Appendices & References: The Path to Lidice, #8

By Alan Gerrard

2022 is the 80th Anniversary of the Lidice Shall Live campaign and Lidice Lives, and we thought we would lay things out for you. 

 

In addition to a full bibliography and sources section, the Appendices and References volume of this series contains a wider selection of additional material the reader will find interesting 

 

The full transcript of US Navy Secretary, Frank Knox's speech - given at the United Nations Rally at Boston Gardens on Sunday 14th June 1942

 

In 1944, the Brazilian community of Villa de Parada, formerly Santo Antônio do Capivari, was renamed Lidice. The speech given by District Administrator Ernâni do Amaral Peixoto at the inauguration ceremony is presented in full.

 

The Eye for an Eye inspiration as published by The Quebec Gazette 12th June 1942 -  Dorothy Thompson New York, (Released by The Bell Syndicate, Inc.) June 11th, 1942

 

Having received consent from the President of Mineworkers' Federation of Great Britain, Will Lawther, in August 1942, the British Crown Film Unit began scanning the country's industrial coalfield looking for a filming location. Aspiring producer, Humphrey Jennings wanted a community with both a physical resemblance to Lidice and a similar social and political history... 

 

If there is an instance of a catalyst for the trend of christening baby girls "Lidice" it would most likely be José D'Elía (21 June 1916 - 29 January 2007). The Uruguayan labor leader, trade unionist, and politician, worked as a shop employee at first before taking part in the trade union movement... 

Helen Leflerova - Published in Rude Pravo on the 16th July 1952

 

On the 15th June 1950, published in an article titled "THE LIGHT IS OUT at Lidice", the Texas-based Alice Daily Echo newspaper gave an update on the state of the Stern Park memorial in Illinois...

 

A transcript of Barnett Stross's 1965 Lidice speech...

 

Tributes to Sir Barnett Stross

• Language: English
• Publisher: Alan Gerrard
• Release date: Nov 12, 2021
• ISBN: 9798201953140

Book preview

APPENDICES

A FEW NOTES ON SOME LEADING FIGURES

FRED HANCOCK

Fred Hancock was born in 1873 in Talke and attended Butt Lane National School, just outside Stoke-on-Trent. Hancock was connected for the greater part of his working life with the coal industry in North Staffordshire. As a coal miner Hancock became active in the North Staffordshire Miners' Association. In 1914 he was appointed to take charge of the National Health Section, and the following year he became Financial Secretary and Organiser of the District Federation. He was appointed President in 1925, and in 1930 became Secretary and Agent when he succeeded his predecessor, Samuel Finney. He was also a member of the Midland Miners’ Federation for 20 years and President for 14 years. In the course of his official trade union activities Hancock paid visits to many countries. In his younger years he had spent time in America, where he studied at Allegheny College in Pennsylvania; and Russia, where he formed a close personal friendship with Solomon Lozovsky, Soviet Propaganda Chief, who was then Secretary of the Soviet trade union movement. He frequently attended the Trades Union Congress, and in 1937 was its delegate to the Trades and Labour Congress of Canada.

Fred Hancock was an official of the North Staffordshire Miners’ Federation for 27 years. For his retirement, in October 1941, a reception was held at the Co-operative Guildhall in Burslem, where key representatives of the North Staffordshire Miners’ Federation, Coal Industry employers and associates met to celebrate the part Mr Hancock had played in advancing industrial relations. Employers’ spokesperson Isaac Cumberbatch, Chairman of the North Staffordshire Colliery Owners' Association, paid a fine tribute to Fred describing that whilst in America, he had been in charge of a church and that he had done such a fine job of it that he was pressed to enter the ministry of the United States, but that he instead remained loyal to mining in North Staffordshire. He described how in 1914, Mr Hancock became an official of the Staffordshire Federation and from then on, his wonderful record of faithful service to miners and the mining industry ensued, "and he could be proud of having played an important part in the many social changes, industrial and social which had been effected in North Staffordshire. High ideals and integrity of purpose in championing the causes of the workers"

Like other executives on the Board of the North Staffs Miners’ Federation, Fred Hancock was a Methodist lay preacher in his spare time.

ARTHUR BADDELEY

Arthur Baddeley, an employee of the Chatterley Whitfield Collieries, was appointed Organiser to the North Staffordshire Miners' Federation at the monthly meeting of the District Council held at the Miners' Hall, Moorland Road on the afternoon of Monday September 29th 1930. Members selected him from a list of 14 nominees submitted from across the district. He later to take on both President and Secretary roles, Arthur is closely linked to the Lidice Shall Live campaign having been President of the Federation at its inception.

In early March 1948 it was announced that Baddeley, as Secretary and Agent of the North Staffordshire Area of the National Union of Mineworkers since 1946, had been elected, by ballot, full-time President of the newly constituted Midland Area of the NUM, which embraced North and South Staffordshire, Shropshire, Warwickshire, Cannock and Highbury, with an approximate membership of 49,000.

Arthur Baddeley became a magistrate on the 30th September 1944 - Miners' Hall House, Park Road, Burslem - President and treasurer of the North Staffs Miners' Federation.

Though it has been totally destroyed, and our brother miners have been murdered, and the women and children battered and brutally treated by the Nazis, we say this village shall be remodelled and rebuilt, and the people shall rise and live again in a new spirit of fellowship and brotherhood. The miners would say to the world at large that their comrades of Lidice would never be forgotten and that the widows and orphans would be rescued, and that the village would be rebuilt as a lasting monument that this crime against humanity should never succeed.

In 2012, Muriel Stoddard, daughter of Arthur Baddeley shared some of her recollections about her dad’s experiences with an amateur film crew:

In January 1942 there was a massive disaster at the Sneyd Colliery. Dad was part of a delegation that had to go around telling people that they had lost loved ones. And in that same year, we heard of the disaster in Czecho-Slovakia, when the tiny village of Lidice was razed to the ground by the Nazis. A lot of the people from the village were miners, and so the miners of Stoke-on-Trent became aware of what had happened in Czecho-Slovakia. Dad was part of a delegation which went out from Britain to Lidice for the stone laying ceremony and when he came back, he told us of things that had happened, but he didn't dwell on it. And he didn't say Oh, I'm the proud owner of a medal. He was very modest. He had the medal and that was it. He was very grateful and very honoured, I think, to have received the award

HUGH LEESE

On Saturday November 30th 1946 at a ceremony in Stoke, Hugh Leese, who'd been one of the best-known miners' leaders in the Midlands was presented with a cheque to mark his retirement as area secretary and agent of the National Union of Mineworkers. In 1918 he had become a full-time registration officer for the former North Staffordshire Miners' Federation and attained the post of Treasurer and President. There was a representative gathering of the industry present to pay tribute to the sterling work carried out by Mr