Batley Gilbert & Sullivan Society

Events Diary

Did You Know?

This was the very first time the Society had presented "Princess Ida" (alternatively known as "Castle Adamant").

• The President at the time (F. Atkins) commented that the opera had been produced on vey few occasions since the war and that the Society should "lead the way to bringing it back into the limelight" (despite the expense of the production being very high).
• The production was opened on the first night by Dr. A.D.D. Broughton, who was the MP for Batley and Morley (as the constituency was then called, becoming Batley and Spen in the early 1980's). He was the longest serving Batley MP, serving for 30 years from 1949 until his death in 1979.
• On 28 March 1979 the government famously faced a knife-edge vote of no confidence when Dr. Broughton was on his death bed. Dr. Broughton's doctors were extremely concerned for him and strongly advised him not to travel. Although he was willing to come down to vote, Prime Minister James Callaghan decided it would be obscene to ask him to do so, in case he died during the ambulance journey. In the event, the government lost by one vote; had Dr. Broughton been present, it would have survived. Dr. Broughton died five days later, aged 76.
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  Sir Alfred Davies Devonsher Broughton (1902 – 1979)