100 years ago

The fighting, which seemed to have begun just a week before when the British captured Hill 60 to the South-east of Ypres, had developed with dramatic suddenness into a greater battle on a front which at present extended from Dicksmuide through Ypres to the French frontier.

Everything pointed to a new Battle of Ypres having begun. Reports on the operations were issued the previous day by Field Marshall Sir John French and General Jodfre.

From these one gathered that while the British were holding the ground gained the previous Saturday at Hill 60 (on the south of Ypres) the Germans had launched a sudden attack to the north of the town and had made a considerable advance.

 

50 years ago

The Hallé orchestra would play, and on May 23 the following year Scarborough would begin a special week to mark its 1,000th birthday. Ten centuries before, the Vikings had founded the community. Now new links were to be forged with Norway.

Further plans for the week were discussed by the Millennium (Special) Committee. It was reported that the manager, Mr A D Eastern, had booked the Hallé Orchestra to give a concert on the opening night.

The committee agreed that the parks committee should be asked to consider providing special flower displays in the town during the Millennium year. But it was recommended that there should be no military tattoo, and no further action on a local firm’s offer to produce a commemoration booklet.

 

25 years ago Great

Train Robber Charles Wilson was shot on the doorstep of his Spanish home by a cycling assassin, in what police revealed may have been a drug related killing. A young man on a yellow bike and wearing a tracksuit opened fire on Wilson, 57, after calling at his chalet in Marbella on the Costa del Sol where he lived with his wife Pat.

A judge ordered Marbella police to give no details about the killing while investigations continued, but a police spokesman – who asked not to be identified – said Wilson was suspected of links to gangs that smuggled thousands of pounds of hashish from North Africa through Spain to northern Europe every year. Neighbours had told police they spotted the young man fleeing on the bicycle shortly after hearing gunshots coming from Wilson’s chalet.

Jack Slipper, the detective who hunted many of the great train robbers, said he was ‘surprised and saddened’ by Charles Wilson’s murder. Gang member Ronnie Biggs told the Press Association from his home in Rio de Janeiro: “I was very shocked to hear the news. I liked him very much as a person.”