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Gordon Martin recently got in touch to show us what the newspapers have helped him find out about his great-great-uncle Charles Alfred Martin.We love hearing about your finds, so please do let us know what you’ve discovered by emailing [email protected]**************Charles Alfred MartinI had long known the existence of great-great-uncle Charles, the youngest child of a seaman born in Magdeburg, Prussia who served on HMS Achille at the Battle of Trafalgar of 1805. His father had arrived in England…

The Huddersfield Chronicle reported that John Hetherington wore the first top hat on this day in 1797. The article stated that he was arrested for breach of the peace after ‘several women fainted at the unusual sight’:View the whole newspaper pageHuddersfield Chronicle – Tuesday 24 January 1899Image © THE BRITISH LIBRARY BOARD. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.…

‘Tell all France that I am innocent’ – Alfred DreyfusIn Paris on 5 January 1895, Captain Alfred Dreyfus was stripped of his army rank and sentenced to life imprisonment on ‘Devil’s Island’.Here is a newspaper story published on 7 January 1895 entitled, ‘The Degradation of Dreyfus’, that reports on the utterly humiliating ceremony at the Ecole Militaire to strip Dreyfus of his rank and dignity.The words that Dreyfus shouts immediately after the degradation ceremony are very poignant, moving and truthful.We’ve also…