100 years ago

Lord Kitchener had made some important announcements in the House of Lords. “In response to the call for troops for the new army,” he said, “we have had a most remarkable demonstration of patriotism from the young men of this country.

It is proposed to form four new armies, and though it takes a good time to train an army, the zeal and goodwill displayed by the recruits will lighten the task.”

The Government had decided to increase the separation allowances to the wives and dependents of the soldiers.

No change would be made in the amounts contributed by the soldier out of his pay, but the allowances made from Army funds would be so increased as to bring the income of the family up to a higher standard.

The increases ranged, for a wife without a child from 11s 1d, increased to 12s 6d, on a sliding scale to 17s 6d increased to 22s 0d for a wife with four children. Arrangements had been made with the Post Office to pay the allowances weekly direct to the women in all cases.

 

50 years ago

A face-to-face confrontation on television between Sir Alec Douglas-Home and Mr Harold Wilson was unlikely.

The challenge made by Mr Wilson for the Prime Minister to face him before the cameras, following publication of the Conservative election manifesto, would almost certainly be ignored, or politely refused by Sir Alec. But Mr Wilson would seek to extract the maximum electoral advantage by repeating his challenge during the following three weeks.

A TV confrontation had first been suggested by Mr Wilson several months before, and rejected by the Conservatives on the grounds that the election should be fought on policies not personalities.

But a second suggestion, that Ministers and their Shadow Cabinet opponents should appear together on television programmes had been in operation for some time.

 

25 years ago

British Rail had smashed all records with a high-speed run of its new Class 91 electric locomotive. The locomotive had reached 162 mph between Grantham and Peterborough. This was the fastest ever speed reached on the British Rail network.

The previous record was held by the Advanced Passenger Train which had never gone into public service.

That had reached speeds of 152 mph, while the highest ever speed recorded by the diesel-powered HST125 trains was 144 mph.

It meant that British Rail Eastern region, which had its headquarters in York, currently held the British speed record for an electric train as well as still holding the world record for a diesel train.