100 years ago

When the fighting in Flanders was at its height, a lieutenant observer, with a sergeant as pilot, was ordered to locate a German concealed battery.

The pilot related: “When we arrived above the German lines we were greeted by a perfect storm of shell fire. We rose higher in the direction of the village, where we saw three batteries. The smoke enshrouded us so thickly that it was impossible to see. One shell, burst just above our heads. I saw nothing but blackness all around.

I was alone in space, 6,000ft above the earth. I was afraid. After two minutes to my astonishment the lieutenant called out ‘Look out, man; go up quickly.’ I raised the plane quickly at the same time tearing away the weather-vane from a steeple. ‘Thank you, (I said). You must excuse me, but I cannot see; but you are wounded?’

‘Yes, I fear seriously,’ he answered. Our landing wheels grated the ground. There was a murmur among bystanders who were looking at the handsome, strong, young pilot, deprived of his eyesight forever, and the lifeless body of the lieutenant who had just breathed his last.”

 

50 years ago

Driver John Scott brought the 150-ton locomotive rumbling to life, and, at 6.54pm on Saturday, the last passenger train to run between Whitby and Malton left Whitby. The carriages were full of people who had travelled to take a last sentimental journey along a line considered one of the most beautiful in the country.

 

25 years ago

The sound of singing filled a ward at the City Hospital as York Philharmonic Male Voice Choir honoured its longest-serving member. As the choir crowded round his hospital bed a smile broke across the face of Henry Brough, aged 82, and he started to sing along. Mr Brough, had been a member of the choir for 65 years.