The Parish Magazine October 2024

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28 The Parish Magazine - October 2024 HISTORY — 1 Was it really? . . . . . . 250 years ago on 26 October 1774 that the Colony of Massachusetts Bay began building up its militia of ‘minute men’, who could respond to the growing British threat at a moment’s notice. The American Revolutionary War began a few months later. . . . 200 years ago on 21 October 1824 that British mason, bricklayer and cement manufacturer Joseph Aspdin was granted a British patent for Portland cement. His son William went on to develop a stronger version and is regarded as the inventor of modern Portland cement. . . . 175 years ago on 17 October 1849 that Frederic Chopin, Polish composer and piano virtuoso, died. . . . 125 years ago from 11 October 1899 to May 1902 that the Second Boer War in South Africa took place. 22,000 British forces were killed, and nearly 100,000 wounded. More than 6,000 Boers were killed, and more than 46,000 African civilians died in concentration camps. . . . 100 years ago on 15 October 1924 that the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbour was designated a US National Monument. . . . 90 years ago on 16 October 1934 that the Long March took place. Chinese communists led by Mao Zedong began a year-long 8,000-mile march from south-east China to north-west China to evade the armies of the Chinese National Party and establish a new base. It led to the founding of the People’s Republic of China. . . . Also 90 years ago on 24 October 1934 that the earliest known recording of the song Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town was released. Performed by banjo player Harry Reser and his band and sung by Tom Stacks, it has since been recorded by more than 200 other artists. . . . 80 years ago on 2 October 1944 that the Warsaw Uprising in Poland was ended. The Germans destroyed the city, killing 200,000 civilians and expelling 700,000. . . . Also 80 years ago on 9 October 1944 that Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet leader Jospeh Stalin met to discuss the future of post-war Europe. . . . 75 years ago on 1 October 1949 that the People’s Republic of China was founded by Mao Zedong. . . . 70 years ago from 30 October - 13 November 1954 that the first Rugby World Cup was held in Paris. Great Britain beat France 16-12 in the final. . . . 65 years ago on 11 October 1959 that Britain began introducing post codes. (See page 29) . . . 60 years ago on 14 October 1964 that American civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for combating racial inequality in the USA without violence. . . . 50 years ago on 2 October 1974 that US researchers announced that smoking cannabis causes lasting brain damage. More than 50 medical schools and research centres took part in the year-long study. . . . 40 years ago on 12 October 1984 that an IRA bomb exploded during the Conservative Party Conference at the Grand Hotel in Brighton, killing five people. . . . Also 40 years ago on 16 October 1984 that South African Anglican bishop Desmond Tutu won the 1984 Nobel Peace Prize for his role in opposing apartheid. On this day . . . Statue of Mother Teresa of Calcutta holding a child inside Church of Saint Mary of Suffrage in Ravenna Vividaphoto, dreamstime.com Steven Rolling, who regularly provides us with his poetry, points out that October has many other notable dates not mentioned in the adjacent, Was it really? column: The number of years is given in (...) 1 Henry III, born in 1207 (817) 4 St Francis of Assisi’s Day: died in 1226 (798) 4 Sir Christopher Cockerell, inventor of the hovercraft, born 1910 (114) 4 Rembrandt von Rijn, artist, died in 1669 (355) 6 Revd John E Bode, author of for example, ‘O Jesus I have promised’, died in 1874 (150) 7 Folliott S Pierpoint, author of, ‘For the beauty of the earth’, born in 1835 (189) 10 William Chatterton Dix, author of ‘As with gladness men of old’, died in 1898 (126) 11 Apollo 7 launched, 1968 (56) 12 Edward VI, born in (487) 12 America discovered by Christopher Columbus in 1492 (532) 14 Battle of Hastings, 1066 (958) 14 50p coin introduced, 1969 (55) 17 Danielle Darrieux, actress, died aged 100 in 2017 (7) 21 Horatio Nelson died at Battle of Trafalgar, 1805 (219) 21 Hans Asperger – Aspergers Syndrome – died 1980 (44) 24 William Penn, Pennsylvania founder, born 1644 (380) 25 Dedication of Liverpool’s Anglican Cathedral, 1978 (46) 25 Battle of Agincourt, Henry V defeats France, 1415 (609) 26 Mother Teresa, Mary Bojaxhiu, born 1910 (114) 26 King Alfred The Great, died 899 (1125) 29 Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester, died age 102 in 2004 (20) 31 Archbishop of Canterbury Cosmo Lang, born 1864 (160) 313 October 2024.indd 28 12/09/2024 09:39:49
HISTORY — 2 Elizabeth Fry had endless compassion and endless energy – and together with a steadfast determination to do God’s work, this outstanding philanthropist became one of the foremost promoters of prison reform — not just in Britain, but in all of Europe. Elizabeth was born in 1780, far from any prison. The family lived in Norwich, where her father was a wealthy Quaker banker and merchant. In 1800 she married a London merchant, Joseph Fry. Elizabeth could have spent her life safely at home, raising her many children. But instead, she felt compelled to help the desperate social needs of the time. There was a good reason for this. In 1798, when she had been attending a Quaker meeting in Norwich, someone had spoken what Elizabeth felt was a prophetic word for her life. As she noted in her diary at the time: ‘Deborah Darby then spoke… she addressed part of it to me; I only fear she says too much of what I am to be. A light to the blind; speech to the dumb; and feet to the lame; can it be? She seems as if she thought I was to be a minister of Christ. Can I ever be one? If I am obedient I believe I shall.’ And she was. HORRORS OF CIRCUMSTANCES Elizabeth was accepted as a Quaker ‘minister’, and her good works in London began. But it was not until one day in 1813, when she visited Newgate Prison in London, that Elizabeth’s life changed forever. That day she witnessed such horrors of the circumstances in which women and children were kept, that she knew she had found the focus for her life’s work. Soon her daily visits to the prison, where she read the Bible and taught the women to sew, grew into a campaign to achieve basic rights for the women prisoners. She fought for the classification of criminals, the segregation of the sexes, female supervision of women, and some provision for education. In 1817 she created the Association for the Improvement of Female Prisoners, and then lobbied Parliament. By 1818 Elizabeth had raised such a storm that she was called to give evidence to a Parliamentary Select Committee who were examining conditions in prison. They accepted many of her proposed reforms. In 1820 Elizabeth tackled the huge problem of destitution in London. She opened a ‘Nightly Shelter for the Homeless in London’, which became the first of many. She founded a society to help released prisoners with rehabilitation. And she was certainly a ‘hands-on’ sort of lady; it was said that for the next 20 years she personally inspected every single ship containing women convicts before it sailed to Australia. Between 1838 and 1842 Elizabeth visited all the prisons in France, reporting to the Interior Minister. She then inspected prisons in Belgium, Holland, Switzerland, Germany, Denmark, Scotland and Ireland. Elizabeth also founded schools for poor girls, soup kitchens for the hungry, better housing for the poor, and The Parish Magazine - October 2024 29 Elizabeth Fry: a reforming minister of Christ A HANDS-ON LADY Elizabeth Fry Georgios Kollidas, dreamstime.com also investigated mental asylums. She even established a nursing school, which influenced her distant relative, Florence Nightingale. By the time Elizabeth died on 12 October 1845, she had helped tens of thousands of helpless people to find some relief from their suffering. She had indeed lived her life as a ‘minister of Christ’. 65 years posting by numbers On 11 October 1959, Britain began introducing postcodes. They started in Norwich, and by 1974 had been rolled out across the whole country. The idea was to speed up sorting after the mechanisation of the postal system. For the process to work, people had to use it, and it was therefore important to make sure everyone could remember their postcode easily. So, psychologists from Cambridge University were asked to assist in their design This worked so well that a survey in 2016 revealed that people are now more likely to remember their postcode than their debit card PIN (92%, compared with 77%). And the information sticks: apparently 17% of people questioned could still remember the postcode of the house they lived in up to 30 years earlier. When the first postcodes were tested in Norwich, the first three characters were NOR (now NR followed by a number) representing the name of the city, and the last three signified a particular street or large business. Why Norwich? Because of its new sorting machines. The main point of a postcode is to ensure that a letter or parcel gets to the correct Royal Mail sorting office. So the 'outcode' will specify a postcode area and district, and will have up to four characters. The 'incode' designates a particular postcode sector and delivery point, and always has one number and two letters. 313 October 2024.indd 29 12/09/2024 09:39:49
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