| Main Performers | Lord Middleton (presiding),
Brigadier-General Sir Henry Page Croft MP,
Major-General Sir Alfred Knox,
Rear Admiral Murray F Sueter,
Edward Hulton,
Commander O Locker-Lampson MP - speakers
Harold Williams - vocal |
| Secondary Performers | H L Balfour - organ,
Henry Jaxon - piano |
| Set List | 'John Peel',
'Loch Lomond',
'De Old Folks at Home',
'Drink To Me Only With Thine Eyes',
'Poor Old Joe',
'Love's Old Sweet Song',
'Annie Laurie',
'Sweet Genevieve',
'Abide With Me',
'Fight The Good Fight',
'Night Song In Camp' (Harold Williams),
Rout the Reds Anthem: 'March On' (Harold Williams),
'God Save the King' (The National Anthem)
Speech (Rear-Admiral Murray Eraser Sueter MP),
Speech (Brigadier-General Sir Henry Page Croft MP),
Speech (Commander Locker-Lampson MP) |
| Performance Notes | "Anti-Communist feeling in England is to be focussed at the Albert Hall on Friday...Contingents of men and women supporters of Cmder. Locker Lampson's "Clear Out the Red" Movement are coming from many parts of the country, including Birmingham, Huntingdonshire, and Essex, and it is expected that there will be 2,000 voices to lead the community singing, which will begin at seven o'clock.
In view of the possibility of an attempt to break up the meeting, a corps of 900 stewards will be on duty to deal with any organised interruptors. But Cmdr. Lock Lampson...[said] 'we want to organise the Blueshirts to combat the Reds. Our motto is to be 'Fear God. Fear Nought,' and we stand for Order and Freedom'.
'A Special song, 'March On,' which may be used when necessary to drown the 'Red Flag,' is to be sung on Friday, and it had been recorded for the gramophone. There are also available cuff links of our own design for those who sympathise with our objects.'"
(The Daily Telegraph, 24 June 1931)
"GOVERNMENT DENOUNCED.
Several thousand men and women attended the 'Hands Off Our Empire' rally at the Albert Hall last night of the campaign organised by Cmdr Locker-Lampson MP, when the attitude towards India and Russia was denounced. Lord Middleton, who presided, declared that the Soviet Five Year Plan had just torpedoed our agriculture. Our farmers were unable to compete with the slave-grown products of Russia.
Sir Henry Page Croft MP said the Government was permitting Russia to send us one-quarter of her exports, and were also giving her one and two years' credit, while our Dominions and Colonies were on their beam ends.
Cmdr Locker-Lampson said that if we withdrew from India it would fall into a thousand pieces. "We do not resist self-government there" he said, "but the people must waddle before they can walk.""
(The Daily Telegraph, 27 June 1931)
"GREAT BRITAIN.
BLUE SHIRTS AND BLOOD.
With his chest expanding under a livid blue shirt Commander Oliver Stillingfleet Locker-Lampson, patriotic Conservative M. P., proudly surveyed last week 20,000 seething, applauding Britons whom he had summoned to London's mammoth Albert Hall.
A big blue flag drooped from a staff at the Commander's right. Most of the audience wore at least a bit of blue. Women in azure dresses and hats wore brooches with the motto: Fear God! Fear Naught! Men wore blue enameled cufflinks with the same motto in their blue cuffs. Outside Albert Hall waited several swank blue motor cars with the radiator emblem Fear God! Fear Naught! The blue blood of the British ruling class was upthis was the charter mass-meeting of Commander Locker-Lampson's blue-shirted "Sentinels of Empire," founded "to peacefully fight Bolshevism and clear out the Reds!"
Brass bandsmen blared a stirring tune. To their feet leaped the 10,000 blues and lustily sang thus:
The night of slothful ease is past,
The days of fear are gone at last,
And England's voice is raised in a song
That we shout aloud as we march along!
Chorus:
March on!
March strong!
Honor and Liberty call.
Sons of the free, our duty be
To fight for freedom for all!
Tyrants and foes beware!
Our swords are in the air.
So shoulders together!
Forward for ever!
To triumph we march four square.
Second verse:
Let others scream their Hymns of Hate,
And work to undermine the State.
Our heritage is builded high
On faith and lovethey will not die!
Chorus:
March on!
March strong! etc.
This lyric was personally composed by Commander Locker-Lampson, son of English poet Frederick Locker, maternal grandson of the late Sir Curtis Lampson, Bart., a Vermonter, said to have been the first American ever made a British baronet. The music for Commander Locker-Lampson's patriotic song March On! is from the British Gaumont talking film High Treason.
Stirring speeches at the mass meeting were made by Rear-Admiral Murray Eraser Sueter, M. P., and Brigadier-General Sir Henry Page Croft. M. P., as well as by Commander Locker-Lampson, M. P. Cards printed as follows were distributed: "Do you approve of the use of Fear God! Fear Naught! as our motto? . . . the use of March On as our battle song? . . . the use of a distinctive color?"
Medals for weight-putting and other feats of strength were won by Student Locker-Lampson at Eton and Cambridge; in 1898 he won the Prince Consort's Prize for German; in 1900 edited the Cambridge undergraduate Granta. Amateur theatricals were still his passion after he became a barrister and later Lieutenant-Commander.
During the War Patriot Locker-Lampson was in service with armored car divisions in France. Belgium, Austria, Rumania, Russia, Turkey, Persia. In 1918 he was appointed Russian Representative of the Ministry of Information, learned to hate the new Soviet Republic which had been proclaimed Nov. 7, 1917. In 1921 Commander Locker-Lampson attained the pinnacle of his career thus far, was Lord Privy Seal for a short time, has been a vigorous, valuable Conservative henchman for the past decade. In London last week few expected him to become in more than nickname "Britain's Hitler," much less "Britain's Mussolini.""
(Time, 6 July 1931) |
| Related Archival Material | Programme (RAHE/1/1931/60) |