Franco surround Madrid

Daily Sketch dated Saturday November 7th 1936

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The real news is on page 3 as indicated by the top line about the British Embassy in Madrid being threatened.

The Duchess of Gloucester was the wife of Henry who was the 3^rd son of George V.

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The Spanish Civil War started in July 1936 with a military mutiny in a Spanish garrison in Morocco and quickly spread through Spain itself, which became divided into Republicans (Anarchists, Communists, The International Brigade and Soviet Russian advisors and suppliers) and Nationalists (under the Fascist General Franco with help from Germany and Italy).

On November 6^th Franco’s forces surrounded Republican held Madrid and began a siege that would last for 29 months. In November 1936 the German Luftwaffe began a campaign of bombing to help Franco, the most famous incident being the bombing of Guernica in April 1937. 

The War ended in April 1939 with the Nationalist defeating the Repulicans.

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Stan Laurel married 4 women, one of them twice. In 1935 he divorced his 1^st wife Louis and married Vera Rogers but they were divorced by 1937, meanwhile Mae Dahlberg who Stan lived with from 1918 until 1925 was demanding alimony for their ‘common-law marriage’. And yet he still found time to be half of the funniest film comedy teams ever – Laurel and Hardy - hence the hilarious pun in the headline.

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Then as now, only then Britain was in the middle.

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On November 26^th 1922 archaeologist Howard Carter broke into the tomb of Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamun and, according to some people, brought down on himself, and his kith and kin, the Curse of the Pharaohs. Blaming the breakdown of a romance 14 years later on the Curse is stretching credibility.

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Not unlike something from Sherlock Holmes. In fact very much like the incident in the short story ‘The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans’ in which Holmes deduces that a body found in the Underground system was dropped onto the roof of a train from the back window of a house overlooking one of the uncovered sections of the track, the body then sliding off on a corner.

I can’t find out how the case of Jessie Austin turned out. Maybe some one out there knows?

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On December 10^th 1936 Peake was found guilty of murdering Noyce.

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Those sneaky policemen resorting to modern technology to solve a crime. They’ll be using DNA next.

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If they didn’t get their wish to be in the Army then, they certainly would 3 years later when WWII broke out.

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Gef the supernatural talking mongoose first manifested itself in 1931 at a small farm on the Isle of Man. Only the family ever saw the creature although supposed photos were taken. 

It was back in the news in 1936 because of a high profile libel case in which the editor of The Listener received £7500 damages for libel against Sir Cecil Levita. Sir Cecil had ridiculed the editor for his belief in such things as the talking mongoose.