NOSTALGIA: Nurse’s record of the First World War
This picture is taken from a photo album which is thought to have belonged to nurse Mabel Cousins.
It appears to show staff and patients outside the former Northgate Red Cross Hospital at Manson House, in Bury St Edmunds, in around 1916.
Auctioneer Oswald Simpson, of Elmsett, has had the album for around 30-40 years and loaned it to the Bury Free Press because he thought it might be of interest to our readers.
As well as photos, it contains sketchings, messages, poems, cartoons and regimental badges.
Mr Simpson said that if no relatives came forward to express an interest in keeping the album, then he would consider giving it Moyse’s Hall Museum, in Bury.
HEADLINES FROM THE PAST
10 YEARS AGO
Drama was unfolding behind the scenes as amateur dramatic groups in Bury St Edmunds fought for survival while the Theatre Royal was refurbished.
Falling membership and dwindling audiences while the theatre was renovated had pushed some companies to the brink of closure.
The Eight Five Theatre Company, formed in 1985, collapsed following an emergency meeting this week, while the Irving Stage Company was forced to cancel its spring production of Salad Days due to low audition numbers and, despite moving productions, audience figures for the Bury Amateur Operatic and Dramatic Society had dwindled so low the group was losing money on performances.
50 YEARS AGO
Attempts to curb illegal Sunday trading in Bury St Edmunds suffered a major setback when retailers won a significant victory at the Court of Appeal.
The ruling jeopardised St Edmundsbury’s plans to take out High Court injunctions against five stores – B&Q, Comet, Harveys, Texas and Marlows – which had persistently disregarded laws prohibiting certain kinds of Sunday trading. Council officers wrote to the retailers warning them of the proposed action, which was agreed upon after several magistrates’ court prosecutions failed to have any effect. But they were going to have to rethink the policy after learning it could involve risking tens of thousands of pounds.
100 YEARS AGO
Stoker J Barnes, who is on the HMS Aurora, has been spending a short period of relief with his mother at Brocklyn Cottages.
Stoker Barnes had spent a good many years on the sea, and at the outbreak of war was called up on service. His friends were pleased to see him looking so fit and well. He returned to his ship on Tuesday.
-- On Friday afternoon, at the parish church, a pretty wedding was solemnized (by special licence) between Lieutenant Oscar Hamilton Brooks (Antrim Royal Garrison Artillery), son of the late Captain and Mrs Hamilton Brooks, of Rvde, Isle of Wight, and Miss Lilian Agnes Clinton, second daughter of the late Mr George Clinton and of Mrs Clinton Anglenook, Great Barton.
