100 years ago

An Englishman’s difficulty with his ’h’s seemed insuperable. “Part of my duties (wrote a correspondent) is to impart weekly instruction to a class of Army boys, and I am often left wondering whether they themselves are conscious of any difficulty, or whether they even recognise the lost breathing when they hear it.

Thus, the other day, we came across the word “heir” in our reading, which, seeing the initial “h” and unaware of its being silent, they pronounced quite correctly. I asked them if they could give me any other word in the language with the same sound, but with different spelling and meaning. To start them on the quest, I offered “air.” One of them, smiling slightly at the easiness of the poser, slipped a rather grimy hand on his scalp, and said in a sepulchral tone, “This, sir – the ‘air of the ‘ead.” I reasoned with them, and half dislocated my neck in the effort to make the preliminary breathing as rough and noticeable as possible.

As there were still "ere" and “e’er” to be dealt with, I encouraged them again, when the same ambitious spirit ventured once more. “There’s the ‘are, sir,” he said, confidently; “the hanimal that is ’unted by ’ounds in the fields. I gave it up at that.”

50 years ago

A special Scarborough Corporation committee had decided that the 1000th anniversary of the founding of the town by the Norwegian raider, Skarthi, should be celebrated in 1966.

The Committee based its decision on historical records which gave 966 as the year Skarthi set up his first stronghold in the Scarborough area. A Corporation official said: “The committee have decided that there should be a week’s celebrations in June 1966 and suggested that they should have a Norwegian flavour. It is also proposed that the seven Scarboroughs in other parts of the world should have some connection with the event.”

25 years ago

The Prime Minister had come face to face with her new look – softer features, reassuring smile – and more wax.

She had been at Madame Tussaud’s for the unveiling of her wax double – the fourth one since 1975. But she discovered a brutal similarity between the worlds of politics and wax: When one Prime Minister came in, another went out. That was why the head of the previous wax sculpture of the Prime Minister would shortly be driven to Somerset to form a boxed set with its two predecessors.

Mrs Thatcher was at Madame Tussaud’s to be pictured with the sculpture – created after an hour long sitting at Downing Street – before it went on public display.