"Sound Effects"

From the Imperial College Drama Society's production of Dispersal.It must have been really difficult to do sound effects for a play in those days, presumably before even tape recorders were widely available. I assume everyone does it from a laptop these days, with just a mouse click to kick off the relevant sound. Imagine trying to cue up records and start them off at the right point - not to mention stopping them in time as well....
Read More

"Bugs in Bed (5th floor)"

Another from Imperial College. Not a clue what's going on in this one - it looks to me like someone's been out on the sauce and has slept it off in the corridor. But, if that was the case, surely he wouldn't have sheets, blanket and a pillow - not to mention an alarm clock on the window ledge.Not sure who Bugs was, but judging by some of the captions on other photos, he might have been one of the rowing crowd rather than the drama society. Complete guesswork though, and I imagine we'll never know the true story!BTW, sorry for the gap in posting....
Read More

"Morphy Day, General Melee"

November 1955, on the footpath of the ThamesA bit of digging on t'interweb reveals that Morphy Day traditionally consisted of various bits of Imperial College (which was made up of the Royal College of Science, the City & Guilds College and the Royal School of Mines) having a flour and tomato fight on the towpath at Putney whilst the Morphy and the Lowry races took place between the three colleges on the river. Somehow I suspect the rowing wasn't the most important bit of the day......
Read More

Commemoration Day, 1955

My father on graduation day (known as Commemoration Day), October 1955 at the Royal Albert Hall.EDIT: Just found this in felixonline.co.uk (the IC student newspaper):In 1945, King George VI and the Queen Mother visited Imperial College to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Royal College of Chemistry, the oldest of the institutions that were amalgamated into Imperial College in 1907. It was decided that this royal visit would be commemorated annually, and it is this ceremony, held in the Royal Albert Hall, at which Imperial undergraduate students celebrate graduation....
Read More

Petrolhead

Peter Collins in a Formula 1 Maserati 250F. Crystal Palace 30/05/1955 Colin Chapman in a Lotus XI. Goodwood 24/09/1955 A couple of shots from the 1955 motorsport summer. The amount of detail my dad recorded on some of these shots is great - written on the back of the prints of these two photos is the following: 1) Formula 1 Maserati 250F (2.5 litre), disc brakes, alloy wheels. Owen Racing Organisation car, driven by Peter Collins 2) Lotus Mk IX Climax, 1097cc. Six Mile Stable, driven by Colin Chapman. Almost certainly XPE8, the works car at Le Mans 1955. Cleaned up on the races that day....
Read More