Here's to the Memory - Part 1.

Rosamund John, Norman Wooland, James Laver, Veronica Hurst, Lord Brabazon of Tara feature in: "A reminiscence of the last fifty years". Film Editor: A. Milner-Gardner. (Milner Gardner) Studio Photography: George Stevens. Set Design: Don Ashton. Sound: W.S. Bland & George Newbery. Musical Score written and conducted by: Alan Paul. Vocal Arrangements: The Keynotes. Executive Producer: Howard Thomas. Written and Directed by Jack Howells.

01:04:01 - Seascape, cliffs, castles, villages. Voice over about the "paradox of Britain" - many different people living in an apparently united country. Big Ben at night. Trafalgar Square fountain. Inside a drawing room we find Norman Wooland reading from a book to a group of people. They are all sitting by the fireside "dressed for dinner". A woman hands a cup of coffee to Norman who is smoking a pipe.

The position of women in society is discussed. "..any historian of the period would have to hand it to the ladies, bless 'em". Norman quotes from A.J. Pease - Member of Parliament - about women not being able to vote in 1901. The women discuss how it is hard to believe that women had so few rights fifty years previously. Other changes in the last 50 years are discussed - less crime and less alcoholism.

01:06:57 - Funeral of Queen Victoria. Parade. Soldiers. King Edward VII on a shooting party. Streets in Edwardian times. (Hyde Park Corner - Canada Arch?) Streets crowded with horses and carts. Various shots of women through the ages in frames as the pages of a photograph album are turned - mostly fashion shots.

01:08:38 - Name "Electric Palace" in lights. Female cinema accompanists. A woman drummer, violinist and pianist play an accompaniment to a film. Top shot of a cinema with the film showing. The pianist has a quick sip of tea as she is playing. (This all looks like a reconstruction). Shot of women being driven along in a car. Penny Farthing passes them.

01:09:15 - Man cycles off a bridge into the sea. Boxing booth side-show at a fair. Bill Bashem. Sign over the door says "Prof Bouts Saloon". Old fashioned dodgem cars and other fairground rides of early 1900s including "Witching Waves". Crowded streets.

01:10:04 - Industrial unrest is discussed. Military parade in the streets. Newspaper headlines: "Violent scene in the Commons. Liberal M.P. hustled and insulted." "Peaceful" Ireland - 20 outrages in a single district." Headlines about budget and state insurance (National Health).

01:10:24 - Also "Raid on Suffragettes - 156 Women Arrested" on a poster (probably a mock-up). Film of suffragettes - Mrs Pankhurst (?), banners of the N.U.W.S.S. (National Union of Women's Suffragette Societies), police holding women back, "University Section" marching, "Votes for Women" banners etc. Song on the soundtrack about the "British Suffragettes". Packed open topped buses.

01:11:26 - King Edward VII's funeral. Procession of dignitaries. Prince Edward (later King Edward VIII and Duke of Windsor) crowned Prince of Wales.

End of Part 1.