NOSTAGLIA: This week in 1917 and 1982

There was a full house when Boston Weight Training Club staged its open Mr East Coast competetion at the Centenary Methodist Church, in Boston, in 1982.

A former Boston man serving in the First World War had been awarded the Military Medal, having already been singled out for distinction earlier in the conflict only to never receive it.

Gunner T. Fisher, of the Siege Battery of Royal Garrison Artillery, had received the Military Medal – introduced to recognise gallantry and devotion to duty – for an act during a fierce fight in September.

The Standard noted Gunner Fisher had been selected for recognition at the end of July, but by some error the reward was never made.

Referring to that incident, he said that the oversight did not trouble him ‘for I didn’t come out here for medals, but only to do my bit’

The soldier had experienced a narrow escape recently, the paper said, when he was saved by his steel helmet.

Before joining the army in November and being sent to France in March, Gunner Fisher had been in business in Emery Lane, Boston.

* Lieut B. Baumber, of the 4th Lincolns, of Boston, meanwhile was set to take up instructional duties in connection with the American Army.

He was an expert in physical training and bayonet fighting, the paper said.

This week in 1982 ...

* An attempt to bring top-class live entertainment to Boston was under threat by public apathy who have cried out for such fare, it had been claimed.

Ticket sales for the weekend’s show at the Haven Cinema had been disappointing, despite the fact that it featured such national stars as Freddie Starr and Lennie Bennett.

A spokesman for Haven Enterprises, the consortium that owned the cinema, said he was sure unless the public supported the show there would be no more top entertainers at the venue.

The Haven, at that time, was undergoing a £40,000 re-vamp to make it ‘one of the best entertainment centres in the region’, the paper wrote.

* The Wash had been the scene of a desperate attempt to save a school of pilot whales stranded on sands around the mouth of the Haven.

This school was said to be between 22 and 26 whales. Others had been found dead along the coastline.

Among those involved was Boston’s habour master Captain Graham Hulland.

He said: “NARA (National Animal Rescue Association) and ourselves successfully shepherded them into deeper water and we tried to get them away from the banks and into the Wash proper.”