Here is the e-mail I sent Gavin Newson, the Governor of California.

Dear Governor; I am kin to all members of the Getty family via Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor, and thus all the Gettys are kin to Ian Fleming the author of James Bond novels. I began my own Bond novel ‘The Royal Janitor’ three years ago. The newest Bond movie has been delayed for over a year due to the Coronavirus. There many not be any profits from this movie. Hollywood must be hurting.

Today, I founded the European Union Kingdom of Helgoland, and made Harry and Meghan Windsor the titular King and Queen of this amazing island. I have suggested this royal couple read the names of the Knights of the Garter whose cote of arms are found in the stalls of Saint George Chapel where both Princess Diana’s sons got married. In researching Queen Califia, a African pagan, it occurred to me that Megan could play her in a movie, a propaganda movie aimed at weakening the threat of China. My 9th. grandfather is buried in Saint Georges and has a stall. His son was the Puritan leader, John Wilson.

I just had a vison: As Meghan and Harry take turns reading the list outside their home in Montecito, one by one – they appear – the Knights of the Garter of Saint George. Suddenly, Meghan is transformed into the ancient pagan queen who ruled California. Her court of beautiful Amazons are startled to see these English Knights, and a battle looks eminent. Just then, three ancient Chinese Knights appear – from the past. They are the Dragons of Buddha. They plead for peace, and ask for the Queen and King of Helgoland to help defeat the oppressive rulers of China, and restore the beautiful rituals that made China famous.

My kin, Carl Janke, was a Pioneer of Belmont. His sons wore the flag of the California Fusiliers that were a legitimate militia. Today is Archie Mountbatten-Windsor’s birthday. He lives in California. He will soon have a sibling – that will be born in California. His mother has been in great distress due to royal protection not provided her child – and his parents.

What I suggest, is, you reform the California Fusiliers, and have them be bodyguards to all the Windsors who have migrated to our beloved State. They will be financed by The Movie Lottery you will establish, where many citizens of all nations, can purchase stock in all movies made in Hollywood – before they are made! The common people who love Movie Goddesses, can read a synopsis of a script, and purchase a ticket in advance. When the movie comes out, they are given a free ticket to another movie. I see three sequels to California and Her Knights. Contact Meg Whitman to see if she could help make all this possible.

Sincerely

John Presco:

President: Belmont Soda Works

(32) St. George’s Chapel – YouTube

Sir Winston Churchill’s Garter stall plates – College of St George (stgeorges-windsor.org)

You probably didn’t know that California is named after a black queen – (face2faceafrica.com)

Calafia – Wikipedia

Garter stall plates are small enamelled brass plates located in St George’s Chapel displaying the names and arms of the Knights of the Garter. Each knight is allotted a stall in St George’s Chapel and the stall plate is affixed to his personal stall. His successor knight in that stall adds his own stall plate and thus a fairly complete series of stall plates survives for the successive occupants of each stall. Many other ancient European Orders of Chivalry use similar stall plates in the home church or other building of their order.

They are works of art in their own right which demonstrate the skills of medieval and later metal workers and enamellers.

• They are an extremely valuable source to students of heraldry, as they show contemporary images of ancient arms the provenance and reliability of which is second to none. Unlike the ancient seals which often survive, stall plates show not only the form of the arms but generally also the tinctures (colours).

“It is agreed that every knyght within the yere of his stallation shall cause to be made a scauchon of his armes and hachementis in a plate of metall suche as shall please him and that it shall be surely sett upon the back of his stall. And the other that shall come after shall have their scochons and hachements in like manner; but their plates of metall nor their hachements shall not be soo large nor soo greatte as they of the first Founders were excepte strangers which may use their plates and fashions at their pleasure”

St George’s Chapel | The Royal Family

Queen Calafia – The Adventures of the Real Mr. Science (therealmrscience.com)

Sir Winston Churchill’s Garter stall plates

Sir Winston Churchill’s Garter stall plates

2015 marks the 50^th anniversary of the death of Sir Winston Churchill KG. As customary on the death of a Knight of the Garter, Churchill’s Garter achievements (banner crest, helm and sword) were removed from his Garter stall in St George’s Chapel on the announcement of his death and a wreath was placed in his stall, as shown in this photograph taken in 1965 [SGC PH CER.34]. The wreath remained in the stall until the presentation of Churchill’s banner to his family at Evensong on 5 April 1965. Churchill’s Garter stall plate remains on the stall as a permanent memorial of his membership of the Order of the Garter. However, it was not the only stall plate made for Churchill’s stall – the other one is now believed to be in private hands. How did this come about?

Sir Winston Churchill was nominated as a Knight of the Garter on 24 April 1953 and invested and installed over a year later, on 14 June 1954. However, the production and fixing of his stall plate were delayed by a long running dispute between the stall plate maker, Harold Soper, and the College of Arms.  Soper produced a partially completed stall plate for Churchill’s installation ceremony in 1954, but removed it immediately after the ceremony ‘in its unfinished state’, replacing it with a cardboard dummy plate of Churchill’s quarterly arms and two crests. By 5 October 1954, Soper informed the Garter King of Arms, Sir George Bellew, that the stall plate was finished but refused to produce it or to submit an invoice. On 29 November, Bellew wrote to Soper: ‘Can you let me have the Churchill Plate? If you do not wish me to have it and refuse to send it you can scarcely blame me for having another one made elsewhere, but that seems to me a foolish waste’.

In 1957, at the end of his tether, Bellew attempted to find an alternative manufacturer of stall plates, not just for Churchill but also for the other Companions of the Garter who lacked plates. On  1 July 1957, he wrote to Canon Venables at Windsor, ‘After nearly six years of trying to bury the hatchet with the Sopers I have at last had to give it up … Do not worry I am having all the plates made elsewhere (the first of which is Attlee, put up a few weeks ago). Churchill should be next.’

The manufacturer chosen was engraver George T. Friend. However, Friend lacked the skills and experience of Harold Soper in working with enamel and therefore came up with an inferior product. When Friend sent Churchill’s plate to the College of Arms for approval, the Garter King of Arms commented that he was disappointed that the red used on the plate was not brighter and noted that some of the enamel in the engraved surround had already fallen out. Friend was apologetic, explaining in a letter written on 29 May 1957 that ‘the engraved lines will not hold enamel, it is a lottery chance, and each time it was fired the other colours suffered.’ Friend concluded, ‘I cannot do Churchill in time [presumably for the Garter service on 17 June 1957], all will have to come out, it means doing it again. I would rather be in disgrace for delay than bad work’.  He eventually completed the plate and sent it to Garter on 14 January 1958 and in due course it was fixed to Churchill’s stall in St George’s Chapel. Friend went on to manufacture other stall plates for St George’s until his death in 1969 Field’s stall plate for Sir Winston Churchill What happened to the stall plate made for Churchill by Harold Soper? The plate was rediscovered in the effects of Miss Viola Soper at her death in 1989 and was auctioned with her other possessions. It fetched £6,000. In 1992 it reappeared at a Sotheby’s auction in Geneva, but did not reach its reserve price and was withdrawn from sale. It was put up for auction again in 2011 by Bonhams at an estimated price of between £10,000 and £12,000 and is, presumably, now in private hands.  A photograph of Soper’s stall plate for Churchill which is included in P Begent and H Chesshyre, The Most Noble Order of the Garter:  650 Years  (London, 1999) page 292 demonstrates the superiority of Soper’s work in design and execution. What a pity that it does not adorn the Quire of St George’s Chapel for which it was commissioned.