IHGS Festive Quiz December 2023
Yes, I know it’s hard to believe, but it’s that time of year already.
The questions (and therefore unsurprisingly the answers) to this year’s quiz are all based around a single theme: Charles Dickens’ classic novel, A Christmas Carol.
For me, this book and especially the 1951 film Scrooge, with Alistair Sim in the lead role, evokes many happy childhood memories spent in my grandparents’ home in London. There, sitting in a comfortable armchair in front of blazing fire and surrounded by a large gathering of the Tiller clan (my mother’s paternal line), I’d sit glued to this movie and others, including Moby Dick’, starring Gregory Peck as Captain Ahab and Laurel and Hardy’s classic ‘Way Out West’ – one that still makes me giggle.
Anyway, back to the quiz. Just 12 questions (with 17 points up for grabs), involving a mix of genealogy and heraldry, to keep you entertained when all those around you have dozed off after the excesses of Christmas and Boxing Day.
Question 1
Clearly not Scrooge’s equally miserly boss; however, the latter’s two-year-old namesake was living with his family in Cramlington, Northumberland on the 1881 Census. Somewhat unexpectedly, where was his 15-year-old sister born? (1 point)
Question 2
Who played the part of Bob Cratchit in the King’s Lynn, King Edward VII High School’s production of a Christmas Carol in December 1983? (1 point)
Question 3
Described as a ‘Professional Singer’ on the 1891 Census and boarding with Catherine Munn in Derby, this individual was unlikely to have to have been ‘tiptoeing through the tulips’. What is his name and how does it differ from arguably the most lovable character in the novel? (2 points)
Question 4
Blazoned as Argent, on a bend Azure between two lions rampant Gules three bezants, what is the surname of the bearer and but for which missing letter might he have been of one of the generous gifts evidencing Ebenezer Scrooge’s miraculous conversion? (1 point)
Question 5
A sign of the times or the Ghost of Christmases yet to come? This obituary, dated 5th December 2010 to a ‘surnamesake’ of the young Ebenezer Scrooge’s philanthropic and jovial employer, is annotated with the words ‘ The facts in the collection were found using artificial intelligence technology and may contain errors ’. As you worry about what the future might bring to our desktops, what is the alliterative name of the deceased? (1 point)
Question 6
Supposedly buried on 7 February 1786 at St. Chad Old Churchyard, Shrewsbury, which name did the deceased share with a leading character in the novel? (1 point)
Question 7
This groom bears the same name as a minor character in the novel. But what was the shared given name of both fathers of the couple who married at St. Peter’s, Netherseale (also Seale), in November 1877? (1 point)
Question 8
Blazoned by Papworth as Erm. on a cross patonce sa. a leopard’s head issuing out of a ducal coronet or. What is the bearer’s name? (1 point)
Question 9
A retired driller, aged 77, on the 1939 National Register, the surname of this widower is paired by Dickens with what other name, as an allegorical symbol of one of the two traits that the author fears mankind will inherit. (1 point)
Question 10
Papworth has this coat of arms blazoned as Erm. on a pile sa. three pheons or. Burke’s General Armory offers the same blazon, but adds a location and a crest. What is the location , how is the crest described and how many ‘apparitions’ with a similar name to the bearer feature in the book. (3 points)
Question 11
The author was born, with a longer name, in February 1812. He died, aged 58, at Gad’s Hill Place. But where was he buried and what were the names of the executors of his will? (2 points).
Question 12
Who played the ghost of Jacob Marley in the 1970 musical version ‘Scrooge’, starring Albert Finney and under what name was his birth registered at Paddington, London in 1914? (2 points)
Please submit your answers to Chris Broom ihgstutorchris@gmail.com to arrive no later than midnight on 31st December 2023. The winner will receive a free IHGS Zoom Tutorial.