Newtown Carnival - Saturday, June 24th, 1950

A wet Carnival day but the manager (Charles Thacker) and the owner (Guy Baker) of the Pola Cinema in Welshpool manage to get some good shots of the event for showing later on the big screen. Boys box, a little shepherdess cries, Queen Elsie is crowned, a television set is raffled, spectators watch dancing and gymnastic displays. 'Seretse Khama' and 'Ruth Williams', whose marriage in 1948 caused racist reaction in South Africa and Britain, feature in the fancy-dress parade.

Seretse Khama, Chief-in-Waiting of the Bamangwato tribe in Bechuanaland (a British protectorate) was studying law in London when he met Ruth Williams, the daughter of a former captain in the Indian Army, working as a clerk for Lloyds, underwriters. Their marriage caused a global, racist furore. It was opposed by both families (although Seretse did win over his tribe) and by South Africa (bent on apartheid) and Britain (South Africa could refuse to supply uranium for its nuclear industry). Despite the dishonest machinations of both countries, which included exiling Seretse from his homeland, the country achieved independence, as Botswana, and Seretse was its first prime minister and president.