A LIFELONG reader of the Oxford Mail has revealed she still owns a copy of the paper from the year that it was founded.
Barbara Tuffley, 94, from Wolvercote, said the paper, dated December, 12 1928 – a broadsheet at the time and priced at one penny – must have been given to her mother for Christmas.
Mrs Tuffley said: “My mother was very poor and couldn’t afford to buy the paper. I remember parcels would be given to people at Christmas.
“She must have received this paper in the parcel that year.”
The paper, which Mrs Tuffley says is 'such a size', has just 12 pages.
The front page story was about an inquest into the death of a sergeant who was killed in a plane crash, headlined ‘Airman’s terrible fate in Bicester crash’.
A witness at the inquest, Flying Officer Nevile Buckell of the Royal Air Force, stationed at Bicester Aerodrome, ‘graphically described’ of how 25-year-old Herbert Lockwood crash-landed the plane.
He told the coroner that Mr Lockwood attempted to land his plane for the night in a field in Gawcott, Buckinghamshire, when his aircraft hit a wire fence.
Also read: Take part in the Oxford Mail readers' surveyHe then tried to take off again and hit the top of a tree before his aircraft caught fire and struck the ground.
Mr Buckell examined the wreckage and it appeared that when the plane had hit the ground, the tail of the fuselage swung round and part of it turned over onto Mr Lockwood, pinning him below.
The sergeant-pilot fractured his skull in the crash.
The photo in black and white on the front page is of a ‘fat stock show’ which Mrs Tuffley says she remembers.
She said: “Farmers would show off their cattle in Oxford every Wednesday and sell them off to the highest bidder. I remember going down there myself sometimes.”
Advertisements in the paper include cruises in the Mediterranean at five guineas, W.E. Fayres - a tailor on 12 Queen Street, Oxford and J. Coxeter & Co Ltd on 40 Park End Street, Oxford.
Other stories in the paper are about the Prince of Wales Edward VIII being brought home from holiday and the ‘sequel’ to a murder trial of 26-year-old May Slater who was charged with attempting to murder her step-daughter, Jean, who was found with her head battered on a ‘desolate common’.
Remember When: Icy infirmary's fountain freezes as city shiversAlso on the front page are the latest bulletins issued from Buckingham Palace about the condition of King George V who was a heavy smoker and had infected fluid in his lungs which later spread to his bloodstream.
The bulletin announced at 3.20pm on the day said: “The slight improvement in the King’s illness noted this morning is maintained. Some purulent fluid round the base of the right lung was removed by puncture this morning, and further drainage will be necessary.”
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