Miscellaneous Information

The Death Of Bill Torrens

It is with a heavy heart that I report the death of Bill Torrens, a poster here who was one of the finest historians I've ever known.

Although Bill was a librarian in Buckinghamshire, England, and had lived his entire life in England, his heart belonged to the Confederate States of America.

 About 7 years ago, I believe I joined the Civil War Talk board and was met with enthusiasm by Tommy, also known as mental_nomad, but mostly as Tommy. We thought we were debating pretty well until we met Bill Torrens who taught us that there is indeed an "art" to it. I believe this was about a year after I joined.

Then a lovely Canadian lady named Dawna joined us and we became the "Fab Four", debating right and left.  We stayed there for about two-three more years, then moved on to debate on other forums.

 Alas, May 31, 2005 Bill found out he had colon cancer and swore us to secrecy. He went through all the chemo and drug treatments that they could dish at him and many times we all had our hopes up, only to be dashed. But Bill was so merry about it and kept right on writing on the boards. Eventually we began to write on other boards as well and kept up the debates. Bill had such a delightful wit about him that he even decided to change genders. One of his pseudonyms on this forum was "Catherine Hopley". He told me that it was  quite hard to change genders.  LOL  I could believe him about that.

He had at least one other name on this board but at the moment it eludes me.  He wrote  as a man also. He had his finger in many pies and was so knowledgeable that he could juggle all his identities and have a jolly time.

Meanwhile Bill and Barbara, his wife, continued their wonderful trips all over Europe sending back pictures of gorgeous castles, villages, cathedrals, etc. They were living life to the fullest, the way it should be lived.

And we kept planning "the trip". The trip was for the four of us to all meet at my house in Alabama and go to as many historic sites as possible, each night coming home to sit in the rock garden and drink "mint juleps" as Bill made me promise to make, although I've never had a mint julep in my life, I was bound and determined I would have mastered the art of making them by the time my friends got here. 

But this last trip to the hospital was to be just that. Barbara sent a note to us all saying that Bill had died on Thursday morning, 6th March 2008 about 9.15 am British time. (I just got the message around 11 Saturday a.m.CST)

We have all lost a valued friend, the finest debater I will ever meet, and the South has lost it's greatest messenger.

If you believe in toasts, please drink one and raise your glass high to the finest "Southerner" the South never produced, Bill Torrens.

Thea, Tommy, and Dawna