Annie has tossed out yet another challenge for Monday. This time it’s an assignment to post about an artistic British export. Most of the responses have centred on female songstresses and actors. I didn’t want to just fall into that vein and I don’t know of any other British artists (not that there aren’t plenty; I just don’t know of them). So I’ll stick with music and nominate a band. I didn’t want to go too obvious with the likes of “The Beatles”, “The Rolling Stones”, or “The Who”, so I settled on “Sweet”. Here’s a link to a video of one their more well known numbers: Ballroom Blitz.

There’s another British export that doesn’t exactly fit into the artist category but who is of importance to me. My great-grandfather was purportedly a bare knuckle boxer in the UK prior to emigrating to Canada. I believe it was on his travels around the UK as a boxer that he met and married my Scottish great-grandmother. I’m not sure exactly when they emigrated to Canada. They had 5 children; my grandfather and his four sisters. Sadly, all four girls perished in the 1918 Spanish flu epidemic.

My great-grandfather served a term as mayor of the Town of Sudbury in 1928-1929.

So, on VIctoria Day, here’s a shout out to my great-grandad and his Mamie.