Page 9 - The 17th Percy French Festival: The Quest for Authenticity

(%&(*– %&+)).// Percy and Lennie had three daughters:
Ethel (‘Ettie’) Gwendoline (%&)(–%))$), Mollie Helen
(%&)+– %)'+), and Joan Phyllis (%),$– %))+). In %&))
French gave his !rst solo performance in London, to
consider able critical acclaim. Two of the leading concert
agencies, Ashton’s and the Lecture Agency, told him that
if he would transfer to London they could provide him
with enough work to make the move worth while, and his
agent, Gerald Christie, per suaded him to make a career
move to the British capital. It was on the agencies’ advice
that French dropped his !rst name altogether for stage
purposes: known as ‘Willie’ to his friends and family,
he now became the stage performer Percy French.
In January %),, he and his family took up permanent
residence in London./0

The London years before the Great War
French enjoyed further artistic success after emigrating
to England, helped consid erably by the fact that gave a
‘Recital’ before King Edward VII and the Prince and Prin -
cess of Wales in January %),#./1 In Britain, a hectic round Illus ). Percy French and Houston Collisson departing
of performances in such venues as society drawing on their transatlantic tour in %)%,. Emily de Burgh Daly
(ed), Chronicles and Poems of Percy French,
rooms, concert halls, working men’s institutes and village Dublin: Talbot Press, %)##, facing p.%,(.
halls occupied his working hours outside of the summer
months; he preferred tour ing in Ireland each summer,
especially in various seaside towns in August of each year.
French’s tours also took him further a!eld than Britain or
Ireland. In %)%, he and Houston Collisson were engaged
by the Irish-American impresario J.C. Du3 (%&'*– %)#&)
to undertake a tour to Canada, the USA, Bermuda, the
West Indies, and Panama, (Illus. &) while early in %)%(
French went on a six-week tour in Switzerland to raise
funds for the Church of England Waifs and Strays Society,
a charity for which Houston Collisson and Thomas
Brandreth Gibbs of Folkestone (%&(#–%)$%), the tour
organiser, worked assiduously./2

The War Years
French’s tour of Irish seaside towns in August %)%(
coincided with the outbreak of the First World War.
During the war he continued with a demanding
schedule of perfor mances, many of which were fund-
raisers for the British Red Cross or military hospitals.
(Illus. )) He also frequently helped to raise troops’ morale Illus *. An advertisement for a wartime entertainment
by his perform ances in the United Kingdom and Belgium featuring Percy French. The Wicklow News-Letter, #*th
January %)%*.

THE QUEST FOR AUTHENTICIT Y •m•