Ruth Gledhill - Times Online - WBLG

Prince Philip's experience of 'anti-Semitic frenzy'

Mohamed Al Fayed accused the Duke of Edinburgh of being a Nazi this week. Our Times diarist put a little more perspective on this. But to lay this terrible demon of a libel finally to rest, a friend has sent me a document written by Prince Philip himself. It is the text of a speech he delivered at Yad Vashem in Israel in October 1994. In it he refers to how his mother, Princess Alice, pictured here, secretly helped a Jewish family in Athens. I've reproduced it below. He also describes how, aged 12, he had first-hand experience of the 'anti-Semitic frenzy' gripping NSP members. He witnessed the bullying of a Jewish boy at his boarding school in Germany and stepped in to help him. His lifelong contribution to interfaith work has been acknowledged by the ICCJ, with the award of an Interfaith Gold Medallion.

Into the Fire

Researching a backgrounder to go with Richard Owen's story on cremation and the Roman Catholic Church yesterday, I came across this strangely evocative story on TheDyingMan website. 'Cremation was forced through British law when a Welsh doctor, Dr William Price burned his infant son, named Jesus Christ, in a Pagan ritual shortly before 1883 in the historic town of Llantrisant. The doctor was a well known eccentric whose cremation ceremony was initially stopped by people coming home from church. The police returned the partially burned body of his son on condition that it would neither be buried nor burned. Later that year Dr. Price reneged on his promise and burned his son's remains. The townsfolk, unhappy with this sacrilege, went in an angry mob to burn out Dr. Price, but were turned back when they discovered only his wife armed with pistols, and that Dr Price had already left the building. This later resulted in Dr. Price's arrest and an 1884 court case, which resulted in an amendment to legalize cremation in February of that year. An Act of Parliament for the Regulation of burning of human remains, and to enable burial authorities to established crematoria was passed in 1902.'

Army Chief says, 'There is life after death'

This is Chief of General Staff, General Sir Richard Dannatt, at this week's Spring Harvest Aiming 4 Excellence Conference in Swanwick, Derbyshire, where he spoke on, 'Leaders need a spiritual dimension.' I understand the Ministry of Defence was not too impressed by Sir Richard's unabashed evangelical take on the eschatological aspect of the job he does. It took us ages yesterday to get them to comment on our story. And yet, after all, someone's got to be head of the Army. Surely, given the close daily contact with death and destruction that Army service entails as Iraq is all to sad a witness to, it's better that the person responsible for all this is someone with strong religious beliefs. Or maybe there are some who think not, Islam, Christianity and the state of the world in general. And Sir Richard has after all been pretty frank in the past in his views on Muslims.

War Horse: God's own creatures and our humanity

Just back from a National first night, where I cried and cried. If you see anything this year, you must make it War Horse, adapted by Nick Stafford from the novel by Michael Morpurgo. A tenuous link with my brief comes in the shape of one of the directors, Tom Morris. He is the man who brought us Jerry Springer: the Opera. If any of you still haven't found it in your hearts to forgive him for that, now is the time to do so.

A time to mourn

A new Facebook friend, Matthew Alexander, has drawn my attention to Time magazine's wonderful archives, which now seem to be almost completely online. There is a beautiful piece on the death of Pope Pius XI from 1939, and a little searching brings up fascinating pieces about the conclaves of 1958 and 1963.

How do you get to heaven?

Conversation with my 5-year-old son yesterday:

'Mummy, why did grandpa die?'

'He was old. His time had come.'

'Will he stop being old and come back as a young person?'

'No, I'm afraid not.'

'Where is he now?'

'With God in heaven.'

'How do you get to heaven?'

'You have to die.'

'No Mummy, I mean what kind of transport did he use to get to heaven?'

Sadly my father, the Rev Peter Gledhill, died yesterday. I'm off for a few days but please continue to read and comment on the blog, Joanna will be taking over. Meanwhile, anyone have any ideas about what I should have said to Arthur?