100 years ago

Official intimation had been received today that two of the Scarborough sailors who had been on the ill-fated cruisers Aboukir, Hogue, and Cressy had been lost.

Mr and Mrs Wilson, of Moorland Road had received the following message from the Admiralty: “Regret to inform you that HMS Aboukir was sunk on the 22nd ult., and that the name of Harry Wilson, rating leading seaman, official number 233,319, who was believed to have been on board, does not appear in the list of survivors received in this department.

Under these circumstances it is feared that, in the absence of any evidence to the contrary, he must be regarded as having lost his life.” The following message of sympathy accompanied the intimation: “The King commands me to assure you of the true sympathy of his Majesty and the Queen in your sorrow.”

 

50 years ago

Fifty-seven East Germans had escaped into West Berlin through a tunnel, over three days, said West Berlin city authorities.

Herr Albertz, City Senator for Security and Public Order said the refugees - 23 men, 31 women and three children - had fled to the West in several groups, the last of them early in the morning of the third day.

This was the largest number of people to escape into West Berlin by tunnel. The tunnel led from a house in East Berlin into the French sector district of Wedding. West Berlin police closed the Western entrance of the tunnel late on the third day, after activity on the Eastern side showed that the authorities there had discovered it.

Two cars and a motorcycle with three civilians and four border guards had arrived at the Eastern end of the tunnel soon after midnight. Shortly afterwards a large number of sub-machine gunshots were heard.

 

25 years ago

All-day pedal power was back in Deangate, York. It had been reopened to cyclists for a trial period of one year after a campaign mounted by cycling groups when the street running beside the Minster was closed to all traffic a year before.

Mr John Rigby, head of city development, had predicted that the county council move which the city council had pressed for over the past 12 months, would prove a great boost to cyclists. “Around 25 per cent of people in York cycle to work and that is the second highest figure in Britain after Cambridge,” he said. “We recommended to the county council last year that cyclists should be able to use Deangate all day.”

North Yorkshire Cyclists Touring Club spokesman, Mr Paul Hepworth, said he was delighted. “Deangate is a crucial link for cyclists coming from Tang Hall and Heworth into the town centre and it allows them to avoid busy shopping areas,” he said.