100 years ago

At the Sussex Assizes, the Brighton West Pier Co, Ltd, had brought an action for libel against the publishers and editor of “John Bull”.

The alleged libel was contained in the following paragraph, which had appeared in “John Bull”:

“We understand that enemy aliens of Great Britain - a party of musicians calling themselves the Hungarian Band - continue to discourse sweet music at the expense of the ratepayers for the delectation of promenaders on the West Pier, Brighton.

In view of the fact that we are at war with the Austro-Hungarian Empire and that there are hundreds of clever British-born musicians on the verge of starvation in England, does it not strike the Brighton Corporation that it is their duty to dispense with the services of these foreigners.”

 

50 years ago

January 4 had been given as the date of the Scarborough to Whitby railway line closure by Mr Sidney Greene, general secretary of the National Union of Railwaymen, in a letter to the union’s Scarborough branch.

But the United Bus Company, who would provide alternative bus services, said this was incorrect. They understood it would be March 8. Mr Greene said: “I have taken this case up with the Minister, along with several others which are to close shortly, in an effort to have the closures postponed.”

 

25 years ago

A York dentist had become the first in the county to turn away patients unless they went private. Mr Peter Wright, who had practised in Boroughbridge Road for 15 years, was writing to all his patients giving his reasons for the move, with details of a private insurance scheme they could join.

The secretary of the North Yorkshire local dental committee, Mr John Renshaw, said dentists were struggling to make ends meet in high-cost areas such as York and Harrogate.