Kaiser to Abdicate?

The Daily Mirror dated Friday October 11th 1918

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This was just a month before the end of the fighting in World War I and and the course of the War was turning against Germany.

Kaiser Wilhelm II, the King of Prussia and Emperor of the German Empire, had effectively lost control of the German military in 1916 and by 1918 was just a puppet being controlled by his Chiefs of Staff. He finally abdicated on November 9^th 1918 just two days before the Armistice was signed. Germany became a Republic under President Friedrick Ebert. Wilhelm went into exile in Holland and died in 1941.

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This Allied action is part of the 4^th Battle of Champagne and is regarded as the beginning of the end of World War I. French, US, Italian and British troops repulsed an attack by the Germans and turned it into an advance that only ended with the Armistice

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This was the Influenza pandemic that spread across the World between 1918 and 1920 and killed an estimated 20 to 50 million people globally. It reached Britain in May 1918 and killed 228,000 people many of whom were, unlike the usual victims of ‘flu, young fit adults.

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At this time Winston Churchill was the Minister for Munitions in Lloyd-George’s Coalition Government, hence the visit to a shell factory.

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RMS Leinster was heading for Holyhead with 77 crew -members and 694 passengers when U-boat 123 torpedoed it. At least 500 people died.

UB-123 disappeared (sunk) a week later on 19^th October.

The Hirano Maru was a Japanese Passenger Steamer on route from Liverpool to Yokohama and was sunk by UB-91 with a loss of 292 lives.

UB-91 surrendered on 21^st November 1918 and was broken up in 1921.

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Patrick MacGill (right in the picture) was an Irish poet, journalist and author who died in 1963. Stephen Rea portrayed him in a 2008 film based on MacGill’s autobiographical novel, ‘Child of the Dead End’.

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The 28^th President of the USA, Thomas Woodrow Wilson is seen here holding his top hat while, far left, a most unlikely looking Secret Service agent scans the crowd for baddies.

The Marquis De Lafayette was a Frenchman who helped George Washington to overthrow the perfectly legal British colonial rule in the New World.

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“By Gad, Sir. Give women a say in designing houses – whatever next? All the memsahib needs to know is where the drinks cabinet is and what time I want me dinner. Another brandy, Old Girl, jaldi jaldi”

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I wonder when these fashions will come back in. I particularly like the Devil’s horns worn by the bridesmaids.