Monday, January 16, 2006

100 years ago

An old Navy pensioner, Josiah Pearce - the sole survivor of the crew of the yacht Royal George, which carried Queen Victoria and the Prince Consort on their first voyage to Scotland - had expressed the wish that after death he should be buried in a coffin made from the timbers of his old ship, the Royal George laying, forgotten and neglected, in Portsmouth Dockyard. Although in his eighty-fourth year, Pearce was still hale and vigorous, and had recently grumbled at the conductor of a tramcar for stopping the vehicle to allow him to alight. "I joined the service in the same year as King William the Fourth died," he said, "and I have been a pensioner for forty-nine years. I was transferred from the St Vincent to the Royal George, which during the royal trip, was convoyed by the first paddle ships ever built for the Navy." Pearce was proud of the fact that he received special invitations to the funeral of Queen Victoria and the Coronation of King Edward.

50 years ago

Posters of Marilyn Monroe, showing her dress blown high above her knees, had been banned by the Trinidad film censors as "unseemly." Local film distributors, who appealed unsuccessfully against the ban, tried to get round the ban by sticking up the posters there with the controversial parts blackened out, but those had also been withdrawn, as the censors decided they were "more unseemly."

25 years ago

Councillors at Scarborough decided to cull the resort's fast-growing pigeon population. Mr Roy Ayrton, Environmental Health Director, told the Health and Control Committee that his department had received many complaints about the pigeons. Building contractors had removed 1 tons of pigeon droppings from one building alone in the town centre. Worst affected was Valley Bridge where there was a population estimated at 1,500. There were 30 colonies nesting on private properties in the town. Mr Ayrton said that if steps were not taken the colonies would expand rapidly. Pigeon dirt was blocking eaves and gutters and eroding masonry and pointing, so causing rain penetration. The cull, using drugged bait, was concentrated first on Valley Bridge. The council would spend £300 on the operation.

Updated: 12:09 Saturday, January 14, 2006