The Royal Cyphers: E VIII R

Edward VIII, who was Elizabeth II's uncle, reigned for less than a year. (Edward VIII was accurately portrayed in The King's Speech, and portrayed not accurately at all in W.E.) As a result, his royal cypher didn't make it on to much. As opposed to the other post boxes, which were all found by chance, I decided that I needed a little bit of help to find out if any Edward VIII post boxes were even made; once I found out that they had, I found out that Aberdeen boasts two, and it's at the top of the alphabetical list of British cities in which E VIII R boxes are located. Here are a couple of other links about Edward VIII post boxes: 1, 2.

The first E VIII R post box was out west, in the end of town where my first What's Your Grid? mission and the Gordon Highlanders Museum are located. On a day that was far too hot, a friend and I went on a little stroll to Prince Arthur Street and Desswood Place. I was thrilled to get it, because that single pillar box completed the gap between George V and George VI. The second one was in the south end of town, across the River Dee - an area of town I've basically only seen from a train. I went yesterday, stepped off the #5 bus, snapped my picture, and was back on it when it swung back around to head back downtown. Bam. Nailed it.

I'll probably wind up down in England before the end of the year, so I'll look for an E II R to complete my collection. England's basically inundated with them, and rightly so. For now, though, I'm pretty excited about the unbroken chain from Victoria to George VI - and all in a matter of weeks, for a quest I didn't have any clue that I'd take on prior to arriving in Aberdeen. Outstanding!

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I ought to have posted the first of these videos for the George VI post, but I'll make up for it now. As I mentioned earlier, two films have been released in recent years about the House of Windsor in the mid-1900's. Reviews of both films by one of my two favorite film reviewers, BBC Radio Five Live's own Mark Kermode, are below.



For some reason, the audio on that second one is really quiet, so here's the link to the January 2012 podcast of the show.

This ain't over.