100 years ago

AT Wakefield an inquest had been held on Maria Gertrude Hargreaves, 38, weaver, a single woman who had died from the effects of a dose of carbolic acid.

The woman had been suffering a great deal for some months passed, and had, on occasions, told her mother that the pain nearly sent her out of her mind. She had been under two operations for rupture.

The previous evening the deceased’s mother had left the room, and when she came back shortly afterwards her daughter was lying unconscious, on the floor. There was a strong smell of carbolic acid, and a bottle of the poison was found in the cupboard.

The mother said her daughter seemed to have a lot on her mind, and must have purchased the poison earlier in the day.

A verdict was returned that the woman poisoned herself while of unsound mind, brought on by severe pain from illness and constant depression.


50 years ago

SIR Alex Douglas Home, the Prime Minister, said that there was “one reason only” why we had made considerable progress towards a state of affairs in which there would not be a nuclear war.

“That is that your United Kingdom Conservative Government, with the United States and its other allies, have insisted on getting a superiority in nuclear arms,” he told a theatre audience at Ilfracombe.


25 years ago

IT was hoped a referendum might hold the key to the return of White Rose rule to East Yorkshire.

The Boundary Commission was looking at plans to ask the people of Humberside what they thought of controversial moves to scrap the county. Proposals included a referendum, an opinion poll or a massive series of public meetings.

Hundreds of letters and petitions had already flooded into the commission’s London offices with pleas for or against the 15-year-old county.