'A bank of fog was sitting a couple of miles out at sea and a heavy mist lay over the East Coast resort of Scarborough as postman Alfred Beal climbed the wide front steps of Dunollie, a porticoed mansion high on the town’s South Cliff. He never reached the door that fateful morning on December 16, 1914, almost exactly a century ago. Three German warships had burst out of the fog bank and were now steaming past the headland, firing volley after volley of shells. One caught poor Beal and blasted his shattered body back down the drive. A second...