No, it’s not for The King’s death; my Grandmother also died on this day 25 years ago. She was found in the street in East London, having been beaten unconscious, and died of her injuries four days later (on this day).The killers were never found. Because of the timing, and also because of her age and unglamorous status, it wasn’t reported much in the papers, but I know it was investigated briefly by the Guardian.
My local central library doesn’t keep newspapers for very long, and the Guardian Online only has editions from up to ten years ago. A friend of mine who worked in print journalism once promised to have someone look some stuff out for me, but nothing came of it. I know you can order those ‘day you were born’ newspapers, but I’m not sure if it was actually on this day that the murder was in the papers. Those things are also quite expensive. Does anyone have any suggestions?
Have you called or written the Guardian directly? They may not have a copy of the paper to sell you, but they should be able to provide you with a photocopy of the specific article. If you don’t know the date the article appeared, a large library should have indexes to the Guardian. It would take some time on your part to go through them, but you would be able to find the exact date, then request the article.
The Guardian’s archives are viewable at their visitor centre in London. I don’t know the precise details of access but I think advanced appointments are required: you can see their webpage at:
The British Museum has a newspaper library in NW London (near Colindale Underground station) but you need to apply for admission, for which you need to prove “your need to use the Library on a regular basis”. Their web page has a lot of information and contact numbers:
If I were to need to see an old newspaper and not have it available at the library (although I can find most newspapaers at the main library on microfilm) I would then check out the local University. Typically they’re pretty good at keeping records of local history.
Have you tried here: http://www.guardiancentury.co.uk/
I poked around for a while, but without any further information on your Grandmothers’ unfortunate death, I was forced to abandon my query… Sorry.
Unfortunately, most of these stories seem to be front-page material, but check it out, and see if you can uncover anything of interest. Worth a try, I think.
Any good UK reference library should have 1977 copies of the Guardian and the other major national newspapers in some form.
The Guardian’s own archives, as suggested by refusal, may not be the best place to start, as I assume that their new centre is primarily intended for users of their manuscript collections and, in any case, you ought to search all the other papers (particularly the local ones) as well.
The British Library Newspaper Library at Colindale really is the best place to look and their admission policy is less stringent than it sounds. That said, for something as simple as the Guardian, they probably would prefer you to use a more local library. The simplest approach would be to email them (newspaper@bl.uk) and ask them which is the nearest local library to you that holds such material. My guess would be that this is one of their most FAQs and can be answered by them within seconds. And I have to say that your local library should at least have been able to point you in the right direction. If all else fails, try the Guildhall Library.