Notes on Lowry and War: A Walk in Liverpool 6th July 2014 Part 2

A British trench near the Albert-Bapaume road at Ovillers-la-Boisselle, July 1916 during the Battle of the Somme. The men are from A Company, 11th Battalion, The Cheshire Regiment.

The second set of notes for a walk I led around Liverpool's Business Quarter and Riverfront organised by The Bluecoat, Liverpool.

Read Part 1
Read Part 3

Stop 3 Pierhead, Liverpool 

Lowry makes several references to the Pierhead and the Liver Buildings in his work. Also the setting for a whole chapter in forthcoming publication of previously unpublished novel In Ballast to the White Sea (October 2014).

Pier Head Liverpool Circa 1930s

Lowry's brother Stuart told their father Arthur that if he survived the First World War he would climb the Liver Building and retrieve one of the Liver birds. (Gordon Bowker Pursued By Furies Pg. 14). Stuart returns from WW1 suffering from arthritis of the foot. Stuart apparently shattered by deaths of comrades. Injury prevents a military career. Finishes war as a Captain (Bowker Pg 15) (See Part 1 for Stuart's army service record)

The Liver Building is topped by the Liver Birds which have become symbols for the city. I am sure that Lowry would have appreciated that irony, with his love of birds, that the mythical Liver Birds are based on the cormorant, which is a symbol of deception and greed - a fitting symbol for Lowry's "terrible city whose main street is the ocean" 'Forest Path to the Spring' (Hear Us O Lord etc pg 226)

The Consul recalls the Liver Buildings in Under The Volcano when he returns to Liverpool aboard his Q-ship Samaritan during WW1; "How strange the landing at Liverpool, the Liver Building seen once more through the misty rain, that murk smelling already of nosebags and Caegwyrle Ale.." (Pg. 135).

Shanghai 1927

Lowry sails to Far East in 1927 from Birkenhead - experiences war first hand in China - Chinese Civil War (See short story China) Later claims that scar on knee is as a consequence of being wounded in the Civil War - a Lowry tall story! ( See Bowker Pg 70.)

Lowry refers to Chinese participation in WW1 in his first novel Ultramarine - the Chinese Labour Corps; "We'll put you in the Chinese Labour Corps. The order of the rising sun - tee hee! - for promiscuous gallantry."  (See Chinese Labour Corps)

Cammell Lairds 1940

'Freighter 1940'  One of several  poems referencing Liverpool during the war written in Lowry's "exile" in Vancouver in WW2 (Collected Poetry Pg. 143);

A freighter builds in Birkenhead where rain
Falls in labourers' eyes at sunset. Then 
She's launched! Her iron sides strain as merchants gaze;
A cheer swoops down into titanic ways.

Lowry referencing Cammell Laird shipyard in Birkenhead.

Lowry writes a poem in 1940 entitled 'Epitaph On Our Gardener, Dead Near Liverpool' when he hears of the death of his old friend - George Cooke - the gardener to the Lowry family who lived in Caldy, Wirral.

Lowry makes reference to the bombing and war on Merseyside;

.....Good folk of Wirral,
Empty the sky one instant of evil.....
Let hatred pause a moment. Rest your gun
Against this stone in heart......... (Collected Poems 210.3)

Continuing with theme that Lowry may have felt guilty about being cut off from his family who were threatened by war? (See Bowker Pgs 270-298) for details of early WW2 "exile" in Canada and relations with his family and possible enlistment in British and Canadian armies) - see poems below written in Vancouver circa 1940

The Prodigal speaks:

I have no forgiveness in my soul
And I want to get out of this hell hole (Collected Poems 209.1)

Read 'Draft Board' 1940-45 :

Back broad and straight from crop to hocks.......
Add 25 counts of progeny
See you in Liverpool (Collected Poems 203.3)

Read 'Dream of Departing Soldier'

Good bye, old comrade, of your death I pray
It proves sweet marjoram nor turn caraway. (Collected Poems 204.2)

Read 'Deserter'

In a refrigerator car at Empress,
Then, lying on bare boards in a small room,
Dead...'Should be in England?' 'Home for Christmas?' (Collected Poems 155.13)

Above poem probably based on yet to be identified newspaper article read by Lowry circa Winter 1939 - probably expresses his feeling that he would not fight/desert if forced to enlist - uses irony of over optimistic prediction that war would be over by Christmas which many thought in WW1. Lowry may also be refering to political situation within Canada in 1939 with regards to conscription (Read more about conscription in Canada in WW2)

Over the fields from Upton

That walk they had in the country, over the fields from Upton, "Public footpath to Thingwall". Some stupid boy (or was he, on the contrary, being profound) had turned the red signpost in the opposite direction, towards Wallasey, towards Leasowe, towards the sea. Warm fresh bread and butter with their tea. It was in Greasby they saw the horse in the stable - "dreaming and warm", she had read of someone calling a stable - and in Upton the slate-paved dairy, cold and clear: the primroses in Marples field under the yellow gorse. Ultramarine

The above walk is probably based on a real one undertaken in the Spring of 1927 by Malc and Tess Evans the model for Janet in Ultramarine.

The walk described by Lowry is closely related to the one already discussed in the post Day Out In Saughall Massie. The walk in that excerpt in the novel mentions Saughall Massie Road which runs from Upton to Saughall Massie.

Upton was the home of his brother Stuart and his wife Margot where Lowry felt more at home during the mid-20s than his parent's home in Caldy (see Bowker Pursued By Furies Pg 39). Therefore, we can assume that Malc was familiar with the area and that the walk possibly commenced from Stuart's Corvally - his home in Upton. Or Malc and Tess may have got the bus from West Kirby to Arrowe Park or got off on route as there are several footpaths to Thingwall off Arrowe Brook Lane and Arrowe Brooke Road, which was once used by the West Kirby to Birkenhead bus. The immediate fields around Upton have been consumed by housing and the old road to Saughall Massie ends at a dead end truncated by a new by-pass. Below you can see the the beginning of Saughall Massie Road in Upton and the fields beyond which Malc and Tess walked over:





If they started their walk in Upton - their route could have been down Ford Road - Greasby Road via a footpath which still exists from Greasby Road to Arrowe Brooke Road - Arrowe Brook Lane( where Lowry would have seen the signs to Thingwall)- by footpath near Irby Mill or Mill Lane to Greasby - where they could have returned by Greasby Road to Upton or continued over the fields to Saughall Massie. (See map below for possible route).



Malc and Tess may have got their "warm fresh bread and butter with their tea" at Lumsden's (seen below) at Irby Mill Hill which was popular in the 1920's.



Greasby was still a small village in the 1920's. Malc must have been familiar with Greasby as he mentions the village in a letter to Carol Brown in which he relates a dream about finding a dog on his way to Greasby; the Coach and Horses pub (seen below) is referred to in 'Enter One In Sumptuous Armour'.



The possible location for "the horse in the stable" could have been Greasby Hall Farm:



The dairy in Upton remains unidentified - here are photos of the village in the mid-1920s:




The only reference to a Marple's Field that I have discovered to date is one in Caldy. A farmer named Joseph Henry Marples ran the farm in the centre of the village not far from Inglewood. This may be a case of Malc altering the topography to suit his own creativity which does occur elsewhere in his work.

Lowry may have known that the name Primrose is associated with first love - from the Latin 'primus' - meaning first, due to their early Spring flowering. The primrose is the sacred flower of Freya, the Norse goddess of love and was used in rituals giving honor to her which again may have had significance for Lowry. Lowry was later to use the name Primrose in his novel Dark as the Grave wherein my Friend is Laid and the short story 'Gin and Goldenrod'. By one of those Lowryan coincidences, there is a pub in Liscard called 'The Primrose' not far from where Tess lived and very near the first Lowry family home.

Shenandoah

‘No, that’s no good as a song; we want one of them old sea shanties, one of the real old timers.’ 'Shenandoah.’ Ultramarine

‘Oh Shenandoah’ (also called simply ‘Shenandoah’, or ‘Across the Wide Missouri’) is a traditional American folk song, dating from at least the early nineteenth century. The lyrics may tell the story of a roving trader in love with the daughter of an Indian chief. Other interpretations tell of a pioneer’s nostalgia for the Shenandoah river, and a young woman who is its daughter; or of a Union soldier in the American Civil War, dreaming of his country home to the west of the Missouri river. The song is also associated with escaped slaves, who sang it in gratitude because the river allowed their tracks to be lost.

‘Shenandoah’ was first printed as part of William L. Alden’s ‘Sailor Songs’, in the July 1882 issue of Harper’s New Monthly Magazine. The song had become popular as a sea shanty with British sailors by the 1880s. The lyrics were printed in Sea Songs and Shanties, collected by W. B. Whall, Master Mariner (1910). A Mr J. E. Laidlaw of San Francisco reported hearing a version sung by a black Barbadian sailor aboard the Glasgow ship Harland in 1894, which went:

Oh, Shenandoah! I hear you calling!
Away, you rolling river!
Yes, far away I hear you calling,
Ha, Ha! I’m bound away across the wide Missouri.
My girl, she’s gone far from the river,
Away, you rolling river!
An’ I ain’t goin’ to see her never.
Ha, Ha! I’m bound away,’ &c





The above lyrics from Sea Songs and Shanties, collected by W. B. Whall may be near to what Lowry knew or heard on board Pyrrhus.

Bollocky Bill

Bollocky Bill, aspiring writer, drawn magically from the groves of the Muses by Poseidon. Ultramarine

The mythical Bollocky Bill – reputed to have been most generously testicled – was commemorated in the bawdy ballad ‘Bollocky Bill the Sailor’, a traditional folk song originally titled ‘Abraham Brown’. ‘Bollocky’ is pronounced and occasionally spelt ‘bollicky’, and may also be a reference to being left-handed or clumsy.

There are several versions of the bawdy song in the Gordon ‘Inferno’ Collection in the US Library of Congress. The first printed version of the song is in the public domain book Immortalia (1927). Later versions feature the eponymous ‘Barnacle Bill’, a fictional character very loosely based on a nineteenth-century San Francisco sailor and Gold Rush miner, William Bernard. There are also known versions in England and Scotland from the early twentieth century.



It is impossible to determine when Lowry first heard the song. The earliest known recording is an expurgated adaptation by Carson Robison and Frank Luther in 1928:



This version was also recorded on May 21, 1930 by Bix Beiderbecke and Hoagy Carmichael with Carson Robison on vocals and released as a Victor 78, V-38139-A and 25371 with another Lowry jazz hero Joe Venuti on the session. This recording, made during the writing of Ultramarine, may have prompted Lowry to adapt the persona of the mythical seaman.

One version of ‘Barnacle Bill’ refers to an exchange between Bill and a ‘fair young maiden’. Each verse opens with inquiries by the maiden, sung by women, or by men in falsetto, and continues with Bill’s profane responses, sung by men:

‘Who’s that knocking at my door? Who’s that knocking at my door?
Who’s that knocking at my door?’ said the fair Young Maiden…
‘It’s me and my crew and we’ve come for a screw!’ said Barnacle Bill the Sailor.
‘It’s me and my crew and we’ve come for a screw!’ said Barnacle Bill the Sailor.

Alternative responses:
‘It’s only me from over the sea’ said Barnacle Bill the Sailor.
‘It’s only me from over the sea’ said Barnacle Bill the Sailor.

‘Open the door, you pox-ridden whore!’ said Barnacle Bill the Sailor.
‘Open the door, you pox-ridden whore!’ said Barnacle Bill the Sailor.

‘Open the door, you dirty whore!’ said Barnacle Bill the Sailor.
‘Open the door, you dirty whore!’ said Barnacle Bill the Sailor.

This version of the song would suit the character of Dana at the point in Ultramarine at which he prepares to lose his virginity in the brothels of Dairen. Dana’s obsession, besides his guilt at the prospect of being unfaithful to his love Janet, is that he will catch syphilis from a prostitute. Another dimension to the introduction of the Bollocky Bill persona is that Lowry considered himself to be clumsy. Lowry endows Dana with the same clumsiness, which is constantly being reinforced by the crew of the ship.

Here is the Bix Beiderbecke version:

West Cheshire Golf Course

Spring on the West Cheshire Golf Links, with its background of cylindrical brick- red gas works Ultramarine

The West Cheshire Golf course was formed in September 1908 and went into liquidation on 7th June 1952.

The course occupied 2 sites as indicated on the map above. The first course occupied the former Bidston Moss to the east of the Birkenhead to New Brighton Railway and south of the line to Seacombe with the club house and first tee lying to the north across the Seacombe line. The course could be reached by an underpass under the Seacombe branch line. The first course moved from this site sometime in the mid-30s possibly due to the expansion of Birkenhead Docks with the construction of Bidston Dock which can been seen on the above map (click on image to enlarge) and in the photo below.


This expansion is referred to here:

The low-lying land north of Bidston, the site of the old West Cheshire Golf Course, is suited to port industries. The latest of the docks, Bidston Dock, at the head of the West Float, gives shipping facilities Merseyside Plan 1944

The original course became a municipal tip in 1936 which gradually expanded across the former course into the 90s.

The original course is the one referred to by Lowry in Ultramarine which we can assume he used with Tess Evans ( the basis of the character Janet in Ultramarine). Lowry himself was a member of Caldy Golf Club as a youth and later was a member of the Royal Liverpool Club at Hoylake. We can only speculate why he used the West Cheshire course rather than the ones at Caldy and Hoylake. Certainly, the West Cheshire was nearer to Tess's home in Liscard, she may have been a member or perhaps Malc was "hiding" with her at the West Cheshire from the prying eyes of his family and their friends? You can see the course's clubhouse which Malc and Tess would have used on the left of the photo below.


The gas works which Lowry referred to in Ultramarine was located the east of the course in Gorsey Lane, Wallasey which would have been clearly visible from the east end of the original course.


The only meaningful mention of the course in local newspapers I could find related to winding up of the club. However, the most detailed mention of the course is in Bill Houldin's Up Our Lobby which refers to the West Cheshire Artisans based at the course but also talks about caddying at the course. The book includes this description:

The West Cheshire Course was situated around what was the Wallasey Pool, (now Bidston Dock). The Pool was simply an irregularly shaped, grassy banked stretch of water. On one side ran the Wrexham/Wallasey railway, and on the other side up to the road bridge, the golf course. The course followed the line of the pool and then took a right turn following the road past what is now the incinerator. It went up to what is now the Co-op Coal Depot, but which then was a railway engine sheds. It then took a right turn again. It was a nice undulating and interesting course and bred many fine golfers... The clubhouse itself was on one side of a dirt road which starting at the first tee and going under the Wrexham/Wallasey Railwayb line bridge, would stretch for three or four hundred yards up the hill to Breck Road, Poulton... The Professionals Shop and Caddies Stand were on the opposite side of this sunken, dirt road. They were connected by a wooden bridge which lay alongside the railway bridge, both crossing the sunken dirt road at this point.The Caddies' Shed was just that, an open-ended wooden structure, roofed in with corrugated iron and having a dirt floor. Nothing here to encourage the lazy tomlounge about.




The second course was located west of the New Brighton to Birkenhead line occupying the former Bidston Aerodrome site as seen below:


The above map appears on the site of a former member of the club - Bert Gadd:

My new club, West Cheshire, just down the road from Hoylake, now lies partly under the M53 motorway having been wound up half a century ago, so I guess my course record 63 is safe.The Life and Times of Bert Gadd – Professional Golfer

Bert Gadd's mention of the club is one of the few on the Net. Another refers to the role of the course in WW2:

The West Cheshire Golf Course, of which my parents and I were members, was taken over to decoy German aircraft to hopefully bomb wide open spaces. The job of some brave folks, as air-raids started, was go out setting light to the many oil filled pots. The deception worked, the only problem being that some of the nearby homes including ours) suffered damage.

The old course received many bombs creating the abundance of "ready made" bunkers. However, as the estimate to reconstruct the course was prohibitive, the compensation money given by the government was used to build a new course - the clubhouse having escaped damage. WW2 Talk

Both former sites are now virtually unrecognisable due to the first being used as a tip and the second being consumed by a motorway, access roads and a retail park. There is sparse information existing about the course unlike Caldy and the Royal Liverpool - the course has virtually disappeared off the map and local consciousness. It must be noted that the course was not connected to Bidston Golf Club which still exists on land adjacent to the second course.

The original West Cheshire course and the later tip are now Bidston Moss Nature Reserve.

This triangular piece of land sandwiched between the River Birket, the M53 and A554 was designated as a Local Nature Reserve in 1994.

Although vastly changed from the salt marsh of the original mossland it is an important wildlife site in North Wirral, particularly for its ponds, reedbed and marshland.

Approximately eight hectares in size the site has had a varied history. The construction of a sea wall in 1847 along the eastern limit of Wallasey Pool effectively destroyed the salt marsh at Bidston. Land drainage and the canalisation of the River Birket allowed the construction of roads and buildings.

The adjacent golf course was constructed in 1890, while land forming the present nature reserve continued to be used for grazing until the 1970's. Part of the reserve's land was then used for tipping builders rubble - particularly the mound in the north-east corner.

It was declared a Site of Biological Interest in 1980 and improved in 1984 by the construction of ponds, paths and boardwalks together with tree and wildflower planting. Since then it has been managed by the Wirral Ranger Service. Read more

The Scala Theatre, Birkenhead

"Where shall we go? The Hippodrome or the Argyle? ..... I've heard there's a good show on at the Scala -" Ultramarine

I have already posted about this line in Malc's Ultramarine under the title The Smells of Birkenhead and Liverpool. I now realise that I incorrectly stated the theatre Lowry was referring to was the cinema in Lime Street Liverpool. However, I now believe that he was referring to the former Scala Theatre in Birkenhead since the other 2 theatres he mentions are both in Birkenhead. What caused me to change my mind was finding a 1927 programme for the Scala in Birkenhead. The scene in Ultramarine is probably based on Lowry's youthful excursions to Birkenhead theatres with Tess Evans.



The Scala Theatre was originally called the Theatre Royal opening at 51/53 Argyle Street, Birkenhead on 31st October 1864. The theatre was altered after a fire in 1892, extensively modernised in 1905 and introduced cinema into the programmes in 1910.

Under pressure from cinema, the Theatre Royal closed in January 1921. The new proprietors Sol and Alfred Levy spent a fortune in converting the theatre to a modern picture house. James S. Bramwell was in charge of the reconstruction, Arnold Auerbach, a Liverpool artist, provided the designs and J.A. Milestone was in charge of building work.



The cinema had a well-proportioned hall, on the right hand side of which was the main stairway to the balcony and café. On the newel post (or central pillar) was an ornamental ruby red brazier balanced by two similar lights on opposite walls. Entrance to the stalls was via a screen of pillars and the main lounge hall. The latter was of a Neo Graeco influence and sported artistically-illuminated semi-archaic panels of black murals depicting Greek legends. Indeed the foyer had a temple-like atmosphere.

On passing into the auditorium the most noticeable feature was the proscenium. The projection equipment was somewhat a novel to the area with films being projected from behind the stage rather than from the front of the screen. This necessitated the screen being transparent to the film yet opaque in terms of the audience not being able to see either the projectionist or his equipment.



The brightly decorated stage set was set off by glowing blue background. The proscenium opening was flanked by two tall piers, colossal gilded masks and decorative, lacquered lanterns. Both the piers and the cross beam were adorned with painted figures. Ceiling lights compromised four sculptured figures standing on an illuminated sphere and holding lighted globes in their hands. Lighting was supplemented by jewel lamps of quaint design. The orchestra pit was deeply recessed below floor level.

At that time this was the only cinema in the town to have a café, which was a lofty room to the left of the main stairway. It was finished in crimson, black, gold and blue with large, red-framed wall decorations and richly coloured lights suspended from the ceiling. The décor f the ante-rooms and corridors was in harmony with that of the main building. The Silver Screens of Wirral: A History of Cinemas in Birkenhead and Bebington by P.A. Carson & C.R. Garner



The cinema re-opened on 25th April 1921 as the Scala Picture House. The cinema had daily matinees at 3.00pm and continuous performances from 6.30 to 10.30pm. In 1927, the licensee and manager was Cyril Levy, circle cost 1 shilling and 6 pence, the stalls 1 shilling and the upper circle 5 pence. The Scala was the first cinema in Bikenhead to show “talkies” in August 1929. In February 1930 the Scala was taken over by Associated British Cinemas and soon after closed for redecoration. The Scala finally closed on 6th February 1937 and was demolished to be replaced with a new cinema called the Savoy.

One of the interesting things which struck me when I obtained a programme for the Scala, dated November 14th 1927, was the contents of the programme which was a mixture of live performance and movies. Here is a break down of the programme for that week in 1927 which may have been similar to what Malc and Tess may have seen:

Gaumont Graphic
The Gaumont Graphic was a silent newsreel which was issued from 25 October 1910 to 29 December 1932. In November 1929, Gaumont launched a new sound newsreel, the Gaumont Sound News, and for the next three years the Graphic functioned as its silent counterpart for smaller cinemas which did not possess sound. After the demise of the Gaumont Graphic, the Gaumont Sound News continued until the launch of the Gaumont British News in 1934.

The initial editorial arrangements of the Gaumont Graphic are unknown, but from 1913 it was edited by Alec Braid. In 1915 Braid was replaced by Alexander Victor, but by the following year Victor had himself been replaced by Louis Behr, who remained in editorial control of the Gaumont Graphic and Gaumont Sound News until 1934.
British Universities Film & Video Council



You can find every surviving Gaumont Graphic clip by searching JISC MediaHub

Tony Hargreaves and Dorothy Dodd
Unfortunately, I cannot find anything on this act except what it says in the programme - in musical and character studies.

Talbot O'Farrell



I couldn't really find too much about Talbot O'Farrell even though he was very popular in the 20s and 30s and even made a film directed by Michael Powell called Born Lucky.

TALBOT O'FARRELL

Titles read: "Pathetone now has pleasure in presenting - The famous Variety, Screen & Radio Star Talbot O'FARRELL." London (probably Pathe Studio). Various shots of Talbot O'Farrell standing beside a piano in traditional 'Irishman' costume of a light-coloured top hat, dark double-breasted suit, light trousers and spats. He does a bit of patter about the silly titles of songs being sung nowadays. He then sings an Irish song called 'Little Green Heaven' (about Ireland, naturally). We see superimposed shots of the Irish countryside and the pretty colleen who is waiting for Talbot. British Pathe

Here is Talbot singing All that I want is in Ireland:

TALBOT O'FARRELL

Full titles read: "And now 'Pathetone' introduces another celebrated Artist on the screen - Talbot O'Farrell - the famous Variety Star." London, probably Pathe Studio. M/S of a man in tails sitting at a grand piano and playing. Variety star Talbot O'Farrell enters, looking very smart in a top hat and suit. He does a bit of patter and then sings an Irish comedy song, 'Casey's Charabanc', a jaunty song about various characters and events on a charabanc trip. At the end of the song he starts clapping, to encourage the cinema audience! He says he is going to sing a different kind of Irish song, one that he sang for Their Majesties the King and Queen at the Command Performance, called 'Come Back To Ireland And Me'. Talbot sings the sentimental song - an Irish Mother's lament.
British Pathe

Mismates
(1926) American
B&W : Seven reels / 2104 metres
Directed by Charles Brabin



Cast: Doris Kenyon [Judy Winslow], Warner Baxter [Ted Carroll], May Allison [Belle], Philo McCullough [Jim Winslow], Charles Murray [Black], Maude Turner Gordon [Mrs. Winslow], John Kolb [Watson], Cyril Ring [Helwig], Nancy Kelly [Jimsy], Betty Byrne

Distributed by First National Pictures, Incorporated. / Supervising producer Earl Hudson. Scenario by Sada Cowan, from a play by Myron C. Fagan. / Released 26 July 1926. / Standard 35mm spherical 1.37:1 format. / The film was released in Austria in 1927, and in Germany in 1928.

Drama.

Survival Status: (unknown)



Mismates was based on the Myron C. Fagan stage play of the same name. Doris Kenyon (above) plays a pretty young woman of modest means who doesn't know what she's in for when she marries wealthy Philo McCullough. The groom's over-protective mother not only refuses to recognize the marriage, but she also denies Kenyon access to the family home -- for five long years! McCullough's snooty relatives try to rid themselves of Kenyon by framing the girl for a crime she didn't commit. But our heroine escapes from jail to get the last laugh on her despicable in-laws. Halfway through the film, director Charles J. Brabin tries and fails to emulate Cecil B. DeMille with an extravagant society party, which makes about as much sense as the rest of picture. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi


I was interested to discover that the film's director was born in Liverpool:

Charles J. Brabin (April 17, 1882 in Liverpool, England - November 3, 1957 in Santa Monica, California) was an American film director and screenwriter. He was active during the silent era, then pursued a short-lived career in talkies.

Born in Liverpool, England, he was educated at St. Francis Xavier College. Brabin sailed to New York in the early 1900s and, while holding down odd jobs there, he tried his hand as a stage actor. He joined the Edison Company around 1908, first acting then writing then directing. His last film was A Wicked Woman for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1934.

Brabin wed silent-film "vamp" star Theda Bara (seen below) in 1921, remaining married to her until her death from abdominal cancer in April 1955 and becoming one of the rare long-lasting Hollywood marriages. Wikipedia

Full filmography of Charles Brabin



I was fascinated while researching this post to discover a Liverpool born artist new to me - Arnold Auerbach 1898-1978:



This self-portrait was drawn on Auerbach's return to London from the continent at the age of twenty-four. It bears the impress of the late quattrocento, recalling portraits by Piero della Francesca and Giovanni Bellini. As a sort of 'coming of age' portrait 'it is a summation of his student days; an avowal of his powers as a draughtsman and an anticipation of the art world opening before him.' (Elizabeth Harvey-Lee, Arnold Auerbach, 1998).

Auerbach was born in Liverpool to second-generation immigrants, his grandfather having come from Poland. In his Sculpture: a Brief History, one of a number of books on the subject, Auerbach wrote that drawing was the link, the common factor, between painting and sculpture. Having studied previously at the Liverpool School of Art, been invalided out of the army in 1918 two years after being drafted at the age of eighteen, he exhibited in 1919 at the Maddox Street Gallery and in 1921 at the Walker Art Gallery.

Through the 1920s Auerbach worked as an architectural sculptor on the interiors of art-deco buildings, including for the palace of the Nawab of Rampur in India. In the later 1920s and early 1930s his style changed from reflecting an awareness of ancient Egyptian stance, simplification and monumentality of form to experimentation with the broken forms, angularity and semi-abstract patterning of cubism. He later worked at the Beckenham Art School, the Regent Street Polytechnic and the Chelsea School of Art variously teaching architecture, sculpture, still life and portrait painting. Ill-health forced him to give up sculpture in the 1950s, by which time he had returned to naturalism. Invaluable Find.com

You can view some examples of his work at the Invaluable.com site.

Lowry Book Covers 4

GALLIMARD .. 1978.. In-8 Carré. Broché. Bon état. Couv. convenable. Dos satisfaisant. Intérieur frais. 263 pages. Traduit de l'anglais par Clarisse Francillon et Jean-Roger Carroy. Postface de Jean-Roger Carroy.


DENOËL .. 1965.. In-8 Carré. Broché. Etat d'usage. Couv. légèrement passée. Dos satisfaisant. Intérieur acceptable. 265 pages. Couverture rempliée. Ecriture au stylo sur la page de titre. Traduit de l'anglais par Clarisse Francillon et Jean-Roger Carroy. Postface de Jean-Roger Carroy. Les lettres nouvelles dirigée par Maurice Nadeau.

Perim Island

Malc visited the island on his Far East voyage in 1927 aboard Pyrrhus where the ship stopped to refuel. The island features in several of his works including Ultramarine.

I recently came across a fascinating site about the island's colonial history:

Perim Island (also known as Barim, Mayyun, Meyun) is a volcanic island located 90 miles west of Aden in the Straits of Bab-el-Mandeb, 1 ½ miles from the Arabian coast and 11 miles from the African coast. The island has a surface area of 13 square kilometers and rises to 65 meters. It was formerly part of the Aden Colony.

Albuquerque landed on Perim in 1513 and named it Vera Cruz. Later, for a short while, it became a base for pirates till they concluded there was no available fresh water, even after digging 15 fathoms, and moved elsewhere.

The East India Company took possession of Perim Island in 1799 and it was garrisoned by a force from Bombay led by Lieutenant-Colonel Murray. Their stay was short-lived as it was found unsuitable as a military position for preventing French troops from Egypt from proceeding to India.

The demands of increased shipping in the Red Sea prompted the Indian Government to build a lighthouse and Perim Island was re-occupied in 1857.

By 1861 a dark blue stone lighthouse had been built and lit on Perim Island. Located 0.95 km to the south west of Obstruction Point. It was 38 feet in height from base to vane. When the tower was rebuilt in 1912 it reached 81 feet. There was a one minute interval of revolution of the flash which could be seen from 22 miles in clear weather. Quarters were built for a detachment of 50 native infantry, under the command of a European officer, who were relieved every 2 months

Perim Island was used as a coaling station but the Perim Coal Company, which had been in fierce competition with rival, Luke Thomas of Aden, closed down in 1936, and Perim's small harbour was then closed to shipping.

Water was never found on Perim Island, which has always made its occupation difficult. After bringing water supplies from Aden and then considering a reservoir to collect rainwater it was decided, as in Aden, that a condenser to produce distilled water was more suitable.

By 1959 there were just 300 people living on Perim Island, mainly in the Arab fishing village of Meyun. The people took no practical part in the life of the Colony of Aden. In 1959 the Aden Colony Executive and Legislative Councils were relieved of responsibility for the administration of Perim Island but it remained part of Aden Colony with the executive and administrative power vested in the Governor. Read more on Perim Island The Last Colonial Outpost.




See Perim Island 1927 on Postcards from Malc