Duke and Duchess of York in Baltic

Daily Sketch dated Tuesday March 19^th 1929

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The Duke and Duchess of York in the Baltic. The Duke was to become George VI and the Duchess will always be remembered by tabloid readers as ‘The Queen Mum’.

The Conservative Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin during the second of three terms as PM.

George V’s wife was officially ‘Queen consort of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, Empress consort of India’. Did she have lots of names? Of course she did - Victoria Mary Augusta Louise Olga Pauline Claudine Agnes.

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40-year-old Vera Sidney died on February 15th 1929 after a few days’ illness. Her brother-in-law, Edmund Duff had died only 10 months earlier also after a few days’ illness. A third similar death in the family, that of Mrs. Violet Sidney, less than a month after Vera’s led to so much local gossip that all three bodies were exhumed. All were found to contain much more than their fair share of arsenic. 

Edmund Duff’s widow, who is quoted at length in the article, was actually the chief suspect but nothing was ever proved and all 3 deaths remain a mystery.

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Ah! The good old days when Britannia ruled the waves. The front battlecruiser is HMS Repulse followed by HMS Renown. 

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Several passengers saw a man board an Eltham to Kidbrooke train on March 13th 1929. Several of them reported hearing a scream during the journey.

At Kidbrooke station a man was seen running away from the train. When Mrs. Winifred East failed to return home from visiting friends, the police were called and her decapitated body was found on the railway line. She had been beaten, stabbed and her head cut off post-mortem. The man was never found and the murder remains unsolved.

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Chancellor of the Exchequer Winston Churchill. Could that be a cigar in his left hand, by any chance?

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The Helicogyre was not a success, although the idea of adding thrust to the tips of a helicopter rotor was taken up again in 1957 with the Fairey Rotodyne, which was more successful but fell foul of noise restrictions.

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Cathleen Nesbitt appeared in over 300 stage productions and has 89 entries for film and TV work on the IMDb ranging from a short in 1919 to ITV Playhouse in 1981 via Hitchcock’s ‘Family Plot’, TV’s ‘Wagon Train’ and ‘Upstairs, Downstairs’. She died in 1982 at 93. 

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Just the thing for long train journeys especially for those who’ve left their laptop, ipod, ipad, DS and smart phone at home. Seriously though I’d find such a guide-book interesting.  

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Annette Benson had a short film career from 1920 to 1931. ‘A South Sea Bubble’ starred Ivor Novello.

Constance Bennett was a bigger star whose screen career spanned 50 years. The must have recovered from this illness because she didn’t die until 1966.

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“By Gad, Sir! What a thrilling sight. Young Monroe-Hinds tossing his balls around like a good’un. Pass the brandy!”

Leslie Monroe-Hinds played in the Eton vs Harrow match at Lord’s in July 1929 and contributed 74 runs in a drawn match.

Wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester

Daily Mirror dated Thursday November 7^th 1935

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Prince Henry William Frederick Albert, the Duke of Gloucester was the 4^th child of George V. His wife was Lady Alice Christabel Montagu Douglas Scott. Doncha just love those multiple names? Lady Alice’s first cousin, Marian Louisa Montagu Douglas Scott, was the grandmother of Sarah, Duchess of York (Fergie) who married Prince Andrew, Alice’s Great-nephew.

Prince Henry was a career soldier having joined the Army in 1919 and rose to Field Marshal by 1955 and a Marshal of the Royal Air Force by 1958. He died in 1974. Alice died in her sleep in 2004 at the age of 102.

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Tension between Italy and the northwest African country of Abyssinia had been increasing since December 1934 until early October 1935 when Italian troops invaded. As both countries were members of the League of Nations and the League declared that Italy was the aggressor and had, therefore, contravened Article 10, economic sanctions were brought against Mussolini’s government. Controversially the British and French governments did not press for more severe action against Italy for fear of driving Mussolini into a pact with Hitler’s Germany.

The war was very unevenly balanced, with Italy and all its modern weaponry against the poorly equipped and untrained Abyssinians, so by May 1936 Italian forces had overrun the country and captured the capital, Addis Ababa. The Abyssinians surrendered and the country became Italian West Africa until it was ‘liberated’ by Allied forces in 1941.

After the war, in 1937, Italy left the League and in May 1939 signed the Pact of Steel with Germany.

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A subsequent inquest into the death of the Reverend Johnson was told that he had suffered with bouts of depression and severe back pain for many years and brought in a verdict of ‘suicide during temporary insanity’.

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The American film company Warner Brothers started making films at the Teddington Studios in 1931 and carried on for the next 20 years despite a large part of the site being destroyed by a V1 bomb in 1944.

In 1935 about 45 films were made at the Studio including the Hitchcock classic ‘The 39 Steps’. 

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In my cynical old age I can’t help thinking that these days most passers-by would be filming the fire on their i-phones instead of shining up the nearest chimneystack.

It is odd to note the lack of disapproval of the mother going shopping and leaving a 5 year-old in charge of a 3 year-old.

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The National Film Investigation was a one-off questionnaire created by London Film Productions to find out what and whom the British film-going public liked or disliked. Over 10,000 people took part.

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German U-boat U20 sank RMS Lusitania on May 7th 1915 with the loss of 1198 lives.

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Katherine Hepburn had won a Best Actress award in 1934 for ‘Morning Glory’, her third film, and was nominated again for ‘Alice Adams’ but lost out to Bette Davis. She went on to win 3 more Best Actress statuettes.

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Guiseppe Sasia was beheaded by executioner Anatole Deibler on February 17^th 1936. Deibler publicly executed 395 men between 1885 and 1939.

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When Lord Reith set up the BBC he defined its purpose in three words: educate, inform, entertain. Looking at the run down of this 1935 Thursday night’s programmes I would have to add ‘bore the pants off’. It was probably heavenly listening if you liked orchestral music and the odd East Anglian Herring Fishing Bulletin.

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“By Gad, Sir! The filly probably wrote this letter in the nude! I always make the memsahib wear galoshes when she’s in the scriptorium. Pass the ink!”

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Serge Alexandre Stavisky was an Ukranian born large-scale swindler who, when faced with exposure and arrest, fled but was found by the police having apparently committed suicide. After his death the scandal broke and many high-powered businessmen and politicians were implicated triggering a crisis that led to riots on the streets of Paris.

The trial reported here was of 20 associates of Stavisky all of whom were eventually acquitted.

Pierre Laval was the Prime Minister of France at the time of the trial, his second of 4 periods in office. During World War II he was head of the Nazi puppet Vichy Regime for 2 periods. 

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And you thought that the World-Cup-result-predicting octopus was something new!

As for Mr Longsight’s predictions, after much painstaking research I can now reveal that the 8 Home wins were all correct; of the 4 Away wins 3 were right (Lincoln drew with Hartlepool) and of the 3 draws only 1 was correct (St Johnstone and Aberdeen drew 0-0). I bet you will sleep easy tonight – I know I will.

Jack Hobbs equals W G Grace's record

Daily Graphic dated Tuesday August 18^th 1925

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It’s time to make up for my various ignorant (in the sense of un-informed) comments on sport by posting a sport-themed front page.

The cricketer Jack Hobbs equalled W G Grace’s 126 centuries in 1925 but went on to get 197 first-class cricket centuries before his retirement in 1934, and this still stands as the record.

For those who, like me, didn’t know, W G Grace’s cricket career ran from 1864 until 1908, he was 50 years old when he retired and he was a qualified and practising medical doctor.

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King Feisal (now normally spelled Faisal) became King of Iraq after a plebiscite ‘rigged’ by British business interests, in 1921. Alec Guinness played him in the 1962 film ‘Lawrence of Arabia’.

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Typical of 1920’s tabloids, several pages are taken up with these short news items.

I presume the ‘manifesto’ distributed to the Limehouse householders was created by a painting and decorating firm.

The first automated traffic lights at junctions didn’t appear until 1927.

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This was the time when it was still seriously predicted that many people would use aeroplanes to get around the country instead of cars, buses or trains.

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Gertrude Ederle had been part of the US 4x100m Relay Gold Medal winning team in 1924. This attempt to swim the Channel ended badly when she was disqualified after a misunderstanding. Her support thought she was drowning and pulled her out. She said she was resting by floating face-down. She returned in 1926 and successfully completed a France to England crossing. She died in 2003 at the age of 98.

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The British and the weather! If it’s hot then it’s too blasted hot or they are worried its not going to last.

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Benito Mussolini’s National Fascist Party governed Italy from 1922 until 1943 with Mussolini as Dictator from January 1^st 1925. Soldiers with funny hats and bicycles may look like something out of a Carry On film but the Abyssinians (Ethiopians) weren’t laughing when Mussolini’s army and airforce invaded in 1936.  

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I don’t know how this story panned out but I suspect it was either suicide or an accidental overdose. Prussic acid is another name for Hydrogen cyanide and is extremely poisonous to humans.

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Radio broadcasting for entertainment in Britain, i.e. the BBC, was a little less than 3 years old in August 1925. The London transmitter was known as 2LO and Daventry was 5XX. Exciting trivia fact – the famous BBC Shipping Forecast began life on 5XX.

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This illustration accompanied the daily fiction serial in the Graphic. Two things, pen and ink illustration and fiction stories, which no longer enhance our tabloids.

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“By Gad, Sir! It may be cheap but it’s probably some damned foreign chow. Gives the memsahib Delhi-belly just to look at it. Pass the HP Sauce!”

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I never realised that we grew tobacco here in England. This picture was probably taken on Mr Brandon's Church Crookham tobacco farm, which was active from 1911 until 1937.

Daily Graphic first edition (1890)

Daily Graphic dated Saturday January 4^th 1890

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The Daily Graphic was the first daily illustrated newspaper in England and evolved from the Graphic weekly illustrated newspaper that was first appeared in 1869. In 1926 the Daily Graphic merged with the Daily Sketch.

The Forest Gate Fire

The fire had broken out on New Year’s Eve in the Forest Gate District Poor Law Boarding School and 26 boys between 7 and 12 lost their lives. The incident caused a great deal of distress and anger in the local community and beyond. A Parliamentary inquiry criticised the management of the school. Three years later 2 children were killed and hundreds made ill by food poisoning at the same school.

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The cast for this Jack and the Beanstalk pantomime included the very popular Music Hall comedian Dan Leno who also specialised in Panto dames. In 1903 he had a mental breakdown and was committed to the Camberwell House Asylum for a few months, after which he tried to re-start his career but died at the age of 43 in October 1904 of unknown causes. 

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The Czar whose health is commented on was Alexander III.  He died 4 years later of kidney failure and was succeeded by doomed the Czar Nicholas II.

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The American showman, businessman, politician and sometimes hoaxer Phineas Taylor Barnum created his first circus at the age of 61 in 1871. He went on to run the Greatest Show on Earth – The Barnum and Bailey Circus, which toured the USA and Europe. P T Barnum died in 1891 following a stroke.

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The Prince of Wales' Sandringham Tennant’s Ball had a guest list straight out of Burke’s Peerage and included Lord and Lady Randolph Churchill, parents of 16 year-old Winston.

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Sarah Bernhardt was probably the most famous stage actress of her day. Born in Paris in 1844, she started her stage career in 1862 and became an International success. In 1915 her right leg was amputated after an accident but she continued to perform on the stage right up until she died of kidney failure in 1923. She also appeared in a dozen films and has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

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Sport in the Highlands? I’m not sure the word ‘Sport’ should be applied to the butchering of 95 stags and thousands of grouse. 

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Emmensite was a high explosive invented by Dr. Stephen H. Emmens who, as well as filing patents for guns, shells, refrigerants, a surf motor, a steam jacketed kettle and various manufacturing processes also claimed to be able to turn silver into gold i.e. alchemy.

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What a surprise – a contract for supplying the armed forces with equipment going over the estimate. Then as now and always shall be.

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Submarines had been around since the American Civil War of the 1860’s but by 1890 the most advanced were electric-powered (batteries) and sported torpedo tubes. The development of the periscope and diesel-electric power made submarines practical for combat in time for World War I. 

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This trial of Charles Johnson makes a pleasant change from the murders and violent assaults that were so prevalent in late Victorian newspapers.

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This request for readers’ drawings and photos is rather like today’s local TV news asking for viewers to send in their mobile phone videos. “Excuse me Mr Bank Robber, but would you mind holding that pose while I do a sketch for the Graphic?”

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To guarantee Swaziland independence and sovereignty Britain and the Boers of the South African Republic had signed the Conventions of Pretoria in 1881 and of London in 1884, but by then almost all of the Swazi’s mineral rights, transport networks and land rights had been signed over to Europeans. From 1890 until 1894 Britain and the Boers effectively controlled Swaziland jointly but then Britain withdrew until after the 2^nd Boer War (1899-1902). So the answer to the question posed is not just yet but then yes for a while.

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Created in the 1880’s to debunk triskaidekaphobia, the Thirteen Club hosted dinners of 13 people to cock a snoot at the superstition that one of the guests would die within a year. This meeting in 1890 included P T Barnum who died (cue spooky music and pregnant pause)… 16 months later! Ah well, it could have been a good story.

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“Gawd bless her Majesty and all who sail in her.“ Queen Victoria, the last of Hanoverian monarchs, came to the throne in 1837 at the age of 18 and stayed there until her death in January 1901. Who is that lurking behind the tree in the Osborne garden drawing? He looks suspiciously like her Majesty’s very good friend John Brown to me.

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The writer of this proposal to build a Hall of City Companies in London was H W Brewer who was famous for his architectural illustrations that included aerial views of cities and imagined pictures of cities as they were in times gone by. Worth a look on Google images.

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Launched in 1874 the SS Britannic was the first White Star Line ship with that name (the 2^nd was the sister to a certain Titanic). In 1881 it ran aground in fog off Ireland, and having been re-floated, sprung a leak and was beached at Wexford Bay. In 1887 she collided with the SS Celtic off New Jersey and 6 steerage passengers were killed outright and another six were later found to be missing having been washed overboard. The incident in this article followed 3 years later. In 1899 she was taken over by the Royal Navy and used as a troopship for the Boer War at the end of which she was condemned and scrapped.

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These adverts for books include Mark Twain’s latest ‘A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court’ and Wilkie Collins’ final novel ‘Blind Love’ which the author left unfinished when he died the previous September – it was completed by Walter Besant. Collins’ penultimate novel ‘The Legacy of Cain’ (1889) is also offered. Jerome K Jerome’s Stage Land is misrepresented as a travel book.

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I hope this article about Jamaica’s so called Dignity Ball doesn’t offend anyone. It is presented as an example of the incredible racist and patronising attitude of British Victorians to their colonial subjects, which, by the way, continued to a lesser degree to within my living memory. 

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The Influenza Pandemic of 1889/1890 spread from China and Siberia to most of Europe and the USA. It hit London in December 1889. This pandemic was mild – only 1 million deaths compared to the estimated 20-50 million deaths in 1918/20.

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It’s about time someone invented the ASBO!

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The Bi-unial Magic Lantern was basically 2 lantern systems mounted vertically to allow the projectionist (or lanternist) to superimpose or dissolve from one slide to another. A skilled lanternist could create an illusion of movement similar to those pesky little repeating ‘gifs’ that crop up on some websites.  

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“By Gad, Sir! No more baggy trouser knees! Hurrah! The greatest invention to grace mankind since the self-waxing moustache! Pass the brandy!”