Three remarkable stills taken from a short film of the opening David Livingstone Centre. On Saturday the 5th October 1929, the Duchess of York visited Blantyre and it is reputed the crowds were in the region of 12,000 people.
1929 Duchess of York opens DLC
1929 Duchess of York opens DLC
1929 Duchess of York opens DLC
At this time, the museum was being opened, but the grounds were still being worked upon. For example it was a time long before the lion statue, or even the world fountain, which upon this opening day, was not there.
Instead on the upper section, a temporary wooden stand had been built for the Duchess to address the large crowds, her speech conveyed on tanoy systems around the park. We would know the Duchess today as the late mother of the current Queen Elizabeth II.