If you live in the Rickmansworth area and happen to see a card with a big red “H” on it, displayed in a window, don’t look the other way or pass by on the other side of the street. Go up, read the card and act!

You will find that the card is a distress signal. The “H” stands for help. On the bottom you will find a doctor’s name and address. These cards are being distributed by the WVS to frail and elderly people who live alone and may suddenly need help.

School children are being taught to recognise them and neighbours are being asked to look out for them. The scheme, which warrants public support, is yet another example of WVS concern for those in need.

[From the Watford Observer of December 2, 1960]

 

It was announced at Leighton Buzzard Police Court on Tuesday that carol singing in the town is prohibited until within 14 days of Christmas. The chairman said complaints had been received that carol singing had already started, and the police had been instructed by the magistrates to take proceedings forthwith.

[From the Watford Observer of December 5, 1925]

 

In Watford last year, more people committed suicide than were killed in road accidents.

There were ten suicides and seven deaths from motor accidents. One death occurred from meningitis over the age of 75.

In 1976, there were eight deaths from influenza. There had been only one death from this cause in 1975.

These figures are given in Watford’s vital statistics for the year which ended on December 31, 1976.

In 1976 there were more births than deaths in Watford, but in Three Rivers and Hertsmere the number of deaths exceeded births. Nearly 99 per cent of births were in hospital and patients were mainly discharged on the seventh day.

The number of Watford residents who died was 958, giving a standardised death rate of 11.8 per 1,000 population, compared with a relative regional figure of 11.2.

[From the Watford Observer of December 6, 1977]

 

The young people of Watford are being “driven to drink”, claim “three hard-up teenagers” in a letter to the “Observer”.

“Since the Mocha bar closed down there is just nowhere we can buy a cup of coffee in the evenings,” they say, “and nowhere we can go to meet our friends without paying at least two shillings.”

At one cafe, claim the teenagers, they were told: “Sorry, but you must have a snack or a meal with your coffee.” At another they were told the minimum charge was two shillings.

“How disgusting!” they say. “We haven’t got money to throw around as people seem to think; don’t the proprietors realise their cafes are much emptier now than they used to be?

“We teenagers are literally being driven to drink because, after all, it is cheaper to spend the evening in a public house.”

[From the Watford Observer of December 27, 1963]