Engineers defied strike call and mill worker was injured
HERE in this regular feature we take a look back at items in the Rochdale Observer from 100 years ago
●●ROCHDALE ENGINEERS LOYAL ALL THROUGH
Rochdale engineers were among the first in the country on Sunday to decide against the call of the Leeds conference for a strike on the embargo question to take yesterday.
During last week, when the strike movement was spreading in the country, the men locally were enjoined to remain at work pending Sunday’s mass meeting called by the Rochdale Engineering Allied Trades, at which the report of the Leeds conference would be made and an opportunity afforded for temperate discussion of effect the situation.
At Sunday’s meeting, the Co-operative Assembly Room, Toad Lane, was crowded almost to suffocation.
There were lively intervals which suggested - the ballot vote had been taken - that if f the decision was to remain at work, it was rather a compromise than a settlement.
Subsequently the result was announced and was received very quietly.
The figures showed approximately a two-toone decision in favour of continuing at work, a decision which has been adhered to.
●●ROCHDALE MILL ACCIDENT
Albert Hilton, employed at the Victoria Spinning Company’s Mill, Rochdale, met with a rather serious accident at work yesterday.
Hilton, who was 41 years of age and lives at 12 Potts Street, Middleton Junction, was attending to a pulley on the shafting.
He was about to mount the ladder when his clothing was caught in a lathe.
With his coat and other body covering, much of the flesh on the right side was torn off. The injuries extended from the breast and under the arm to the shoulder blade. After first aid had been rendered, the unfortunate man was taken to the Infirmary in the police ambulance carriage, and he remains there. His condition, though serious, did not give cause for anxiety last night.
●●THE INFLUENZA AND THE DEATH RATE
The grim shadow of the influenza epidemic shows itself unmistakably in the last monthly report of the Medical Officer for Rochdale.
For the four, ended July 13th, that is before the epidemic had really begin to subside - the deaths from all causes numbered 201, equal to an annual rate of 30.9 per 1,000, one of the worst we have experienced for a great many years.
●●WAR CASUALTIES
The Military Authorities now presume that LanceCorporal Frank Ogden, of the Devons, whose home was at 194 Castleton Road, Crest, was killed on October 4 last year.
Previously he had been reported as missing since that date. He was 20 years of age.
Private Richard Fryer Clegg of the Lancashire Fusiliers, the only son of Mr and Mr J. W. Clegg of 15 Store Street, Norden, has died in hospital from gunshot wounds in the chest.
Private Clegg was 26 years of age. In civil life he was a bookbinder employed by the firm Thomas Yates, Rochdale.
●●FIFTY YEARS AGO
On Wednesday morning an inmate of Hollingworth Workhouse received a letter requiring him to be at Rochdale as soon as possible. He accordingly obtained the governor’s consent, and set out thither, little thinking of the good news in store for him. Later on in the day a cab was sent to Hollingworth by some other relative for the purpose of conveying him to Rochdale, to which place he had already gone. It appears that by the death of his uncle, late landlord of a well-known hotel in the town, he becomes heir to a handsome fortune. We hope he may long enjoy it.