Mexborough & Swinton Times – Saturday 07 November 1942
Marconigrams
Prisoners in German hands, according to an Axis source include Private Ernest Noble, 71, Shoe Lane, Wombwell.
At Doncaster West Riding Court on Tuesday a Mexborough woman was fined £10 for obtaining rations by using the ration book of a dead person.
Mr. A. B. Barnes, head warden at Wombwell since 1837, has been appointed divisional warden under the Staincross A.R.P. administration, for the combined districts of Wombwell, Hoyland, Hoyland Common and Worsborough.
Mr. H. P. Lewis, one of the best known football figures in this part of the country, died on Sunday in a Sheffield hospital. He was 89 and a former manager of Barnsley and Hull City F.C.’s .Among the many fine players he discovered was Ernest Blenkinsop, the Cudworth born international full back.
During it recent visit to St. Louis. U.S.A. by Lord and Lady Halifax the following question was put to the British Ambassador by a man anxious to get his opinion on how long the war would last: “How long do you think it will be before you can go back to England? Lord Halifax instantly replied: “In half the time you think.”
Mr. Tom Williams, Joint Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Agriculture and M.P. for Don Valley, hit out at critics who, he alleged said he had lost interest in the miners who elected him when he became a junior member of the Government in an agricultural capacity. He was speaking at a Labour Party meeting at Stainforth. When he was elected in 1922, he said, very few Labour men took an interest in agriculture. “We want some Government control of the use to which the land is put,” he said. “The miner and the agricultural worker are closer together than any other industrial workers.”
The annual meeting of the Mexborough Local Association of Boy Scouts will be held at the Times Office, Mexborough, on Tuesday at 6 p.m. prompt.
The annual show of the Mexborough Chrysanthemum Society will be opened to-night (Friday) at 7 o’clock by Mrs. Honeywill, of Adwick-on-Dearne. The proceeds go to the Montagu Hospital.
The Hon. Peter Wood, second son of Lord and Lady Halifax, has been killed in action in Egypt. He was a Lieutenant (Temporary Captain) in the Royal Armoured Corps and was 26 years of age.
The death occurred on Friday of Mr. Alwyn Lax, of Thurnscoe, a member of the teaching staff at the Goldthorpe Council School for over 93 years. Mr. Lax, who had been ill for some time was due to retire last Saturday.
The annual sale of poppies on November 11th was founded by Earl Haigh, and has raised a gross total of £9,572,000 for the cause of men who have served their country in war. The first appeal in 1921 produced £106.000; the last (In 1941) £752,000. Poppy Day started a new industry for badly disabled ex-Servicemen who otherwise would have been unemployable. It was the making of poppies. The original Poppy Factory, started in 1922, employed only five disabled men, but for the last 12 years nearly 400 men have found permanent employment in this work.
A movement is on foot to organise a pit pony racing meeting on the Swinton Racecourse during the Easter holidays of next year, providing the national position is such as to warrant the holding of such a fixture. By that time it is presumed that the miners will need and deserve a short break. We can think of nothing more attractive to miners and their friends than a keen competitive racing meeting provided by the pit ponies from the collieries within the area of the Montagu Hospital, to which institution, along with other national charities the proceeds may well be devoted. At a similar meeting at Barnsley last August £1,450 was raised for various charities. A number of Swinton people along with Mr. H. Smallwood, of Swinton, the well-known racehorse trainer, are supporting this proposal.