IOO YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (28th Oct. - 3rd Nov. 1919)
This week's stories include the curious case of the tooled up ex-soldier at the Hippodrome, the cruelty of boys in a Bold farmyard, the "worn-out" Corporation employees wanted as toilet attendants, a suicide in the canal and a boost for Labour in the first council elections for six years.
We begin just after ten o’clock on the morning of the 29th when an overcoat was seen on the banks of the St Helens / Sankey Canal near to the leadworks of Quirk, Barton & Co. That could only mean that the waters of the canal had claimed yet another victim. So the police began dragging operations and by eleven had recovered the body of William Davies.
Whether the 72-year-old from Borough Road had fallen or walked into the water was the focus of his inquest. However that was settled when P.C. Moseley read out an entry in a notebook found on the widower's body, which read: "My only darling, May, made me do it. And I hope she will forgive me. Good-bye for ever. W. D." A verdict of suicide while temporarily insane was returned.
At the St Helens County Police Court on the 28th two boys were summoned by a Bold farmer for maiming a turkey and a pullet and their mother cross-summoned him for making threats. John Owen told the court that 11-year-old Frank Walsh and his 13-year-old brother Thomas had been employed with several other boys to work on his farm during the school holidays. They were supposed to work in the turnip field but the boys also ventured into the farmyard where they chased turkeys.
Two of them were cruelly banged against what was described as iron hurdles and a pullet had a bale of hay pushed down upon it. The farmer went to see the parents of all the boys but claimed the mother of the Walsh brothers had abused him. Mary Walsh later went to the farm demanding that John Owen pay her son the 4 shillings he was owed. However the farmer refused, saying he would pay no lads for playing.
Mrs Walsh then claimed that Farmer Owen came out of a stable armed with a gun and said: "If you don't go away, I will blow your ______ brains out." This the farmer denied and a friend of the Owens – who was staying with them at the time of the incident – gave evidence that she saw no gun and heard no threat. So the magistrates decided to dismiss all three cases.
On the 30th Richard McDonald appeared in St Helens Police Court charged with "being found at night, having in his possession, without lawful means, a hammer, a screwdriver, and thirty-eight keys, etc., at the Hippodrome premises." The 28-year-old miner at Havannah Colliery also faced charges of assaulting the police and stealing a screwdriver, a large knife, and other tools.
Essentially McDonald had been caught bang to rights by Herbert Rogers, the Hippodrome's stage manager, hiding in a storeroom as he was preparing to go home. The police arrived and found what was described as a "formidable looking knife" in one of McDonald's pockets and on the way to the station the man became very violent. An open and shut case of intended theft one might imagine? The police reckoned that Richard McDonald was planning to hide himself away and then after everyone had left, try and rob the music hall of its takings.
But was it that simple? In court it was revealed that the man had served for several years in the St Helens Pals, having joined up in September 1914. McDonald had been badly gassed and was at one time not expected to recover. He also endured shell shock and his experiences had made him very shortsighted and he regularly drank too much. A fellow miner at Havannah Colliery called William Grimshaw gave evidence that since his discharge from the forces, McDonald had at times been "strange in the head".
McDonald told the court that he had no idea what he was doing at the theatre and had no recollection of assaulting the police. He also had no prior convictions and a good reference from the army and from those that knew him. The Bench said they were prepared to be lenient in view of Richard McDonald's service to his country and guilty plea. However they still sent him to prison for three months.
St Helens Corporation announced this week that another series of free health lectures at the Town Hall (pictured above c. 1926) would begin in mid-November and end in mid-March. The intriguing titles included: 'The Cure of Cancer', 'Housing and Infant Mortality', 'The Mad Dog', 'War Borne Diseases', 'The Ravages of Consumption' and the 'Prevention of Venereal Disease' (two separate sessions for men and women). It would have been interesting to find out how they thought cancer could be cured in 1919.
As well as Frank Lennon's and the Co-op, Stringfellow's was in 1919 the other main grocer in St Helens. Founded by the recently deceased Gervaise Stringfellow from Eccleston Park, the firm owned a number of shops in the town but their main premises were at 1 - 3 Ormskirk Street.
In the St Helens Reporter on the 31st Stringfellow's was advertising a "great exhibition of pure Welco cocoa". A rather over-the-top description as all they were doing was allowing people to drink a free cup of cocoa on their premises. John Rothwell's Welco factory was situated in Golborne and they also made chocolates using the strapline "famous for quality and purity".
The paper also reported that the Borough Engineer had been instructed to hire another male lavatory attendant. The person had to be a "worn-out Corporation employee or a partially disabled soldier" and would be paid a weekly wage of 40 shillings. A female attendant would also be hired who had to be the widow or wife of a worn-out Corporation employee or of a partially disabled soldier. The woman's wage would be thirty shillings per week.
Samuel Alcock from Emily Street in Nutgrove was in the Police Court on the 31st charged with assaulting William Meakin. Alcock defended punching Meakin as he claimed he had called his wife a " __________ liar" (expletive deleted by the Reporter). The Chairman of the Bench reprimanded him by saying: "You cannot take the law into your own hands." To that Alcock replied: "I don't think there is an Englishman who would allow his wife to be called that and not defend her." He was ordered to pay 46 shillings, including a guinea fee for Meakin's advocate.
On November 1st the returned soldiers and sailors of Bold and their lady friends were entertained at Clock Face Colliery School. After a substantial tea the rest of the evening was devoted to dancing to local musicians. The school had opened two years earlier in Lindsay Street, off Clock Face Road, and would be renamed St. Aidan's in 1945.
The first council elections for six years were also held on the 1st. Since 1913 the register of eligible voters had more than doubled from 15,300 to 32,292 and – as the Reporter put it – "the woman voter has come into her own at last". However that did not increase the turnout, which was, as usual, very low. Elections were then held on a Saturday to try and boost the number of voters.
The Reporter wrote: "The general apathy amongst the electorate was reflected in the town generally on Saturday. Excepting in the immediate precincts of the polling booths, there was nothing to indicate to the stranger that an election was proceeding." However the story was somewhat different during the evening, as by 9 o’clock a crowd of several hundred had assembled in Victoria Square.
Thirty minutes later the Mayor, Alderman Bates, as Returning Officer read out the results from the Town Hall steps using a megaphone. It was a good election for the relatively new Labour Party who retained their existing seats and easily took West Sutton, which had been the seat of the next Mayor of St Helens, Councillor Joseph Turner.
Miners' agent Joe Tinker had stood against the Conservative Turner and hammered him in the polls. The ward was a mining stronghold and so he got the mineworkers' vote. Sam Royle (the owner of Royle's grocers) had been the Conservative councillor for East Sutton for a number of years. However a representative of the Discharged and Demobilised Soldiers Federation took the vote of many ex-soldiers and won the seat.
A new week of music hall acts at the Hippodrome Theatre began on the 3rd. These were the turns and their descriptions in the Reporter: Gilday and Fox ("Presenting their new act ‘The Hebrew Special Constables’"); Marion Scott ("Male impersonator"); Clara Magda ("Expert lady gymnast"); Dick and Jimmie Mortimer ("In an exciting time in the jungle"); Jack Shields ("Dialect comedian and animal mimic"); The Gibbon Duo ("Modern eccentrics") and The De Breans ("Remarkable jugglers, including the world’s premier shadowgraphists"). Apparently shadowgraphists participated in shadow plays, throwing shadows of puppets onto a screen.
The more upmarket Theatre Royal had its annual visit by the Allington Charsley Grand Opera Company from the 3rd performing twelve different operas on different days over two weeks.
Next week's stories will include the man who fell 250 yards down a pit shaft, the first sod is cut on the Pilkington Garden Village, a football competition is in the Reporter, the prevalence of thieving from the Town Hall and St Helens' theatres and the policeman who chased down a cyclist in New Street.
We begin just after ten o’clock on the morning of the 29th when an overcoat was seen on the banks of the St Helens / Sankey Canal near to the leadworks of Quirk, Barton & Co. That could only mean that the waters of the canal had claimed yet another victim. So the police began dragging operations and by eleven had recovered the body of William Davies.
Whether the 72-year-old from Borough Road had fallen or walked into the water was the focus of his inquest. However that was settled when P.C. Moseley read out an entry in a notebook found on the widower's body, which read: "My only darling, May, made me do it. And I hope she will forgive me. Good-bye for ever. W. D." A verdict of suicide while temporarily insane was returned.
At the St Helens County Police Court on the 28th two boys were summoned by a Bold farmer for maiming a turkey and a pullet and their mother cross-summoned him for making threats. John Owen told the court that 11-year-old Frank Walsh and his 13-year-old brother Thomas had been employed with several other boys to work on his farm during the school holidays. They were supposed to work in the turnip field but the boys also ventured into the farmyard where they chased turkeys.
Two of them were cruelly banged against what was described as iron hurdles and a pullet had a bale of hay pushed down upon it. The farmer went to see the parents of all the boys but claimed the mother of the Walsh brothers had abused him. Mary Walsh later went to the farm demanding that John Owen pay her son the 4 shillings he was owed. However the farmer refused, saying he would pay no lads for playing.
Mrs Walsh then claimed that Farmer Owen came out of a stable armed with a gun and said: "If you don't go away, I will blow your ______ brains out." This the farmer denied and a friend of the Owens – who was staying with them at the time of the incident – gave evidence that she saw no gun and heard no threat. So the magistrates decided to dismiss all three cases.
On the 30th Richard McDonald appeared in St Helens Police Court charged with "being found at night, having in his possession, without lawful means, a hammer, a screwdriver, and thirty-eight keys, etc., at the Hippodrome premises." The 28-year-old miner at Havannah Colliery also faced charges of assaulting the police and stealing a screwdriver, a large knife, and other tools.
Essentially McDonald had been caught bang to rights by Herbert Rogers, the Hippodrome's stage manager, hiding in a storeroom as he was preparing to go home. The police arrived and found what was described as a "formidable looking knife" in one of McDonald's pockets and on the way to the station the man became very violent. An open and shut case of intended theft one might imagine? The police reckoned that Richard McDonald was planning to hide himself away and then after everyone had left, try and rob the music hall of its takings.
But was it that simple? In court it was revealed that the man had served for several years in the St Helens Pals, having joined up in September 1914. McDonald had been badly gassed and was at one time not expected to recover. He also endured shell shock and his experiences had made him very shortsighted and he regularly drank too much. A fellow miner at Havannah Colliery called William Grimshaw gave evidence that since his discharge from the forces, McDonald had at times been "strange in the head".
McDonald told the court that he had no idea what he was doing at the theatre and had no recollection of assaulting the police. He also had no prior convictions and a good reference from the army and from those that knew him. The Bench said they were prepared to be lenient in view of Richard McDonald's service to his country and guilty plea. However they still sent him to prison for three months.
As well as Frank Lennon's and the Co-op, Stringfellow's was in 1919 the other main grocer in St Helens. Founded by the recently deceased Gervaise Stringfellow from Eccleston Park, the firm owned a number of shops in the town but their main premises were at 1 - 3 Ormskirk Street.
In the St Helens Reporter on the 31st Stringfellow's was advertising a "great exhibition of pure Welco cocoa". A rather over-the-top description as all they were doing was allowing people to drink a free cup of cocoa on their premises. John Rothwell's Welco factory was situated in Golborne and they also made chocolates using the strapline "famous for quality and purity".
The paper also reported that the Borough Engineer had been instructed to hire another male lavatory attendant. The person had to be a "worn-out Corporation employee or a partially disabled soldier" and would be paid a weekly wage of 40 shillings. A female attendant would also be hired who had to be the widow or wife of a worn-out Corporation employee or of a partially disabled soldier. The woman's wage would be thirty shillings per week.
Samuel Alcock from Emily Street in Nutgrove was in the Police Court on the 31st charged with assaulting William Meakin. Alcock defended punching Meakin as he claimed he had called his wife a " __________ liar" (expletive deleted by the Reporter). The Chairman of the Bench reprimanded him by saying: "You cannot take the law into your own hands." To that Alcock replied: "I don't think there is an Englishman who would allow his wife to be called that and not defend her." He was ordered to pay 46 shillings, including a guinea fee for Meakin's advocate.
On November 1st the returned soldiers and sailors of Bold and their lady friends were entertained at Clock Face Colliery School. After a substantial tea the rest of the evening was devoted to dancing to local musicians. The school had opened two years earlier in Lindsay Street, off Clock Face Road, and would be renamed St. Aidan's in 1945.
The first council elections for six years were also held on the 1st. Since 1913 the register of eligible voters had more than doubled from 15,300 to 32,292 and – as the Reporter put it – "the woman voter has come into her own at last". However that did not increase the turnout, which was, as usual, very low. Elections were then held on a Saturday to try and boost the number of voters.
The Reporter wrote: "The general apathy amongst the electorate was reflected in the town generally on Saturday. Excepting in the immediate precincts of the polling booths, there was nothing to indicate to the stranger that an election was proceeding." However the story was somewhat different during the evening, as by 9 o’clock a crowd of several hundred had assembled in Victoria Square.
Left: Alderman Henry Bates, Mayor of St Helens; Right: The Hippodrome Theatre when known as The Empire
Mayor of St Helens Alderman Henry Bates & Hippodrome Theatre
Mayor of St Helens Ald. Henry Bates
Miners' agent Joe Tinker had stood against the Conservative Turner and hammered him in the polls. The ward was a mining stronghold and so he got the mineworkers' vote. Sam Royle (the owner of Royle's grocers) had been the Conservative councillor for East Sutton for a number of years. However a representative of the Discharged and Demobilised Soldiers Federation took the vote of many ex-soldiers and won the seat.
A new week of music hall acts at the Hippodrome Theatre began on the 3rd. These were the turns and their descriptions in the Reporter: Gilday and Fox ("Presenting their new act ‘The Hebrew Special Constables’"); Marion Scott ("Male impersonator"); Clara Magda ("Expert lady gymnast"); Dick and Jimmie Mortimer ("In an exciting time in the jungle"); Jack Shields ("Dialect comedian and animal mimic"); The Gibbon Duo ("Modern eccentrics") and The De Breans ("Remarkable jugglers, including the world’s premier shadowgraphists"). Apparently shadowgraphists participated in shadow plays, throwing shadows of puppets onto a screen.
The more upmarket Theatre Royal had its annual visit by the Allington Charsley Grand Opera Company from the 3rd performing twelve different operas on different days over two weeks.
Next week's stories will include the man who fell 250 yards down a pit shaft, the first sod is cut on the Pilkington Garden Village, a football competition is in the Reporter, the prevalence of thieving from the Town Hall and St Helens' theatres and the policeman who chased down a cyclist in New Street.