Way we were

100 years ago

The men of the 1st Battalion the Prince of Wales's Own (West Yorkshire) Regiment had just had an interesting and novel competition in India. While the battalion was in the hills, prizes were offered for the best collection of butterflies, and after four months' energetic chasing and capture and mounting of the pretty insects, the collections were submitted and the awards made at Dalhousie early in October. The competition excited great interest and amusement amongst non-commissioned officers and men.

50 years ago

Seventeen times in the space of six hours a York City Police Force cadet, John Richardson, was found lying on the ground, his bicycle on top of him, after an "accident". And 17 times the story was the same, John had knocked down and injured a bewhiskered "old man," PC Guy Guilford, another member of the York Force. But at the end of their harassing day, both were very much alive and confessed it had been good fun to play the roles of casualties for the benefit of 17 police first-aid teams taking part in a competition at the Railway Institute, York. The teams, from York and the North-Eastern Area, were taking part in the No.2 Police District eliminating round of the national competition for the Pim Trophy. The winning team was Grimsby and, in addition to qualifying for the final stage of the Pim Trophy competition in London the following February, its members received the Palmer Trophy. The teams had to imagine that they were lost and were making their way along what was little more than a track across the fields, to a lonely cottage to ask their way, when they were passed by a man on a bicycle who took no notice of them. When he was 200 yards from the cottage, he swerved violently and knocked down an old man who was coming from the building to meet him.

25 years ago

The last boat of the RAF Marine Craft Unit, No. 1104, was pictured leaving Bridlington Harbour with members of the unit on the pier. After 51 years, the air-sea rescue boats, as they were known, had gone to other stations in the country. They were first established at Bridlington in 1929. Soon after, Lawrence of Arabia was stationed with the unit as Aircraftman Shaw. During his stay he invented a craft for bombing practice from the air. The boats had carried out numerous rescues of both service personnel and civilians who had got into difficulties while bathing or at sea. They also waited off Flamborough Head during the war to pick up crew from crippled bombers returning from Germany. The headquarters was being taken over by Bridlington Harbour Commissioners for other purposes.

Updated: 14:27 Friday, December 09, 2005