Sunday Times Where Was I? Holiday Competition

Near as I can figure it, through the possibly flawed perceptual filters of my own reality tunnel, the most likely answers this week, seem to me to be


Q1. Sandwich


Q2. At Sunwich Port by W.W.Jacobs (William Wymark Jacobs)

The initial clues seem to place us in the town of Sandwich, in the county of Kent. There have been many naval battles there, the one in 1460 appears to have been between a force led by Yorkists Sir John Denholm and Richard Neville (16th earl of Warwick born c 1428) and the Lancastrian fleet, which was defeated in the engagement. The battle fought at Sandwich c ad 851, was according to some of the sources I checked, fought between the Saxons, led by Aethelstan and the Danes, with the Saxons victorious in that encounter. The battle in ad 991, was a result of an attack by the Vikings, in which Sandwich and Ipswich were pillaged before another battle at Maldon, around 10th August that same year. Eustace the Monk (Born c 1170) lost his head c 24th August 1217, following the defeat of the French armada, by a Plantagenet fleet at another naval engagement off the port of Sandwich.

The hospital of St Bartholomew's seems to have been founded c 1217, as a result of the battle. A kings chancellor between 1145 and 1162, who landed at Sandwich c 1170, is probably Thomas Becket and the king who landed there c 13th March, 1194, was Richard the Lionheart. The author Thomas Paine is reputed to have had a shop in Sandwich. He published a work called 'Common Sense'.


A novel inspired by the port and published c 1902, is likely to be 'At Sunwich Port', by William Wymark Jacobs. The novel does seem to feature a character called 'Captain Nugent' and the inventor of the Sandwich (born c 1718), was of course, John Montagu, the fourth earl of Sandwich. The motto of the Montagu family seems to be "Post lot naufragia portum' (After so many shipwrecks, I find a port).