From the Advertiser archives - December 1 edition

In the news 100, 50 and 25 years ago

December 2, 1916

One of the doctors who have been recently decorated with the Military Cross is Captain Thomas Ainsworth Townsend RAMC, the only son of Mr Thomas Sutton Townsend of Clifton Manor. In October 1915 the war office sent him to France as medical officer to the 24th Battalion of the London Regiment, with which he has been at work ever since. He received the medal for conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty. He displayed great courage and determination in rescuing several men who had been buried, under heavy fire.

December 2, 1966

The 1966 cutting about the Fitter triplets, Daisy, Lily and VioletThe 1966 cutting about the Fitter triplets, Daisy, Lily and Violet
The 1966 cutting about the Fitter triplets, Daisy, Lily and Violet

One might be excused for remarking on the similarity between the three happy faces pictured (left) they are triplets, born at The Locks, Hillmorton 75 years ago. In the centre is Mrs Daisy Cleaver of Pettiver Crescent, on her left is Mrs Lily Wood of Bromwich Road and the third is Mrs Violet Butcher of Lower Street. They are three of the 14 children of the late Mr and Mrs George Fitter. Their father was a foreman bricklayer at the locks. (See main story below).

Novmber 28, 1991

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Bus passengers are horrified by plans to install 31 humps along a Rugby road. Midland Red say their fleet will become unreliable and overloaded if ‘traffic calming’ measures are introduced. They say people will be kept waiting at stops along the popular town centre to Hillmorton route because buses will be forced to slow down over the humps planned for Lower Hillmorton Road. Each bus driver would be forced to travel over 744 humps every day.

TRIPLETS PUZZLE

The mystery picture of Rugby's first tripletsThe mystery picture of Rugby's first triplets
The mystery picture of Rugby's first triplets

How much do you believe in coincidence? Well, just a couple of hours after I had been to the library and picked out the story about the triplets from our 1966 archives - I was given a mystery picture for this page, believed to be Rugby’s first triplets. Spooky! Of course there may not be any connection at all - but it would be very interesting to know, if anyone can help. The only clue on the back of the baby picture, taken by Redding photographers, is the words: ‘nee Hales’. The mother’s maiden name?

Should the babies be Daisy, Lily and Violet Fitter, it would have been taken in 1891 as they were celebrating their 75th birthdays in 1966. They must have been identical as the Advertiser piece about them continues: “When they went to Hillmorton school they were each issued with a different coloured hair ribbon for identification, and when Violet and Lily were teenagers they swopped boyfriends one day and were not detected. They have always been close and even now meet one another regularly each week. If one is ill the other two always know.”

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