IOO YEARS AGO THIS WEEK 8 - 14 JANUARY 1924
This week's many stories include the high rate of infant mortality in St Helens, the family strife in Recreation Street, the boy scalped by a train near the Sherdley Glass bottleworks, the neglected Sutton horse that was kept in two feet of filth, the violent beggar outside the police station and the domineering dad from Doulton Street makes an appearance in St Helens Police Court.
These days bad winters tend to increase the number of deaths of the elderly. But in the past it was weak, under-nourished little children that harsh weather saw off. On January 9th at a meeting of St Helens Health Committee, the town's Medical Officer of Health, Dr Frank Hauxwell, said the number of infantile deaths in St Helens during the past month had been 147. That compared to 115 deaths in the same month last year and he attributed the rise in the main to the severe weather.
On the 10th the popular St Helens elocutionist Wilson Nicholson recited Dickens' 'Christmas Carol' at Newtown Congregational Church in Knowsley Road. There was a good attendance despite the poor weather. Nicholson was well known for his recitals and dramatic readings during the ‘20s and ‘30s, which he gave in many towns in the north of England to large audiences. Mid-January might be seen today as rather late for a Christmas-themed event but that was not the case in the 1920s.
On the 11th John Donegan from Queen Street in St Helens was seriously injured on the railway line near to the Sherdley Glass bottle works. The 13-year-old had been taking a dinner to one of the workmen and was hurt while either taking a shortcut across the line or walking too close to the track. The St Helens Reporter said he had been scalped when the train caught him on his head. Another youth was accompanying John and the paper said he had "bolted with fright".
The 1920s might be the age of the motor vehicles but most people who worked on their own account still used real horse power. And they didn't all treat their nags well. Also on the 11th a firewood dealer called William Hardman of Normans Court in Sutton was summoned to St Helens Police Court for working his horse in an unfit state.
Inspector Hallam of the RSPCA said he had seen Hardman driving a bay mare pony in Gartons Lane attached to a vehicle laden with firewood from Sutton Manor Colliery. The horse was walking very badly and appeared scarcely able to pull the cart. Upon examining it the inspector found the animal to be in a very weak and emaciated condition with its bones showing through the skin.
Inspector Hallam later went with the police to the stable where the horse was kept and told the court: "There was no ventilation and no light, and the pony was standing in two feet of filth." A vet also told the hearing: "When I saw the filthy state of the stable and the wretched condition of the animal, I thought it was an act of humanity to have it destroyed." The Bench said considering the man had lost his horse, they would dismiss the case without imposing any penalty.
If you were going to start begging on the streets of St Helens you needed to choose your location carefully – and outside the police station was not recommended! Frederick Fisher was daft enough to choose that place and was seen by Det Sgt Latus approaching about six different people in Corporation Street and, as he put it, "beg for alms". When the officer went up to him, Fisher asked for "a copper for a night's lodging". When DS Latus told him he was a copper, Fisher "dropped to the ground, rolled on his back, and kicked violently with his arms and his feet", as the Reporter described.
The sergeant also received a punch on the nose but with the help of a passer-by and two other officers, managed to get the man into the police station despite him "struggling violently and using obscene language". At his court hearing this week Fisher said he had soldiered in Baghdad and suffered sunstroke. He claimed never to have been right since his military service and a drop of drink caused him to lose his head. Fisher was sentenced to 14 days hard labour.
The Reporter was published on the 11th and featured an article on the popularity of the latest dances. It began: "The fox-trot is in its ascendancy, the waltz holds its inimitable own, and the one-step is riding its last little wavelets of popularity." Jazz music was said to be on the wane.
I know that the Liberal Democrats have been calling for proportional representation for quite a while – but I had no idea that it went back 100 years! However, the Reporter described how the Rotary Club of St Helens had this week heard a talk at the Fleece Hotel (pictured above) from a member of the Liberal Party (as they were then known), who had explained the advantages of reforming the voting system. Of course, a big advantage would be for the Liberals, who had been eclipsed since the new Labour Party had come on the scene.
Defendants in court made lots of unlikely excuses, with this week's most dubious claim belonging to Margaret Miller. She'd told the magistrates in St Helens Police Court that if her brother-in-law had been inside her bedroom "it was unknown to me". The Reporter described how Annie Miller of Pocket Nook Street had summoned husband and wife Joseph and Margaret Miller, accusing the couple of assault. Annie Miller was married to Matthew Miller, who was the brother of Joseph. Annie and Matthew had been separated but three weeks earlier they had been reconciled and gone to live with Joseph and Margaret in Recreation Street.
Early one Sunday morning Annie had left the house leaving her husband in bed with the intention of attending church. But she got delayed and realising she would be too late for the service returned home. Arriving back in Recreation Street much sooner than expected, Annie said she found her husband not in their bedroom where she had left him but in the one next door. "I have caught you", declared Annie before going downstairs.
Forty-five minutes later Margaret Miller came down the stairs and asked Annie what the bother had been about. Then Annie's husband Matthew appeared and struck his wife. Later, Joseph Miller hit Annie across the face and said he would teach her to talk about his wife. And Margaret Miller also thumped Annie in her right eye. Both Margaret and Joseph completely denied all the allegations but they were found guilty and fined £1 each.
As to Annie's husband, Matthew, he had probably been sacked from his job as a miner, as he had been caught sleeping down Parr No 4 pit. In February he would be fined £2 for the offence when it was stated that it had been the first occasion that a man woken up in the mine had gone back to sleep again.
The second volume of my 'Hidden History of St Helens' book series tells the tragic story of Jack Armstrong who in 1932 walked into a West London infirmary and shot dead his daughter – before turning the gun upon himself. The obsessed father was a well-known tailor and musician from Doulton Street in St Helens and the first outward sign of Armstrong's hard drinking and domineering ways occurred on the 12th of this week. That was when he appeared before the magistrates in St Helens Police Court charged with committing a breach of the peace.
A constable gave evidence of hearing a whistle being blown and finding the former army officer fighting with his sons. John Jnr. and Cecil (aged about 20 and 18, respectively) had apparently endured quite enough of their drunken, domineering dad, who in court blamed the disturbance entirely upon them. The magistrates bound Armstrong over to keep the peace for six months and told him if he would avoid drink his life would be very peaceful. A shame for his daughter's sake that he did not heed their advice.
There can't be many actors who I mention in these 100 years ago articles who later appeared in Coronation Street. But Randolph Sutton certain did, making several appearances in 1966 singing at a nightclub attended by Minnie Caldwell, Jerry Booth and Jed Stone. Forty-three years before, Sutton had been performing at the Theatre Royal in St Helens in a revue called 'Spare Parts' which ran twice nightly for six days from the 14th. Meanwhile, the Hippodrome from the same day began a week's performances of 'Red Riding Hood', which was described as a "grand comic Xmas pantomime".
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the violent family row in Green Street, the worker who was crushed to death by a machine at Prescot, the Eccleston Lane Ends biscuits fraud and the thieving Donkey Gang at St Helens Junction.
These days bad winters tend to increase the number of deaths of the elderly. But in the past it was weak, under-nourished little children that harsh weather saw off. On January 9th at a meeting of St Helens Health Committee, the town's Medical Officer of Health, Dr Frank Hauxwell, said the number of infantile deaths in St Helens during the past month had been 147. That compared to 115 deaths in the same month last year and he attributed the rise in the main to the severe weather.
On the 10th the popular St Helens elocutionist Wilson Nicholson recited Dickens' 'Christmas Carol' at Newtown Congregational Church in Knowsley Road. There was a good attendance despite the poor weather. Nicholson was well known for his recitals and dramatic readings during the ‘20s and ‘30s, which he gave in many towns in the north of England to large audiences. Mid-January might be seen today as rather late for a Christmas-themed event but that was not the case in the 1920s.
On the 11th John Donegan from Queen Street in St Helens was seriously injured on the railway line near to the Sherdley Glass bottle works. The 13-year-old had been taking a dinner to one of the workmen and was hurt while either taking a shortcut across the line or walking too close to the track. The St Helens Reporter said he had been scalped when the train caught him on his head. Another youth was accompanying John and the paper said he had "bolted with fright".
The 1920s might be the age of the motor vehicles but most people who worked on their own account still used real horse power. And they didn't all treat their nags well. Also on the 11th a firewood dealer called William Hardman of Normans Court in Sutton was summoned to St Helens Police Court for working his horse in an unfit state.
Inspector Hallam of the RSPCA said he had seen Hardman driving a bay mare pony in Gartons Lane attached to a vehicle laden with firewood from Sutton Manor Colliery. The horse was walking very badly and appeared scarcely able to pull the cart. Upon examining it the inspector found the animal to be in a very weak and emaciated condition with its bones showing through the skin.
Inspector Hallam later went with the police to the stable where the horse was kept and told the court: "There was no ventilation and no light, and the pony was standing in two feet of filth." A vet also told the hearing: "When I saw the filthy state of the stable and the wretched condition of the animal, I thought it was an act of humanity to have it destroyed." The Bench said considering the man had lost his horse, they would dismiss the case without imposing any penalty.
If you were going to start begging on the streets of St Helens you needed to choose your location carefully – and outside the police station was not recommended! Frederick Fisher was daft enough to choose that place and was seen by Det Sgt Latus approaching about six different people in Corporation Street and, as he put it, "beg for alms". When the officer went up to him, Fisher asked for "a copper for a night's lodging". When DS Latus told him he was a copper, Fisher "dropped to the ground, rolled on his back, and kicked violently with his arms and his feet", as the Reporter described.
The sergeant also received a punch on the nose but with the help of a passer-by and two other officers, managed to get the man into the police station despite him "struggling violently and using obscene language". At his court hearing this week Fisher said he had soldiered in Baghdad and suffered sunstroke. He claimed never to have been right since his military service and a drop of drink caused him to lose his head. Fisher was sentenced to 14 days hard labour.
The Reporter was published on the 11th and featured an article on the popularity of the latest dances. It began: "The fox-trot is in its ascendancy, the waltz holds its inimitable own, and the one-step is riding its last little wavelets of popularity." Jazz music was said to be on the wane.
Defendants in court made lots of unlikely excuses, with this week's most dubious claim belonging to Margaret Miller. She'd told the magistrates in St Helens Police Court that if her brother-in-law had been inside her bedroom "it was unknown to me". The Reporter described how Annie Miller of Pocket Nook Street had summoned husband and wife Joseph and Margaret Miller, accusing the couple of assault. Annie Miller was married to Matthew Miller, who was the brother of Joseph. Annie and Matthew had been separated but three weeks earlier they had been reconciled and gone to live with Joseph and Margaret in Recreation Street.
Early one Sunday morning Annie had left the house leaving her husband in bed with the intention of attending church. But she got delayed and realising she would be too late for the service returned home. Arriving back in Recreation Street much sooner than expected, Annie said she found her husband not in their bedroom where she had left him but in the one next door. "I have caught you", declared Annie before going downstairs.
Forty-five minutes later Margaret Miller came down the stairs and asked Annie what the bother had been about. Then Annie's husband Matthew appeared and struck his wife. Later, Joseph Miller hit Annie across the face and said he would teach her to talk about his wife. And Margaret Miller also thumped Annie in her right eye. Both Margaret and Joseph completely denied all the allegations but they were found guilty and fined £1 each.
As to Annie's husband, Matthew, he had probably been sacked from his job as a miner, as he had been caught sleeping down Parr No 4 pit. In February he would be fined £2 for the offence when it was stated that it had been the first occasion that a man woken up in the mine had gone back to sleep again.
The second volume of my 'Hidden History of St Helens' book series tells the tragic story of Jack Armstrong who in 1932 walked into a West London infirmary and shot dead his daughter – before turning the gun upon himself. The obsessed father was a well-known tailor and musician from Doulton Street in St Helens and the first outward sign of Armstrong's hard drinking and domineering ways occurred on the 12th of this week. That was when he appeared before the magistrates in St Helens Police Court charged with committing a breach of the peace.
A constable gave evidence of hearing a whistle being blown and finding the former army officer fighting with his sons. John Jnr. and Cecil (aged about 20 and 18, respectively) had apparently endured quite enough of their drunken, domineering dad, who in court blamed the disturbance entirely upon them. The magistrates bound Armstrong over to keep the peace for six months and told him if he would avoid drink his life would be very peaceful. A shame for his daughter's sake that he did not heed their advice.
There can't be many actors who I mention in these 100 years ago articles who later appeared in Coronation Street. But Randolph Sutton certain did, making several appearances in 1966 singing at a nightclub attended by Minnie Caldwell, Jerry Booth and Jed Stone. Forty-three years before, Sutton had been performing at the Theatre Royal in St Helens in a revue called 'Spare Parts' which ran twice nightly for six days from the 14th. Meanwhile, the Hippodrome from the same day began a week's performances of 'Red Riding Hood', which was described as a "grand comic Xmas pantomime".
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the violent family row in Green Street, the worker who was crushed to death by a machine at Prescot, the Eccleston Lane Ends biscuits fraud and the thieving Donkey Gang at St Helens Junction.
This week's many stories include the high rate of infant mortality in St Helens, the family strife in Recreation Street, the boy scalped by a train near the Sherdley Glass bottleworks, the neglected Sutton horse that was kept in two feet of filth, the violent beggar outside the police station and the domineering dad from Doulton Street makes an appearance in St Helens Police Court.
These days bad winters tend to increase the number of deaths of the elderly. But in the past it was weak, under-nourished little children that harsh weather saw off.
On January 9th at a meeting of St Helens Health Committee, the town's Medical Officer of Health, Dr Frank Hauxwell, said the number of infantile deaths in St Helens during the past month had been 147.
That compared to 115 deaths in the same month last year and he attributed the rise in the main to the severe weather.
On the 10th the popular St Helens elocutionist Wilson Nicholson recited Dickens' 'Christmas Carol' at Newtown Congregational Church in Knowsley Road. There was a good attendance despite the poor weather.
Nicholson was well known for his recitals and dramatic readings during the ‘20s and ‘30s, which he gave in many towns in the north of England to large audiences.
Mid-January might be seen today as rather late for a Christmas-themed event but that was not the case in the 1920s.
On the 11th John Donegan from Queen Street in St Helens was seriously injured on the railway line near to the Sherdley Glass bottle works.
The 13-year-old had been taking a dinner to one of the workmen and was hurt while either taking a shortcut across the line or walking too close to the track.
The St Helens Reporter said he had been scalped when the train caught him on his head. Another youth was accompanying John and the paper said he had "bolted with fright".
The 1920s might be the age of the motor vehicles but most people who worked on their own account still used real horse power. And they didn't all treat their nags well.
Also on the 11th a firewood dealer called William Hardman of Normans Court in Sutton was summoned to St Helens Police Court for working his horse in an unfit state.
Inspector Hallam of the RSPCA said he had seen Hardman driving a bay mare pony in Gartons Lane attached to a vehicle laden with firewood from Sutton Manor Colliery.
The horse was walking very badly and appeared scarcely able to pull the cart. Upon examining it the inspector found the animal to be in a very weak and emaciated condition with its bones showing through the skin.
Inspector Hallam later went with the police to the stable where the horse was kept and told the court: "There was no ventilation and no light, and the pony was standing in two feet of filth."
A vet also told the hearing: "When I saw the filthy state of the stable and the wretched condition of the animal, I thought it was an act of humanity to have it destroyed."
The Bench said considering the man had lost his horse, they would dismiss the case without imposing any penalty.
If you were going to start begging on the streets of St Helens you needed to choose your location carefully – and outside the police station was not recommended!
Frederick Fisher was daft enough to choose that place and was seen by Det Sgt Latus approaching about six different people in Corporation Street and, as he put it, "beg for alms".
When the officer went up to him, Fisher asked for "a copper for a night's lodging".
When DS Latus told him he was a copper, Fisher "dropped to the ground, rolled on his back, and kicked violently with his arms and his feet", as the Reporter described.
The sergeant also received a punch on the nose but with the help of a passer-by and two other officers, managed to get the man into the police station despite him "struggling violently and using obscene language".
At his court hearing this week Fisher said he had soldiered in Baghdad and suffered sunstroke.
He claimed never to have been right since his military service and a drop of drink caused him to lose his head. Fisher was sentenced to 14 days hard labour.
The Reporter was published on the 11th and featured an article on the popularity of the latest dances. It began:
"The fox-trot is in its ascendancy, the waltz holds its inimitable own, and the one-step is riding its last little wavelets of popularity." Jazz music was said to be on the wane.
I know that the Liberal Democrats have been calling for proportional representation for quite a while – but I had no idea that it went back 100 years!
However, the Reporter described how the Rotary Club of St Helens had this week heard a talk at the Fleece Hotel (pictured above) from a member of the Liberal Party (as they were then known), who had explained the advantages of reforming the voting system.
Of course, a big advantage would be for the Liberals, who had been eclipsed since the new Labour Party had come on the scene.
Defendants in court made lots of unlikely excuses, with this week's most dubious claim belonging to Margaret Miller.
She'd told the magistrates in St Helens Police Court that if her brother-in-law had been inside her bedroom "it was unknown to me".
The Reporter described how Annie Miller of Pocket Nook Street had summoned husband and wife Joseph and Margaret Miller, accusing the couple of assault.
Annie Miller was married to Matthew Miller, who was the brother of Joseph. Annie and Matthew had been separated but three weeks earlier they had been reconciled and gone to live with Joseph and Margaret in Recreation Street.
Early one Sunday morning Annie had left the house leaving her husband in bed with the intention of attending church.
But she got delayed and realising she would be too late for the service returned home.
Arriving back in Recreation Street much sooner than expected, Annie said she found her husband not in their bedroom where she had left him but in the one next door. "I have caught you", declared Annie before going downstairs.
Forty-five minutes later Margaret Miller came down the stairs and asked Annie what the bother had been about. Then Annie's husband Matthew appeared and struck his wife.
Later, Joseph Miller hit Annie across the face and said he would teach her to talk about his wife. And Margaret Miller also thumped Annie in her right eye.
Both Margaret and Joseph completely denied all the allegations but they were found guilty and fined £1 each.
As to Annie's husband, Matthew, he had probably been sacked from his job as a miner, as he had been caught sleeping down Parr No 4 pit.
In February he would be fined £2 for the offence when it was stated that it had been the first occasion that a man woken up in the mine had gone back to sleep again.
The second volume of my 'Hidden History of St Helens' book series tells the tragic story of Jack Armstrong who in 1932 walked into a West London infirmary and shot dead his daughter – before turning the gun upon himself.
The obsessed father was a well-known tailor and musician from Doulton Street in St Helens and the first outward sign of Armstrong's hard drinking and domineering ways occurred on the 12th of this week.
That was when he appeared before the magistrates in St Helens Police Court charged with committing a breach of the peace.
A constable gave evidence of hearing a whistle being blown and finding the former army officer fighting with his sons.
John Jnr. and Cecil (aged about 20 and 18, respectively) had apparently endured quite enough of their drunken, domineering dad, who in court blamed the disturbance entirely upon them.
The magistrates bound Armstrong over to keep the peace for six months and told him if he would avoid drink his life would be very peaceful. A shame for his daughter's sake that he did not heed their advice.
There can't be many actors who I mention in these 100 years ago articles who later appeared in Coronation Street.
But Randolph Sutton certain did, making several appearances in 1966 singing at a nightclub attended by Minnie Caldwell, Jerry Booth and Jed Stone.
Forty-three years before, Sutton had been performing at the Theatre Royal in St Helens in a revue called 'Spare Parts' which ran twice nightly for six days from the 14th.
Meanwhile, the Hippodrome from the same day began a week's performances of 'Red Riding Hood', which was described as a "grand comic Xmas pantomime".
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the violent family row in Green Street, the worker who was crushed to death by a machine at Prescot, the Eccleston Lane Ends biscuits fraud and the thieving Donkey Gang at St Helens Junction.
These days bad winters tend to increase the number of deaths of the elderly. But in the past it was weak, under-nourished little children that harsh weather saw off.
On January 9th at a meeting of St Helens Health Committee, the town's Medical Officer of Health, Dr Frank Hauxwell, said the number of infantile deaths in St Helens during the past month had been 147.
That compared to 115 deaths in the same month last year and he attributed the rise in the main to the severe weather.
On the 10th the popular St Helens elocutionist Wilson Nicholson recited Dickens' 'Christmas Carol' at Newtown Congregational Church in Knowsley Road. There was a good attendance despite the poor weather.
Nicholson was well known for his recitals and dramatic readings during the ‘20s and ‘30s, which he gave in many towns in the north of England to large audiences.
Mid-January might be seen today as rather late for a Christmas-themed event but that was not the case in the 1920s.
On the 11th John Donegan from Queen Street in St Helens was seriously injured on the railway line near to the Sherdley Glass bottle works.
The 13-year-old had been taking a dinner to one of the workmen and was hurt while either taking a shortcut across the line or walking too close to the track.
The St Helens Reporter said he had been scalped when the train caught him on his head. Another youth was accompanying John and the paper said he had "bolted with fright".
The 1920s might be the age of the motor vehicles but most people who worked on their own account still used real horse power. And they didn't all treat their nags well.
Also on the 11th a firewood dealer called William Hardman of Normans Court in Sutton was summoned to St Helens Police Court for working his horse in an unfit state.
Inspector Hallam of the RSPCA said he had seen Hardman driving a bay mare pony in Gartons Lane attached to a vehicle laden with firewood from Sutton Manor Colliery.
The horse was walking very badly and appeared scarcely able to pull the cart. Upon examining it the inspector found the animal to be in a very weak and emaciated condition with its bones showing through the skin.
Inspector Hallam later went with the police to the stable where the horse was kept and told the court: "There was no ventilation and no light, and the pony was standing in two feet of filth."
A vet also told the hearing: "When I saw the filthy state of the stable and the wretched condition of the animal, I thought it was an act of humanity to have it destroyed."
The Bench said considering the man had lost his horse, they would dismiss the case without imposing any penalty.
If you were going to start begging on the streets of St Helens you needed to choose your location carefully – and outside the police station was not recommended!
Frederick Fisher was daft enough to choose that place and was seen by Det Sgt Latus approaching about six different people in Corporation Street and, as he put it, "beg for alms".
When the officer went up to him, Fisher asked for "a copper for a night's lodging".
When DS Latus told him he was a copper, Fisher "dropped to the ground, rolled on his back, and kicked violently with his arms and his feet", as the Reporter described.
The sergeant also received a punch on the nose but with the help of a passer-by and two other officers, managed to get the man into the police station despite him "struggling violently and using obscene language".
At his court hearing this week Fisher said he had soldiered in Baghdad and suffered sunstroke.
He claimed never to have been right since his military service and a drop of drink caused him to lose his head. Fisher was sentenced to 14 days hard labour.
The Reporter was published on the 11th and featured an article on the popularity of the latest dances. It began:
"The fox-trot is in its ascendancy, the waltz holds its inimitable own, and the one-step is riding its last little wavelets of popularity." Jazz music was said to be on the wane.
I know that the Liberal Democrats have been calling for proportional representation for quite a while – but I had no idea that it went back 100 years!
Of course, a big advantage would be for the Liberals, who had been eclipsed since the new Labour Party had come on the scene.
Defendants in court made lots of unlikely excuses, with this week's most dubious claim belonging to Margaret Miller.
She'd told the magistrates in St Helens Police Court that if her brother-in-law had been inside her bedroom "it was unknown to me".
The Reporter described how Annie Miller of Pocket Nook Street had summoned husband and wife Joseph and Margaret Miller, accusing the couple of assault.
Annie Miller was married to Matthew Miller, who was the brother of Joseph. Annie and Matthew had been separated but three weeks earlier they had been reconciled and gone to live with Joseph and Margaret in Recreation Street.
Early one Sunday morning Annie had left the house leaving her husband in bed with the intention of attending church.
But she got delayed and realising she would be too late for the service returned home.
Arriving back in Recreation Street much sooner than expected, Annie said she found her husband not in their bedroom where she had left him but in the one next door. "I have caught you", declared Annie before going downstairs.
Forty-five minutes later Margaret Miller came down the stairs and asked Annie what the bother had been about. Then Annie's husband Matthew appeared and struck his wife.
Later, Joseph Miller hit Annie across the face and said he would teach her to talk about his wife. And Margaret Miller also thumped Annie in her right eye.
Both Margaret and Joseph completely denied all the allegations but they were found guilty and fined £1 each.
As to Annie's husband, Matthew, he had probably been sacked from his job as a miner, as he had been caught sleeping down Parr No 4 pit.
In February he would be fined £2 for the offence when it was stated that it had been the first occasion that a man woken up in the mine had gone back to sleep again.
The second volume of my 'Hidden History of St Helens' book series tells the tragic story of Jack Armstrong who in 1932 walked into a West London infirmary and shot dead his daughter – before turning the gun upon himself.
The obsessed father was a well-known tailor and musician from Doulton Street in St Helens and the first outward sign of Armstrong's hard drinking and domineering ways occurred on the 12th of this week.
That was when he appeared before the magistrates in St Helens Police Court charged with committing a breach of the peace.
A constable gave evidence of hearing a whistle being blown and finding the former army officer fighting with his sons.
John Jnr. and Cecil (aged about 20 and 18, respectively) had apparently endured quite enough of their drunken, domineering dad, who in court blamed the disturbance entirely upon them.
The magistrates bound Armstrong over to keep the peace for six months and told him if he would avoid drink his life would be very peaceful. A shame for his daughter's sake that he did not heed their advice.
There can't be many actors who I mention in these 100 years ago articles who later appeared in Coronation Street.
But Randolph Sutton certain did, making several appearances in 1966 singing at a nightclub attended by Minnie Caldwell, Jerry Booth and Jed Stone.
Forty-three years before, Sutton had been performing at the Theatre Royal in St Helens in a revue called 'Spare Parts' which ran twice nightly for six days from the 14th.
Meanwhile, the Hippodrome from the same day began a week's performances of 'Red Riding Hood', which was described as a "grand comic Xmas pantomime".
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the violent family row in Green Street, the worker who was crushed to death by a machine at Prescot, the Eccleston Lane Ends biscuits fraud and the thieving Donkey Gang at St Helens Junction.