Thanks to the Faringdon Advertiser and Vale of the White Horse Gazette for the following news from Abingdon 100 years ago in February 1919. ( © Successor rightsholder unknown. All Rights Reserved.)
1st Feb 1919
The Abingdon Prisoners’ of War Committee entertained the local returned prisoners of war and their friends at the Abingdon Corn Exchange, on Thursday evening last. The hall was gaily decorated with flags, and mottoes. The festivities included a substantial meat tea, followed by an excellent entertainment. The caterer was Mr Hathaway, who provided a large iced cake inscribed ‘Welcome to Home Sweet Home.’ The number of men entertained was nearly 50, and each was asked to bring a friend.
8th Feb 1919
The North Oxford concert party gave an entertainment in the Abingdon Corn Exchange, on Thursday last, in aid of St. Dunstan’s Hostel for the Blind. The programme was an excellent one, but there was a limited audience.
Abingdon Philanthropic Society has just issued the balance sheet for the past year, which shows that with £31 1s 2d. brought forward from last year, £7 8s 10d. from interest and investments, and £37 11s 6d. donations and subscriptions, the total receipts were £76 1s 6d. Grants to applicants were £l6. £20 was placed to deposit account, and the expenses were 8s 4d. This allowed the sum of £30 to be carried forward. The report of the past year stated in reference the grants applicants that it is obvious that the continued high rate of wages and army pay the Society’s mission of relieving cases of distress amongst the industrious and meritorious poor has been somewhat limited, but heavy claims on the Society’s funds are anticipated on the return of more normal times.
The Milton Red Cross Hospital is about to be closed for renovation but if military necessities prevail after the work is completed Mr and Mrs Mortimer Singer will again give up this beautiful residence in continuance of hospital work, but otherwise intend occupying themselves.
The Nag’s Head public house on the Abingdon Bridge, which has been closed for some considerable time, and belonging to the Governors of Christ Hospital, had its license opposed by the Captain of the Salvation Army at Abingdon, Mr Dowse. The Abingdon County Bench renewed the license.
15th Feb 2018
The annual meeting of the Abingdon Fire Brigade was held last week at the Fire Station, Mr W. M. Coxeter, Chief Officer, presiding. The balance sheet, produced and adopted, showed that with £73 5s 1d brought forward, the annual subscription of the Abingdon Corporation of ten guineas, and sums from insurance companies, etc. gave the total receipts of £103 0s 4d. The expenditure was £16 13s 3d, leaving a balance of £86 8s 1d. The report mentioned that the Brigade had four calls during the year, one of which was outside the town. The staff was three officers and ten firemen, with two others serving in the Army.
An inquest was held at the Abingdon Union on Monday, before Mr Coroner, on the death of John Lamer, an inmate. It appeared from the evidence that another inmate found the deceased on the lavatory floor on Sunday morning dead. Deceased, who walked with crutches, had slipped up and thereby hurt his head.
At the County Bench in Abingdon the following school attendance cases were heard :- Robert Lardner, Botley, was fined 5s in respect of his daughter. Charles Lewington, Hinksey, was summoned in respect of his three children. P.C. Martin said when he delivered the summons the defendant said’he kept the children at home because he had pawned their clothes to get food. The case was adjourned for a month.
Sgt. Harry Parker, son of Mrs Parker, West St. Helen Street, was named in Sir Douglas Haigs despatch of December 28th as worthy special mention during an engagement on that date. Pte. George Sparrow, son of Mrs Sparrow, 159, Ock Street, Abingdon, has been awarded the Military Medal for bravery shown on August 24th in engagement near Boiselle. The medal of O.B.E. has been conferred on Mr Albert Trinder, a postmaster, son of Mr Alfred Trinder, 198, Ock Street, Abingdon, for courageous conduct during a fire which broke out in a military camp shed in which live bombs were stored.
22nd Feb 1919
Pte. Fred Buckle, Royal Berks, son of Mr and Mrs Benjamin Buckle, of West St. Helen’s Street, Abingdon, is reported to have died whilst a prisoner of war in Germany. The number of Abingdon men and lads who have lost their lives during the war is considerable, 23 whose homes were in one street alone – West St. Helens Street, and six of those from one small court.
The Abingdon Cottage Hospital report for the past year, just issued, states that the sum of £500 was received under the will of the late Miss Hyde, formerly of Abingdon, which has been invested in war loans. Alexandra Days, Abingdon in 1917-8 brought in £40 and £72 respectively. Another bequest falls to the hospital under the will of the late Miss Hutching, of Harwell. The in-patients during the year were 74, 18 of which were accidents. The total receipts from bequests, offertories, donations, etc., with £33 brought forward, amounted to £1,186 1s. 6d., and the expenditure £590 10s.
The funeral of one of the victims of the sinking of H M.S Penarth, which hit a mine off the Yorkshire coast, took place at Abingdon Cemetery on Wednesday afternoon of last week. The deceased was Thomas George Taylor, officer’s servant, son of Mr and Mrs James Taylor, West St Helen Street, and had been in the Navy three years. There were several floral tributes and deceased was carried to the grave by sailor lads, the coffin being covered with the Union Jack. Several returned prisoners of war, and other sailors and soldiers on furlough attended the funeral service, and the Last Post was sounded by a bugler.
At the Abingdon Borough Police Court on Tuesday, three Abingdon lads were summoned for letting off fireworks in the public streets, on Saturday evening last. Defendants pleaded guilty, and were dismissed with a caution.
The Abingdon Horticultural Society have decided to hold the Abingdon Flower Show this summer, which was discontinued during the war. It is however, this year to on a modified scale in comparison with pre-war shows, and August 21st is the suggested date.
Thanks to the British Newspaper Archive for the stories and the Dunstan’s Cigarette advert and Abingdon hat images. The Berkshire school attendance medal is being sold on Ebay. The gravestone is on Wikipedia.
Fascinating. St Dunstan’s cigarettes: Help the blind by wrecking your lungs. I wonder what future generations will smile at in us.
To talk about the present. Four rough sleepers have died in Oxford since November. Laya Moran has put up a petition to dispel the vagrancy act. libdems.org.uk/repeal-vagrancy-act
It cost rough sleepers £40 a night to stay in the homeless hostel in Oxford. We send millions abroad in foreign aid, in some instances to wealthy countries. The building of social housing has stopped. Instead we have the scam of ‘affordable housing’. As a civilised coutry we should be dealing with our homeless first.
Janet – as others have said before, it is not “either or” in relation to alleviating need at home. we can, and should, do both.
Also, others may correct me if I am wrong, but I dont think that individuals have to pay £40 per night for hostels – that may be the cost of providing the accommodation, but homeless people are encouraged to claim benefits and those would include an element to cover housing costs.
However none of that takes away from the scandal of how many people are homeless – on that I agree with you and Layla.
To be honest the welfare state has lost st the plot somewhat, £200 winter fuel allowance paid to ex pats living in Spain? A legal aid system that costs tax payers thousands fighting extradition of convicted terrorists, rapists and other undesirables, over 30% of council tax used for employee pensions, once trained NHS nurses and doctors being re-“hired” via agencies costing our NHS thousands more, civil servents (and I use the term lightly) retiring at 55 with a fat pension only to be re hired the following day with the same pay! It just goes on and on, talk about snouts in the trough!
I would defend legal aid and think that Chris Grayling, who cut it back and who (even though he is now the Secretary of State for Transport) couldn’t organize a traffic jam), should hang his head in shame.
Of course, some people who receive legal aid are found Guilty; but many more have to defend themselves without a lawyer to represent them and put their case for them.
We should ask the same sort of question that Harold Macmillan put to the hanging brigade in his own party in Parliament. “You may be prepared to be the hangman, but would you defend the death penalty if you had been found Guilty and were in fact innocent?”
I hope I never have to appear in court as a defendant or plaintiff. I wouldn’t know where to start, and I would want someone trained in the law to represent me and for that I would need financial support (Legal Aid).
I do not expect to undertake my own medical treatment; I go to the doctor. Why should it be different when my liberty is threatened?
Slightly missing my point PPJS, I was referring to the “ambulance chasing” legal brigade who rip the hell out of the system while trying to defend the indefendable, similarly today it’s been announced unscrupulous suppliers, agencies, and darn right crooks have ripped the NHS off to the (so far discovered) tube of £5.5 billion!
While on about money in/from the public pot I see OCC have just submitted a request to government for £200 million to fund expansion and necessary projects? Among their list of priorities are a river bridge serving Didcot, road improvements including extra lanes at the A34 Didcot junction ( thought they just spent millions installing a hamburger roundabout there?) there’s Didcot this and Dicot that but no mention of the promised diamond interchange at Lodge Hill ?
I think you’ll find they already have the funding for the Lodge Hill slips and are doing the preparatory work.
PS I thought the original post was fascinating – al sorts of thought-provoking nuggets of information.
Isn’t there some other forum for people to discuss / argue about topics that are not related to the original post? This is happening more and more. Surely I’m not the only reader who finds it very irritating?
Totally agree with Fiona. And it’s the same old people with the same old comments. Heard it all before. And the so called humour/sarcasm isn’t funny any more.
Please tell me the Abingdon All Weather Hat is still available? Must get one for the wife who cycles to work and refuses to wear lycra.
@Horsesmouth I agree that there are abuses of the system which – like you – I deplore. However, it is hardly fair to attack a system because it is abused. That’s like criticising a knife because someone has been stabbed.
You suggested that the legal aid system was being used to fight “the extradition of convicted terrorists, rapists and other undesirables”. Legal aid is very highly regulated and unless we believe everything we read in the papers without knowing the circumstances of individual cases we are in danger of denying to others what we would want for ourselves.
We know to our own cost in this country that men have been wrongfully convicted of terrorism and have served long prison sentences. When they protested their innocence the tabloid press had a field day vilifying them.
Public anger and outrage are easy to arouse and in such an atmosphere justice is easily perverted. It doesn’t improve the quality of our civic life to be abusive to those with whom we disagree.
Thank you for this item – and the previous one relating to Abingdon in January 1919. I’ve been sharing the contents with residents at Old Station House care home. They find the ‘old’ news very interesting.