A Grim Almanac of York by Alan Sharp

Author:Alan Sharp
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780750964562
Publisher: The History Press
Published: 2015-03-23T00:00:00+00:00

JULY

Monument marking the Marston Moor battlefield. The Royalist armies assembled in the field behind the monument, with the Parliamentarian army facing them. (Author’s collection)

1 JULY 1938 With the likelihood of war approaching, the British police were preparing for possible gas attacks by setting up anti-gas schools, with one such instigated at Easingwold, north of York. On this night, several of the policemen from the school attended a dance in Oswaldkirk. Also at the dance was Gilbert Douty, a member of the wealthy Rees-Mogg family and heir to the Imperial Tobacco Company fortune. There had been some business earlier in the evening when someone had tried to take a bottle of liquor, which rested on Douty’s car. When the dance was over Douty started to drive away when he heard a smashing of glass. Jumping out of the car, he began to accuse those close by of throwing a bottle, particularly one of the anti-gas school lecturers called Harry Harrison. Harrison made to strike Douty, but was restrained by his girlfriend. Meanwhile, one of the attendees of the school, Stewart Reid, a policeman from Liverpool, approached Douty, who snatched a cigarette from his mouth and threw it at him. At this point Reid struck Douty twice, after which he returned to his car, but appeared to be in distress. He was taken to York where doctors examined him and decided to send him to a nursing home. Over the next ten days his condition became progressively worse, including convulsions and frequent lapses in consciousness, and on 11 July he died. A post-mortem examination revealed a large blood clot in his brain in the area where Reid had struck him, and that his skull was abnormally thin so that the blow would likely have caused this. Reid was sent for trial for manslaughter.

2 JULY 1644 Following a major defeat at the Battle of Marston Moor during the English Civil War, survivors from the Royalist army of Prince Rupert of the Rhine made their way to York to seek refuge. Sir Henry Slingsby, who had taken part in the battle, wrote of the area around Micklegate Bar. ‘We came late to York, which made a great confusion, for at the bar none were suffered to come in but such as were of the town, so that the whole street was thronged up to the bar with wounded and lame people which made a pitiful cry among them.’

3 JULY 1852 A serious disturbance occurred in Walmgate on this night, leaving many people injured and great damage to property, particularly in the area of Black Bull Lane. Shortly before midnight, a policeman named Wright was approached by a woman who asked him to go to Mrs Loy’s public house, where a group of Irish patrons were refusing to leave. He identified a Michael Feeney as the ringleader and attempted to eject him, causing a fight in which Feeney was thrown across the table while four men took hold of Wright and began to beat him.

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