Thorold Bernard (1 results)

An extraordinary collection illustrating the British national elections of the 1970s: the scrapbooks preserved by Bernard Thorold, a press officer of the Conservative Party, containing a vast assemblage of political buttons, leaflets, posters, and other electioneering literature from across the political spectrum, covering the two 1974 general elections, the 1979 election, and the 1975 referendum on the Common Market. The two 1974 elections returned Labour to government, first with no majority and then with a small majority. The 1975 referendum confirmed the British electorate's wish to remain in what became the European Union. The 1979 election saw the election of Margaret Thatcher as the first female prime minister of Great Britain. The collection preserves a range of ephemeral material. Thorold kept small stickers for clothes and large format display posters. He preserved formal manifestos and jocular leaflets. He focuses on the Conservatives, Liberals, and Labour but also collects material from the margins, including the National Front and Communist Party. The albums bulge with material other than paper: rosettes, buttons, and photographs. As Thorold worked in the press office, he reviewed upcoming speeches. Typed and manuscript drafts by prominent figures are included, some with corrections. He kept many newspaper clippings, presumably some of which had his involvement, including a lengthy series on the election of Margaret Thatcher as leader of the Conservative Party in 1975. There are sketches of posters and drawings of the format of TV interviews. Much of the documentation is for strictly internal party use. Thorold campaigned in his Holborn & St Pancras Constituency, while his wife Mary worked as a poll counter there. Mary worked for the chief whip Francis Pym (noted in Daily Express, 11 March 1972). He inserts their entrance passes to the Commons and to the count and other documents regarding their own role as voters. Among dozens of letters are commiserations for the 1974 defeats, including from senior figures in the party: Lord Carrington, John Biffen, David Howell, Robert Carr, and Alec Douglas Hume. 4 albums, 1 blue morocco by Asprey in landscape folio (404 x 295 mm), the other 3 standard folio and red or brown cloth-backed boards (c.372 x 258 mm); each with the compiler's bookplate. Albums mounted with circa 700 items, including leaflets, photographs, buttons, rosettes, speeches, letters, newspaper clippings, posters, stickers and similar ephemera, and documents. Morocco binding with tape residue, light rubbing, in a very few cases inserts loose or seemingly missing. In very good condition.