With the 2024 Paris Olympics in full swing this week, we thought we’d take a look back at some Olympic history from the pages of our Archive, as we shine a light on the 1908 London Olympics and the controversial marathon race which took place during that competition. Moreover, of course, we have some fantastic new pages added to our collection for you this week, with 360,841 brand new pages joining us in total, with one brand new newspaper being added to The Archive.
From Belfast to Beverley, from Market Rasen to Montrose, from Sheffield to Sunderland, we have updated 29 of our existing titles from across the United Kingdom. So read on to discover more about our new and updated titles of the week, and also to learn about some Olympic history from over a century ago.
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But before we delve into some Olympic history, we’re delighted to introduce our new title of the week, which is the South Eastern Advertiser. This Sussex paper was established in 1853 as the Rye Chronicle, Cinque Ports Gazette, and South Eastern Advertiser, in 1861 becoming the South Eastern Advertiser, Rye Chronicle, Hastings and St. Leonard’s Herald.
Published in the historic town of Rye in East Sussex, which forms part of the medieval Cinque Ports confederation as an ancient town, the South Eastern Advertiser was Conservative in its politics. A weekly paper, the title appeared every Saturday at the cost of three halfpence. Filling four pages, the South Eastern Advertiser covered a range of international, national and local news, reporting on happenings from across the south east of England.
For example, the South Eastern Advertiser printed news from the likes of Beckley, Arundel, Brighton, Chichester, Canterbury, Lewes, Lindfield, Pevensey, Petersfield, Petworth, Portsmouth, Tunbridge Wells, and Woolwich, its ‘county intelligence’ remit spreading across Sussex as well as the neighbouring counties of Kent, Hampshire and Surrey.
By the dawn of the 20th century, Rye’s South Eastern Advertiser had expanded to fill eight pages, although its focus was now more firmly on the East Sussex area. Publishing such sections as Rye Local Notes and Rye Paragraphs, as well as the latest from the Rye Guardians and the Rye District Council, the paper by the 1910s was publishing photographs.
By this time too, the South Eastern Advertiser regularly reported on agricultural matters, as well as incorporating a weekly gardening column. In 1917 the South Eastern Advertiser was incorporated into fellow Sussex newspaper the Sussex Express, which had begun life all the way back in 1837 as the Sussex Agricultural Express.
That’s it from our new title of the week, but before we move on to take a look at some Olympic history, we wanted to highlight some of our updated titles of the week. Our largest update of the past seven days is to the Aberdeen Press and Journal, to which we have added over 41,000 brand new pages. Alongside the Aberdeen Press and Journal, we have updated five of our other Scottish titles, with updates to the likes of the Musselburgh News, the Montrose Review and the Fife Free Press.
Other significant updates this week are to Oxfordshire’s Thame Gazette, to which we have added over 40,000 brand new pages, and the Sunderland Daily Echo and Shipping Gazette, to which we have added over 37,0000 brand new pages, as well as to the Lancaster Guardian, with over 29,000 brand new pages added, and to the West Sussex County Times, which sees over 25,000 brand new pages join its ranks.
Meanwhile in Northern Ireland, it’s old meets new, with the year 1767 joining the Belfast News-Letter, and the year 2003 being added to the Mid-Ulster Mail. Finally, we’ve added pages from the year 1925 to our richly illustrated title The Sketch.
Making Olympic History – The 1908 Olympic Marathon
In 1908 London played host to the Olympic Games for the very first time, the inaugural modern Olympic Games having taken place some 12 years before in Greece. One of the most notable events of the 1908 Olympic Games, and a significant part of Olympic history, was the marathon event, which we shall explore through the pages of our new title, Rye’s South Eastern Advertiser.
On 18 July 1908 the South Eastern Advertiser reported on the ‘Marathon Race,’ describing how:
London is waking up to excitement over the great event of the Olympic Games, the Marathon Race of twenty-six miles, from Windsor to the Stadium, within the Exhibition grounds. Residents along the route are becoming familiar with the flying figures of competitors going over the course.
The logistics of the race, which was to be run through from Windsor to the stadium at White City via Eton, Slough, Uxbridge, Harrow and Wembley, were unlike anything London had witnessed before. The South Eastern Advertiser went on to report how:
Elaborate preparations are being made for keeping the route clear. The ordinary traffic may not be stopped, but wherever possible it will be diverted, and as Londoners of all ranks and classes are manifesting keen interest in the event the difficulty will be overcome. Somewhere about two thousand helpers will be stationed along the route, who will do what they can to keep the way open for the runners. Detachments of police are to be posted at all cross roads, so that officialdom and the populace are co-operating to ensure a successful race.
The result of the race? Initially, the redoubtable effort of Italian runner Dorando Pietri looked to have been rewarded as he powered to overtake the leader, South African Charles Hefferon, at the 20 mile mark. However, Pietri began to feel the consequences of his exertion, suffering from extreme fatigue and dehydration on the unusually hot day in Britain. Reaching the stadium first, he went the wrong way and had to be aided by officials, falling a total of five times, each time being helped up, before crossing the finish line.
In second place was American Johnny Hayes. His team lodged a complaint against Pietri, as he had received help from the officials. Consequently, the Italian was disqualified, Hayes became the victor, although the story of the marathon and Dorando Pietri’s effort captivated the global press, as well as Queen Alexandra, who handed him a commiseratory silver cup.
The hold that this moment of Olympic history had on the British imagination is evidenced in the pages of the South Eastern Advertiser. On 29 August 1908, over a month after the marathon had been run, the paper reported on the visit of the People’s Picture Palace Company to the Rye Public Hall, where a range of films were enjoyed. The newspaper related how:
The pictures were varied in character, and excellently presented, being free from flicker and blurr. The most interesting film presented showed the great Marathon Race, and the final scene at the crowded Stadium. The film was a remarkably good one, and the audience on Monday night watched Dorando’s career with breathless interest.
In this newest of media forms, it was Italian Dorando Pietri who stole the show at the 1908 London Olympics.
By the end of the year, on 21 November 1908, Dorando Pietri’s name was still taking up space in the South Eastern Advertiser, as the paper included an extract from the writings of Dr. G.H.R. Dabbs, which had been published in Fry’s Magazine. In the piece, with the title ‘Would Dorando Have Won?,’ Dabbs pondered how:
I still think that if Dorando had been given a pint of water and been left alone he would have self-recovered and have romped in. His Latin temperament made the end of the race, by reason of the crowd and the pent-up excitement, a heavy nerve ordeal for a man, whose blood was poisoned by the all the organic impurities of fatigue.
Dabbs went on to expound some interesting medical thinking, but the doctor did highlight the importance of hydration to long distance runners:
No trial or endeavour should be attempted without fluids being taken; food matters not much, alcohol is worse than useless, tea and coffee are not absolutely necessary, but fluid (water, boiled if possible) is quite vital. Thickened blood is toxic blood, and if the blood parts with the water by excessive sweating it stands to reason that water must be supplied it in some proportion to the loss entailed.
Dorando Pietri would go on to become an international celebrity, running his last marathon in Buenos Aires in May 1910.
We hope you enjoyed this look at an important moment of Olympic history. Discover more Olympic history, as well as other moments of sporting triumph and much more besides, in the pages of our Archive today.
New Titles
| Title | Years Added |
| South Eastern Advertiser | 1861-1896, 1898-1902, 1907-1915, 1917 |
Updated Titles
This week we have updated 29 of our existing titles.
You can learn more about each of the titles we add to every week by clicking on their names. On each paper’s title page, you can read a free sample issue, learn more about our current holdings, and our plans for digitisation.
You can keep up to date with all the latest additions by visiting the recently added page. You can even look ahead to see what we’re going to add tomorrow.
1 comments On Hot Off The Press – New Titles This Week
Will you be digitising the Bootle Times 1914-1918.