100 years ago

News from Russia told of Mlle Tomilovsky, the twenty-one-year-old daughter of a colonel at the front, who was, it was stated, now in hospital in Petrograd suffering from severe contusions.

She had accompanied her father to the war with her hair cut short and wearing uniform, and took part in several battles, including that of Augustoff woods.

On various occasions Mlle Tomilovsky served in the different capacities of orderly, scout, and telegraphist and she was finally appointed to the command of a platoon. She succeeded in tapping a German Staff telegram relating to a plan to break the Russian centre, and the Russians were able to repulse the Germans with heavy losses.

News of her exploits having preceded her to Vilna, a crowd gathered at the railway station to see the girl officer on her way through, but they were disappointed, for they were not able to distinguish her from the other soldiers.


50 years ago

Each year one of the most successful Christmas shoppers known to our shopping columnist made up her mind to choose presents from only one category of useful things.

The previous year had been her “Linen Year”, the year before “Glass and China Year”, and this year it was “Hardware.”

Instead, therefore, of shopping around in an agony of indecision, she concentrated only on those shops or departments dealing with her chosen category.

Hardware, however, sounded particularly boring until we looked at some of the thoughtful presents she had already chosen. A wine rack for her brother-in-law, an ice bucket which claimed that “ice lasts the party through” for her brother.

A wall can opener, a good stainless steel egg beater, and stainless steel hand garden tools had been chosen for other presents.


25 years ago

A nuclear safety watchdog had taken the Central Electricity Generating Board to court for the first time over an incident at an atomic power station.

The Nuclear Installations Inspectorate - part of the Health and Safety Executive - was prosecuting the CEGB over alleged breaches of its site licence at the Dungeness B nuclear power station in Kent.

The case, before Folkestone magistrates, involved an incident the previous February when one-and-a-half tons of nuclear fuel fell into the reactor core.

This led to a lengthy shutdown which was said still to be costing the board at least £100,000 a day. It was also alleged that in the same month an inspection team carried out an unauthorised procedure at the plant, during which a two-and-a-half ton weight was dropped 27 feet in a maintenance area.

Nuclear site licences included conditions on the way the reactor was tested, inspected and maintained.