Amongst the Scarborough destruction ..... a human story

The popular press has always looked for the human story amidst the more horrible things that can happen.

And back in December 1914 the bombardment of Scarborough was just such an opportunity.

My Wikipedia tells me that “The Raid on Scarborough, Hartlepool and Whitby on 16 December 1914 was an attack by the Imperial German Navy on the British ports of Scarborough, Hartlepool, West Hartlepool and Whitby. 

The bombardments caused hundreds of civilian casualties and resulted in public outrage in Britain against the German Navy for the raid and the Royal Navy for failing to prevent it”.*

At the time the newspapers were full of the destruction, and images of the funerals of those who were killed.  

And later still plaques and memorials were erected to commemorate the attacks.

Now my old friend David Harrop has long been interested in the raids, not least because they have faded somewhat from popular memory for most of the country.  

And having received a picture postcard of the attack, he decided to mark the bombardment with a special exhibition at his permanent exhibition in Southern Cemetery.**

Added to which he has set up a special Facebook site which he calls David Harrop Manchester Postal Museum Presents Scarborough In WW1.***

As he said to me  “I just wanted to do something on the bombardment prior to Remembrance Day. So much emphasis on W.W1 and WW2 that the poor soul's of the East Coast of Yorkshire are forgotten”.***

So along with photographs of some of the memorials, and newspaper clippings are these two which reflect the media’s approach to reporting both the awfulness of the events, matched with that “human story”.

And a cat story will always appeal to a significant section of the populaton.

So that is it.

The clippings come fromThe Scarborough Pictorial and were printed days after the attack in 1914.

Location; Scarborough, 1914, Southern Cemetery, 2021

Pictures; courtesy of David Harrop, 2021 

*Raid on Scarborough, Hartlepool and Whitby, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raid_on_Scarborough,_Hartlepool_and_Whitby

***Postal and History Museum, Remembrance Lodge, Southern Cemetery, Barlow Moor Road

***David Harrop Manchester Postal Museum Presents Scarborough In WW1, https://www.facebook.com/David-Harrop-Manchester-Postal-Museum-Presents-Scarborough-In-WW1-164901897577982/