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Making History
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Begins TuesdayÌý18 October 2005 , 3.00-3.30 p.m |
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Sue Cook and the team answer listeners' historical queries and celebrate the way in which we all 'make' history. |
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Series 12 |
Programme 4
8ÌýNovemberÌý2005 |
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Doggett's Coat and Badge
In 1944 Making History listener Lester Irving from Plymouth was talking to a fellow army recruit at a training camp who told him that he was a winner of "Doggett's Coat and Badge". But, before Lester could discover what this meant, his colleague was posted elsewhere. The question for the programme, 64 years later, is: what was "Doggett's Coat and Badge"?
Making History consulted a former winner of Doggett's Coat and Badge and the author of The Coat, Robert Crouch.
Doggett's Coat and Badge is the oldest annually contested sporting contest in the UK. It is a sculling race for Watermen (those licensed to take passengers on the river) up the River Thames over a 4.5 mile course from London Bridge to Chelsea. ItÌýwas started in 1715 by the Irish comedian, theatre manager and Whig sympathiser Thomas Doggett to celebrate the first anniversary of the accession of George I to the throne. The winner was paraded every year at a banquet at Fishmongers' Hall wearing a bright crimson coat with the silver badge on his right arm.
Useful links
(PDF file)
Further readingÌý
Robert Crouch, The Coat (Trafford Publishing)
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Johnny Briggs
One of Lancashire and England's finest cricketers, Johnny Briggs was the only man to score a century and take a hat-trick of wickets for England against Australia. He died aged 39 in 1902 in an asylum in Manchester because he suffered from epilepsy.
Brigss was an all-rounder, scoring over 14,000 runs and taking 2,221 wickets for Lancashire between 1879 and 1900. He played in 33 Test matches,Ìýscoring 815 runs and taking 118 wickets. He holds a number of Test cricketing records: he was the first Test player to take over 100 wickets, holds the record for the most Test wickets taken during a day (15) in the 2nd test of the 1888/89 series against South Africa, and is the only player to have taken a hat-trick and scored a century in Test cricket. For his feats he was awarded the Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1889.
Johnny Briggs' career began to decline sharply after he suffered a seizure during the Headingley Test against Australia in 1899 when he was hit above the heart by a ball. He became afflicted with epilepsy, which eventually finished his career and took his life three years later at the age of 39. Over 3,000 mourners attended his funeraI in Stretford, Manchester.
Making History consulted the Reverend Malcolm Lorimer, official historian for Lancashire County Cricket Club.
Useful links
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Vanessa has presentedÌýscience and current affairs programmes for ±«Óãtv, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5 and Discovery and has presented for ±«Óãtv Radio 4 & Five Live and a regular contributor to the Daily Telegraph and the Mail on Sunday, Scotsman and Sunday Herald.Ìý