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CAPITAL day ... Mrs Robinson and Mrs Howarth get into the swing of the things as the train leaves Rochdale station.
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Miles of smiles for pensioners
6/10/2007
IT WAS sunny smiles all the way in December 1972 as Mrs M Robinson and Mrs A Howarth joined more than 500 Rochdale pensioners for a day out in London.
The order of the day was fun all the way with the pensioners attending the hit musical, ‘Showboat’.
On the train to the capital was Alderman Cyril Smith who, just two months previously, had swept to victory in the general election, becoming the first Liberal to win Rochdale since Ramsay Muir in 1923.
During the rail journey to London, Alderman Smith and his mother, Eva, walked the length of the train chatting to the pensioners.
“We had a bit of fun,” he said later.
All the pensioners came from clubs in the Rochdale district.
British Railways ran the trip and for Alderman Smith – now Sir Cyril, of course – it simply meant that he took a little bit more of Rochdale with him to London than he normally did.
Despite a rather wet start to the day, the Observer reported that the 500 pensioners returned to Rochdale with their spirits far from dampened after a wonderful day out.
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