Posted on July 2, 2017
Today we turn our attention to a gardener.
Well...not just a gardener - a landscaper and landscape gardener! Ralph Hancock, who was born in Cardiff, Wales, on this date in 1893, is also credited as an author, for he wrote a book about - you guessed it! - gardening. He is not credited as a soldier, although he fought in both World War I and World War II! 
(Actually, fighting WWII was a family affair, since both of Hancock's grown sons also fought - one, tragically, died in battle - and Hancock's wife volunteered to drive ambulances during the London Blitz. The youngest child of the family, Sheila, was only 11 when war was declared; she was sent to friends in the United States to stay safe.)
Anyway, back to the thing that Hancock is famous for: gardens. He built rooftop gardens and sunken gardens, rock gardens and water gardens, formal gardens and themed gardens. He created gardens in the United Kingdom and the United States, and he created gardens for some really famous people, like Princess Victoria and the Rockefellers.
Check out some of his gardens:
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| Formal gardens...located on a rooftop (above and below). |
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| Hancock lived so long ago, we can see most of his gardens in black and white or colorized B&W photos, or colorful drawings, rather than in beautiful HD color photos. |
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| Some of Hancock's gardens have vanished; others are in the "this is all that remains" category (like the one above); still others have been maintained in or restored to their original glory. |
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| These last two photos are not from one of Hancock's gardens, but they are examples of features that Hancock commonly used. Above, a herringbone-pattern brick path. Below, a moon gate. |
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