—The Norwich Town Council accepted the offer of Messrs. Gurneys and Co. to present to the Corporation a set of civic robes.
22.—The roads in many parts of the county were rendered impassable by snowdrifts; the river traffic between Norwich and Yarmouth was impeded by ice, and in the stormy weather which prevailed much damage was occasioned to the Yarmouth fishing fleet and coast-bound vessels.
23.—A public meeting convened by the Lord-Lieutenant of the county (the Earl of Leicester) and the Mayor (Mr. C. R. Gilman) was held at the Guildhall, Norwich, to decide upon the method of celebrating locally the Diamond Jubilee of her Majesty the Queen. The Dean of Norwich moved “That subscriptions be invited in order to raise a sum of money, to be called the Diamond Jubilee Fund, for the purpose of building a new Jenny Lind Infirmary for Sick Children, it being the strong feeling of the meeting that no memorial could be found more typical of the tender sympathy and interest ever shown by her Majesty in the sufferings and needs of her people.” Viscount Coke seconded the resolution, and a committee was appointed to raise the fund. (See March 15th, 1898.)
25.—At the Norwich Assizes, before Mr. Justice Cave, Henry Greaves Corsbie (37), clerk, pleaded guilty to feloniously endorsing and uttering a banker’s cheque for the payment of £31 12s. 1d. with intent to defraud the Norfolk and Norwich Savings Bank on July 15th, 1893, and was sentenced to seven years’ penal servitude. The prisoner had been guilty of frauds extending over a period of ten years.
—John George Foster (35) was indicted at the Norwich Assizes, before Mr. Justice Cave, for the wilful murder of Alice Maria Newby, at 60, Pottergate Street, Norwich, on December 8th, 1896. He was found guilty of manslaughter, and sentenced to penal servitude for life.
FEBRUARY.
2.—The Girls’ Home in Botolph Street, Norwich, established by the Board of Guardians with the object of removing young children from workhouse surroundings, was opened by the Mayor (Mr. C. R. Gilman).
6.—A sudden thaw accompanied by heavy rain caused extensive floods in low-lying districts of the county. Great alarm was occasioned in Norwich by the rising of the Wensum and the flooding of premises in Heigham Street. The waters subsided on the 7th.
7.—Died at Luxor, Egypt, Mr. Alan Cozens-Hardy Colman, aged 30, son of Mr. J. J. Colman, of Carrow House, Norwich. Mr. Colman, who was a member of the Norfolk County Council, was of a studious disposition, and applied himself to mechanics. Although in affluent circumstances he voluntarily became a pupil at the Stratford works of the Great Eastern Railway Company, was for a number of years an active confrere of the workmen employed there, adapted himself to their conditions of labour, and made himself generally popular.
11.—Died at Hackford Hall, Reepham, Georgina Frances Amy, widow of Mr. John Collyer, and eldest daughter of Sir William Johnston, of that ilk, of Hilton House, Woodside, Aberdeen. Mrs. Collyer, who was in her 92nd year, was at the time of Wellington’s great campaign being educated at Brussels, where her parents resided, and were among the guests who attended the Duchess of Richmond’s ball on the night before Waterloo. She had a vivid recollection of June 15th, 1815. With her younger sisters, she in the early dawn watched from the windows of her parents’ house the troops passing to the field. Later in the day the girls attended school as usual, and soon became aware that the battle had begun. The servant sent to fetch her from school lost herself in the crowd, and the children made their way home alone, groping by the walls and passing through the throng of troops marching to the field and the thickening stream of prisoners and wounded returning. On the 17th and 18th she was all day helping her parents to hand water and wine to the wounded as they passed the door. Mrs. Collyer had personal recollections of Mendelssohn, whose wife was long her intimate acquaintance, and of Spohr, whose playing she had often heard and admired.