| Performance Title | Toc H - Birthday Festival Guest Nights |
| Performance Date | 8 December 1928 |
| Performance Day | Saturday |
| Performance Time | 19:45 |
| Main Performers | Lord Forster of Lepe (Presiding),
Lord Plumer of Messines,
H Sobry,
Lieutenant-Colonel Vander Hofstadt,
Capitaine Lafaut,
Adjutant Plas,
Corporal Claus - speakers
Chief Os-Ke-Non-Ton,
Thorpe Bates - Italian Merchant,
Grace Cone,
Russell Thorndike - Spirit of Toc H,
Stephen Jack,
Lewis Earle - performers
Irene Evans - vocal,
R Arnold Greir - organ |
| Secondary Performers | Children from the National Association of Operatic Dancing - ballet of birds,
English Fold Dance Society - country dancers |
| Choirs | Royal Choral Society,
Alexandra Palace Choir,
Christ Church Westminster Choir |
| Conductors | George F Brockless |
| Set List | Welcome (Lord Forster),
Silent Prayer for the King,
'God Save the King' (The National Anthem),
Messages from Buckingham Palace (Lord Forster),
Speech (Lord Plumer),
Speech (M Sobry),
'The Compass' (A Masque), Christopher Ogle,
Pageant:
'Men of Harlech',
'The Birthday Hymn',
'The Pilgrims' Hymn',
'The Inheritance',
'Jerusalem' Parry |
| Performance Notes | The Prince of Wales's message asked for an Endowment Fund to be established amounting to £250,000.
"This year Toc H is holding 'birthday' celebrations, which take the form of two ceremonies at the Albert Hall, and services at Westminster Abbey and other London churches...The performances will take the form of a musical masque consisting of a series of spectacles illustrating the four points of the Toc H compass...Hundreds of performers, including a massed choir and 80 dancers, will take part, and setting and scenic arrangements are being superintended by Mr Fairbairn. Mlle Adeline Genee will superintend the arrangements for the ballet. The Burgomaster of Ypres will appear at the performances with a bodyguard of Belgium soldiers representing different grades of the Belgian Army. He is bringing with him the Lamp of Maintenance which was presented to Ypres some years ago and which is now to be formally dedicated in Westminster Abbey. The Prince of Wales's place ths year will be taken by Field-Marshal Lord Plumer."
(The Times, 4 December 1928)
"Pageant at the Albert Hall
In the evening 6,000 members of Toc H assembled at the Albert Hall, some to take part in, pthers to witness, a 'guest night' prorogrammes of pageantry, preceded by speeches. In the absence of the Prince of Wales, the patron of th emovement, Lord Plumer, who commanded the British forces in the Ypres salient, attended on his behalf to welcome the Burgomaster of Ypres, M Sobry, who was accompanied by Lieutenant-Colonel Van der Hofstadt, general staff officer of the Eastern Province of Flanders; Captain Lafaut, of the First Regiment of Artillery; Adjutant Plas, of the First Regiment of Guides (Cavalry); and Corporal Claus, of the Engineers. Colonel Nerincx, Military Attache to the Belgian Embassy, represented the Ambassador...
the 'Ceremony of Light', in which the lamps carried by 600 representatives of brancges, marshalled in the form of a cross in the arena of the hall, were lit from the lamp carried by the Burgomaster of Ypres. About 800 performers in costume took part, assisted by a massed choir of 500 voices."
(The Times, 10 December 1928) |
| Related Archival Material | Programme (RAHE/1/1928/74) |
| URL | https://thirdlight.royalalberthall.com/pf.tlx/0HW0Hjx0H7mm3E |
| Code | Name of Performer(s) |
| DS/UK/352 | Toc H; 1915-; International Christian Movement |
| DS/UK/1800 | Os-ke-non-ton (1890-1950); Chief; Native-Canadian actor, baritone |
| DS/UK/1586 | Greir; Robert Arnold (fl 1914-1967); English organist |
| DS/UK/3311 | Evans; Irene (fl 1920s); British singer |
| DS/UK/49 | Royal Choral Society (RCS); 1872-; English choir |
| DS/UK/3727 | Alexandra Palace; Alexandra Choral Society; fl 1908-1920s; English choir |
| DS/UK/3841 | Thorndike; Arthur Russell (1885-1972); British actor, novelist |
| DS/UK/3606 | Forster; Lord; Henry William (1866-1936); 1st Baron Forster; British Conservative Party politician, seventh Governor-General of Australia |
| DS/UK/3842 | Plumer; Lord; Herbert Charles Onslow (1857-1932); Viscount Plumer of Messines; British colonial official, soldier |
| DS/UK/2132 | Thorpe Bates; Thomas (1881-1958); FRAM FGSM; English singer |