Here are contemporary accounts of the sound recording of the Burial of the Unknown Warrior, on 11 November 1920 by Lionel Guest, later of Ferring, and Capt. Merriman.

“Long distance” gramophone records in the Abbey.Illustrated London News (London, England), Saturday, December 18, 1920; pg. 1030; Issue 4261  (296 words)  One shilling

HOW MUSIC AT THE ABBEY BURIAL OF THE UNKNOWN WARRIOR WAS RECORDED IN A LORRY OUTSIDE THE BUILDING; A NEW ELECTRICAL PROCESS

The first gramophone records ever taken in Westminster Abbey were obtained at the funeral service for the Unknown Warrior on Armistice Day by means of an electrical process invented by Major the Hon. Lionel Guest and Capt. H. O. Merriman, a Canadian electrical engineer. Outside the eastern end of the Abbey was stationed a lorry containing a workshop with the recording mechanism. This consisted of the usual gramophone turn-table with a revolving wax disc, but, instead of a recording diaphragm operated by sound, it had an electrical device for engraving the wax. The recording machine was connected by wires with four sound-receivers placed at different points. At each of the points was posted a signaller, who by pressing a button on a microphone transformer-board signalled to the operators in the lorry when to begin and cease recording. The two records are published at cost price (7s. 6d. The pair) by the Columbia Gramophone Co. for the Abbey Restoration Fund. Orders by be sent to the Precentor, Little Cloisters, Westminster.

Expand the illustration on the right, to see interesting detail.

further account

Our programme of talks, walks and visits is suspended during the Covid 19 emergency. We will be back in action as soon as we can. Meanwhile I would welcome any contributions or questions on the history of  Ferring or West Sussex.  – Ed Miller (Secretary)   Ed@ferringhistorygroup.co.uk

Welcome to our web site. Below this photograph of Ocean Drive, looking South, posted in 1939, is a summary menu of what is on the site. Most of the pages are available to any visitor to this site, and the many articles of Ferring History may be quoted from, or reproduced in full, as long as there is an acknowledgment of Ferring History Group as its source. 

Other pages, with more detailed history, and (in time) many photographs, are for our members, who pay an annual subscription and, on application, are given a user name and a password. If you have a user name and  password please enter them in the box, below, right. If you are a member but do not have, or have forgotten, these please e mail ed@ferringhistorygroup.co.uk. If you are not a member, please use the contact button, on the panel above, right, to see how to become one..

You do not have to be a member to come  to our meetings (7.30 on the first Friday of February, May, August and November, in Ferring Village Hall) – we welcome visitors at £3 per head, paid at the door. Please go to the ‘Who we Are and What We Do’ tab below the photograph for the 2019 programme – Ed Miller (Secretary)