ARCHIVE: Archive of letters, programs, and ephemera.
I. A Scots Harpist in the Great War:
Patuffa Kennedy-Fraser and ‘Miss Lena Ashwell’s concert parties in France’
36 items relating to the First World War performances for the troops by the Scottish harpist and folksinger Patuffa Kennedy-Fraser, daughter of, and collaborator with, the celebrated folklorist Marjory Kennedy-Fraser (1857-1930).
The collection includes PKF’s diary of her tour of the Front in 1917, as part of ‘the first entirely ladies party’ of ‘Miss Lena Ashwell’s concert parties in France’; together with a short holograph memoir of that tour; a letter to patron of Literature, Harriet Moody on the same subject; with nineteen letters from women involved in the war effort; seven letters from soldiers on active service (including two privates, and an Indian (Sikh) serviceman); a list by PKF of her concerts between 1916 and 1919; and three letters and two cards from PKF to her mother.
The diary, with memoir and associated correspondence, provides a valuable insight into a largely-overlooked aspect of the contribution of women to the Great War. PKF’s efforts to entertain the troops, both at home and abroad, are fully recorded here, with her tour of the front with one of Lena Ashwell’s concert parties as the centrepiece. Item Two describes how PKF was one of a party of ‘seven ladies, a soprano, contralto, violinist, cellist, reciter, accompanist, myself and harp’, who left London on 6 January 1917 for a month-long tour of the Western Front (the first fortnight based at Rouen and the second at Havre), giving ‘over sixty concerts – three a day – and in the first fortnight, motored 790 miles in open cars’ during ‘what must have been the coldest four weeks of this winter’. Audiences ‘numbered 8 or 900 though more than once we had as many as 2000, and in every case they showed genuine enthusiasm and real appreciation’.
In three sections:
A. By Patuffa Kennedy-Fraser
B. To Patuffa Kennedy-Fraser from women involved in the war effort
C. To Patuffa Kennedy-Fraser from soldiers on active service
A. By Patuffa Kennedy-Fraser
ONE. Manuscript diary covering the period of PKF’s concerts on the Western Front around Rouen and Havre, with entries dating from 6 January to 4 February 1917. 29pp., 16mo. In pencil. On loose leaves detached from volume. The diary begins with PKF and the other six ladies leaving Waterloo for Southampton, and crossing over to Havre, whence they travel to Rouen: ‘had dinner 8.30 at Grand Hotel du Nord just underneath the grand clock discussed programme & went to bed in nice warm rooms & comfortable beds mine No 31 – steam heated. Some one singing songs next door’. The troupe’s first concert is on 8 January at the ‘RE & RAMC Camp’, in front of a ‘very nice’ audience, and within two days they are in their stride with three concerts: ‘No 10 Hospital all convalescent. Very enthusiastic. 2nd & 3rd at Army Ordnance Head Quarters – 1st. ASC & others – still more enthusiastic – good band 2nd all ASC. Ripping audience. […] 25 per cent Scotch officers […] Chairman on Monday: “We not only pleased the ear but the eye & he felt a blot on the landscape & tried to hide the whole time behind the piano.” Chairman of 1st. ASC “had never heard such an amount of talent in as short a time before”.’ The entry for 12 January gives a good idea of the routine: ‘3 concerts | Coffee & rolls – wrote letters – out – wet again. Went to A.P.O. with NF. Back for lunch & left at 2.20 for Hospital 11. Convalescent audience tea at mess then went off to see St Georges 3 beds which were together under canvas – Then on to another ward but failed to find any others. Then by car to R.E. hut close by. Gorgeous audience nothing but candles for foot lights as a new hut. 2 broken strings. Miss Humphry spoke said men had told her of us M McElroy spoke too of Uncle Charlie & grandfather. Greeted by Scotch men all down the line. Letters before leaving but none for me. A big bunch of Scottish Red Cross at Hospital 11 – only two men not Scots very smoky hut but no rodents, back at 10 & bed at 11.20’. While it is clear from her diary that PKF’s troupe are being shielded from the full horrors of war, there are hints throughout of the true nature of the conflict. On 2 February she reports without comment: ‘Heard a man had frozen to death in tent close by. Blankets slipped off’. The diary reveals the nature of what are described in the memoir (Item 2 below) as two ‘events of considerable excitement which we were not allowed to mention in our letters’. The first, described in the memoir as a night on which the troupe ‘continued our concert for what seemed in our state of tension an interminable time without lights’, is in the diary entry for 12 January quoted above; and the second, described in the memoir as an occasion on which ‘we were obliged to wait when in our cars on the way to a concert whilst a procession of unusual interest passed’, is revealed in the diary entry of 8 January as a ‘procession of German prisoners’ which the troupe, on their way in a ‘big car’ to their first concert, were forced to allow to ‘pass by front of Motor’.
TWO. Memoir titled ‘Concerts at the Front’. Holograph. 3pp., 4to. Signed ‘Patuffa Kennedy-Fraser’. Extracts from the first paragraph of this jaunty account feature above. The second paragraph begins. ‘Our instruments were a constant responsibility, as everwilling officers and tommies insisted upon carrying them on our arrival at the Y.M.C.A. hut or other destination and the difficulty lay in them not knowing how to handle them. I have discovered my harp in many curious positions – often upside down, rarely right side up. […] We began usually with a hospital concert at 2.30 and it was while waiting at No 10 General Hospital for our cars to come and convey us to our next destination that I discovered our three St Georges beds were close at hand. There was just time to visit them so I set off with a sister and doctor, in the rain, to find the tent where they are housed. The patients were all three very weak so I stood only for a short time, but I have a very vivid picture in my mind of that rain-beaten tent with its ten for a dozen patients all more or less seriously ill. […] One of the outstanding incidents to us was our visit to an Indian hospital [described in Item One at 18 January 1917] where we were each decorated at the beginning of the concert with a wreath of red and white carnations placed round our necks by the hut leader. The wreath was made of flower heads strung on white ribbon.’
THREE. Autograph list of concerts by PKF between 1916 and 1919. 4pp., 4to. Dates and places are given for each concert, the exception being the entry for ‘June 6th. To Feb 4th.’: ‘“Concerts at the Front” Rouen & Havre France 62 Concerts (50 Camps & 12 Hospitals)’. From PKF’s return from America in September 1916, almost all of her public performances on the list relate to the war, with concerts at venues including the Endell Street Military Hospital in London, and others at the Epping War Hospital Depot, the Fulham Military Hospital, and such organisations as the British Red Cross, the Scottish Women’s Hospitals and the Prisoners of War Fund.
FOUR. ACS from PKF to her aunt Margaret Kennedy of the Royal Academy of Music, postmarked 7 January 1917. The card reads: ‘YMCA. A.P.O.2. B.E.F | Perfect crossing – Calm as a millpond – full moon | All of us quite well on the way. We are the first entirely ladies party seven of us – cello – violin – accompanist – 3 singlers & myself | love from Tuffa’.
FIVE to SEVEN. Three ALsS from PKF (both signed ‘Tuffa’) to her mother Marjory Kennedy-Fraser. The first two on YMCA letterheads (‘On Active Service | With the British Expeditionary Force’). First ALS: ‘Jan 26 1917 Y.M.C.A. A.P.O.I. B.E.F.’ 2pp., 4to. ‘This I feel the work I would rather do than anything else. Because when one sees how the men not only appreciate but seem to hunger for the concerts you feel you would give 6 a day instead of 3 - ! of course the cold is sometimes frantic but I am properly protected when fully covered & besides one didn’t come out for comfort!’ Second ALS: Undated. ‘(Y.M.C.A. A.P.O.I. B.E.F.) <FIO.7?> Canadian Stationary Hospital Dalhousie Unit. BEF.’ ‘Major Murray took me to his (Colonel Stewart) room yesterday after the concert & when I told him about the new volume – he said – “has your mother put in the air I sang her” & he whistled it there & then – At dinner last night I had a young Macleod next me who was all thro Dalhousie with Geordie with him also. Told me exactly how Geordie was killed. He was one of a pioneer lot & were going forward to the trenches – a shell burst & they all flopped down – Geordies hat fell off & he got up to get it & in doing so was struck by a stray bullet & instantly killed. A wounded man brought back to hospital described it all & Colonel Stewart went to him for details’. With two envelopes, both addressed from the front, the first to PKF’s mother, postmarked 24 January 1917, and the second to her aunt, postmarked 25 January 1917. Third ALS: Bedales, Petersfield. 31 November [1917?]. She will be returning on 21 December for ‘a concert to be given at Tooting Hospital to the wounded men’. ‘Had a letter from [Granville] Bantock last night. Sorry I cant hear the Symphony as I never have yet – but I must wait. He says the Repertory Company should be writing soon to you about matinees’.
EIGHT and NINE. Two long ACsS from PKF (both signed ‘Tuffa’) to her mother. First ACS: ‘96 Wimpole ST. Wed’, postmarked 9 May 1917. ‘On trying over I think I would like decidedly to being with Sealwoman. […] The Sealwoman was enjoyed at the hospital yesterday, and Beatrice Halladen said that at a sad time such as this these songs were an absolute joy to an author like herself. Elizabeth Robins was wildly excited about them & asked about the collection of them etc. Lady Diana Manners was wonderful in a Russian costume in pageant last night.’ Second ACS: ‘Marley Wednesday Night’, postmarked Surrey, 2 August 1917. ‘The new volume is printed & now waiting to be bound. I went to Leighton “re” corrections of Piano <?> piece. Pincky suggests change of signature to 2 sharps – but I don’t think so.’
TEN. PKF to patron of the Arts, Harriet Moody (Chicago). Substantial Autograph Letter Signed to 'Mrs Moody' [Harriet Brainard Moody, Chicago-based teacher, entrepreneur, author and patron to other authors], about performing to the troops on the Western Front. High Marley, Haslemere, Surrey, 1 April 1917. Four pages, 4to, good condition. She undertakes to give an account of the previous three months in France, much spent entertaining troops on the Western Front, omitting place names, inevitably. She was one of a 'party of seven to do concert work at the base camps & hospitals to our own troops.' Their 'four week stay was divided into two halves with over 30 concerts in each of the two places." Transport (not pleasant in January winds and rain) and living arrangements (hotel). She gives distances between camps and usual attendance (1000-2000). 'Everywhere we met with unbounded enthusiasm & remarkable appreciation. Two songs that I sang 60 [underlined twice] times and more were 'Liezie Lindsay' and the 'Islay Reaper' [...] other great favourites were [...]' Songs that previously she had sung only with her mother or in Chicago (to Harriet Moody). She adds another independent experience (at a school). She resumes her French experiences, telling of the other instruments in her party, their programme (of three concerts a day usually), their length, list of 9 items in the programme (instruments, singers, herself, et al). The YMCA huts were very cold and damp, so coats had to be worn, instruments suffered (strings broke). But they were "a jolly party", all women, with "an excellent accompanist who was our official chaperone. They returned to London on 4 Feb (she'd had a few days in France recovering from laryngitis), ready for a concert in Edinburgh.. Her voice had come back but she had temporary deafness from the cold. She finishes with recital plans, catching up on correspondence, and their movements.
B. To Patuffa Kennedy-Fraser from women involved in the war effort
TEN and ELEVEN. Lena Ashwell (1871-1957; ODNB), Hon. Organiser of Lena Ashwell Concerts at the Front, 1914–20; OBE, 1916. ALS and TNS. Both on letterheads of 36 Grosvenor Street, W1. TNS: 20 June 1919. ‘Thank you very much for your letter and the amusing enclosure from the Private. I am so glad you enjoyed your work in France so much and am sure the men must have enjoyed your music.’ ALS: 20 June 1919. She thanks her for ‘the lovely present’: ‘The pendant I shall always treasure & wear with real gratitude for your love & the splendid work you have done for the artists cause in the Great War.’
TWELVE. Olive S. Buck. ALS. Ward BI, Fulham Military Hospital, Hammersmith. 28 December 1918. ‘Will you accept the tommie’s sincerest thanks for singing to them. | They appreciated you ever so much, & you quite won their hearts. […] And several times we have had letters from men who have been in hospital for the Christmas concert, & have gone on active service again – saying how much they wished they could be back in “BI” – for it again, ever so many of our old patients were there last night, men who were up from convalescent hospitals or on leave.’
THIRTEEN to SIXTEEN. <Jess?> Cameron, nurse. 4 ALsS. First: No 7 Canadian Stationary Hospital, BEF, France. Undated [1917]. Second: France. 28 April [1919]. Third: France. 16 May 1919. Fourth: France. 18 August 1919. An chatty correspondence, giving news of acquaintances made by PKF on her tour of the Front.
SEVENTEEN. M. Darwin Fox. TLS. On letterhead of the Military Hospital, Endell Street, WC2. 23 March 1918. Thanking her, on behalf of ‘Miss Hatton’, for ‘the Concert you gave to the men in Barbara Ward […] the Sister of the Ward says that it is impossible for her men to have too much of such music.’
EIGHTEEN. Daisy Fripp. ALS. On letterhead of 19 Portland Place, W. 18 July 1918. Writing ‘on behalf of the committee’, she thanks her for her ‘most kind and whole hearted help at our medical garden party’.
NINETEEN to TWENTY-THREE. Bessie Hatton [Bessie Lyle Hatton, daughter of Joseph Hatton (1841-1907)], suffragist, actress and novelist. 3 TLsS and 2 ACsS, four on her letterhead as ‘Hon. Organizer’, The Military Hospital, Endell Street, WC2, and one from the Hospital’s ‘Entertainment Department’. Between 27 April 1917 and 9 November 1918. On 3 May 1918 she writes: ‘I hear that the Ward Concert you so kindly brought here yesterday was most delightful, and that the men were most enthusiastic.’ She suggests another performance, adding: ‘If the weather is fine we like to have the Concerts in the Courtyard, it is so much better for the health of the men.’
TWENTY-FOUR. Laura M. Hubley. ALS. No 7 Canadian Stationary Hospital, France. Postmarked 20 May 1917 (‘On Active Service’). ‘Was delighted to see you again, if it was only on paper. We may meet again sometime, perhaps good old Halifax’.
TWENTY-FIVE and TWENTY-SIX. Kate Leigh. ALS and ANS. Both on letterhead of the Auxiliary Hospital for Officers. Both 1918. Regarding concert tickets.
TWENTY-SEVEN. Henrietta Melville. ALS. On letterhead of the British Red Cross Society, Scottish Branch. 1917.
TWENTY-EIGHT. Ethel L. Squire. ALS (to ‘My dear Patuffa’). A.P.M.M.C., No 4 General Hospital, BEF, France. 28 March [1917]. ‘I was sent out here at a fortnights notice & began work in this hospital on March 2 nd. It is one of the most comfortable hospitals of the camp kind. We have heaps of patients crowding in just now […] Surgeons are going night & day at operations in the theatre.’
C. To Patuffa Kennedy-Fraser from soldiers on active service
TWENTY-NINE to THIRTY-ONE. Pte David Angus, 5407 2/4th Battalion, Oxf. & Bucks Light Infantry. 3 ALsS. First ALS: Undated. ‘I beg to take the liberty of introducing myself to you […] I have quite a reputation in the north of Scotland as a singer of Scotch songs […] nothing would delight me more than to get the chance of singing a duet with you […] You will not be committing yourself I am a confirmed bachelor until the right girl comes along’. Second ALS: On letterhead of the Soldiers’ Christian Association. 6 March 1917. The sweets she has sent ‘are delicious especially when I think who they came from […] the lights went out for a few minutes another zeppelin scare if Fritz got as far as this he wouldn’t get back so easy […] we have been hearing the big guns going the last two nights quite audible from here something doing […] this is not a very coherent epistle rather detached but it is almost impossible to think coherently’. Third ALS: on letterhead of the Y.M.C.A., British Expeditionary Force. 12 March 1917. Asking for a photograph. ‘There is an evangelist preaching the Gospel while I am writing’.
THIRTY-TWO. Pte Scott Kennedy [S. F. Kennedy], 2592 37th Battalion, Australian Imperial Forces abroad. ALS. On letterhead of the Salvation Army ‘With the Australian Expeditionary Forces’. 20 July 1917.
THIRTY-THREE. S. Shoran Singh. ALS. Lahore Indian General Hospital; 15 January 1917. He writes regarding PKF’s performance the previous night: ‘The men have been speaking to me over & over again about it, & want to know when you are coming again. It has taken them back to their own homes, & I wish it could have been possible for you to sing to some of our lying-down cases in the wards. I have been asked by many of my countrymen to thank you again & ever again, & I am doing so.’
THIRTY-FOUR. George M. Watson, CSM, No 5 Infantry Base Depot. On ribboned card bearing the crest of the Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders. Written in green. ‘Will you please accept this box of chocolates as a little mark of the great pleasure you gave to the few 9th Argylls who had the privilege of being enthralled by you on Monday Evening.’
THIRTY-FIVE. ACS from ‘Jim’. Postmarked 16 December 1915. Short note written over a Field Service Post Card.
II. St John Ambulance Brigade; Patuffa Hood, nee Kennedy-Fraser of Hebridean song fame.
A small collection of Printed Ephemera concerning the St John Ambulance Brigade [Keighley, W. Yorks], 1929-1938 a. Pamphlet, "Dress Regulations Nursing Corps and Divisions" (revised 1929), 24pp., 8vo, illustrated, fair only; B. Material relating to Helen Patuffa Hood (Kennedy-Fraser, Hebridean song revivalist, transferring from Keighley branch to Oxfordshire (Clifton Hampden Nursing Division) including a letter, a statement of services, and a letter acknowledging trannsfer; C. Helen Patuffa Hood's appointment as Lady Corps Officer (Keighly), one page, folio, 1934; D.Three reports, Keighl;ey A, B & Nursing Divisions, 1934-6, 2pp., folio; E. Typed Note about Annual Inspection for Keighley in 1938.
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