Leeds nostalgia: Detectives hunt shop attacker in 1948

The shop was that of Mr H B Warner, portmanteau repairer, of Wellington Street. He was found unconscious on the floor by some of his customers.

The story ran in the YEP in March 1948.

Mr Warner was described as a ‘craftsman of the old school’. Indeed, the YEP had done a portrait of him the previous year, which observed: “When you reach Henry Warner after going down half a dozen steps and picking your way over odd suitcases, you find him seated on a stool, ankle-deep in bits of leather, ropes, catches and what-not, plying his needle at a bench where there isn’t a clear inch of space.”

He described how the school summer holidays brought a sudden rush of work.

“I have been here over 50 years and have never known anything like it. Everyone going on holiday seems to want a trunk repaired.”

In other news, about 1,200 boiler-room workers, liftmen and other semi-skilled workers began an unofficial strike today at Buckingham Palace, both Houses of Parliament, the Ministry of Works, the Admiralty (where the strike started), the War Office, the Law Courts and other Government departments across the capital and its suburbs.

At the Palace, there was no hot water, however, a spokesman said the King and Queen were not in residence.

The Strike Committee reported 40 government departments “all out”.

Mr J Shaw, an engineer attendant and member of the Strike Committee, said the men were striking for an increase in wages from £4 17s 6d to £5 10s a week. He said: “We tried to get it through constitutional means but were foiled by the Treasury.”