NOTHING ABOUT AVIATION

18 November 1999, 07:28 AM

I am pleased to announce a new book, MURDER AMONG GENTLEMEN: A HISTORY OF DUELLING IN CANADA, being published this month by Robin Brass Studio, 10 Blantyre Avenue, Scarborough, Ontario, M1N 2R4. The cost is $ 17.95 (Canadian). Further details may be obtained from (or orders placed with) the publisher's website - http://www.total.net/~rbrass/index.html And if there MUST be some aviation content to a posting on this Forum, let me quote Pilot Officer Percy Prune - "He who tooteth not his own horn, the same shall not be tooted".

18 November 1999, 11:00 AM

well, considering how peaceable and nonviolent Canadians are supposed to be, it can't be a very long book. And really, is this a place for crass advertisment?

19 November 1999, 03:14 AM

P.O. Prune's record in WW2 was of course astounding, but it was another war.
Did he have a Great War equivalent?

Michael · 19 November 1999, 04:28 AM

Prune actually served in both wars. He changed his name and lied about his age to get in in '39.

1918 he was Sergeant (Pilot) Plum.

And speaking of Canadian duels, Hugh I hope you didn't reproduce the indictment against Samuel Jarvis. I can see some Forumites adopting it in their posts:

And that the said (fill in name of opponent) not having the fear of God before his eyes, but being moved and seduced by the instigation of the devil...

19 November 1999, 08:45 AM

Re: P/O Prune, TEE EMM (the magazine that started it all) published a book on the Prune family, entitled PRUNE'S PROGRESS which recounted the whole Prune saga, beginning with an awkward ape which fell out of a tree, landing on its head (which explained much of the subsequent behaviour of the tribe) - and yes, if memory serves me correctly, there was a First World War flying Prune. As to duels - well, there are a lot of them in the book, although the last duelling incident recorded is a bloodless affair in Ottawa (1948) when the Consul General of the Domincan Republic challanged the Argentinian Ambassador, the cause being diplomatic snubs and undiplomatic language. The latter declined, stating haughtily that "Ambassadors do not duel with mere Consul General".