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This section gives you an archive of the stories which made it into the national press during 1948.
On the King's official birthday about a quarter of a million people are disappointed when they gather for the first Trooping of the Colour since 1939. the event was cancelled when it began to rain, as the authorities fear that rain will ruin the soldiers "irreplacable" uniforms.
A War Office spokesman explained, "the scarlet full-dress uniforms would have been sodden, shrunk and stained" and furthermore there were no more stocks of the uniform's unique scarlet cloth.
The surgeon Sir Russell Brock of Guy's Hospital performs the first successful internal heart surgery on three females aged between 11 and 23 who were born 'blue babies' and who had been lifelong invalids due to the lack of sufficient oxygen in their blood. One of the patients, Gwenda Bishop, aged 12, was reported to be "skipping in the streets" since her operation. She was previously unable to walk 100 yards from her home without having to sit and rest and had to go a special school and return by ambulance.
