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At least someone is making an effort for Talk like a pirate day...

I still believe that the Duke of Kent will be the next Royal death, but his efforts to walk unaided up the Abbey, no matter how much he struggled, means I think he might well see 2024. If he hadn't walked at all, then I think he would be a cert for 2023. His younger cousin, the Duke of Gloucester looks in fine fettle, considering how far a near 80 year old walked.

Cosmonaut Valery Polyakov, who spent the longest continuous period in space (437 days), has died aged 80.

King Harold pictured on crutches on his way into Westminster Abbey.

Dutch princess Beatrix (former queen) also in that picture, first row on the right along with the king & queen.

David Ogilvy, Earl of Airlie spotted at the Queens funeral

New money due to be minted soon:

If confirmed then I really do think she needs to be on next years list. I cannot sew anything but poor health and frailty stopping her from attending. Lady Pamela Hicks and David Ogilvy are there in their nineties and mobility restricted. She was at Harry's wedding- she's not going to snub the Queens funeral. Ain't her style.

Some of the foreign royals. I'd rather see them but whoever controls the camera seems to really like Liz Truss' face, I can see the King of Norway and the King of Sweden though. Tsar of Bulgaria:

Jeremy Irons, the elegant and versatile British actor who began his remarkable career with the Royal Shakespeare Company and won an Oscar for his only nomination as suspected murderer Claus von Bülow in Barbet Schroeder's "Reversal of Fortune", is 74 today. In 1969, after receiving classical training at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, he began his career on stage. Other notable films have included "The French Lieutenant's Woman", "The Mission", "Swann in Love" and "Dead Ringers". Jeremy Irons also won an Emmy and a Golden Globe for the historical miniseries "Elizabeth I".

Swiss defender Nicolas Schindelholz (34) died after a lung cancer battle. https://www.nau.ch/sport/fussball/fc-aarau-nicolas-schindelholz-34-nach-krebserkrankung-verstorben-66280402 He started his career at SC Darnach in the youth ranks before moving to hometown side FC Basel, where he featured for their Under-21 side, but never made a first-team appearance. He moved to FC Thun, where he once again played for the Under-21s before making 121 appearances, scoring five goals. After leaving Thun, he joined FC Luzern, but only made two appearances in the 2017-18 season and moved on to FC Aarau, where he made 37 appearances before retiring in 2021.

Take it from me, he's fine, I'm in regular contact with him or his team. He's just tired from his busy schedule and it was also announced yesterday that his wife's dementia has now taken a downturn. JYS is deeply involved and rather than him wilting away after Lady Helen dies, I think he'll get some vigour back to fight more against dementia. I'm not sure he'll make 90 but I think he should be alright for about 5 years.

@gcreptile There's a well-known Kate Williams (bubbly red-head historian) who is CNN's go to for big British events. And the considerably more obscure Kate Williams, who used to read the news on BBC radio, and she was the one with cancer.

She clearly is not in great health as she would have had a seat at the Abbey - her kids and some of her grandchildren were they so it’s not as if she wasn’t invited.

Hope he's got his fit bit on!

I'm assuming that the guest list for the private family service and burial will remain private? So unfortunately we will just have to speculate unless a photo emerges. I suppose there is a small chance she goes to the more intimate family service and not the Westminster Abbey ceremonial one. But that in itself might suggest health and stamina issues that she only feels up to attending one of them. I genuinely think if she was up to attending both services, like another non working royal married in her sister in law Princess Michael of Kent, she would have. When she stepped down from royal duties there was no drama or hostility with The Queen. Just my thoughts anyhow.

She wasn’t there. I should emphasise however that the funeral was more so for official dignitaries. The private service later will include 800+ people. The whole of the Royal family, all the godchildren of the Queen and many staff past and present. Here’s the last photo I could find of her, from late May.

Mustafa Dagistanli cc, ph Second hit in the Olympic category for both @CaptainChorizo and @Perhaps No new ways to win though

Mustafa Dağıstanlı dead at 91

Eccentric British fashion designer Zandra Rhodes celebrates turning 82 today. Former England goalkeeper David Seaman celebrates his 59th birthday today.

Old (85+)/ill celeb birthdays for form spotting etc pt. 3 a bit early so that I won't forget , especially October (1st, 16th,)seems to have a lot of interesting birthdays. 28 September: Marian Fuks, 108, Lim Tze Peng, 101, William Leuchtenburg, 100, Nikolai Ryzhkov, 93, Jeremy Isaacs, 90, Joe Benton, 89, Brigitte Bardot, 88, Bruce Crampton and David Hannay, Baron Hannay, 87, Alice Mahon, 85, Milos Zeman, 78 29 September: Pete McCloskey, 95, Richard Bonynge, 92, Paul Oestreicher, 91, Robert Benton, 90, Lance Gibbs, 88, Jerry Lee Lewis, 87, Silvio Berlusconi, 86, Lech Wałęsa, 79 30 September: Juliette Bilde, 113, Angie Dickinson, 91, Cissy Houston and Michel Aoun, 89, Johnny Mathis, 87 1 October: Chen Ning-Yang, 100 (or 22 Sept?), Jimmy Carter, 98, Sandy Gall, 95, Julie Andrews, 87 2 October: Ivy Dumont, 92, Maury Willis, 90, Richard Scott, Baron Scott of Foscote, 88, Dick Barnett, 86 3 October: Shridath Ramphal, 94, Glenn Hall, 91, Sir Terence English, 90, Neale Fraser, 89, Charles Duke, 87, Steve Reich, 86 4 October: Charles Burrell, 102, Torben Ulrich, 94, Sam Huff, 88 5 October: Neal Ascherson, 90 6 October: Robert Kuok, 99, Hu Qili, 93, Michael Hardie Boys and Eileen Derbyshire, 91, Prince Mukarram Jah, 89, Melvyn Bragg, 83 7 October: Julian Thompson, 88, Thomas Keneally, 87, Vladimir Putin, 70 (hopefully someone will blow his brains out as a birthday present) 8 October: Neil Harvey, 94, Betty Boothroyd, 93, Faith Ringgold, 92, Ray Reardon, 90, Rona Barrett, 86 9 October: Li Dak-sum, 102, Bill Tidy, 89, Abdullah Ibrahim, 88, Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Don McCullin, 87, Brian Blessed, 86 10 October: Zou Yu, 102, Edna Child, 100, Judith Chalmers, 87, Gerhard Ertl, 86 11 October: Barry Jones, 90, Bobby Charlton, 85, Amitabh Bachchan, 80 12 October: Ned Jarrett and John Moffat, 90, Tony Kubek, Sam Moore and Shivraj Patil, 87, Carlos the Jackal, 73 13 October: Terry Gibbs, 98, Nana Mouskouri, 88, Etterlene DeBarge, 87, Bruce Morrow, 80-something 14 October: Joyce Bryant, 94/95, Farah Pahlavi, 84, Sir Cliff Richard, 82 15 October: L. P., 114, Nicola Mancino and Pauline Perry, Baroness Perry of Southwark, 91, Barry McGuire, Willie O'Ree and Dick McTaggart, 87, Linda Lavin, 85, Neophyte of Bulgaria, 77 16 October: Lubomír Štrougal, 98, Angela Lansbury, 97, Charles Dolan, 96, Fernanda Montenegro, 93, Carmen Sevilla, 92, Nobuyo Ōyama, 89 17 October: Yang You, 105, Edel Hætta Eriksen, 101, Angel Wagenstein, 100, William Anders, 89, Alan Garner, 88, Michael Eavis, 87 18 October: Dick Tarverne, 94, Violeta Chamorro, 93, Flora Fraser, 21st Lady Saltoun, 92, Vytautas Landsbergis, 90, Mike Ditka, 83 19 October: Ebrahim Golestan, 100, Pierre Alechinsky, 95, Brian Booth, 89, Yakubu Gowon, 88, Peter Max, 85, Michael Gambon, 82 20 October: James C. Floyd, 108, Gaositwe Chiepe, 100, V. S. Achuthanandan, 99, Barrie Chase, 89, Wanda Jackson and Juan Marichal, 85 21 October: Joyce Randolph and Driss Guiga, 98, Virginia Zeani, 97, Ivan Silayev, 92, Maureen Duffy, 89 22 October: Estela de Carlotto, 92, Peter Cook, 86, José Larralde, 85, Joaquim Chissano, 83, Catherine Deneuve, 79 23 October: Ned Rorem, 99, Zhu Rongji, 94, Luis Alarcón, 93, Chi-Chi Rodríguez, 87, Charles Goodhart and Philip Kaufman, 86, Pelé, 82 24 October: Johan Galtung, 92, Norman Rush, 89, Mark Tully, 87, Bill Wyman, 86 25 October: Paul Mwazha, 104?, Marion Ross, 94, Vitold Fokin, 90, Rusty Schweickart, 87 26 October: Juli Lynne Charlot and Ágnes Bartha, 100, Hans-Joachim Roedelius, 88 27 October: Paul Fox, 97, Gilles Vigneault, 94, Maurice Robert Johnston, 93, Giorgos Konstantinou, 88, Mauricio de Sousa, 87, John Cleese, 83

Nick Holonyak, the inventor of the light emitting diode, who came to be called the 'father of the LED, died at 93 years: https://news.illinois.edu/view/6367/1920044460 He has been given awards by George H.W. Bush, Emperor Akihito of Japan and Vladimir Putin and in 2008 he was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.

Tindall's are for MBE, Diamond Jubilee medal, Platinum Jubilee medal.

That and Bullock have got to be two of the most unfortunate surnames in history.