Category: Warminster Operatic Society

From Yesterday’s Warminster, by Danny Howell, published in March 1987:

Entertainment of another splendid kind was provided for local audiences by the Warminster Operatic Society during the 1920s and early ’30s. The Society owed its origin to its humble forerunner, the Minster Operatic Society, one of several activities organised by the clergy and parishioners of the Minster Church of St. Denys. The Curate, Rev. Dudley Lee, produced a musical called The King Of Sherwood in April 1921, to raise money for the Minster Choir Fund. Two public performances were given plus a full dress rehearsal presented before the inmates of the Workhouse, children from the Orphanage, and the boys of the Reformatory School. This comic opera, rehearsed at the Minster Hall and presented at the Athenaeum, starred R.A. Tranent, Mrs A.G. Fraser, G. Corkhill, Arthur Harraway, Hedley Curtis, F.G. Howes, Norman Richardson and Eustace Dent. Youngsters Ken Tucker and Arthur Viney played page boys, and Arthur’s father, George Viney, played the part of a forester alongside Lionel Wyer. Harold Minhinick played the henpecked husband Will Scarlet; and Miss Kitty James, with an air of reality that evoked much laughter, was the nagging wife, Dame Scarlet. Kitty, whose father Walter James was also in the show, said “I had to lead Harold Minhinick on by his ear in one scene because I had to be a bossy bitch. He grumbled at me once because I took hold of his ear too hard and I hurt him. I was so proud of my part in The King Of Sherwood because I had to sing a song by myself. I sang Always Be Kind To Your Husband. After Sherwood we became the Warminster Operatic Society and we did The Mikado. I was in the chorus of that and it was a big thing to do after all that had happened before.”

The Warminster Operatic Society presented The Mikado in February 1922, donating the proceeds to Warminster Cottage Hospital. This first production of the company, under the chairmanship of Rev. Dudley Lee with E.T. Alley conducting and F.C. Pullin as pianist, was a brilliant show and although the Society performed several other successful operas over the next few years, none could match the brilliance of The Mikado. Usually on the Monday evening following the weekday and Saturday performances of the operas, the Society held a fancy dress or masked ball for friends and patrons, at the Town Hall, with members of the cast appearing in their costumes, which they always hired from Drury’s of Brighton.

The Mikado was followed in February 1923 with The Pirates Of Penzance, which the Society also performed at Bradford-On-Avon and Frome, raising money for Warminster Cottage Hospital, Bradford-On-Avon Waifs and Strays, and Frome Victoria Hospital. Rev. Dudley Lee, the pioneer of the Operatic Society, who had been responsible for The Mikado and had also produced Pirates left Warminster at the end of February 1923. He was inducted by the Bishop of Coventry to the Vicariate of Whitchurch-cum-Preston on Stour. He had come to Warminster in October 1920 and helped to re-activate the Warminster Town Cricket Club in 1921. He also gave several speeches to the Men’s Own Club. His departure from Warminster was a great loss to the Operatic Society but it continued with more Gilbert and Sullivan operas, including Ruddigore in February 1924, Yeoman Of The Guard in April 1925, The Gondoliers in April 1926, and Iolanthe in February 1927. Two shorter operas, Trial By Jury and HMS Pinafore were staged as a dual production in February 1928. The following year, opera-goers in Warminster were entertained with Patience in February and Princess Ida in February 1930. A year later the Society staged The Pirates Of Penzance for a second time and this was followed by a spell of operas other than Gilbert and Sullivan. Country Girl in February 1932 preceded Blue Moon in 1933. In a departure from opera, the Society presented Rookery Nook, the famous farce by Ben Travers, on Wednesday 11 October 1933. They gave two performances: a matinee in the afternoon and an evening show. The next year they performed two operas, Dogs Of Devon in late January and early February, and Geisha in November.

Geisha marked a radical change for the Society because, instead of members Fred Taylor or Captain Geoffrey Wilmot Morrice producing, they engaged a professional producer, L.E.C. Baker of Bath, who was well-known throughout the West Country. Geisha turned out to be the last opera the Society ever did. The additional cost of engaging a professional producer and a smaller number of seats in the theatre due to alterations to the Athenaeum, were the main reasons for a loss of £53. At the Annual General Meeting it was decided to return to Gilbert and Sullivan operas, which cost less in royalty fees and to ask Captain Morrice, who lived at Tullos on the Boreham Road, to produce. The week of 12 November 1935 was chosen, but by August there were only a few members due to apathy and the show was cancelled. The Society’s activities were suspended as members moved away, and others were called up for service as the Second World War approached. So ended the Warminster Operatic Society.

During its glorious twelve year history the regular cast members of the Warminster Operatic Society included Captain and Mrs Morrice, who ran the Castle Steam Laundry at George Street; Herbert Hankey, an employee at Messrs. Birds, the coal merchants; George Durbin, the Stationmaster; and Dick Crook, the Market Manager. Ewart and Ethel Payne ran the bakery, pork butcher’s and grocery business at George Street; and Dick Satherswaite lived at Trowbridge but worked at the Co-op in Warminster. Reg Brely worked at the Midland Bank in Warminster between 1928 and 1958, after which he was transferred to the St. Austell branch. Reg’s acting talents also played a major part in the success of the Woolstore Theatre Country Club and he was also a member of the local ‘We’ dramatic society. Reg was a keen football player and for a while assisted Warminster Town as goalkeeper, during which time he was the smallest in the Wiltshire League. Other Operatic members included Jim Steer, the Headmaster at Corsley School; and Dick Looker, a teacher at Sambourne School. Eustace Edward Dent, the Headmaster at the Warminster Secondary School, and Norman Richardson, the Latin and history master at the same school, were also regular members of the cast, which included nurseryman Arthur Harraway, and Sidney Day, the carpenter who lived at Ash Walk. Miss Phyllis Wagstaff, Miss Vera Waylen, Harold Minhinick, Mrs Minhinick, Rex Siminson (pianist), Mrs Siminson, Miss Gladys Weare, Edna Greenland, Marjorie Main, Olive Parker, Miss Kathleen Tucker, Miss Edith Foreman, Miss J. Hill, Miss W. Dolman, Evelyn Pollard, Mabel Still, Joyce Bush and Ida Harding were other familiar faces. So too were Jimmy Knoyle, Lionel Wyer, Ken Tucker, Hedley Curtis, Mrs H.G. Thomas, Miss Daphne Donovan, Dick Bull, Percy Bond, Manny Simcox, Don Pitcher, Ernie Marsh and Arthur Viney.

Being a member of the cast had its humorous moments as Arthur Viney well remembers. “In the Pirates Of Penzance I had the part of one of the policemen,” said Arthur, “and there was a matinee on a Wednesday afternoon. I had to go back to the Post Office, where I worked, after the matinee and return for the evening performance. I put my cap and ordinary coat on but left my policeman’s tunic on as well, got on my bike and rode up through the Market Place. A real policeman stopped me! He knew me and he said “Look, that’s not allowed.” I remember looking down and on my tunic buttons were the words ‘Liverpool City Police’. What happened was, as police uniforms got older, too old for police use but not too old for plays, they were bought up by Drury’s and they hired them out. I was about twenty-two at the time. I said “I’m sorry,” and I explained to the constable what I was doing and he let me go on.”

Arthur proudly recalls another humorous antic. He said “During the time of another show, I had been playing football for Warminster Town against Poole in the Western League at Poole. I got badly injured and I had a stiff leg for three months afterwards. In one of the operas I had to be knighted in one scene but I couldn’t kneel down, so I had to stand while the Queen did the honours. A football match of a different kind actually took place during the performance of one opera. It was in The Pirates Of Penzance, where you have the two choruses, the pirates and the policemen. Because there was a long interval before we had to go on in one of the matinees, someone suggested we went out into the Secondary School playground at the rear of the Athenaeum and have a game of football, pirates versus police. We got so involved in this game. I can’t remember who was winning but all of a sudden someone shouted “You’re on, you’re on. We had to crawl on stage in the dark while the leading people were singing. That was something we didn’t do again.”