National Screen and Sound Archive of Wales preserves and celebrates the sound and moving image heritage of Wales, making it accessible to a wide range of users for enjoyment and learning. Its film collection reflects every aspect of the nation’s social, cultural and working life across the 20th century, giving a fascinating insight into Welsh filmmaking, both amateur and professional.
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Caernarfon (royal visit), Machynlleth (National Eisteddfod), Prestatyn (bowls)
Caernarfon is full to the brim with with barely room to stand to stand as crowds descend on its streets to see King George VI and Queen Elizabeth.
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Overview
The newly-crowned King George VI, accompanied by Queen Elizabeth, lays a wreath at Caernarfon's war memorial, watched and welcomed by an enormous crowd which the pair then greet from Queen Eleanor's Gate, part of Caernarfon Castle. Ex-prime minister David Lloyd George, as Constable of the Castle, is with them. ‘Paradwys Powys Cymru' also features i.e. Machynlleth during National Eisteddfod week 1937, and a game of bowls on an attractive green at Prestatyn.
According to newsreel footage (which doesn't appear to cover the laying of a wreath at the war memorial), the King received the keys of the castle from Lloyd George on 15/7/1937. He became King on 11/12/1936 and was crowned on 12/5/1937. This footage was shot by Dr T Benson Evans (b.1888), a doctor from Denbigh, Flintshire, who worked in Liverpool, Holyhead, Abersoch and Prestatyn. His wife, a nurse, came from Dinorwic and they had one child, a daughter. Dr Benson Evans' brother, Arthur, was a pharmacist in Denbigh.
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