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. 

Random Ad - Live Wrestling (1960's)

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This was the hayday of British wrestling with bouts being televised every Saturday afternoon on ITV's World of Sport. As well as Johnny Kwango, I remember enjoying watching Jackie Pallo, Mick McManus and Bert Royal among others going through their routines with commentary by Kent Walton. I only went to one live match and that was in a field behind the Merry Fiddlers in Beacontree Heath and the only name I remember is that of The Blimp.

Random Cutting - Eichmann trial (1961)

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Adolf Eichmann was one of the major organizers of the Holocaust. He oversaw the logistics of mass deportation of Jews to concentration camps in German-occupied Eastern Europe.

After the War, he fled to Argentina, where in 1960, he was captured by Israeli Mossad operatives and taken to Israel to face trial for war crimes. He was found guilty and executed by hanging in 1962.

Chamberlain's Last Plea for Peace

Daily Mirror dated Tuesday September 27^th 1938

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On September 12^th 1938 Adolf Hitler gave a speech in which he demanded the return of the Sudetenland from Czechoslovakia. On the 15^th the British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain flew to Berlin for talks with Hitler, but couldn’t resolve the crisis. They had further meetings on the 18^th and 22^nd. On September 29^th Chamberlain, Hitler, Mussolini and the French President Daladier met in Munich and decided, without consulting the Czech government, that the country should be partitioned and Hitler should have control of Sudetenland. Chamberlain arrived back at Heston aerodrome with his piece of paper and ‘peace in our time’ speech. War had been averted – for the time being.

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Roosevelt did what he could to help avert a European war despite the overwhelming isolationist views of the majority of Americans. They were quite willing to supply arms and food to England but did not want any ‘on the ground’ involvement until Japan attacked Pearl Harbour in December 1941.

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Read with hindsight this is a terrible story of a Polish Jew being deported back to almost certain death, but at the time the general public in Britain were generally xenophobic and to some degree anti-Semitic. It should also be remembered that they didn’t really know at this time what was going on in the concentration camps.

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RMS Queen Elizabeth was the sister ship to the Cunard liner RMS Queen Mary and was launched later this day at the Clydebank shipyard by the Queen herself. She wasn’t ready for her maiden voyage until after the War had broken out so her first trip to New York was done in the utmost secrecy. The ship was painted grey and the crew didn’t know its destination until after it had left port.

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There’s a word you don’t see in tabloid headlines these days – ‘repudiates’.

Two words I wouldn’t expect to find in a 1938 tabloid – ‘      ‘ and ‘        ‘.

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Coin operated vending machines appeared in the UK in the late 1880’s. In my experience the most common products available were sweets, particularly chocolate bars, and cigarettes. I’d have thought that keeping fish and chips hot for any length of time would result in soggy chips and soft batter. They certainly didn’t catch on in any great numbers. 

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Just shows how dangerous it was in the 1930’s to be a woman of loose moral habits. According to The Times for November 5^th 1938 David Leonard Knight was found not guilty and discharged

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Despite the War in Europe the 1939/40 New York World’s Fair went ahead. The British Pavilion displayed an original copy of the Magna Carta, but by the end of the Expo it was thought too risky to transport it back to England so it stayed in Fort Knox until 1947. Germany didn’t attend the Fair.

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A happy story for a change. A young couple in love and destined to marry? Maybe not. The only entry in the FreeBDM marriage records for Doris Deciacco has her hitching up with a Robert Jack in 1947. What happened to William?

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T.R. Newton may have been Cheshire’s strongest man and capable of swimming across Morecambe Bay but could he eat three shredded wheat?

Random Ad - Multi-Exerciser (1980's)

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I wonder how many of these 1980's Multi-Exercisers are lurking in attics up and down the Country. 

Random Cutting - Convoy captured by 4000 Afghans (1919)

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This cutting from July 1919 is about an incident in the Third Anglo-Afghan War that lasted from May 1919 until August 1919. 

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.