The Postcard
A postcard bearing no publisher's name that was printed in Great Britain. The statue, which is of King Edward VII, was unveiled by the Duke of Norfolk in October 1913. The statue, designed by Alfred Drury, is made of bronze, and set upon an Aberdeen Granite plinth.
The card was posted in Sheffield on Wednesday the 8th. May 1968 to recipients who lived in Pampisford Road, South Croydon, Surrey.
The message on the divided back of the card was as follows:
"Dear Mum & Dad,
Many thanks for the letter
and the 2 enclosed letters.
I am very pleased about
getting into Queen's.
I didn't think I would,
especially without an
interview.
It is one of the best
colleges in Oxford, along
with Trinity and Christ
Church.
Fancy the house next door
getting burgled.
I got my dissertation back
from Dr. Moray the other
day - he had sent it off on
March 2nd., and it had
only arrived last Thursday.
His secretary at MIT sent it
by sea instead of air; it
wasn't he who made the
mistake. because it was
addressed to Dr. O'Flynn,
and he would never have
done that.
He thought it was very
good, and only found one
fault with it - at least, he
thought he had, but he got
the wrong end of the stick,
and I wrote back and told
him his mistake, as well as
all the rest of the news.
I have to send off 35/- for
the hire of a gown for an
hour on degree day.
Although I an working hard,
I am still having a nice time.
Best wishes from T."
The Marples Tragedy
The building at the corner of the square where it joins the High Street was first occupied by a hotel in 1870; John Marples became the proprietor in 1886 and named it the London Mart; however it was always known locally as “The Marples”.
On the night of Thursday 12th. December 1940, 280 German bombers attacked Sheffield in what has become known as the Sheffield Blitz. Their target was the steel works producing armaments in the east end of the city, however a mistake in navigation caused the city centre to become the main target.
Fire bombs caused widespread panic, and many people took shelter in the Marples’ extensive cellars, believing they were safe under the robust seven-storey building. However at 11:44 p.m. the Marples building took a direct hit from a bomb which plunged through the building and detonated just above the cellars, killing approximately 70 people and reducing the building to a 15-foot-high (4.6 m) pile of rubble.
The next day seven men were dug out of the rubble still alive, as a small section of cellar roof had, amazingly, withstood the impact.
Dunn & Co.
Note the sign for Dunn & Co. on the far side of the square.
Dunn & Co. was a prominent British chain of menswear retailers. They were founded in 1887 by George Arthur Dunn, a Quaker, who started by selling hats on the streets of Birmingham. Forty years later he had two hundred hat shops and as many franchises in other stores.
These gradually developed into a string of High Street stores specialising in formal wear, especially suits, blazers, tweed sports jackets and flannels.
The company became a stalwart of the British High Street, but found it increasingly difficult to remain relevant in the fast- changing retail environment of the 1980's: as new and innovative retailers opened up – with Next for men being a prime example - it struggled to adapt.
The company engaged the services of management consultants PricewaterhouseCoopers in a bid to revitalise and refocus, but the programme they initiated failed to make the significant changes necessary to ensure long-term survival.
Dunn & Co. started showing serious problems in 1991, with nearly forty shops being sold to Hodges, a private Welsh group which kept the Dunn & Co. name going. In 1994 a majority stake was sold to venture capitalists CinVen.
The Demise of Dunn & Co.
In its final year of trading as an independent company, 1996, Dunn & Co. had 130 shops and 429 staff, with a head office in Swansea employing a further 75 workers.
It was losing £1m a year on sales of £25m a year, and when its debts reached £6.4m (with £4m owed to unsecured creditors), CinVen, who by then owned 86% of the company, called in the receivers KPMG, on the 19th. December 1996.
The brand name was purchased by Ciro Citterio. However, they also went into administration in 2003.
A Plan for a Political Coup in the UK
So what else happened on the day that the card was posted?
Well, on the 8th. May 1968, the possibility of a coup to overthrow the British government was suggested in a meeting arranged by newspaper publisher Cecil King. The meeting was recounted eight years later in book by King's editor-in-chief at the Daily Mirror, Hugh Cudlipp.
According to Cudlipp's 1976 memoir 'Walking on Water', Cecil King met with British war hero Lord Mountbatten and outlined the problems with the administration of Prime Minister Harold Wilson.
Cudlipp, who was present at the meeting, reported Cecil King's belief that there would be civil disorder and said that King asked Mountbatten whether he would agree to be titular head of a new administration.
Government adviser Solly Zuckerman, according to Cudlipp, told King that the idea was rank treachery and added:
"I am a public servant and
will have nothing to do with it."
Mountbatten ended the meeting.
Arlington National Cemetery
Also on that day, officials at Arlington National Cemetery announced that the burial ground for American veterans would run out of space by 1985, even with a recent 192-acre expansion that had provided space for 60,000 more gravesites.
The plan for 17-years into the future was to provide burial only for national heroes after 1985, and to limit interment at Arlington to the placement of cremated remains inside marble vaults.
Chris Lighty
The day also marked the birth in the Bronx of Chris Lighty, who was an American music executive and founder of Violator Records. Chris committed suicide in 2012.
Laurence M. Klauber
The day also marked the death at the age of 84 of Laurence M. Klauber, who was an American herpetologist and the world's foremost authority on rattlesnakes.
Louis Armstrong
Also on the 8th. May 1968, the Number One chart hit record in the UK was 'Wonderful World' by Louis Armstrong.
