IOO YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (14th - 20th DECEMBER 1920)
This week's stories include the man who in court called his wife a "dirty, nasty, insulting thing", Lipton's Bridge Street egg bust, St Helens councillors permit children to quit school at 13 and the Market Street woman prosecuted after her child burned to death.
We begin on the 15th with a meeting of the council's Highways Committee, which discussed a resolution passed by the St Helens Trades and Labour Council about the increased use of motor vehicles in the town – such as John Collins motor van pictured above. The Trades Council – representing local trade unions – was concerned about the rising number of fatalities and wanted a by-law passed that reduced the speed limit. They also called for warning notices to be installed near schools, as well as other congested areas in St Helens, and for the Town Council to support Lloyd George's suggestion of separate roads for motor traffic (an early call for motorways?).
The committee discussed the proposed speed limit change at length. It was then 20 mph but there was no real way of accurately measuring it. There was also a law that banned anyone from driving furiously to the danger of the public but it was rather vague in its wording. No decision was taken and the Trades Council resolution was passed on to another committee for their consideration – although more signage outside schools was likely to be installed.
The St Helens School Attendance Committee also met on the 15th and heard that the government had decided to postpone its proposed ban on school attendance exemptions. Although the new Education Act would theoretically make school attendance compulsory until the age of fifteen, every local education authority had the right to opt out and allow parents to continue sending their kids out to work at 14. With many St Helens families wanting their children earning as soon as possible, the town's education authority had decided to retain the present school leaving age.
However under certain circumstances parents could currently apply for their youngsters to be allowed to quit school at the even earlier age of thirteen. As the government had decided not to remove this exemption for the time being, Councillor Evelyn Pilkington proposed that the committee introduce its own ban. Councillor McCormick was in agreement: "I second that; it is time it was stopped." He felt that children were being removed from school at the very best time of their life.
However these were two lone voices with all the other committee members wanting the exemption to remain. Cllr. Waring argued that if the eldest child was allowed to be earning at thirteen, their income could be used to support four or five of their siblings at school. And Cllr. Davies said from his experience it was the boys who left school the earliest that made the best workmen. Evelyn Pilkington's motion went to a vote but was heavily defeated.
It certainly didn't take Liptons long to get into trouble with the law with their new food store in Bridge Street. What appears to be their old shop in the street is pictured above on the left. They had only opened their new premises on December 3rd and a fortnight later their shop manager was in the dock facing a charge. The court was told that after receiving a number of complaints about the store, Sergeant Gale had gone on surveillance duty. At 11am on a Saturday morning the officer had taken up position and he kept the shop under observation for a full 50 minutes.
Were they selling drugs, guns, pornography? No eggs! A shop assistant had been standing outside the store selling eggs from a box that was half a yard outside of its building line. According to Sgt. Gale as many as 400 to 500 people had been forced to step into the road to get round the obstruction during his fifty-minute stake-out. The police then took even the most minor of offences seriously and the manager of the shop was fined 10 shillings.
I've written on a few occasions that a dispute between a married couple being played out in a public court was far from helpful to their situation. This usually occurred with a wife's application for a maintenance or affiliation order – as they were known – when couples had separated on either a temporary or permanent basis. On the 17th the St Helens Reporter described one of the worst examples of this when Edward and Edith Bretherton had chucked insults at each other in a recent Police Court hearing.
In 1910 at the age of twenty-two, Edward had married Edith Preece and the couple initially lived with the woman's father in Blackbrook Road and had five children – four of whom were still alive. But relations between the couple soon deteriorated and in October 1915 Edward enlisted in the army mainly, he said, to get away from his nagging wife. After her husband had been gassed in the war, Edith is supposed to have told a friend that she wished he had been killed.
The couple finally parted in March 1920 and Edward was now living in Clock Face Road with another woman who had given birth to his twins. He had voluntarily been paying his wife £2 per week maintenance since they parted but Edith now wanted this formalising into a court-backed affiliation order in case her husband did a bunk. The couple quarrelled in court over money, with the woman claiming that her husband earned £5 per week as a cooper. "Nothing of the sort", said Edward.
They quarrelled over whether Edith had told her husband to leave the marital home. "May God forgive you", was Edward's response to his wife's complete denial. The husband accused his wife of not allowing him to go to the pictures, theatre or football matches on Saturdays. Edith said that was because he took the other woman with him. Things got so heated that Edward accused Edith of being a "dirty, nasty, insulting thing". He said he had only hit his wife once after she had called him a certain name and since their split he thought she was doing "jolly well" to be getting £2 out of him.
This diatribe was all so unnecessary. One of the few things they did not disagree over was the £2 per week maintenance! This was already being paid and could easily have been put on a formal footing without all this dirt being thrown and a juicy story published in the papers for the public to salivate over. At the end of it all the magistrates asked Edward if he was prepared to go back to his wife. Now that really was wishful thinking! But it was all part of the process and "not on any consideration" was the predictable response and the order was granted.
Also in the Reporter was a large advert from the Co-op – or the St. Helens Industrial Co-operative Society Ltd. – to give them the name they advertised under but hardly anybody used. The Baldwin Store was promoting its "Dividend Sale and Christmas Show". Not that they were discounting the divis but reminding customers that dividends were available on all purchases. The Christmas "show" simply referred to festive food and gifts on display, including dolls "dressed and undressed".
If like me you've ever suffered from sciatica you'll know how damned painful the condition is. If only I'd known there was a simple cure costing just 1/6 a bottle! Kruschen Salts was advertising in the Reporter and making this claim: "[Take] half-a teaspoonful of Kruschen Salts in hot water every morning, then goodbye Sciatica." Yeah, right!
The Rainford cinema finally opened on the 18th after first being discussed last May. It wasn't as if a new building had to be constructed, as the Village Hall was being used to project films on Friday, Saturday and Monday evenings. However an "operating house" – or projection room, as we would call it – did have to be built and strict fire safety rules observed.
On the 20th Margaret Murphy from Market Street was summoned to court for allowing a child to be in a room with an open grate. One of the woman's children had suffered fatal burns after her clothing caught fire while her mother was out shopping. Coroner Samuel Brighouse had in the past called winter "the burning season" for kids due to the many youngsters who every year succumbed to open fires.
Fireguards should prevent such accidents from happening but some poor or ignorant families did not have them. Margaret Murphy told the Bench that she had no money at the time to buy a fireguard but had now bought one after borrowing 3s 3d. The Chairman of the Bench said the case would be dismissed but added that it was unfortunate Mrs Murphy did not get a fireguard before her child was burned to death.
James Simpson from York Street appears to have been yet another victim of the war. The glassworker had been discharged from the army after contracting malaria and appeared in court charged with attempting suicide. James could no longer work through ill health and had cut his throat despite having recently been awarded a decent pension of £3 15s a week. His wife promised to look after her husband and the court discharged James into her care.
Next week's '100 Years Ago' article will be a Christmas Special. There'll be loads of Christmas stories, as well as other news.
The committee discussed the proposed speed limit change at length. It was then 20 mph but there was no real way of accurately measuring it. There was also a law that banned anyone from driving furiously to the danger of the public but it was rather vague in its wording. No decision was taken and the Trades Council resolution was passed on to another committee for their consideration – although more signage outside schools was likely to be installed.
The St Helens School Attendance Committee also met on the 15th and heard that the government had decided to postpone its proposed ban on school attendance exemptions. Although the new Education Act would theoretically make school attendance compulsory until the age of fifteen, every local education authority had the right to opt out and allow parents to continue sending their kids out to work at 14. With many St Helens families wanting their children earning as soon as possible, the town's education authority had decided to retain the present school leaving age.
However under certain circumstances parents could currently apply for their youngsters to be allowed to quit school at the even earlier age of thirteen. As the government had decided not to remove this exemption for the time being, Councillor Evelyn Pilkington proposed that the committee introduce its own ban. Councillor McCormick was in agreement: "I second that; it is time it was stopped." He felt that children were being removed from school at the very best time of their life.
However these were two lone voices with all the other committee members wanting the exemption to remain. Cllr. Waring argued that if the eldest child was allowed to be earning at thirteen, their income could be used to support four or five of their siblings at school. And Cllr. Davies said from his experience it was the boys who left school the earliest that made the best workmen. Evelyn Pilkington's motion went to a vote but was heavily defeated.
Were they selling drugs, guns, pornography? No eggs! A shop assistant had been standing outside the store selling eggs from a box that was half a yard outside of its building line. According to Sgt. Gale as many as 400 to 500 people had been forced to step into the road to get round the obstruction during his fifty-minute stake-out. The police then took even the most minor of offences seriously and the manager of the shop was fined 10 shillings.
I've written on a few occasions that a dispute between a married couple being played out in a public court was far from helpful to their situation. This usually occurred with a wife's application for a maintenance or affiliation order – as they were known – when couples had separated on either a temporary or permanent basis. On the 17th the St Helens Reporter described one of the worst examples of this when Edward and Edith Bretherton had chucked insults at each other in a recent Police Court hearing.
In 1910 at the age of twenty-two, Edward had married Edith Preece and the couple initially lived with the woman's father in Blackbrook Road and had five children – four of whom were still alive. But relations between the couple soon deteriorated and in October 1915 Edward enlisted in the army mainly, he said, to get away from his nagging wife. After her husband had been gassed in the war, Edith is supposed to have told a friend that she wished he had been killed.
The couple finally parted in March 1920 and Edward was now living in Clock Face Road with another woman who had given birth to his twins. He had voluntarily been paying his wife £2 per week maintenance since they parted but Edith now wanted this formalising into a court-backed affiliation order in case her husband did a bunk. The couple quarrelled in court over money, with the woman claiming that her husband earned £5 per week as a cooper. "Nothing of the sort", said Edward.
They quarrelled over whether Edith had told her husband to leave the marital home. "May God forgive you", was Edward's response to his wife's complete denial. The husband accused his wife of not allowing him to go to the pictures, theatre or football matches on Saturdays. Edith said that was because he took the other woman with him. Things got so heated that Edward accused Edith of being a "dirty, nasty, insulting thing". He said he had only hit his wife once after she had called him a certain name and since their split he thought she was doing "jolly well" to be getting £2 out of him.
This diatribe was all so unnecessary. One of the few things they did not disagree over was the £2 per week maintenance! This was already being paid and could easily have been put on a formal footing without all this dirt being thrown and a juicy story published in the papers for the public to salivate over. At the end of it all the magistrates asked Edward if he was prepared to go back to his wife. Now that really was wishful thinking! But it was all part of the process and "not on any consideration" was the predictable response and the order was granted.
Also in the Reporter was a large advert from the Co-op – or the St. Helens Industrial Co-operative Society Ltd. – to give them the name they advertised under but hardly anybody used. The Baldwin Store was promoting its "Dividend Sale and Christmas Show". Not that they were discounting the divis but reminding customers that dividends were available on all purchases. The Christmas "show" simply referred to festive food and gifts on display, including dolls "dressed and undressed".
If like me you've ever suffered from sciatica you'll know how damned painful the condition is. If only I'd known there was a simple cure costing just 1/6 a bottle! Kruschen Salts was advertising in the Reporter and making this claim: "[Take] half-a teaspoonful of Kruschen Salts in hot water every morning, then goodbye Sciatica." Yeah, right!
The Rainford cinema finally opened on the 18th after first being discussed last May. It wasn't as if a new building had to be constructed, as the Village Hall was being used to project films on Friday, Saturday and Monday evenings. However an "operating house" – or projection room, as we would call it – did have to be built and strict fire safety rules observed.
On the 20th Margaret Murphy from Market Street was summoned to court for allowing a child to be in a room with an open grate. One of the woman's children had suffered fatal burns after her clothing caught fire while her mother was out shopping. Coroner Samuel Brighouse had in the past called winter "the burning season" for kids due to the many youngsters who every year succumbed to open fires.
Fireguards should prevent such accidents from happening but some poor or ignorant families did not have them. Margaret Murphy told the Bench that she had no money at the time to buy a fireguard but had now bought one after borrowing 3s 3d. The Chairman of the Bench said the case would be dismissed but added that it was unfortunate Mrs Murphy did not get a fireguard before her child was burned to death.
James Simpson from York Street appears to have been yet another victim of the war. The glassworker had been discharged from the army after contracting malaria and appeared in court charged with attempting suicide. James could no longer work through ill health and had cut his throat despite having recently been awarded a decent pension of £3 15s a week. His wife promised to look after her husband and the court discharged James into her care.
Next week's '100 Years Ago' article will be a Christmas Special. There'll be loads of Christmas stories, as well as other news.
This week's stories include the man who in court called his wife a "dirty, nasty, insulting thing", Lipton's Bridge Street egg bust, St Helens councillors permit children to quit school at 13 and the Market Street woman prosecuted after her child burned to death.
We begin on the 15th with a meeting of the council's Highways Committee, which discussed a resolution passed by the St Helens Trades and Labour Council about the increased use of motor vehicles in the town – such as John Collins motor van pictured above.
The Trades Council – representing local trade unions – was concerned about the rising number of fatalities and wanted a by-law passed that reduced the speed limit.
They also called for warning notices to be installed near schools, as well as other congested areas in St Helens, and for the Town Council to support Lloyd George's suggestion of separate roads for motor traffic (an early call for motorways?).
The committee discussed the proposed speed limit change at length. It was then 20 mph but there was no real way of accurately measuring it.
There was also a law that banned anyone from driving furiously to the danger of the public but it was rather vague in its wording.
No decision was taken and the Trades Council resolution was passed on to another committee for their consideration – although more signage outside schools was likely to be installed.
The St Helens School Attendance Committee also met on the 15th and heard that the government had decided to postpone its proposed ban on school attendance exemptions.
Although the new Education Act would theoretically make school attendance compulsory until the age of fifteen, every local education authority had the right to opt out and allow parents to continue sending their kids out to work at 14.
With many St Helens families wanting their children earning as soon as possible, the town's education authority had decided to retain the present school leaving age.
However under certain circumstances parents could currently apply for their youngsters to be allowed to quit school at the even earlier age of thirteen.
As the government had decided not to remove this exemption for the time being, Councillor Evelyn Pilkington proposed that the committee introduce its own ban.
Councillor McCormick was in agreement: "I second that; it is time it was stopped." He felt that children were being removed from school at the very best time of their life.
However these were two lone voices with all the other committee members wanting the exemption to remain.
Cllr. Waring argued that if the eldest child was allowed to be earning at thirteen, their income could be used to support four or five of their siblings at school.
And Cllr. Davies said from his experience it was the boys who left school the earliest that made the best workmen.
Evelyn Pilkington's motion went to a vote but was heavily defeated.
It certainly didn't take Liptons long to get into trouble with the law with their new food store in Bridge Street. What appears to be their old shop in the street is pictured above.
They had only opened their new premises on December 3rd and a fortnight later their shop manager was in the dock facing a charge.
The court was told that after receiving a number of complaints about the store, Sergeant Gale had gone on surveillance duty.
At 11am on a Saturday morning the officer had taken up position and he kept the shop under observation for a full 50 minutes.
Were they selling drugs, guns, pornography? No eggs!
A shop assistant had been standing outside the store selling eggs from a box that was half a yard outside of its building line.
According to Sgt. Gale as many as 400 to 500 people had been forced to step into the road to get round the obstruction during his fifty-minute stake-out.
The police then took even the most minor of offences seriously and the manager of the shop was fined 10 shillings.
I've written on a few occasions that a dispute between a married couple being played out in a public court was far from helpful to their situation.
This usually occurred with a wife's application for a maintenance or affiliation order – as they were known – when couples had separated on either a temporary or permanent basis.
On the 17th the St Helens Reporter described one of the worst examples of this when Edward and Edith Bretherton had chucked insults at each other in a recent Police Court hearing.
In 1910 at the age of twenty-two, Edward had married Edith Preece and the couple initially lived with the woman's father in Blackbrook Road and had five children – four of whom were still alive.
But relations between the couple soon deteriorated and in October 1915 Edward enlisted in the army mainly, he said, to get away from his nagging wife.
After her husband had been gassed in the war, Edith is supposed to have told a friend that she wished he had been killed.
The couple finally parted in March 1920 and Edward was now living in Clock Face Road with another woman who had given birth to his twins.
He had voluntarily been paying his wife £2 per week maintenance since they parted but Edith now wanted this formalising into a court-backed affiliation order in case her husband did a bunk.
The couple quarrelled in court over money, with the woman claiming that her husband earned £5 per week as a cooper. "Nothing of the sort", said Edward.
They quarrelled over whether Edith had told her husband to leave the marital home. "May God forgive you", was Edward's response to his wife's complete denial.
The husband accused his wife of not allowing him to go to the pictures, theatre or football matches on Saturdays.
Edith said that was because he took the other woman with him.
Things got so heated that Edward accused Edith of being a "dirty, nasty, insulting thing".
He said he had only hit his wife once after she had called him a certain name and since their split he thought she was doing "jolly well" to be getting £2 out of him.
This diatribe was all so unnecessary. One of the few things they did not disagree over was the £2 per week maintenance!
This was already being paid and could easily have been put on a formal footing without all this dirt being thrown and a juicy story published in the papers for the public to salivate over.
At the end of it all the magistrates asked Edward if he was prepared to go back to his wife. Now that really was wishful thinking!
But it was all part of the process and "not on any consideration" was the predictable response and the order was granted.
Also in the Reporter was a large advert from the Co-op – or the St. Helens Industrial Co-operative Society Ltd. – to give them the name they advertised under but hardly anybody used.
The Baldwin Street store was promoting its "Dividend Sale and Christmas Show".
Not that they were discounting the divis but reminding customers that dividends were available on all purchases.
The Christmas "show" simply referred to festive food and gifts on display, including dolls "dressed and undressed".
If like me you've ever suffered from sciatica you'll know how damned painful the condition is.
If only I'd known there was a simple cure costing just 1/6 a bottle!
Kruschen Salts was advertising in the Reporter and making this claim:
"[Take] half-a teaspoonful of Kruschen Salts in hot water every morning, then goodbye Sciatica." Yeah, right!
The Rainford cinema finally opened on the 18th after first being discussed last May.
It wasn't as if a new building had to be constructed, as the Village Hall was being used to project films on Friday, Saturday and Monday evenings.
However an "operating house" – or projection room, as we would call it – did have to be built and strict fire safety rules observed.
These had not been in place at Margaret Murphy's home in Market Street and on the 20th she was summoned to court for allowing a child to be in a room with an open grate.
One of the woman's children had suffered fatal burns after her clothing caught fire while her mother was out shopping.
Coroner Samuel Brighouse had in the past called winter "the burning season" for kids due to the many youngsters who every year succumbed to open fires.
Fireguards should prevent such accidents from happening but some poor or ignorant families did not have them.
Margaret Murphy told the Bench that she had no money at the time to buy a fireguard but had now bought one after borrowing 3s 3d.
The Chairman of the Bench said the case would be dismissed but added that it was unfortunate Mrs Murphy did not get a fireguard before her child was burned to death.
James Simpson from York Street appears to have been yet another victim of the war.
The glassworker had been discharged from the army after contracting malaria and appeared in court charged with attempting suicide.
James could no longer work through ill health and had cut his throat despite having recently been awarded a decent pension of £3 15s a week.
His wife promised to look after her husband and the court discharged James into her care.
Next week's '100 Years Ago' article will be a Christmas Special. There'll be loads of Christmas stories, as well as other news.
The Trades Council – representing local trade unions – was concerned about the rising number of fatalities and wanted a by-law passed that reduced the speed limit.
They also called for warning notices to be installed near schools, as well as other congested areas in St Helens, and for the Town Council to support Lloyd George's suggestion of separate roads for motor traffic (an early call for motorways?).
The committee discussed the proposed speed limit change at length. It was then 20 mph but there was no real way of accurately measuring it.
There was also a law that banned anyone from driving furiously to the danger of the public but it was rather vague in its wording.
No decision was taken and the Trades Council resolution was passed on to another committee for their consideration – although more signage outside schools was likely to be installed.
The St Helens School Attendance Committee also met on the 15th and heard that the government had decided to postpone its proposed ban on school attendance exemptions.
Although the new Education Act would theoretically make school attendance compulsory until the age of fifteen, every local education authority had the right to opt out and allow parents to continue sending their kids out to work at 14.
With many St Helens families wanting their children earning as soon as possible, the town's education authority had decided to retain the present school leaving age.
However under certain circumstances parents could currently apply for their youngsters to be allowed to quit school at the even earlier age of thirteen.
As the government had decided not to remove this exemption for the time being, Councillor Evelyn Pilkington proposed that the committee introduce its own ban.
Councillor McCormick was in agreement: "I second that; it is time it was stopped." He felt that children were being removed from school at the very best time of their life.
However these were two lone voices with all the other committee members wanting the exemption to remain.
Cllr. Waring argued that if the eldest child was allowed to be earning at thirteen, their income could be used to support four or five of their siblings at school.
And Cllr. Davies said from his experience it was the boys who left school the earliest that made the best workmen.
Evelyn Pilkington's motion went to a vote but was heavily defeated.
They had only opened their new premises on December 3rd and a fortnight later their shop manager was in the dock facing a charge.
The court was told that after receiving a number of complaints about the store, Sergeant Gale had gone on surveillance duty.
At 11am on a Saturday morning the officer had taken up position and he kept the shop under observation for a full 50 minutes.
Were they selling drugs, guns, pornography? No eggs!
A shop assistant had been standing outside the store selling eggs from a box that was half a yard outside of its building line.
According to Sgt. Gale as many as 400 to 500 people had been forced to step into the road to get round the obstruction during his fifty-minute stake-out.
The police then took even the most minor of offences seriously and the manager of the shop was fined 10 shillings.
I've written on a few occasions that a dispute between a married couple being played out in a public court was far from helpful to their situation.
This usually occurred with a wife's application for a maintenance or affiliation order – as they were known – when couples had separated on either a temporary or permanent basis.
On the 17th the St Helens Reporter described one of the worst examples of this when Edward and Edith Bretherton had chucked insults at each other in a recent Police Court hearing.
In 1910 at the age of twenty-two, Edward had married Edith Preece and the couple initially lived with the woman's father in Blackbrook Road and had five children – four of whom were still alive.
But relations between the couple soon deteriorated and in October 1915 Edward enlisted in the army mainly, he said, to get away from his nagging wife.
After her husband had been gassed in the war, Edith is supposed to have told a friend that she wished he had been killed.
The couple finally parted in March 1920 and Edward was now living in Clock Face Road with another woman who had given birth to his twins.
He had voluntarily been paying his wife £2 per week maintenance since they parted but Edith now wanted this formalising into a court-backed affiliation order in case her husband did a bunk.
The couple quarrelled in court over money, with the woman claiming that her husband earned £5 per week as a cooper. "Nothing of the sort", said Edward.
They quarrelled over whether Edith had told her husband to leave the marital home. "May God forgive you", was Edward's response to his wife's complete denial.
The husband accused his wife of not allowing him to go to the pictures, theatre or football matches on Saturdays.
Edith said that was because he took the other woman with him.
Things got so heated that Edward accused Edith of being a "dirty, nasty, insulting thing".
He said he had only hit his wife once after she had called him a certain name and since their split he thought she was doing "jolly well" to be getting £2 out of him.
This diatribe was all so unnecessary. One of the few things they did not disagree over was the £2 per week maintenance!
This was already being paid and could easily have been put on a formal footing without all this dirt being thrown and a juicy story published in the papers for the public to salivate over.
At the end of it all the magistrates asked Edward if he was prepared to go back to his wife. Now that really was wishful thinking!
But it was all part of the process and "not on any consideration" was the predictable response and the order was granted.
Also in the Reporter was a large advert from the Co-op – or the St. Helens Industrial Co-operative Society Ltd. – to give them the name they advertised under but hardly anybody used.
The Baldwin Street store was promoting its "Dividend Sale and Christmas Show".
Not that they were discounting the divis but reminding customers that dividends were available on all purchases.
The Christmas "show" simply referred to festive food and gifts on display, including dolls "dressed and undressed".
If like me you've ever suffered from sciatica you'll know how damned painful the condition is.
If only I'd known there was a simple cure costing just 1/6 a bottle!
Kruschen Salts was advertising in the Reporter and making this claim:
"[Take] half-a teaspoonful of Kruschen Salts in hot water every morning, then goodbye Sciatica." Yeah, right!
The Rainford cinema finally opened on the 18th after first being discussed last May.
It wasn't as if a new building had to be constructed, as the Village Hall was being used to project films on Friday, Saturday and Monday evenings.
However an "operating house" – or projection room, as we would call it – did have to be built and strict fire safety rules observed.
These had not been in place at Margaret Murphy's home in Market Street and on the 20th she was summoned to court for allowing a child to be in a room with an open grate.
One of the woman's children had suffered fatal burns after her clothing caught fire while her mother was out shopping.
Coroner Samuel Brighouse had in the past called winter "the burning season" for kids due to the many youngsters who every year succumbed to open fires.
Fireguards should prevent such accidents from happening but some poor or ignorant families did not have them.
Margaret Murphy told the Bench that she had no money at the time to buy a fireguard but had now bought one after borrowing 3s 3d.
The Chairman of the Bench said the case would be dismissed but added that it was unfortunate Mrs Murphy did not get a fireguard before her child was burned to death.
James Simpson from York Street appears to have been yet another victim of the war.
The glassworker had been discharged from the army after contracting malaria and appeared in court charged with attempting suicide.
James could no longer work through ill health and had cut his throat despite having recently been awarded a decent pension of £3 15s a week.
His wife promised to look after her husband and the court discharged James into her care.
Next week's '100 Years Ago' article will be a Christmas Special. There'll be loads of Christmas stories, as well as other news.