FOREWORD to The Story of the Festival of Britain, published by H.M.S.O. in 1952
by General The Rt. Hon. Lord Ismay, G.C.B., C.H., D.S.O.
"At its final meeting on August 15 last, the Council of the Festival of Britain, 1951, under my chairmanship recommended the preparation of an authoritative record of the Festival. Owing to economic stringency and the rapid dissolution of the Festival Office it has not been practicable to undertake anything more ambitious that this outline of the origins, the course of events and some of the problems and results of the Festival. I am glad to know that it will go to a number of institutions and persons who took a leading part in ensuring the success of the Festival, and to some of the principal public libraries. It will thus be available for reference as a historical record of a great enterprise which has given stimulus and encouragement to the British people and to the world in a time of immense difficulty." Ismay Chairman, Festival Council. March 24, 1952
Lord Ismay (General Hastings Lionel Ismay): Appointed to Staff College, Quetta, 1922; DAQMG Army Headquarters, India, 1923; Royal Air Force Staff College, Andover, 1924; Army Headquarters, India, 1925; Assistant Secretary to Committee of Imperial Defence, 1926-1930; Military Secretary to the Viceroy of India, 1931-1933; GSO 1 at the War Office, 1933-1936; Deputy Secretary to the Committee of Imperial Defence, 1936-1938; Secretary to the Committee of Imperial Defence, 1938-1940; Chief of Staff to the Minister of Defence, 1940-1946; Deputy Secretary (Military) to the War Cabinet, 1940-1945: Additional Secretary (Military) to the Cabinet, 1945; Promoted General, 1944: Baron, 1947; Chief of Staff to the Viceroy of India, 1947; Chairman, Festival of Britain Council, 1948-1951; Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations, 1951-1952. For more information from his career, see: http://www.pro.gov.uk/finding/coreexec/data/cab-c127.htm
Extract from "The Memoirs of General The Lord Ismay, KG, PC, GCB, CH, DSO"; published 1960 by Heinemann.
note: the various references highlighted in bold refer to the explanatory notes produced by Martin Packer at the very end.
"A few weeks after my return to England, I was summoned to go to No. 10 Downing Street by the Prime Minister, and went in fear and trembling that I was going to be asked to undertake some sort of overseas appointment. Mr. Attlee quickly dispelled my anxiety. He told me that it had been decided, with the concurrence of all political parties, to hold a Festival of Britain in 1951, in order to mark the centenary of the Great Exhibition in Hyde Park of 1851, and to display the British contribution to civilisation, past, present and future, in science, the arts, and in industrial design. Unlike its predecessor, the Festival would not be confined to London, but would be nation-wide and all-embracing. A Council , composed of men and women eminent in various walks of public life and of representatives of all political parties, was in the process of being set up in order to exercise a general supervision over the Festival arrangements. Would I undertake the chairmanship? Mr. Herbert Morrison, who was present at the interview and was to be the Minister in charge of the Festival, went on to explain that over-all responsibility would rest with the Government, and that detailed plans and preparations would be in the hands of Mr. Gerald Barry, the Director General, aided by 'The Festival Office' , which was being set up as a new Government department. The Council of which I had been asked to be chairman would be honorary and advisory. It seemed a very unsuitable assignment for one who was a complete ignoramus about science and somewhat of a Philistine about the arts; but I was so relieved at not being asked to go abroad again, that I accepted at once.
The Council collected by the Rt. Hon. Herbert Morrison was indeed high-powered. Party politics were represented by Miss Margaret Herbison, Mrs. Jean Mann, the Rt. Hon. Lord Wilmot, the Rt. Hon. R.A. Butler, the Rt. Hon. W.E. Eliot, the Rt. Hon. Lord Clydesmuir and Lady Megan Lloyd George: the Church was represented by the Very Rev. A.C. Don, Dean of Westminster: Music by Sir Malcolm Sargeant: Science by Sir Robert Robinson: the Stage by John Gielgud and Noel Coward: Letters by T.S. Elliot and Sir A.P. Herbert: the BBC by the Director-General, Sir William Haley: the Arts by Sir Kenneth Clark, the Earl of Crawford and Balcarres and Sir Ernest Pooley, Chairman of the Arts Council: Scotland by the Rt. Hon. Thomas Johnston: Wales by Sir Wynn Wheldon: Northern Ireland by the Rt. Hon. Sir Roland Nugent; and there were many other eminent persons.
The Council held its first meeting on 31 May 1948, and was addressed by Princess Elizabeth in her capacity as President of the Royal Society of Arts. After reminding us that the Great Exhibition in Hyde Park had been planned under the inspiration of her great-great grandfather, the Prince Consort, Her Royal Highness expressed the hope that the Festival of Britain, in emphasising our achievements of the past, would stress no less sharply our responsibilities to the future. In that pioneering spirit the Festival was launched.
The first essential was to ensure its character, scope and purpose were understood by the country as a whole, and the Lord Mayor of London, Sir George Aylwen, nobly came to our assistance by inviting all Lord Mayors, Mayors, and Chairmen of County and District Councils to meet him at the Guildhall on 8 June and allowing Barry and me to address them. The burden of our story was the centre-piece of the Festival would be a combined exhibition somewhere in London, which would be sponsored by the Government. There would also be two travelling exhibitions and a few other projects similarly sponsored. But the Festival would depend for its success on the spontaneous co-operation of civic authorities through the British Isles. Clearly there could be no ordered pattern, but it was hoped that every town and village would, on their own initiative, arrange activities appropriate to their individual customs, tastes and resources, and that, in addition, they would undertake some project or improvement of permanent value which would serve as a reminder to future generations. We promised that the Festival Office would help them at all times and in every possible way, except in the matter of finance.
That meeting in the Guildhall lit a flame which was to become a prairie fire. The Festival Office, the Scottish, Welsh and Northern Ireland Festival Committees, the civic authorities throughout the land, and a number of voluntary organisations went at their task with a will, and gradually the grand design took place. The combined Exhibition was to be on the South Bank of the Thames between County Hall and Waterloo Bridge. London was also to have a Festival Pleasure Gardens in Battersea, an Exhibition of science in South Kensington and an Exhibition of architecture in Poplar. In Glasgow, there was to be an Exhibition of industrial power; in Belfast a factories Exhibition. There were to be two Travelling Exhibitions, the one moving by sea in the aircraft carrier "Campania" to many of the principal ports, the other moving by land to some of our principal cities. There were to be twenty-two Arts Festivals organised by the Arts Councils of Great Britain in various parts of the country. In addition, more than two thousand different places, ranging from large cities to tiny hamlets, had decided upon the forms that their celebrations would take. Some were to stage sporting displays or folk dances; some to hold Exhibitions of local crafts; some had decided to build anew village hall, or to add to an old one; some proposed to erect a bus-stop shelter, or seats on the village green; some were to provide a new recreation ground, or a memorial garden; some were to restore derelict buildings; some were to give their houses a new coat of paint.
As the opening day approached, there were the usual last-minute alarms and excursions: now a builders' strike; now a shortage of some essential construction material; now a spell of impossible weather. But all was ready in time, and on 3 May the King and Queen drove in state to St. Paul's Cathedral. The congregation which included Queen Mary and many other members of the Royal Family, numbered over three thousand, and the service was as beautiful as it was appropriate. Blake's "Jerusalem" might have been written for the occasion. After the service was over, the King broadcast to his people from the West steps of the Cathedral. 'This Festival has been planned, like its great predecessor, as a visible sign of national achievement and confidence. Two world wars have brought us grievous loss of life and treasure; and though the nation has made a splendid effort towards recovery, new burdens have fallen upon it and dark clouds still overhand the whole world. Yet this is no time for despondency; for I see this Festival as a symbol of Britain's abiding courage and vitality.... I declare the Festival of Britain open and wish it universal success.'
That same evening an inaugural concert was held in the Royal Festival Hall. The King and Queen were again present and, after the customary presentations, the Lord Mayor of London Sir Denys Lowson, the Lady Mayoress, the Gerald Barrys, and my wife and I went as fast as we could to the lift allotted to us, in order to be in our boxes by the time that Their Majesties made their entry into the foyer. Our lift started according to plan, but when it came to a stop, the doors failed to open. We telephoned for help, but the switchboard either thought that we were playing a practical joke or were too intent on listening to the music to pay any attention. What had at first seemed rather comic began to look serious; and, when we had been incarcerated for forty minutes, the Lord Mayor, a burly man, took off a large shoe and hammered on the walls of the lift with sufficient violence to wake the dead. At last a rescue party arrived. The lift had stuck about six feet short of the next floor, and we had to be hauled up one by one. It was an undignified performance; and to add insult to injury, nobody had noticed that the boxes of the Lord Mayor of London, the Chairman of the Festival of Britain and the Director-General had been empty throughout the whole of the first part of the programme.
The next morning, the King and Queen, accompanied by Queen Mary and all the members of the Royal Family in London, paid their first visit to the South Bank, and in spite of the rain and cold, spent over two hours on the site. Among the distinguished guests who received invitations for this opening day was Mr. Churchill. He seemed fascinated by the escalator, and went up and down, and down and up half a dozen times before rejoining the VIP party. Perhaps he had never been on one before? At 2.30 p.m. the gates were opened to the general public, and in the next five months a total of eight and a half million people passed through the turnstiles.
During that summer my wife and I attended celebrations of various kinds all over the country: festivals of music at Canterbury, York and Swansea: a Regency Festival at Brighton: a Farm and Factory Exhibition on the outskirtsof Belfast: a Festival of Ancient Traditions at Chipping Campden: an Industries Exhibition at Bristol: a Cotswold Craft Exhibition at Cheltenham. All the endearing and enduring things that have gone to make our history and fashion our way of life seemed to have sprung up anew - the folk-songs and the dances, the sports and the pageants and the carnivals, the local handicrafts, the dramas and the concerts, the noble church services, the glow of gardens. Everywhere glimpses and egos of long ago. We felt in the presence of that unity which had been our most precious possession in the days of the war, and were convinced that the British people were determined to take up their lives and move forward again.
On 30 September the Festival came to an end. The King's illness had cast a shadow over its closing days, and the final ceremonies were simple. In the morning there was a religious festival organised by the Advisory Council of Christian Churches in the Royal Festival Hall, at which it fell to me to read the Lesson. In the evening the crowds at the Festival site were so dense that movement was scarcely possible. After a splendid address by the address by the Archbishop of Canterbury, the massed bands of the Brigade of Guards beat 'Retreat' and 'Tattoo'. The lights of the Exhibition were dimmed for the last time. The vast company sang 'Abide with Me' with the greatest reverence, and the National Anthem with the greatest devotion. It was all over."
3rd May 1948 : Speech on Festival of Britain by Ismay to Council of Festival of Britain, including minutes of first meeting (Ismay in the chair) and with speeches by Princess Elizabeth, Rt Hon Herbert Stanley Morrison, Ismay, Gerald Barry, Director General of Festival of Britain.
8th June 1949 : Speech on Festival of Britain by Ismay to meeting of heads of local government of England and Wales at Guildhall including reference to planning Operation OVERLORD, the Allied invasion of France, 1944 (see below) and with speeches by Gerald Barry, Director General of Festival of Britain and Sir George Aylwen, Lord Mayor of London.
5th October 1949: Speech on Festival of Britain by Ismay at Belfast, Northern Ireland.
6th December 1949 : Speech on Festival of Britain by Ismay at a meeting of heads of local government at Cardiff, Wales and with speech by Gerald Barry, Director General of Festival of Britain.
9th February 1950: Speech on Festival of Britain by Ismay to Royal Empire Society.
4th April 1950: Speech on Festival of Britain by Ismay at the opening of the 'Public house of tomorrow' exhibition at the Victoria and Albert museum, London.
2nd May 1950 Speech on Festival of Britain by Ismay at Lancaster House, London.
28th September 1950: Speech on Festival of Britain by Ismay at Arts Council reception.
4th October 1950: Speech on Festival of Britain by Ismay at Commonwealth press party.
24th October 1950: Speech on Festival of Britain by Ismay at a textile luncheon.
8th November 1950: Speech on Festival of Britain by Ismay to foreign press.
15th November 1950: Speech on Festival of Britain by Ismay to American press.
4th May 1951: Speech on Festival of Britain by Ismay at opening of Festival cottages at Stanton, near Wormington.
9th May 1951: Speech on Festival of Britain by Ismay at opening of St Paul's garden.
13th May 1951: Speech on Festival of Britain by Ismay at Campden festival.
9th June 1951: Speech on Festival of Britain by Ismay at Mansion House, York.
25th June 1951: Speech on Festival of Britain by Ismay at Industries exhibition Bristol, two speeches, one of which includes account of Rt Hon Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill's 1941 visit to Bristol.
28th June 1951: Speech on Festival of Britain by Ismay to Performing Rights Society.
2nd July 1951: Speech on Festival of Britain by Ismay at Cotswold crafts exhibition, Cheltenham Art Gallery.
3rd July 1951: Speech on Festival of Britain by Ismay at Cheltenham festival reception.
8th September 1951: Speech on Festival of Britain by Ismay on opening of Broadway bus shelter.
NOTES by Martin Packer
1951
A part of his Guildhall speech on June 8th, 1949 was "We are determined that 1951 will be not only the Centenary of the Great Exhibition of 1851, but that it will itself be a landmark in our island story for all time."
The royal message, delivered by King George VI, at the Guildhall was "As we look forward to the year 1951 each one of us can share in the anticipation of an event which may be outstanding in our lives. The motives which inspire the Festival are common to us all - pride in our past and all that it has meant, confidence in the future which holds so many opportunities for us to continue our contribution to the well being of mankind and thanksgiving that we have begun to surmount our trials. The Queen and I trust that every family will share in all parts of this great Festival so that all of us may join in showing that Britain lives on, now as ever taking her rightful place among the Nations of the world."
South Bank Exhibition: May 4 - September 30
Festival Pleasure Gardens: May 3 - November 3
Exhibition of Science, Science Museum: May 4 - September 30
Exhibition of Architecture: May 4 - September 30
Exhibition of Industrial Power, Kelvin Hall : May 28- August 18
Farm & Factory Exhibition, Castlereagh: June 1 - August 31
Festival Ship "Campania": visited ten ports from May 4-14 (Southampton) to September 18-October 6 (Glasgow)
Land Travelling Exhibition: visited four places from May 5-26 (Manchester) to September 15-October 6 (Nottingham)
Other Arts Festivals included 23: London Season of the Arts (May 3 - June 30) and 24: Belfast Arts Festival (May 7 - June 30) plus 25?: Glyndebourne Opera :Mozart Season (June 20-July 21) which is listed in the official 'Features of the Festival' advertisement in "The Times" Festival Supplement; was Glyndebourne a last minute addition to the full list of Arts Festivals?
Canterbury: July 18 - August 10 (Canterbury Festival)
York: June 3 - June 17 (Festival of the Arts)
Swansea: September 16 - 29 (Swansea Festival of Music)
Brighton: July 16-August 25 (The Regency Festival)
Belfast: June 1 - August 31 (Ulster Farm & Factory Exhibition)
Cirencester Park, Cirencester: May ? - September ? (The Cotswold Tradition)
Bristol: June 25 - July 7 (Industries Exhibition)
Cheltenham: July 2-14 (Exhibition of Cotswold Craftsmanship)
"It was all over": in London, it almost was - apart from the 1851 Centenary Exhibition (until 11 October) and the Festival Pleasure Gardens (until 3 November), but in other parts of Britain, the Festival Ship "Campania" did not finish at Glasgow and the Land Travelling Exhibition did not finish at Nottingham until 6 October; technically at least the Festival of Britain did not finish until 27 October where it had first 'started' on 24 March in Stratford-upon-Avon with The Shakespeare Festival!
Having spoken to Sir Gerald Barry's former personal assistant, now Lady Wellington MBE (who was given the MBE for her contribution to the organisation of the Festival of Britain), her personal description of Lord Ismay is consistent with his book - the rest of which is interesting reading for his wartime experiences with Winston Churchill, whom he served as Chief of Staff. Lord Ismay was also Chief of Staff to the last Viceroy of India and the first Secretary-General of NATO, as well as a soldier.
M.D.P.
"Welcome to the people of all lands" by General Lord Ismay (from the "Daily Mail" Festival of Britain Preview & Guide")
"At noon on the morning of Thursday, May 3 a deep hush will settle on a multitude of people gathered outside St. Paul's Cathedral. The roar of traffic will be still. Only the wind and gentle noise of the doves will be heard.
Then into this silence will come the voice of His Majesty The King, broadcasting from the steps of the Cathedral. His words will carry, not only to those within natural earshot but, by wireless, to the utmost ends of the earth. His Majesty will declare the Festival of Britain open and give utterance to the nation's welcome to the people of all lands.
This Festival, which will be celebrated in hundreds of towns, villages of the United Kingdom, will enable every one of us in his own way to show to his countrymen and to the world his present way of life, his pride in the traditions and customs handed down to him by his forebears, and his confidence that, by his own efforts co-ordinated with those his neighbours, the future of this country is on a firm basis.
British life is based upon the family. Visitors from the Commonwealth and foreign countries overseas will be received into many homes during the summer months.We know that will not be able to offer our guests the highest luxuries in the form of food and other entertainment which we should like to give them, but we hope that the warmth of our welcome will compensate in some degree for this enforced lack so that our friends will leave these shores with a deep feeling of friendship, a greater understanding and a determination to return.
The Exhibitions, the Arts Festivals, and all the other activities of the Festival are designed and organised to show the achievements in all fields of activity of the United Kingdom solely. We are not holding an international festival - or even a Commonwealth festival. The Festival of Britain is British in the purest sense of the word.
Nevertheless, although all our efforts will be directed towards national self-exposition, we are doing so in no spirit of vainglory. We do not wish to tell the world -or even ourselves- how superior we are in any respect to any other people ; we simpley want to show ourselves honestly and sincerely as we are.
I am confident that if people follow this simple principle of demonstrating what they are, how they live, and what they believe in, modestly and with courtesy, leaving others to make their own interpretation or judgment, the whole world can understand itself better; and with understanding comes toleration and affection."
Postscript
General The Lord Ismay, GCB., CH., DSO received this letter from Buckingham Palace dated 4 May, 1951:
"My dear Ismay,
The King wishes me to convey to you, as Chairman of the Festival Council; to Mr. Gerald Barry, its Director-General; and to all those who have been associated with you in the planning and preparation of the Festival of Britain, His Majesty's sincere congratulations on the notable results of your work during a period of more than two years.
The memorable ceremony at which The King yesterday declared the Festival open was admirably arranged in every detail, while His Majesty's visit to the South Bank this morning convinced him that the great Exhibition established there will amply fulfil its purpose of manifesting the industry, the technical skill, and the artistic craftmanship of the Nation. Yours sincerely"