At Wessex Film and Sound Archive you can see and hear history, from late Victorian times to the present day, through moving images and sound recordings. The Archive contains over 36,000 film and sound recordings relating to Hampshire, the Isle of Wight, Berkshire, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire, including film and tapes of local TV and radio.
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General Election 1951
A remarkable film showing the Municipal Borough of Slough's preparations for the 1951 General Election.
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Overview
In this fascinating film we see Slough's mayor, Alderman Percy Lightfoot, posting the proclamation of the forthcoming General Election. Teams set to work, issuing ballots and opening polling stations. On polling day Fenner Brockway, the Labour candidate, is seen chatting to voters. The Conservative candidate, Victor Rees, is also seen with supporters. On election night we see the votes being counted and the result read out by the mayor. It's a win for Fenner Brockway.
Fenner Brockway was an anti-war activist, anti-colonialist and politician. A member of the Independent Labour Party since 1907, he was imprisoned during the First World War for refusing to be conscripted. Brockway finally elected Member of Parliament for Leyton East in 1929. However, the Spanish Civil War marked a change in Fenner Brockway's pacifist views and he supported the struggle against fascism. An active supporter of Britain's role in the Second World War, he later became involved in various anti-colonial movements, being especially critical of Britain's handling of the Mau Mau emergency in Kenya. In 1950 he won the Parliamentary seat of Eton and Slough which he held until 1964.
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