Random Ad - Pratt's Fuel (1925)

Click to Enlarge

A 1925 advert for Pratt's petrol that includes instructions on how to drive up hills. I have a Pratt's Road Atlas from this period and in the back is a list of hills with their gradient that motorist should be aware of. 

Random Cutting - Fans Hurt at Football Match (1948)

Click to Read

This was the scene at Queen's Park Ranger's Loftus Road ground on February 7th 1948 when the all standing crowd surged against the railings and they gave way. QPR won 3 - 1 against Luton Town. 

Yorkshire Ripper Guilty

Daily Mirror dated Saturday May 23^rd 1981

Click to Read

Click to Read

Click to Read

Click to Read

Peter Sutcliffe (The Yorkshire Ripper) spent the next 3 years in HMP Parkhurst and then, having been diagnosed as paranoid schizophrenic, transferred to Broadmoor Hospital. During his stay there he has been attacked several times including being blinded in one eye in 1997.

His wife Sonia who says above “I’ll stand by my man” divorced him in 1982.

In 2005 police discovered that the Wearside Jack tape and letters were the work of John Samuel Humble. He was tried and convicted of perverting the course of justice. 

Click to Read

Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer just 2 months before their wedding day. Ah young love! Di does her Hilda Ogden impersonation as Charles wishes he was elsewhere and the policeman on the right wonders what he could nick the toffee-nosed twerp for.

Click to Read

Anthony Wedgwood Benn, Tony to his friend and enemies, was on the left wing of the Labour Party at a time when it had one. He was an MP for the whole second half of the 20^th century and on his retirement in 2001 he said he was “leaving parliament in order to spend more time on politics.” He became involved in the Anti-Iraq War movement. 

Click to Read

The violence and political polarisation in Northern Ireland described in this article is no surprise given that it is talking about the early 1980’s, but the fact that the Republic of Ireland still had capital punishment came as a shock. Apparently hanging had been abolished back in 1964 except for the murder of police, prison guards and diplomats. It was completely abolished in 1990.

Click to Read

Thrice married Bill Wyman officially left The Rolling Stones in December 1992. Since then he has mainly appeared with Bill Wyman and the Rhythm Kings, who, I can tell you from personal experience, are great. His relationship with Astrid Lundström (seen above) ended in 1983.

Click to Read

‘Magnum PI’ was Tom Selleck’s breakthrough having been popping up in various TV series since 1969. He went on to star in the 1987 film ‘3 Men and a Baby’, the TV series ‘Friends’ and most recently ‘Blue Bloods’.

Click to Read

Miniature pigs were originally bred for medical research but have enjoyed an on off vogue as pets. Give me a dog any day. Or a bacon sandwich.

Click to Read

I can’t help but feel sorry for Mr Barnard. A stupid idea but he meant well.

Click to Read

They must have found a solution because ‘Dallas’ continued to be shown this side of the Pond and staggered on for 14 seasons, ending in 1991.

Random Ad - Liquid Blood Manure (1950's)

Click to Enlarge

These days I'm sure the word 'organic' would appear somewhere in the advert. Blood manure is one of the many by-products that come from slaughterhouses. If it's not blood, I wonder what the other 0.1% is? 

Random Cutting - Drugged and Robbed in a Train (1919)

Click to Read

I love that phrase ‘swell mobsman’. It so beautifully adds to the whole inter-war period feel of this story. The special steam drawn ‘race train’ from Newmarket to London with its individual first-class compartments into which the ‘mining engineer’ Mr Hunwick and his wife are joined by the well dressed and well spoken confidence trickster and are drugged, swindled and robbed of the enormous sum of £280. But never fear, Scotland Yard are on the case and within days the culprit is identified at another race meeting and arrested. Hooray!

World Waits for Hitler's Answer

Sunday Graphic dated Sunday September 3^rd 1939

 Click to Read

Click to Read

On September 2^nd 1939 the British Government, led by Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, sent an ultimatum to Adolf Hitler stating that unless he evacuate all German troops from Poland by 11am on the 3^rd, we would declare war.

So if you were reading this Sunday Graphic over your breakfast table on the morning of the 3^rd you would be, as the headline suggests, waiting for Hitler’s answer and no doubt listening to the radio.

At a quarter past 11 you would have heard Chamberlain’s sombre voice intone

"This morning the British Ambassador in Berlin handed the German Government a final note stating      that, unless we heard from them by 11 o'clock that they were prepared at once to withdraw their troops from Poland, a state of war would exist between us. I have to tell you now that no such undertaking has been received, and that consequently this country is at war with Germany…”

The whole broadcast lasted just under 13 minutes. Our war with Nazi Germany lasted 5 years and 8 months.

Click to Read

The National Services (Armed Forces) Act of 1939 made all able-bodied men between the ages of 18 and 41 eligible for call-up. Those in reserved occupations such as dock workers, miners, farmers, scientists, Merchant Seamen, railway workers, and utility workers (water, gas, electricity) were exempt. 

Click to Read

After the re-shuffle the War Cabinet looked like this –

Neville Chamberlain - Prime Minister

Sir Samuel Hoare - Lord Privy Seal

Sir John Simon - Chancellor of the Exchequer

Lord Halifax - Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs

Leslie Hore-Belisha - Secretary of State for War

Sir Kingsley Wood - Secretary of State for Air

Winston Churchill - First Lord of the Admiralty

Lord Chatfield - Minister for Coordination of Defence

Lord Hankey - Minister without Portfolio

Anthony Eden became Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs but not a Cabinet member.

Churchill took over as Prime Minister when Neville Chamberlain resigned in May 1940.

Click to Read

German troops invaded Poland on September 1^st 1939 supported by widespread aerial bombing. This was in direct response to an apparent attack the previous evening by Polish saboteurs on a German radio station. The attack was in fact carried out by SS troops disguised as Poles.

Click to Read

Australia, New Zealand and India declared war on Germany during the afternoon of the 3^rd. Canada followed suit on the 10^th. South Africa had a long history of German allegiance and, although in 1939 it was a British Dominion State, its Prime Minister was pro-Germany and wanted the country to stay neutral. On September the 4^th he was deposed and a pro-British Prime Minister, Jan Smuts, took over and South Africa declared war. 

Click to Read

The zookeepers were afraid that due to potential bomb damage the poisonous little blighters would escape. What about the lions, tigers, bears, wolves and not forgetting those devils incarnate the chimpanzees? 

Click to Read

Click to Read

It was generally believed that when War came the German Luftwaffe would immediately start bombing British cities much as it was doing in Poland, therefore the evacuation from major cities, not only of children but also pregnant women, disabled people and mothers with children under 5 along with all the teachers and carers that accompanied them, started on September 1^st. During the next 4 days over 3 million people were displaced. 

Click to Read

Not the usual Himmler/Goering/Goebbels triumvirate.

Walther Funk survived the War and sentenced at Nuremberg to Life. He was released from Spandau in 1957 and died in 1960.

Dr Wilhelm Frick was also tried at Nuremberg and was hanged in October 1946.

After his ‘peace’ mission to Scotland, Rudolph Hess was tried and spent the rest of his life in Spandau Prison, committing suicide there in 1987.

Hans Lammers was sentenced to 20 years for crimes against humanity but this was reduced to 10 years and in 1952 he was pardoned. He died in 1962.

Wilhelm Keitel was the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces throughout the War and it has been said that if Hitler hadn’t contradicted his campaign plans then Germany would have won World War II. He was tried by the International Military Tribunal immediately after the War and hanged.

Click to Read

During the War the Allies’ armed forces were augmented by many exiles from occupied Europe including French, Danish, Polish, Czech, Belgian, Dutch, Norwegian and Greek refugees.

Click to Read

The Standard 8 might give you 50 miles per gallon but unfortunately with the outbreak of the War petrol was the first thing to be rationed as of September 16^th.

Click to Read

The story about Spencer Tracy reminds me of one I read about Laurence Olivier and Dustin Hoffman when they were making Marathon Man. Hoffman, he of the New York Method school, was complaining that he couldn’t really get the motivation for a particular scene, so Sir Larry said, “Try acting, old boy.”

‘The Wizard of Oz’ starring Julie Garland was released in Britain in November 1939.

‘One Million B.C.’ turned up in 1940 produced, not by Cecil B DeMille but by that other Hollywood veteran D W Griffith and directed by Hal Roach.

The boy-wonder Orson Welles, who, in 1939, was known for his stage and radio work as actor, director, producer and writer, was about to make his first feature film – ‘Citizen Kane’ – long regarded as the greatest American film ever made.

Random Ad - Kiwi polish (1940's)

Click to Enlarge

"Yes, Doctor, I did know, you sanctimonious old git. And isn't it time you learnt to shine your own shoes? Take that self satisfied smirk off your face or you'll get this bedpan over your head."

I won't mention what Kiwi used to call their Dark Tan shoe polish.

Random Cutting - Police robbers (1952)

Click to Read

Serving police officers breaking and entering stores and offices and robbing a Post Office - what would PC George Dixon have said? I can hear Jack Warner's voice now - "If there's one thing I can't stand it's a bent copper." Seriously, it must have been quite shocking to read in 1952 that a group of Leeds policemen had carried out these raids, when the image of the bobby on the beat was all "Hello Hello Hello what's all this then?" and helping old ladies across the road.

Queen's Silver Jubilee

Daily Mirror dated Wednesday June 8^th 1977

 Click to Read

Click to Read

Click to Read

1977 marked the 25^th year of the reign of Elizabeth II. She actually succeeded to the throne on 6^th February 1952 but the main Silver Jubilee celebrations were held in early June.

Click to Read

Idi Amin seized power in a military coup in Uganda in 1971 and declared himself President for Life. His regime was notorious for its horrendous human rights abuses and by 1976 Britain has severed diplomatic ties and closed its High Commission.  Amin didn’t get to London and the 1977 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting. In April 1979 he was deposed and he went to Libya and then, later, to Saudi Arabia, where he died in 2003. 

Click to Read

On May 23^rd 1977 a train was hijacked at De Punt in Holland by 9 South Moluccan terrorists. At the same time 4 others took a hundred children and some teachers hostage at a nearby primary school. After a 20 day stand-off, on June 11^th, Dutch Marines attacked both the train and the school and 7 of the hijackers including Hansina Oktoseja were killed.  

Click to Read

The 1977 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting at Gleneagles, Scotland, lasted from June 8^th to 15^th. Africa, particularly Rhodesia, South Africa and Uganda, dominated the agenda.

Click to Read

In 2008 the UK Kennel Club listed the top 5 most popular dogs as Labrador Retriever, Cocker Spaniel, Springer Spaniel, German Shepherd and King Charles Spaniel. What’s wrong with the Great British Mongrel?

Click to Read

Lester Maddox was a restaurant owner who used the publicity for his eatery to promote the continuation of black/white segregation in Georgia. He gathered such a following from working-class whites that he entered politics eventually becoming State Governor in 1966. Proving that real people are less like stereotypes than fictional characters, Maddox was reasonably progressive on many racial matters. While in office he backed prison reform, an issue popular with many of the state's African Americans, he appointed more African Americans to government positions than all previous Georgia governors combined, including the first black officer in the Georgia State Patrol and the first black official to the state Board of Corrections. After unsuccessfully running for Presidential candidate he abandoned politics.

Click to Read

According to other online resources it was actually Christchurch in Cambridgeshire, not Dorset, and the ancestor of President Carter that went to America was Thomas Carter Sr, who settled in Virginia. Thomas’ great-great-grandson Kindred Carter moved to Jimmy Carter’s home state of Georgia in the early 1800’s.

Click to Read

Interesting story but yet another lousy ‘pun’ headline. The story has nothing to do with motorcycle stunt riding, which might have justified an Evel Knievel reference.

Click to Read

My parents used to pay 1 shilling (5p) a day for my school meals and they were awful. Not my parents – the meals.

Click to Read

The word ‘hero’ has been devalued over the years by applying it to anyone who happens to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, but to consciously put yourself, like unarmed policeman Keith Harrison, between an intended victim and a man with a loaded shotgun is true heroism. 

Click to Read

Viv Richards, a West Indian cricketer, born in Antigua, so famous even I have heard of him. Apparently 241 not out is a good score.

Random Ad - Fine Fare (1972)

Click to Enlarge

Fine Fare 1972. Just drool over those prices. The half-new-penny was withdrawn in December 1984. The Fine Fare stores were either renamed Gateway or closed down in the late 1980's.

Random Cutting - Daily Mirror Beauty Contest (1926)

.

Click to Read

6 hopefuls in the Daily Mirror Beauty Contest of 1926. I've no idea who won but it did remind me to play my copy of Blind Alfred Reed's song 'Why Do You Bob Your Hair, Girls?' released in 1927.

Sinking of the General Belgrano

Daily Mirror dated Tuesday May 4^th 1982

Click to Read

A month to the day after Argentina invaded the Falkland Islands (see post), the Argentine light cruiser General Belgrano was sunk by HMS Conqueror using 3 torpedoes. 770 of the Belgrano’s crew were rescued but 323 died.

This was the day the Sun newspaper went with the headline ‘GOTCHA!’ which was changed for the later editions to something a little more appropriate

‘It’s a Knockout’ started in France as ‘Jeux sans Frontier’. Stuart Hall, who has been in the news lately and in the nick for a while yet, hosted the UK version. About 800 people were using the stand when it collapsed and about 60 were taken to Scunthorpe General Hospital.

Click to Read

A potpourri of Falkland related news. Like the RMS Queen Mary and RMS Queen Elizabeth, it was the QEII’s turn to be used as a troop ship.

Click to Read

Jimmy Carter and Leonid Brezhnev had met in Vienna in 1979. By 1982 Brezhnev was ailing and in November he died. Reagan actually had 5 summit meeting between 1985 and 1988 but with Mikhail Gorbachev.

Click to Read

The original Mods had died out by the late 1960’s, some having morphed into skinheads or just grown too old. The skinheads in their turn died out, but in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s both subcultures enjoyed revivals and, evident from this article, emulated their cultural forefathers by spending Bank Holidays causing mayhem at seaside resorts.

Click to Read

To celebrate the 10^th anniversary of Mastermind they held this Champion of Champions contest. Sir David Hunt answered questions on Alexander the Great to get 13 points and increased this to 28 in General Knowledge.

Click to Read

A warning to those that take what they read on the Web as gospel – several sites including the Oracle, sorry, Wikepedia, state that this experimental 3D broadcast on TV South’s ‘The Real World’  happened in February 1982. I notice that all the sites seem to have cut and pasted the same wording from one another. They also claim that the first full 3D programme – a showing of the 3D western film ‘Fort Ti’ was shown in December 1982. Or November. Or even October.

Click to Read

This appears to be a fairly early satellite tracking and positioning system probably using the first GPS satellite that had been launched in 1978. I can’t find any reference to the acronym SARGOS anywhere.

Click to Read

The Advanced Passenger Train or APT was designed to run on existing track at speeds of up to 155mph so had a hydraulic tilting system to keep the train on the track on bends. The first passengers were carried in December 1981 but there were problems from the start and the APTs were withdrawn from service. High Speed Trains with a top speed of 125mph replaced them.

Click to Read

Over the next 10 years ‘Wogan’ ran to 252 editions during which the Irish mumbler interviewed everyone from Eddie the Eagle Edwards to Vincent Price to Roy Orbison via Paul McCartney and Fanny Craddock.

Click to Read

Wrong. Faye Dunaway didn’t appear in Octopussy, the 4 years younger Maude Adams took the role.

Click to Read

Wandsworth boy Frank Bruno had his first professional fight in March 1982, which he won along with his next 20 fights. He won the European Boxing Union Heavyweight Title in 1985 and the World Boxing Council Heavyweight Title in 1995.