Success Gallery

The new coffee tavern at Bradford

Interior and exterior views of the new coffee tavern in Bradford, inaugurated by W. E Forster, M.P in 1879. The Coffee Tavern movement was a Victorian effort to get people out of pubs. Proposed by the Bradford councillor, alderman and magistrate, Frederick Priestman, the tavern was opened at the junction of Westgate, Ivegate and Kirkgate and was an immediate commercial success serving food as well as coffee. Within a few years there were 28 branches in the Bradford district but with over 400 licensed beer sellers in the area, how much of a sobering effect they had on the local population is debatable

© Illustrated London News Ltd/Mary Evans

HMS Hermes, Highflyer-class protected cruiser

Royal Navy - HMS Hermes, a Highflyer-class protected cruiser, before conversion to an experimental seaplane carrier / tender. HMS Hermes was a Highflyer-class protected cruiser built for the Royal Navy in the 1890s. She spent much of her early career as flagship for various foreign stations before returning home in 1913 to be assigned to the reserve Third Fleet. The ship was modified later that year as the first experimental seaplane carrier in the Royal Navy. In that year's annual fleet manoeuvres, she was used to evaluate how aircraft could cooperate with the fleet and if aircraft could be operated successfully at sea for an extended time. The trials were a success and Hermes was paid off in December at their conclusion. She was recommissioned at the beginning of World War I in August 1914 for service as an aircraft ferry and depot ship for the Royal Naval Air Service. She was torpedoed and sunk by a German submarine in the Straits of Dover that October, with the loss of 21 lives. Date: circa 1907

© The Peter Butt Aviation Collection / Mary Evans A The Peter Butt Aviation Collection / Mary Evans

Plaque to Captain J J Crowe VC, Nieuwkerke Hospice

The final German attempt to break through to the Channel ports, known as the Fourth Battle of Ypres, had initial success, and on 13 April 1918 the 2nd Worcesters were pushed back to the small village of Nieuwkerke, where they made a stand in the area of the Mairie. That evening the Germans entered the village and poured machine gun fire onto the defenders. Captain Crowe, the adjutant, realising that their position was becoming untenable, set off with a handful of volunteers to silence the guns. First they crawled and then charged, the fleeing Germans. However, further enemy re-inforcments arrived and, for silencing the guns and for allowing a controlled withdrawal of the Worcesters in later fighting, Captain Crowe was awarded the VC. Date: 2011

© Holts Battlefield Collection / Mary Evans