Cheering Gallery

Colonel Festing rescuing Lieut. Eardley-Wilmots body

Colonel Francis Worgan Festing (1833-1886), rescuing the body of Lieut. Eardley-Wilmot during the Ashanti War (1873-74) from a sketch by the officer of the expedition. Eardley-Wilmot was shot down by the Ashantees whilst cheering on his men(the Houssa Artillery) in the second engagement near Dunquah, Ghana. Under heavy fire, Col. Festing dashed forward, lifted Wilmot into his arms and bore him to saftey, sustaining a severe wound in the hip. The stick in the Colonel's hand is a stout blackthorn, which is always carried for the purpose of encouraging the men. In 1873, after decades of an uneasy relationship between the British and the Acing people of central Ghana, the British attacked and virtually destroyed the Asanti capital of Kumasi, and officially declared Ghana a crown colony on 24 July 1874"

© Mary Evans Picture Library 2015 - https://copyrighthub.org/s0/hub1/creation/maryevans/MaryEvansPictureID/10295320

A man in a barrel crossing the Niagara Falls, illustration from Le Petit Journal

XIR346392 A man in a barrel crossing the Niagara Falls, illustration from Le Petit Journal, supplement illustre, 9th October 1910 (colour litho) by French School, (20th century); Private Collection; (add.info.: un homme enferme dans un tonneau franchit les chutes du Niagara; Bob Leech;); French, out of copyright

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Arsenal v Blackburn Rovers FA Cup semi-final at Leicester

A jolly crowd of football fans at the Leicester ground for the semi-final of the Football Association cup between Blackburn Rovers and Arsenal in March 1928. According to The Graphic, "The uproar when Arsenal were beaten by 1-0 could have been heard over half the shire, and was echoed in the crowded trains which bore the disappointed supporters of the London team home." It being 1928, football crowds comprised almost exclusively of men, as evidenced in this photograph.
1928

© Illustrated London News Ltd/Mary Evans