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| Biggles In France. Image links to Amazon. |
Does Biggles have a middle name? As far as
I know (and please correct me if I’m wrong), but the only book where Biggles’ “middle
name” is mentioned is Biggles Flies Again,
where he introduces himself as “James C. Bigglesworth”. Is the “C” something he
tacked on to his name in the spur of the moment? Is it something he added after
his brother Charles died, as a sort of memorial?
If the “C” is in fact part of Biggles’
name, it seems strange that it didn't appear on any posting slips, either in Biggles Learns to Fly, or in Biggles, Pioneer Air Fighter. Did the
RFC not add people’s middle names in official postings?
Trouble with this one is that, just as you say, we are never told. So we have to guess!
ReplyDeleteMiddle and upper class kids tended to have more than one Christian name in those days? Personally I favour Charles, which was perhaps a family name that Biggles didn't like much, so didn't usually use.
As Biggles 'lost' his birth certificate when he joined up, nobody could check his names and he probably just said 'James' and left it at that.
Well that's my theory :-)
Maybe he didn't use it much as he didn't want to be confused with his brother? I seem to recall that he and his brother got on fairly well, so he probably didn't not like the name Charles!
ReplyDeleteThere is little mention of his brother in the books, and curiously none in Biggles the Boy that I remember. The first time we are told even that he has a brother is in the short story 'On Leave' in The Camels Are Coming when, arriving at the family house in London, he finds it closed and a friend tells him his father and brother, are in the army in France.
ReplyDeleteApart from that, as far as I can remember, the only other mention of Charles is in Biggles Goes to School when it is made clear that his brother is several years older, was very successful at school, has done well at Sandhurst and has a commission in the Army.
In his interview with the headmaster, Biggles does say he's sorry his brother is not still at the school, so you are right he must have got on with him even though he may not have seen much of him. Maybe there was a bit of younger brother hero-worship even!
Possibly, having had no previous contact with other White boys of his own age, Biggles was a bit nervous in the strange new boarding school environment in which he found himself, and a familiar face would have been welcome.
Like so many people at the time of the so called Great War, Biggles lost his father and his brother in the War: all his close family.
In a footnote to Goes to School, Johns tells us that Charles was killed in September 1918. About the same time as Biggles fell in love with a certain German spy! Can't have helped having his brother killed in action as well.
Maybe in Biggles the Boy Johns "forgot" that Biggles had a brother? It wouldn't make sense for one of them to be in India, and the other to be somewhere else, especially since their mother wasn't around.
ReplyDeleteI must confess I now am very curious about Charles Bigglesworth...