100 years ago

“Recruiting in south-east Durham has received a tragic but effective stimulus,” wrote a correspondent. There had also been a rush of recruits to the chief depots in London almost immediately after the news of the German attack on the east coast had been published in the Press. Boys and men beyond the age limit were among those eager to enlist.

One man who, too old and certainly undersize, when told that his application could not be entertained exclaimed “Well, anyway, take me for a few weeks to assist in guarding the east coast.”

Another who was with great difficulty persuaded to leave the recruiting office went off muttering “Red tape!

Hang the age; I can shoot straight!” In the yards at the recruiting headquarters, Scotland Yard, there were some fine specimens of British manhood awaiting medical examination. They were men of the public school type, 6ft high, with the limbs of the highly trained athlete.

A chat with one of these recruits made it evident that the attack on the coast had been the means of drawing them to the recruiting depot.


50 years ago

An abstract picture - an untitled drawing No.37 by Armenian artist Arshile Gorky - was not hanging upside down in York Art Gallery.

The plate in the accompanying catalogue had been reversed, said the Gallery’s curator, Mr Hans Hess.

An art critic, Mr WE Johnson, had noticed that something was wrong with No.37 and after examining the catalogue an Arts Council spokesman confirmed that it had been hung upside down.

It was one of 50 in an Arts Council-sponsored exhibition of the work of the Armenian artist. Mr Hess, who had been away from the gallery for a week with flu whilst the pictures were hung in his absence, confirmed the picture had always been hanging the right way up.


25 years ago

Trading standards officers were demanding action to protect the food chain following claims that slaughterhouses in North Yorkshire might be illegally accepting cows suffering from the so-called “mad cow disease”.

Animal health inspectors in the region had already found seven infected animals in slaughterhouses. And county trading standards officer Mr Gordon Gresty was concerned that infected meat was entering the food chain.

Farmers could be paid 50 per cent of the market value of an animal in which the disease - correctly known as BSE or bovine spongiform encephalopathy - was confirmed. But Mr Gresty said this was not enough to ensure farmers notified all suspected cases.