| Main Performers | Field-Marshal Sir William Robertson (Chiarman),
Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald,
Stanley Baldwin MP,
David Lloyd George MP,
Dr Maude Royden,
Viscount Cecil - speakers |
| Set List | 'God Save the King' (The National Anthem),
Opening Address (Robertson),
Speech (Ramsay MacDonald),
Speech (Stanley Baldwin),
Speech (David Lloyd George) |
| Performance Notes | "A Peace Procession is to march through London today from the Embankment to Hyde Park. The occasion is the National Disarmament Demonstration in the Albert Hall, at which the Prime Minister, Mr Baldwin and Mr Lloyd George will speak. So great has been the demand for tickets that the Hall could have been filled twice over. There is therefore to be an overflow meeting in Hyde Park, to which all the music and speeches from the Albert-Hall will be relayed by loudspeakers. The procession will finish in Hyde Park at this meeting. Thousands of people, men and women, representing some 30 organisations and Churches will march in it carrying banners and flags. It has been organised by the Women's International League, which began the campaign in support of the International Disarmament Declaration for which a million British signatures have now been secured."
(The Times, 11 July 1931)
"Many thousands of people took part in a national demonstration on world disarmament held on Saturday in London. It was supported by over 60 organisations - churches and religious bodies, branches of the three political parties, cooperative societies, educational and other movements - and it was memorable for the fact that the Prime Minister, Mr Baldwin and Mr Lloyd George appeared together on the platform of the Royal Albert Hall under the chairmanship of a former Chief of the Imperial General Staff, Field Marshal Sir William Robertson, to plead for the success of the Disarmament Conference next february, to point to the steps this country has already taken in fulfilment of pledges given after the War, and to emphasize the unanimity of its demand for peace.
There was an impressive procession from the embankment to the Albert Hall. It is estimated that 3,000 people joined in it, and it extended for half a mile. The majority of those composing the procession were women, but among the men were a party of British Legion and a group of the unemployed.
There was one jarring incident at the Albert Hall. Just as the chairman, followed by the speakers, had walked on to the platform and the huge audience had risen to cheer them, stewards noticed a woman seated at a Press table with a paper bag containing 'stink bombs'. She was immediately removed, but she succeeded in throwing on to the platform one or two small pear-shaped glass bulbs containing an amber-coloured liquid which gave off an evil-smelling gas when the glass broke. She left behind her a notebook on which was written a name and the words 'The Fascist'."
(The Times, 13 July 1931)
"Saturday's great disarmament rally at the Albert Hall started with a militant note.
...an elderly woman rose from the front bench and flung on the platform a handful of 'stink bombs.'
She was led out by the stewards, and left behind evidences of belonging to a Fascist organisation."
(The Daily Telegraph, 13 July 1931)
Photographs of the procession and the the meeting are in the Daily Herald.
Associated Press Archive hold British Movietone B&W footage of the event (Story No. BM1301).
The event was orgainised by Dame Adelaide Lord Stickney Livingstone, DBE (19 January 1881-14 September 1970) who was an American-British human rights activist responsible for organising the Peace Ballot in 19341935 to gauge the British public's sentiment in the winds of upcoming war with a rearming and aggressive Germany led by Adolf Hitler. The results of the Peace Ballot were officially announced at the Hall on 27 June 1935.
Tables for signing the declaration were places in all entrances and in thee tables were also in each corridor.
Overflow meeting in the gardens to the east side of the Albert Memorial in Kensington Gardens and at the south side of the Hall.
The event was broadcast on radio from 15:30 via the National transmitter.
Lloyd George's speech helped a groundswell of support in Britain for preserving international peace. |
| Related Archival Material | Programme (RAHE/1/1931/63)
Photograph (Procession to the Hall) (RAHE/3/1931/2) |