NOSTALGIA: This week in 1972 and 1992

- Boston was to have the services of the first woman engineer to be appointed by the East Midlands Electricity Midlands Board.

Jean Dewar, a Nottingham student apprentice engineer, had become an assistant commercial engineer in the East Lincs District, based at Boston.

Jean, 24, said she has been very pleased at the way she was generally accepted by – in The Standard’s words – ‘the lads’ during the early part of her apprenticeship, adding: “I think, in fact, I may have managed to exert some influence on them –they don’t swear as much as they used to!”.

- RAF Coningsby welcomed only its second royal visitor.

Princess Margaret visited the station as part of a tour of RAF sites, following on from King George VI during the war.

She was met with a guard of honour and a fly-past of nine Phantoms in diamond formation.

Her visit saw her inspect the guard of honour, the Phantoms, a weapons display, the Intelligence Centre, and the education and training centre.

She wore, it was noted, a brown and cream, calf-length suit with a cream straw boater with a brown ribbon and she was carrying a brown handbag.

This week in 1992 ...

- Crowds gathered all day around the Sluice Bridge, in Boston, where local groups joined forces to present the Boston Pageant.

It featured scenes from the Pilgrims’ flight to the New World in Boston to the American War of Independence.

The brainchild of local businessman Robert Fleet, the pageant – which also included rowing races on the river, village green games, a barbecue, and a disco – was staged to raise money for the Boston and District Scouts.

Wyberton Theatrical Society, the Boston Army Cadet Force, and the Paragon Martial Arts Club took the main roles in the action.

- A secondary school near Boston, which had recently undergone a £1.3m upgrade, had a new name.

The Giles County Secondary School had been re-named Old Leake, The Giles School.

Headteacher Donald Vincent said: “The use of the word secondary is, we feel, out of date now and also secondary often gets confused with second rate and this school is certainly not that.”

The re-vamp at the school, now known as The Giles Academy, had brought about such additions as new rooms for IT, French, English, and graphic design, and new laboratories.