The Sad Tale of Lydia Bentley of Stone, Staffordshire - 2 March 1911

Mr and Mrs Bentley, of Stone, Staffordshire recently received news from Canada of the tragic termination of a romance in which their daughter Lydia was a central figure. Miss Bentley, who was a trained nurse, travelled to Christ church, New Zealand, to join her relatives, and subsequently travelled to Canada, a distance of 7000 miles, to be married to Mr Oswald Hill, a prosperous farmer of Alberta. On the voyage, however, she was taken ill, and at Edmonton, where she was met, by her fiancée, she was conveyed to hospital. Shortly after her arrival at Edmonton Miss Bentley, while lying in what proved to be her deathbed, was married to Mr Hill. The day after the wedding.

Criminals Long Career of Fraud and Deception - 4 May 1901

A most extraordinary criminal record is held by Percy Ross, who at the Staffordshire Assizes has been sentenced to his second term of five years penal servitude for fraud.

His correct name is Percy Roskham. His father was a solicitor, and he himself is an upholsterer by trade. After being employed in London he enlisted in the Royal Engineers, but was discharged after trial by court-martial.

In 1885 he was sentenced to twelve months imprisonment at the Surrey Sessions for fraud, and soon, after his liberation he was convicted of a similar offence. From that time until 1895 he practised a peculiar speries of fraud, at which, he made himself an adept. He noted the names and addresses of people convicted at different Police Courts, and then visited their friends and represented himself to be a prison warder and in a position to procure extra food for the prisoners or to smuggle money or clothing for them.

 On several occasions this trick cost him his liberty. A most peculiar circumstance that whenever he appeared at the Police Court he successfully hoodwinked the medical men into believing that he was insane, and again and again, he was sent to a lunatic asylum. Altogether he has been medically certified insane eleven times. Of course, as a rule he rapidly recovered, and was discharged. Twice he escaped from a Hatch, and committed about twenty frauds on the friends of convicted prisoners.

He was recaptured and sent back to Colney was recaptured and sent back to Colney Hatch. The medical authorities then came to the conclusion that he had been sane all the time. He was prosecuted and sent to penal servitude for five years. Four months after his release an 1899 he was appointed attendant at Parkside Asylum, and in the same year the married a young woman who had been in the service of the medical superintendent.

Once more he committed a series of frauds, and once more he was certified as a lunatic. He was sent to Cheddleton Asylum, where he remained three months before his malingering was discovered.

 

Daring Robbery at Weston Super Mare – 30 October 1873

A most daring robbery has been perpetuated at Weston Super Mare by which bonds, stock, and other valuables, representing at leastk £5000, have been stolen. The Rev T Thirkhill, of Cheltenham, has lately been sojourning at 10 Claremont Crescent, Weston-Super-Mare, and a day or two ago since he missed from his bed-room a despatch-box, containing Turkish, Egyptian Government, and Canada Government bonds, together with a considerable quantity of certificates of North British, Great Eastern, Bristol and Exeter, and Sheffield railway stock, and bank notes.

The robbery is supposed to have been committed by a fashionably dressed man who had been seen to leave the house by one of the servants but whose respectable appearance entirely disarmed the domestic of any suspicion.

 
A man answering the same description was also seen to leave the residences of other gentlemen, and in one instance a gold watch, the property of Major Nutt, and in another a gold chain with seal and key attached, were missing immediately after the departure of this distinguished visitor, who has, as yet, eluded capture

War Memorials Trust

Can you help to record the condition of War Memorials in your town? The War Memorials Trust needs your help.

The following is from their website:

“War Memorials Trust works for the protection and conservation of war memorials in the United Kingdom. We provide advice and information to anyone as well as running grant schemes for the repair and conservation of war memorials. The website provides a range of resources to help you discover more about war memorials and their preservation. Please remember we are a registered charity relying entirely on voluntary contributions to undertake our work.

War Memorials Online is an unprecedented opportunity for the public to upload images of war memorials and log concerns for the conservation of these important community and historical sources for future generations. Together, we can build a complete picture of the whereabouts, type and condition of all war memorials in the UK.

Anyone and everyone can start discovering and recording war memorials for future generations. Your content is vital.”

http://www.warmemorialsonline.org.uk/

There are many memorials in Tamworth and the surrounding area.

The Phil Dix Centre, Corporation Street, Tamworth (formerly the Territorial Drill Hall) has a memorial for the Tamworth Territorial Army North Staffs Regiment WW2 which is in excellent condition.

In Memory of the following members of Tamworth Territorial Army at the outbreak of War.

The North Staffordshire Regiment 1939 - 1945

Pte H Archer Sgt W Burnett Sgt J Drake Pte R Dudley Cpl R Egan Pte J Findley Sgt R Griffiths Pte R Griffin St C Higgins Pte G Hunt Pte J Jackson Pte W Langley

Pte R Nichols Pte P Orwin Pte W Robinson Pte R Sadler CSM R Sandall Pte P Silvester Pte C Stanford Pte J Wildig Sgt M Wood Cpt R Whitehouse Pte E Yates Pts A Hewitt

 

We Will Remember Them

Joseph Willdig

1918-1944

 

Outbreak of Scarlet Fever caused by Staffordshire milk – 9 May 1901

Outbreak of Scarlet Fever caused by Staffordshire milk – 9 May 1901

 

The outbreak of scarlet fever at Bethnal Green and Shoreditch was caused by the contamination of milk from Staffordshire.

AN EXCITING SCENE - BULL SCATTERS FOOTBALL TEAMS AT HANLEY STAFFORDSHIRE

AN EXCITING SCENE - BULL SCATTERS FOOTBALL TEAMS AT HANLEY STAFFORDSHIRE

 11 May 1903

 

An exciting incident took place at the football match at Hanley, Staffordshire. The players, some of whom were dressed in bright red, commenced to play at Finney Gardens, in an adjoining field to which a bull was grazing. As soon as the game commenced, however, the animal broke through the fence, and to the consternation of the teams, dashed into the middle of them, quickly scattering them in all direction. First one and then another of the unhappy men in red received his unwelcome attentions, and they rushed precipitately from the ground.

Taurus afterwards turned his attention to the spectators and these he chased up and down the field pell mell. One of the players fell when the animal was right upon him, and received a kick on the knee. Before the lapse of any great length of time the uninvited visitor had cleared the field, where he remained in sole and undisputed possession.

The bull next varied his amusement by demolishing the corner flags then tried to jump a stonewall, after which be quietened down. Later some of the players plucked up courage and got the beast out of the field

 

Arsenic Powder Dusted on Sweets in Burslem 15 September 1930

ARSENIC POWDER DUSTED ON SWEETS CHILDREN ILL 

15 September 1930

 

Following the illness of thirteen children in Cheshire, traced to arsenic coated cough drops supplied by a factory at Burslem in Staffordshire detectives made an amazing discovery in a Tunstall workshop.

Buried under a heap of rubbish beneath a staircase they found a box containing half a hundredweight of  arsenic, sufficient to kill 200,000 people. A health officer expresses the opinion that there is no doubt this is the source of supply of the "powder" with which the sweets were dusted in the factory. The occupier said ho obtained the powder from a man who was now in America. He did not know it was arsenic. At least seventeen bottles of sweets are known to have been consumed, and efforts are being made to trace twelve others.

 
Many more children suffered in different localities.