Four Times of the Day is 29 May, Oak Apple Day, a public holiday which celebrated the Restoration of the monarchy (demonstrated by the oak boughs above the barber's sign and on some of the subjects' hats, which recall the royal oak tree in which Charles II hid after losing the Battle of Worcester in 1651). Alternatively, Sean Shesgreen has suggested that the date is 3 September, commemorating the battle of Worcester itself, a dating that preserves the seasonal progression from winter to spring to summer to autumn. Charing Cross was a central staging post for coaches, but the congested narrow road was a frequent
HMS Royal Oak (08) carrying Basque child refugees, to England. In July, as the war in northern Spain flared up, "Royal Oak", along with the battleship This same period saw "Royal Oak" star alongside fourteen other Royal Navy vessels in the 1937 British film melodrama "Our Fighting Navy", the plot of which centres around a coup in the fictional South American republic of Bianco. "Royal Oak" portrays a rebel battleship "El Mirante", whose commander forces a British captain (played by Robert Douglas) into choosing between his lover and his duty. The film was poorly received by critics, but gained some redemption through its dramatic