Calvert (Phyllis)

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Phyllis Calvert, the film star who lived for a number of years in a cottage in Common Road, Kensworth, was the chief attraction at the annual carnival and fete organised by the Dunstable Old People's Welfare Association in Grove House Gardens, Dunstable, in 1955.
Miss Calvert, famous for her roles in British films of the 1930s and 40s, is seen here signing a carnival programme for the Mayor, Alderman W.H. Robinson.
Holding a carnival collection tin is the MP for South Beds, Mr Norman Cole.
The man standing behind the Mayor and Miss Calvert is Mr Bert England, owner of a well-known motorcycle shop in Dunstable. Mr England lived at Kensworth Lynch and would very likely have been acquainted with the actress.
Phyllis Calvert, one of the legendary "Gainsborough girls", is fondly remembered for such films as Fanny by Gaslight and Kipps. She was in the 1943 Gainsborough film company production, The Man In Grey, which made huge stars of James Mason and Margaret Lockwood and began a series of hugely successful historical melodramas which included The Wicked Lady, based on a tale woven around Marykate Cell, the picturesque house alongside the Watling Street.
Miss Calvert died in October 2002.