100 Years Ago - January 21, 1910
A DRAMATIC day of polling ended with the election of Unionist candidate Douglas Hall.
Two editions of the County Press kept readers updated with the latest news from the final day of polling and the outcome was announced from the balcony of the Guildhall, Newport.
Liberal candidate Godfrey Baring was runner-up.
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J. S. White’s donated £300 to the Frank James Memorial Home Cottage Hospital, East Cowes, to provide X-ray equipment and a children’s ward.
The money was donated in addition to the annual contribution made by J. S. White’s. The chairman of the hospital’s management committee said it would be almost impossible to run it without the support of J. S. White’s.
75 Years Ago - January 26, 1935
An attempted attack on a magistrate was made at Parkhurst Prison by a convict serving a ten-year sentence.
The prisoner rushed towards Mr Andrews, armed with a chair, but as he tried to strike a blow, he was bundled to the ground by prison officers.
The prisoner had been in the courtroom to be punished for a prison offence but broke away from officers as he was being taken to his cell.
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John Graham, formerly of Cowes, died from the injuries received when he was in collision with a car in Salisbury. The driver of the car was charged with manslaughter.
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The first meeting of the newly formed Ryde Carnival Association was held at Ryde Town Hall.
A number of suggestions were put forward about ideas for the town’s carnival, including a children’s procession around the canoe lake, a display of illuminated boats on the lake and a fireworks display.
50 Years Ago - January 23, 1960
A factory at the Folly Works of Saro Laminated Wood Products Ltd was destroyed by fire.
Seven fire appliances and 50 firemen from East Cowes, Cowes, Newport, Ryde, Sandown and Shanklin, tackled the blaze on the banks of the River Medina.
All that remained of the building, which housed offices, a woodwork shop and storage for materials, was a skeleton of twisted steel girders.
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Parkhurst Prison lost its escape-proof record after three prisoners escaped to the mainland.
Londoners Michael Morgan and Ernest Taylor, plus Edward Tompkins, from Swansea, Wales, climbed on to the roof of the prison’s shop, before dropping on to a wall, which they jumped off to escape.
A number of prison officers were attending a funeral of a colleague at the time the prisoners got out.
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Building work on the IW Crematorium was set to start after the IW joint crematorium committee received a loan of more than £56,000.
The crematorium was expected to be completed by March 1961.
25 Years Ago - January 25, 1985
The Island looked set for a double-helping of visiting scooterists after delegates voted for another national rally during August Bank Holiday, while a separate group of mods planned to visit in May.
Organisers said a number of privately-owned sites had offered to accommodate scooterists for the national rally, which in the previous year had attracted an estimated 10,000.
The decision was a unanimous one at a meeting in Manchester of about 320 scooterist club chairmen.
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Two major fires were invented to test Island firefighters during an inspection by the Home Office.
The first assumed a lunchtime blaze where two people were trapped at the British Road Services Sports and Social Club, in Quay Street, Newport.
The other was an explosion at the IW Airport, Sandown, with added danger from high octane fuel.
The Home Office inspector was said to be impressed by the response to both incidents.
10 Years Ago - January 22, 2000
A decision by Lloyds TSB bank to close three of its ten IW branches had residents seeing red.
Some called for a mass boycott of the company after it announced it was shutting branches in Ventnor, Yarmouth and Bembridge, leaving the latter two communities with no banks.
Yarmouth mayor Cllr Dave Kennett said the move would inconvenience residents, businesses and visitors, while at Bembridge, IW Council member Gordon Kendall asked County Hall to put pressure on the bank to reverse its decision.
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IW Council member Cllr Jill Wareham was at odds with her ward and with County Hall colleagues over a plan to erect a mobile phone mast in her garden.
Phone giant Orange applied for permission to build the 11.5-metre mast in Cllr Wareham’s two-acre garden, in Brighstone, despite objections from Brighstone Parish Council.
And, despite Cllr Wareham being undecided about whether to allow the mast, fellow county councillor Angela Hewitt called for her to resign, claiming she did not represent the wishes of her constituents.
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Firemen teamed up with a vet and a builder in a dramatic race against time to rescue a pony that had fallen into a cesspit.
Rescuers were called after Charlie, a 14-year-old cob, fell backwards into the pit while running around in his paddock off Field Lane, St Helens.
But after a 90-minute struggle, Charlie, who had sunk so far into the icy sludge just his head and front legs remained clear, was released, shaken but unhurt.