Hi Everyone,
Oh my, how you all just keep on astounding me. I have now had over THIRTEEN THOUSAND visitors to my site! Thank you so much for your interest and I am glad that I am able to keep your interest too.
Thank you also for keeping the booking requests coming, I really do enjoy talking to you all and doing my 'show and tell'. I've just realized that I didn't tell you what the extra piece of Tower memorabilia is that I bring with me along with all the other 'treats'. Well it's the Warrant given to my husband when he became a Yeoman of the Guard, and states all the 'perks' of being a Yeoman of the Guard. It was presented to him by Sir Roger Wheeler, the then Constable of the Tower.
A busy week for me next week, lots of meetings and presentations, one in particular I am looking forward to doing is for the Women's Canadian Club, Edmonton chapter; it's over the lunch period next Tuesday at a rather nice hotel.
I'm also compiling a spreadsheet with all the names of all the prisoners ever held in the Tower of London along with additional information on the prisoners, their families and the reasons for their imprisonment. Brian Harrison, a former Yeoman of the Guard, compiled a superb book entitled 'The Tower of London prisoner book'. He found that there was no one book or document within the Tower of London listing all the prisoners, rather the total list of prisoners was made up of many documents and so he painstakingly compiled them all and produced the only book at the time (1991) of the complete list of prisoners at the Tower and the reasons for them being there. He started to compile the information in 1978 finishing with the publication in 1991. I am not publishing my little endeavour, rather this is for my benefit, it saves wear and tear on my copy of Brian's book and it makes it easier for me when researching names of prisoners for clients if I have everything in one place, and while Brian's book is fabulous, as everyone knows as the years go by more history is discovered (thank you internet) and so I am just filling in some blanks with the information that is available today. When I tell you that there have been THOUSANDS of prisoners at the Tower you will understand what an undertaking this is. So I am not expecting to finish this project of mine soon, although I am up to 345 prisoners, so only a few more thousands to go!
Have a great weekend everyone, and I must also say 'Good luck' to our friend Kev Nunn in Victoria, B.C. who will be riding in the 'tour de rock' and raising money for the 'Cops for Cancer' cause. If you get a chance please take a look at the website and if possible donate a few pennies - it is for a really good cause.
Until next time,
Take care
Heather