November 21, 1951

Pictured in this Advertiser news photo are the first two young men from the Newark area to join up under a new Army recruiting scheme.

From the left are: Nottinghamshire area recruiting officer Lieutenant-colonel W. Medway, Newark and district recruiting sergeant Colour-sergeant W. A. Smith, Fred Alexander and George Hallam, both 18, of East Stoke.

Under the new scheme, recruits serve three years with the colours and four years on the Reserve (for which they draw reserves pay). Their starting pay is 7s a day, whereas a National Serviceman receives 4s.

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Newark Rowing Club would like the Magnus Grammar School to take up rowing and become a club "nursery."

"I think that it is deplorable that Newark has not one rowing school", said the Club Captain, Mr W. H. Pinkney, at Thursday's annual dinner at the Robin Hood Hotel Newark.

"Magnus has turned out some of the finest athletes in the country...it is the home of Rugger in Newark...if the school took up rowing they would show other schools in the provinces how to row," he said.

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Newark and District Horticultural Society had more entries for this year's autumn show of fruit, vegetables and chrysanthemums, in Newark Town Hall on Saturday than ever before in the society's history.

The prize list was headed by Mr W. Stevenson of 31 Charles Street Newark, who won two cups and the chrysanthemum championship.

November 14, 1951

A hoboes parade was held at the Midland Hotel, to judge the best tramp attire at a tramp supper organised by the W. N. Nicholson and Sons sports and social club.

The tramps' room was furnished with bales of straw, stooks of corn, hand lamps and a log fire, and the tramps' bearded faces were appropriately none too clean.

The winner was Mr Bert Smith, with Mr Wilf Smith second and Mr Clive Walker third. The unveiling and dedication of a memorial to Newark people who died in the second world war formed part of the Armistice Day service in Newark Parish Church.

The ceremony was performed by the Mayor of Newark, Mr J. A. Markwick, and in his sermon, the Vicar of Newark, the Rev. G. W. Clarkson, said: "I hope you will come, and come often, to examine it . . . the secret fastened in its stone is of great significance."

The memorial, sited in the south transept, was sculpted by Mr Robert Kiddey to represent The Pieta - the preparation of the Lord's body for burial.

The virgin mother is depicted holding the Body. Behind them is the Cross, and beneath is a symbol of the world. Efforts by the Winthorpe Road Estate Tenants' Association to stop the 5s increase on council house rents, or to have it reduced, have been in vain Mr H. Whittaker, the association's chairman, told members after a meeting with the housing committee of Newark Town Council that all their efforts had been in vain, and all tenants eligible for a reduction should apply.

November 7, 1951

Sergeant Charles Browne, RAF, his Newark-born wife and two young daughters, arrived back in England on Saturday from the Suez Canal zone.

Around the married quarters at the camp in Abyad that they left guards were posted every 200 yards and trip wires were erected to give warning of intruders.

The riots in Egypt had been on two days when Mr and Mrs Browne left.

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As a double-decker bus bulldozed its way through the 2,000 strong crowd outside St Leonard's Church, Newark, on Saturday the conductress asked: "Are you expecting the Queen?"

It was not a Royal occasion. Newark had turned out to see the marriage of widowed Elsie May Marshall, mother of 22 children, to a slightly built, 21-year-old Irishman, Robert Cornelius Kerry.

It was a white wedding. Town buses set down nearly all their passengers near the church and there was a steady stream of onlookers from the town centre.

In church the 450 seats were filled 15 minutes before the ceremony.

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Six hundred men and women knelt on sodden turf in the Polish section of Newark Cemetery on Sunday.

It was the Polish equivalent of Remembrance Sunday, and the 600 were there to pay tribute to the memory of the Polish servicemen who died in the second world war.

Most of the 400 Polish graves are those of airmen killed flying British bombers from RAF stations around Newark.

Bishop Michalski conducted the memorial service at one grave set apart from the rest but marked with an identical wooden cross.

It was that of General Bruni W. Sikorski. The only inscription after the name was the date of his death 4-7-43.