On 23rd February 1643, Queen Henrietta Maria was woken at 4a.m. in Bridlington Quay by a bombardment of the house by Parliamentary ships; she sheltered in a ditch until the ebb tide moved the ships out of range.
On 23rd February 1724, William Mason was born at Holy Trinity vicarage, Hull. A poet, biographer, composer and garden designer, in 1785 he was William Pitt the Younger’s choice as Poet Laureate, but he refused the post. He is commemorated in Poets’ Corner, Westminster Abbey, and in Hull with a cream plaque. (d 7.4.1797) see picture below
On 23rd February 1830, a report in the Hull Packet said that Revd John Earle’s boarding school at Driffield had been relocated to Watton Abbey, the stately home of the Legard family. It remained there for 10 years, and Earle took on the living at Watton church.
On 23rd February 1919, Company Sgt Major Kelly died of flu in Hull Royal Infirmary. He had been discharged from the East Yorkshires a week before, after serving in WW1 from September 1914. He is buried in Hedon Road cemetery.
