1912-1949

1912
The BBFC was established.

1916
T.P. O'Connor was appointed President of the BBFC. He summarised the Board's Policy by listing 43 grounds for deletion laid down for the guidance of examiners which shows the strictness felt necessary if the Board was to earn the trust of the public and relevant bodies.

YEARS BETWEEN THE WARS
Material that caused concern included horror and gangster films as well as those that dealt with aspects of sexuality. Some councils were barring children from films that were classified 'A'
London County Council and Manchester City Council banned children from Frankenstein (1931) although the sequence in which the monster drowns a small girl had already been cut.

1932
The advisory category 'H' (for horror) was agreed to indicate the potential unsuitability for children of the horror theme.

1948
Arthur Watkins was appointed Secretary to the Board under the Presidency of Sir Sidney Harris. Both men came from the Home Office. Watkins and Harris formulated new terms of reference for the Board based on three principles:

• was the story, incident or dialogue likely to impair the moral standards of the public by extenuating vice or extenuating vice or crime or depreciating moral standards?
• was it likely to give offence to reasonable minded cinema audiences?
• what effect would it have on children?

The effect on children was of major importance  since no category that excluded children. As 'adults only' category was increasingly seen as desirable, not only to protect children, but as an extension of the freedom of film-makers to treat adult subjects in an adult fashion.