Thursday, August 13, 2009

Noel Symington and his exploding Mosleyite soup

Each week the Harborough Mail takes a look at stories from the past in a feature called The Vault.

One of the stories this week is from 20 years ago. The Mail for 10 August 1989 reported that:
A carnival-style launch was being planned to officially open the new all-weather pitch at Welland Park College [it has now been replaced with a new pitch, which was finished last year].
I have entered history because I helped persuade Harborough District Council to stump up some of the funding for that pitch when I was a councillor. I recall agreeing the figure we would put into it with one of the Indepenents when we happened to meet in the gents during the relevant committee meeting. And now it has been replaced. Look upon my works, ye mighty...

More importantly, in 1949:
A laboratory at the W Symington and Co coffee mills factory in Springfield Street ... was destroyed by fire. The fire brigade prevented the fire spreading. Fumes from burning chemicals filled the building.
I think we have read enough on this blog in recent weeks to know what was going on here.

Noel Symington, it is clear, was working on an exploding soup mix which Oswald Mosley could use to fight his way to power. No wonder he "left to spend time on his farm" in 1951.

1 comment:

Robert Doyle said...

There is a fairly exhaustive scientific literature on the explosive potential of the constituents of custard powder, so powdered soup may well have some potential as an instrument of terror.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2006/oct/22/schools.education