An impressive view of the museum
An impressive building with an impressive interior and displays. Thousands visit the museum every day of the year… to wander its vast halls or just sit outside for lunch and a drink. It was also the setting for David Suchet’s ‘Poirot’ in “The Veiled Lady”
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Tagged Natural History Museum
PORTAL of Hungerford, Marshal of the R.A.F. Viscount; Charles Frederick Portal. He served for a time in the Army in the First World War, and before it ended was a Colonel in the Royal Flying Corps. He commanded the British Forces in Aden from 1934-35, and in April 1940 became A.O.C.-in-C., Bomber Command. In October of the same year he became Chief of Air Staff until 1945. He was born in 1893.
Sidney Webb. Lord Passfield, was a Labour politician, Londoner by birth and an expert economist. He helped to found the London School of Economics, and as a Labour politician, he and his wife, Beatrice Webb, took active interest in unemployment and social conditions. He was President of the Board of Trade in 1924; and was Secretary for the Colonies from 1929 until 1931. He wrote several books, and was born in 1859.
Auguste Piccard was a Swiss balloonist and scientist, and was the first since Coxwell and Glaisher to make a balloon ascent into the stratosphere in 1931 and a second ascent in 1932. He was born in 1884.
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Is this the smallest Paddle Steamer you have ever seen?
This ever popular picture must surely show the world’s smallest paddle steamer still working on the Norfolk Broads in the UK. The picture was taken, then kindly sent to me by photographer Roy Northwood. During the Victorian period large passenger paddle steamers ran a regular service from the Norfolk coast down to the London docklands.
Posted in Contributors, Patrick's Words
Tagged Paddle Steamer
The simple art of the classic beauty is delightfully portrayed in this early picture of Enid Stamp Taylor.
Thought to have been taken when Enid was in her late teens, it shows the deep sentimentality and loving way that she displayed throughout her short life.
Tragedy beset Enid’s life; losing her younger brother at the age of only 9 years, then others members of her family. It is truly remarkable that we can now look back on this lovely lady’s life some One Hundred Years on, and appreciate the talent and effort that she gave to the early British Film and Stage.
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Col. Thomas Edward Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia) later T.E. Shaw, was one of the most romantic figures of the First World War, his expert knowledge of Arab affairs led to the Government engaging him on special work. He organized and led an Arab army and held Damascus until relieved by General Allenby. Afterwards, shunning publicity, he became Aircraftman Shaw in the RAF. Sadly, he was killed in a motorcycle accident in 1935.
Lord Kindersley (baron) Robert Molesworth Kindersley. At fifteen years old he began his working life as a clerk on 15 shillings a week and eventually to Governor of the Hudson Bay Company from 1916 until 1925. A Director of The Bank of England, he was High Sheriff of Sussex in 1928, and President of the National Savings Committee from 1926 until 1946.
Sir Alexander Fleming was the discoverer of penicillin. He came to London from Ayrshire in the eighteen-nineties and spent some time in a shipping office before turning to medicine. He isolated penicillin after a chance discovery of the antiseptic properties of a mould. In 1946 he shared the Nobel Prize for Medicine with Sir Howard Florey.
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The Aerated Bread Company started life in 1862 as an Islington Bakers of fine healthy, additive-free bread in England, and within two years opened the first of 250 ABC self-service Tea Shops. In the late Victorian period - an ABC tea room was the sort of place a woman could enjoy a meal unescorted and without risk to her reputation! By 1923 ABC had a further 150 branch shops selling their highly popular ‘graham bread’ and were second only to the famous Lyons Corner Houses. In 1955 ABC… who seemed to be in every major street in London, was bought by Garfield Weston for $8.1 million and added to the high end retailer of Fortnum and Mason. As one American magazine put it at the time - “The Piccadilly Prince is about to marry The Tea Room Cinderella” … Sadly ABC was gone from our streets by the end of the 1980s - the victim I’m sure… of a mood change in our food and drinking habits.
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Tagged the aerated bread company
THE POOL OF LONDON is a wonderfully evocative film drama of London and The London Docklands in 1950. Shot almost entirely with locations on The Thames and around Central London- it’s a look into a times past world! There are so many dramatic and nostalgic locations in the production- that it’s near-impossible to keep up with them! Released by Britain’s famous Ealing Studios…it features a strong cast in Bonar Colleano and wife Susan Shaw, Renee Asherson, and Earl Cameron. The screenplay was written by Jack Whittingham and John Eldridge, and the direction was handled by the master Basil Dearden.
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Major Sir Malcolm Campbell was the first man in a racing car to reach 150 miles per hour, on Pendine Sands, Carmarthen, in 1925. He did set up higher records in America in his famous Bluebird cars, and in June 1947 tried to beat his own speed-boat record of 141.74 miles an hour with a jet-propelled boat, but had to postpone the attempt after achieving 110 miles an hour. 1885-1949.
Cyril Maude was a London born actor, but obliged for health reasons to live first in Canada and then in America. He made his first stage appearance in Denver, Colorado, and his London debut in 1888. He played many successful comedy roles over the years. 1862-1951.
Sir Bernard Spilsbury was a British pathologist, crime diagnostician, and authority on forensic medicine. He took his medical degree in 1905 and lectured at St. Bartholomew’s and other London Hospitals. He was Pathologist to the Home Office for 25 years and was called in by Scotland Yard in nearly every important case of suspected murder by poisoning, with his expert evidence often proving a decisive factor. 1878-1947.
Sir Henry J. Wood was a British conductor who began his career at ten years of age as an organist, but made his professional debut as a conductor in 1889. He founded London’s Promenade Concerts, and conducted in America, Canada, and elsewhere in the Dominions. 1869-1944.
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Inn For Trouble 1960 is one of the funniest films I’ve seen for years. It features Peggy Mount and David Kossoff as Ada and Alf Larkin in a screen spin-off from its popular TV series. Alf’s faithful service and loyalty of 25 years to Belcher’s Brewery is rewarded with the management of his own Pub – The Earl Osborne, a remote and under used drinking house, but it seems their management of the establishment could be a short one. However, they do find some very comical ways to raise business, and when in the end a main road is planned to run right beside their public house, they find they are at last, sitting pretty! A very funny and fast moving comedy that also has a great supporting cast in Charles Hawtrey, Lesley Phillips, Irene Handl, Graham Stark, Ronan O’Casey, Stanley Unwin and of course Graham Moffatt from the Will Hay Comedies.
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The Runaway Bus 1953. Written, produced and directed by Val Guest is a comedy with a colourful cast. Starring Frankie Howerd, Margaret Rutherford, Petula Clark, George Coulouris and Terence Alexander. Heavy fog prevents all flights from London Airport, therefore a number of passengers are put on a coach for Blackbush Airport where the fog is lifting. Driver Percy Lamb played by Frankie Howerd doesn’t realise that thieves have hidden gold bullion in the luggage boot of his coach. What follows is a fast paced comedy with lots of twists and turns and a number of red herrings. I watched and enjoyed the film many years ago on television, and a recently purchased DVD left me with no doubt the film had suffered very little from loss of enjoyment in all those years since 1953.
Posted in Patrick's Words