Sunday, 23 June 2013

Wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester

Daily Mirror dated Thursday November 7th 1935
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Prince Henry William Frederick Albert, the Duke of Gloucester was the 4th 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 17th 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.

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