Monday, April 18, 2005

100 years ago

A small boy had escaped a serious accident in a way that was almost comic the previous evening. The child, who was about nine years old, was crossing the road, with a large zinc bath inverted on his head. He was knocked down by a cab, and fell with the bath over him. The cab bumped over the bath, partly flattening it out. A policeman rushed up to bring out what he thought would be the child's bruised body. As he put his hands on the bath it jumped up, and the boy rushed away with a yell of terror. The constable chased him down the road, and when he caught him the youth pleaded for mercy thus: "Please sir, I'll never do it no more."

50 years ago

The British Transport Commission and the executive committees of the Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen, and the National Union of Railwaymen, were holding separate meetings that day following a decision by the ASLEF to withdraw the labour of their members from midnight on Sunday, May 1.

This decision followed the society's rejection of a finding by the Railway Staffs National Tribunal in favour of a British Transport Commission wage offer. The tribunal rejected an ASLEF claim on behalf of 79,642 members for an all round increase of 8s. a week. This would have meant rises of from 1s. 6d. to 5s. 6d. a week above the offer made by the commission on January 13, at a meeting which included also the National Union of Railwaymen. The NUR accepted the offer, which provided a maximum of £9 15s. a week for drivers and motormen at one end of the scale, and £7 15s. for engine cleaners and shed engine men's rates at the other. ASLEF rejected it.

25 years ago

The Marquis of Normanby, Lord Lieutenant of North Yorkshire, reopened the military galleries at the Castle Museum in York. They contained a new display that had taken two years to complete. The display included a recreation of a First World War trench and uniforms dating back to 1760, worn by regular and volunteer forces associated with the Ridings.

Lord Normanby said the museum had one of the best military collections outside the Tower of London.

Updated: 09:32 Monday, April 18, 2005