IOO YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (16th - 22nd DECEMBER 1919)
This week's stories include a war tank for Queen's Park, the precocious 13-year-old from Leach Lane, a disabled war veteran criticises St Helens' firms, Father Christmas visits the town's hospitals and the man who was tarred in the Lord Nelson by the woman that he'd jilted.
We begin on the 16th when the Mayor, Joseph Turner, chaired a preliminary meeting at the Town Hall (pictured above) to discuss the form of a local war memorial. Various suggestions were made, including a memorial hall, playing fields, cenotaph, baths and a monument. However the committee was in the process of being augmented to include representatives from manufacturing, trade unions, building trades, miners, the Discharged Soldiers and Sailors Association, the Chamber of Trade and the Grocers Association. So it was decided to postpone any further discussion until the new committee met in January.
There was pantomime all this week at the Theatre Royal with performances of 'Aladdin' that featured a "gorgeous wedding feast, procession of lanterns, and grand finale". For three weeks collections had taken place in the theatre in aid of the St Helens & District Society for the Welfare of the Blind. Theatre staff had been busy circulating collection boxes amongst their customers and £74 6s 6d had been raised for the society's funds. Their secretary, the Rev. Horace Short, said the money would "assist us in making Christmas a little brighter for some of our blind friends than otherwise would have been possible."
Meanwhile the Hippodrome had their usual mix of music hall acts this week: "Rich Hayes ("The lazy clown"); Taree ("Australian musical bushman"); Two Violets ("Speciality dancers"); Hal Wright ("Burlesque comedian") and Brown and Potter ("In a quaint American novelty, 'The Lady, The Gent, and, The Wise One'.")
The council's Highways Committee met on the 17th and was told that work was starting on raising the roadway at Watery Lane (pictured above). This was intended to deal with the endemic flooding in the area, although the Borough Engineer admitted that the road raising would not benefit the householders. It would also mean that the pavements would be at a lower level than the road but pedestrians would be able to pass through "dry-shod", as it was put.
The Parks Committee also met on the 17th and heard that the War Office was planning to present a tank to St Helens in recognition of the work of the local War Savings Committee. The war souvenir from France would be received in January and placed on a concrete base in the Queen's Recreation Ground, now known as Queen's Park. Some councillors wanted the tank to be sited in Victoria Park but they were outvoted by four votes to three. The tank would arrive by train and its crew would drive it to the park and then immobilise it, although the engine would remain intact.
What the St Helens Reporter described as the "amazing story of the precocity of a young St. Helens girl" was told in the Police Court on the 18th. The precocious child was Elizabeth Lucas of Leach Lane who was charged with stealing two £5 notes belonging to her aunt Sarah Lucas. A locked drawer in the woman's bedroom had been forced open and the money stolen by Elizabeth who, when arrested in New Street, said she had lost one note and spent the other.
The 13-year-old's mother had died in March and her aunt and uncle had kindly taken her in, along with two other members of her family. Since then the couple said they'd had considerable trouble with Elizabeth through the girl missing school and coming in late at night. On one occasion she went missing for a week, having taken herself off to Liverpool. Money had gone missing from drawers and although she denied taking it, Mr Lucas learnt that Elizabeth had been spending half-crowns in a local shop. The Bench decided that the future welfare of the girl would be best served if she were sent to an industrial school until the age of sixteen.
During the afternoon of the 18th Father Christmas visited the children's wards of St Helens Hospital (pictured above) and Providence Hospital. Santa was heralded by what the Reporter called "an impressive fanfare on the bugle" and was accompanied by two little girls as fairies and a group of men and women in seasonal attire. They handed out toys, sweets and new laid eggs to the excited children, with the visit organised by British Insulated and Helsby Cables Ltd.
Later the party visited the Whiston Institution – as the hospital was then called – and in the Parish Rooms in Prescot, a distribution of toys was made to the local war orphans. On the following day Father Christmas and his followers visited the Isolation Hospital in Peasley Cross.
In St Helens Police Court on the 19th there was an extraordinary story told of a woman's revenge against the man who'd jilted her. It began when Elizabeth and Annie Carey from Gerards Bridge had gone to Parr with a friend to purchase a tin of tar. As the trio was going along College Street, John Daly – who happened to be walking in front – turned round and laughed at Annie, saying "Look at that thing".
This enraged the 21-year-old as she and Daly had previously been "keeping company" and the man had got her pregnant. Daly had promised to marry her and had put up the wedding banns but did not go through with the ceremony. Instead he went to Birkenhead and married another woman. So Annie saw red when Daly laughed and made those remarks. So she followed him into the Lord Nelson and threw the tin of tar that she was carrying all over him. John Kelly from Fox Street was with Daly and he came out of the pub and hit Annie and then knocked her sister Elizabeth unconscious.
The women's mother was sent for and when she arrived, an angry crowd had gathered and were shouting: "They have tarred him; let us feather him." The formidable Mary Carey also said she was struck by Kelly and Daly but had hit both men back. There were several charges against Daly, Kelly and Mary Carey but in the end the Bench dismissed them all, apart from fining John Kelly £1 for striking Elizabeth Carey.
In the letters section of the St Helens Reporter on the 19th, disabled war veteran F. McKenna from Charles Street complained about his treatment by St Helens' firms: "I am beginning to think that employers do not like the look of a silver badge, for they seem to look on it more as a bond of infamy rather than as a badge of honour." The silver war badge meant the wearer had received an honourable discharge through injury or illness but it could also be seen as indicating incapacity to work.
Mr McKenna was not the only ex-soldier complaining of a difficulty in getting a job and feeling that promises made when they left for France in 1914 / 15 had been broken. He finished his letter with these words: "Look to your laurels, St. Helens! You were a long way in front of other towns in your enthusiasm to send us away [to war], but you are lagging far behind in your welcome to us on our return."
However in an editorial the Reporter stated that discharged soldiers in St Helens were getting jobs in industries at a rate higher than the average for south-west Lancashire. The piece also claimed that disabled solders were being found jobs at a creditable rate, although there were some individual cases of hardship, as in the above letter.
Divorce was a rare event, with only one person classified as divorced in St Helens in the 1911 census. However it was becoming more common as many soldiers had returned home from the war to find that their wives had been unfaithful to them during their absence. On the 20th Harry Anders of Marshalls Street in St Helens was granted a decree nisi. He had married in 1912 and lived with his wife in Albert Street in Prescot. Harry joined the army and in September 1915 was sent to France. In December 1918 when home on leave he was told that 16 months earlier his wife had given birth to another man's child.
John Pennington from St Helens was also granted a divorce because of his wife May's misconduct. In 1917 while serving in France he learnt of his wife's behaviour with another man and wrote to the police and had her separation allowance stopped. Upon coming home he enquired at the registry office and discovered that his wife had registered a child of which he was not the father.
There was another shocking burning of a child on the 21st. Eight-year-old Harriett Molyneux of Critchley Street in Parr had been left in the kitchen while her mother went out into the yard after making up the fire. When she returned the child's highly flammable flannelette skirt was on fire with the flames blazing into her face.
The mother rolled Harriett in a sack and put out the flames. She then applied limewater to the burns and carried her daughter to Dr O’Keefe's surgery but he was out on his rounds. Harriet was taken to Providence Hospital where she died on the following day. This was the family's second tragedy as Harriett's father had been killed in action in Salonika in 1916.
And finally a boy called Joseph Jennings from Sandfield Crescent, off Liverpool Road, died on the 22nd. The ten-year-old was thought to have been swinging on the back of a motor lorry and had jumped off into the path of a car.
Next week's article will be a Christmas special which will describe the weather, the Christmas post, a shopping guide, a theatre and cinema guide and all the many sports fixtures.
There was pantomime all this week at the Theatre Royal with performances of 'Aladdin' that featured a "gorgeous wedding feast, procession of lanterns, and grand finale". For three weeks collections had taken place in the theatre in aid of the St Helens & District Society for the Welfare of the Blind. Theatre staff had been busy circulating collection boxes amongst their customers and £74 6s 6d had been raised for the society's funds. Their secretary, the Rev. Horace Short, said the money would "assist us in making Christmas a little brighter for some of our blind friends than otherwise would have been possible."
Meanwhile the Hippodrome had their usual mix of music hall acts this week: "Rich Hayes ("The lazy clown"); Taree ("Australian musical bushman"); Two Violets ("Speciality dancers"); Hal Wright ("Burlesque comedian") and Brown and Potter ("In a quaint American novelty, 'The Lady, The Gent, and, The Wise One'.")
The Parks Committee also met on the 17th and heard that the War Office was planning to present a tank to St Helens in recognition of the work of the local War Savings Committee. The war souvenir from France would be received in January and placed on a concrete base in the Queen's Recreation Ground, now known as Queen's Park. Some councillors wanted the tank to be sited in Victoria Park but they were outvoted by four votes to three. The tank would arrive by train and its crew would drive it to the park and then immobilise it, although the engine would remain intact.
What the St Helens Reporter described as the "amazing story of the precocity of a young St. Helens girl" was told in the Police Court on the 18th. The precocious child was Elizabeth Lucas of Leach Lane who was charged with stealing two £5 notes belonging to her aunt Sarah Lucas. A locked drawer in the woman's bedroom had been forced open and the money stolen by Elizabeth who, when arrested in New Street, said she had lost one note and spent the other.
The 13-year-old's mother had died in March and her aunt and uncle had kindly taken her in, along with two other members of her family. Since then the couple said they'd had considerable trouble with Elizabeth through the girl missing school and coming in late at night. On one occasion she went missing for a week, having taken herself off to Liverpool. Money had gone missing from drawers and although she denied taking it, Mr Lucas learnt that Elizabeth had been spending half-crowns in a local shop. The Bench decided that the future welfare of the girl would be best served if she were sent to an industrial school until the age of sixteen.
Later the party visited the Whiston Institution – as the hospital was then called – and in the Parish Rooms in Prescot, a distribution of toys was made to the local war orphans. On the following day Father Christmas and his followers visited the Isolation Hospital in Peasley Cross.
In St Helens Police Court on the 19th there was an extraordinary story told of a woman's revenge against the man who'd jilted her. It began when Elizabeth and Annie Carey from Gerards Bridge had gone to Parr with a friend to purchase a tin of tar. As the trio was going along College Street, John Daly – who happened to be walking in front – turned round and laughed at Annie, saying "Look at that thing".
This enraged the 21-year-old as she and Daly had previously been "keeping company" and the man had got her pregnant. Daly had promised to marry her and had put up the wedding banns but did not go through with the ceremony. Instead he went to Birkenhead and married another woman. So Annie saw red when Daly laughed and made those remarks. So she followed him into the Lord Nelson and threw the tin of tar that she was carrying all over him. John Kelly from Fox Street was with Daly and he came out of the pub and hit Annie and then knocked her sister Elizabeth unconscious.
The women's mother was sent for and when she arrived, an angry crowd had gathered and were shouting: "They have tarred him; let us feather him." The formidable Mary Carey also said she was struck by Kelly and Daly but had hit both men back. There were several charges against Daly, Kelly and Mary Carey but in the end the Bench dismissed them all, apart from fining John Kelly £1 for striking Elizabeth Carey.
In the letters section of the St Helens Reporter on the 19th, disabled war veteran F. McKenna from Charles Street complained about his treatment by St Helens' firms: "I am beginning to think that employers do not like the look of a silver badge, for they seem to look on it more as a bond of infamy rather than as a badge of honour." The silver war badge meant the wearer had received an honourable discharge through injury or illness but it could also be seen as indicating incapacity to work.
Mr McKenna was not the only ex-soldier complaining of a difficulty in getting a job and feeling that promises made when they left for France in 1914 / 15 had been broken. He finished his letter with these words: "Look to your laurels, St. Helens! You were a long way in front of other towns in your enthusiasm to send us away [to war], but you are lagging far behind in your welcome to us on our return."
However in an editorial the Reporter stated that discharged soldiers in St Helens were getting jobs in industries at a rate higher than the average for south-west Lancashire. The piece also claimed that disabled solders were being found jobs at a creditable rate, although there were some individual cases of hardship, as in the above letter.
Divorce was a rare event, with only one person classified as divorced in St Helens in the 1911 census. However it was becoming more common as many soldiers had returned home from the war to find that their wives had been unfaithful to them during their absence. On the 20th Harry Anders of Marshalls Street in St Helens was granted a decree nisi. He had married in 1912 and lived with his wife in Albert Street in Prescot. Harry joined the army and in September 1915 was sent to France. In December 1918 when home on leave he was told that 16 months earlier his wife had given birth to another man's child.
John Pennington from St Helens was also granted a divorce because of his wife May's misconduct. In 1917 while serving in France he learnt of his wife's behaviour with another man and wrote to the police and had her separation allowance stopped. Upon coming home he enquired at the registry office and discovered that his wife had registered a child of which he was not the father.
There was another shocking burning of a child on the 21st. Eight-year-old Harriett Molyneux of Critchley Street in Parr had been left in the kitchen while her mother went out into the yard after making up the fire. When she returned the child's highly flammable flannelette skirt was on fire with the flames blazing into her face.
The mother rolled Harriett in a sack and put out the flames. She then applied limewater to the burns and carried her daughter to Dr O’Keefe's surgery but he was out on his rounds. Harriet was taken to Providence Hospital where she died on the following day. This was the family's second tragedy as Harriett's father had been killed in action in Salonika in 1916.
And finally a boy called Joseph Jennings from Sandfield Crescent, off Liverpool Road, died on the 22nd. The ten-year-old was thought to have been swinging on the back of a motor lorry and had jumped off into the path of a car.
Next week's article will be a Christmas special which will describe the weather, the Christmas post, a shopping guide, a theatre and cinema guide and all the many sports fixtures.