Random Ad - Southend-on-Sea (1920's)

This 1920's advert for the Essex coastal resort of Southend-on-Sea could well fall foul of the Merchandise Marks Act (replaced by the Trades Description Act in 1968).

Random Cutting - Munitions Factory Explosion 1917

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I was a little surprised to read these reports from 1917 – I thought that such bad news would have been censored. The death toll rose from the 69 mentioned in the 3^rd cutting to 73. It has become known as the Silvertown Explosion because it happened in that part of East London, which is now part of Newham.

The chief Chemist Dr Angel was posthumously awarded the Edward Medal (equivalent to the later George Cross).

Petain calls for French Ceasefire

Evening Standard dated Monday June 17th 1940

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The German Army had marched into Paris on June 14^th 1940 and on the 22^nd an armistice was signed and France was divided into the Occupied Zone and the so-called Free Zone under the control of Marshal Philippe Pétain. The occupied zone covered most of Northern and Western France, which brought the German Army to within 22 miles of the English coast.

Marshall Pétain had been a National hero for his military leadership during World War I, but by 1945 he was on trial as a traitor to France. He was sentenced to death but Charles de Gaulle commuted this to life imprisonment. He died in 1951 at the age of 95.

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During the 1930’s America’s most famous aviator Charles Lindbergh made no secret of his admiration for Adolf Hitler’s new Germany and in particular Hermann Göring’s Luftwaffe. He had visited Germany and had even been awarded the Service Cross of the German Eagle by Göring. He lectured widely in America in support of the non-involvement of the US in the European War even going so far as to blame a conspiracy of ‘Britain, Roosevelt and the Jews’ for trying to get America to join in the conflict.

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Look out! Spies are everywhere – some clever than others.

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I wonder if any of these volunteers flew in that summer’s big event – the Battle of Britain? Or possibly even one of the 544 Allied airmen killed? 

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I don't mind telling you, Mate, you just can’t trust them aristocrats.

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Times change along with attitudes. Some for the better and some not.

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The Soviet Union and Germany had signed a mutual non-aggression pact in 1939. This article by Left Wing journalist and politician Michael Foot calling for an alliance between Stalin’s neutral Soviet Union and Britain against Nazi Germany was published just 5 days before Hitler’s army invaded Russia. The non-aggression pact was torn up and Russia joined the Allies.

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Seems a lot of trouble to con a few pence each time. 

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An advert for ‘Gaslight’, the classic melodrama with jewel theft, murder and a husband trying to send his wife mad. Just the thing to take your mind off the War. Not to be confused with the 1944 US version.

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Edith decided that today of all days was the wrong one to have gone ‘commando’.

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The first casualty of War may be truth, but the second is free speech. The B.E.F. was the British Expeditionary Force most of whom were evacuated at Dunkirk.

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With the Blitz less than 3 months away I’d sign up asap if I were you.

Random Ad - Avenger car (1970's)

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An early 1970's advert for the Hillman Avenger range of cars. Why the emphasis on 'good living'? Maybe they expected you to live in it when keeping it running made you bankrupt and it broke down for the final time.

Random Cutting - Kent (Ohio) University shooting

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During the 1968 U.S. presidential campaign, Richard Nixon promised "peace with honour" for the Vietnam War. On April 30th 1970, Nixon, now President Nixon, announced that American forces had invaded Cambodia. Many Americans saw this as an expansion and lengthening of the Vietnam War.

In response students across the United States began to protest.  At Kent State University in Ohio on May 1st 1970 students held a protest rally. The Governor of Ohio sent for the National Guard. The troubles continued until, on the 4^th, the National Guard tried to disperse a crowd of students by using fixed bayonets. The students scattered and the Guards started to withdraw.

Then, for some unknown reason, a dozen National Guardsmen suddenly turned round and began firing at the students.  Four students were killed and nine others were wounded. Some of the students shot were not part of the rally, but were just walking to their next class.

(Paraphrased from this site)

Lindbergh Baby Murder Hunt

Daily Mirror dated Saturday May 14th 1932

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Since his historic solo flight of the Atlantic in May 1927, Charles A Lindbergh had become a national hero in the USA and a celebrity around the World. In 1929 he married Anne Morrow and their first child, Charles Jr. was born a year later. On March 1^st 1932 Charles Jr. was kidnapped from the Lindbergh home in New Jersey. Ransom notes followed and money paid, but the child was not returned. Then on May 12^th the child’s body was found just a few miles from the house. The Police, the FBI and even Lindbergh-hired Private Detectives were now hunting for one or more murderers, but it wasn’t until September 1934 that a German illegal immigrant and petty criminal, Bruno Hauptmann, was arrested and charged with the killing. His trial was a media circus that ended with a guilty verdict. Hauptmann was executed in 1936.

The case resulted in the Lindbergh Law which made kidnapping a Federal offence which gave the FBI automatic jurisdiction.

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The Dartmoor Prison Mutiny had occurred on January 24 1932, but had been quickly suppressed by police reinforcements from Plymouth. 32, of the 150 convicts involved, were tried for their part in the disturbances.

Amazon.com have a jigsaw depicting an aerial photo of the prison admin block on fire during the Mutiny!

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Russian born Paul Gouguloff assassinated M. Doumer, the President of the French Republic and admitted at his trail that he had wanted to kill the President of Germany, Paul Von Hindenberg and Russian Soviet leader Lenin as well.

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The fledgling BBC (then the British Broadcasting Company rather than Corporation) opened studios at Savoy Hill in the Strand, London, in the headquarters of the Institute of Electrical Engineers in May 1923. It broadcast from there until it moved to the purpose-built Broadcasting House in Portland Place in May 1932.

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Lou Reichers' trans-Atlantic flight failed when he ditched about 50 miles off the west coast of Ireland. When the crew of the American liner ‘President Roosevelt’ picked him up from the rough sea he had a broken nose, cuts and bruises. Despite his Germanic sounding name, he was an American and flew for the USAAF during WWII and died in 1962.

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That’s the spirit that made Britain what it was. Aviation pioneers but lousy at making undercarriages.

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The third largest of the cat family, Jaguars, have been around since the Pleistocene epoch (a heck of a long time ago) and will be around for a while yet, despite this later-day Robin Hood trying to wipe them out.

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Untypically for the Mirror in the 1930's this is a confusing and badly written item. I have found a much clearer account online in the Singapore Strait Times, which explains that Mr Baldock and Mr Philpott conspired with jeweller’s shop manager Mr Tom to stage a robbery outside the shop. Baldcock and Philpott would snatch an empty bag supposedly holding gems worth £12300 and Tom would then claim the ‘loss’ on insurance. The 2 ‘robbers’ got 3 years a piece and Mr Tom was tried in 1933 for attempted insurance fraud.

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Modern greyhound racing with an artificial hare was introduced to the UK in 1926 and became very popular with the public, reaching its peak attendances just after World War II.

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I blame the passing of the Locomotives on the Highway Act of 1896, which raised the speed limit from 4 mph to 14 mph and abolished the requirement for these vehicles to be preceded by a man on foot.

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Wet weather on a Bank Holiday weekend? Whatever next?

Random Ad - VP Wine (1950's)

"Awfully good of you to invite us round to watch your new television. By the way who's the dweeb behind the settee?"

"Oh! I thought he was with you."

Random cutting - Devil's Island drama (1934)

This reads like the plot of a rather depressing novel, especially (alert - spoiler here) the Devil’s Island escapee being killed on the very day his pardon arrived.

Harrow and Wealdstone Train Crash 1952

Bournemouth Daily Echo dated Friday October 10th 1952

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This 3 train pile-up happened on 8^th October 1952 at Harrow and Wealdstone station when a stationery train waiting in the station was hit by a through express. The resultant wreckage was then hit by another express travelling in the opposite direction. The final death toll was 112 with 340 people injured,

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19 year-old trainee footman Harold Winstanley bought an ex-World War II 9mm Schmeisser machine pistol and some ammo from a friend to hunt rabbits, but instead walked into his employer’s house, Knowsley Hall, and murdered 2 people and wounded 2 others including Lady Derby. He then had a pint at the local before giving himself up to the police. He was found guilty but insane and sent to Broadmoor Hospital for the Criminally Insane.

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Pianist Leslie ‘Hutch’ Hutchinson was one of the World’s biggest cabaret stars during the 1920s and 30s. Finding fame in New York he moved to Paris and then London where he became notorious as the black man who had affairs with various white actresses and even, it was rumoured, Royalty. He died in comparative obscurity in 1969 and only a handful of people attended his funeral.

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You have to remember it was a different age – innocent but cruel.

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Those were the days when throwing an iron bar into a tree and having it land on your head didn’t lead to your parents suing the Local Council for letting a tree grow there in the first place; just a wiser kid.

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“By Gad, Sir! Bopping and jiving in Bournemouth! Whatever next? What’s wrong with the Black Bottom? Never did me and the memsahib any harm. Pass the hip-flask!”

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And what would Wernher Von Braun know about rockets? Well he did design and oversee the building of the V1 and V2 German rockets that killed so many people in London during World War II. Luckily for the US Space Program he was whisked off to America by the OSS before British Military Intelligence could get hold of him and wring his neck.

By the way his prediction was 8 years and about $23billion out.

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The joy! The tears! The spectacle! Who can forget the 1952 version of that agricultural blockbuster (loud fanfare) ‘Soil Fertility’?

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This was before the great boom in TV sales brought on by the Coronation in 1953, so the TV salesmen really had to work at it. But what could they show potential customers to lure them into parting with the equivalent of 6 months’ wages?

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Not a lot! 1 channel, black and white and broadcasting for less than 5 hours a day.

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And only this to watch it on.

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As Francis Urquhart often said, "I couldn't possibly comment."

Random Ad - Pots and Pans (1960's)

Philip Harben - the Jamie Oliver of the 1960's. I dread to think what he does to the pans to 'Harbenise' them. I assume the 'Stand No. 253' refers to the Ideal Home Exhibition.

Random Cutting - Jerry Lee Lewis and Wife, 13

Jerry Lee ‘The Killer’ Lewis was a very successful Louisiana born rock’n’roll pianist and singer who, like Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash and Carl Perkins, recorded for Sam Phillips in Memphis. In 1957 he married his 13 year-old first-cousin-once-removed, Myra Gale Brown, and brought her with him to England for a tour. Big mistake. The British press got hold of the story and that was pretty well the end of Lewis’ career both here and in America until a revival in the mid-1960’s. The marriage was the third of seven for Lewis, but it did last 14 years.