Judy Middleton 2017 (revised 2022)
Postcards
David George Fenwick & Son of 10 Western Road, Hove,
and later of 128 Western Road, Hove, printed and published a series of
postcards entitled Brighton Celebrities (Past and Present), which they began
to sell in 1904. It is as well they used the term ‘Past and Present’ because
one of their subjects Brandy Balls had been dead for over twenty years.
There were six in the series:
Blind Harry
Brandy Balls, Dizzy
Old Charlie. Ally Soper
The Beach Orator. W.H. Shoosmith
The Brighton Jester. Charles Andrews
The Wheeler Band
There were other popular portrait postcards produced by
different publishers and some of them are included in this article.
Blind Harry – Harry Vowles (1861-1919)
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copyright © J.Middleton |
Harry was not blind when he was born in Lambeth but lost
his sight before he was even one month old. Unhappily, this was not an uncommon
occurrence in those days; infants faced blindness from a variety of causes,
perhaps an infection or a common childhood disease such as scarlet fever could
trigger a loss of sight. Even in the 1930s a report stated 30% of blindness in
children was the result of ‘inattention at birth’.
Whatever the reason the situation had to be faced and
young Harry was placed in a Home for the Blind. This was not so harsh as it
might sound because at least he received an education appropriate to his
circumstances. Although he was blind he must have been born with some musical
ability because he learned to play a variety of musical instruments; but he will
always be associated with the piano accordion he is playing in the famous
postcard portrait. However, according to his grandson Chris Vowles, his chief
asset was a very fine tenor voice. It was the era of popular entertainment in
Music Halls and he could always earn some money by appearing in them.
In 1882 Harry decided to move to Brighton and three years
later he married Alice Vaughan. The couple lived in Upper Russell Street and
there were nine children of the marriage.
Blind Harry had a regular pitch on the Brighton and Hove
boundary where he played his accordion. In the background of his postcard
portrait you can see
Brunswick Lawns plus the familiar design of Hove seafront
railings just behind him.
When Harry needed
a rest from playing his accordion he would go to Preston Street where he
entertained customers in the New Pier Tavern playing the piano. During
the Great War he enjoyed employing his talents to entertain the troops and most
probably the many convalescent soldiers nursed at Brighton and Hove. Harry died
in 1919.
No doubt Harry would be amazed to find that a pub in
Church Road, Hove, has been named The Blind Busker in his honour and the
sign hanging outside used to feature the famous postcard. Harry would have been
even more surprised in recent times to see the Brighton & Hove number 1 bus
trundling past The Blind Busker with the name ‘Harry Vowles’ emblazoned
on the front.
Brandy Balls
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copyright © J.Middleton |
Maynards was a well-known and popular local confectioner
that was established at Brighton in 1843. By the 1920s Maynards had retail
outlets dotted around Brighton at East Street, Castle Square, West Street,
North Street, King’s Road, Queen’s Road, Western Road, Trafalgar Road, and
there were two in Western Road, Hove. From 1927 until 1962 Maynards occupied a
factory in Stoneham Road, Hove, that had formerly done duty as a mineral water
factory run by the Abbott brothers. Local architect Samuel Denman was
responsible for the design of the factory, which had such an attractive
exterior that it was saved from demolition in recent times and today has been
converted into up-market apartments.
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copyright © Royal
Pavilion & Museums, Brighton & Hove
By 1914 Brighton's 'Maynards' had expanded its operations to
160 branches and five factories in various parts of England |
Maynards printed a fragile leaflet about local character
Old Brandy Balls, which is reproduced here:
Old Brandy Balls
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copyright © J.Middleton |
A Brighton Celebrity of the Last Century
A reminiscence of Brighton some 50 odd years ago
The eccentric character depicted on this leaflet ‘Old
Brandy Balls’ with his long curly hair and picturesque headgear, coupled with
his cry ‘Who’ll buy my sweet Brandy Balls?’ was for many years a well-known
celebrity along the South Coast, soon after the middle of the last century, and
was thus more or less contemporary with the late G. Maynard, who founded his
Confectionery Business at 41 and 42 West Street, Brighton.
The curiously named sweetmeat ‘Brandy Balls’ (really
Peppermint Cushions) was first manufactured by Maynard, and the term ‘Brandy
Balls, undoubtedly derived from the call of the above mentioned celebrity. In
spite, therefore, of the vast change and development in the Confectionary
Trade, it may be interesting to note that this old-fashioned sweetmeat is still
being made by Maynards Ltd at their South Coast Factory from the original
recipe, and is obtainable from the old established West Street Branch, and if
included in any assortment of our well-known Boiled Sugar Goods is
distinguishable by its angular shape, light brown colour and red stripe.
That Brandy Balls were popular over 50 years ago, and are
still so, can be proved by hundreds of letters from well-known people from all
parts of the United Kingdom. In fact, one recent letter from a London L.R.C.P.,
M.R.C.S., among other flattering testimony states,
I have for a long time known that your celebrated Brandy
Balls were extremely delectable, but have recently discovered by personal
experience that they have a distinct medicinal value – and a real effect in
allaying the chronic cough of Winter Bronchitis, and I should not hesitate to
recommend them to any of my patients who suffer to a minor degree in the same
way, and more particularly for children.
One of the principle ingredients in this old-fashioned and
curiously named sweetmeat, is genuine matured |Oil of Peppermint, the
beneficial properties of which are unquestionable. Not only has it carminative
properties to a high degree, it is likewise a germicide, and acts also
beneficially on the Respiratory Organs, and in Digestive and Stomachic troubles
is often employed as a useful and comfortable ingredient.
In Maynards’ old-fashioned Boiled Sugar Goods which
include Brandy Balls (pink striped cushion) Humbugs (white striped cushion) and
Peppermint Balls, etc., etc., the public have Sweetmeats of high standard,
quality, and proved value. Refuse therefore, all imitations, none are genuine
unless under our name and registered label :
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copyright © J.Middleton |
It is interesting to note the postcard records the
nickname of Dizzy. Was that because of his demeanour? Or was it because his
curly dark hair bore some resemblance to English statesman Benjamin Disraeli’s
locks and who was also nicknamed Dizzy? As for his actual name, that has so far
not been established.
Brandy Balls must have become destitute in his old age
because he died in 1883 at Brighton Workhouse situated at the top of Elm Grove.
Old Charlie (Ally Sloper)
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copyright © J.Middleton |
His real name was Giuseppe Rivera; an Italian by birth he
arrived in England when he was twelve years old. He became a well-known
character on Brighton seafront, particularly in the Madeira Drive area, which
was not too far from where he lived at 17 John Street. To this pitch he would
push his barrel-organ, which as well as providing lively music, also possessed
the added attraction of little dancing dolls on top of the organ. This was a
great delight to local children.
Perhaps the barrel-organ became too strenuous when he grew
older. But whatever the reason, he made a complete change of site and
occupation. His new pitch was on Dyke Road near Three Cornered Copse in Hove,
well away from the sea but on the route to the popular tourist attraction of
Devil’s Dyke. Here he would greet passing wagonettes full of trippers and
perhaps if it were a hot day his wickerwork basket full of oranges was a
welcome sight to them. He also sold matches and sweets.
The sight of Old Charlie probably raised a laugh or two
because he was dressed in the style of popular comic character Ally Sloper. His
peculiar looking headgear was a dead ringer for Ally’s hat in the cartoon strip
where Ally also sported a red nose and got himself into various scrapes. The
‘Sloper’ part of his name came from his habit of slinking away or sloping off
to escape the attention of people to whom he might owe money. The cartoon Ally
Sloper created by Charles H. Ross made his first appearance in 1867 in a
humorous rival to Punch called Judy. But Ally struck a cord with
the public that he was later elevated to his very own magazine entitled Ally
Sloper’s Half Holiday published from 1884 to 1916.
As can be seen from the postcard, the words on the back of
Old Charlie’s coat read Ally Sloper’s Half Holiday just in case there
was any doubt about the character he was impersonating. It would be interesting
to know whether Old Charlie came up with the idea of becoming Ally Soper, or
perhaps he earned money by turning himself into a walking advertisement for the
magazine
Old Charlie was obviously an ingenuous character and so it
is a great shame that when he died in 1915 at the age of 75 he had no money to
his name. It is ironic that the comic character Ally Sloper only survived
another year.
The Beach Orator. W.H. Shoosmith (1858-1895)
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copyright © J.Middleton |
Fame is ephemeral and it is remarkable that William Henry
Shoosmith, who must have been so popular and famous in his time, is today
practically unknown. Despite his unusual surname, there is scant information to
be discovered about him. His wife was called Maria Elizabeth and they had a
daughter Mabel Alice who was baptised at St Peter’s Church, Brighton, on 9
February 1881. There was also a William Henry Shoosmith who was a Private in
the Royal Sussex Regiment at the time of the Great War – perhaps a son or
relative.
Shoosmith was blessed with the gift of the gab and could
expound at length on any subject suggested to him. It sounds like a precursor
to the popular radio programme Just a Minute. Although he wears what
appears to be a preaching gown or university-style robes, it seems he did not
specialize in preaching the Bible.
Perhaps a cue might be taken from the two walking sticks
on the ground at his feet that indicate difficulty in walking. If so he was not
alone in seeking out the seafront to earn some cash because there was a blind
man who played a musical instrument and a man in a wheelchair who created
pictures holding a paintbrush in his teeth.
However, it seems that the
respectable-looking preacher was, ironically, a somewhat unsavoury
character with a definite short fuse. His life started off well
enough, and his Lewes-born father was a master baker/confectioner who
must have earned enough money to enable his son to receive more than
a rudimentary education because otherwise how did he become a
school-master at Wantage College? It was while he was at Wantage that
he fell in love with a young lady called Maria Elizabeth Martin whose
father was a housemaster, presumably at the same establishment.
Unusually, her father was described as being of independent means,
and so presumably did not need the day job. Another interesting fact
was that Shoosmith was nine years younger than his lady-love. The
couple married on 9 July 1875 when she was thirty years old and he
was a stripling of twenty-one. The marriage produced six children as
follows:
Hector
William Shoosmith (1877-1912
Mabel
Alice Shoosmith (1878-1952)
Vivian
Victor Shoosmith (1879-1901)
Gurth
Leon Shoosmith (1880-1893)
Oscar
Shoosmith (1882-1883)
Lilian
Claribel Shoosmith (1885-1956)
But
W. E. Shoosmith was prone to domestic violence, and knocked his poor
wife about a bit, no doubt causing trauma to all the children as
well. Such violence was by no means unheard of in Victorian times but
Maria was determined that she could no longer endure such living
conditions and petitioned for divorce. Today such an outcome would be
commonplace, but in Maria’s time it was a highly unusual step that
carried a social stigma as well as costing money; legal actions are
never cheap, and it must be presumed that her father
or birth family came to her rescue. The case was heard at the High
Court of Justice with hand-written testimony itemising her ill-usage,
and in 1892 she was granted her divorce.
W.
H. Shoosmith’s name occurred in two other court cases as well. In
1885 there was a criminal trial in which he was found guilty of
publishing a defamatory libel against William Rowe and Henry Harvey,
while in 1892 at the Quarter Sessions he was convicted of causing
malicious damage to property exceeding the worth of £5, and was
despatched to prison for a month with hard labour. Is there a clue in
the 1891 census when he described himself as a Temperance Lecturer?
Perhaps he preached from the bitter experience of a struggle with the
demon drink. It is also instructive to note that he died a mere three years after the divorce. (Information kindly supplied by D. Shoesmith)
The Brighton Jester (Charles Andrews)
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copyright © J.Middleton |
Like the Beach Orator, the Brighton Jester’s fame has not
survived his death. He is not even mentioned in the exhaustive book on Brighton
Music Halls. It therefore seems probable that like the other Brighton
Characters, his activities took place in the open air and he was more likely to
have been known to visitors.
All the same, his appearance is not at all conducive to
the popular notion of what a comedian looks like. With his fierce eyes, angled
eyebrows, jug-like ears and luxuriant moustache, he appears to be ideal casting
for a villain in a melodrama.
The word ‘jester’ is also curiously old fashioned. But it
is worth mentioning that in days past the court jester enjoyed considerable
licence to make jokes about people and objects that ordinary courtiers would
not dare mention.
Also worthy of note is Charles’s headgear known as a fez
or tarboosh. In our own times the inimitable magician and comedian Tommy Cooper
was famous for wearing a red tarboosh adorned with a black tassel. Perhaps
Charles’s tarboosh was also red, which was the traditional colour of this hat.
The Wheeler Band
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copyright © Royal
Pavilion & Museums, Brighton & Hove
(Brighton Season Magazine 1919)
The Wheeler Band
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This is a charming postcard with a lovely background of
the Royal Pavilion gardens. But again the question arises – what is known about
these people? It is usually assumed that they were a married couple, presumably
Mr and Mrs Wheeler. But ‘Band’ seems somewhat inaccurate for just two people,
only one of whom is playing an instrument. The woman is holding an open book –
was it music for her husband or was it a songbook from which she sang? The
postcard poses endless questions but like other characters in this series,
their lives and times seem to have passed by unrecorded.
***********************
Captain Fredrick Collins (1831-1912)
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copyright © J.Middleton |
The name of Captain Collins will always be associated with
his pleasure boat the Skylark and indeed his call ‘Any more for the Skylark
‘ has entered the national lexicon. He became so famous that a gentleman in
China once posted a letter addressed simply to Captain Collins, Brighton, and
it reached him safely.
Captain Collins was associated with the Skylark for
over fifty years although of course this was not a single vessel but rather a
succession of them, all bearing the same name.
The first Skylark made her appearance in 1852 when
it was recorded that ‘a new pleasure yacht the Skylark arrived off
Regency Square’. George Tutt of Hastings built the yacht and the ‘skill and
workmanship reflect great credit on the builder’. Mr Nabbs, also of Hastings,
furnished the sails, and the rigging was said to be similar to the America clipper
schooner, except for the foretopmast.
During the 1860s Captain Collins served as 2nd
coxswain to John Wright in the RNLI lifeboat. But an abrupt note states he was
discharged for not doing his duty.
This did not deter him for long and in 1877 he commanded
the town lifeboat that came to the rescue of the crew from the barque Ida, stranded
on the beach opposite the Grand Hotel. The town lifeboat reached the Ida
before the RNLI lifeboat Robert Raikes arrived. The Ida had a
crew of fourteen hands and ten of them managed to clamber into the town
boat and were taken safely to shore. But it was a close call for one man who
did not leap far enough and was nearly dragged under the vessel.
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copyright © J.Middleton
The Skylark with Captain Collins wearing his
distinctive white jacket and black hat standing up. |
When not engaged in pleasure trips, the crew of the
Skylark
were more than willing to help out in local emergencies. In March 1889 the
barque
Vandalia was sailing up the English Channel when she was in a
collision with a vessel thought to be the
Duke of Buccleuch that
vanished around this time. The
Vandalia’s crew abandoned ship, which
continued to drift eastwards until it fetched up near West Street Gap. She was
carrying a cargo of petroleum in stout wooden barrels. Some were still intact
when the tide washed them out of the ship and onto the beach where a large
crowd gathered. Fishermen and boys set to gathering the barrels into groups of
twenty or thirty from Middle Street to Hove Sea Wall. It would have been quite
a festive scene but unfortunately Mr Cook, a
Skylark crewman died
suddenly whilst hauling up the barrels.
In 1895 the Skylark’s crew were also to the fore
when the barque Brockley Castle was observed stranded on a sand bar
around a mile and a quarter from the shore and midway between the piers. The
two lifeboats and the coastguard’s galley went out to investigate the
situation. The watchers on the shore formed the opinion that the unfortunate
crew had been overcome with the cold. But the truth was more prosaic; the
entire crew, including the captain, were drunk, having been knocked about by
severe easterly winds. Around midday the tide lifted the Brockley Castle off
the sand bar and she continued with her voyage.
Captain Collins also kept a beer house on the beach
called Welcome Brothers. On 25 July 1877 an incident took place that had
serious consequences for him. His son, Frederick Poste Collins, was behind the
bar, and the Captain was upstairs, when George Winder, a boat builder, came in
to buy a drink. He put down half a crown (2/6d) on the counter, received his
drink, and then there was a dispute about the amount of change due to him.
Winder came around the side of the counter and there was a scuffle. At that
precise moment the captain came downstairs. When he saw what was going on he
probably concluded that Winder was after the money in the till. He picked the
unfortunate Winder up and threw him over the counter. There was a brief fight
in which all three men were involved. Four days later, George Winder was dead
and the two Collins, father and son, found themselves charged with
manslaughter.
The case was heard in Number 1 Court at Lewes Assizes in
1885 and held before Lord Chief Justice Cockburn. He was an eminent judge, who
four years earlier, had presided over the celebrated Tichbourne Case at
Westminster Hall.
At Lewes the prosecution produced witnesses who had seen
Winder’s dreadful injuries. But these injuries were not borne out by the post
mortem conducted by H. Neale Smith, house surgeon at the Sussex County
Hospital. However, the surgeon did admit that death was due to inflammation of
the brain and that in his opinion this was the direct result of the violence
suffered. He did concede that Winder had a thin skull and that inflammation
could have arisen spontaneously.
For the defence Mr Grantham said it was a very serious
matter ‘for the present and future position of Captain Collins. Probably many
knew him as the owner of pleasure yachts in Brighton for a great many years,
and until this arose there had not been a breath of suspicion against his
character, and his kindness was well known.’
Lord Chief Justice Collins summed up the case for the jury
by saying there were two questions they must answer – was Collins guilty of
excessive violence and if he were guilty of this did Winder’s death arise from
it? They must be able to connect the cause of death with the action of Collins,
bearing in mind that the fight occurred on Saturday night, whereas Winder did
not die until the following Wednesday.
The jury did not find it necessary even to leave the box
and returned a ‘not guilty’ verdict at once. His lordship had a few parting
words to say to Collins and he hoped the case would be a warning to him. He had
no doubt that he had been very much provoked but in future he must take care
and not let his passions get the better of him.
It would be interesting to know whether or not this
publicity had an adverse effect on trade at the Welcome Brothers or
indeed trips aboard the Skylark.
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copyright © J.Middleton
This Skylark operated from a crowded and busy Brighton beach |
The 1885 Directory carried an advertisement for Captain
Collins’ fast sailing yachts with the advice that the Skylark sailed
daily from opposite the Coastguard Station, King’s Road at 11 a.m. and 3 p.m.
weather permitting. The fare was 1/- per person but some years later the charge
had dropped to nine pence.
In October Captain Collins was in the habit of making an
annual trip for the benefit of some local charity such as the Sussex County
Hospital. In 1890 the Brighton Herald informed readers that here was an
opportunity of helping the funds of the hospital while at the same time
enjoying a sail in the Channel. It was because of these annual benefactions
that Collins was made a governor of the hospital and he was proud of this
distinction. He carried his interest through to the end by taking a modern
stand and requesting that money, which might have been spent on wreaths for his
funeral, should instead be donated to the hospital.
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copyright © Royal
Pavilion & Museums, Brighton & Hove
Drawing
of Fred Collins, from the Brightonian newspaper.
Dated 28th July 1883. |
In his later years Captain Collins was an impressive
figure in the old style of dress he affected. The following description sums it
up:
‘No one else wore a hat like that – a black hard-glazed
straw, not broad in the brim, perched on the head at a slight angle. No one
else, since our grandfathers, wore that stout dark stock tied round the neck.
The white coat was not so unusual. But this, combined with the stock and the
hat, and worn by a face and figure of such generous proportions, so florid, so
full of character, made up a personality as picturesque as it was unique.’
It must be said that he had a rather stern expression. He
also sported long, bushy sideboards that with advancing years became white,
although his hair still appeared to be dark.
Although Collins passed some sixty years around Brighton
beach, he lived latterly at Barcombe and travelled to and fro daily. The house
was notable on account of its flagstaff. It was at this house that he died in
August 1912 just short of his eightieth birthday. There is an old superstition
that death comes easier with the ebb tide and the French have a saying’ s’en
aller avec la maree’. It was fitting, therefore, that Captain Collins, who was
often compared to the character Peggotty in David Copperfield, should
have died, like him, when the tide was on the ebb.
His funeral was a splendid occasion. The coffin travelled
by train from Barcombe to Brighton but on arrival old-fashioned funereal pomp
took over. The coffin was placed in a carriage ‘canopied heavily by flowers’
and covered in the Blue Peter, the flag hoisted when a ship puts out to
sea. Four black horses with black plumes on their heads drew the carriage. The
cortège proceeded to the seafront and a newspaper described the scene thus:
‘Poor Skylark. Her flags were at half-mast, and
though the sun was shining and the sea was calling, there was no trip for her
today. The Captain was being brought to her; but he must go away again. The
stately, sad procession halted on the Front and came to attention. The Captain
was saying farewell to his ship. The bereaved Skylark fluttered her
flags, half-masted, in farewell. The crew, seafaring men in blue jerseys,
removed their caps.’
The Skylark in question was a youngster, the Mayor
of Brighton having been at the launching in December 1911. The funeral service
at St Peter’s Church was well attended and funeral directors Attree & Kent
ordered 300 service sheets to be printed. Perhaps because of the extra work
involved, the verger received 4/6d in addition to his usual fee. The fee for
the organist and choir came to £2-12-6d. After the service the crew of the Skylark
carried the coffin to the graveside. The crew were:
John Rolf
Thomas Gunn
Thomas Harman
Richard Salvage
Adam Taylor
Richard Kennard
John Rudwick
George Priest
J. Redman
George Collings, engineer
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copyright © Royal
Pavilion & Museums, Brighton & Hove
The above article from the Brighton, Hove &
South Sussex Graphic
Newspaper of the 12 December 1914 heralded the end of the
Skylark's fund raising events for the Sussex County Hospital. |
February 1965 was a particularly stormy month but
unexpectedly the gales removed great swathes of shingle revealing a part of
Brighton beach that would have been familiar to Captain Collins and his crew.
They were the stone steps used by his customers and the iron chains covered
with rust that once secured the Skylark.
Guild of the Brave Poor Things
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copyright © J.Middleton |
Although this title sounds insufferably patronising to us,
the Guild was in fact a great boon to disabled people in the days before the
Welfare State. Dame Grace Kimmins (1871-1954) who was by all accounts a
formidable lady and one not to be trifled with founded the Guild in 1894. She
was inspired to do so after reading a book by popular Victorian author Mrs
Juliana Horatia Ewing (1841-1885) entitled The Story of a Short Life published
in the same year Mrs Ewing died.
At first Grace Kimmins based her efforts at the Bermondsey
Settlement in London where she gathered together a few disabled boys with the
intention of educating them so that they would be able to take up a productive
life within society.
There is a Sussex connection too because Mrs Kimmins
thought the fresh air of the Sussex countryside would be infinitely better for
her charges than the polluted air of London and thus in 1903 she moved to
Chailey. Girls were later admitted as well and there was a hospital attached
too. Branches of the Guild were established in other cities such as Bristol.
But it is interesting to note that today resources are based at Chailey, which
has become known internationally as Chailey Heritage. It is remarkable that it
has survived, despite being threatened with closure in the 1970s.
It is also interesting to realise that producing a
painting by holding a paintbrush in your mouth has such a long history. Today
there is a society called Mouth and Foot Painting Artists with headquarters in
London that produces Christmas cards and Greeting cards for sale to the
public.
Mademoiselle Florence – Lady Globe Walker
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copyright © J.Middleton |
In June 1903 Mademoiselle Florence caused a sensation
when she performed the remarkable feat of walking on top of a globe weighing
75lbs all the way from London to Brighton. Of course she did not do it all in
one go and in fact it took her almost four days to reach her destination. She
was allowed three hours of rest a day and dismounted from her ball at every
milestone. All the same she is said to have worn out seven pairs of boots on
the trip. No doubt the two male minders who accompanied her on her journey
carried her extra footwear.
Mademoiselle Florence had gained plenty of experience
balancing on her ball during her regular appearances at Music Halls and at the Empire
Theatre. She also appeared at the Hippodrome, Brighton in August
1903. Her routine included dancing on top of the ball and also the tricky feat
of descending a flight of steps while maintaining her balance on the ball.
Hove film pioneer
George Albert Smith hastened to record
this fascinating event before she reached Brighton. This was just as well
because Mademoiselle Florence’s eventual arrival at Brighton seafront was in
the hours of darkness – 2.45 a.m. to be precise. But because of all the
publicity there was still a crowd of interested spectators to greet her
arrival.
Daisy and Violet Hilton, Brighton’s United Twins
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copyright © J.Middleton
Daisy and Violet Hilton
were Brighton’s United Twins. |
The twins were born at Brighton on 5 February 1908 – one
source claims the event took place in Riley Road, another states it was
Harrington Road. Their unmarried mother Kate Skinner earned her living as a
barmaid. The birth must have been very traumatic because the babies were joined
at the hip and it is no wonder that the poor mother felt unable to cope. It was
perhaps fortunate for her that Dr Rooth was on hand to deliver the babies with
the assistance of a midwife. Dr James Augustus Rooth (1868-1962) was a colonel
of the Royal Army Medical Corps. The twins did not share any organs although
their blood circulation was shared. It was thought that an operation to
separate them was too risky to perform and would cause the death of one baby,
if not both. Dr Rooth wrote an article about their birth for a medical journal.
In fact they became something of a medical marvel being the only conjoined
twins in Britain to survive into adulthood.
Mary Hilton was the landlady of the pub where Kate worked
and she was also a midwife. The twins were only two weeks old when Mary adopted
them. Her action may have been altruistic at first but certainly it soon became
clear they could be a financial investment. She even sold postcards of the
twins for two pence at the Queen’s Arms, George Street, Brighton. In
1911 at the tender age of three the twins embarked on their first tour of
Britain.
Eventually, the twins became talented vaudeville
performers; they could tap-dance, Daisy played the violin while Violet was a
saxophonist, and they also did a comic routine. They were pretty girls and
pleasant to be around. But their guardians fiercely protected them; when Mary
Hilton died the twins became the responsibility of Mary’s daughter Edith Mayers
and her husband. The Hilton sisters should have made a comfortable living from
their many appearances but they did not see much of the money and indeed in
1931 they felt strongly enough about the situation to sue their managers.
By this time Daisy and Violet were based in the United
States. They lived in San Antonio, Texas. But they still toured abroad; for
example in 1933 they appeared at the Brighton Hippodrome and were billed at the
top.
In 1932 Daisy and Violet acted in an extraordinary film Freaks.
It was only an hour or so long and was banned for many years because it was
considered in such bad taste. Particularly memorable was the caterpillar man
with just a torso. In 1951 there was a further film in which the Hiltons
starred called Chained For Life.
The title was unfortunate but true. They never amassed
enough money with which to enjoy a comfortable retirement and were reduced to
living in a trailer in North Carolina while packing up groceries in a
supermarket to earn their keep. In January 1969 Daisy caught Hong Kong flu and
died while Violet lay next to her ‘chained’ to her sister. It seems nobody was
aware of their desperate plight until the supermarket manager realised they had
not turned up for work and found them both dead. The post-mortem found that
Daisy had died first while poor Violet took between two and four days to die
too. The sisters were buried in a single coffin in a cemetery plot provided by
sympathisers.
Louis Victor Lacroix – Fire Superintendent
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copyright © J.Middleton |
Louis Lacroix was born in Jersey but he seems to have been
an adventurous character. In his younger days he worked as an engine driver on
the Canadian railways and survived some hair-raising incidents. At length he
settled in Brighton.
Louis Lacroix was Superintendent of Brighton Fire Brigade
from 1888 to 1921. Although he was busy re-organising the service, that did not
prevent him from attending the scene in person when a serious fire broke out.
For example, in March 1893 a fierce blaze occurred in a
house in St James’s Street. A young girl was trapped upstairs and Lacroix had
to grope about in thick smoke to try and locate her. At last he found her
unconscious form and she was taken outside.
But despite desperate attempts at resuscitation she could not be
revived.
On 1 January 1901 Superintendent Lacroix had a narrow
escape. Fire broke out in Jay’s Furnishing Stores at 127 Queen’s Road, Brighton
and he was inside the building directing operations but somehow he became
trapped. His colleagues came to the rescue by lowering him a life-line that
saved him from falling through charred timbers into the basement; two floors
were burned through.
In 1904 Lacroix had the novel idea of sending out this
portrait postcard as a Christmas and New Year Greeting. The photograph was
taken, appropriately enough in front of a fire engine, at the Fire Station,
Preston Circus, which had only been established in 1901.
It is rare indeed to see a uniform so heavily decorated
with medals and it seems at least some of them were appropriate to his
fire-fighting career. For example, he was awarded a gold medal for his skill in
the one-man drill. He also accumulated medals from the Belgian Federation of
Fire Brigades, the French Federation of Fire Brigades and the Italian
Federation of Fire Brigades. It is especially interesting to note the Belgian
connection; it appears he spent enough time in that country to learn the
language because it was recorded that at Brighton during the Great War he acted
as an interpreter for Belgian refugees. Perhaps, some of the other medals were
due to his heroic rescue attempts at various incidents.
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copyright © Royal
Pavilion & Museums, Brighton & Hove
(Brighton, Hove &
South Sussex Graphic 1915)
The 'Midget' Fire Engine (Fire Superintendent Lacroix Invention) which won a gold medal at Turin |
Lacroix was also something of an inventor because he
designed a midget fire engine. He might have been thinking of some of
Brighton’s old and narrow streets where it would be very difficult to manoeuvre
a standard fire engine and a smaller version would be the answer.
George Edward Larner (1875-1949) Olympic Champion
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copyright © J.Middleton |
You cannot say that in this photograph George Larner looks
every inch an Olympic champion. But his shirt carries the official logo of the
Olympic Games 1908, which was held in London. His feat is even more remarkable
when you consider he only took up amateur athletics in 1903. But it was not all
plain sailing because his day job was being a Brighton policeman and he found
training interfered with his police duties. Fortunately, he had a sympathetic
chief constable who allowed him time off and in 1906 he began to train for the
Olympics in earnest.
The chief constable must have felt a sense of
gratification when his protégée went on to win not one but two gold medals. On
14 July 1908 George Larner won the 3500-metre walk by twelve seconds ahead of
Ernest Webb, his fellow British competitor. He also won the gold for the
10-mile walk. It is interesting to note that when Larner died aged 73 at
Brighton on 4 March 1949, many of his British records still stood.
Police Constable H40 John Turner
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copyright © J.Middleton
Police Constable John Turner
in around 1908 |
John Turner joined Hove Police in 1890 and by 1907 he had
become a local celebrity to the extent that a souvenir postcard portrait of him
was issued for purchase by admiring fans. He is shown wearing the regulation
uniform (buttoned up to the chin) but not every policeman could sport two
medals on the chest. Turner’s medals were the Egypt Medal and Khedive’s Star
commemorating his military service in the Egyptian Campaign of 1882. An
interesting detail is the Prussian knot clearly visible on the right sleeve;
the three bands on his left sleeve denote the official duty band that Hove
Police wore when on duty.
PC Turner must have had a regular beat along Hove seafront
because his fame rests on his extraordinary ability to be present at the scene
when some unfortunate soul needed to be rescued from drowning in the sea.
On 25 May 1905 he rescued two men from drowning.
On 18 September 1905 two ladies were bathing off Medina
Lawn when they found themselves in difficulties and our gallant policeman raced
to the rescue.
Hove Council was duly impressed with Turner’d bravery and
for each of these occasions he was awarded a guinea (21/-) for ‘meritorious
conduct’.
On 16 August 1906 a soldier was bathing his horse when a
sudden wave washed him out to sea. Fortunately, Turner was on hand to come to
his rescue. It was quite a common sight to see horses being treated to some
sea-water therapy.
On 25 September 1907 PC Turner rescued another three
people from the sea. He was still awarded a guinea but this time he was also
promoted to Merit Class, which meant he received slightly more in his pay
packet.
On 13 August 1913 he came to the aid of a ten-year old
child from drowning just as she was sinking beneath the waves for the third
time. At the time he was on duty at the Free Bathing Station opposite Langdale
Gardens, Hove. He was obliged to swim out to the rescue at once ‘without
divesting himself of his uniform’. The young girl was Miss Ramsden of 106 The
Drive.
By 1917 PC Turner was getting a little long in the tooth
and he had completed 26 years of service in Hove Police. But such a valuable
man could not be allowed to retire when so many young constables had joined the
armed forces. He finally retired in May 1918.
Sources
Adland, David Brighton’s Music Halls (1994)
Brighton Gazette 9 March 1878
Brighton Herald 31 August 1912
Brighton, Hove &
South Sussex Graphic
Brighton Season Magazine
Collis, Rose A New Encyclopaedia of Brighton (2010)
Collis, Rose Brighton Boozers (2005)
Encyclopaedia of Hove and Portslade
Erredge, J.A. History of Brighthelmstone. Illustrated
edition, Jubilee Library
Funeral Account Books, Attree & Kent, Brighton
Gray, James S. Victorian and Edwardian Sussex (1973)
Hove Council Minute Books 1881-1903
Internet Searches
Middleton, J. Brighton & Hove in Old Photographs: A
Second Selection (1994)
Middleton, J. Lifeboats and Shipwrecks of Victorian
Brighton (1982)
Poulson, N. Rumble, M. & Smith, K. Sussex Police
Forces 1836-1936 (1987)
Copyright © J.Middleton 2017
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