Cigarette Price Battle

Daily Mirror dated Tuesday September 24^th 1968

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When the front page of a newspaper features a story about a dancing mouse you can rest assured that no wars have broken out, no Popes assassinated, no famous film stars died and no planes have crashed. To a lesser degree the same can be said for a paper that leads with a headline about the price of cigarettes. Combine the two and you have a ‘slow news day’.

I’ve never been a smoker. I tried but nearly choking and watering eyes just didn’t appeal and, as my grey-haired old mother used to point out, I’ve always been ‘as tight as a mackerel’s arse’, so I didn’t see any sense in paying for the displeasure. The prediction that small shops would suffer from supermarkets’ price-cutting was true and still is.

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Cont'd from Front

The Ford factory in Dagenham produced its first vehicle in 1931 and its last in 2002. Some say the Unions ruined the British car industry and some say the Unions were necessary because the employers put profits before people. I lived in Dagenham but never worked at Ford’s or in any other factory so I really couldn't comment. 

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Farmer John Derek James sought refuge in a derelict cottage near Weston-under-Redcastle, Shropshire, after being challenged by the police over the illegal possession of a shotgun. He took a woman hostage and held out against a combined force of police and soldiers for 17 days. The siege ended when the woman took the gun off him while he was asleep. At the subsequent trial he was sent to Broadmoor Mental Hospital.

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Dr Christian (or Christiaan) Barnard had performed the World’s first successful human heart transplant in 1967 on Louis Washkansky, who died 18 days later of pneumonia. I'm sure there is something to say about white South Africans receiving black South Africans' hearts but I'd rather not go there.

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Tony Blackburn and Ed Stewart posing with two young ladies. Let’s hope for the DJs’ sake the ladies are older than they look.

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British Rail and its French equivalent, SNFC, operated the Princess Margaret hovercraft from 1968 until 2000 jointly. The craft was seen in the Bond film ‘Diamonds Are Forever’. 

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These days I imagine that an insurance company setting a 25 mile limit on a driver would constitute a breach of human rights and be earning some lawyers a few bob in The Hague or Strasbourg. 

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In 1968 there were just over 18,000 drink-driving convictions in England and Wales. In 1988 there were over 105,000 but the figure has been stabilised at about 85,000 in recent years. Oddly the number of fatalities due to drink-driving dropped steadily between 1979 at 1640 to 430 in 2006, possibly due to a series of December TV campaigns have informed, cajoled and shocked drivers into not drinking and driving. 

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The General Certificate of Education exams were introduced in 1951 to replace the old School Certificate and Higher School Certificate exams. Results were originally graded 1 – 9 with 1 – 6 being passes, but this was later replaced with A – E for passes and U for fail. In 1988 the GCE’s were replaced by GCSE’s using A – G and U, but recently there has been talk of reverting to a number system of 8 – 1 with 8 being the top grade. Fun isn’t it?

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Jennifer Croxton only appeared in the 1 Avengers episode – she played Special Services agent Lady Diana Forbes-Blakeney in ‘Killer’ a story in the 1968/69 Linda Thorson season.

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Strange how our attitude to words change. The word ‘cripple’ would never appear in a headline these days and is even mildly shocking when seen in print, but in 1968 you, and I, would probably not have even noticed it. At least the policeman was convicted and received a jail sentence, which is surprising.

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This could well have been printed last September following the appallingly wet summer we had in 2012.

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Let me get this straight – printer Edward Wilson forged £1.25million to sell to Argentine rebels and planned to use the proceeds to help the needy in Nigeria, and was talked into this by a ‘total stranger’. Was Jonathan Routh doing ‘Candid Camera’ in 1968?

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The Larks, drawn by Jack Dunkley lasted from 1957 until 1985. I liked it because the father character looked just like my brother-in-law did at the time. Its demise can be added to the list of crimes committed by Robert Maxwell who took over the Daily Mirror in 1984.

I can’t find out anything about ‘The Flutters’ but I thought I’d give it an airing.

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The great Roy Kinnear who did everything from Shakespeare, Hammer Horror, ‘The Avengers, ‘That Was The Week That Was’, Sherlock Holmes, The Beatles’ ‘Help!’, Dickens, ‘Sparrow Can’t Sing’ and ‘Jackanory’ to ‘The Return of the Musketeers’ in 1988 during the filming of which he fell from a horse and died in hospital the next day. His son Rory Kinnear was in the recent Bond films ‘Quantum of Solace’ and ‘Skyfall’.

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In August 1968 the Soviet Union had invaded the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic because the Communist government of Alexander Dubček was contemplating liberal reforms. When there is nothing else you can do humour can help.

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The Queen’s sister Princess Margaret Rose had married the society photographer Anthony (or is it Antony?) Armstrong-Jones in 1960. They were divorced in 1978. 

Wikipedia calls him  ‘Antony’, the BBC ‘Anthony’, the Telegraph ‘Antony’, Pathe News ‘Anthony’.  All together now - “You say Antony, I say Anthony, You say Christian, I say Christiaan, Let’s call the whole thing off.”

Randon Ad - Plastic Padding (1986)

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Remember when a small magnet was an essential tool when viewing a potential second-hand car purchase? This advert shows why. Some old bangers were more Plastic Padding than metal.

Random Cutting - Train Robbers wanted (1926)

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Twins Roy and Ray along with younger brother Hugh Autremont tried to rob a Southern Pacific Railroad mail train in 1923. Having shot the 3 man crew, and blown up the mail van clerk, the brothers had to flee empty handed. It took until 1927 to find them, Hugh in the Philippines and the twins in Ohio. They were all convicted of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment.

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.

Random Ad - Brylcreem (1950's)

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It wouldn't be the 1950's with Brylcreem - playboy, businessman or Teddy Boy you had to have your hair glued in place with smooth, white and non-sticky Brylcreem. You can add Canadian film and TV actor to that list. Robert Beatty (for it is he) is probably best remembered, by those of a certain age, for the London based TV cop drama 'Dial 999'

Random Cutting - Queen Mary driven aground (1949)

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Severe weather is nothing new so don't believe everything Channel 5 tells you. This cutting dates from January 1949 when RMS Queen Mary ran aground on leaving Cherbourg for New York in a storm.

As for the bus - I found this online at a site run by the Lancing & Sompting Pastfinders Local History Group -

Some of you may remember the terrible storm of 1^st January 1949 when a “miniature whirlwind“ left a trail of destruction from Worthing to Shoreham and caused a double-decker bus to be blown off the Old Shoreham Toll Bridge at approximately 6.30 p.m.  The No. 9 Southdown Bus had left Worthing at 5.55 p.m. on it’s way to Brighton and as the vehicle approached the bridge the storm intensified with hailstones battering the bus and the wind reaching speeds of 80–90 mph.  Just as the driver drove on to the narrow bridge, a gust of wind wrenched the steering wheel out of his hand and swept the bus off the bridge into the river Adur, 25ft below.  The conductor managed to jump clear and run to the Red Lion to telephone emergency services.  Ladders were laid down from the bridge to the bus, which was lying on its side half-submerged in mud, amazingly with lights still on and engine running.  Luckily the tide was out. Nine passengers managed to climb up to the bridge, while the remaining eleven passengers had to be released by fireman. Three Worthing passengers and two Lancing residents were retained in hospital.  Miraculously there were no deaths and only one serious injury of a lady, Miss Anna Vuls, who was a Latvian chambermaid and who had worked for the Spaniard Hotel in Worthing.  More than 3 years later, she sued the Southdown Bus Company and was awarded special damages of £680 even though the bus company had claimed it was an “Act of God”.  She appealed, and was later awarded £2680.

Germany Surrenders 1918

Daily Mail dated November 12^th 1918

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As seen before on this blog broadsheets of this period devoted their front page to adverts, so the only indication that this paper is reporting on a momentous day in 20^th Century history is the small block in the top right hand corner.

I see Christmas used to start in November  – Whiteley’s Grand Xmas Bazaar. Now, of course, it’s closer to August.

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After four and a half years of the bloodiest and most costly war in history it must have been an enormous relief to open this paper and read the words ‘Germany surrenders’.

The Armistice Terms were regarded as harsh by the Germans and in them were the seeds of the discontent that led to the rise of Nationalism and finally World War II.

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November 11^th 1918 was not the actual end of the Great War; merely a cease-fire that could have been broken by either side at any time in the 7 months before the signing of the Treaty of Versailles in June 1919 which marked the true end of the War.

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George V had changed the name of the British royal family from Saxe-Coburg-Gotha to Windsor as late as 1917 to distance himself from his cousin the Kaiser Wilhelm (they were both Grand-sons of Queen Victoria).

These messages were to the survivors – 5 and half million Allied troops didn’t live to read them.

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The men who helped to win the War – familiar names like Lloyd George, Clemanceau, Wilson, Haig, Allenby, Foch, Pershing, Beatty and Petain along side those that are less familiar after all these years – Plumer, Rawlinson, Byng, Monash, Keyes, Geddes, Hughes, Joffre and Tyrwbitt.

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The Kaiser was allowed to stay in Holland, which had been neutral throughout the War, and died there in 1941.

The political chaos in Germany at the end of the War was too complex for me to even think about summarising, suffice to say Kaiser Wilhelm II was forced to abdicate on the 9^th November 1918 and a Republic was declared but the Left wing Parties couldn’t agree among themselves any more than the right-wing anti-Republicans, and a virtual civil-war continued until the adoption of the Weimar Constitution in August 1919.

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This idea for a permanent memorial to the War dead became the Cenotaph in London’s Whitehall, designed by the architect Edwin Lutyens. The original structure was a temporary one made of wood and plaster, which was replaced in time for the Victory Day parades of July 1919 by the Portland stone cenotaph that has been the focus of Remembrance Day every November 11^th ever since. 

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Victory Day as it became known was held on 19^th July 1919 just after the official end of World War 1 with the signing of the Treaty of Versailles on 28^th June 1919. See this post.

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What possible objection could there be to vehicle lights if the streetlights are to be switched on? I would have thought that most people, particularly those who’d been fighting on the front line, had had enough of fireworks for the last few years.

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Time to tot up the scores.  I can see that warships, transport ships, ammunition and supply ships were ‘legitimate’ targets, but I wonder what stories lay behind the figures for steamships and sailing ships?

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The National Birth Rate Commission was formed in 1913 to look into the falling birth rate in the years since the turn of the Century and its effect on the population figures. The massive loss of life during the Great War made their concerns even more acute so a 1918-1920 investigation was set up under the Presidency of the Bishop of Birmingham and a group that included such note worthies as Sir Rider Haggard, General Booth’s widow, Dr. Marie Stopes and the Duchess of Marlborough. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was one of 46 witnesses that made statements to the commission about various social, moral and economical aspects of having or not having children. 

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One way to celebrate a great victory, steal the Secretary for War’s car. He won’t be needing it anymore!

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Nothing like a couple of aristocrats slogging it out in the divorce courts to take one’s mind off one’s troubles.

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Maskelyne Theatre of Mystery (near Oxford Circus) caught my eye. Is the mystery in how to find the Theatre? Actually it was in Langham Place. John Nevil Maskelyne was a magician, escapologist, inventor, and paranormal investigator. He invented the penny-in-the-slot public toilet lock!