Murray Lachlan Young: A Tribute To Patrick Moore

The man who made maps of the Moon.
A tribute to Sir Patrick Moore.

Batty eccentric, Gentleman amateur
Clipped English tones, of an era gone by
Dottiest ‘boffin’ and Crusty old Bachelor
Pipe in your mouth and a glass in your eye

Terrible golfer, pussycat stroker,
Right-wing and radical, militant stoker
Serving the masses with lunar crevasses
Around for so long, gone away far too soon
With an eminent place in our knowledge of space

As the man who made maps of the moon
The moon
As the man who made maps of the moon

You juggled gravity, built an observatory
Gave a fried egg as a cosmic analogy
Served up the feast well aware of the joke
As we stared with you heavenward, viewing the yolk

Heavenly broker, grey matter poker
Martian and minstrel and avid Pipe smoker
A voice and a knack with a rat a tat, tat
Drilling deep in our minds to the great cosmic tune
With dress sense to match, while you lifted the latch

As the man maps who made of the moon
The moon
As the man who made maps of the moon

Memories of empire, thoughts of old England
Fade further now, as your atoms disperse
In the final great joke of our temporariness
And the black hole you left in our own universe

Where do atheists go when they no longer are?
When they pack up their trunk at the end of the show
One could paraphrase you when you talked of the stars
‘As in so many cases, we simply don’t know’

With the feats of: Gagarin and Armstrong and all?
Amplified to the skies in the infinity’s thrall?
Yes you stayed for so long but you left far too soon
Yet your legacy orbits our own consciousness

In the maps that you made of the moon
The moon
From the man who made maps of the moon

Patrick Alfred Caldwell-Moore: 4th March 1923 - 10th December 2012.

Thought this was wonderful.
Thanks to Murray for sending me the text.

x

Patrick Moore: 1923-2012

He never married...

Patrick Moore: The Reluctant Bachelor

'HIS fiancée Lorna, a nurse, was killed in a German air raid at the age of 20, which could explain why after a lifetime spent as a “reluctant bachelor” Sir Patrick Moore still fears that another European war is a possibility.

'The Sky At Night presenter, who lied about his age to join the RAF during the war, has never spoken about his wartime experiences but has told the Radio Times: “We must take care. There may be another war. The Germans will try again, given another chance.”'

Of his loss, astronomer Sir Patrick, 89, says: “That is why I’m a reluctant bachelor. It’s such a long time ago now, 1940. But I still feel the same about Lorna and, if it had been the other way round. I think she’d have done the same.”

The Daily Express, quoting a Radio Times interview.

Poor Patrick.

A friend swears they once heard Patrick Moore interviewed on the radio.

"And you've never married, have you Patrick?"

"No, I had a fiancee, but she died in the war."

"Oh, how very sad. What was her name?"
"I can't remember."

PS PM is also barkingly right-wing, though you might have guessed that from the above.

Patrick Moore: He's Never Married

"'I think I am the only person alive who has met the first man in space, the first man on the moon, the first man who flew, and then Albert Einstein,' says Sir Patrick.
"Sir Patrick never had a formal education because he was ill as a child and schooled at home; when it was time to go to Cambridge the war broke out and that was that. Nor has he ever married. His fiancee was killed by a German bomb, and after that he never wanted another woman.
"Sir Patrick was exceptionally close to his mother, who lived with him until her death in 1981..."

Sir Patrick Moore, profiled in The Daily Telegraph to mark the 700th edition of The Sky At Night.
The story may be apocraphyl, but Fagburn was told Mr Moore was once interviewed on the radio and told the sad story about how his beloved fiancee had died in the war.
"And what was her name?"
"I don't remember."