Cutting -First Evacuation of Schools (1939)

28th September 1938

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This is an aspect of the World War 2 London evacuation of children just 3 weeks after the outbreak, that I've never come across before. The use of the words 'cripple' and 'little cripples' as well as describing other kids as ' normal children' would have gone unnoticed at the time but rather jar these days.

Cutting - Batman is Banned (1979)

September 1979

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Australia in the 1970's and they are blaming children's bad behaviour on their desire to copy superheroes like Batman and Superman. Miss Jee is quite happy for them to play at being the foreign invaders who committed near genocide on the Native American population, sorry, I mean Cowboys and Indians.

Random Cutting - Myra Hindley O-Level (1969)

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Hindley went on to get a Humanities Degree from the Open University. She died in 2002 while still in prison.

Random Cutting - Little Rock: Faubus Defiant (1958)

13th September 1958

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In 1954 the US Supreme Court had ordered that all Schools should be racially de-segregated, consequently the  National Association for the Advancement of Colored People encouraged black students to enrole in previously all-white schools. In 1957 in Little Rock, Arkansas' Governor, Orval Faubus, brought in the National Guard to prevent black students enrolling. President Eisenhower oredered the U.S Army to intervene and also brought the Arkansas National Guard under direct Federal control. In September 1958 Faubus tried another tack; he passed a bill to close down the 4 major high schools in Little Rock. The schools re-opened the following August. 

John F Kenedy's Funeral

Daily Mirror dated Tuesday November 26^th 1963

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The 35^th President of the United States, John F Kennedy, had been assassinated the previous Friday in Dallas, Texas. His alleged killer, Lee Harvey Oswald, had in turn been shot while in police custody on the Sunday. JFK’s funeral was held in Washington D.C. on the Monday.

Unfortunately, little John F Kennedy Jr., seen on the front page above, was to die at an even younger age than his father. He was killed in a plane crash in 1999 at the age of 38.

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I don’t think it counts as Congressional inquiry, but the President's Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy, known unofficially as the Warren Commission, was set up immediately and worked from November 1963 until September 1964 to conclude that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone.

In 1976 The United States House of Representatives Select Committee on Assassinations began to investigate the assassinations of John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr. The Committee concluded that Kennedy was very likely assassinated as a result of a conspiracy.

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Harold Wilson was the Leader of the Labour Party from 1963 until 1976 and was Prime Minister twice – 1964-1970 and 1974-1976. And Pipe Smoker of the Year in 1965.

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I don’t think it was a coincidence that this article on the state of primary and junior schools in the UK happened to be in the same issue of this Labour Party supporting Daily Mirror as the advert above.

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I’m sure I’ve seen a film with this plot; whether or not before or after 1963 I can’t remember.

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Anarchic comedian and writer Spike Milligan appearing as the godfather.

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Before loyalty cards and reward points there were Green Shield Stamps. Introduced in 1958 they were collected in books and then exchanged for ‘gifts’. They ended in 1991.

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Back in 1958, four years before the first Bond film, ‘Dr No’, Ian Fleming, John Bryce, Ernest Cuneo and Kevin McClory wrote a screenplay for a possible Bond film. To cut a long story short, in 1960 Fleming wrote the book ‘Thunderball’ based on the screenplay and McClory tried to stop publiation in the High Court but failed. In 1963 McClory brought the action referred to in the article above, but by this time Fleming’s health was deteriorating and actually had a heart attack during the case, so he settled out of court giving McClory  literary and film rights for the screenplay, while Fleming was given the rights to the novel. Ian Fleming died in August 1964.

In 1965, the film Thunderball was made after producers Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman made a deal with McClory. 

England scores 280 first innings

Sunday Pictorial dated Sunday August 15^th 1926

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I must admit that on reading this headline ‘England scores 280 first innings’ I had no idea whether it was a ‘Hooray for England’ or a ‘England team let us down again’ headline. I don’t understand cricket scoring.

A look on this web page told me England won the 5^th Test in 1926 by 289 runs.

Ask me in 5 minutes who won and by how many runs and I will have forgotten, but I am sure there are people out there that will find these pages interesting. 

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The death of John Thomas Derham resulted from a fight with his friend Alphonso (or Alphonse) Smith over Smith’s wife Catherine.

Smith was found not guilty of murder or manslaughter in November 1926 but sentenced to 12 months for possession of a firearm with intent to injure. The comparatively lenient sentence was passed because the judge believed that Smith only intended to kill himself.

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In fact the Reverend John Alexander Smith died of his head wound the next day. 

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At least this fire in a paint factory in Southwark ended without loss of life and even three cats were saved.

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In June 1916 Lord Kitchener sailed on the battle cruiser HMS Hampshire for a diplomatic mission to Russia, but the ship struck a mine laid by U-boat U-75 and sank. Kitchener, his staff, and 643 of the crew of 655 were drowned or died of exposure. His body was never found.

In 1926, a hoaxer, Frank Power, claimed that a Norwegian fisherman had found Kitchener’s body. Power brought a coffin back from Norway and prepared it for burial in St. Paul's. At this point, however, the authorities intervened and the coffin was opened in the presence of police and a distinguished pathologist. The box was found to contain only tar for weight. Power was never prosecuted.

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I have a funny feeling that whoever tried to fill this in didn’t stand an chance of winning that rather nice Bullnose Morris Cowley, and should have sent off for the 64 page booklet on how to complete crosswords. Rather an odd feature of this grid is the use of clues marked ‘actual’ so R.T.B. (actual) is literally RTB. The other oddity I’ve noticed is 20 across and 20 down is the same isolated square with a ‘D’ pre-printed.

The first crossword to appear in a UK newspaper was only 2 years previously in 1924.

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Arthur Ferrier was born and started working as a cartoonist in Glasgow, then he moved to London and drew joke cartoons for newspapers and  magazines.

In 1930 he created Britain’s first ‘glamour’ cartoon strip called ‘Film Fanny’. The most famous ‘glamour’ strip was the Daily Mirror’s ‘Jane’. The Sunday Pictorial also published his ‘Our Dumb Blonde’ strip, which ran from 1939 to 1946, followed by ‘Spotlight on Sally’ and ‘Eve’.

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“By Gad, Sir! Whatever next? They’ll be teaching the little blighters to use the Interweb, what ever that it. A damn good thrashing would do them a sight more good. Pass the cane!”

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Only 13 years before World War II and, apart from talk of getting rid of horses, this could be from World War I.

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Probably the Bristol Bulldog single seater biplane fighter introduced into service in 1927.

The racing seaplane mentioned here is the Gloster VI, which was entered for the 1929 Schneider Trophy race, but was beaten by the Supermarine S6. 

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Ah, the old ‘daring-short-skirt-flat-chested-coal-scuttle for a hat’ look. Although the one on the right has gone for the mis-tossed pancake hat. Nice drawings though by Renee Maude.

Old Bailey and Whitehall IRA bombings

Daily Mirror dated Friday March 9^th 1973

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In the first IRA mainland bombings since 1940, four car bombs were planted in London on March 8th. Two were defused, one in a car outside a Post Office in Broadway and the other outside the BBC's armed forces radio studio in Dean Stanley Street. However, the other two exploded, one near the Old Bailey and the other at the Ministry of Agriculture off Whitehall. As a result of the explosions one person was killed and almost 200 people were injured.

At the time I worked near the Old Bailey at the top of Ludgate Hill, directly opposite St Paul’s Cathedral. I had a habit of popping out mid-afternoon to buy a Mars bar and was crossing the old Paternoster piazza when there was a very loud boom that I felt as much as heard. As the crow flies I was only about 300m from the blast. Luckily there were a lot of buildings in the way.

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The people arrested at Heathrow included Marian and Dolours Price, Gerry Kelly, Hugh Feeney and Roisin McNearney. In November 1973 all except McNearney, who had turned Queen’s evidence, were convicted of the Old Bailey and Whitehall bombings. 

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Rail chaos, miners' strikes, dock strikes, go-slows, walk outs - this was the hay-day of the militant unions, but they had no way of knowing that Margaret Thatcher’s reign was only 6 years away (give or take 4 or 5 days).

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The London School of Economics had been a hot-bed of student unrest since 1966 and this was yet another in a series of protests. 

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On March 5^th sixty-eight people had been killed when a Douglas DC-9, flying from Palma to London, collided in midair with a Convair 990 Coronado aircraft over Nantes in western France. The accident occurred during a French air traffic controller’s strike and stand-in military controllers were being used.

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The problem is whether to watch ‘The Virginian’ and then ‘Morcambe and Wise’ or ‘Hawaii Five-O’ and ‘On the Buses’? There’d be no hesitation in watching one of my favourite films though – Jean Luc Goddard’s ‘Alphaville’.

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Straight forward story – fan sends Paul McCartney seeds, he plants them, they come up as cannabis, police see them, he appears in court and is fined. I think there is a printing error though. McCartney is quoted as saying ‘there should be legislation on the use of cannabis’. Surely there was or he wouldn’t be in court.

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Fans got more than they bargained for when, in 2002, the iconic Wembley Stadium was demolished and a new stadium built on the site.

Queen's Silver Jubilee

Daily Mirror dated Wednesday June 8^th 1977

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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.

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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. 

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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.  

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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.

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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?

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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.

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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.

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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.

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

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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. 

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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.