MP Cyril walked up and down the train, pausing for a word here, a joke there.

There was a warm greeting for 17-year-old Susan Hyman, Rochdale Carnival Queen and a special word of congratulation for Mrs Ruby Brierley, recently awarded the MBE in the Queen's Honours.

He stopped for a word with the Young Wives and Rochdale Widows and, in response to cries of 'Give us a song, Cyril', he borrowed a guitar from Bishop Henshaw school folk group and performed his famous version of 'She's a Lassie from Lancashire'.

As the train drew into Euston a reception no-one had imagined was waiting.

As the crowd left the train a horde of pressmen surged forward. After a few minutes the chaos subsided and there, in the middle, was Cyril telling reporters and passers-by caught up in the crowd what it was all about.

"I've brought them to see where their MP works. I put an advert in the Observer asking if anyone would be interested in coming to see the House of Commons. We were astounded at the response."

Fourteen coaches took Cyril's party through the streets of London to Westminster.

Passing Westminster Abbey, a voice from the back of one of the coaches said: "Not as clean as Rochdale Town Hall."

On the way home there was only one song to sing - 'Nice One Cyril.'

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This way of doing business was revolutionary. These businessmen didn't adulterate products, putting leaves in tea or chalk in flour. They didn't simply see customers as the way to make a profit at the expense of others. They believed that pooling resources and ensuring everyone benefited, was the way to do business. Unsurprisingly, and to the annoyance of other traders, the reputation of the co-op shop was soon established and customers flocked to it, certain that they would be served quality products at affordable prices.

The Rochdale Pioneers made no secret of the principles that underpinned their business. They were what set them apart from all the other traders - they were the key to their success.

The principles were -

Open and voluntary membership
Democratic control (one member, one vote)
Fixed and limited interest on share capital
A surplus allocated in proportion to members' purchases (the dividend)
Provision for education
Co-operation amongst co-operatives
Political and religious neutrality
No credit
Quality goods and services

Very soon, co-op shops were appearing everywhere and the Rochdale Pioneers began to gain international attention. Although co-ops had been set up before the Toad Lane shop, it was this one that was a real success and therefore the one that became the example that other co-operators followed.
The principles are still accepted today as the foundations upon which all co-ops are based. However, to ensure they are still relevant, they have been examined and revised.

The original members of the Rochdale Pioneers are here...

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Born over a fish and chip shop owned by her grandmother in Rochdale, then in Lancashire, she made her first stage appearance as a child in 1905. Her two sisters and brother all went on to appear on stage, but Fields was the most successful. Her professional debut in variety took place at the Rochdale Hippodrome theatre in 1910 and she soon gave up her job in the local mill.

She met comedian Archie Pitt and they began working together. Pitt would come to serve as her manager and the two married in 1923. Their first revue in 1915 was called Yes I think so and the two continued to tour Britain together until 1922 in the revue Mr Tower of London.

Fame

Fields came to major public notice when Mr Tower of London came to the West End. Her career rapidly accelerated from this point with straight dramatic performances and the beginning of a recording career.

One of her most successful productions was at the Alhambra Theatre in 1925. The show, booked by Sir Oswald Stoll, was a major success and toured for ten years. She made the first of ten appearances in Royal Variety Performances in 1928, gaining a devoted following with a mixture of self-deprecating jokes, comic songs and monologues, as well as cheerful "depression-era" songs all presented in a "no-airs-and-graces" northern, working class style. Fields had a great rapport with her audience, which helped her become one of Britain's highest paid performers, playing to sold out theatres across the country.

Her most famous song, which became her theme, "Sally", was worked into the title of her first cinema film, Sally in Our Alley (1931), which was a major box office hit. She went on to make several films initially in Britain and later in the United States (for which she was paid a record fee of US$200,000 for four films), despite never enjoying the process of performing without a live audience.

Charity work

The late 30s saw her popularity peak and she was given many honours: the Order of Officer Sister of St. John of Jerusalem (for charity work), the Commander of the British Empire (CBE) (for services to entertainment) in 1938, and the freedom of the borough of Rochdale.

She donated her exclusive house, "The Towers" in London's The Bishop's Avenue, which she had not much cared for and which she had shared with her husband Archie Pitt, to a Maternity Hospital after the marriage broke down. In 1939, however, she became seriously ill with cervical cancer. The public sent over 250,000 goodwill messages and she retired to her villa in Capri to recover.

World War II

World War II was declared whilst she was recovering and Fields travelled to France to entertain the troops. In 1940 she married film director Monty Banks, following her divorce from Pitt. However because Banks remained an Italian citizen and would have been interned in the United Kingdom, she was forced to leave Britain for North America during the war. Although she continued to spend much of her time entertaining troops and otherwise supporting the war effort outside Britain, this led to a fall-off in her popularity at home where she was portrayed by the press as a traitor and deserter. Nevetherless, she performed many times for Allied troops, travelling as far as the islands of New Guinea, where she received an enthusiastic response from Australian personnel.[1]

Post-war

After the war, Fields continued her career on a less active basis. She began performing in Britain again in 1948 and starred at the Festival of Britain celebrations. She proved popular once more, without ever regaining the status she achieved in the 1930s. She continued recording, but made no more films, moving more towards light classical music as popular tastes changed.

She did a great deal of charity work, and established a permanent home on Capri in Italy. Monty Banks died in 1950. Fields was married again, to Boris Alperovici, two years later. After then she began to work even less but still sold out theatres even into her seventies.

In 1978, she opened the Gracie Fields Theatre in Rochdale. She made a final appearance at the Royal Variety Show at the age of 80; it was her last performance. In February 1979 she was created a Dame Commander of the British Empire seven months before her death at her home in Capri, aged 81.

Famous songs

"Sally"
"Sing as We Go"
"Wish Me Luck as You Wave Me Goodbye"
"Thing-Ummy-Bob (That's Gonna Win The War)"[1]
"The Biggest Aspidistra in the World"
"Only a Glass of Champagne"
"Christopher Robin is Saying His Prayers"
"Angels Guard Thee"
"Nuns Chorus"
"Now Is the Hour"
"The Isle of Capri"

Filmography

1931 Sally in our Alley
1932 Looking on the Bright Side
1933 This Week of Grace
1933 Love, Life and Laughter
1934 Sing as We Go
1935 Look Up and Laugh
1936 Queen of Hearts
1937 The Show Goes On
1938 We're Going to Be Rich
1938 Keep Smiling
1939 Shipyard Sally
1943 Stage Door Canteen
1943 Holy Matrimony
1945 Molly and Me
1945 Paris Underground

References

An in depth look at the amazing Gracie Fields
Gracie Fields: A Biography by Joan Moules
Gracie Fields by David Bret
"Gracie Fields" by Jeffrey Richards (in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography)

Footnotes
^ Thompson and Heneker, (1942) THE THING-UMMY-BOB (That's Gonna Win The War) sung by Arthur Askey and Gracie Fields
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gracie_Fields"

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He became MP for Durham in 1843 and for Manchester in 1847. He spoke against the Corn Laws in parliament during Peel's second ministry until the laws were repealed in 1846. For five years, Cobden and Bright spoke frequently together from platforms throughout the country. Cobden's speeches provided persuasive arguments; Bright concentrated upon denouncing the privileged political position of the agricultural landlords, which had enabled them to use parliament to pass the Corn Laws. Although Cobden had taught Bright the high moral and economic case for free trade, Bright tended to speak on behalf of the manufacturers and mill hands who, he said, shared a common interest in overturning the Corn Laws.

Bright was a member of the Peace Society and denounced the Crimean War (1854-6) as un-Christian, contrary to the principles of international free trade, and harmful to British interests. "The Angel of Death," he said, "has been abroad throughout the land; you may almost hear the beating of his wings." He blamed Lord Palmerston and the aristocracy for deluding the British people. He said that British foreign policy and the expensive network of diplomatic appointments constituted "a gigantic system of outdoor relief for the aristocracy." Frustrated at his failure to stop the war, Bright suffered a severe nervous breakdown (1856-58). His anti-war views also helped to lose him his Manchester seat in 1857, but within a few months he was elected as an MP for Birmingham, which he was to represent for the rest of his life. He seconded the motion against the Conspiracy Bill that led to the fall of Palmerston's government. Bright pressed for less-authoritarian British rule in India both before and after the Indian Mutiny (1857) and strongly supported the Union against the slave-owning Confederacy during the American Civil War (1861-65).

Bright launched a speech-making campaign for parliamentary reform in Birmingham at the end of 1858 which faded out within a few months, but it marked the beginning of the movement toward the reform agitation of the mid-1860s. During the second half of 1866 Bright found himself the hero and chief mouthpiece of the reformers, accepted by both those who demanded universal suffrage and those who wanted more limited reform. In terms of immediate influence this was the high point of his career. Bright was satisfied with the household franchise introduced by the 1867 Reform Act, which extended the vote to skilled urban artisans but still excluded the town and country labourers. The artisans' intelligence and independence impressed him and he recommended every man who wanted the vote to acquire these qualities.

In 1868 Bright accepted the post of President of the Board of Trade in Gladstone's first ministry but retired through ill-health in 1870. He returned to political life in 1881 as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. He retired in 1882 because he opposed Gladstone's Home Rule policy for Ireland. Bright announced that he was not prepared to see power given to Irish nationalists who had made a mockery of parliamentary government. Bright was influential in the Unionist group in parliament and was regarded as one of the most eloquent speakers of his time

Bright's old-age recollections, which form the basis of the history of the ACLL, tend to be unconsciously self-inflating, sacrificing accuracy for effect. He deeply disliked being opposed, even by Cobden. This was an unfortunate product of his sensitive nature, and he often expressed his disappointment with a brusqueness that hurt the feelings of others. Bright was greatly admired and venerated in old age, but historians subsequently tended toward a more critical view of his personality and achievement. Bright died in 1889.

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