Local history was made in Weston as the youngest Mayor-elect was nominated to step into office. The story hit the headlines of the Weston Mercury and Somerset Herald 50 years ago.
It was rumoured the Duke of Edinburgh was going to pay a visit to Weston.
The Weston Mercury and Somerset Herald reported the news on the front page of the paper.
Prince Philip, married to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, was possibly going to make a trip to the West Country on February 22, 1969, for the Air Training Corps National Boxing Championships.
The Duke was the Air Commodore-in-Chief and when the Mercury approached the officials running the competition to ask if he would be in attendance – they refused to provide a comment.
– A 20-year-old farmer was set to jet off to the United States after winning a four-month scholarship.
The trip was awarded under the Federation of Young Farmers Clubs scheme and Keith Whitting, of Watchfield, was one of 39 to be selected from a pool of more than 300 applications.
He told the Mercury: “Most of the applicants were much older and more experienced than me.”
However, Keith was the chairman of the Highbridge Young Farmers Club and vice-chairman of the Channel Group.
– The prospective Labour party candidate for the Weston by-election was named.
Economist Nicholas Bosanquet, aged 27, was voted by the party to fight for the parliamentary seat for Weston.
Mr Bosanquet, who lived and worked in London, attended Winchester College and attended Cambridge University where he graduated with a BA degree in history.
Between 1963-1965, he started out a Mellon Fellowship at Yale University and gained a masters in international relations.
He also obtained a masters of science from the London School of Economics.
– There was more political news in the pages of the Mercury as the resort’s youngest mayor was chosen.
Cllr David Driver, aged 35, was nominated to stand as the next Mayor of Weston, making him the youngest to hold the position in the town’s history. He admitted his surprise at being nominated but said he was ‘looking forward to his year in office’.
The father-of-two has been the Conservative representative for Central Ward since 1963 when he beat Cllr D J Walker from the Liberal Democrats and Labour’s Brian Jennings to the seat.
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