IOO YEARS AGO THIS WEEK 6 - 12 OCTOBER 1925
This week's many stories include the wooden blocks being laid in Hardshaw Street, the father who kicked his son out of the house for being unemployed, the Newton Road man that struck his wife with a pair of tongs and the man that married a woman with 13 children but walked out after 16 years.
We begin on the 7th when the monthly St Helens Town Council meeting was held. It was revealed that the stretch of Hardshaw Street from Church Street to Bickerstaffe Street was going to be reconstructed using wooden blocks instead of granite. Sometimes called Nicolson pavement, the wooden blocks were laid on a concrete foundation and had the advantage of being quieter when horses and other traffic passed over them.
Their disadvantages included costing more than granite setts and not lasting quite as long. Indeed, at the meeting Councillor Ellison, the chairman of the Highways Committee, said using wood in Hardshaw Street would cost £300 more than granite and only last 16 years as opposed to granite's 20. But Cllr Ellison defended the choice by saying:
"Hardshaw-street is entitled to preferential treatment. It is a street devoted to clerical work, and noise is disturbing. If we can afford to place wood blocks in front of places of worship when they are only used on Sundays, we can stretch a point with regard to Hardshaw-street."
Also on the 7th what was known as a Lavender dance was held in the George Street assembly room in St Helens. In its review of the event the St Helens Reporter said, "The prevailing note was of refinement free from any choice of insipidity."
It was called a lavender dance because that was the decorative scheme and the paper said shaded lights had created a picturesque effect. "Lennon's Syncopated Orchestra supplied the latest jazz tunes and the evening passed over very pleasantly," added the Reporter.
"Kitchen Like A Shambles – Blood On Floor And Poker – Woman's Terrible Experience", was the headline to an article in the Reporter on the 9th. The use of the word shambles has changed slightly over time. A hundred years ago the term – particularly in Lancashire – referred to a butcher's own abattoir, which could present a rather messy scene.
The report described John Kelly's appearance in St Helens Police Court where he was charged with assaulting Gertrude Kelly at their home in Newton Road in Parr. The couple had lived together since 1919 and had two children. The Bench was told that Kelly had returned home at 8:30pm after being out drinking and had ordered Gertrude to go and buy him more booze. When she refused, Kelly jumped up and ran towards Gertrude, chasing her round the kitchen.
The woman was carrying an infant in her arms and shouted to her daughter to take the child from her. Upon catching hold of Gertrude, Kelly first grabbed her around the neck and then hit her across the head with a pair of tongs. PC Alexander Trail told the hearing that when he arrived on the scene he had taken possession of the tongs, which had bloodstains and hair stuck to them. "There were patches of blood all over the kitchen door and also in the back kitchen", added PC Trail.
John Kelly told the Bench that he had no memory of what had happened and promised not to drink anymore. The man was aged 45 and although Gertude called herself Mrs Kelly, the couple were not married as he still had a wife in Ireland – although they had been separated for 20 years.
Kelly had a good war record and immediately after the conflict ended, St Helens magistrates had tended to take that into account when sentencing. But seven years had now elapsed since the armistice and Kelly also had a number of prior convictions and was sentenced to a month's imprisonment with hard labour and advised by the Bench to keep off drink.
There was another of those ridiculous court cases this week when an elderly wife summoned her husband for desertion. In reality the case was an application for maintenance payments and could easily have been sorted in private. But, instead, all the claims and counter-claims were given a public airing in the St Helens Police Court, with the defendant having hired a solicitor to argue his case.
In a lengthy account in the St Helens Reporter, we learn that Thomas and Alice Gallagher had got wed 16 years before. The latter had been a widow with 13 children and their last address when living together had been in Brook Street. Thomas was now residing in College Street having piled his possessions on a handcart and departed the marital home.
The husband blamed his wife's daughter and son-in-law for the trouble but they retorted that he had been a difficult man to live with. Thomas told the magistrates that he would return to his wife if the daughter and her husband lived elsewhere. But Alice said she did not want him back, telling the Bench: "He would put me in my grave within six months if I had him to deal with."
That was because she had heart trouble and Alice said she needed her daughter to look after her. But bringing an action for desertion, when you did not want your spouse to return, underlined the silliness of the case. The magistrates awarded Alice 10 shillings per week maintenance, an arrangement that could easily have been sorted without any public shenanigans.
Also in court was George Shuker from Lewis Street who was charged with stealing a pair of shoes from Dromgooles of Peter Street. According to the 1921 census, the lad was 17 (or 18) and when arrested had told the police: "I stole them because I was hungry." Not that George would have eaten the shoes, of course, but he could easily convert them into cash and then food, via one of the town's many pawnshops. But once the manageress of Dromgooles had missed the shoes, she notified a number of local pawnshops and that led to George being caught.
A background report had been made on the youth and the magistrates heard an extraordinary story. It was stated that George had been unemployed for about seven weeks but because he was not entitled to any unemployment pay, his father Samuel had turned him out of the house. The strict rules of the time meant that if someone in a household was earning a wage, other members were not usually entitled to the dole.
As a result of George being kicked out of the house, he had been forced to steal for food and sometimes had slept out. Asked by the Bench why he had turned his son out, the father said his son was lazy and would not work. The mother, Annie Shuker, gave evidence that the bother had been because her son could not get work but said her husband was the boss of the house and not her.
The father was then asked if he had anything to add and he replied: "I have a lot to say. As regards the treatment of the boy, I turned him out on Wednesday night because he won't work. I stand here and I say he has got one of the worst characters in St. Helens." At this point the boy briefly interjected but his father interrupted him, saying: "You shut up, it will pay."
The magistrates pointed out to the father that it was a big responsibility for him to turn his boy out and doing so was not helping him go straight. To that Mr Shuker replied, "He was not going straight before he was turned out." Young George was bound over for 12 months.
And finally, on the 10th under the headline "From Pit To Stage – Romance Of A St. Helens Miner", the Liverpool Weekly Courier told a remarkable story of how Ernest Whitfield had been discovered by the director of a famous musical company singing on the streets of London. 'La Chauve-Souris' was a touring revue directed by Nikita Balieff that had originated in Moscow and then Paris and had been appearing at the Strand Theatre in London.
Ernest Whitfield had twice been wounded in the war and after moving from St Helens to the capital was down on his luck and began singing on the streets for money. Nikita Balieff happened to hear the 26-year-old singing in Bloomsbury and said: "He was singing with such purity and wide range of his tenor voice that I thought he must be an Italian, and I spoke to him in that language, which he did not understand at all.
"I thought that all Englishmen had bass voices; this man has a natural voice, two notes higher than anything I have ever heard." Ernest had now joined the company and was receiving voice-training lessons before travelling to America where La Chauve-Souris was hugely popular.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the suicide of a Sutton councillor, the disgusting scavenging at Parr, the noisiest woman in St Helens appears in court and a move is made to persuade people of the benefits of electricity.
Their disadvantages included costing more than granite setts and not lasting quite as long. Indeed, at the meeting Councillor Ellison, the chairman of the Highways Committee, said using wood in Hardshaw Street would cost £300 more than granite and only last 16 years as opposed to granite's 20. But Cllr Ellison defended the choice by saying:
"Hardshaw-street is entitled to preferential treatment. It is a street devoted to clerical work, and noise is disturbing. If we can afford to place wood blocks in front of places of worship when they are only used on Sundays, we can stretch a point with regard to Hardshaw-street."
Also on the 7th what was known as a Lavender dance was held in the George Street assembly room in St Helens. In its review of the event the St Helens Reporter said, "The prevailing note was of refinement free from any choice of insipidity."
It was called a lavender dance because that was the decorative scheme and the paper said shaded lights had created a picturesque effect. "Lennon's Syncopated Orchestra supplied the latest jazz tunes and the evening passed over very pleasantly," added the Reporter.
"Kitchen Like A Shambles – Blood On Floor And Poker – Woman's Terrible Experience", was the headline to an article in the Reporter on the 9th. The use of the word shambles has changed slightly over time. A hundred years ago the term – particularly in Lancashire – referred to a butcher's own abattoir, which could present a rather messy scene.
The report described John Kelly's appearance in St Helens Police Court where he was charged with assaulting Gertrude Kelly at their home in Newton Road in Parr. The couple had lived together since 1919 and had two children. The Bench was told that Kelly had returned home at 8:30pm after being out drinking and had ordered Gertrude to go and buy him more booze. When she refused, Kelly jumped up and ran towards Gertrude, chasing her round the kitchen.
The woman was carrying an infant in her arms and shouted to her daughter to take the child from her. Upon catching hold of Gertrude, Kelly first grabbed her around the neck and then hit her across the head with a pair of tongs. PC Alexander Trail told the hearing that when he arrived on the scene he had taken possession of the tongs, which had bloodstains and hair stuck to them. "There were patches of blood all over the kitchen door and also in the back kitchen", added PC Trail.
John Kelly told the Bench that he had no memory of what had happened and promised not to drink anymore. The man was aged 45 and although Gertude called herself Mrs Kelly, the couple were not married as he still had a wife in Ireland – although they had been separated for 20 years.
Kelly had a good war record and immediately after the conflict ended, St Helens magistrates had tended to take that into account when sentencing. But seven years had now elapsed since the armistice and Kelly also had a number of prior convictions and was sentenced to a month's imprisonment with hard labour and advised by the Bench to keep off drink.
There was another of those ridiculous court cases this week when an elderly wife summoned her husband for desertion. In reality the case was an application for maintenance payments and could easily have been sorted in private. But, instead, all the claims and counter-claims were given a public airing in the St Helens Police Court, with the defendant having hired a solicitor to argue his case.
In a lengthy account in the St Helens Reporter, we learn that Thomas and Alice Gallagher had got wed 16 years before. The latter had been a widow with 13 children and their last address when living together had been in Brook Street. Thomas was now residing in College Street having piled his possessions on a handcart and departed the marital home.
The husband blamed his wife's daughter and son-in-law for the trouble but they retorted that he had been a difficult man to live with. Thomas told the magistrates that he would return to his wife if the daughter and her husband lived elsewhere. But Alice said she did not want him back, telling the Bench: "He would put me in my grave within six months if I had him to deal with."
That was because she had heart trouble and Alice said she needed her daughter to look after her. But bringing an action for desertion, when you did not want your spouse to return, underlined the silliness of the case. The magistrates awarded Alice 10 shillings per week maintenance, an arrangement that could easily have been sorted without any public shenanigans.
Also in court was George Shuker from Lewis Street who was charged with stealing a pair of shoes from Dromgooles of Peter Street. According to the 1921 census, the lad was 17 (or 18) and when arrested had told the police: "I stole them because I was hungry." Not that George would have eaten the shoes, of course, but he could easily convert them into cash and then food, via one of the town's many pawnshops. But once the manageress of Dromgooles had missed the shoes, she notified a number of local pawnshops and that led to George being caught.
A background report had been made on the youth and the magistrates heard an extraordinary story. It was stated that George had been unemployed for about seven weeks but because he was not entitled to any unemployment pay, his father Samuel had turned him out of the house. The strict rules of the time meant that if someone in a household was earning a wage, other members were not usually entitled to the dole.
As a result of George being kicked out of the house, he had been forced to steal for food and sometimes had slept out. Asked by the Bench why he had turned his son out, the father said his son was lazy and would not work. The mother, Annie Shuker, gave evidence that the bother had been because her son could not get work but said her husband was the boss of the house and not her.
The father was then asked if he had anything to add and he replied: "I have a lot to say. As regards the treatment of the boy, I turned him out on Wednesday night because he won't work. I stand here and I say he has got one of the worst characters in St. Helens." At this point the boy briefly interjected but his father interrupted him, saying: "You shut up, it will pay."
The magistrates pointed out to the father that it was a big responsibility for him to turn his boy out and doing so was not helping him go straight. To that Mr Shuker replied, "He was not going straight before he was turned out." Young George was bound over for 12 months.
And finally, on the 10th under the headline "From Pit To Stage – Romance Of A St. Helens Miner", the Liverpool Weekly Courier told a remarkable story of how Ernest Whitfield had been discovered by the director of a famous musical company singing on the streets of London. 'La Chauve-Souris' was a touring revue directed by Nikita Balieff that had originated in Moscow and then Paris and had been appearing at the Strand Theatre in London.
Ernest Whitfield had twice been wounded in the war and after moving from St Helens to the capital was down on his luck and began singing on the streets for money. Nikita Balieff happened to hear the 26-year-old singing in Bloomsbury and said: "He was singing with such purity and wide range of his tenor voice that I thought he must be an Italian, and I spoke to him in that language, which he did not understand at all.
"I thought that all Englishmen had bass voices; this man has a natural voice, two notes higher than anything I have ever heard." Ernest had now joined the company and was receiving voice-training lessons before travelling to America where La Chauve-Souris was hugely popular.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the suicide of a Sutton councillor, the disgusting scavenging at Parr, the noisiest woman in St Helens appears in court and a move is made to persuade people of the benefits of electricity.
This week's many stories include the wooden blocks being laid in Hardshaw Street, the father who kicked his son out of the house for being unemployed, the Newton Road man that struck his wife with a pair of tongs and the man that married a woman with 13 children but walked out after 16 years.
We begin on the 7th when the monthly St Helens Town Council meeting was held.
It was revealed that the stretch of Hardshaw Street (pictured above) from Church Street to Bickerstaffe Street was going to be reconstructed using wooden blocks instead of granite.
Sometimes called Nicolson pavement, the wooden blocks were laid on a concrete foundation and had the advantage of being quieter when horses and other traffic passed over them.
Their disadvantages included costing more than granite setts and not lasting quite as long.
Indeed, at the meeting Councillor Ellison, the chairman of the Highways Committee, said using wood in Hardshaw Street would cost £300 more than granite and only last 16 years as opposed to granite's 20. But Cllr Ellison defended the choice by saying:
"Hardshaw-street is entitled to preferential treatment. It is a street devoted to clerical work, and noise is disturbing. If we can afford to place wood blocks in front of places of worship when they are only used on Sundays, we can stretch a point with regard to Hardshaw-street."
Also on the 7th what was known as a Lavender dance was held in the George Street assembly room in St Helens.
In its review of the event the St Helens Reporter said, "The prevailing note was of refinement free from any choice of insipidity."
It was called a lavender dance because that was the decorative scheme and the paper said shaded lights had created a picturesque effect.
"Lennon's Syncopated Orchestra supplied the latest jazz tunes and the evening passed over very pleasantly," added the Reporter.
"Kitchen Like A Shambles – Blood On Floor And Poker – Woman's Terrible Experience", was the headline to an article in the Reporter on the 9th.
The use of the word shambles has changed slightly over time. A hundred years ago the term – particularly in Lancashire – referred to a butcher's own abattoir, which could present a rather messy scene.
The report described John Kelly's appearance in St Helens Police Court where he was charged with assaulting Gertrude Kelly at their home in Newton Road in Parr. The couple had lived together since 1919 and had two children.
The Bench was told that Kelly had returned home at 8:30pm after being out drinking and had ordered Gertrude to go and buy him more booze.
When she refused, Kelly jumped up and ran towards Gertrude, chasing her round the kitchen.
The woman was carrying an infant in her arms and shouted to her daughter to take the child from her.
Upon catching hold of Gertrude, Kelly first grabbed her around the neck and then hit her across the head with a pair of tongs.
PC Alexander Trail told the hearing that when he arrived on the scene he had taken possession of the tongs, which had bloodstains and hair stuck to them.
"There were patches of blood all over the kitchen door and also in the back kitchen", added PC Trail.
John Kelly told the Bench that he had no memory of what had happened and promised not to drink anymore.
The man was aged 45 and although Gertude called herself Mrs Kelly, the couple were not married as he still had a wife in Ireland – although they had been separated for 20 years.
Kelly had a good war record and immediately after the conflict ended, St Helens magistrates had tended to take that into account when sentencing.
But seven years had now elapsed since the armistice and Kelly also had a number of prior convictions and was sentenced to a month's imprisonment with hard labour and advised by the Bench to keep off drink.
There was another of those ridiculous court cases this week when an elderly wife summoned her husband for desertion.
In reality the case was an application for maintenance payments and could easily have been sorted in private.
But, instead, all the claims and counter-claims were given a public airing in the St Helens Police Court, with the defendant having hired a solicitor to argue his case.
In a lengthy account in the St Helens Reporter, we learn that Thomas and Alice Gallagher had got wed 16 years before.
The latter had been a widow with 13 children and their last address when living together had been in Brook Street.
Thomas was now residing in College Street having piled his possessions on a handcart and departed the marital home.
The husband blamed his wife's daughter and son-in-law for the trouble but they retorted that he had been a difficult man to live with.
Thomas told the magistrates that he would return to his wife if the daughter and her husband lived elsewhere.
But Alice said she did not want him back, telling the Bench: "He would put me in my grave within six months if I had him to deal with."
That was because she had heart trouble and Alice said she needed her daughter to look after her.
But bringing an action for desertion, when you did not want your spouse to return, underlined the silliness of the case.
The magistrates awarded Alice 10 shillings per week maintenance, an arrangement that could easily have been sorted without any public shenanigans.
Also in court was George Shuker from Lewis Street who was charged with stealing a pair of shoes from Dromgooles of Peter Street.
According to the 1921 census, the lad was 17 (or 18) and when arrested had told the police: "I stole them because I was hungry."
Not that George would have eaten the shoes, of course, but he could easily convert them into cash and then food, via one of the town's many pawnshops.
But once the manageress of Dromgooles had missed the shoes, she notified a number of local pawnshops and that led to George being caught.
A background report had been made on the youth and the magistrates heard an extraordinary story.
It was stated that George had been unemployed for about seven weeks but because he was not entitled to any unemployment pay, his father Samuel had turned him out of the house.
The strict rules of the time meant that if someone in a household was earning a wage, other members were not usually entitled to the dole.
As a result of George being kicked out of the house, he had been forced to steal for food and sometimes had slept out.
Asked by the Bench why he had turned his son out, the father said his son was lazy and would not work.
The mother, Annie Shuker, gave evidence that the bother had been because her son could not get work but said her husband was the boss of the house and not her.
The father was then asked if he had anything to add and he replied:
"I have a lot to say. As regards the treatment of the boy, I turned him out on Wednesday night because he won't work. I stand here and I say he has got one of the worst characters in St. Helens."
At this point the boy briefly interjected but his father interrupted him, saying: "You shut up, it will pay."
The magistrates pointed out to the father that it was a big responsibility for him to turn his boy out and doing so was not helping him go straight.
To that Mr Shuker replied, "He was not going straight before he was turned out." Young George was bound over for 12 months.
And finally, on the 10th under the headline "From Pit To Stage – Romance Of A St. Helens Miner", the Liverpool Weekly Courier told a remarkable story of how Ernest Whitfield had been discovered by the director of a famous musical company singing on the streets of London.
'La Chauve-Souris' was a touring revue directed by Nikita Balieff that had originated in Moscow and then Paris and had been appearing at the Strand Theatre in London.
Ernest Whitfield had twice been wounded in the war and after moving from St Helens to the capital was down on his luck and began singing on the streets for money.
Nikita Balieff happened to hear the 26-year-old singing in Bloomsbury and said: "He was singing with such purity and wide range of his tenor voice that I thought he must be an Italian, and I spoke to him in that language, which he did not understand at all.
"I thought that all Englishmen had bass voices; this man has a natural voice, two notes higher than anything I have ever heard."
Ernest had now joined the company and was receiving voice-training lessons before travelling to America where La Chauve-Souris was hugely popular.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the suicide of a Sutton councillor, the disgusting scavenging at Parr, the noisiest woman in St Helens appears in court and a move is made to persuade people of the benefits of electricity.
It was revealed that the stretch of Hardshaw Street (pictured above) from Church Street to Bickerstaffe Street was going to be reconstructed using wooden blocks instead of granite.
Sometimes called Nicolson pavement, the wooden blocks were laid on a concrete foundation and had the advantage of being quieter when horses and other traffic passed over them.
Their disadvantages included costing more than granite setts and not lasting quite as long.
Indeed, at the meeting Councillor Ellison, the chairman of the Highways Committee, said using wood in Hardshaw Street would cost £300 more than granite and only last 16 years as opposed to granite's 20. But Cllr Ellison defended the choice by saying:
"Hardshaw-street is entitled to preferential treatment. It is a street devoted to clerical work, and noise is disturbing. If we can afford to place wood blocks in front of places of worship when they are only used on Sundays, we can stretch a point with regard to Hardshaw-street."
Also on the 7th what was known as a Lavender dance was held in the George Street assembly room in St Helens.
In its review of the event the St Helens Reporter said, "The prevailing note was of refinement free from any choice of insipidity."
It was called a lavender dance because that was the decorative scheme and the paper said shaded lights had created a picturesque effect.
"Lennon's Syncopated Orchestra supplied the latest jazz tunes and the evening passed over very pleasantly," added the Reporter.
"Kitchen Like A Shambles – Blood On Floor And Poker – Woman's Terrible Experience", was the headline to an article in the Reporter on the 9th.
The use of the word shambles has changed slightly over time. A hundred years ago the term – particularly in Lancashire – referred to a butcher's own abattoir, which could present a rather messy scene.
The report described John Kelly's appearance in St Helens Police Court where he was charged with assaulting Gertrude Kelly at their home in Newton Road in Parr. The couple had lived together since 1919 and had two children.
The Bench was told that Kelly had returned home at 8:30pm after being out drinking and had ordered Gertrude to go and buy him more booze.
When she refused, Kelly jumped up and ran towards Gertrude, chasing her round the kitchen.
The woman was carrying an infant in her arms and shouted to her daughter to take the child from her.
Upon catching hold of Gertrude, Kelly first grabbed her around the neck and then hit her across the head with a pair of tongs.
PC Alexander Trail told the hearing that when he arrived on the scene he had taken possession of the tongs, which had bloodstains and hair stuck to them.
"There were patches of blood all over the kitchen door and also in the back kitchen", added PC Trail.
John Kelly told the Bench that he had no memory of what had happened and promised not to drink anymore.
The man was aged 45 and although Gertude called herself Mrs Kelly, the couple were not married as he still had a wife in Ireland – although they had been separated for 20 years.
Kelly had a good war record and immediately after the conflict ended, St Helens magistrates had tended to take that into account when sentencing.
But seven years had now elapsed since the armistice and Kelly also had a number of prior convictions and was sentenced to a month's imprisonment with hard labour and advised by the Bench to keep off drink.
There was another of those ridiculous court cases this week when an elderly wife summoned her husband for desertion.
In reality the case was an application for maintenance payments and could easily have been sorted in private.
But, instead, all the claims and counter-claims were given a public airing in the St Helens Police Court, with the defendant having hired a solicitor to argue his case.
In a lengthy account in the St Helens Reporter, we learn that Thomas and Alice Gallagher had got wed 16 years before.
The latter had been a widow with 13 children and their last address when living together had been in Brook Street.
Thomas was now residing in College Street having piled his possessions on a handcart and departed the marital home.
The husband blamed his wife's daughter and son-in-law for the trouble but they retorted that he had been a difficult man to live with.
Thomas told the magistrates that he would return to his wife if the daughter and her husband lived elsewhere.
But Alice said she did not want him back, telling the Bench: "He would put me in my grave within six months if I had him to deal with."
That was because she had heart trouble and Alice said she needed her daughter to look after her.
But bringing an action for desertion, when you did not want your spouse to return, underlined the silliness of the case.
The magistrates awarded Alice 10 shillings per week maintenance, an arrangement that could easily have been sorted without any public shenanigans.
Also in court was George Shuker from Lewis Street who was charged with stealing a pair of shoes from Dromgooles of Peter Street.
According to the 1921 census, the lad was 17 (or 18) and when arrested had told the police: "I stole them because I was hungry."
Not that George would have eaten the shoes, of course, but he could easily convert them into cash and then food, via one of the town's many pawnshops.
But once the manageress of Dromgooles had missed the shoes, she notified a number of local pawnshops and that led to George being caught.
A background report had been made on the youth and the magistrates heard an extraordinary story.
It was stated that George had been unemployed for about seven weeks but because he was not entitled to any unemployment pay, his father Samuel had turned him out of the house.
The strict rules of the time meant that if someone in a household was earning a wage, other members were not usually entitled to the dole.
As a result of George being kicked out of the house, he had been forced to steal for food and sometimes had slept out.
Asked by the Bench why he had turned his son out, the father said his son was lazy and would not work.
The mother, Annie Shuker, gave evidence that the bother had been because her son could not get work but said her husband was the boss of the house and not her.
The father was then asked if he had anything to add and he replied:
"I have a lot to say. As regards the treatment of the boy, I turned him out on Wednesday night because he won't work. I stand here and I say he has got one of the worst characters in St. Helens."
At this point the boy briefly interjected but his father interrupted him, saying: "You shut up, it will pay."
The magistrates pointed out to the father that it was a big responsibility for him to turn his boy out and doing so was not helping him go straight.
To that Mr Shuker replied, "He was not going straight before he was turned out." Young George was bound over for 12 months.
And finally, on the 10th under the headline "From Pit To Stage – Romance Of A St. Helens Miner", the Liverpool Weekly Courier told a remarkable story of how Ernest Whitfield had been discovered by the director of a famous musical company singing on the streets of London.
'La Chauve-Souris' was a touring revue directed by Nikita Balieff that had originated in Moscow and then Paris and had been appearing at the Strand Theatre in London.
Ernest Whitfield had twice been wounded in the war and after moving from St Helens to the capital was down on his luck and began singing on the streets for money.
Nikita Balieff happened to hear the 26-year-old singing in Bloomsbury and said: "He was singing with such purity and wide range of his tenor voice that I thought he must be an Italian, and I spoke to him in that language, which he did not understand at all.
"I thought that all Englishmen had bass voices; this man has a natural voice, two notes higher than anything I have ever heard."
Ernest had now joined the company and was receiving voice-training lessons before travelling to America where La Chauve-Souris was hugely popular.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the suicide of a Sutton councillor, the disgusting scavenging at Parr, the noisiest woman in St Helens appears in court and a move is made to persuade people of the benefits of electricity.