Noel Coward at the Lympne Air Show

Sydney Bligh's remarkable film captures the famous playwright, Noel Coward, in an unfamiliar role. As President of the Cinque Ports Flying Club he is seen greeting Lord and Lady Willingdon as they arrive at Lympne aerodrome to attend an air rally. A variety of unusual looking aircraft go through their paces in front of an appreciative crowd. Note the two biplanes from Germany - complete with swastika embellished tails.

Noel Coward's surprising appearance in this film is explained by the fact that he lived locally, having bought a house in nearby Adlington where he lived, on and off, until moving to Jamaica in 1956. Lord Willingdon, whom Coward greets as he and his wife arrive at the Air Rally, was the recent Viceroy and Governor-General of India during a turbulent period which saw the imprisonment of Gandhi. The maker of this film, Sydney Bligh, was an early pioneer of radio and television broadcasting in Britain as well as being a prolific amateur film-maker. By the early 1920s he was broadcasting his own shows - before becoming one of the founder members of the British Broadcasting Company.