Fred Karno & the Karsino Before, During

PHS7070 Professional Attachment Research Essay 036645

Island in the Stream: Fred Karno & the Karsino before, during & after World War One

Three minutes of film, silent, grainy, black and white give a glimpse of a June day when numerous convalescent soldiers went on an outing. Like a still photograph, film portrays a present that is already a moment of time past, it too is a certificate of presence.1 Filmed on

Saturday 24 June 1916 the title slide states: ‘ECCENTRIC CLUB ENTERTAIN WOUNDED SOLDIERS

Over six hundred convalescent soldiers from various hospitals enjoy themselves at the entertainment given to them at the “Karsino,” Hampton Court’. Part of a Topical Budget newsreel2 the film is full of clues about time and place, some of which still carry echoes of life today, while others like the wearing of hats and the amount of smoking3 demonstrate how far away that Summer, just over a hundred years ago has become. Only two, three, four generations away, the early twentieth century has passed into the place where living memory becomes history. As Hilary Mantel said in ‘The Day is For the Living’ the first of her 2017 Reith

Lectures ‘As soon as we die, we enter into fiction. Just ask two different family members to tell you about someone recently gone, and you will see what I mean. Once we can no longer speak for ourselves, we are interpreted.'4 Just like two members of a family offering different views of the same person there are at least two versions of this film that shuffle the order of events around.5 Like Raphael Samuel I have observed the comparative lack of attention given by historiography to the visual, ‘those sleeping images which spring to life unbidden, and serve as ghostly sentinels of our thought.’6

The version of the film from the London Screen Archives7 opens with a group of men engaged in some gentle horseplay (Figure 1). It then cuts to a drummer leading four pipers in uniform

1 through a gateway and down a staircase onto a grassed area where there are gazebos and folding wooden chairs. The camera follows the pipers, then pans right to left, showing the assembled crowd. The crowd which is a mixture of soldiers and civilians includes several amputees on crutches wearing pale suits, a dog, and a small boy. The scene cuts to show the pipers leading a long line of people, mostly wounded soldiers walking through a gateway. As the group of pipers go out of shot, a man is seen carrying another man over to some tables and chairs set out by the river. The procession, shot from above is led by five people walking abreast, three ladies and two men, one on crutches, one with a stick (Figure 2). Although the film is black and white and of variable quality I would identify these two men as black.8 As well as numerous men on crutches there are a few with faces swathed in bandages. One small group seem to be giving three cheers for something. The camera then cuts away to a different and closer angle of the line of men, before cutting away to pan left to right across groups of soldiers seated at tables along the riverside. A lot of crutches are parked in the background.

One group notice the camera and wave to it. A mixture of ladies, older gentlemen in civilian clothes and boy scouts mill around the men, some of the ladies are involved in helping to serve tea. The final section of film cuts to a male entertainer being watched by the soldiers as the camera pans round right to left across the audience.

Taking the film as a starting point this essay will investigate the intertwined subjects of Fred

Karno and the Karsino hotel on Tagg’s Island in the Thames and the entertainment of convalescent wounded soldiers in the London area during the First World War. These are all subjects which in different ways have been overlooked. While there are numerous books and articles about the medical treatment of the wounded in World War One, the charitable provision of outings both to aid recovery and to provide entertainment for the convalescent

2 soldier appears to be a peripheral subject awaiting further systematic research.9 However these subjects all featured in newspapers and magazines, local and national. The creation of online databases now allows these stories to be browsed, searched for and discovered beyond the confines of a physically located archive.10 A considerable amount of material, predominantly visual of the type usually classed as ephemera such as pamphlets, postcards and photographs has also been viewed. Perhaps because it encapsulates how an era presented itself stylistically, ephemeral material often has a powerful ability to evoke time and place for the onlooker. With the expansion of archives beyond the ‘official’ and into the personally curated digital spaces of

Pinterest and Flickr increasing amounts of this type of ephemeral material is available to the researcher, if they can find it. The two published books about Fred Karno are a pair of unsatisfactory ‘popular’ biographies,11 academic studies appear to only consider him important in relation to the performers he discovered, most notably Charlie Chaplin and Stan Laurel.12 The

Karsino hotel, which stood for sixty years, has like many demolished buildings proved to be a fugitive ghostly presence. The history of Fred Karno illustrates how in the course of a century somebody can go from household name to almost forgotten. With that hundred-year passage of time unlikely factual assertions can creep into descriptions. Like Hilary Mantel I found that

‘Facts are strong, but they are not stable. Soon you find your sources are riddled with contradiction, and that even when the facts are agreed, their meaning often isn’t.’13 For example several writers describe Karno as illiterate for reasons that are unclear. This assertion appears to begin with John M East, whose 1971 article, prompted by the demolition of The

Karsino, states ‘Although illiterate, Karno was every-ready to learn by observation and experience.’14 Thirty years later Horrall in Popular Culture in London (2001) describes Karno as

‘the illiterate West Country acrobat’ and goes onto describe the Adeler and West 1939 biography as ‘the illiterate Karno’s autobiography.’15 Writing a few years later Steven Inwood in

3 City of Cities: The Birth of Modern London (2005) repeats this assertion describing Karno as ‘an illiterate circus and music hall gymnast who turned a talent for devising silent sketches into a very lucrative career.’16

Fred Karno

Fred Karno was the stage name of Frederick Westcott (1866-1941), who starting out as a gymnast in circuses and music halls developed a range of silent slapstick comedy sketches and became a very successful manager and impresario (Figure 3). He converted three houses in

Vaughan Road, Camberwell into the ‘Fun Factory’ where he ‘mass-produced comedy and sold it by the lorry load.’17 By the time he built the Karsino his headed note paper listed thirty-one items under ‘Fred Karno’s Companies’ (Figure 4).18 Karno’s sketches which included Jail Birds,

The Football Match and the spectacular R.M.S. Wontdetainia relied on immaculate timing combined with increasingly elaborate sets and stage effects. R.M.S Wontdetainia which opened at the Paragon, Mile End on Monday 11 April 1910 was described by The Era as ‘the most ambitious, of any production yet attempted by Mr. Fred Karno.’19 A sketch in three scenes set on a luxury ocean liner, Wontdetainia featured a cast of over sixty appearing on a one hundred and twenty-foot-long stage set divided into three sections that utilized hydraulic rams to mimic the movement of a ship at sea.

One cannot do justice to the last scene, in which we get a sectional view of the grand dining-saloon of the ‘Wontdetainia’. The picture is a triumph of stagecraft, and the most realistic scene of the kind undoubtedly ever seen in a theatre. The beautiful dining-room is an art study in cream and gold. Sixty diners—ladies and gentlemen, in evening dress— are seated at the many tables, and the stewards are seen be assiduous in their attentions to the passengers. Above, we get a picture of the officer on the watch and the star lit sky and ocean. The whole scene is a moving one as the ship rolls and plunges through the Atlantic billows, giving most vivid idea of the motion of a liner at sea.20

4 Perhaps his most important and enduring sketch was Mumming Birds, a show within a show, in which the comedic fun arises from the behaviour of the occupants of theatre boxes within a stage set installed on the stage while various performers try to perform.21 First presented at the

Star Music Hall, Bermondsey in April 1904 Mumming Birds was the model for Charlie Chaplin’s film A Night in the Show (Keystone 1915). Chaplin like Stan Laurel and many others began his career as one of Karno’s performers.22 Four years later in 1908, Mumming Birds or Twice

Nightly was the subject of the first ‘Alleged Infringement of Copyright by Cinematograph’ court case when Karno sued Pathé Frères (London) because he considered their film At the Music-hall

‘to be an exact representation of his piece;’ due the lack of written down dialogue he lost the case.23 As in many of his other sketches Mumming Birds was all about the participants not being very good at what they are meant to be good at. By the time war broke out in 1914 ‘Fred

Karno’ was being used to refer to anything that was inept or disorganized. From this came the popular wartime song sung to the hymn tune ‘The Church’s one foundation’ in which soldiers referred to themselves as Fred Karno’s army:

We are Fred Karno’s army the Ragtime infantry we cannot fight, we cannot shoot, what bleeding use are we? And when we get to Berlin, the Kaiser he will say, hoch hoch! Mein Gott, what a bloody fine lot Are the ragtime infantry! 24

There were many version and variations including one that referenced Charlie Chaplin:

We are Fred Karno's Army, A Jolly lot are we, Fred Karno is our Captain, Charlie Chaplin our O.C..25

5 Although its everyday usage is dying out alongside the generations of people with connections to Music Hall and World War One, as recently as 1993 Lord Healey is quoted as saying ‘The generalship shown by the Government over Maastricht makes Fred Karno look like the Duke of

Wellington.’26

Entertainment on Thames

While we don’t know exactly when Fred Karno first became acquainted with the Hampton

Court reach of the Thames we know that when he was appearing as one of The Three Karnos in around 1887-1888, they would go busking at Molesey Lock near Tagg’s Island.27 Tagg’s Island is one of around 190 islands in the Thames many of which are known as eyots or aits. Over time the island has variously been called Garricks Lower Eyot, Walnut Tree Island and Kent’s Ait. Like many Thames islands osier beds grew willow for the basket making industry, which thrived alongside market gardening,28 as baskets were important for transporting fruit and vegetables.29 Lying opposite Hurst Park on the Surrey bank and the road between Garrick’s villa and Hampton Court on the Middlesex Bank, Tagg’s Island is a short walk away from Hampton

Court Station, reached by crossing over Hampton Court Bridge and walking along the towpath past Molesey Lock. While the banks of the Thames from Putney to Hampton Court had long provided a venue for the entertainment of the royal, the aristocratic and the wealthy, the development of the steamboat and the train during the nineteenth century encouraged the adoption of the Thames as a popular pleasure ground by everyone. The arrival of the London and South Western branch line at Hampton Court in 184930 encouraged the development of the area around Molesey Lock as a place of weekend and Bank Holiday entertainment.

6 In the late Victorian leisure-boom nearly every river had its rowing clubs, regattas and riverside hotels, and they were above all phenomena of the Thames, whose beautiful upper reaches were visited with increasing ease, in train and steamboat by millions living nearer its mouth. The half-century before the First World War was the apogee of this river culture.31

While the Lord’s Day Observance Society and other Sabbatarians may not have approved,

Sunday trippers were encouraged to visit this stretch of the Thames by the fact that Hampton

Court was closed on Fridays and open on Sundays.32 In 1896, Tom Tagg and Son, ‘boat punt and steam launch builders of Tagg’s Island, Hampton Court, above the lock’ were advertising their

‘select river party’ to Hampton Court and Windsor by rail and river every Sunday from May to

September.33

The first attempt at building a place of entertainment on the island occurred in 1852 when a local business man Joseph Harvey built a beer house and skittle alley which was not a success.

By 1872 the owner Francis Kent had leased the whole island to a local boat builder Thomas

Tagg who rebuilt the pub as a hotel.

As all the world knows, Tom Tagg & Son’s place is just above the lock at Hampton Court (East Molesey). In addition to the launch and boat business in all its infinite variety, they own the famous TAGG’S ISLAND HOTEL, where catering for large and small parties, either in the house or up the river, is successfully undertaken.34

In their keenness to cater for both the aquatic and physical requirements of the boating public, in 1887 the Tagg family also opened the Thames hotel by Hampton Court Bridge. The hotel was referred to variously as Tagg’s Hotel and Tagg’s Thames Hotel while signage on the facade also says ‘Thames Family Hotel’(Figure 5).35 Running a hotel on an island in the Thames that can only be reached by ferry is a high-risk business and it is impossible to know exactly what led to the demise of the first hotel on the island. It could have been that George Tagg (1862-1952) was less interested in running a hotel than his father Thomas Tagg who died in 1897; it could have

7 been a range of other factors such as the severe flooding which inundated the island in 1894,

(Figure 6) followed by the Boer War (1899-1902) and the death of Queen Victoria in 1901. By

1903 the hotel had gone into receivership and although it continued to be run by the creditors it was a business ripe for rescue. The April 1911 census lists just four people as resident, the

Hotel Ferryman, Hotel Cellarman, Hotel Secretary and Hotel Assistant. Just over a year later in

October 1912, The Times reported that Mr Fred Karno, the music-hall artist had arranged to take over the island, proposing ‘to provide entertainments and illuminations in the evenings.’36

During the nineteenth century Molesey Lock built in 1815 and Boulter’s Lock at Maidenhead were the two busiest locks on the Thames.37 The busyness at Boulters can be seen in the painting Boulter’s Lock, Sunday Afternoon, 1885-97 by Edward John Gregory (1851-1909),38 while Molesey is vividly described by Jerome K Jerome in Three Men in a Boat (1889):

'It is', he records, 'Boulter's not even excepted, the busiest lock on the river. I have stood and watched it sometimes, when you could not see any water at all, but only a brilliant tangle of bright blazers, and gay caps, and saucy hats, and many-coloured parasols, and silken rugs, and cloaks, and streaming ribbons, and dainty whites; when looking down into the lock from the quay, you might fancy it was a huge box into which flowers of every hue and shade had been thrown pell-mell, and lay piled up in a rainbow heap, that covered every corner’.39

By the 1870s numerous regattas were being held along the Thames with popular events like

Walton and Molesey attracting thousands of spectators.40 Boating was highly fashionable, with

8,000 registered boats on the river in 1888, increasing to 12,000 the following year which also saw the publication of Three Men in a Boat.41 This was probably the height of the boating craze before it was overtaken by cycling which enjoyed a ‘tremendous vogue’ for about two years in the 1890s.42 All this activity on and around the river may be viewed as part of the

‘commercialisation of leisure’ a topic discussed at length by Simon Wenham in Pleasure Boating on the Thames: A History of Salter Bros 1858-Present Day his study of a dynastic family boating

8 business based on the upper Thames at Oxford. By 1890 the Molesey Regatta had expanded to include a ‘Venetian Fête’ in which Tagg’s Island was ‘beautifully illuminated’ for the occasion and special trains ran to Waterloo until Midnight.43 Judging by the number of newspaper reports, Venetian Fêtes featuring illuminated boats44 were highly fashionable, a zeitgeist that impresario and showman Imre Kiralfy (1845-1919)45 tapped into when he mounted his spectacular mix of entertainment and exhibition Venice in London at Olympia between 1891-

1893 (Figures 7&8). Kiralfy went on to create a variety of exhibitions and attractions at Earls

Court including the Ferris Wheel (1895-1906), forerunner of the London Eye46 before going on to develop 140 acres of exhibition grounds on farmland at Shepherds Bush, creating White City

(home to the 1908 Franco-British Exhibition, the Wiggle Woggle and the Flip Flap). According to Josephine Kane between 1906 and 1914, more than thirty major amusement parks were operating across Britain. Heirs to the Pleasure Gardens of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries like Vauxhall and Cremone ‘amusement parks were the magpies of the entertainment world, selecting the most popular and profitable amusements and combining them within one site for the first time.’47 These developments may have fuelled Fred Karno’s ideas for building his own small scale version a ‘glittering palace of delight, the most beautiful pleasure resort on the Thames’ that revived the ‘glories of fêtes such as Vauxhall saw in its palmiest days.’48 For the upper classes and the wealthy the age of the motor car was beginning but the great expansion in popular motoring that led to the emergence of another type of pleasure ground, the roadhouse, did not happen until the mid-1920s. Roadhouses, inland versions of a river resort like the Karsino enjoyed a brief heyday in the years leading up to World War Two.49

In the early years of the twentieth century Fred Karno was running one of the most successful music hall entertainment companies in London50 gradually amassing the fortune that would

9 allow him to build the houseboat Astoria and the Karsino hotel. Spending time in the vicinity of

Tagg’s Island on his houseboat Highland Lassie one of the ‘hoop of houseboats that almost girded Tagg’s Island’51 he must have observed the houseboats built by Tagg and Son including the luxurious Satsuma commissioned by Mr Hewett. Satsuma, whose decoration was a homage to the glazed Japanese pottery of the same name was built in two sections so that when split in two she was narrow enough to be towed through locks by her attendant steam tug Tom Tug.52

Desiring the best houseboat on the river Fred Karno went on to design the Astoria fitted with

Crittall window frames, furniture from Maples, a marble bathroom and numerous other luxury fittings. The ninety-foot sun deck could accommodate a full orchestra under a wrought iron glazed canopy. She cost around £20,000 by the time she was completed in 1912.53 Karno was obviously very proud of the Astoria as she appears prominently in both the booklets he produced to publicize the Karsino hotel (Figure 9).

At this distance, we can only guess why Fred Karno bought the lease on Tagg’s Island in 1912.

Risk is part of the DNA of a theatrical impresario and Fred Karno must have thought that creating the Karsino was a risk worth taking, maybe one that would cement his reputation, taking it beyond the world of music hall, variety and revue. The way the hotel was designed, built and presented has echoes of the increasingly elaborate sets deployed in his stage shows like Wontdetainia. The Karsino publicity booklet created before the opening gives voice to the aspirations of Fred Karno ‘The transformation of Tagg’s Island at East Molesey has created a new rendezvous for fashionable London in the twentieth century, and represents to-day the newest, smartest and best in the amenities of river life.’54 The booklet goes on to compare the hotel with ‘the best hotels in Town’ as well as writing at length about the beauty of the Thames

10 placing the Island as ‘the accepted place of high-class river music and entertainment for the fashionable world.’55

The Karsino

While Fred Karno may have been wondering how to turn Tagg’s island into a fashionable hot spot for the wealthy for some time, the transformation of the Island Hotel into the Karsino happened in a matter of months. The Karsino Hotel was designed by the theatre architect Frank

Matcham (1854-1920), architect of the London Palladium (1910) and London Colosseum (1905) as well as Richmond Theatre (1899). Not only was Matcham the leading theatre architect of his time, but one of the most innovative. The Karsino is probably his only hotel and one of his few buildings where performance is not the main focus. The Stage described the building as combining ‘elegance with utility, so that while the exterior view of the building is unusually pleasing there has been no waste of room within to obtain the effect.’56 The surviving pictorial evidence would appear to support the opinion that ‘few Matcham exteriors excite but his interiors are always exuberant and eclectic’.57 In the Karsino it was the Palm Court ballroom or

Concert Pavilion with its dimensions of ‘80 feet depth and 60 feet width’58 and a floor suitable for dancing which excited. Seating over five hundred it was designed with an ingenious reversible stage achieved by constructing two proscenium arches, one facing outside, one facing inside and backcloths on roller blinds. With a stained-glass ceiling dome and four landscape murals depicting views of Richmond, Windsor, Hampton Court and Garrick’s Villa this must have been a magnificent space in its heyday. Glimpses of the decorative scheme and one of the murals can be seen in the background of the Billy Boy gang fight scene in the film

Clockwork Orange (1971) made just before the building was demolished (Figure 10).59

11 Building the Karsino required a considerable input of expertise from both civil and structural engineers.60 A pile of surviving plans and blueprints together with various letters and documents submitted to Hampton Urban District Council between 31 October 1912 and 13

May 1913 attest to this. Documents include the detailed ‘SPECIFICATION for the Drainage and

Drainage Ventilation of the Hotel on The New Shone Antiseptic System’ in which ‘polished mahogany seats’ are specified for the toilets.61 The steel framework of the hotel and palm court were ‘supported on steel stanchions…imbedded in concrete, resting on a strata of hard Thames ballast to a depth of 9’ below the ordinary ground water level under Tagg’s Island.’62 There were also bureaucratic hurdles to overcome as Hampton Urban District Council had to pass a new building bylaw to permit the use of a steel framework for the walls, permission was eventually granted on 11 March 1913,63 only three months before the hotel opened. Not only did Karno employ the leading theatrical architect of the day, but the iron and steel frame construction was still a new and innovative building method, first seen in London at the Ritz

Hotel (1906) and Selfridges Department Store (1909). Other innovations included ‘modern methods of central heating’ and ‘A Motor Garage with workshop and full equipment for cleaning and repairs.’64

Described as ‘The finest and most Luxurious River Hotel in Europe,’65 a ‘fairyland of the twentieth century’66 the Karsino opened to the public on Ascot Sunday, 22 June 1913, during what turned out to be the last Edwardian pre-war Summer (Figure 11 & 12). A made-up word,

Karsino was an artful mix of Casino, Karno and Kino devised at a time when words beginning with K were in favour for example ‘Knut’ and ‘Kinema’ and ‘Kinomatograph’. The day before the public opening Fred Karno hosted a Press Luncheon to launch the hotel. Two pieces of ephemera which survive, an ‘Invitation to Lunch at a Private View of the Karsino, Palm Court,

12 and New Hotel’ and a folded card ‘Press Visit Souvenir’ communicate small but evocative details of that day such as the ‘Timbale de fraises Fred Karno’ on the lunch menu and the

Special Train from Waterloo (Figure 13).67 At the Press Luncheon Sir Thomas Dewar credited

Fred Karno with building a ‘garden city’ a place that London had waited for, an establishment that would become a great feature of the social life of London.68 There is no doubt that at first the Karsino attracted large crowds: ‘Over four thousand people paid for admission on Sunday last to Taggs island to hear “Jimmy” Glover’s band, which gave two concerts at 3 and 8. I am told that the “Karsino” is proving a very popular river resort this year.’69 So popular that in July

1913, a representative of Fred Karno was asking the Spelthorne magistrates to sanction a temporary bar in the billiard room as well as licence an outdoor booth or marquee for special occasions like the Molesey Regatta.70 The Karsino was advertised as ‘The Riviera of London,’71

‘The most charming Hotel on the Thames’ as well as ‘An Arcadian Island’ and ‘ideal Boating

Centre,’72 there was even a Karsino Waltz.73 Almost as soon as it opened the Karsino was being used as a venue for charitable events such as the Children’s Fete and Gala in Aid of the National

Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children and the League of Pity held in July 1913 (Figure

14).74 During the Summer of 1914 the Karsino continued to flourish with the Pall Mall Gazette reporting over two and a half thousand visitors one June Sunday describing it as ‘one of the greatest river attractions.’75 Visitors included the Twickenham Sanitary Inspectors’ Association who inspected the ‘latest and most up-to-date system of drainage’ under the guidance of Mr

Shone (the inventor).76 At this distance it is impossible to know whether it was the war, the motor car or the natural cycles of fashion that led to the post war demise of the Karsino; but is there a hint of something too good to last about this glowing description from May 1914 with its patriotic dig at the Continental café?

13 About a quarter of a mile to the north of Hampton Court Bridge lies the Karsino, a name familiar to many, but ill-conveying the really delightful place that is an island ’midst the most glorious surroundings, presenting a panorama of exquisite beauty; the ground enriched by flowers, shrubs, and trees of mature growth, lawns of velvet texture, the hotel and concert rooms putting to shame many a foreign casino of world-wide repute, the decorations disclosing a taste notable for its appreciation of quiet and good. A WORLD OF DELIGHT. Here one can partake of anything from a bottle of ginger beer to a full-course dinner equal to any first-class restaurant. Even the lawns are enlivened by the strains of an orchestra that last season created a furore. In these pessimistic days it is somewhat cheering to think that the Continental open-air cafe providers have been beaten at their own game. A bold venture, Mr. Karno, but let it be hoped that your pluck will be amply rewarded! It is richly deserved. The sparkling entertainments that are presented nightly during the season are alone worth a visit—musical, vocal, and dramatic items of a character happy in their choice and superior in their presentment.77

During the first few weeks following the declaration of war with Germany on 4 August 1914 there was an almost feverish rush to do something useful, evidenced by newspaper reports such as ‘Mr Fred Karno's theatre on Karsino Island is being used by workers of Hampton Court

District making garments for the fighting forces while the orchestra plays.’78

Nearly every house or garden in the West End has its working party now-a-days, and ladies are energetically stitching on behalf of the soldiers. One of the most pleasant spots where much work is being done, is at Hampton Court, on Tagg’s Island, and here ‘Winifred Graham’ the novelist has organized a shirtmaking party.79

However, this type of voluntary activity by ‘well-meaning but misguided ladies’ was criticized in some newspapers for competing and conflicting with the livelihood of ‘working women.’80

Wartime and newsreels

A few days later on 8 August 1914, The Defence of the Realm Act or DORA was passed. This legislation which was added to throughout the war gave the Government unprecedented powers over all aspects of British life including the consumption of alcohol and drugs such as cocaine.81 The various changes to the licensing laws some of which lasted into the 1980s restricted when and where alcohol could be sold and consumed and forbade ‘treating’ (that is buying other people a drink).82 This added another burden of complexity to running a hotel

14 business and although for the most part he managed to stay on the right side of the law,83 in

1917 Fred Karno was prosecuted for offences against the Central Control Board (Liquor Traffic)

Order, as well as for selling ice-cream after 9:30pm. Although much of the case was dismissed

Karno and his hotel manager were each fined four shillings costs for selling the ice-cream.84 A few tantalizing, undated, damaged pieces of paper that have survived in a Police file give hints of the operation of the hotel during wartime. It is unclear why the Karsino was under Police observation but it could have been to ensure that all the various regulations introduced under

DORA were being adhered to.

On the 21st instant the attendance was very small until the evening when about 400 persons … the concert which was .. at the Palm Court in aid of the wounded soldiers… Amongst the visitors to the hotel each day especially Sundays were a large number of military officers also a good percentage of Belgian and French subjects. During the whole of my observation I did not see anything irregular or even suspicious…85

During the Summer of 1915 the Sunday Mirror reported ‘The river is as gay as ever this year, in spite of the absence of the white–flannelled river man’.86 The white flannelled river man in his striped blazer and boater had been replaced by the men in Hospital Blues, boat trips and riverside destinations being popular with the organizers of outings for convalescent wounded soldiers. These soldiers would be recovering from injuries serious enough to warrant their return to ‘Blighty’ for treatment and convalescence. Within weeks of the outbreak of war the wounded started arriving back in Britain, an event that according to The Times generated ‘large crowds both at the station and at the London Hospital’.87 During the course of the war over two million men from Britain and its empire were wounded.88 Statistically lower limb injuries were by far the most common which perhaps explains the number of men on crutches in the film89. Over 41,000 officers and men lost limbs in the war of whom 26,262 were supplied with their first artificial limbs at Queen Mary’s Hospital, Roehampton.90 The newsreel which was still comparatively new in 1916 allowed a carefully selected local event to serve as national

15 propaganda promoting the cheerfully wounded convalescent Tommy to the general public. In the film the group of men joshing around and the column of wounded men we see marching into the Karsino grounds, fit the idea of ‘the battle-stained hero, the man whose wounds were a permanent and visible record of his honourable war service.’91 The Eccentric Club Entertain

Wounded Soldiers was not the only outing of this nature filmed by Topical Budget others included Wounded at Kew (1915) and Fleet St. Entertains Disabled Fighters (1916).92

Interestingly the London Screen Archives synopsis describes Wounded at Kew as ‘propaganda’ but not the Eccentric Club Entertain Wounded Soldiers. Films were first exhibited in Britain during the 1890s with the first British newsreel, Pathé’s Animated Gazette appearing in June

1910. By 1914 virtually every town had at least one cinema showing programmes made up of short silent films including newsreels.93 With over five thousand purpose built cinemas by

191694 going to the cinema was becoming a regular habit, one that the newsreels catered to.

Topical Budget (1911-1931) was one of the major newsreel companies of the silent film era; they were an official War Office partner eventually bought up by the War Office Cinematograph

Committee becoming War Office Official Topical Budget, and later the Pictorial News

(Official).95

Hospital Blues

The Eccentric Club Entertain Wounded Soldiers film clip reveals a wide range of uniforms being worn by wounded soldiers with many of them wearing variations of the Hospital Blues, sometimes called Convalescent Blues uniform. This distinctive hospital uniform made of bright blue cloth devised and first used during the Crimean War (1854-1856) continued to be used until the 1960s. Soldiers wearing the uniform can be seen in photographs of Queen Victoria’s visit to Chatham in 1855 (Figure 15).96 While these uniforms were usually a shade of blue often

16 described as Rickett’s blue97 after a popular laundry product they were also made in grey which would explain the paler versions seen in the film. As army issue clothing included ‘Silvergrey flannel sleeping jackets’ and pyjama trousers it is possible that some men are wearing these garments.98 An example of a grey suit and a blue suit, neither of which fit terribly well, can be seen in ‘Two Wounded Tommies in Hospital Blues’ a wooden cut out made by a wounded serviceman.99 Style and colour variations are also clearly visible in numerous photographs and newsreels filmed between 1914-1919 in which men are wearing Hospital Blues.100 In her article for The Graphic, ‘Roehampton: The House of Redemption,’ Margaret Shute describes ‘figures in grey, with gaudy red ties’101 and an article by a Chaplain to the Forces describes a ‘blue or grey hospital uniform.’102 There is also a reference to what could be the grey version in a poem by

Wilfred Owen:

He sat in a wheeled chair, waiting for dark, And shivered in his ghastly suit of grey, Legless, sewn short at elbow.103

The observable variations in colour could also be due to non-colour fast dyes fading, possibly caused by issues with dye supplies during the war due to the pre-war reliance on German dye products.104

The outfit which closely resembled pyjamas comprised a single-breasted jacket, trousers with braces buttons and a drawstring waist, a shirt and a red tie (Figure 16). Outdoors the soldier’s cap and greatcoat might also be worn together with a blue armband, depending on the weather and occasion. Made in only a few sizes the uniform was usually a poor fit with trousers that were often far too long, requiring their wearers to turn them up, commented on in numerous humorous postcards, such as ‘’Strafe the Tailor - A Bad Fit of the ‘Blues’’ by R. W.

Stoddart (Figure 17).105 Officers were allowed to wear their own clothes plus an armband to

17 indicate their status as a soldier recovering from wounds (Figure 18). While there were numerous practical logistical reasons for replacing dirty lice-infested uniforms with clean clothing, the hospital uniform also helped to distinguish soldier-patients from everyone else.

Outside the hospital, the blue uniform acted as a highly visible ‘public emblem of heroism’, something that many men had mixed feelings about.106 By 1917 the blue hospital suit had become so absorbed into everyday life that there was even a rag doll ‘Reggy Sam…a wounded but cheery Tommy in his blue hospital suit’ available alongside ‘Betty’ the ‘charming Red Cross nurse’ from Boots the cash chemists.107

In ‘Wartime convalescence: the case of the convalescent blues,’ his chapter about the Hospital uniform in Healing the Nation, Jeffrey Reznick108 has made much of the fact that in his opinion the jackets were made without any pockets at all. The lack of pockets was commented on by men at the time, often humorously for example in a hospital magazine sketch with the subtitle:

‘Owing to the shortage of pockets in the wearing apparel of the convalescents it has been suggested that they should copy the ladies and carry handbags.’ Reznick and Grogan both choose to interpret ‘shortage’ as meaning none at all.109 Acts of Mercy: The Doctor I, one of four paintings that make up Acts of Mercy (1920) by Frederick Cayley Robinson (1862-1927), shows a group of men wearing the blue outfit one of whom is holding a brown coat (Figure 19).

Jeffrey Reznick has imaginatively suggested that the blue pocket he sees as sewn onto this coat is an artistic comment on the ‘lack of dignity conveyed by the Convalescent Blue outfit, and the empowerment that came with the possession of a pocket by a blue-clad soldier.’110 I see a coat pocket flap, strangely blue on a khaki or brown garment, positioned too low down to belong to a greatcoat. While Cayley Robinson is often described as a symbolist painter, without a statement of the artist’s intentions who knows if the pocket flap appearing bluer than the rest

18 of the coat is deliberate or accidental or the result of recent cleaning?111 While it is true that the iconic hospital blue jacket was made without external pockets I have come to the conclusion that the jackets probably had one internal pocket. The August 20 1914 issue of

Tailor and Cutter that published ‘an urgent call for suitable jackets or blouses for ward-room use of convalescent soldiers. …. after the style of a pyjama jacket’ shows a pattern for a

‘Wounded Soldiers Bed Jacket’ with at least one pocket (Figure 20).112 I have also reached this conclusion from looking at the jackets of men filmed wearing hospital blues at Netley, Seale

Hayne and Queen Mary’s Brighton which show tell-tale bulges that strongly suggest the presence of an inside pocket, placed on the left hand side (Figure 21).113 There is also a 1916 newsreel film Empire Day in which several men wearing Hospital Blues are handed cigars which they put into an inside jacket pocket.114 Close examination of the six photographs of the hospital blue jacket on the Imperial War Museum website also suggests the presence of an inside pocket but without seeing the inside construction of the jacket it is impossible to come to a definite conclusion.115 I have also found film from 1915 that shows yet another style of jacket, like a sloppy blazer with two pockets but the men were filmed at a location, Shorncliffe near Folkestone, that was shared with the Canadians so it could be a Canadian variation.116

Queen Mary’s Hospital Roehampton appears to have devised its own unique and practical solution to the pocket question by sewing a large black or navy blue breast patch pocket onto the right-hand side of the jacket. This can be seen in several films as well as numerous photographs of First World War Roehampton patients (Figure 22). As Roehampton specialized in the convalescence and rehabilitation of men who had leg amputations it was perhaps felt that they had enough to contend with without the absence of external pockets.117 However this pocket draws even more attention to these men and their visible differences. Placing this

19 pocket on the right is strange because the normal location for a breast pocket on a man’s jacket or blazer is the left, something which can be seen in countless images of early twentieth century men’s clothing.118 However this placement makes sense if the jackets did have a left hand internal pocket. The expectation of a ‘normal’ man’s jacket having a breast pocket on the left can be seen in a poster for ‘Fag Days’ where the hospital blue suit worn by the soldier has been drawn with a breast pocket displaying a neatly folded pocket square (Figure 23). Other examples of graphic art displaying the expectation that ‘normal’ jackets have pockets is a

Headpiece in the Graphic and the drawing of the hospital blue suit on a ‘Blinded for You’ charity flag day flag collected by a convalescing Australian soldier (Figures 24 & 25). The number of artistic portrayals I have found of Hospital Blues shown with pockets communicates a dissonance between actuality, observation and expectation. It is surprising that something so visually obvious as the Roehampton pocket appears not to have been noticed and commented on before.

Entertaining Wounded soldiers

By the summer of 1916 significant numbers of wounded servicemen were recovering and convalescing in hospitals which led to all sorts of endeavours being devised to entertain them.

World War One saw a huge burgeoning of charitable activity including numerous flag days which enabled people to wear a tangible sign of supporting a cause. Between 1916 and 1920,

11,407 charities were registered some of which are still active today.119 Some of the charitable efforts were remarkably specialized such as the concert held in Twickenham which raised enough money to purchase ‘between twenty and thirty walking sticks’120. Although they are indistinct the white blobs appearing in the lapels of numerous men in Eccentric Club Entertain

20 Wounded Soldiers are probably Alexandra Rose Day roses which were being sold on the day of the outing to the Karsino in Molesey and Hampton Court.

ROSE DAY TO-DAY. Alexandra Day was celebrated in most places Wednesday, residents of East and West Molesey and Hampton Court and visitors to that charming neighbourhood should note that to-day (Saturday) is the day on which the sale of the little pink roses is to take place there aid of the funds of the East and West Molesey and Hampton Court Cottage Hospital. A score or more ladies who, if the weather is anything like fine, will doubtless put on their most becoming summer dresses, have kindly undertaken sell the roses in the streets.121

Contrasting with sale of Alexandra Roses and demonstrating that not everyone felt charitable towards the wounded is the story of the ‘Unpatriotic Waiters,’ who when they learned the nature of the job at the Karsino, declined to take up the work because they feared a loss of tips.

UNPATRIOTIC WAITERS. An incident, highly discreditable to the persons concerned, occurred on Saturday at Tagg’s Island, says the ‘Chronicle.’ Six London waiters, who described themselves as Englishmen, came down for a day’s work, but, fearing the loss of tips, they declined to assist in waiting upon a party of 600 wounded soldiers the various London hospitals, were the guests of the Eccentric Club. After leaving Tagg’s Island in a body, the waiters whose unpatriotic conduct was strongly resented, called at other hotels in the neighbourhood, but with the aid of the telephone, news of their behaviour had preceded them, and everywhere they found there was ‘nothing doing.’ At one establishment their request for a job was met with the suggestion that a ducking in the river would meet their case. In the end the men had to return to London without being able to get any work.122

Facilitating the entertainment of wounded soldiers was one way in which those involved in show business, hospitality and other trades that might seem frivolous during a war could contribute. The presence of wounded soldiers who were simultaneously audience member and spectacle added to the visual culture of the wartime charity entertainment giving an event strength and kudos.123 The Eccentric Club (1890-1986) established by theatrical costumier Jack

Harrison was noted for its generosity and fundraising including opening hostels for limbless sailors and soldiers.124 Work they carried on doing after the war, holding a special event at

White City in 1921 for over a thousand wounded ‘Tommies’ at a time when the wounded were beginning to be forgotten.125 The Eccentric Club outing featured in the film was even marked

21 by the issue of a special commemorative badge, as was the Lord Mayor’s outing later that

Summer (Figure 26).126 The Savoy Hotel held ‘cheery’ Tea-Concerts twice a month in the ballroom including one unlikely occasion described as ‘a novel ball-room scene’ which involved

‘wounded soldiers and sailors feeding seals’(Figure 27).127 Outings could be surprisingly imaginative for example a Harley-Davidson motorbike side car outing (Figure 28) from St.

Thomas’s Hospital to Box Hill :

The Harley-Davidson side-car outing for wounded soldiers on Saturday was most successful. About fifty riders assembled at St Thomas’s Hospital at noon, and proceeded to the Burford Bridge Hotel, Box Hill. Luncheon was provided, about a hundred and twenty sitting down, and a musical entertainment was given on one of the lawns in the hotel grounds. Boxes of chocolate biscuits, cigarettes and tobacco were provided for the guests, and all expressed themselves delighted with their outing, and very keen on the mode of locomotion by which they had been conveyed.128

On Saturday 12 August 1916, an even more ambitious event was held when the Lord Mayor of

London, Colonel Sir Charles Cheers Wakefield entertained around a thousand wounded soldiers, a feat which involved ‘hundreds of cars, omnibuses and ferry-boats.’129 This event was also filmed by Topical Budget with an intertitle slide declaring ‘Lord Mayors treat to Soldiers.

Over one thousand wounded soldiers being entertained by the Lord Mayor at Karsino. The

London Motor Squadron transport the men.’130 According to the Thames Valley Times:

Over a thousand wounded soldiers from fourteen hospitals, including Percy House and Roehampton, had a glorious time on Saturday at the Karsino. They were conveyed from the hospitals by the motor squadron London Volunteer Rifles. Nearly 250 cars were used, and stretched in a long queue from the Green to Garrick Villa. In addition six motor buses were lent by the London General Omnibus Company. A special permit for the use of petrol had been given to the Lord Mayor by the Petrol Control Committee.131

Petrol rationing had been introduced in July 1916 so taking soldiers on outings offered one of the few legitimate means for ordinary motorists to use their cars. The Thames Valley Times article goes on to describe the entertainment at length while the Illustrated London News provides a picture of Sir Charles Wakefield’s turn at the ‘cocoa-nut shy’ (Figure 29).

22 The Lord Mayor arrived in state on the island at 3.30, and was received by a guard of honour. The entertainments to the wounded guests started at about half-past two, with an exhibition of swimming and diving by the members of the Wimbledon Ladies’ Swimming Club. A part of the island was laid out as a village fair, with cocoanut shies, hoop-la, and other attractions. Al-fresco tea was served on the lawn by 200 ladies, who had volunteered their services. Afterwards the Lord mayor addressed the men, and received a tremendous ovation from all assembled.132

One of the other attractions that entertained the ‘cerulean blue army’ was Mr Harry Hawker’s

‘exhibition of his skill on a Sopwith biplane’ in which he ‘gave a great display of vertical banking and looping the loop.’133 Probably the most exciting war time occurrence at Tagg’s Island was the Sunday afternoon in 1917 ‘when a thrilling aeroplane accident was witnessed by hundreds of people.’ A bi-plane flown by a Second Lieutenant in the Royal Flying Corps struck the telephone wires that spanned the river and ended up stuck in an elm tree. The pilot was rescued and taken over to the Karsino ‘where he received numerous congratulations upon his lucky escape.’134

It wasn’t just wounded soldiers who were entertained on Tagg’s Island but children, in 1917 the

Music Hall Ladies Guild as well as giving a ‘great number of concerts to wounded soldiers at various hospitals’ gave nearly two hundred children, who were too young to be sent away for the usual fortnight, a day’s outing at the Karsino, Hampton Court where Mr Fred Karno entertained them royally.135 For the remainder of the war the Karsino continued to entertain the wounded during the summer months, for example in July 1917 five hundred wounded soldiers were entertained by the United Wards Club of City of London136 and a trip organized by the Wounded Heroes Entertainment Committee for a hundred and fifteen officers was reported in The Times of 2 August 1918 under the subheading ‘River trips for the wounded.’137

The mood after nearly four years of war is reflected in E.V. Lucas’s (1868-1938) prescient description of the river on a summer Saturday in July 1918 where he observes that ‘there was

23 no sign of the blue garb of the wounded on any of three crowded steamers that I saw.’ and that

‘more than half the boats had only girls in them’.

I walked on to Karsino, which is an open-air restaurant and cafe chantant on Tagg's Island, all sparkling and orderly as Longchamps itself, and extraordinarily un-English. The machinery of gaiety was never in better condition, but the spirit was lacking. All the fun was in the boats; over the tables and bandstands on the Karsino lawns a constraint seemed to brood. Such continental meeting-places need, I fancy, a continental want of self-consciousness, a continental public loquacity, to carry them. That is by day. At night, when there is dusk broken only by coloured lanterns and the stage is occupied, I can imagine these island entertainments exerting a spell, although the distance from town is a little excessive. Earl's Court and the White City would, in normal times, be dangerous rivals. The enterprise of the author of this experiment in sophisticating an eyot is to be commended but how serene and beautiful are the chimneys of Hampton Court.138

The world that emerged from the war and the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918-1919 139 was one whose ideas of escapism and entertainment and hedonism came from across the Atlantic, from

Hollywood, rather than the Thames. An American Bar and the engagement of ‘A WONDERFUL

FRENCH CHEF’ was not enough to save the Karsino and there is something prophetic in the post war Karsino booklet’s last lines ‘”Absence makes the Heart Grow Fonder,” KARSINO, Au revoir’.140 By 1927 when the Ace of Spades roadhouse on the nearby Kingston bypass opened141 Fred Karno was bankrupt, losing both the Astoria142 and the Karsino in the shifting fortunes of pleasure and leisure. As The Times noted in its report of the insolvency:

The buildings were completed in 1914, and war was declared before they had been opened long. Heavy losses were sustained during the next two years, which were counterbalanced by subsequent extremely successful years. Unfortunately, further losses had been made during recent years through the inclement weather.143

After the war was over both the men in ‘Hospital Blues’ and the Karsino ‘The Isle of Beauty and

Entertainment’144 gradually faded away from the public gaze, ephemeral histories waiting to be rediscovered and revisited.

8,471 words

ENDNOTES NB: Although single quotes have been used in the body of the essay, double quotes have been used in the endnotes because that is what Cite them right online recommends for Chicago style.

1 Roland Barthes, Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography (1980), translated Richard Howard (New York: Hill and Wang, 2006), 87.

2 Topical Budget, “Eccentric Club entertain wounded soldiers, Hampton Court,” Topical Budget 253-1, 28 June 1916, 3m 58s. https://www.londonsscreenarchives.org.uk/public/details.php?id=19841&searchId=6414. (accessed 10 September 2017).

3 Smoking was positively encouraged during the First World War with a considerable number of charities devoted to supplying cigarettes to the armed forces. Class distinctions are evident for example in a reported donation of cigarettes to the ‘gallant wounded’ different types are supplied for officers and men ‘”Scots Greys’ Brand” are supplied for the officers, and ‘“Crayol” for the men’, The Illustrated London News 3 October 1914, 24,The British Newspaper Archive, (accessed 10 September 2017). Smoking was also allowed in hospitals: ‘Smoking was not only permitted but encouraged in the hospital. The Lancet even ran an article in praise of the use of tobacco for the troops and, brushing aside “much prejudice against the use of tobacco”, smoking was promoted as “a source of comfort”. Gifts of tobacco, cigars and cigarettes in large quantities for the soldiers' benefit were received regularly at The London.’ MP Park and RHR Park, “Art in wartime: The First Wounded, London Hospital, August 1914” Medical Humanities 2011;37:23-26. http://mh.bmj.com.stmarys.idm.oclc.org/content/37/1/23 (accessed 9 September 2017).

4 Hilary Mantel, “The Day is for the living,” The Reith Lectures, BBC Radio 4, 13 June 2017, Transcript,4. http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/radio4/reith2017/reith_2017_hilary_mantel_lecture%201.pdf (accessed 30 August 2017).

5 Four versions of this film exist, the following titles and descriptions are the ones used by each source. Version 1: is the film described in the essay. Topical Budget: Eccentric Club Entertain Wounded Soldiers, Hampton Court (1916) 3m 58s. Wounded soldiers gather at Thames island to stage a mock brawl and watch performances during festivities for 600 wounded soldiers held on an island in the Thames near Hampton Court. Soldiers stage a mock brawl and watch performances during festivities for 600 wounded soldiers held on an island in the Thames near Hampton Court. Some 600 wounded soldiers, as well as civilians and Boy Scouts, are drawn to Tagg’s Island, a small Thames island near Hampton Court, for an afternoon of entertainment Fred Karno’s Karsino. Karno was an impresario and comic who built a music hall on Tagg’s Island in 1912. During the war, it became popular with soldiers, hundreds of whom can be seen here watching performances, picnicking on the lawn and, despite their crutches, staging a mock brawl. Selected by London's Screen Archives on behalf of the BFI National Archive https://www.londonsscreenarchives.org.uk/public/details.php?id=19841&searchId=64140.

Version 2 is the same as Version 1 but with inferior quality playback. Eccentric Club Entertain Wounded Soldiers, 3 minutes, 1916 (it is actually 3m 58s). The description is the same as Version 1 from: ‘Some 600 wounded soldiers, as well as civilians’ onwards. Selected by London's Screen Archives from the BFI National Archive http://player.bfi.org.uk/film/watch-eccentric-club-entertain-wounded-soldiers-1916/.

Version 3 can only be viewed in the BFI Reuben Library a few other designated places. Topical Budget 253-1: Eccentric Club Entertain Wounded Soldiers (1916). "ECCENTRIC CLUB ENTERTAIN WOUNDED SOLDIERS Over 600 convalescent soldiers from various hospitals enjoy themselves at entertainment given to them at the 'Karsino' Hampton Court". View down at large numbers of men arriving at fair. Group of men in a mock fight. Pipers march down a stair on to a field. Pan right to left of the crowd on the field. Band setting up. View down of the wounded soldiers coming into the park through a gate. Pan left to right of soldiers seated at tables by riverside served by women. Shot of members of the club. A performer on a stage, pan right to left over the crowd. http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/737799/synopsis.html.

Version 4 is a short insert, a different cut within a longer newsreel. TOPICAL BUDGET 253-1 Main II. 'ECCENTRIC CLUB ENTERTAIN WOUNDED SOLDIERS. Over 600 convalescent soldiers from various hospitals enjoy themselves at the entertainment given to them at the "Karsino" Hampton Court.' HA as soldiers file in through gates to an open-air restaurant - the leading two are on crutches. CU of men enjoying some general horseplay - they are throwing balls (oranges?) and one mimes throwing at the camera. Bandsmen warm up. The men eat at tables on the riverside - one waves to camera. http://film.iwmcollections.org.uk/record/index/5374 a full description can also be found here: http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/1060005375.

6 Raphael Samuel, “Theatres of Memory,” in Public History Reader, eds. Hilda Kean and Paul Martin, 17 (Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge, 2013).

7 Topical Budget, “Eccentric Club entertain wounded soldiers, Hampton Court,” Topical Budget 253-1, 28 June 1916, 3m 58s. https://www.londonsscreenarchives.org.uk/public/details.php?id=19841&searchId=6414. (accessed 10 September 2017).

8 Another film For the Wounded made the year before features two black soldiers one of whom has a stick. Topical Budget, “For the Wounded,” Topical Budget 217-2,1915, https://player.bfi.org.uk/free/film/watch- for-the-wounded-1915-online (accessed 5 October 2017). For an account of the role played by Britain’s black community in The First World War see Stephen Bourne, Black Poppies: Britain's Black Community and the Great War (Stroud: The History Press, 2014).

9 One example of entertainment and outings being on the periphery is Jeffrey S. Reznick in Healing the Nation: Soldiers and the Culture of Caregiving in Britain During the Great War (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2004) who considers many aspects of convalescence and rehabilitation including boat rides on the Thames (52) however words like outings and entertainment are not included in the index. The ‘putting-on’ and organisation of charitable performances has been considered by Catherine Hindson in London’s West End Actresses and the Origins of Celebrity Charity, 1880-1920 (Iowa: University of Iowa Press, 2016).

10 The British Newspaper Archive gives online access to over 700 newspaper and magazine titles however it can be frustrating, difficult and time consuming to search, partly due it’s design and partly because of the misspellings produced by Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology. The Times Digital Archive is available via the Public Library System.

11 Edwin Adeler and Con West. Remember Fred Karno?: The Life of a Great Showman. (London: J. Long, 1939). Joseph Peter Gallagher, Fred Karno: Master of Mirth and Tears (London: Hale, 1971). Neither of these biographies attempts to be objective or scholarly with the second one written by a tabloid journalist who admits to ‘imagining’ some of the content. The first written while Karno was still alive is probably the more accurate of the two. A third biography by Dave Crump who has been able to use original Karno family documents is being written, see his website http://www.khaotic.co.uk/index.html for further information. My email correspondence with Mr Crump confirmed that his book would not be published before the completion date for this essay.

12 Examples of this approach include: Barry Anthony, Chaplin’s Music Hall: The Chaplins and their Circle in the Limelight (London I.B.Tauris, 2012). Danny Lawrence, The Making of Stan Laurel: Echoes of a British Boyhood (McFarland & Co., 2011). Lisa Stein, Syd Chaplin: A Biography (McFarland & Co., 2011). David Robinson, Chaplin, the Mirror of Opinion (London: Secker & Warburg, 1983) which on page 15 includes a picture of Fred Karno in his office at the ‘Fun Factory’.

13 Hilary Mantel, “Can These Bones Live,” The Reith Lectures, BBC Radio 4, 4 July 2017, Transcript,3. http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/radio4/reith2017/reith_2017_hilary_mantel_lecture%201.pdf (accessed 30 August 2017).

14 John M East, “Karno’s Folly, or How to Lose a Show-Business Fortune,” Theatre Quarterly 1 (July-September 1971): 60-62.

15 Andrew Horrall, Popular Culture in London, c.1890-1918: the Transformation of Entertainment (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2001), 39,42.

16 Stephen Inwood City of Cities: The Birth of Modern London (MacMillan, 2011), Kindle edition, no page numbers in ‘Turns & Critics’ section.

17 Barry Anthony, Chaplin’s Music Hall: The Chaplins and their Circle in the Limelight (London I.B.Tauris, 2012), 189.

18 Found in the envelope containing Planning Application PLA 09804 11/11/1912, Richmond upon Thames Local Studies Library and Archive.

19 “R.M.S.Wondetainia,” The Era, 16 April 1910, 23, The British Newspaper Archive, (accessed 10 September 2017).

20 “R.M.S.Wondetainia,” The Era, 16 April 1910, 23, The British Newspaper Archive, (accessed 10 September 2017).

21 “The London Music Halls,” The Era, 18 June 1904, 21, The British Newspaper Archive, (accessed 10 September 2017).

22 Barry Anthony, Chaplin’s Music Hall, 209.

23 “Kings Bench Division,” The Times (London), Saturday April 4 1908, 3, The Times Digital Archive, (accessed 9 September 2017). “Copyright in ‘Gags’ & Scenic Effects,” The Era, 2 May 1908, 25, The British Newspaper Archive, (accessed 10 September 2017). “Supreme Court of Judicature,” The Times (London), Friday, Jan 22, 1909, 3, The Times Digital Archive, (accessed 9 September 2017).

24 Theatre Workshop, Oh What A Lovely War Revised Edition (Bloomsbury Methuen Drama, 2000),76.

25 Tim Kendall, ed., Poetry of the First World War: An Anthology (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013), 225.

26 “Quote Unquote,” The Independent (London), 20 February 1993, 12, https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/quote-unquote-1474186.html (accessed 2 October 2017).

27 J.P. Gallagher Fred Karno: Master of Mirth and Tears (London: Robert Hale & Co, 1971), 36.

28 For further information about the history of marketing gardening in the Hampton area which the Jam Yesterday Jam Tomorrow project has been investigating see: https://www.environmenttrust.co.uk/kitchen- garden-marble-hill-park especially the links on their research page. http://etrustwiki.co.uk/et/index.php?title=Research (accessed 11 September 2017).

29 Examples of baskets used in the fruit trade include pottles for transporting strawberries that fitted into bigger round wicker baskets called marnes. http://researchingfoodhistory.blogspot.co.uk/2015/06/strawberries-in- pottles-and-punnets.html (accessed 11 September 2017).

30 For a detailed discussion of day trips by rail to Hampton Court see Susan Major ‘The Million Go Forth Early Railway Excursion Crowds 1840-1860’ PhD thesis, University of York, 2012, 280-283. available at http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/id/eprint/3112.

31 Peter Searby, A History of the University of Cambridge, Volume 3, 1750-1870, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997), 665-666.

32 Hampton Court was first opened to the public ‘free and without restriction’ by Queen Victoria. Ben Weinreb, Christopher Herbert, Julia Keay and John Keay eds. The London Encyclopaedia, completely revised 3rd ed. (London: Macmillan, 2008), 380. The History of Hampton Court Funfair http://www.hamptoncourtfunfair.co.uk/history/ (accessed 12 September 2017).

33 David Gordon Wilson, The Victorian Thames (Stroud: Alan Sutton Publishing, 1993), 103.

34 Royal Thames Guide (London: Unwin Brothers, 1902, 64.

35 Royal Thames Guide (London: Unwin Brothers, 1902, 58 and 63. The building is currently a Zizzi’s restaurant.

36 “The Future of a Thames Island,” The Times (London), Monday 7 October 1912, 6, The Times Digital Archive. (Accessed 14 September 2017).

37 A.S. Krause, A Pictorial History of the Thames (London: Chatto & Windus, 1889), 190. https://archive.org/details/apictorialhisto00kraugoog (accessed 14 September 2017).

38 The painting (accession number LL3149) is in the Lady Lever Art Gallery, Liverpool. For a detailed discussion of this painting and the popularity of Boulter’s Lock in the late nineteenth century see: Lisa Tickner, “Messing about in Boats: E. J. Gregory's ‘Boulter's Lock’: Sunday Afternoon (R. A. 1897)” Oxford Art Journal, 25, No. 2 (2002): 3-28. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3600475 (accessed: 30 August 2017).

39 Jerome K Jerome, Three Men in a Boat (Bristol: J W Arrowsmith, 1889), 95. https://archive.org/details/threemeninboatto00jerorich (accessed 13 September 2017).

40 “The Annual Regatta,” The Surrey Comet, Saturday 23 July 1870, The British Newspaper Archive, (accessed 14 September 2017). The Surrey Comet has numerous accounts of regattas both amateur and professional including Kingston Town, Twickenham Town, Staines and the Hampton Court and East Molesey United Fishermen’s and Watermens’s Regatta.

41 Jeremy Nicholas, “Three men in a boat and three men on the bummel, the story behind Jerome’s two comic masterpieces,” http://www.jeromekjerome.com/jerome-in-words/three-men/ (accessed 5 September 2017).

42 David Rubinstein, “Cycling Eighty Years Ago” History Today 28: 8 (1978): 544-547. Academic Search premier EBSCOhost (accessed 5 September 2017).

43 Column Advertisements in The Globe, Saturday 12 July 1890, 8, The British Newspaper Archive, (accessed 14 September 2017).

44 “The Venetian Fete,” The Surrey Comet, Saturday 22 July 1893,7, The British Newspaper Archive, (accessed 14 September 2017).

A report in The Berkshire Chronicle gives a flavour of these events: ‘This aristocratic and fashionable meeting was held on Saturday on the Thames …The racing finished shortly after six o'clock, and at dusk there was a grand display of fireworks, after which the day’s proceedings were brought to close a procession of boats and Venetian fete, which far eclipsed anything of the kind held the Thames. The first prize for the prettiest illuminated boat was again awarded to Mrs. G. W. Marsden.’ “Datchet Regatta and Venetian Fete,” The Berkshire Chronicle, Saturday 27 August 1887,2, The British Newspaper Archive, (accessed 14 September 2017).

The Venetian Fete in Hythe, Kent has been held for over a hundred years ‘Hythe Venetian Fete 1890 – 2017,’ http://www.hythe-venetianfete.com/fetehistory.htm (accessed 14 September 2017).

45 Brendon Edward Gregory, “The spectacle plays and exhibitions of Imre Kiralfy, 1887-1914,”PhD thesis, University of Manchester, 1988. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.233417. For biographical information see: Javier Pes, ‘Kiralfy,Imre (1845–1919)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004, http://www.oxforddnb.com.stmarys.idm.oclc.org/view/article/53347, (accessed 19 Sept 2017).

46 Dave Walker, “Gigantic: The Earl’s Court Wheel,” The Library Time Machine blog, entry posted October 27 2011, https://rbkclocalstudies.wordpress.com/2011/10/27/gigantic/ (accessed 18 September 2017).

47 Josephine Kane, “Edwardian Amusement parks: The Pleasure Garden Reborn?” in The Pleasure Garden, from Vauxhall to Coney Island, ed. Jonathan Conline, 219 (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, Inc., 2013), ProQuest Ebook Central, (accessed September 8 2017).

48 Rowland G M Baker, Thameside Molesey, ‘The Karsino’ section of the online edition of the book originally published by Barracuda Books, 1989 http://www.moleseyhistory.co.uk/books/molesey/tm/tm_2a.htm (accessed September 8 2017). While it is clear from the Acknowledgments that Mr Baker undertook

extensive original research, it is unfortunate that like this one many of the quotes are unattributed, making it either difficult or impossible to trace them in order to see the words in their original context.

49 John Minnis and Kathryn A. Morrison, “Buildings and Infrastructure for the Motor Car: Introductions to Heritage Assets” (Historic England, 2016), https://content.historicengland.org.uk/images- books/publications/iha-buildings-infrastructure-motor-car/heag138-buildings-and-infrastructure-for-motor- car-iha.pdf/ (accessed 18 September 2017).

50 Lisa K Stein, Syd Chaplin: A Biography McFarland (McFarland & Co., 2011), 29.

51 J.M. Barrie, When a Man’s Single (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1889), 165. https://archive.org/details/whenamanssingle00barrgoog (accessed 21 September 2017).

52 Peter H Chaplin, The Thames from Source to Tideway (London: Whittet, 1988), 147.

53 Chaplin, The Thames from Source to Tideway 148-149.

54 Aldred C Hutchins, The Karsino Tagg’s Island: The Finest and most Luxurious River Hotel in Europe, (Leeds and London: Alfe Cooke Ltd., 1913), 5, Karsino folder, Richmond upon Thames Local Studies Library and Archive.

55 Hutchins, The Karsino, 17.

56 “The Karsino,” The Stage, June 26 1913, 16, British Newspaper Archive, (accessed 11 October 2017).

57 Iain Mackintosh, “Matcham, Francis (1854–1920),” rev. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, May 2008, http://www.oxforddnb.com.stmarys.idm.oclc.org/view/article/37745, (accessed 19 Sept 2017).

58 Hutchins, The Karsino,9.

59 “Billy Boy Gang Fight,” A Clock Work Orange, DVD, dir. Stanley Kubrick (1971; Warner Home Video, 2001).

60 The structural engineers were Peirson & Co., the civil engineers Shone & Ault, the builders Allen & Co. of Westminster and the interiors were by Messrs. Ropley. Information gathered from various sources at Richmond upon Thames Local Studies Library including: Hutchins, The Karsino,7. Minutes Book of Hampton UDC, and Planning Applications.

61 Letter 19 March 1913, Taggs Island Planning Application, PLA/09667, 14/1/1913, Richmond upon Thames Local Studies Library and Archive. See Appendix A for detailed history of Karsino Planning Applications.

62 Letter 19 February 1913 from Shone and Ault, Civil Engineers to Hampton Urban District Council, Taggs Island Planning Application, PLA/09803, 28/03/1913, Richmond upon Thames Local Studies Library and Archive.

63 This is contrary to the information in the online version of Rowland G M Baker, Thameside Molesey, (http://www.moleseyhistory.co.uk/books/molesey/tm/tm_12.htm) which states that ‘the plans were finally passed at a meeting of the Hampton UDC on Tuesday 14 January 1913.’ According to the Minutes the plans were actually disapproved at that meeting: ‘The following plans were disapproved: Hotel at Tagg’s Island, submitted by Messrs Frank Matcham & Co., on behalf of Mr Frederick John Karno.’ ’The clerk was instructed to inform Messrs Matcham and Co. that the Council will be in a position to approve the plans after the proposed new bye law shall have been confirmed by the Local Government Board.’ Minutes Book of Hampton UDC, 355, Richmond upon Thames Local Studies Library and Archive.

64 Hutchins, The Karsino 7 and 9.

65 Hutchins, The Karsino front cover.

66 “The Karsino: Fairyland at Hampton Court,” The Era, June 14 1913, 22, The British Newspaper Archive, (accessed 4 August 2017).

67 “Karsino Private View Lunch invitation” and “Press Visit Souvenir”, Karsino folder, Richmond Local Studies Library and Archive.

68 “The Karsino,” The Stage, Thursday June 26 1913, 16, British Newspaper Archive, (accessed 11 October 2017).

69 “Town Talk,” The Bexhill-on-Sea Observer, Saturday 30 August 1913, 4, The British Newspaper Archive, (accessed 25 August 2017).

70 “Variety Gossip,” The Stage, Thursday 3 July 1913, 16, British Newspaper Archive, (accessed 11 October 2017).

71 Column Advert, The Surrey Advertiser, Wednesday 14 January 1914, 4, The British Newspaper Archive, (accessed 19 September 2017).

72 Display Advertisement, The Pall Mall Gazette, Saturday 13 June 1914, 12, The British Newspaper Archive, (accessed 25 August 2017). 73 “Variety Gossip,” The Stage, Thursday 13 August 1914, 3, British Newspaper Archive, (accessed 11 October 2017).

74 “Prominent Workers for charity’s cause,” The Tatler, Wednesday 23 July 1913,5, The British Newspaper Archive, (accessed 22 September 2017).

75 ‘The “Karsino” at Hampton Court is now one of the greatest river attractions. Last Sunday there were over 2,500 visitors at Tagg’s Island,’ Pall Mall Gazette, Saturday 27 June 1914, 2, The British Newspaper Archive, (accessed 25 August 2017).

76 “Sanitary Inspectors’ Association,” The Middlesex Chronicle, Saturday 9 May 1914, 7, The British Newspaper Archive, (accessed 25 August 2017).

77 “The River Thames Reach by Reach: Richmond to Karsino,” The Globe, Saturday 30 May 1914, 11, The British Newspaper Archive, (accessed 18 September 2017).

78 “War News in Notes,” The Dundee Evening Telegraph, 3, The British Newspaper Archive, (accessed 25 August 2017).

79 “Berlby Hall as a Hospital,” The Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer, Saturday 15 August 1914, 10, The British Newspaper Archive, (accessed 25 August 2017).

80 “Making Clothes for Soldiers is Doing Workers Injury,” The Daily Herald, Thursday 13 August 1914, 4, The British Newspaper Archive, (accessed 13 September 2017).

81 Virginia Berridge, “Drugs, alcohol, and the First World War,” The Lancet 384: 9957(November 22, 2014):1840- 1841. http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736%2814%2962234-0/fulltext (accessed 19 September 2017).

82 For further information about alcohol consumption see: Robert Duncan, Pubs and Patriots: The Drink Crisis in Britain During World War One (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2013). Henry Carter The control of the drink trade; a contribution to national efficiency, 1915-1917 (London: Longmans Green & Co, 1918) https://archive.org/details/cu31924030306868 (accessed 19 September 2017). Stella Moss “'Wartime Hysterics': Alcohol, women and the politics of wartime social purity” in British Popular Culture and the First World War ed. Jessica Meyer,(Leiden:BRILL,2008),147-171.

83 The local newspapers are full of reports of prosecutions for various minor infractions of DORA for example in August 1916 Karno was fined a £1 for a breach of the lighting regulations on his houseboat the Astoria. “Duke and Baron Fined,” Birmingham Daily Gazette, Tuesday 29 August 1916, 5 The British Newspaper Archive, (accessed 25 August 2017).

84 The case centred on the interpretation of the half an hour of grace allowed to consume alcohol ordered with a meal. “Spelthorne Petty Sessions: Island Hotel,” The Middlesex Chronicle, Saturday 1 September 1917, 2-3, The British Newspaper Archive, (accessed 25 August 2017). MEPO 2/4543, Casino Hotel, Taggs Island, Hampton, Middlesex: transfer of music and dancing licence, The National Archives, Kew includes a detailed three-page letter from Wontner & Sons Solicitors.

85 Old papers attached from 1913-1930 about the Island Hotel and Thames Riviera, MEPO 2/4543, Casino Hotel, Taggs Island, Hampton, Middlesex: transfer of music and dancing licence, The National Archives, Kew.

On the 11th instance there was fair attendance probably ab…400 visitors but these kept …and going. Tea and …refreshments were served out in the grounds or in the bar until about 9:30pm. A recruiting meeting was held in front of the hotel from….8:30pm and was largely attended. On the 17th inst…. owing to the dull … very small at no time… more than 40 on the island. On the 18th instant there… large attendance … bars and lounges were full practically the whole of the… On the 21st instant the attendance was very small until the evening when about 400 persons attending the concert, which was held at the Palm Court in aid of the wounded soldiers. The concert was over about 10.45 when the audience immediately dispersed and left the building. Amongst the visitors to the hotel each day especially Sundays were a large number of military offices also a good percentage of Belgian and French subjects. During the whole of my observation I did not see anything irregular or even suspicious. (Because of the damage on the right-hand edge words are missing)

86 “The River Season in Full Swing,” The Sunday Mirror, Sunday 4 July 1915, 21, The British Newspaper Archive, (accessed 25 August 2017).

87 ‘Arrival of Wounded in London’ in “A Splendid Example,” The Times (London), 31 August 1914,5, The Times Digital Archive (accessed 21 September 2017). Sir John Lavery (1856-1941) recorded this event in his painting The First Wounded, London Hospital, August 1914. One version is in The McManus, Dundee’s Art Gallery and Museum http://www.mcmanus.co.uk/content/collections/database/first-wounded-london-hospital-august- 1914. Other versions are in the Royal London Hospital Archives http://www.meaningsofservice1914.qmul.ac.uk/archive/royal-london-hospital-archives?page=1.

88 “How many soldiers of the British Army were wounded in the Great War?,” The Long, Long Trail, http://www.1914-1918.net/faq.htm (accessed 20 September 2017).

89 T. J. Mitchell and G.M. Smith, Medical Services: Casualties and Medical Statistics of the Great War, (London: H. M. Stationery Office, 1931), https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/008226945/Home (accessed 21 September 2017).

90 Helen Alper, ed., A History of Queen Mary’s University Hospital Roehampton (London: Richmond and Twickenham and Roehampton NHS Trust, 1996,10.

91 Fiona Reid, “‘My Friends Looked at Me in Horror’: Idealizations of Wounded Men in the First World War.”, Peace and Change 41, no.1 (2016): 64-77, Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost (accessed 20 September 2017).

92 Topical Budget, “Wounded at Kew,” Topical Budget 201-1, 1915, 1m 0s., https://www.londonsscreenarchives.org.uk/public/details.php?id=19829&searchId=66666.(accessed 1 October 2017).

Topical Budget, “Fleet St. Entertains Disabled Fighters,” Topical Budget 245-1, 1916, http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/736143/index.html (accessed 1 October 2017).

A list can be found at: Disability http://www.screenonline.org.uk/history/id/1198129/index.html.

93 Luke McKernan, “Newsreels,” BFI Screenonline, http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/476463/index.html. (accessed 19 September 2017).

94 Joe Hicks and Grahame Allen, “A Century of Change: Trends in UK statistics since 1900,” House of Commons Library Research Paper, 99/111, (21 December 1999). researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/RP99- 111/RP99-111.pdf (accessed 19 September 2017).

95 News on Screen, "Topical Budget," http://bufvc.ac.uk/newsonscreen/search/index.php/series/32 (Accessed 20 Sep 2017).

96 “Her Majesty’s Inspection of the Wounded,” The Illustrated London News, Saturday 21 July 1855, 5, The British Newspaper Archive, (accessed 25 August 2017).

97 A private, back on active service after recovering from his injuries, describes himself as one of the ‘thousands of “Rickett’s Blue” men’ in a letter he wrote to the actor Mr Seymour Hicks. ‘…I am in the front line and have just got a letter from my wife telling me that you have Invited my three children to attend the matinee of

“Bluebell” given to youngsters of men on active service. You’re a brick. I was one of those you gave pleasure to when you and Miss Terriss came out to France for the soldiers in the early part of the war. Then a few months ago when I was home wound'd. I was one of the thousands of “Rickett’s Blue” men who were your guests at Broadway Jones.’ . . . “Theatre and Music Hall Notes,” The People, Sunday 31 December 1916,4, The British Newspaper Archive, (accessed 20 September 2017).

98 WO 359/15, War Office: Army Clothing Department: Register of Changes 1908-1915, The National Archives, Kew.

99 “Two Wounded Tommies in Hospital Blues,” Imperial War Museum, Catalogue number EPH 7312, http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/30087173, (accessed 2 October 2017).

100 War Neuroses: Netley Hospital 1917: Entire Title http://film.wellcome.ac.uk:15151/mediaplayer.html?0055-0000-4163-0000-0-0000-0000-0 (accessed 2 October 2017). Further information at: http://catalogue.wellcomelibrary.org/record=b1667864~S8. A photograph of a group of convalescent soldiers going to a matinee at the Palace Theatre shows several of them, including a man in a wheelchair, wearing a long coat length version of the Hospital Blue Jacket with the white lining. IWM Collections (Q96368): Leisure and Entertainment during the First World War, http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205086970 (accessed 8 October 2017).

101 Margaret Chute, “Roehampton, The House of Redemption, Refitting the Legless Soldier,” The Graphic, 4 November 1916, 548, The British Newspaper Archive, (accessed 20 September 2017).

102 “A Chaplain to the Forces Heroes in Hospital,” The Scotsman, Saturday 27 November 1915, 9, The British Newspaper Archive, (accessed 20 September 2017).

103 Wilfred Owen, “Disabled,” in Wilfred Owen: war poems and others, ed. Dominic Hibberd, (London:Chatto & Windus, 1975) 76-77.

104 A display advertisement by the Clayton Aniline Company who were connected with the Swiss company CIBA provides an interesting perspective on the issue of wartime dye shortages. “The Clayton Aniline Co. Ltd.,” The Times (London), Friday 1 February 1918, 2, The Times Digital Archive, (accessed 21 Sept. 2017).

105 “Strafe the Tailor – A Bad Fit of the ‘Blues,” WW1 War Stories from Brighton Museums Blog, entry posted 21 May 2014 or 2015, http://brightonmuseums-ww1-war-stories.tumblr.com/post/86409485833/strafe-the- tailor-a-bad-fit-of-the-blues-the (accessed 21 September 2017).

106 Jeffrey Stephen Reznick, Healing the Nation: Soldiers and the Culture of Caregiving in Britain During the Great War (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2015), 100.

107 “Rag-Dolls for the Children,” The Bystander, Wednesday 23 May 1917,68, The British Newspaper Archive, (accessed 25 August 2017).

108 Jeffrey Stephen Reznick, Healing the Nation: Soldiers and the Culture of Caregiving in Britain During the Great War (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2004).

109 Reznick, Healing the Nation,108-9. Suzie Grogan, Shell Shocked Britain: The First World War's Legacy for Britain's Mental Health, (Barnsley:Pen & Sword Books Ltd, 2014), 43-44.

110 Jeffrey S. Reznick, “The ‘Convalescent Blues’ in Frederick Cayley Robinson’s ‘Acts of Mercy,’” Wellcome Library Blog, entry posted 23 June 2010, http://blog.wellcomelibrary.org/2010/06/the-convalescent-blues-in- frederick-cayley-robinsons-acts-of-mercy/ (accessed 21 September, 2017).

111 The paintings were cleaned in 2009 when they were acquired by the Wellcome Collection.

William Schupbach, “Frederick Cayley Robinson in ‘Country Life,’” Wellcome Library Blog, entry posted 11 September 2009, http://blog.wellcomelibrary.org/2009/09/frederick-cayley-robinson-in-country-life/ (accessed 2 October, 2017).

112 “Convalescent Jacket,” The Tailor and Cutter, August 20 1914, 688-690. The same article is referenced by Reznick, 113 as “‘Convalescent jacket’ Tailor and Cutter 20 August 1914 (supplement): 688-690, which also contains the Army Council’s special ‘sealed pattern’ (also called a ‘specimen garment’, for the ‘convalescent jacket.’” The article is not part of a supplement nor does it contain a ‘sealed pattern.’ However the article does go on to state: ‘We have frequently pointed out that sealed patterns, which are really specimen garments sealed by the Army Council as being correct in every detail, are on view at the War Office, Parliament street, W.’

113 War Neuroses: Netley Hospital 1917: Entire Title

114 Topical Budget, “Empire Day,” Topical Budget 248-2, 1916, https://player.bfi.org.uk/free/film/watch-empire- day-1916-online (accessed 11 October 2017).

115 Imperial War Museum photographs 1-6 of Jacket Convalescents’ (Hospital Blue) UN12343. There is a line of stitching across the front clearly visible in close up on photos 2,3 and 4. In photo 5&6 there is a clear rectangular shaped bulge visible in the left front. Images 1-4 clearly show the button holes on the left but 5&6 show the button holes presumably lying underneath the button band which is confusing. From the labels this looks like an example of a specimen garment sealed by the Army Council. http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/30100153 (accessed 1 October 2017).

116 Pathé Gazette, “Heroes of Neuve Chapelle”, 1915, https://player.bfi.org.uk/free/film/watch-heroes-of-neuve- chapelle-1915-online, (accessed 5 October 2017). Towards the end of the film, the group of men seen getting into a horse drawn carriage are wearing jackets with patch pockets positioned as on a blazer.

117 Two films made by British Pathe show a range of uniforms including the ‘standard’ blue flannel jacket with white lining and no pockets as well as the ‘Roehampton’ patch pocket. British Pathé, “Amputees Learn to Use Artificial Limbs,” 1916, Roehampton. https://www.britishpathe.com/video/amputees-learn-to-use-artificial-limbs (accessed 2 October, 2017). British Pathé, “Amputee Veterans at Queen Mary’s Workshop,”1914-1919, Brighton. https://www.britishpathe.com/video/amputee-veterans-at-queen-marys-workshop (accessed 2 October, 2017).

118 Cally Blackman, One Hundred Years of Menswear, (London: Laurence King Publishing,2009).

119 Carol Harris, “1914-1918 How Charities helped to win WW1,” Third Sector, 27 June 2014, ttp://www.thirdsector.co.uk/1914-1918-charities-helped-win-ww1/volunteering/article/1299786 (accessed 20 September 2017)

120 “Walking Sticks for Wounded Soldiers,” The Thames Valley Times, Wednesday June 14 1916, 4.

121 “Rose day today,” The Surrey Advertiser, Saturday 24 June 1916, 5, The British Newspaper Archive, (accessed 20 September 2017).

122 “Unpatriotic Waiters,” Pall Mall Gazette, Monday 26 June 1916, 4, The British Newspaper Archive, (accessed 20 September 2017).

123 Catherine Hindson, London's West End Actresses and the Origins of Celebrity Charity, 1880-1920, (Iowa:University of Iowa Press, 2016),201.

124 Robert Sommerville, “The Eccentric Club’s great work,” The Era, Wednesday 8 August 1917, 11, The British Newspaper Archive, (accessed 20 September 2017).

125 “Eccentric Club entertain 1,000 wounded ‘Tommies,’” The Globe, Monday January 17 1921, 4, The British Newspaper Archive, (accessed 20 September 2017).

126 “The Lord Mayor Entertains some of our Wounded,” Flight International Magazine, 17 August 1916, 694, https://archive.org/stream/Flight_International_Magazine_1916-08-17-pdf#page/n7/mode/2up (accessed 23 September 2017).

127 “Wounded soldiers and sailors feeding seals at a tea concert: a novel ball-room scene,” The Illustrated London News, 3 March 1917, 9, The British Newspaper Archive, (accessed 20 September 2017).

128 “An Outing for the Wounded: The Arrival at Burford Bridge,” The Illustrated London News, 3 June 1916, 23, The British Newspaper Archive, (accessed 20 September 2017).

129 “Miscellaneous,” The Illustrated London News, Saturday 19 August 1916, 23, The British Newspaper Archive, (accessed 20 September 2017).

130 Topical Budget, “Lord Mayor's Treat to Soldiers,” Topical Budget 260-1: (1916) http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/740239/synopsis.html. (accessed 1 October 2017).

131 “Wounded Soldiers at the Karsino,” Thames Valley Times, August 16 1916, 3.

132 Ibid.

133 “The Lord Mayor Entertains some of our Wounded,” Flight International Magazine, 17 August 1916, 694, https://archive.org/stream/Flight_International_Magazine_1916-08-17-pdf#page/n7/mode/2up (accessed 23 September 2017).

134 “Aeroplane in a tree,” The Surrey Advertiser, Saturday 2 June 1917 ,7, The British Newspaper Archive, (accessed 20 September 2017).

135 “The Ladies’ Guild,” The Stage Thursday June 28 1917, British Newspaper Archive, (accessed 11 October 2017).“The Ladies’ Guild,” The Stage Thursday July 5 1917, British Newspaper Archive, (accessed 11 October 2017).“The Music Hall Ladies Guild: Annual General Meeting,” The Stage, Thursday 1 November 1917,13, British Newspaper Archive, (accessed 11 October 2017).

136 “The Lord Mayor at the Karsino,” The Surrey Advertiser, Monday 9 July 1917, 2, The British Newspaper Archive, (accessed 20 September 2017).

137 “River Trips for the Wounded,” The Times (London), 2 August 1918,7, The Times Digital Archive (accessed 21 September 2017).

138 E.V.Lucas, “The Stream of Pleasure,” The Sphere, 20 July 1918, 12, The British Newspaper Archive, (accessed 20 September 2017).

139 Mark Honigsbaum,” I watched the Spanish Lady kill my family,” The Guardian, Saturday 5 November 2005, https://www.theguardian.com/society/2005/nov/05/health.birdflu, (accessed 23 September 2017).

140 Karsino, pamphlet, 21, (no publisher or printer, undated but from internal evidence post 1918), Karsino folder, Richmond upon Thames Local Studies Library and Archive.

141 Michael John Law, “Turning night into day: transgression and Americanization at the English inter-war roadhouse,”Journal of Historical Geography 35: 3 (2009): 473-494. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhg.2008.09.002.

142 The houseboat was sold to the music hall singer and comedian Vesta Victoria (1873 – 1951). It is now owned by the musician David Gilmour who uses it as a recording studio.

143 “The Affairs of Fred Karno,” The Times (London), 3 November 1927,24, The Times digital archive (Accessed 20 June 2017).

144 Karsino, pamphlet, Frontispiece, (no publisher or printer, undated but from internal evidence post 1918), Karsino folder, Richmond upon Thames Local Studies Library and Archive.

34 Bibliography

Books and Journal Articles Ackroyd, Peter. Thames: Sacred River. London: Chatto & Windus, 2007. Addis, Bill. Building: 3000 Years of Design, Engineering and Construction. London: Phaidon Press, 2008. Adeler, Edwin, and Con West. Remember Fred Karno?: The Life of a Great Showman. London: J. Long, 1939. Baker, Roland G.M. Thameside Molesey. Barracuda Books, 1989. available online at: http://www.moleseyhistory.co.uk/books/molesey/tm/index.htm Barthes, Roland. Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography. Translated by Richard Howard. New York: Hill and Wang,2006. Bourne, Stephen. Black Poppies: Britain's Black Community and the Great War. Stroud: The History Press, 2014. Chaplin, Peter H. The Thames from Source to Tideway. London: Whittet, 1988. Charman, Terry. The First World War on the Home Front. London: Andre Deutsch,2015. Donnelly, Mark and Claire Norton. Doing History. New York: Taylor & Francis, 2011. Grant, Peter. Philanthropy and Voluntary Action in the First World War: Mobilizing Charity. Abingdon: Routledge, 2014. Gallagher, Joseph Peter. Fred Karno: Master of Mirth and Tears. London: Hale, 1971. Groot, Jerome de, Consuming History: Historians and heritage in contemporary popular culture, Abingdon: Routledge, 2009. Gutzke, David W., and Michael John Law. The Roadhouse Comes to Britain: Drinking, Driving and Dancing, 1925- 1955. London: Bloomsbury, 2017. Hindson, Catherine. London's West End Actresses and the Origins of Celebrity Charity, 1880-1920. Iowa: University of Iowa Press, 2016. Horrall, Andrew. Popular Culture in London, c.1890-1918 : the Transformation of Entertainment. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2001. Kean, Hilda. London Stories: Personal lives, public histories, London: Rivers Oram Press, 2004. Keilbach, Judith and Kirsten Wachter. “Photographs, Symbolic Images and the Holocaust: On the (IM)Possibility of Depicting Historical Truth.” History and Theory 48: 2 (May 2009): 54-76. http://www.jstor.org/stable/25478837. Lawrence, Danny. The Making of Stan Laurel: Echoes of a British Boyhood. Jefferson: McFarland & Co., 2011. McKernan, Luke. “Newsreels: form and function,” in Using Visual Evidence, edited by Richard Howells and Robert S Matson, Berkshire: Mcgraw-Hill Education, 2009. ProQuest Ebook Central (accessed 18 September 2017) Merton, Paul. Silent Comedy. London: Arrow, 2010. Owen, Wilfred. War poems and others. edited by Dominic Hibberd. London: Chatto & Windus, 1975. Park, M.P. and R.H.R. Park, “Art in wartime: The First Wounded, London Hospital, August 1914.” Medical Humanities 37 (2011): 23-26. http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/jmh.2010.006478. Reid, Fiona. Broken Men: Shell Shock, Treatment and Recovery in Britain, 1914-1930. London: Bloomsbury, 2014. Reznick, Jeffrey Stephen. Healing the Nation: Soldiers and the Culture of Caregiving in Britain During the Great War. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2015. Samuel, Raphael. “Theatres of Memory,” in The Public History Reader, edited by Hilda Kean and Paul Martin, Abingdon: Routledge, 2013. Sayer, Faye. Public History: A Practical Guide. London: Bloomsbury, 2015. Searby, Peter. A History of the University of Cambridge, Volume 3, 1750-1870. Cambridge Cambridge University Press 1997. Stein, Lisa. Syd Chaplin A Biography. Jefferson, N.C: McFarland & Company, 2011. Theatre Workshop, Oh What A Lovely War Revised Edition London: Bloomsbury - Methuen Drama, 2000. Tynan, Jane. “‘Tailoring in the Trenches’: the making of First World War British Army uniform,” in British Popular Culture and the First World War, edited by Jessica Meyer, Leiden: BRILL,2008, Proquest Ebook Central (Accessed 10 October 2017). Ugolini, Laura. “War-stained: British Combatants and Uniforms, 1914–18.” War & Society Vol. 33, Issue 3,2014. http://dx.doi.org/10.1179/0729247314Z.00000000036. Vickers, Miranda. Eyots and Aits: Islands of the River Thames. Stroud: The History Press, 2012. Walker, Brian Mercer. Frank Matcham: Theatre Architect. Belfast: Blackstaff Press, 1980. Wilson, David Gordon. The Victorian Thames. Oxford: Oxfordshire Books, 1993. Weinreb, Ben, and Matthew Weinreb. The London Encyclopaedia. 3rd edition. London: Macmillan, 2010.

35 Websites and Blogs including archives, film and image libraries Britain on Film: http://www.bfi.org.uk/britain-on-film British Film Institute: BFI.org.uk British Film Institute: Archive Collections: http://www.bfi.org.uk/archive-collections British Film Institute: Collections Search: http://collections-search.bfi.org.uk/web/ British Film Institute: ScreenOnline: http://www.screenonline.org.uk/history/id/1198129/index.html British Library World War One: https://www.bl.uk/world-war-one British Pathe: https://www.britishpathe.com Collage the London Picture Archive: https://collage.cityoflondon.gov.uk Earls Court and Olympia: https://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/things-to-do/london-metropolitan-archives/the- collections/Pages/earls-court-and-olympia.aspx Exploring 20th Century London: http://www.20thcenturylondon.org.uk Getty Images: http://www.gettyimages.co.uk Grace’s Guide to British Industrial History: https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Main_Page Imperial War Museums: http://www.iwm.org.uk/ Imperial War Museum Film Collections: http://film.iwmcollections.org.uk/site/index Fred Karno and the Karsino - Local History Note on Fred Karno: http://www.richmond.gov.uk/services/libraries/branch_libraries/local_studies_collection/local_history_notes/fre d_karno_and_the_karsino Khaotic: The Fred Karno Story: http://www.khaotic.co.uk/about.html The Library Time Machine Blog has several entries about Earls Court: https://rbkclocalstudies.wordpress.com London Metropolitan Archives: https://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/things-to-do/london-metropolitan- archives/Pages/default.aspx London Screen Archives: https://www.londonsscreenarchives.org.uk Mary Evans Picture Library: http://www.maryevans.com Meanings of Military Service Project includes original First World War material held at the Queen Mary University of London, Royal London Hospital and St Bartholomew’s Hospital archives http://www.meaningsofservice1914.qmul.ac.uk/home The National Archives: http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk The National Archives First World War: http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/first-world-war/ News on screen: http://bufvc.ac.uk/newsonscreen Picture Postcards from the Great War: https://www.worldwar1postcards.com/war-wounded-and-the-ramc.php

Newspapers and Magazines Newspapers and magazines including The Era, The Illustrated London News and The Stage were searched online. The Thames Valley Times and The Richmond and Twickenham Times have yet to be digitized and are only available in either hard copy or microfiche in Richmond upon Thames Local Studies Library and Archive, Richmond. British Newspaper Archive: https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk. The Times Digital Archive is available from Gale via the Public Library System. The Illustrated First World War: http://www.illustratedfirstworldwar.com.

36 Appendix A: First World War newsreels which show men wearing Hospital Blues A comprehensive list of surviving First World War films may be found on the European Film gateway. Films may also be found on YouTube.

British Pathe: British pathe.com. Amputees Learn to Use Artificial Limbs 1916 Amputee Veterans at Queen Mary's Workshop 1914-1919 An Efficient Substitute - Artificial Limbs… 1916 (Close up of ‘Roehampton Pocket’). War Veteran’s Leg brace 1915-1920 War Neuroses Version A Reel 1 1917-1918 War Neuroses Version A Reel 2 1917-1918 War Neuroses Version B Reel 1 1917-1918 War Neuroses Version B Reel 2 1917-1918 (The entire 27 minute War Neuroses film may be watched via the Wellcome Library at http://catalogue.wellcomelibrary.org/record=b1667864)

British Film Institute: BFI.org.uk The BFI also has a YouTube channel where some of the Screen Online films may be viewed The following may be watched on BFI Player: https://player.bfi.org.uk Topical Budget 201-1: Wounded at Kew (1915) Topical Budget 248-2 Empire Day (1916 ) Topical Budget 253-1: Eccentric Club Entertain Wounded Soldiers (1916) Topical Budget 268-2 Devonshire Hospital Buxton 1916 Topical Budget 307-1 Entertaining Soldiers After the Raid (1917) Pathé Frères Cinema: Heroes of Neuve Chapelle Tenderly Cared for at the Queen's Canadian Military Hospital near Shorncliffe (1915)

The following Topical Budget films can only be watched at a BFI Mediatheque (situation in October 2017) Topical Budget 212-2: Special Matinee for the Wounded (1915) Topical Budget 239-2: King Entertains Wounded Soldiers (1916) Topical Budget 245-1: Fleet St. Entertains Disabled Fighters (1916) Topical Budget 250-2: Wounded Tommies Golf Match (1916) Topical Budget 257-1: Staffordshire House Entertains Wounded Soldiers (1916) Topical Budget 260-1: Lord Mayor's Treat to Soldiers (1916) "LORD MAYOR'S TREAT TO SOLDIERS. Over one thousand wounded soldiers being entertained by the Lord Mayor at Karsino. The London Motor Squadron transport the men". Topical Budget 262-2: Wounded Soldiers Trim Hats (1916) Topical Budget 265-2: Wounded Soldiers at Windsor Castle (1916) Topical Budget 269-1: Entertaining 6,000 Overseas Wounded (1916) Topical Budget 308-1: Motorists Entertain Wounded Soldiers (1917)

37 Appendix B: Karsino Planning Applications and Plans The Karsino Plans that survive in the Richmond upon Thames Local Studies Library and Archive are an example of the elusive history of demolished buildings.

Plans were submitted to Hampton Urban District Council (HUDC) Client: Fred Karno Architects & Surveyors: Frank Matcham & Co. Civil Engineers: Shona & Ault

11 November 1912 Taggs Island: PLA/09804 Taggs Island Hotel withdrawn planning application submitted by Fred Karno – file includes letter from Karno on headed notepaper

14 January 1913 Taggs Island: PLA/09667 “Planning application, including 2 plans (1 scanned), for a Conversion, submitted by Frank Matcham This application was for Taggs Island Hotel, Taggs Island (Other).”

The scanned plan which is upside down is: The Revised Basement Plan which shows the outline of the Palm Court, received by the Surveyor’s department on 28 April 1913 and approved by HUDC on 13 May 1913. Drainage letter 27 March 1913 Drainage plan submitted 29 April 1913

March 1913 Hampton Court Road PLA/09666 “Approved planning application, including 4 plans (1 scanned), for a New build, submitted by F Matcham. This application was for Taggs Island Hotel, Hampton Court Road (Other). The application was submitted to the Richmond Planning Authority.”

Scanned Plan is: No2 Basement Plan of Hotel and Ground Plan of Palm Court received by the Surveyor’s department on 14 March 1913

28 March 1913 Taggs Island: PLA/09803 “Planning application, including 20 plans (0 scanned for a, submitted by Matcham”

These are the plans for the steel work and foundations. This envelope includes Foundation Plan received by the Surveyors Dept. 7 March 1913, Approved 11 March 1913. There is also what could be a steel work footings plan for the Palm Court and Lounge showing the concert platform and chair store stamped by Shone & Ault.

13 January 1914 Taggs Island: PLA/09802 “Approved planning application, including 8 plans (8 scanned), for a Extension, submitted by Fred Karno esq This application was for The Karsino - Taggs Island Hotel, Tagg's Island (Other). The application was submitted to the Hampton Planning Authority.”

The table below shows the plans in a logical sequence. 31 October 1912 No1 Basement Plan 31 October 1912 No1a Block Plan 31 October 1912 No2 Ground Floor Plan 31 October 1912 No3 First Floor Plan 31 October 1912 No4 Section A.B.C.D. No date No5 SW Elevation 17 December 1913 Plan of Bar & Serveries Approved 13 January 1914 17 December 1913 Plan of Veranda Approved 13 January 1914

Only 2 of the plans appear to relate to the building as built. I suspect that the plans dated 31 October are the withdrawn plans as they do not resemble photographs of the building that was built.

I have no idea about the source of this statement that the Palm Court was built after the hotel. “In 1914, Karno decided to expand the facilities and added a Palm Court Concert Pavilion with a capacity of 600.” http://www.richmond.gov.uk/services/libraries/branch_libraries/local_studies_collection/local_history_notes/fred_karno_and_the_karsino

38 Illustrations

Figure 1: Topical Budget: Eccentric Club Entertain Wounded Soldiers, opening scene. Source: London Screen Archives

Figure 1: Topical Budget: Eccentric Club Entertain Wounded Soldiers, Screen grab. Source: London Screen Archives

Figure 3: Fred Karno (1866-1941) painting one of his boats on Taggs Island, c1915, Source: General Photographic Agency/Hulton Archive/Getty Images

Figure 4: Fred Karno’s headed notepaper, November 1912. Source: Planning Application PLA 09804 11/11/1912, Richmond upon Thames Local Studies Library and Archive.

40 Figure 5: Thames Hotel. Source: Royal Thames Guide (London: Unwin Brothers, 1902, 58.

Figure 6: Photograph of Tagg’s Island Hotel taken during the great flood of November 18 1894 Source: National Archives: COPY 1/418/631

Figure 7: Tagg’s Island, Percy William Gibbs (fl.1894-1937), oil on canvas, ND. Source: Private Collection / Bridgeman Images

Figure 8: Poster for Venice, the Bride of the Sea at Olympia,1981 Source: United States Library of Congress's Prints and Photographs division via Wikipaedia Commons Wikipaedia Commons.

Figure 9: Astoria as seen in Karsino Booklet, 1913 and on the Thames in 2017 Sources: Richmond upon Thames Local Studies Library and Archive, Tess Nowell

Figure 10: The Karsino Hotel Ballroom in the early 1950s and as it appeared in A Clockwork Orange, 1971. Sources: Casino Hotel: The History of Tagg’s Island, booklet, c1950 Richmond upon Thames Local Studies Library & Archive Bolshy Flatblock:The Buildings of A Clockwork Orange http://www.modernism-in-metroland.co.uk/blog/archives/12-2016

44 Figure 11: The Karsino, Tagg’s Island, Sunday June 22 1913 with the top image showing music hall impresario Fred Karno welcoming guests to the Opening Day. Source: Topical press Agency/Getty Images

45 Figure 12: The Karsino, Tagg’s Island, Sunday June 22 1913, Opening Day. Source: Topical press Agency/Getty Images

Figure 13: Invitation, Menu & Programme from the Karsino Press Launch, June 21 1913. Source: Richmond upon Thames Local Studies Library & Archive

47 Figure 14: The Childrens Fete and Gala at Taggs Island, 16 July 1913 Source: Topical Press Agency/Getty Images

48 Figure 15: Photograph by Joseph Cundall (1818-1895) and Robert Howlett (1831-1858) of wounded soldiers wearing hospital clothing who were seen by Queen Victoria at Brompton Barracks, Chatham, 1855. Copy of the photograph drawn for the Illustrated London News, July 21 1855. Source:RCIN 2500162, Royal Collection Trust/© Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 2017 British Newspaper Archive

Figure 17: Pattern block for Wounded Soldier’s Bed Jacket ‘Loose Prussian collar, fronts buttoning through, sac shape with easy armholes and one-piece sleeves. Made in flannel, after the style of a pyjama jacket.’ Source: The Tailor and Cutter, 20 August 1914. Figure 16: Examples of ‘Convalescents’ (Hospital Blue) uniform in the Imperial War Museum Collection. Described as ‘Waistcoat, serge unlined, hospitals’ the label for this specimen garment also states that the jacket is pattern number 6658, 1898. Close examination of the available photographs suggest that it may have an internal pocket on the left. Photographs 1-4 clearly show the button holes on the left, 5-6 confusingly show the buttons on top, the buttonhole band is underneath. Source:UNI 1243, UNI 12344, UNI 12345 Imperial War Museum

50 Figure 19: Wounded Officers Brassard Source: INS 7531 Imperial War Museum

Figure 18: Postcard by R.W.Stoddart Strafe the Tailor – A bad Fit of the “Blues” Source: Scrapbook of clippings and photographs relating to the 2nd Eastern General Hospital in Brighton Grammar School, vol.III,page 53, Royal Pavilion & Museums, Brighton & Hove

Figure 20: Details from The Doctor I by Frederick Cayley Robinson. Source: Wellcome Images No:L0051537 wellcomeimages.org

51 Figure 21: Is there an internal pocket? Source: British Pathe Film

Figure 22: Disabled Servicemen at Roehampton Hospital, January 1918. Source: Imperial War Museum Photographs, Q108162.

52 Figure 24: Headpiece from the Graphic, showing ‘normal’ breast pockets on Hospital Blues uniforms Source: British Newspaper Archive

Figure 25: Charity Flag day in aid of St Dunstans showing Pockets on Hospital Blues Source: Australian War memorial, REL41104.023 www.awm.gov.au/collection/C1245188

Figure 23: Fag Day Poster Source: Imperial War Museum, Art.IWM.PST 0415

Figure 26: Eccentric Club at Karsino June 24th 1916 Badge Source: Worthpoint.com

53 Figure 27: Seals at the Savoy Hotel Source: Illustrated London News, British Newspaper Archive

Figure 28: Harley-Davidson motorcycle and sidecar outing from St Thomas’s Hospital Source: Illustrated London News, 3 June 1916, British Newspaper Archive

Figure 29: Lord Mayor’s outing to the Karsino, 12 August 1916 Source: Illustrated War News, 14 August 1916, British Newspaper Archive