100 years ago

Earl Kitchener’s appeal for 160,000 men to constitute what was practically a second army with the slogan “Your King and Country Need You”, which had just been released, was meeting with a splendid and expanding response.

It was not merely that the response was highly satisfactory from the point of view of numbers, but that the character of the recruits was generally all that could be wished.

The percentage of rejections on the score of physical unfitness was unusually and surprisingly low, and it was already obvious that the material of the second army would be sound, serviceable and strong.

The most amazing phase of this national and international crisis was perhaps the calm courage and the disciplined earnestness of the British race. Nothing could surpass the temper of the British public, nor the honourable resolve of British statesmanship.


50 years ago

A plan for York’s hospitals to issue nurses with name tabs to be worn on their uniforms would be discussed this autumn.

Mr F A Milnes, secretary of the York “A” Hospital Management Committee said: “We discussed this at some length last year, and there were divided opinions.

We decided to introduce it as an experiment in one hospital, the Military Hospital. All the staff there have been wearing these name badges for some months and it has been very successful. This autumn we are going to consider, in the light of their experience, whether we can extend this to other hospitals.

“They make it easier for the patients,” was the verdict of Nurse Marjorie White, one of the nurses at the Military Hospital who had been wearing name badges. She said most patients read the name on the badge, and then addressed its wearer by name.


25 years ago

Proud Tykes would soon be able to show off the ultimate status symbol of their Yorkshire heritage. Harrogate civil servant Mike Bell had come up with an idea for launching a Yorkshire passport for natives, residents and visitors.

To qualify for a native’s gold and yellow passport, featuring the White Rose of Yorkshire on the cover, the holder had to have been born in the ridings or have strong family ties.

Blue passports were for residents who had lived in Yorkshire for two-thirds of their lives, those who had lived in Yorkshire for one-third of their lives and were related to natives, and those who had become residents after holding a visitor’s passport for three years.

A visitor’s green passport would be issued only to frequent visitors to Yorkshire who had also to support Yorkshire. Mr Bell, who ran a guesthouse in Harrogate, hoped the passports, which cost 80p each, would appeal to a wide range of people.