1914 January to July

On Sunday, 1st March 1914, there was a Sacred Concert in the East London Town Hall in aid of St John's Church funds.  The Band of the Kaffrarian Rifles appeared again, and Gwen performed two items, the first her popular The Rosary (by special request), and the second was Come Sing to Me.  Also on the programme was the Shakespearean actor Mr Henry Herbert, here billed as an Elocutionist!  The evening ended with the regimental march and God Save the King.  Gwen also saved a notice for the concert published in the press.

Good Friday fell on 10th April in 1914, and there is a photograph which has been torn out, but was headed "Easter at Alice C.P. 1914".  It would be pointless to speculate what unpleasant associations caused Gwen to remove the photograph, but that same Easter Monday, 13th April 1914, The Thespians Amateur Dramatic Society, East London, presented a programme in the Town Hall at Alice which I think must in some way have been related to the removed picture.  The format of the evening fell into two halves, each consisting of some musical items followed by a short play.  Gwen sang in each half, and her first song was Your Eyes Have Told Me So, a duet with Mr W.H. Sturgess who was on the committee of the Society and also performed in both of the short plays as well as other musical items.  Gwen also performed Somewhere a Voice is Calling before the interval and The Magic of Your Voice after it.

  One of the things I remember about Gwen was that she prided herself on her flower arranging, and I remember my mother saying the flowers wouldn't dare step out of line once Gwen had put them in place.  Quite true.  In Gwen's Common-Place Book we find that she has annotated a cutting about Antonia Dolores, saying that she herself had made the bouquet presented to the illustrious singer on behalf of Mr Franz Moeller and staff.  In fact, so keen was Gwen to record this fact that she has annotated the cutting not once, but twice: once on the left as "made by G. Watson", and then again later with an arrow on the right, "made by Mrs G. Hoole".   So who was Antonia Dolores, so admired by Gwen?  She was a soprano who toured the world and performed in South Africa in 1914, probably on her way to later appearances in Australia and New Zealand that same year.  The second item below is from The Sydney Morning Herald, Wednesday, 3rd June 1914, and refers to two previous visits to South Africa, so this East London visit was probably during the second, as the East London reviewer refers to "her old sway over the big audience".  The third item below is a programme of a Dolores concert in Ballarat in 1910, which I have added as it includes a photograph of the singer.  We may also note that Handel's Angels Ever Bright and Fair which opened the East London concert featured in Ballarat as well, so was clearly a Dolores favourite.

In June 1914 on a Wednesday evening there was a concert in Victoria Hall, Victoria Wesleyan Church (Beach).  This church is in Quigney Beach, East London, and is still standing, seen below courtesy of Google Maps.  Gwen sang her popular The Rosary before interval, and afterwards Awake! Awake!,  and among others were two unspecified items designated "Whistling solo" by Mr Hamill!

On Sunday, 5th July 1914, there was A Grand Sacred Concert in aid of the Frere Hospital with the Orchestra of the Royal Bio. performing.  We can see the members of the augmented orchestra on the final page of the programme (of which we can see only part, the rest being glued to The Common-Place Book).  It is sad to note how many of the musicians are listed as being late, showing what a state of flux the bands were in after the structural reorganisation initiated in July 1913, leaving many out of a job.  On this occasion Gwen performed only one song, Abide with Me.

At some stage in 1914 The Stratford-Upon-Avon Players toured South Africa and Gwen obviously went out of her way to meet as many of the players as she could, and also to see as many of their plays as she could.  Gwen has noted that she saw these performances in 1914, but we can get no closer to the date.  It was in December 1911 that Mr Henry Herbert had toured with his English Shakespearean Company, and Gwen probably initially made his acquaintance on seeing six of his plays then.  Miss Gladys Vanderzee was his wife, and they appear in the Common-Place Book alongside photographs of two men, both "Yours faithfully", the second one Leonard Reeves, and the first one not clearly legible, but probably a name ending Biggs.  On the opposite page is the list of the plays and the company, along with the card showing Cape Heath, but it is not possible to see what, if anything, was written on the reverse side of the card.

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