Advert - Fisons Fertilizers (1940's)

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Covering the strap-line and reading from 'Canny Newcastle' to 'killing by kindness' gives absolutely no clue as to what is being advertised and it would take a better man than I, Gunga Din, to guess it was Fison's Fertilizers.

Cutting - Death of King Alexander of Yugoslavia (1934)

August 1934

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The Paris Peace Conference had created Yugoslavia after WWI. It was made up of territory that including Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Macedonia, and this mish-mash of nationalities made it almost impossible to hold together. It was dominated by the Serbs and ruled by the Serbian King Alexander, but after years of turmoil and violence, he abolished the original constitution, made himself dictator.

The assassin, Vlado Chernozemski, was a Bulgarian who belonged to a Macedonian revolutionary organisation, which wanted to secede from Yugoslavia. After shooting the King he was cut down by a French mounted officer with a sabre, and then beaten to death by the crowd. 

Louis Barthou may have been shot accidentally by a French policeman in the confusion of the moment.

Young Peter fled Yugoslavia when Germany invaded during WWII and set up a government in exile in England. In 1945 he was deposed by Communists and fled again this time to the USA where remanined until he died in 1970.

Advert - NUR Ballot (1972)

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The 1970's have become synonymous with industrial unrest and this 1972 National Union of Railwaymen advert is a reminder.

Cutting - Embankment Motor Smash (1923)

March 1923

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Back in 1923 there were no breathalyzers or specific limits to how much alcohol would make a driver incapable, but when, as in the case above, a death occurred, then the driver would be charged with manslaughter. Annual figures for road deaths have been kept since 1926 and show that year's figure as 4,886 whereas last year (2013) it was 1,713. The peak year was 1941, possibly due to the blackout and removal of road signs during the War, when it was 9,169. The good news is that the figure has been steadily falling year on year since 1970.

Advert - Music Club (1981)

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The Audio Club of Britain offering vinyl long players or cassettes for only £1.29. Who would you go for - Mantovani or Judas Priest, Rod Stewart or Ted Nugent, David Bowie or Blue Oyster Cult?

Cutting - Demoted General (1944)

8th June 1944

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A little tit-bit following the D-Day landings from an American paper. On the 18th April 1944 in the Claridge's Hotel restaurant in London the rather drunk Ninth Airforce Services Commander, Major General Miller complained to a nurse that something he had ordered from the States would not arrive in England before June 15th "well after the invasion". 

This wasn't the only breach in the extremely secret D-Day plans. For instance back in March Basil Liddell Hart, a militery expert, had been with Duncan Sandys, the Minister for Supply, at another London hotel when he showed the Minister what appeared to be details of the invasion and complained to Sandys that he hadn't been officially consulted. Sandys notified Churchill and Liddell Hart had his knuckles rapped.

Advert - 'Hunted' starring Dirk Bogarde (1952)

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Dirk Bogarde in Hunted, also known as The Stranger In Between. The boy in the film was played by Jon Whiteley who had a short 5 film career before eventually becoming curator of the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford.