1940: Over 500 men between the ages of 20 and 23 registered for 'call-up' at the Peterborough Labour Exchange on this Saturday. Of these only five registered a conscientious objection. In the end 490 actually signed up. 64 with the Navy and 130 with the RAF. The rest offered no definite preference. Not surprisingly, bearing in mind the industrial landscape of Peterborough, there was more than the usual number of recruits who were in reserved occupations - mainly engineering. (Gray, David, Peterborough at War 1939-1945, David Gray, 2011)
Taken from The Peterborough Book of Days by Brian Jones, The History Press, 2014.
1754: In Yaxley, the church register for today tells us of the death of Henry Jordan. 'He cut his throat with a Razor, and was brought in by ye Jury a Lunatick; and Orders were given by ye Coroner for him to have a Christian Burial.' At this time the law differentiated between cases of 'felo de se' (a felon on himself) - a self-murderer who had the will and intention of taking his own life - and suicides, who were considered to be of 'unsound mind'. The 'self-murderer would be denied a Christian burial, as it was seen to be against God's law. (Bunch, Allan and Liquorice, Mary, Parish Churches in and around Peterborough, Cambridgeshire Books, 1990)
Taken from The Peterborough Book of Days by Brian Jones, The History Press, 2014.