100 years ago

THE French newspaper “Temps,” in a leading article said: “For a long time the marvellous qualities of the British soldier have been well-known, and they have been demonstrated anew in this rough campaign in a manner which imposes respect and excites in France a feeling of deep gratitude.

"During the whole of the campaign, the British expeditionary force has contested every foot of ground with forces greatly its superior in numbers.

"At this very moment this force, in cooperation with our troops on the left wing, has resumed the offensive with superb determination and is pursuing the enemy which has been forced back beyond the Marne.

"The principal characteristic of the British soldier is coolness and discipline in every trial and an energy and a strength which never yields, but opposes like a wall of iron, the assaults of the most formidable forces.”


50 years ago

THE Middlesbrough-Whitby passenger rail service, running through the North York Moors by way of the Esk Valley, would not be closed.

This decision by the Minister of Transport (Mr Ernest Marples) had just been announced.

In refusing consent to closure, the Minister had taken into account the importance to Whitby itself of retaining a rail service to connect it with the nearest large centre of population, the importance of the tourist trade to the town and to the area as a whole, and the extreme difficulty of operating buses over the Esk Valley roads, especially in winter. But among the doomed lines were Whitby-Pickering-Malton and Whitby-Scarborough.

Both these closures were subject to the provision of additional through and local bus services and their duplication as necessary to carry travellers diverted from rail, especially the summer holiday makers.


25 years ago

THE Duchess of York was expecting a baby in the spring, announced Buckingham Palace. The 22-word Palace statement said: “The Duke and Duchess of York are very pleased to announce that the Duchess of York is expecting a baby in March.”

The proud parents, the Queen, the Duke of Edinburgh and members of both the Royal and Ferguson families were said to be “very happy”.

If the baby was a boy it would take precedence in the line of succession over the Duke and Duchess’s first child, 13-months-old Princess Beatrice.

She was currently fifth in line. If the baby was a girl it would be sixth in line.

The Duchess, who was attending a Foyles literary lunch in her honour as author of two illustrated children’s books, was said by a Palace spokesman to be in “excellent health”.