H Leslie's Gay Lieutenants, Plymouth Pier, 1909

I recently bought this rare postcard off ebay for just 99p! Amazingly, the picture was taken in September, 1909 so it's exactly 100 years old.

The photo features H Leslie's Gay Lieutenants and the picture was taken on Plymouth Pier. Although little is known about the group, they were probably a theatrical troop and would maybe have made appearances at other venues within the town. Their names are written in ink on the photo and these include Jack Willcox, Walter Banett, Fred Shephard, Jack Waller, Ella Elgar and Cecilia Gold. A note on the back of the postcard reads, 'Jack Waller married Cecilia Gold in 1910.'

H Leslie appears in theatre history and the earliest reference I can find of him is a playbill announcing a performance of 'H Leslie's celebrated London company, in The Princess of Trebizonde, at the New Theatre Royal, Park Row, Bristol, 18 September 1871.' He is billed as an orchestra leader which would suggest that the Gay Lieutenants were a musical troop. Other references show that H Leslie wrote songs with a fellow composer, G. A. MacFarren. One of the songs that Leslie wrote in the 1800s was, 'Speed on,my bark, speed on!' with an M Dee. At the same time, there is a composer mentioned called Henry Leslie and this is probably the same person. He is also listed as Henry T Leslie.

Of the troop, only Fred Shephard and Jack Waller's names appear in later productions. Jack Waller went on to compose songs for music hall and to put on stage shows with his business partner, Herbert Clayton. These included, 'Good News' in 1929 and 'Tell her the Truth', in 1933 which featured music by Waller. The partnership of Clayton and Waller was still producing stage shows as late as 1964, although it's hard to tell if they were both still alive then. Waller wrote many songs for shows including, 'Got the Bench, Got the Park', 'Roll Away Clouds' and 'Babying You' with his writing partner, Joseph Tunbridge. Shows that they wrote music for included, 'Silver Wings', Yes, Madam' and 'Princess Charming', all now long forgotten. Waller and Tunbridge would have been well known in their day.

Fred Shephard wrote, 'Have we got the wind up, no not likely', another song that has long been forgotten.

It's amazing how much has changed in the 100 years since this photo was taken and anyone turning up to see a show called the Gay Lieutenants today would probably expect to see a whole different sort of act!