MUSIC AND WARFARE.

Press, Volume LVIII, Issue 17469, 1 June 1922, Page 11

MUSIC AND WARFARE.

LIFE STORY OF FAMOUS BARITONE. <«EA£L OF ESSEX" SPEAKS. Into the attentive and sympathetic ear of a "Press" representative yesterday Mr A. Hownft-WoTster, of tho "Menie England" Company, related the story of his life. M* Howett-Worster is appearing as the Earl of Essex, and personally ha has all the urbanity, courtliness, ar.d modesty of his celebrated Elizabethan prototype.

"I started singing at an early age," said Mr Howett-Worster, "and people thought a great deal of ray boy's voices I was taken to Westminster Abbey to sing to Sir Frederick 3ridge, who, after hearing me, tcok mo into tho Westminster Abbey choir, where, in return for your services to the State, you receive a very excellent education. Prior to my voice breaking I tsng at ninny big functions in London, I Bang at the Royal Albert Hall with Sir Charles Snntley, a dear old man ho was too. I waa also the first boy soprano to sing alone in the centre transept of the Crystal Palace at a Good Friday sacred concert, again with Sir Charle3 Santley, and other well-known artists.

"WhoD my voice broke I went to Lop vain to tho Josephitee College. At Louvain I studied languages, for I was destined for a commercial career, but I waa more on music than on business. On returning from Louvain I entered tho office of the Liverpool, London, and Globe Insurance Co., London, but while there spent most of my tirao doing little songs and dances in the barement. It was while there that I go* into touch with Charles Collier, brother of Alfred Collier, tho composer of "Dorothy." He started to train my baritone voice, and sent mo to G?orgo Edwardos, at Dalya Theatre. I waa put straight away into the chorus of "Tho Littlo Michu," to tour the principal 'nrovincial towns at tho magnificent sa'.ary of i'2 a week. However, I cot my chance, for on that first tour 1 understudied tho baritone part, and was fortunate enough to eet an opportunity to play the Fame. This took place- 3t Portemouth, Brighton, and tho management of Daly's were enabled to witness my performance. I was hauled back to London and made tho understudy to Louis Bradfield, the juvenile lead at Daly's. There again my good luck stayed with me. Bradfield, who had the reputation of never going sick, actually did go sick, and I got tho chance of playing in London with Evio Green. That appearance in London got mo my first big contract, and I was sent away to South Africa with the Edwardes-VValler Co. to create the part of Princo Danilo in U»« Merry Widow," and other leading parts in tho repertoire. I had a habit in those days of playing for a while and then leaving the company when it finished to see somo other kind cf life. . , . . "When tho African tour was fi™ B *"* l ./ got a job on tho gold mines in the Kafid, and I stayed there for a year. Then I returned to England, and Mr Edwardes gave mo the part of Prince Dauilo with, his touring company at Home. I played that part for eighteen months, and then again I leit tho stage and became interested in the tirst of the British film companies and produced and played in many films in the early days. I had an idea of seeing all th,a world, and my trip to tho Continent and afterwards to Africa whetted this desire. Suddenly I was offered u contract'to go as leading baritonewith an opera company through India and the Far East. I jumped at tko chance, and I had a really wondeliul tour, which included Bombay, Calcutta, _ Penang, Singapore, Hong Kong, Shanghai. When ..ut tour was finished I bad, through my cousin in Calcutta, Captain James Knox, an appointment offered to me in the- Bon al Chamber of Commotes, and I settled down to that work, and also taught in my spare time I also interested myself m local commission in the local Volunteer Corps, and when war *"*•«*£ applied for a commission in the Indian Army, and was attached to the loth Siklis. and was sent to join my regiment, a„ its depot on the north-west frontier province at Dera Ismail Khan. After a period of special training in hill warfare I was Fent to take . over ono of tho mud frontier torts on Uio border of Afghanistan with 18G men and one other subaltern. It was then that we had ono of those jolly little border flare-ups when tho tribesmen become fed up with lite, anu I waa shut up in tho fort at Kajuri Kacli for four months. Wo could get out and got convoys through every now and then, but it was a case of playing chess with the tribesmen, and doing little rearguard .actions to get into the fort again before sunrise it waa a jolly little show, because you learn your job, and you have everything on your own. You report afterwards when you can get neWB through by heliograph. Things quietened down, aand I was pleased to hear one day that we wero being relieved by another regiment who would send out their own detachments to hold the frontier forts. That was in 1915, and we wore ordered to "Mesopotamia, where General Townshcnd, after winning eight pitched battlos, shut himself up in Kut with the remainder of hie force. We arrived there just in time ior all the horriblo mess. There waa no transport, food, or fuel, and no possible chance ot getting through the Turkish linos investing Kut, and in spito of bitter privation we had the unhappy experience of seeing Kut fall. "I was in Mesopotamia until 1916, and waa then invalided back to India. Eventually I was Miodically boarded at Simla, and found unfit for further active service, but as I had a fluent knowledge of Hindustani and other native languages, also French, I wae given a position on the staff, and attached to Brigade Headquarters at Bombay. I carried on there for a year, and was then given another post in Central India, where there were only five white men in a native Rajah's State. Here I had charge of a camp of 4000 Turkish war prisoners, and 300 Turkish and Arab officers, and a nifie crowd they were to handle too. In 1918, having been in tho East for Bis years, with nohome leave; and with my_ two little campaigns chucked in, I broke up altogether, and was invalided Home.

"I arrived in England just before the armistice, and was fortunate enough to be staying at the Savoy in London when the news came through, and it was Bome night. I was hoarded at the Indian Office shortly ! after tho armistice, and invalided out oi tho | army. They gave me a life pension of 80 pounds a year, and a disability pension of 90 pounds, but the latter, I am glad to say, X have now loßt. I could not stand tho English winter, and the doctors advised mo to go to Australia to live, eo I came to Melbourne, where I obtained ajposition as sales manager with Siott and Hoaro, Ltd., and at the same time I was appointed a teacher at tho Melbourne Oonßervatorium, and thero, in conjunction with tho director, Mr Fritz Hart, another old Westminster Abbey Choir boy, and a fine musician, I interested, myself in the production of opera. I produced "The Marriage of Figaro," and played the part of Figaro myself at one of the Melbourne theatres. Messrs Geo. Tallis and John Tait, of the Williamson organisation, witnessed the performance, and made me an offer to join them, but I was under contract with my firm at the time, and could not accept. At the end of my contract Williamsons approached me again, and I signed on for the present tour, which started m Melbourne, and which is to continue in Australia at the close of tho New Zealand season."