COPYRIGHT: Chris Haley, all rights reserved
Pevensey and Pevensey Bay identified as being part of the story of the birth of outside broadcasting by the BBC
This picture is evidence of a remarkable moment in the birth of outside broadcasting by the BBC and may be of national significance as a record of the early days of the BBC. The picture was taken in either Pevensey or Pevensey Bay in 1932, part of a family album of holiday memories.
The album sent to Pevensey Bay Life by Chris Haley may well be of value beyond a family memory record.
From what we have seen of the album sent to us, and what would now be called ‘stills’, we may be seeing scenes that record the birth of outside broadcasting in this country.
The photograph here is captured with a scene in either Pevensey or Pevensey Bay, and one of many.
The picture here was taken here in 1932. The picture shows the 6’8″ man (right) who was known as “Lobby’ and the photograph recorded with his name below the photograph, S. J. de Lotbiniere
Seymour Joly de Lotbiniere CVO (21 October 1905 – 6 November 1984) known as “Lobby” was a Director of the British Broadcasting Corporation and pioneer of outside broadcasts.
He is recognised as developing the technique of sports commentary on radio and subsequently television, and he masterminded the televising of the 1953 Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. Christopher Martin-Jenkins wrote of him that “he was a towering figure both physically and mentally”, the “physically” referring to his height of six feet eight inches.
Lotbiniere was the second son of Brigadier-General Henri-Gustave. His grandfather, Sir Henri-Gustave Joly de Lotbinière, was Premier of the Canadian province of Quebec, a federal Cabinet minister, and Lieutenant-Governor of British Columbia. He was the BBC’s director of outside broadcasting from 1935 to 1940.
Commenting on the photo album, editor of the Bay Life Journal, Simon Montgomery, the broadsheet newspaper here in Pevensey Bay, said “I now see these photographs, this one being a prime identifier of their source, as being of national significance.
“Seymour Joly de Lotbiniere was here in 1932, three years later he became a Director of the British Broadcasting Corporation and a pioneer of outside broadcasts.
“I believe that what we might be seeing in these photographs, since he was clearly a part of the activities, is the birth of outside broadcasting in this county. Their composition and the arrangement of the shots looks very much like they are part of what we would now call an outside broadcast.
“We will now how begin to search the archives of the BBC to see if there is some very early documentary evidence of these holidays here, including Seymour Joly de Lotbiniere.
“If that is the case, which seems possible, then we are witnessing the first Director of the BBC for outside broadcasts ‘at work’, three years before he took up his pivotal role, work he then developed for the BBC in 1935 that led to the De Lotbiniere introducing modern methods of commentary, dispensing with the dependence on maps and grids published in the Radio Times to assist the listener.
“The life in these stills is marked, what we are witnessing is the birth of outside broadcasting in an inchoate form, in my view.
“The fact that Lotbiniere mastermind the famous coronation broadcast in 1953, demonstrates his key and iconic position in the history of British broadcasting.
“It could be argued that the Coronation and the breakthrough moment in outside broadcasting, led to the birth of television in this country as a mass medium, the broadcast was the work of the man in this photograph, Seymour Joly de Lotbiniere, one of the pioneers of outside broadcasting in this country
“I believe that what we might be seeing in this photographic collection is a part of the story of the birth of British broadcasting and the use of modern outside broadcast techniques, scenes, narratives and the life of people, in various settings, to tell a story.
“If that is the case, this album and Pevensey and Pevensey Bay have found a new place in both the birth and history of outside broadcasting in this country
“I also believe now, as we begin to investigate this story, that the fact that the Beach Tavern in Pevensey Bay was one of the few public places in Sussex to broadcast the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth in 1953 on a very small television at the location, is quite likely not to have not been an accident and that there may well be a link with Seymour Joly de Lotbiniere.
“I believe that this album is of national significance to the birth of the story of outside broadcasting in 1932 and the development of outside broadcasting. They are early stills taken at the birth of outside broadcasting and are likely to have value, not just to the family of Chris Haley, but to the country,
