Poet with a parachute
QUESTION What is known of Hannah Senesh, a Hungarian patriot and poet from World War II?
HANNAH SENESH (originally Szenes) was a paratrooper trained to rescue Jews during the Holocaust. Captured, tortured and killed by the Nazis, she is a national heroine in Israel.
Senesh was born in Budapest on July 17, 1921. Increasing antiSemitic sentiment saw her embrace the Zionist cause.
Following her graduation in 1939, she decided to emigrate to what was then the British Mandate of Palestine to study in the Girls’ Agricultural School
In 1941, while working at a kibbutz, she began to write poetry, including her most famous work, Towards Caesarea (later set to music by David Zahavi): ‘My God, my God, May it never end – The sand and the sea, The rustle of the water, The brilliance of the sky, The prayer of man.’
She was recruited into the Haganah, the paramilitary group that was the forerunner of the Israel Defence Forces. In 1943, she enlisted in the British Army in the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force, and began training in Egypt as a paratrooper for the British Special Operations Executive (SOE).
After training in Egypt, she was one of 33 special operatives to parachute behind enemy lines. Senesh went to Yugoslavia in March 1944, and spent three months fighting with Tito’s partisans.
On June 7, 1944, Senesh was captured crossing the border with Hungary. Sent to a Budapest prison, she was repeatedly interrogated and tortured. She refused to provide the code for her SOE radio transmitter, even when her mother was arrested.
Senesh was executed by a firing squad on November 7 – she refused to wear a blindfold. The following poem was found in her cell: One – two – three... eight feet long Two strides across, the rest is
dark... Life is a fleeting question mark One – two – three... maybe another
week. Or the next month may still find
me here, But death, I feel is very near. I could have been 23 next July I gambled on what mattered
most, The dice were cast. I lost. In 1950, Senesh’s remains were re-interred at the military cemetery in Jerusalem. Adrienne Hewitt, Malvern, Worcs.
QUESTION How do the Japanese eradicate Japanese knotweed?
JAPANESE knotweed (Fallopia
japonica) was introduced into Europe in the mid-19th century by Philipp Franz Balthasar von Siebold, a German botanist and physician. In 1850, he sent a specimen of the plant to Kew Gardens in London, and in 1854, it was growing in the Royal Botanical Gardens in Edinburgh. He also introduced Japanese knotweed to North America.
Today, it is one of Europe’s most aggressive weeds, easily outgrowing native herbaceous plants – it can grow 25cm in a week. In Japan, its resilience and invasive nature is illustrated by the fact it is one of the first plants to colonise scree and lava fields lining the slopes of Japan’s active volcanoes.
However, in this harsh environment, poor soil and the repeated coverings of volcanic ash and landslides serve to limit its growth. It is further kept in check by being in direct competition with other vigorous giant plants such as miscanthus, known as elephant grass, and bamboo.
It has evolved alongside a host of natural pests, such as the plant louse, Aphalara itadori. Soil fungi and plant diseases also attack the knotweed plant in Japan.
However, in urban areas in the country, knotweed can be a problem, requiring chemical control and digging up, but not to the degree that it is in Europe.
Outside its native habitat, lacking predators, competition and suppression by volcanic ash, Japanese knotweed is able to sink all its energy into its hardy underground rhizome, allowing it to survive over winter and to defend itself against herbicides.
The rhizome is then able to pour more energy back into the prolific growth of the plant.
Marcus Ellory, Middlesex.
QUESTION Was there a British princess who gave up all her royal titles upon marriage, during the reign of King George V?
THIS was Princess Patricia of Connaught, younger daughter of the Duke of Connaught (Queen Victoria’s third son) and his wife Princess Louise Margaret of Prussia. Patricia was born in March 1886 and raised at Clarence House, London, and Bagshot Park.
Her father, being an army man, travelled extensively to his postings and his family followed him, eventually to Canada, where he became Governor General in 1911. Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry is named after her.
The question of Patricia’s marriage was the subject of much speculation in the Edwardian era, as she was considered one of the most beautiful and eligible royal princesses of her generation.
Despite efforts to marry her to King Alfonso XIII of Spain and Grand Duke Michael of Russia (brother of Tsar Nicholas II), Patricia fell in love with her father’s aide-de-camp, Captain Alexander Ramsay, a younger son of the 13th Earl of Dalhousie, who was also a naval officer.
Her mother’s opposition to her marrying a man of lower rank deterred Patricia from accepting his proposals for more than ten years. Her mother’s death in 1917 removed one obstacle, and two years later Patricia was able to marry Captain (later Admiral) Ramsay due to the more relaxed attitude of King George V. The marriage took place at Westminster Abbey on February 27, 1919.
At her own request, Princess Patricia renounced her royal title, becoming known as Lady Patricia Ramsay. She then retired into private life. The couple had one son, Alexander Ramsay of Mar, born on December 21, 1919.
Lady Patricia Ramsay remained a member of the royal family, attending the 1937 and 1953 coronations, as well as other events, riding in the carriage processions.
Lady Patricia died on January 12, 1974, aged 87, leaving her cousin Princess Alice, Countess of Athlone, as the only surviving granddaughter of Queen Victoria.
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