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| Pocklington Memorial Parade 1932 |
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| The first Annual Memorial Parade was held in Pocklington on the 20th November, 1932. This old film was recovered from an online auction and digitised. It shows the Pocklington Legion of Frontiersmen marching out of the Territorial Drill Hall on Barmby Road. The film also shows the cadets and girl guides marching down West Green from Pocklington School past the railway gate house. |
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A Pocklington Post story (8th Jan 2015) about the film of the 1932 memorial day parade brought back memories for a Pocklington resident who watched the event.
 In 1932 Joan Brown was an 11-year old schoolgirl who lived in the Market Place. She remained in Pocklington all her life and is now 93, but has clear memories of the parade. When she read the story in the Post she contacted the Pocklington & District History Group to share her recollections, and the group's archivist, Andrew Sefton, popped round to see her following her phone call to give her a personal viewing of the old film.
After watching it she said: "I lived in dad's hardware shop in Market Place, where the HSBC bank is now. I remember them setting off and the Legion of Frontiersmen marching through town, the Officer Training Corps from the school followed, and the Guides, I took a photo of the chap on horseback at the head of the parade, Mr Atkin I think he was called.
"I didn't know they could take such films in those days. There were lots of things in Pocklington that have gone now, we had a lovely silver band, and on Christmas afternoon they would come round playing carols.
"On 11th of November I remember us all marching down to the war memorial from the Council School carrying flags and singing hymns, the headmaster was Mr Craven. The Post Office wasn't there then, it was in Railway Street.
"It was lovely place to live in, it was a much smaller community so we all knew each other."
The picture on the front page of the Post of the Legion of Frontiersmen in the parade also prompted memories of the Pocklington resident who led the local Legion of Frontiersmen troop. David Balmford, who had won the Military Cross in World War I before becoming a ticket inspector on Everinghams' buses, was the commanding officer of the Pocklington Frontiersmen, an unofficial civil defence organisation formed of ex-servicemen who wore distinctive uniforms and had branches across the British empire. The Pocklington troop met in the Drill Hall on Barmby Road, and James Curtis, who had been awarded the Military Medal in the war, was the troop's secretary.
David Balmford is pictured wearing his Legion of Frontiersmen's uniform and displaying his Military Cross. |
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