The term ‘old soldier’ would suit no-one better than George Ives who, when he died in 1993 at the age of 111, was the last surviving veteran of the Boer Wars.

Ives was born in Brighton in 1881 although the family moved to Bristol to work for the Tidmarsh family. As a boy, Ives trained to be a jockey but then worked in his father’s workshop. Read more ›››

Avast behind: Penzance fell short in its bid to win back the world record to gather the most pirates in one place when 77 of the crew were still carousing in a pub when the count was taken. They can take heart that it will soon be Talk Like A Pirate Day.

Terror alert: A secret test of security at the Palace of Westminster showed that 100 MPs could be massacred in less than five minutes. Read more ›››

We tend to think of abstract art as a relatively recent phenomenon, something sprung from the psychedelia of the 1960s and yet one woman was a hundred years ahead of her time, the spiritualist artist Georgiana Houghton.

Houghton was born in Las Palmas, Gran Canaria, in 1814, the seventh of twelve children of the merchant George Houghton and the family variously lived in London and Madeira, as well as the Canary Islands. Read more ›››

Off his head: Police in Osnabrück in Germany have seized thousands of ecstasy tablets shaped like Donald Trump’s head. The colour probably helps.

Having a laugh: The BBC released the results of a poll of the best film comedies with Some Like It Hot at number one with Dr Strangelove second. I was glad that Duck Soup made it into the top ten though. Read more ›››

There are many who have risked their lives in war for the sake of freedom, but few have done what Ken Gatward did in 1942 – to put his neck on the line for the sake of a propaganda stunt.

Gatward was born in 1914 in Hornsey, London, the son of the local Chief Inspector of police. He joined the RAF Volunteer Reserve in 1937 and when war broke out in 1939 he joined No 53 Squadron specialising in low-level raids. Read more ›››

You dirty rat: Donald Trump is now being harassed by Trumpy the Rat, a fifteen-foot inflatable caricature sporting Confederate flag cufflinks, a Russian flag on its lapel, and a Trump-style hairdo.

Whoops Apocalypse: Tensions over a possible nuclear attack on Guam by North Korea wound up several notches when two local radio stations accidentally broadcast an emergency civil danger warning. Read more ›››