Times Remembered……

Well, here we are again, time for the weekly post in the LBC series.

Please vist the others in our little family and enjoy their ideas about Times Remembered.

Ashok , Conrad, Gaelikaa, Maria, Marianna, Ramana, Grannymar , Judy & Helen. We also welcome two new members namely Anu and Ginger

I remember times at boarding school when I would make trip to the Library to read. What I read I will reveal later.

You might ask, “What other purpose would be served by visiting the School Library?”

Well, the opportunity to get away from ones house mates perhaps or maybe the opportunity to meet one’s (current) soul mate.

What ever the reason, I used to got to the library from my earliest days at Wymonham College but in the Fifth ans Sixth Forms one reason was to read the greatest of British Institutions, The Times.

Not, you will note, The Times of London but simply The Times which, in those days, was still a full sized newspaper instead of the emasculated “compact” production it is today.

The Times was founded byJohn Walter in 1785 as The Daily Universal Register . On 1st January 1788 with Universal being universally omitted by the public,Walter decided to change the title, after 940 editions, to The Times . John Walter, the first editor of the paper resigned in 1803 and handed ownership and editorship to the second  John Walter . The first John Walter spent sixteen months inNewgate for libel printed in The Times. Pioneering efforts to obtain European news, especially from France, helped build the paper’s reputation among policy makers and financiers.

This influence lasted fro many years but one hopes that it is not so in these days under the ownership of Murdoch.

The Times was the first newspaper to send special correspondents abroad, and it was the first to send war correspondents  to cover particular conflicts. Perhaps W.H. Russell the paper’s correspondent with the army in the Crimean War , is the most famous of these. His dispatches back to England were  immensely influential.

Throughout the 19th and for most of the 20th century The Times remained an organ of influence and information. That influence has long since declined.

The old mast head of The Times: those who know about chess may recognise the name of Philidor

What made The Times distinctive for many, many years were the advertisements carried on the front page. No Headlines whenI used to read it. That is just a memory, truly Times Remembered.

As for me and The Times, a picture of me appeared inside in the mid 60’s. I was attending a National Union of Students Conference and sitting in a debate when i noticed a photographer. I pointedhim out to the reat of my delegation and we immediately became alert and obviously paying attention  (probably to Jack Straw droning on). When we returned to Colleg there were copies all over the place on posters proudly stating that the St Luke’s College delegation were the only ones awake and folllowing the debate! I fully admit that I cannot remember which conference that was, perhaps it was the one addressed by Ted Heath. We met him in the bar and he bought a couple of rounds of  drinks…more that that misery Harold Wilson did after he addressed conference.

Today I rarely buy a copy of The Times…it’s not even good or big enough to wrap the fish and chips and certainly isn’t even large enought to cover a table in the painting class at school.