© Martyn Everett
Reprinted from Saffron Walden Historical Journal No. 37- Spring 2019
Gracie Fields was an actress and singer who became a star of both cinema and music hall. Born in a flat over her grandmother’s chip shop in Rochdale in 1898, she made her first stage performance at the age of seven, gradually making her name on the stage, while working half-time in a cotton mill and spending the rest of the week at school. A successful career on the stage and in West End revues in the 1920s led to her first film ‘Sally in Our Alley’ (1931), which was a major box office hit, and gave her the song which became her theme, ‘Sally’, which she sang at every performance.
Her ‘rags to riches’ story, combined with a general commitment to supporting children’s charities and Rochdale football team, made her one of the most popular entertainers in Britain in the 1930s. So it was a major event when ‘goldenhearted, golden-voiced’ Gracie Fields came to Saffron Walden in November 1935 to open the new wing at the London Road Hospital, which included a children’s ward.
The new wing at the hospital consisted of three private wards, an observation and nurses’ duty room, in addition to the eight-bed children’s ward. Built to overcome the inadequate provision for child patients, which had been a concern for years, it cost nearly £2,000 to construct. Over £900 was raised by a fete held at Shortgrove, Newport, and additional funds came from the merchants of the Corn Exchange, an exhibition in the Town Hall and by public subscription. Although scheduled to arrive at 4 pm, it was not until 4.15 that the enormous crowd, which had gathered outside the hospital grounds, were able to give Gracie a welcoming cheer as she arrived from Ealing. According to the local newspaper: As the large saloon car came down the Newport road and turned into the lane leading to the side entrance of the hospital, the crowd surged forward, and it was held up by enthusiastic admirers cheering and waving greetings.
Miss Field, it was seen, was wearing a blue dress with a coat and cape of the same shade, a hat to match, with a turned-up brim and an eye-veil partly hid her abundant red hair.1 Gracie was accompanied by Victoria Hopper, star of the recently-released film ‘Lorna Doone’, flamboyantly dressed in pink with a hat of the same shade. She was accompanied by her husband, the well-known actor, writer and film producer, Basil Dean, who later became head of ENSA, the government-sponsored organisation responsible for taking live performances to the armed services during the Second World War.
A guard of honour was provided by the St John Ambulance unit, and the Town Band played one of Gracie’s popular songs, ‘Sing As We Go’, as the guests-of-honour were met by the local MP and chairman of the Hospital, Sir William Foot Mitchell, who gave her a golden key to open the new wing. Gracie Fields made her speech opening the ward in the huge marquee of circus tent proportions erected on the lawn at the front of the building, and packed to capacity. She was on a tour of the hospital, including the new wing, when she came to the verandah, where a piano had been strategically placed. Gracie gave the crowd what it had hoped for and sang for them. In the spontaneous, infectious way which had delighted the audience at the opening ceremony, she said ‘Come on, all together’, and the crowd joined in, and the words, ‘Sing as we go, and let the world go by’, rang out over the town. One small boy from Catmere End, Ronald Blake, was so impressed that he wrote about it many years later:
Another day I shall not forget was a lovely hot Saturday, when Gracie Fields came to Saffron Walden Hospital to open the new children’s wing. Us children went with our Mum all dressed up in our Sunday best. We stood inside the hospital grounds with hundreds of other people. I remember she arrived in a large car with Victoria Hopper. She was handed the gold key by the mayor of Saffron Walden. It was a great treat for a young lad of eight or nine to have seen the great Gracie Fields. I saw Victoria Hopper in the film Lorna Doone with John Loder.2
References
1. Independent Press & Chronicle, 15.11.1935.
2. Blake, R., Original Mss.
The Gibson Library, Saffron Walden.
Photographs by courtesy The Gibson Library, Saffron Walden.
