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Reactions to the Bruneval Raid

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  A question posed on the Independent Company Facebook page, ‘ Which of the two, the Bruneval or the Doolittle Raid, was more important from a strictly PR/Morale standpoint?’ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Biting  2nd March 1942  Nottingham Evening Post  If someone has the time and resources this would make a great MA Thesis.  I thought one way of measuring it would be to look at three daily papers to see how much they covered it and for how long.  I picked one national [Daily Mirror] and two regional papers with solid readerships [Nottingham Evening Post and Manchester Evening News]. I started with the Nottingham Evening Post and was surprised by how little coverage it got.  Reports begin on 2nd March 1942 and are, more or less, Bruneval is ok but what is happening in Java is much more important. The raid gets mentioned four more times between March and June 1942, but is often as a ‘and this person was involved in all these things including…...
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The Hawkins Gang - when a butler goes to the bad

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In September 1720 John Hawkins, smuggler and highwayman, rode to Oxford. The total of his criminality was to deface a picture in the Bodleian Library.  This is an oddment in a tale on theft, violence and living proof there is no honour amongst thieves.  It is the tale of the Butler gone to the bad. A pamphlet was issued soon after Hawkins' execution [1] While the 1710s is known as the Golden Age of Piracy. Increasing wealth and mobility, coupled with inadequate law enforcement at sea - coupled with the desire for some unethical redistribution of wealth was matched in the English Countryside and tempted some to take part in it.   Our story begins in 1718.  Sir Dennis Dutry was on the up. As a wealthy director of the East India Company, his cash had recently been consolidated with a baronetcy.  [2]  He employed, as butler, a certain John Hawkins [3], who was 24 and had two gambling problems. The first was he seemed to be addicted to it. The second was he wasn...
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Five more Historic Things you really never thought you need to know. #11

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  Five Historic things you never thought you needed to know. #11 The Art of Screwing Corks The first cork screw seems to have been developed out of the worm, used for cleaning muskets in the 1630s. The first patent for such a thing was granted in 1795 by the Reverend Samuel Henshall.  There is a museum devoted to them.  https://www.museodeicavatappi.it/   One of Rev Henshall's corkscrews The Free, United and Sober Society of Bilston was active in Staffordshire in the 1790s.  The Sobriety in their name didn’t refer to the demon drink but built cottages to serve the needs of the aged and infirmed. In 1794 they gave 20 guineas to set up the Staffordshire Yeomanry Cavalry. Death and Football Cromer Town Football Team play at Cabbell Park. The team was given a lease in 1922 by Evelyn Bond-Cabbell.  In 2009 panic gripped North Norfolk when it was revealed a clause in the lease said it ended 21 years after the death of Queen Victoria’s last surviving grandchild....
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Fragments of the life of Sarah Biddulph: Wherein is contained bigamists, disappeared widows, commissions of lunacy and no firm conclusions

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  T he fragmented life of Sarah Biddulph It is sad, but true, that most people avoid the attentions of Historians by being too poor, too female or too long ago. In the hunt for the origins of people donating hard cash to set up the Staffordshire Yeomanry Cavalry I came across Sarah Biddulph.  Apart from being rare, only 7% of donors were card carrying women in the 1794 list, [1] Sarah appeared not just in the lists of births, marriages and deaths, but during the initial search, appeared in the newspapers several times over 23 years.  What will follow are fragments of History. I can not, as yet, go much beyond these spots of light in the darkness - but what fragments and what darkness. Derby Mercury 26th April 1776 Sarah was married to William Biddulph, who was involved with land in the possession of Widow Moore in 1761.  [2]  He was  renting 27 acres of pasture [at least] in Uttoxeter in 1761. [3]  William is again mentioned as being involved with the ...
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