100 years ago

A telegram dispatched from the German General Headquarters said: “The enemy, including part of the Antwerp garrison, is hastily retreating from Ghent westwards to the coast, pursued by our troops.

Lille has been occupied by us and 4,500 prisoners taken; during the attack the town was slightly damaged. From the front in France there is nothing new to report.

Two heavy French batteries are posted near Rheims Cathedral, and light signals have been observed from one of its towers.

The French methods of warfare continue to show disregard for the protection of the cathedral, and it will be the fault of the French if the beautiful building falls a victim to the war.

In the eastern theatre the Russians have been repulsed near Schirwindt. They lost 3000 prisoners, 26 guns, and 12 machine guns.

Further south Russian advance troops from Warsaw were defeated, and 8,000 prisoners and 25 guns were taken.”
 

50 years ago

Each year, former York citizens and relatives of York people who were now living abroad, received a reminder of the city in the form of the Lord Mayor’s overseas Christmas card.

It had been a link with home for those whose Christmases were spent in all kinds of conditions, from sub-zero temperatures to tropical storms.

This year’s Lord Mayor, Councillor Stanley Palphramand, had decided to continue the popular custom, and anyone who wished a card to be sent overseas was requested to forward his or her name and address, as soon as possible, to the Lord Mayor’s secretary, Mansion House, York, marking the envelope “Overseas Greetings.”

The 1964 card would show the graceful, white stucco curve of St Leonard’s, a terrace of 1835 which looked back in style to the days of the Regency. The terrace was designed by PF Robinson and GT Andrews, the great railway architect.


25 years ago

Britain’s public lavatories were among the worst in the West – smelly, foul and filthy.

Three out of four were unhygienic, and only the lavatories of Greece and Italy were in a worse state, according to a survey just published. Researchers who examined 5,000 loos came up with conclusions such as “dens of infestation,” “breeding grounds for bacteria” and “woefully inadequate.”

The survey was commissioned by the Kent-based Pinnacle Hygiene Systems, a distributor of hygiene and cleaning products, and it covered lavatories in motorway service areas, restaurants, main line rail stations, three-star and four-star hotels and the food industry, as well as urban public conveniences. Public lavatories generally were “evil, foul-smelling, bacteria-ridden dens of infestation.”