"Mr. American's" Place in History: 2 Multiple Choice Quiz | History

Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. Part Two starts over breakfast newspapers with Mr American reading, in 1914, among other things, of a forthcoming tour of England of the American All-Star White Sox and the National League Giants. What sport were they representing?

Answer: Baseball

This was part of a massive World tour, undertaken to make baseball more popular. The 'Manchester Mirror' was not very taken -
"As to the merits of the game, and to the possibilities of its catching on here in England, opinions were very much divided. That it contains all the elements of a grand field game none can surely deny. Every phase of it is marked by dashing skill, encouraging the closest association of hand, foot, and eye. But it is not an English pastime."

2. Arthur, Peggy's brother, was talking about resigning his British Army commission as, in 1914, there was a serious risk of civil war, but where?

Answer: Ireland

The then Prime Minister, Asquith, was trying to get a Home Rule Bill for Ireland through Parliament, in the face of fierce opposition from Sir Edward Carson and his Loyalists. Arthur and Peggy's late mother had been Irish, and Arthur claimed that Asquith might use the army against the Loyalists. Arthur would have resigned rather than do this.

3. While his wife is away in Switzerland, Mr American ran into an old flame, the actress, Pip Delys. She was to be 'hung' twice in the Royal Academy. One of the pictures was by an Italian artist with the first name Fortunino. He became one of the foremost illustrators of the First World War, mainly for the British magazine the 'Sphere'. He also also illustrated some Edgar Rice Burroughs novels in the 1920s-30s. Armed with this information, what was his surname?

Answer: Matania

Fortunino Matania (1881-1963) has been described as 'a photographer who used paint and brush'. Although a little sentimental and theatrically posed for modern tastes, he was extremely popular at the time. He was also renowned for his pictures of Classical Antiquity, which Pip's picture of her and another girl 'Lying Prone and Nude on a Couch, Awaiting Abduction by Punic Pirates' undoubtedly was.

4. At dinner, Pip told Mr American about a George Bernard Shaw play that was to open next month if the Lord Chamberlain didn't ban it, 'all about a flower-girl and this chap teaches her to be a lady, and she shocks everyone by saying "bloody"'. Of what George Bernard Shaw play is this a remarkably succint summing-up?

Answer: Pygmalion

The first performance of 'Pygmalion' was at the Hofburg Theatre in Vienna on 16 October, 1913. This was because the actress that George Bernard Shaw had written the play for, Mrs Patrick Campbell, had been injured in a car accident. It finally opened in London on 11 April 1914, with Mrs Campbell playing a 'flower-girl' at the age of 49 and Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree as Henry Higgins. All the wrong answers are also George Bernard Shaw plays. Mr American had seen 'Great Catherine', and was most impressed by 'an eighteenth-century English officer carrrying pistols in his boots'.

5. Mr American found out that Peggy and Arthur had swindled ten thousand pounds out of him to buy guns for the Ulster Loyalists, when a newspaper reported that the ship 'Fanny' had landed rifles and ammunition in Ireland. Where had these guns come from?

Answer: Germany

Known as "Operation Lion", two ships had been involved, the 'Fanny' and the 'Clyde Valley'. Twenty thousand Mannlicher and Mauser rifles (not the fifty thousand estimated in 'Mr American') and 4 million rounds of ammunition were smuggled from Hamburg to help the Ulster Volunteer Force.

6. George V became the first reigning monarch to attend what at Crystal Palace on 25 April 1914?

Answer: The FA Cup Final

Burnley and Liverpool were both first time finalists, and Burnley won 1-0. George V was also Duke of Lancaster, so attending and presenting the Cup and medals was very appropriate for two Lancashire teams. One of the highlights of the occasion was the Burnley captain calling for three cheers for the King, which were loyally given, then the entire crowd of 80,000 sang the National Anthem.

This was the last Final played at the old Crysrtal Palace.

7. Mr American accompanied Pip to the Royal Academy, where the sensation that year was entitled 'A Very Gallant Gentleman', by John Charles Dollman. The Very Gallant Gentleman's last recorded words were "I am just going outside and may be some time". Who was he?

Answer: Captain Oates

Captain Lawrence Edward Grace Oates committed honourable suicide by walking into a blizzard when he realised his frostbite was compromising the safety of the whole of Captain Scott's expedition, which was returning from the South Pole, having been beaten to their destination by Amundsen. Sadly, his sacrifice was in vain, as the whole expedition perished.

8. Whilst Pip and Mr American were visiting the Royal Academy, a suffragette did something to a picture. What suffragette outrage did this fictional act mirror?

Answer: The slashing of the 'Rokeby Venus'

On 11 March 1914, a Canadian, Mary 'Slasher' Richardson, took a meat cleaver to Velasquez's 'Rokeby Venus'. This was paralleled in the book by Lady Helen Cessford orchestrating an attack on a painting of 'Galahad', and is referenced throughout the attack and the subsequent trial. All the wrong answers were also carried out by suffragettes during their fight for the vote.

9. Mr American's brother-in-law, Arthur, was killed at the so-called 'Bachelor's Walk Massacre', when Major Haig of the King's Own Scottish Borderers, ordered his men to fire over the crowd, but the panicky soldiers fired into it. What famous novelist, author of 'The Riddle of the Sands', had run the guns into Howth that started the incident off?

Answer: Erskine Childers

In a reaction to the earlier gun-running to the Ulster Loyalists, Childers and Conor O'Brien delivered 1,500 rifles and 49,000 rounds of ammunition on their yachts, 'Asgard' and 'Kelpie', to Howth for the Irish Volunteers. Attempting to assist the police, the King's Own Scottish Borderers found themselves surrounded by a hostile crowd, with tragic results.

This put the final nail into the coffin of Mr American and Peggy's marriage.

10. War was about to break out in Europe, and Mr American dined with another character created by George MacDonald Fraser, the irrepressible Flashman, then 92 years old. Typically, Flashman decided he needed a bathroom and browbeat passing policemen to take him to Buckingham Palace, where the crowds had gathered and were singing the National Anthem. As he went through the gates he invited Mr American to join him, saying that he had first driven through those gates 72 years ago with a national hero, so wouldn't Mr American like to be the last to accompany him? In 1842, this national hero and erstwhile Prime Minister was a Minister without Portfolio and Leader of the House of Lords. Who was he?

Answer: Duke of Wellington

Mr American declined the offer, leading Flashman to declare that running out on him was the 'First sign of exceptional character I've detected in you'. Flashman had seen right through Mr American, declaring him to have 'gunfighter's eyes'.

11. When Mr American went to enquire about his status in England, the US Embassy at first thought he wanted to join up. What regiment, originally the '62nd (Royal American) Regiment', that was mentioned in 'The Last of the Mohicans', were Americans joining?

Answer: The King's Royal Rifle Corps

They were originally raised to defend the original 13 colonies against the French and Native Americans. They had a distinguished record in World War I, winning seven VCs. They have been amalgamated into 'The Rifles'.

12. When Mr American dismissed his personal servant, Thomas Samson, prior to returning to America. Samson said that he was joining up. Tactfully enquiring about Samson's age, he learned that Samson was joining a group of irregulars, because of a gentleman named Selous. The group he was joining was the 'Legion of Frontiersmen'. They eventually became 'The 25th (Frontiersmen) Service Battalion, Royal Fusiliers (City of London Regiment)' and fought with distinction in East Africa. Comprising, like Samson, older men, including Boer War veterans, Rough Riders, French Foreign Legionaries and a circus clown among others, what was their nickname?

Answer: The Old and the Bold

F. C. Selous, who became Second in Command of the battalion, was the model for H. Rider Haggard's Allan Quartermain. He was also a personal friend of Theodore Roosevelt. Mr American presented Thomas Samson with one of his pistols, passed down from his father, in order to help, 'cause the Germans some embarassment'.

13. Mr American passed an evening reading one of the latest books 'Beasts and Superbeasts'. What was the pen name of the author, H. H. Munro?

Answer: Saki

This was Saki's last collection of stories before his death in World War I, and Mr American found '... the affectation, and snobbery, and brittle emptiness, all the cruelty and shallowness and false values, dissected by a master surgeon' too close for comfort to some of the behaviour he had encountered in society.

But then he remembered the basically decent and ordinary, earthy, honest and cheerfully vital other English he had met.

14. At Liverpool, Mr American encountered The King's Regiment (Liverpool), who had once been the 8th (the King's) Regiment of Foot and served in America, where they had picked up their Regimental Quick March, when a play by Sheridan had crossed the ocean. What play?

Answer: School for Scandal

The King's Regiment (Liverpool) were singing their regimental march, 'Here's to the Maiden', which was from 'School for Scandal':
"Here's to the maiden of bashful fifteen;
Here's to the widow of fifty;
Here's to the flaunting extravagant queen,
And here's to the housewife that's thrifty."

15. On which Cunard liner, nicknamed 'Ship Beautiful', was Mr American booked to leave on her maiden voyage to New York on 30 May 1914?

Answer: Aquitania

RMS Aquitania, the third (following Mauretania and Lusitania) of Cunard's "grand trio" of express liners, served with distinction in both World Wars. Although Mr American was booked to leave after five eventful years in England, on the very last page of the book, Aquitania, New York, had been crossed out and a new destination written in. Sadly, George MacDonald Fraser died on 2 January 2008, so we'll never know how Mark Franklin, Mr American, fared. I hope you've enjoyed these two quizzes.

Source: Author Quiz_Beagle

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor bloomsby before going online.
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"Mr. American's" Place in History: 2 Quiz

The second part of this quiz covers early twentieth century history in the US, UK and Ireland. You do not have to have read the book 'Mr American' to do the quiz. Enjoy!

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