Top 10 Posts For October

A round up of the most read posts on 67 Not Out for the month of October, 2013.

1. The Ghost Who Chased A Thief
I didn't mind being alone but I asked a girlfriend to stay over with me as company. My mum and dad are real worriers, when they go away and leave the house, but I assured them I would make sure everything was okay. And everything was okay for about ten days. Then it happened ... Read full story

2. The White Dove As A Messenger Of The Dead
One day I came home from work and a white dove was perched on the steps that lead up to the front door of my house. No doves or birds of any kind were ever previously on my steps. This white dove would not move to let me by. I made ... Read full story

3. The Mysterious Skull With The Golden Wreath Of Protection
In the second large photo below a coin is also shown which was found inside the skull's mouth. This is a silver tetradrachm from the Cretan city of Polyrrhenia from the period of the Roman Emperor Tiberius (14-37AD). The coin was placed in the mouth of the deceased as Charon's fare for passage to the underworld ... Read full story

4. The Shadow People Who Stalk Our World
Shadow People are not human entities. We don't believe they're ghosts. Don't believe they're demons either. But, on a scale, we'd say Shadow People lean more towards the negative side, especially given the bad feelings we get from the vibes ... Read full story

5. The Queen's Coincidence Of Names Conspiracy
Is it simply a coincidence that Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother's name before marriage was Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes Lyon and that the family cook at the time was called Marguerite Rodiere ... Read full story

6. The Concentration Camp Romantic Coincidence
A young man, Antonin Nowak, just 14 years of age was in a concentration camp in Poland, one of the many injustices of World War II. Through the high fence he often saw a young girl of a similar age and ... Read full story

7. The Photo Of The Ghost Of Broomfield Cottage Tawstock
One night, however, Karin had gone up to bed and I was sitting on a settee looking out at the living room. For some reason I felt I should take a photo - the one above - and then a second one as below. These were taken within seconds of each other. Maybe it's a ... Read full story

8. The Unusual Contact With Her Dead Mother
After about 18 months mum took poorly and we nursed her through a difficult time until she eventually died. It was so sad, I felt like a lost orphan. She was always there for me, no matter what I did, especially when I was younger. As we were about to set off to her funeral my husband picked ... Read full story

9. The Reincarnation Of The Cathars Priest Roger de Grisolles
She had been having strange nightmares, since a teenager, where she felt that she was a peasant girl in Toulouse, France in the thirteenth century. In her dream her family befriended a priest named Roger de Grisolles who eventually died ... Read full story

10. The Bizarre 1914 Photo Coincidence
In 1914, just prior to the first world war, a German mother took a photo she had taken of her young son, to a shop in Strasbourg, to be developed. Before she could collect the photo war broke out and for some reason she was unable to return to Strasbourg. Moving forward two years to 1916 ... Read full story

The Queen's Coincidence Of Names Conspiracy

Is it simply a coincidence that Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother's name before marriage was Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes Lyon and that the family cook at the time was called Marguerite Rodiere? Is it also a coincidence that King Edward VIII's nickname for her was Cookie?

For clarification Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother (August 4, 1900 to March 30, 2002) was the mother of the current British Queen Elizabeth II. She was the wife of King George VI and therefore had the title of Queen from 1936 to her husband's death in 1952.

Now going back to the name Marguerite, shared by Elizabeth and the family cook, there is a suggestion that perhaps the cook was actually her mother and not Cecilia her father's wife. Her father was Claude Bowes-Lyon, Lord Glamis (later to become the 14th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne in the Peerage of Scotland).

Cecilia is always shown as Elizabeth's mother but doubts are now being raised as she had already had eight children. Her health had deteriorated for further pregnancies. As well as physically she was devastated mentally by the death of her eldest child in 1893 and had a mental breakdown.

If Elizabeth was indeed the cook's daughter it would explain that nickname of Cookie.

There is also a question as to where Elizabeth the Queen Mother was born. For example Wikipedia states:

"The location of her (Elizabeth's) birth remains uncertain, but reputedly she was born either in her parents' Westminster home at Belgrave Mansions, Grosvenor Gardens, or in a horse-drawn ambulance on the way to a hospital. Other possible locations include Forbes House in Ham, London, the home of her maternal grandmother, Mrs Scott. Her birth was registered at Hitchin, Hertfordshire, near the Strathmores' English country house, St Paul's Walden Bury, which was also given as her birthplace in the census the following year."

Without DNA testing there is, of course, no way of knowing if Elizabeth the Queen Mother was in reality the daughter of the French cook Marguerite Rodiere.

However, according to the grapevine, Edward VIII is said to have seen documents which showed that Elizabeth was born on the 3rd of August and not the 4th of August, as per the official records. The documents were also said to have shown that she was born to a Marguerite Rodiere.

Further Reading:
Famous Coincidences: King Umberto I
The Hampton Court Ghost Caught On CCTV

The Bad Omen Of The Crown Falling Off The Coffin

On a walk this morning I took a photo of an old Post Box, as above, because it came from the period of King Edward VII. This reminded me of a coincidence about, what would have been, King Edward VIII. Funny how the mind works at times.

There has been lots in the UK newspapers, and on television about how it has been 60 years since Queen Elizabeth II ascended to the British throne. The previous King, George VI, died on the 6th of February 1952.

It's therefore a diamond anniversary for the Queen - but she should never have been Queen and her father, George VI, should never have been King.

When King George V died it was Edward VIII who was to be crowned the new King as heir to the throne - and at last I'm getting to the mysterious coincidence bit.

At the procession to George V's Lying in State in Westminister Hall, London the Imperial State Crown fell from the top of the coffin, crashed to the ground and rolled into the gutter. Onlookers saw this as a very bad omen.

It is also said that the new, but uncrowned, King Edward VIII also wondered if this was a bad omen for his reign as king.

The bad omen was proved to be spot on.

Before the year was out Edward was forced to abdicate the throne for the love of Mrs Wallis Simpson, a divorcee.

Kings couldn't marry such women back in those days, it was deemed to be 'morally unacceptable'. Today it seems the strict morals have disappeared, what with Prince Charles being unfaithful to Princess Diana with Camilla Parker Bowles - who he has now married. Prince Charles will still be King when Queen Elizabeth dies.

So, there we go, an old Post Box led me here. These old Boxes are still in use, the oldest going back to Queen Victoria in the late 1800s. The one below I saw in Rye in the church wall. Not sure why they interest me. Might be because I have bags and bags of postage stamps from all over the world from when I used to publish magazines worldwide. One day I'll not doubt get round to doing something with all of those postage stamps. The Boxes show the times that the mail will be collected.