Britain replies to Hitler's Peace Proposals (1939)

Daily Sketch dated Saturday October 7th 1939

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At this early stage of World War II, between invading Poland and while planning to invade France, Adolf Hitler made a speech in the Reichstag in which he condemned the War with Britain and France as a waste of life and that if those countries were willing to a mutual cease fire and if they would allow Hitler to continue with his policies in Poland, then the War could be over there and then. 

Prime Minister Chamberlain's speech in the House of Commons on the 12th October said, in part, “We must take it, then, that the proposals which the German Chancellor puts forward for the establishment of what he calls ‘the certainty of European security’ are to be based on recognition of his conquests and his right to do what he pleases with the conquered. It would be impossible for Great Britain to accept any such basis without forfeiting her honour and abandoning her claim that international disputes should be settled by discussion and not by force." And so the War continued.

Duke and Duchess of Kent Wedding (1961)

Daily Sketch dated Friday 9th June 1961

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Another Royal wedding. Edward, Duke of Kent was born in 1935, his father was George, Duke of Kent who was a son of George V and killed on active service in 1942. Edward's bride was Katharine Worsley, a descendant of Oliver Cromwell, and they married at York Minster on 8 June 1961. 

Death of Queen Mary

Daily Sketch dated Wednesday March 25^th 1953

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Queen Mary was the wife of George V, mother to Edward VIII and George VI and grandmother to Elizabeth II. She was born in 1867 as Victoria Mary Augusta Louise Olga Pauline Claudine Agnes and known as Mary of Teck.

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I wonder how long this story had been waiting to be published. I imagine that Queen Elizabeth’s, the Duke of Edinburgh’s and even Prince Charles’ obituaries are sitting there even now ready for the presses to start rolling.

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There was very little space left for any other stories in this edition, but one would have made the Front page on any other day -

Three bodies found at 10 Rillington Place, Notting Hill in North London while a prospective buyer is shown round – like an episode of ‘Location, Location, Location’ written by Steve Pemberton. This was the start of the case that would lead John Reginald Halliday Christie to the gallows. See this post. 

Our King is Dead - George V

Daily Sketch dated Tuesday January 21^st 1936

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George V came to the throne on the death of his father Edward VII in May 1910. He was a popular King with simple pastimes such as murdering wildlife and stamp collecting. After World War I his health deteriorated, mainly due to his heavy smoking habit, and he suffered from pulmonary disease and pleurisy. He died at 11:55pm on May 20^th some say with the help of his physician. I couldn't possibly comment.

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The new King was George V eldest son who reluctantly took on the role of Edward VIII. Of course he was never crowned because he abdicated before his coronation to marry Wallis Simpson (who was not Marge, Patty and Selma’s secret 4^th sibling).

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Lord Hewart served as the Lord Chief Justice from 1922 until 1940. He popularised the aphorism "Not only must Justice be done; it must also be seen to be done."

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Bertrand Russell is now best remembered (if at all) as an anti-war campaigner and pro-nuclear disarmament demonstrator, but he much more – a mathematician, philosopher, historian, teacher, TV celebrity (when that meant something), author and plane-crash survivor. He died in 1970 at the age of 97.

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From December 1934 until July 1935 Florence Blenkiron and her friend Teresa Wallack travelled from London to Cape Town on a motorcycle and sidecar combination with no support team, satnav and, for a lot of the time, no roads. When they reached South Africa they quarrelled and Florence made the return journey alone.

If you look this up online you will find Teresa taking all the glory mainly due to her still in print book of the journey ‘The Rugged Road’. I can’t find anything about Florence’s return trip, not even if she made it home safely.

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This Winchester By-Pass was the first all dual-carriageway by-pass in England and opened in 1940. Since the late 1960’s and before the co,pletion  of the M3 I used the By-Pass many many times on journeys between London and Dorset and ‘fondly’ remember the hours spent queuing for the lights at the junction with the A333 (now B3335).

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I didn’t realise that the old ‘canned’ laughter debate was this old. I’ve been in the audience for several TV recordings recently; and radio audiences back in the 1960’s, and it’s true that being there does make even the feeblest jokes funnier. Modern TV audiences are encouraged to laugh out loud at ‘something you would merely smile at when watching at home’.

U.S. Denounce Hitler's Invasion of Austria

Daily Sketch dated Friday March 18^th 1938

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Adolf Hitler was born in Austria but like many Austrians of the time regarded himself as German. When he came to power in 1933 he intended to make Austria a part of Germany once and for all, but Italy led by Benito Mussolini had vowed to defend Austria’s right to independence. By 1938 relations between Mussolini and Hitler had become so friendly that the Italian leader let it be known that he would no longer stand in the way of a German invasion. Hitler threatened the Austrian government with all out war if they didn’t capitulate and agree to Austria becoming part of Germany. The Austrian chancellor, Kurt Schuschnigg, and his entire government, except the one Nazi Party member, resigned. The remaining man, Arthur Seyss-Inquart as de-facto head of government, invited the German army to enter Vienna on March 15^th 1938.

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The bombing of Barcelona on the 16^th, 17^th and 18^th March 1938 followed France’s decision to re-open their border with Spain and allow supplies through to the Republicans fighting against General Franco. It was carried out by the Italian air force in planes disguised as Spanish. 

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Poland had taken over the Vilnius border region with Lithuania in 1920 and since then there had been no diplomatic relations between the two countries. With an eye on Germany expansion into Austria, Poland decided that it was a good time to have an ally on it’s northern border so issued this ultimatum to Lithuania. On March 19^th the Lithuanian government agreed to the demands. 

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The Australian aviator Harry Frank (the ‘E’ initial in the article is a mistake) Broadbent was trying to beat the record of Miss Jean Batten in a flight from England to Australia. A Qantas mail plane discovered him on Torren Island, fifty miles from Wangipo (wherever that is).

Broadbent went on to pilot flying-boats for Quantas and then for a small Southampton based airline serving Lisbon, Madeira and Las Palmas. In 1958 he was an instructor to a Portuguese airline and was forced into an emergency landing in the Atlantic, west of Portugal. The aircraft and occupants were never found.

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The use of the cat-o-nine-tails was officially abolished in UK prisons in 1967 although it hadn’t been used since 1962 and only rarely since 1948.

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Despite the Mayor's incredulity, Greta Garbo never married and according to some contemporary sources, such as writer Mercedes de Acosta, was of a sapphic bent.

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‘Her return to the screen’ refers to the break that Norma Shearer took after the death if her first husband Irving Thalberg. She retired from the business in 1942 and died in 1983.

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“Ouch!”

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‘Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the first full-length animated feature from the Disney Studios, was released in the UK on March 12^th 1938.

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This is the committal hearing of the men arrested in this post.

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Hitler invades Austria? Spanish civil war? Don’t worry! The toffs are having a good time so all must right with the World. The only name I recognize is Cecil Beaton. I must move in the wrong circles.

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Any excuse to include an example of my favourite comic strip. Simple and elegantly drawn.

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One channel and 3 hours of TV a day for those few people who had sets. No fighting over the remote, then.

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This is the very same HMS Belfast that is now moored in the Thames by the Embankment and can be visited as part of the Imperial War Museum. Having been launched as shown above by Prime Minister Chamberlain’s wife on March 17^th 1938, she, the ship not Mrs C, was commissioned for service in August 1939 just in time for the War and was involved in the Artic Convoys and the sinking of the German battleship Scharnhorst.

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The Welshman Tommy Farr had won his first fight in 1926 at the age of 12 and fought his last in 1953. He’d beaten the American Max Baer in 1937 in England, but lost this fight at Madison Square Gardens.

Baer’s son Max Baer Jr. found fame on TV as Jethro Bodine in ‘The Beverly Hillbillies’. 

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.