The Postcard
A postcard bearing no publisher's name that was posted using a ½d. stamp on Friday the 6th. February 1903 to:
Dr. & Mrs. Lowther,
'Fernleigh',
Grange-over-Sands,
Lancashire.
Dr. Lowther and his son served Grange-over-Sands as doctors for many years. The message on the front of the card suggests that Dr. Lowther's son was in medical school when he wrote it.
Dr. Lowther Senior was physician to the Hazelwood Hydropathic Establishment in Grange-over-Sands. Hazelwood Hydropathic Establishment was built in 1877 as the Brown Robin Mansion by W. E. Maude (he was a Liverpool sheet metal magnate turned banker), but he found it to be too big for him.
Alterations were carried out to turn it into a Hydropathic Establishment in the 1880's and it opened as such in 1887, and by 1891 facilities included a billiard-room and a dark room for the new hobby of photography. Dancing and concerts were also provided as entertainment, and the ballroom is still in good condition downstairs (it was not licensed for wine or spirits though - so guests had to bring their own!).
A cycle house was also built where machines were stored at a charge of one shilling per week, including free insurance against burglary and fire. Turkish Baths for gentlemen were 1/6d. on a Sunday morning, and a 'mustard spinal' was a shilling.
Lowther Gardens were built in the late 1960's on Kents Bank Road opposite the library. The shops and flats were built on the garden of Dr Lowther’s House, Fernleigh.
Wee MacGreegor
Wee MacGreegor was created by J. J. Bell.
John Joy Bell was a journalist and author. Born in Hillhead, Glasgow, Bell was schooled at Kelvinside Academy and Morrison's Academy. He attended the University of Glasgow, where he studied chemistry.
After taking up journalism, Bell worked for the Glasgow Evening Times, and as sub-editor of the Scots Pictorial. His articles depicted the life of working-class Glaswegians, and were often written in the vernacular.
Wee Macgregor is a boy of around seven or eight from the decent and kind working-class family with which Glasgow's East End abounds. He has a wee sister called Jeannie, a Maw called Lizzie and a Paw called John.
Wee MacGreegor had his genesis 10 years before author J. J. Bell put pen to paper in 1901, in an overheard fragment of conversation on a Glasgow Fair Saturday on a boat going doon the watter when a distracted mother of five said to her eldest:
''MacGreegor, tak yer paw's haun,
or ye'll get nae carvies tae yer tea''.
Carvies are sugared caraway seeds, unfashionable these days except in Indian restaurants, but a widely used breath-sweetener and children's treat at the time.
The language and the dialect are part of the charm of the stories and the play, with words like stroop (the spout of a teapot), sumph (a lout), and grumphy (a pig) and they are instantly recognisable in context.
J. J. Bell first wrote about the life of Wee MacGreegor as a series of newspaper sketches. Bell's stories trace the life of Wee MacGreegor from his childhood as a Glaswegian boy to adulthood in the trenches of the Great War, on the way courting another of Bell's characters - Christina.
J. J. Bell's stories about Wee M MacGreegor were collected and published in a 184 page book that was first published on the 1st. December 1933.
Claudio Arrau
So what else happened on the day that the card was posted?
Well, the 6th. February 1903 marked the birth in Chillán of the Chilean pianist Claudio Arrau.
Claudio is known for his interpretations of a vast repertoire spanning the baroque to 20th.-century composers, especially Bach, Beethoven, Schubert, Chopin, Schumann, Liszt and Brahms. He is widely considered to be one of the greatest pianists of the twentieth century.
Arrau was a frequent recital performer: from the age of 40 to 60 he averaged 120 concerts a season, with a very large repertoire.
At one time or another, he performed the complete keyboard works of Bach, Mozart, Beethoven and Chopin; but also programmed such off-the-beaten-path composers as Alkan and Busoni. He also illuminated obscure corners of the Liszt repertoire.
It has been estimated that Arrau's total repertoire would carry him through 76 recital evenings, not counting the 60-odd works with orchestra which he also knew.
Claudio edited the complete Beethoven piano sonatas for the Peters Urtext edition and recorded all of them on the Philips label in 1962–1966. He recorded almost all of them once again in 1984-1990, along with Mozart's complete piano sonatas.
Claudio is also famous for his recordings of Schubert, Brahms and Debussy. At the time of his death in 1991 at the age of 88 in the midst of a European concert tour, Arrau was working on a recording of the complete works of Bach for keyboard, and was also preparing some pieces of Haydn, Mendelssohn, Reger and Busoni, and Boulez's third piano sonata.
On the 26th. March 2021, Pristine Classical released what it called "a sonic overhaul" of Arrau's "stunningly brilliant" 1942 RCA studio recording of Bach's Goldberg Variations, re-mastered from an issue which had sat in the vaults of RCA for 46 years.
Ben Gimbert
The 6th. February 1903 also marked the birth in Ely, Cambridgeshire of Ben Gimbert.
Benjamin Gimbert was a driver with the London and North Eastern Railway, and is known as the hero of the Soham rail disaster.
Ben was awarded the George Cross and the Order of Industrial Heroism, as was his fireman James Nightall, whose award was posthumous, for saving an ammunition train from a fire on the 2nd. June 1944.
Gimbert was born in Ely (now in Cambridgeshire), the son of farm labourer George William Gimbert and his wife Florence. He married in 1926, and by 1939 was living in March.
The George Cross
The citation for the George Cross is as follows:
'As an ammunition train was pulling into a station in Cambridgeshire, the driver, Gimbert, discovered that the wagon next to the engine was on fire. He immediately drew Nightall's attention to the fire and brought the train to a standstill.
By the time the train had stopped, the whole of the truck was enveloped in flames and, realising the danger, the driver instructed the fireman to try to uncouple the truck immediately behind the blazing vehicle. Without the slightest hesitation Nightall, although he knew that the truck contained explosives, uncoupled the vehicle and rejoined his driver on the footplate.
The blazing van was close to the station buildings and was obviously liable to endanger life in the village. The driver and fireman realised that it was essential to separate the truck from the remainder of the train and run it into the open. Driver Gimbert set the engine in motion and as he approached a signal box he warned the signalman to stop any trains which were likely to be involved and indicated what he intended to do. Almost immediately the vehicle blew up. Nightall was killed and Gimbert was very severely injured.
Gimbert and Nightall were fully aware of the contents of the wagon which was on fire and displayed outstanding courage and resource in endeavouring to isolate it.
When they discovered that the wagon was on fire they could easily have left the train and sought shelter, but realising that if they did not remove the burning vehicle the whole of the train, which consisted of 51 wagons of explosives, would have blown up, they risked their lives in order to minimise the effect of the fire.
There is no doubt that if the whole train had been involved, as it would have been but for the gallant action of the men concerned, there would have been serious loss of life and property.'
Ben died at the age of 73 on the 6th. May 1976 in March, Cambridgeshire. He was laid to rest in Eastwood Road Cemetery in March.
