

 Dining parlour and fire. Jane's writing desk

Pinterest

Much of what is known about Jane's domestic routine comes from the niece Caroline Austen who in later life recorded the daily routine at Chawton. But little was written about the house’s architectural history. So now, 63 years after I read the book in Literature, it is time to examine her treasured and final house in the charming Chawton village.

The house was originally built in C14th as a small farmhouse, with later additions and renovations made over the years. The house was a thatched, timber dwelling built on the site for use as a farmhouse and then a coaching inn. In 1769 it was bought by the Knight family, distant Austen cousins, and became part of their Chawton estate. The Knights didn’t have any children themselves, so they formally adopted Jane’s brother Edward as their heir.

There were many minor alterations made by Edward Knight for his family eg the blocking of the window from the drawing room to the street, and adding a new Gothic window, looking onto the garden. The garden was extended for privacy, but retained a view towards Chawton Park and the woods surrounding the House where the ladies exercised.

The Drawing Room

 

The current structure resulted from renovations, blending elements of medieval & Georgian architecture. The exterior featured stone and brick with a steeply pitched roof and a prominent chimney. The interior showed the era’s artistry: ornate fireplaces, wooden panelling, intricate plasterwork.

Chaise Lounge

Destinations Detours and Dreams

Kitchen, 

pan360

In 1809, Edward offered his mum and sisters a small house on his Chawton estate. They moved that year, together with their friend Martha Lloyd, forming a cosy female household. Jane lived there for her last 8 years, but suffering from ill health in May 1817, she left for treatment in Winchester. She soon died and was buried in Winchester Cathedral.

Mrs Austen and Cassandra lived at the House for life. The house returned to the Chawton Estate with Cassandra’s death in 1845, and divided into 3 dwellings for estate workers, then as an estate office and a working men’s club.

In 1940 a local founded the Jane Austen Society to try to save the House. The Society attracted a patron, Mr TE Carpenter; he personally bought the House and bequeathed it to the nation as a permanent memorial to his son who’d been killed in action in WW2. Carpenter created the Jane Austen Memorial Trust to run the House as a Museum, and it was formally opened by the Duke of Wellington in July 1949. Jane Austen Society also built up the collections and funded the building renovations. In particular major roof repairs in 2021-2, via Historic England and the Historic Houses Foundation, keep the building watertight.

Since then, more parts of the House have been restored, the interior being restored to the time when the Austens lived there. Today Jane Austen’s House is a Grade I listed site, a certified Museum and an important literary site. It holds a major collection of Jane Austen’s treasures eg her loved jewellery, first editions of her books, personal letters, textiles, paintings and portraits of her friends and family, and the tiny table at which she wrote her famous novels. There’s also a beautiful cottage garden.

It was here her six novels of manners, ground-breaking at the time, critiqued the landed gentry of Regency England. Sense and Sensibility, published in 1811, was her first full-length; Pride and Prejudice 1813, and two more novels published in her lifetime: Mansfield Park (1814) and Emma (1816). Northanger Abbey and Persuasion were published postdeath in July 1817. Most of the places Jane referenced in her novels were places she lived in, visited or was inspired by. Most of her letters were burned but from those that survived, she was not a boring writer. She had a sharp wit, and she wasn't afraid to use it, especially in private

Persuasion by Austen, 1817

Amazon

Visit the rooms where she lived and wrote; see her writing table, jewellery, letters and first editions of her novels. Explore the pretty cottage garden, play traditional garden games, enjoy Regency clothes and see bonnet designing!

Hampshire and surrounding counties

Russian Grand Duchess Anna Anderson?

Romanov family with Grand Duchess Anastasia seated far right.
Credit: Ati

In July 1918 Bolshevik revolutionaries shot Czar Nicholas II, Czarina Alexandra, four Grand Duch­esses Olga, Tatiana, Maria, Anastasia, son Tsarevich Alex­ei and 4 servants. Their bodies were taken from the Yekaterinburg cellar in the Urals, and buried in the forest, yet rumours started that the body of the Grand Duchess Anastasia had not been accounted for. Did she hide in the closed cellar?

Since 1918 many women called them­selves Missing Anast­asia. But only two women gathered subs­tant­ial support. See an earlier post about Anna Anderson and the other pretenders.

The princesses Olga, Tatiana, Maria and Anastasia

Alexander Palace, 1916

Anna Anderson was suicidal and was sent to Dall­dorf Mental Asylum in Berlin in 1920. One of the pat­ients believed Anna was the Grand Duchess and two years later Anna also started believing the story. So the Czarina of Russia’s brother, Ernest Louis Grand Duke of Hesse, hired private investigator Martin Knopf in 1927 to discover who she really was.

He found she was Franziska Schanzkowska, who’d worked in a munitions factory in WW1. After her fiancé was killed at the front, a grenade fell out of her hand and exploded. She had head in­juries and a foreman was killed in front of her.

In 1928 she moved to USA and liv­ed off Rus­sian Princess Xenia Georgievna, a distant rel­ative of the Romanovs. But Anna had to return to Germany. For 20 years she struggled to get her name recognised by the Eur­op­ean courts.. and failed. In 1968 she moved back to the USA wh­ere she married a wealthy man. And­ers­on died in the USA in 1984.

More recent events Canonisation of the dead Romanovs in Nov 1981 told the world the Orthodox Church made them saints. This was based on the bel­ief that all the ro­y­al family were all totally, irrev­oc­ab­ly murdered.

The bodies of Tsar, Tasarina and 3 of the daughters were found in the woods outside Yekaterinburg in 1991. Exhaustive post mortem exam­in­ations con­firm­ed that the bodies were indeed the Romanovs, so they were quickly was buried in a vault in Saints Peter & Paul Cathed­ral, St Petersburg. But this did not end the rumours because the son and one of the 4 daugh­t­­ers might still have been alive.

Questions remained: had Grand Duchess Anastasia really es­c­aped from Russia and later resurfaced as Anna Anderson? Tissue samples were kept after And­ers­on died, so plans could fin­ally made for post-mortem DNA tests. In 1994 DNA tests on a lock of Anna's hair and sur­v­iving med­ic­al tissue samples sh­owed that her DNA did NOT match any Romanov rem­ains.

Anastasia, c1914                                                                            Anna Anderson, c1917

Ati                                                                                                   Ati 

This claim was investigated by com­paring Anna’s DNA with DNA ext­racted from the Ro­m­­anov bones. Mat­ernally inherited mitochondrial DNA, which is pass­­ed un­ch­anged from mother to child, was analysed from each of the samples. If Anna had really been Anastasia, her mitoch­ond­rial DNA should have been a perfect match to her mother’s and sister’s DNA. As most historians ex­pected, multiple diff­erences were detected between Anna’s DNA prof­ile and the DNA profile of her mother and sisters. Anna Anderson was just an imposter!

So who WAS Anna Anderson? Instead Ander­son's mitochondrial DNA was compared to that of Carl Maucher, a great-nephew of Franz­iska Schanz­kowska via the maternal line. The DNA profiles from Anderson and Mau­ch­er were a close match, provid­ing strong evidence that Anna And­er­son was indeed Franzisca Schanz­kow­ska. We may never know the rea­s­ons she claimed to be a Romanov, but perhaps her mental illness led her to believe that she truly was a Grand Duchess.

Unexpectedly, in 2007, the 4th daughter and the son were found cremated near Yek­ater­in­burg. It was never verif­ied if the 4th sister was Maria or Anastasia, but ALL 4 girls had been proven by DNA testing to be part of the royal family.

Her story has been adapted into plays, cartoons and films includ­ing the film Anastasia (1956) that earned Ingrid Bergman an Oscar for her role as the Romanov princess. And the award-winning film Anastasia: The Myst­ery of Anna (1986). But remember that the DNA tests from the above studies had not been carried out before the plays and films were made. The true DNA profile of Anna Anderson had not been confirmed, or denied, before 1994.

Thanks to allthatsintersting.