Random Ad - British Commonwealth Pacific Airlines (1949)

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British Commonwealth Pacific Airlines (BCPA) was an Australian based company formed in 1946. In 1948 it took delivery of 4 DC-6 airliners and was taken over by Qantas in 1953.

Random Cutting - Anti-Vietnam War demo (17/3/1967)

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I have this cutting because I was in Grosvenor Square on March 17^th 1967. I had gone with a friend to take photos of the demonstrators who originally gathered in Trafalgar Square then marched up Charring Cross Road, along Oxford Street and into the Square that housed the U.S. Embassy. I had a SLR with a 70mm – 135mm zoom lens. This being before digital, what I didn’t have was enough film. I ran out before we reached Grosvenor Square.

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.

Random Ad - Ronald Shiner and Westclox (1953)

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Popular cockney film comedian of the cheeky chappie school, Ronald Shiner played a con-man hiding out in a school in 'Top of the Form'. Luv the PJ's!

Random Cutting - Coronation Honours (1953)

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The 1953 Elizabeth II Coronation Honours List ran to about 1000 names.

De Gaulle Drama

Evening Standard dated Tuesday May 27^th 1958

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Algeria in North Africa had been a French Colony since the mid 19^th century and a war for independence had been going on since 1954. In May 1958 the French military in Algeria were so fed up with Pierre Pflimlin and President Rene Coty’s French Government not fully committing to crushing the Algerian rebels that they staged a coup d'état. The military supported the return to political power of war hero Charles De Gaulle who they thought would reject any idea of French withdrawal and Algerian independence. De Gaulle was willing and able to end his 10 year political absence and on May 29^th he took over the Presidency from Coty. Unfortunately for the right wing military leaders he could see that hanging on to Algeria would be a disaster and the country gained it’s freedom in 1962.

See this post which is a cutting about Jerry Lee Lewis and his troubles from the following day.

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Cont'd from Front

3 million cigarettes worth £35,000 – that’s about 1.2 new pence each. With cigarettes now retailing on average at 35p each, the haul would be worth about £1,050,000 these days, assuming you could find enough people who still smoke to buy them.

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Peter Manuel was born in the USA of Scottish parents and moved to Scotland when he was 5. He was arrested in January 1958 and confessed to killing 18 people, but he was only tried on 8 counts of murder. One of the charges was dropped due to lack of evidence but, despite conducting his own defence and almost convincing the jury of his insanity, he was found guilty of the other 7. He was hanged on July 11^th 1958.

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Looks like Maggie Woolnough is using the same bike she had in 1893 when she started.

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This when you really did have to pull round a dial and wait for it to wind back for each number, so 13 would take a fair old while compared to today's push buttons.

Subscriber Trunk Dialling (STD) or Direct Distance Dialling dates back to 1951 in the USA and became available within the UK from December 1958.

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Mr James Studd is a man after my own heart – “I will go 10 miles out of my way rather than join a traffic jam.”  Prior to December 1958 when the UK’s first Motorway was opened there was less chance of getting trapped in a traffic jam with no way out.

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One look at the Home and Light radio programmes and you can see why Radio Luxembourg on 208m was so popular with the youngsters of the time.

Far too much cricket on TV for my liking – both channels all afternoon! 

I wonder what happened to Roger Moore who starred in ‘Ivanhoe’? Recently I watched a couple of episodes of ‘Mark Saber’ (ITA 6:10) starring South African born one-armed Donald Gray as a detective – it hasn’t really stood the test of time unlike ‘Dial 999’ for instance.

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Herbert Lom co-starred with Sylvia Syms in ‘No Trees in the Street’. The cast also included 17 year-old David Hemmings of ‘Blow-up’ fame. Miss Syms was recently seen in ‘Eastenders’ as Olive Woodhouse.

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Part of a 3 page spread of book reviews and adverts that promoted Foyle’s Bookshop in London’s Charing Cross Road rather more than is seemly. Christina Foyle was the daughter of the bookshop’s founder William Foyle.

Unlike Hitler, Mussolini and Goering, John Haigh only murdered 9 people so his literary pretensions are acceptable.

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I include this bit about Jack Dempsey because it mentions his New York restaurant where in 1973 I had the best steak I have ever had in my life.

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A strange and very dated look at the goings on at the Goodwood Motor Racing meeting. Hardly a mention of the cars, with name-dropping of Dukes and Debs taking priority. 

Random Ad - Pratt's Fuel (1925)

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A 1925 advert for Pratt's petrol that includes instructions on how to drive up hills. I have a Pratt's Road Atlas from this period and in the back is a list of hills with their gradient that motorist should be aware of.