On this day in history : 17th November 1882 – Walter Maunder, the Royal Astronomer, witnesses an unidentifiable flying object from the Greenwich Observatory….
Walter Maunder – Public domain
Maunder is best remembered for his study of sunspots – but on this particular evening was observing the night-time sky over London…. He was accompanied by some other European astronomers, including John Rand Capron, an amateur scientist, astronomer and photographer…. All were to witness the disc-like object, glowing green, which travelled at a rapid speed across the sky in a north-easterly direction….
Maunder was later to describe the experience in the June 1883 edition of The Observatory publication – of which he was editor…. He referred to the sighting as an ‘auroral beam’ and a ‘strange celestial visitor’…. As there had been intense auroral activity at the time it was assumed the UFO was connected to that…. He never witnessed anything like it again….
Drawing from ‘Philosophical Magazine’, May 1883 – Public domain
However, he wasn’t the first to record such a sighting (and I’m sure he wasn’t the last)…. In 664 a group of nuns saw a strange green light that appeared above Barking and headed over London…. In 764 ‘dragons’ were seen over the UK, including London – and in 1593 a report of a ‘flying dragon surrounded by flame’ was recorded over London…. In 1741 a fireball seen above Kensington by Lord Beauchamp supposedly measured just 8 inches in diameter…. The following year a rocket-like ship was seen by a Fellow of the Royal Society – it apparently ‘stayed around for many minutes’….
On this day in history : 16th November 1960 – The death of outspoken TV personality Gilbert Harding – who died as he was about to get into a taxi outside the BBC’s Broadcasting House….
Gilbert Harding in 1949 – Fair use
Harding was known for his short-temper and rudeness, not least on the panel game What’s My Line…. He was one of the most famous faces on British television during the 1950s and a regular contributor to BBC Radio’s Twenty Questions…. He also appeared in several films, usually as himself….
But there is one particular edition of the BBC series Face to Face in 1960 that will stick in many people’s minds…. When after being questioned by host John Freeman – Harding was reduced to tears…. Freeman asked if Harding had ever been in the presence of a dead person…. Harding’s eyes watered and his voice cracked – and he answered in the affirmative…. However, Freeman missed the point and was unaware that Harding was referring to his mother, whose death he had witnessed in 1954…. The interview continued and Freeman later made a reference to Harding’s mother, assuming she was still very much alive…. Harding immediately contradicted him and Freeman rapidly moved on – although afterwards publicly said that he regretted his method of questioning…. There are those who thought that by emphasising Harding’s closeness to his mother it was in fact a clumsy attempt to draw him out about his homosexuality – which was still illegal at that time…. In the eyes of the British public Harding was a confirmed bachelor resigned to never marrying….
Gilbert Charles Harding had been born in Hereford on the 5th of June 1907…. His parents had been the Master and Matron of the city’s workhouse…. His father was to die in 1911, at the age of just 30, following surgery for appendicitis…. Harding’s mother had little choice but to put her son into the care of the Royal Orphanage of Wolverhampton….
The Royal Wolverhampton School – Image credit Brianboru100 – CC BY-SA 4.0
The orphanage, funded by voluntary subscription, was granted Royal Patronage by Queen Victoria in 1891 – and was dedicated to providing education and care for children who had lost one or both parents…. It was to serve Harding well, as he was able to go on to Queen’s College, Cambridge…. After graduating he was to take teaching jobs in Canada and France, where he taught English…. On his return to England he became a police officer in Bradford before becoming a correspondent for The Times Newspaper in Cyprus…. It was after coming back to the UK in 1936 that he joined the BBC and started his broadcasting career….
Just a few weeks after that infamous Face to Face interview, words that he had said after the programme were to become prophecy…. Harding had admitted that during the interview his bad manners and temper were indefensible…. Excusing himself by saying “I’m profoundly lonely” – and then later adding “I would very much like to be dead”…. Harding was an asthma sufferer…. on the 16th of November, as he left the BBC and prepared to climb into a taxi he collapsed and died from an attack…. He was 53 years old….
On this day in history : 15th November 1899 – Winston Churchill, whilst working as a war reporter for the Morning Post, is captured in South Africa by the Boers…. He escapes a few weeks later….
Churchill in the dress uniform of the 4th Queen’s Own Hussars at Aldershot, 1895 – Public domain
25-year-old Churchill had arrived in Cape Town on the 30th of October 1899…. A couple of weeks later the armoured train he was travelling on, accompanying a scouting expedition into Boer-occupied territory, was ambushed and partially derailed….
Churchill was captured – (it is rumoured by Boer Louis Botha – later to become Prime Minister of South Africa) – and although a civilian he was sent to a prisoner of war camp for British officers, in a converted school in Pretoria…. Churchill was considered a good catch and a significant bargaining tool for the Boers….
Four weeks later, on the 12th of December 1899, Churchill made his dramatic escape by managing to climb over a wall…. He had with him £75 and some chocolate…. He managed to get onboard a coal train and by hiding among the coal sacks got out of the area…. However, once he left the train he found himself walking for miles and miles without a clue of where he was heading…. Eventually hunger and thirst got the better of him and he banged on the door of a house he was passing to ask for food…. As luck would have it he chose the home of one of the only Englishmen in the neighbourhood, John Howard, the manager of a local colliery…. Howard agreed to help Churchill and hid him in the mine and then with the aid of another Englishman, Mr. Dewsnap, Churchill was smuggled on to a wool train….
The train took him to Portuguese occupied East Africa – from here he made his way back to Durban…. By now there was a £25 reward on his head – ‘dead or alive’….
Churchill returned to the battle front and took part in the Battle of Spion Kop and the relief of Ladysmith…. Towards the end of the war he and his cousin, the Duke of Marlborough, returned to Pretoria to demand the surrender of the guards at the prisoner of war camp where he had been held….and the release of the British officers being held there….
On this day in history : 14th November 1864 – German tailor Franz Muller is publicly hanged at Newgate Prison, for the murder of Thomas Briggs – the first killing on a British train….
Franz Muller – Public domain
On the 9th of July 1864 city banker Thomas Briggs had been travelling on the 9.50pm London Railway train between Fenchurch Street and Hackney Wick…. Train travel at the time was not without its risks – robberies were commonplace but as of yet nobody had been killed…. However, this was about to change…. Briggs was beaten, robbed of his gold spectacles, watch and chain…. He was then thrown from the train, to be later found by the driver of another train travelling in the opposite direction…. He was taken to a nearby public house but died of his injuries….
A pool of blood was found in the compartment of the train where Briggs had been sitting – along with a black beaver hat assumed belonging to the murderer…. Then John Death, a jeweller from Cheapside, gave a description of a German man who had exchanged a gold chain two days after the attack – this chain was identified as having belonged to Briggs….
Nine days after, by which time a substantial £300 reward had been offered, a cab driver by the name of Matthews came forward with information…. He claimed he had not heard about the murder (even though it had been widely publicised) – but said he had become suspicious about a jeweller’s box with Death’s name on it, in the possession of his future son-in-law…. The cab driver’s daughter was engaged to 24-year-old Franz Muller – and Matthews was able to provide a photograph of the German…. This was then identified by the jeweller as being the man who had exchanged the chain; a warrant was issued for Muller’s arrest….
However, Muller was now onboard a passenger liner heading for New York…. Fortunately two detectives from Scotland Yard managed to get passage on a much faster ship and were in New York three weeks before Muller – who was arrested upon his arrival….
Extradition was to prove a little tricky as diplomatic relations were not good between America and Britain at the time, due to the American Civil War…. But eventually Muller was brought back to face trial….
The trial caught the attention of the British public, who were becoming increasingly wary about the safety of travelling by train…. Many believed Matthews had only shopped his future son-in-law to get the reward money and speculated that he might even have been involved in the crime himself…. Much of the evidence against Muller was circumstantial and he pleaded not guilty, protesting his innocence throughout…. Nevertheless he was found guilty and sentenced to hang…. His was one of the last public executions and a large, unruly, drunken crowd of some 50,000 gathered to watch…. Muller’s last words were “Ich habe es getan” ~ “I did it”….
Engraving of Newgate Prison, early 1800s – Public domain
The case was to lead to the establishment of the communication cord onboard trains, giving passengers a way of contacting train staff…. Briggs had been murdered in a closed compartment with no way of exiting between stops…. As a result railway carriages were created with corridors….
On this day in history : 13th November 1002 – English King ‘Aethelred the Ill-advised’ orders the killing of all Danish men in England – it is known today as the St. Brice’s Day Massacre….
Aethelred – Public domain
In 2008 evidence of a brutal massacre of Vikings was found in Oxford during an archaeological dig…. At least 35 male skeletons, aged between 16 – 25, were discovered at St. John’s College in a dig prior to building work being carried out…. The bones showed obvious signs of violence, with fractured skulls and blade puncture marks, especially to the back of the head…. A similar mass grave, of at least 55 skeletons, again all young males, had been found previously when the Weymouth relief road had been built…. These finds indicated an intolerance towards Vikings at the time and gave evidence that violence had been rife….
Aethelred came to the throne in 978 at the age of 12, after his mother had arranged for the murder of his stepbrother…. All the while the Vikings were watching from their lands across the seas – and seeing this young king as weak thought it a good time to make a claim on England…. What followed were numerous Viking raids and Aethelred was powerless to stave them off…. The Danes were establishing themselves everywhere, whole Viking families trading and farming – the north and east of England was to become known as ‘Danelaw’….
Aethelred and his advisors became concerned that there would be a mass Viking uprising and that the whole country would fall under their rule…. So an order was given that all Danish men in England were to be executed – the massacre began on the feast day of St. Brice….
These ruthless mass killings angered Viking leaders and the attacks from overseas became more frequent and even more ferocious…. Particularly angry was King Sweyn Forkbeard of Denmark, as his sister Gunnhild had been slaughtered at Oxford…. Eventually in 1013 Sweyn was declared King of England….
Cottage Capers 