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Regional daily celebrates publication of 45,000th edition

A regional daily has celebrated the publication of its 45,000th edition by publishing the memories of a former staff member who worked there almost 70 years ago.

Stanley Poulson began at the East Anglian Daily Times on 5 May 1948, working a night shift in the packing department to get the ‘post edition’ out to the mail train leaving Ipswich just after midnight.

Now 90, Stanley spent 42 years in all with the newspaper, finishing as overseer/night publisher.

He penned a first-person piece for the paper’s 45,000th edition on Wednesday to mark the milestone.

The 45,000th edition of the EADT

The 45,000th edition of the EADT

In a piece about his time there, he wrote: “If the train had already left, we went hell for leather and passed the train and caught it at Stowmarket. One particular night we thought we were lucky when we saw the train pulling slowly out and we rushed over the bridge to the other platform, tossed the bag into the open compartment of the mail train, stood back and took a sigh of relief. But… the mail bag was thrown out back on to the platform because the train was coming into the station, not leaving.

“I remember one night we had Arthur Alsop, who was running the press at the time. We had a paper break, all hell broke loose and the press was still running, we started to panic, only to find Arthur asleep on the buttons!

“In the early 1950s there was a rail strike. If I remember it was on for about six weeks. Another lad, George Snowball and myself took it in turns to deliver the newspapers to Stowmarket, Bury St. Edmunds, Newmarket and Cambridge. I was getting tired on the way back from Cambridge and would stop in a layby to stretch my legs before carrying on driving, quite often I would not see another vehicle on the road.”

Stanley added: “The EADT edition was around the 24,000 mark when I joined. I have read the EADT every day and will continue to do so.”

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  • June 9, 2017 at 1:38 pm
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    ” The EADT edition was around the 24,000 mark when I joined”
    Stanley must have a very long memory

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