In the NewsIn the News
Will You Shoot Me Now?
Written by Steve Smithson Tuesday, 23 April 2002 07:04
On 14 August 1940 the Daily Express reported that Mrs Betty Tylee and Miss Jean Smithson approached a downed German pilot. They declined to shoot him and instead offered him a cup of tea.
This poem by Adam Taylor is inspired by that event.
Thomas Smithson gives Evidence in Vicar's Divorce Suit
Written by Steve Smithson Saturday, 16 March 2002 06:50
VICAR’S DIVORCE SUIT
MORE EVIDENCE IN A SENSATIONAL CASE
(The News of the World, 27 May 1900, Page 4)
In the Divorce Division the hearing of the petition presented by the Rev. Hamilton Young, vicar of Alne, in Yorkshire, praying for the dissolution of his marriage on the ground of the alleged misconduct of his wife with the co-respondent, Thomas John Mintoft, a churchwarden, which they denied. Mrs Young alleged that her husband had been guilty of cruelty and adultery with Miss Mary Ann Burton (the intervener). She and the petitioner denied this charge, and the Rev. Hamilton Young pleaded that if he had been guilty of violence, which he denied, he had been provoked by his wife.
Read more: Thomas Smithson gives Evidence in Vicar's Divorce Suit