An explanatory note around my apprehension about being a guest of Company of St George.
There are two aspects. To begin with, in Australia the Company has a hallowed reputation, and is seen as the unobtainable gold standard for re-enactment. This was partly driven by the publication of the Dragons, and the ‘Medieval Soldier’ book. I think one of the characteristics of re-enactment in Australia – particularly during the late ’90s and early part of this century – was that everyone is largely ham-strung by and dependent on a limited range of available materials and artefacts, and with very limited access to primary research resources. Pretty well if it is available on the open internet in English, it is used, otherwise there is a dependency on secondary and tertiary resources and looking at other re-enactors. And so I’m very conscious of how relatively primitive and uninformed my impression is.
The other aspect is that it has always been my desire to do good living history, with the Company as a guide to what was acceptably good. The trouble was that for years I spent a very large amount of my time and effort kitting out other people, and never really concentrated on my own kit. I know exactly what is wrong with my kit, and what needs to be sorted out, but time (and then for quite a long time, money) prevented me doing anything about it.
Right now I have the money, and I have a very clear idea of what to do, but time is distinctly lacking. The whole project is thus very daunting.