Pageant of Empire

Woking orphans take part in a parade for Empire Day.

These children from Woking's Southern Railway Servants' Orphanage would have been celebrating alongside millions of others across the UK and around the Empire. Dressed in scout and guide uniforms parade, the children parade in groups representing different countries of the Empire. By 1933, controversy around Empire Day was growing, and the practice of 'blacking-up' (as children representatives of Africa do here) would have been considered offensive by many, though most Britons of the time would have thought it entirely harmless.

This Woking Orphanage was unique in being funded from railway workers' pay and from donations contributed at stations, as well as by events such as this Pageant.