{"id":976,"date":"2020-05-29T14:04:05","date_gmt":"2020-05-29T13:04:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/libstaff\/?p=976"},"modified":"2020-05-29T14:04:05","modified_gmt":"2020-05-29T13:04:05","slug":"well-meet-again-or-how-i-gambled-away-vera-lynns-autograph-and-ended-up-in-a-zambian-jungle-with-a-bunch-of-hippies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/libstaff\/archives\/976","title":{"rendered":"We\u2019ll meet again \u2013 or how I gambled away Vera Lynn\u2019s autograph and ended up in a Zambian jungle with a bunch of hippies\u2026"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>By Danny Millum<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Normally when you tell your family \/ friends about what you do, unless you\u2019re a fireman or a nurse they just zone out (especially when your job title is Metadata Discovery Officer). <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But it really seems as if the BLDS was actually my genetic destiny, as it turned out that not only was my dad interested in the project but it turns out that collecting African pamphlets runs in the family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Buried in\nour loft were the following:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li><em>East African Annual 1934-35 \u2013 Tanganyika, Kenya, Uganda, Zanzibar<\/em><\/li><li><em>Table Talk Annual Review 1935 (Melbourne) \u2013 incl sections on Australia\u2019s Overseas Territories<\/em><\/li><li><em>Holiday 1947 (Philadelphia) <\/em><\/li><li><em>Times of Ceylon Annual 1958<\/em><\/li><li><em>Zambia 1964-74 \u2013 celebrating ten years of independence<\/em><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignleft size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"192\" height=\"255\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/libstaff\/files\/2020\/05\/image-3.png\" alt=\"The front cover of East African Annual 1934-1935\" class=\"wp-image-980\" \/><figcaption>Credit: Danny Millum<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignleft size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/libstaff\/files\/2020\/05\/image-4.png\" alt=\"The front cover of Zambia 1964 - 1974\" class=\"wp-image-981\" width=\"191\" height=\"255\" \/><figcaption>Credit: Danny Millum<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The East African Annual pictured\u00a0to the left is just one of a set inherited from one of my great uncles, either Owen or Edward. Owen was in the Royal Navy and travelled out to New Zealand via East Africa more than once. He died when his ship was torpedoed in 1943. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"406\" height=\"409\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/libstaff\/files\/2020\/05\/image-6.png\" alt=\"A man wearing 1940s military uniform in the jungle.\" class=\"wp-image-983\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/libstaff\/files\/2020\/05\/image-6.png 406w, https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/libstaff\/files\/2020\/05\/image-6-298x300.png 298w, https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/libstaff\/files\/2020\/05\/image-6-150x150.png 150w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 406px) 100vw, 406px\" \/><figcaption>Credit: Danny Millum<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Those\nfrom 1947 and 1958 would be brought by Edward, who was in the Merchant Navy but\nserved in the RAF during the war. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Most\nmemorably, he was entertained by Vera Lynn in Burma. She apparently sang from\nthe wing of the aircraft she\u2019d arrived in and he got her autograph but\nsubsequently gambled it away \u2013 certainly the picture of him hungover suggests\nthat such dissolute behaviour (so atypical for a Millum) may not have been a\none-off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Zambian materials are more recent \u2013 my parents taught out there in the early 1970s when the newly independent country was clearly so desperate for teachers that it was prepared to hire any old hippie that walked out of the jungle. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"311\" height=\"320\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/libstaff\/files\/2020\/05\/image-7.png\" alt=\"A man and a woman in the jungle\" class=\"wp-image-984\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/libstaff\/files\/2020\/05\/image-7.png 311w, https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/libstaff\/files\/2020\/05\/image-7-292x300.png 292w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 311px) 100vw, 311px\" \/><figcaption>Credit: Danny Millum<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Anyway, my dad\u2019s now threatening to donate all these boxes of material to the BLDS Legacy collection \u2013 really hope he doesn\u2019t find much more buried in the attic or at this rate this project is never going to end\u2026..<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Danny Millum Normally when you tell your family \/ friends about what you do, unless you\u2019re a fireman or a nurse they just zone out (especially when your job title is Metadata Discovery Officer). But it really seems as if the BLDS was actually my genetic destiny, as it turned out that not only &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/libstaff\/archives\/976\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">We\u2019ll meet again \u2013 or how I gambled away Vera Lynn\u2019s autograph and ended up in a Zambian jungle with a bunch of hippies\u2026<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":332,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[150885],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9fi5f-fK","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/libstaff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/976"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/libstaff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/libstaff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/libstaff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/332"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/libstaff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=976"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/libstaff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/976\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":986,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/libstaff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/976\/revisions\/986"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/libstaff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=976"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/libstaff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=976"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/libstaff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=976"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}