1930s: First for town's first citizen

Royal and political scandal kept Derbyshire folk enthralled in 1936, as Anton Rippon reveals.

The 17th-century Green Man pub, which stood behind St Peter’s Church in Derby and which was destroyed by fire in May 1936

The year began with the death of one king and ended with the abdication of another. Then there was the sensational resignation of a Derby MP, the town’s first woman mayor, the widow of a member of the local gentry being presented with his posthumous VC, Derbyshire winning the County Cricket Championship for the first time in its history, and a fire that destroyed one of Derby’s best-known town centre pubs: 1936 would stay long in the memories of Derbeians who lived through it.

The first news of King George V’s fatal illness reached Derby on Friday, January 17, when the Derby Evening Telegraph revealed that there was a renewal of his bronchial catarrh, rapidly followed by concern over his heart condition.

At 9.25pm on Monday, January 20, came the now-famous bulletin: “The King’s life is moving peacefully towards its close.”

George V died at five minutes to midnight that same day. The news was released at 12.16am, and the Telegraph rushed out an early-morning edition, its front page edged in black. A second special edition later that day devoted most of its pages to the King’s life and his visits to Derbyshire, not least to attend the Royal Show on Osmaston Park three years earlier.

The Telegraph’s attention then turned to the new monarch, Edward VIII, and his Derbyshire connections.

The paper reminded readers that, when Prince of Wales, he had visited the county several times. In 1928, Derby had provided the Prince with a particularly memorable welcome after he had first gone to Ashbourne to throw up the ball for the world-famous annual Shrovetide football match.

By the end of the year, Edward was no longer king. His affair with the American divorcee, Wallis Simpson, had been public knowledge in Europe and the USA for months, but the British Press had held their silence until a former vicar of St Werburgh’s Church in Derby – Dr Alfred Blunt, now Bishop of Bradford – made an oblique reference to it at his diocesan conference.

The King’s shy brother, Bertie, was now King George VI. He, too, had visited Derbyshire on several occasions.

The county enjoyed several royal visits in 1936. As the guest of Sir William and Noreen Bass, the Princess Royal attended Derby Races in November. The same month, the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester were guests of Sir Ian Walker at Osmaston Manor, for pheasant shooting.

The Duchess had been in Derby the previous month when she laid the foundation stone of the £100,000 extension to Derbyshire Royal Infirmary. And toys donated by the Duke of Kent for distribution to the children of Derbyshire’s unemployed were allocated to 20 welfare centres around the county.

On the political front, there was a national sensation that reverberated locally.

In 1929, Jimmy Thomas, the former railwayman and Trades Unionist, had been made an Honorary Freeman of Derby and, in 1935, in recognition of his 25 years’ as an MP for the town, presented with a gold watch and chain, a Royal Crown Derby dinner service for his wife, and £2,750, which he donated to Derby’s hospitals.

Jimmy Thomas with his wife and son

Now, however, his career was about to end in an extraordinary scandal. While serving as Colonial Secretary, he was accused of passing Budget secrets to a friend, and to another MP.

A judicial tribunal found him guilty and he had little option but to resign his Cabinet post, and then his Derby seat.

In the by-election that followed – the first in Derby’s history – Philip Noel-Baker was elected for Labour.

For one local politician, however, 1936 was a happy year. In November, Conservative councillor, Mrs Elizabeth Petty, was elected as the town’s first woman mayor.

Mrs Petty, an early member of the National Council for Women, had joined the town council in 1922. After she became mayor, no-one was quite sure how to address her.

In the end, she happily settled for “Mr Mayor” like all her predecessors. Elected an alderman in 1937, she continued as such until her death 10 years later.

Derby was sharing in a national upturn in trading fortunes in 1936; in fact, it was doing rather better than most. Those members of Derby and Derbyshire Chamber of Trade and Commerce engaged in engineering reported increased business without exception.

Rolls-Royce reported another record year with a profit of almost £350,000, compared to £291,000 in 1935.

In June 1936, unemployment in Derby had dropped to 2,178, the lowest since 1929. By the end of the year, the town could boast one of the smallest percentages of unemployment in Great Britain. Even Derby County made a profit: £14,123 7s 3d, double that of the previous year.

Derby Corporation was also in the money, announcing several big spending projects, including a £200,000 extension to the Technical College, a new secondary school for girls on Normanton Road, an extension to the nurses’ home at the City Hospital, and several road improvement schemes.

Plans were also passed to build 1,000 houses on the Roe Farm estate. In February, the council had opened its brand new £50,000 police courts and office building in Derwent Street.

This was the third stage of the Central Improvement Scheme, which itself would eventually cost more than £600,000 according to the Evening Telegraph.

Details of a traffic census, carried out at three sites in August, revealed that St Mary’s Bridge had the greatest amount of traffic overall, but Siddalls Road carried the most pedal cyclists, closely followed by Macklin Street.

More exciting, so far as Derby’s transport buffs were concerned, was the August visit of Mr Thomas Campbell Black’s Empire Air Display at the Stenson Road Flying Ground.

News of the late Godfrey Meynell’s Victoria Cross had come on Christmas Eve, 1935. Captain Meynell, of Meynell Langley, had been awarded the medal for his courage in an action against Pathan tribesmen on India’s North-West Frontier, while he was serving in the Indian Army.

Not only was he the last recipient of the VC from the Derby area, he also won it when there was no actual war taking place. His widow, Sophia, received her husband’s medal in July 1936 from King Edward VIII, one of the few investitures carried out by the short-reigning monarch.

For men of the 2nd Battalion, Sherwood Foresters, 1936 was a memorable year too. The battalion arrived home after 17 years’ overseas duty, including postings in India and Egypt.

One of the most disastrous fires of the year came on May 26, when the 17th-century Green Man pub, at the rear of St Peter’s Church in St Peter’s Street, was destroyed.

At the time of its destruction, the pub, a lovely brick building with a Dutch gable, was run by Offilers’, the Derby brewery. It was eventually rebuilt but, of course, had lost its charm.

The Derby area was badly affected by adverse weather conditions in 1936. Following a gale in January, which caused considerable damage, there was a severe frost, much to the delight of the town’s skaters who enjoyed 10 days’ uninterrupted sport.

Since 1927, fog, frost and snow had caused the loss of no fewer than 21 days’ horseracing at Derby, and in 1936 there were further abandonments at the racecourse on Nottingham Road.

In November, one of the worst fogs for years caused severe disruption to bus and train services. Visibility in Derby’s streets was down to a few feet, the fog mingling with the smoke from thousands of coal fires.

The hottest day of the year was June 21, with a temperature of 81.5F.

One major sporting triumph could be celebrated in 1936: the winning of the County Championship by Derbyshire, the first time in the club’s history that it had achieved this feat.

Derbyshire had been threatening for several years, their wonderfully balanced team – almost all born within the county boundary – more than a match for most opposition.

Led by Arthur Richardson, of the Derby tanning family, and with players of the calibre of Stan Worthington, Harry Storer, Dennis Smith, Bill Copson, Tommy Mitchell, Harry Elliott and Leslie Townsend, they swept all before them.

Finally, in 1936, the county of Derbyshire upheld its claim to longevity, when Mrs Hannah Stretton, of Cotesbach, near Rugby, celebrated her 102nd birthday.

A native of Derbyshire, she recalled visiting Florence Nightingale at her home near Matlock, and was also a passenger on the first train ever to run between Belper and Derby.