The bench commemorating Prince Philip s visit to Woodside in 1955. The
Watford Observer has teamed up with Watford Museum and its curator Sarah Priestley to take a journey back to the town’s past through items or places of historical significance. We ve reached item 33 in a history of Watford 50 objects and it is a wooden bench that commemorates the visit of Prince Philip to open Woodside Sports Arena in 1955. Sarah said: Watford has had wonderful leisure facilities over the years, from the lido at the River Colne providing early open air swimming to our modern leisure centres that are now back open for business. The arena was a new facility to be proud of and the Duke of Edinburgh was invited to open it on November 4, 1955.
» Seán Mac Brádaigh
This week marks the 100th anniversary of the Selton Hill ambush - a significant engagement in the Tan War and a tragic chapter in the story of Co. Leitrim and the struggle for Irish freedom.
On Friday, 11th March 1921, the IRA’s Leitrim No. 2 Flying Column was ambushed by British forces at Selton Hill, which lies on the road between Mohill and Ballinamore.
Six officers of the Leitrim IRA are killed. They were Sean Connolly (Ballinalee), John Joe O’Reilly (Miskawn, Aughnasheelin), another John Joe O’Reilly (Derrinkeher McDonald, Aughnasheelin), Michael Baxter (Bawnboy), Séamus Wrynn (Drumcroman, Ballinamore) and Joe O’Beirne (Bornacoola).
Albany Wiseman, artist and author of popular ‘teach yourself’ books on drawing and painting – obituary
With his good-humoured personality he was greatly in demand as an artist in residence on summer courses
Albany Wiseman: self-portrait
Albany Wiseman, who has died aged 90, was an artist and illustrator whose books of instruction on technique have inspired many an amateur artist.
Wiseman’s illustrative style was much in demand, and during the 1960s he and David Gentleman were commissioned to illustrate all the telephone directories of Great Britain with landmarks of the different counties.
His charm and good humour, combined with his talent for communication, made him a popular teacher, and he was regularly the artist in residence for summer courses, notably with Arts in Provence.
This is how the Christmas truce happened on the Western Front in 1914 Peter Hart, Military History Magazine December 24, 2020 The Illustrated London News s illustration of the Christmas Truce: British and German Soldiers Arm-in-Arm Exchanging Headgear: A Christmas Truce between Opposing Trenches (via Wikimedia Commons)
In the lead-up to Christmas 1914 soldiers on either side of the Western Front no man’s land set aside fear and their weapons to exchange surreal holiday greetings. By late December 1914 World War I had been raging for nearly five months. Had anyone really believed it would be “all over by Christmas,” then it was clear they had been cruelly mistaken. With the strength of imperial Germany now evident to all, there appeared to be no chance of victory in the foreseeable future. By this time men were beginning, almost despite themselves, to gain a kind of grudging respect for their opposite numbers lurking across no man’s land. They were enduring the