The war hero and the prisoner.

Family history: a thread

@hugorifkind’s brilliant show on @TimesRadio is sponsored by @AncestryUK, so they took a look at my family tree.

The genealogist Simon Pearce is a genius.

Last week we looked at the war record of my great-grandfather, Edward John Mildon, serving in Gallipoli, Palestine, Balkans and the Somme, for which he received medals for gallantry from Britain and France.

Today we do the other side of genealogy...
Edward Mildon was my great-great-grandfather.
Here he is in the 1851 census
And then here he is in Exeter court records in 1864: sheepstealing
Here is a local newspaper report about it. He basically said he’d bought the sheep from a man, he then that man had died.

The jury didn’t believe him. He got 12months in prison with hard labour.
For one sheep.
Fast forward 1868 and we are back at court again. This time for “larceny by servant”
Turns out great-great-great grandad wasn’t the best master criminal.
His foolproof plan to steal his boss’s coal didn’t work.
Committing theft while a policeman watches the whole thing also isn’t ideal
Seven years penal service at Portland Convict Establishment is tough
These are photos from around the same tome he was there of prisoners in their uniforms cracking rocks
Great-great-great grandad turns up again in the 1891 census. By this time his wife had died. He was 70, working as a farm labourer and living as a lodger with the Bucknalls
What I learned from this is:
Life in 19th century rural England was tough.
Local newspapers are so, so important.
@AncestryUK is brilliant.
I won’t steal coal from Mr Murdoch.
Listen to me learning this story on @TimesRadio with @hugorifkind from 12.30pm today

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"I really want to break into Product Management"

make products.

"If only someone would tell me how I can get a startup to notice me."

Make Products.

"I guess it's impossible and I'll never break into the industry."

MAKE PRODUCTS.

Courtesy of @edbrisson's wonderful thread on breaking into comics –
https://t.co/TgNblNSCBj – here is why the same applies to Product Management, too.


There is no better way of learning the craft of product, or proving your potential to employers, than just doing it.

You do not need anybody's permission. We don't have diplomas, nor doctorates. We can barely agree on a single standard of what a Product Manager is supposed to do.

But – there is at least one blindingly obvious industry consensus – a Product Manager makes Products.

And they don't need to be kept at the exact right temperature, given endless resource, or carefully protected in order to do this.

They find their own way.