John McCormack, Irish Tenor

[corisande]

13 hours ago, Moonraker said:

I would see if The Times referred to the hearing, but my local library no longer subscribes to the archive.

 

I don't see a report in Times Archives.

 

In fact neither English nr Irish papers have much to say about him during the war

 

I can only find 2 concerts in UK

3 Oct 1914 in Glasgow

7 Jul 1915 in Middlesborough. [I corrected this date]

 

Virtually all his concerts were in USA where he commanded large sums to appear. He spent in excessive of £100,000 on buying paintings for himself during the war. But also made a number of donations, one for Easter Rising victims

 

 

But the bulk of his donations to War Efforts wsa the sum underneath, which seems imprecise in who was the recipient

 

 

 

Edited 30 September , 2019 by corisande

[Moonraker]

18 hours ago, loganshort said:

He may not have officially resided in Gt Britain after 1912 but he certainly toured here as a singer and made a special tour as stated above, to raise money for the Red X. I can only imagine he would have "cooked" for a short time for publicity/ moral boosting when here. Would like to discover more about his cooking!

 

11 hours ago, corisande said:

I can only find 2 concerts in UK

3 Oct 1914 in Glasgow

4 Oct 1915 in Middlesborough

Which makes it less unlikely that he would have visited troops in training camps. He was the first artist to record  "It's a Long Way to Tipperary" in 1914, so the soldiers would have appreciated his visits rather more than those of politicians, generals and so on. Glasgow and Middlesborough are a long way not just from Tipperary but from Salisbury Plain, but New Zealand journalists were inclined to identify military training with the Plain, which was their army's major base in Britain.

 

BTW there are many clips of McCormack's performances on YouTube - he really did have a magnificent voice.

 

Moonraker

 

 

 

[corisande]

And he did make big donations to the American War Effort. This gives an idea of his earning power at that time with $25,000 for one concert

 

[asanewt]

Our Dad singing along with "Count" John as best he could. "Oft in the stilly night"  a favourite. Always early, very early, Sunday mornings.

His cherished Ferranti radiogram belting out to the annoyance of us all then. Very fond memories now of course.

[BullerTurner]

On 29/09/2019 at 12:51, corisande said:

 

Nobody is ever tactful about the Irish factor, lest of all us Irish

Have you met my wife, Siobhān then, Corisande??

[corisande]

1 hour ago, BullerTurner said:

Have you met my wife, Siobhān then, Corisande??

 

She promised me that she would never tell you

[Moonraker]

On 29/09/2019 at 16:55, Moonraker said:

I wasn't able to find anything that might add to our researches on the website of the

John McCormack Society

 

I've emailed its secretary to see if any of its members can shed further light.

 

Moonraker

 

EDIT: I've had a prompt acknowledgement and my query has been passed to "one of our members ... who has written extensively on our famous tenor".

No reply as yet, but at least two of his renditions on YouTube feature some very good stills of women at work on the Home Front.

 

Keep the Homes Fires Burning

 

There's a Long Long Trail Awinding

 

The compilations are courtesy of http://www.ww1photos.com/

 

who appear not to have featured much here on the GWF, though I hope that

 

Bif's problems

 

are no more.

 

I've also mentioned the first two links on a new thread; I suggest that any comments on the photos are made there, so we can keep this for any developments relating to John McCormack. And perhaps Bif won't mind if anything about ww1photos.com is appended to his thread?

 

Moonraker

 

Edited 4 October , 2019 by Moonraker

[Jervis]

I had never heard of John McCormack till I saw this thread a few weeks ago & coincidentally he has come up in a book I am reading on the sinking of the RMS Leinster. (Torpedoed!). I see some of this appears in the biography linked, but for those that missed it: 

 

McCormack’s brother in law Thomas Foley and his wife Charlotte were both killed in the sinking of the Leinster, leaving behind 10 children. McCormack adopted the youngest child and made arrangements for the rearing and education of the rest. The Foleys has been travelling to England to visit Charlotte’s brother Christopher Barrett who was serious wounded in France. He died shortly afterwards. Probably this man from the Northumberland Fusiliers

 

 

[Margaretnolan]

4 hours ago, Jervis said:

I had never heard of John McCormack till I saw this thread a few weeks ago & coincidentally he has come up in a book I am reading on the sinking of the RMS Leinster. (Torpedoed!). I see some of this appears in the biography linked, but for those that missed it: 

 

McCormack’s brother in law Thomas Foley and his wife Charlotte were both killed in the sinking of the Leinster, leaving behind 10 children. McCormack adopted the youngest child and made arrangements for the rearing and education of the rest. The Foleys has been travelling to England to visit Charlotte’s brother Christopher Barrett who was serious wounded in France. He died shortly afterwards. Probably this man from the Northumberland Fusiliers

 

 

 

Interesting Story thank you Jervis...but you’ve never heard of John McCormack..and looks like you are from Dublin.

 

Margaret

[Jervis]

On 18/10/2019 at 22:37, Margaretnolan said:

 

Interesting Story thank you Jervis...but you’ve never heard of John McCormack..and looks like you are from Dublin.

 

Margaret

 

Yes, Margaret I never heard of him till last week! 

[Margaretnolan]

21 minutes ago, Jervis said:

 

Yes, Margaret I never heard of him till last week! 

 

😊 oops.

[Moonraker]

On 29/09/2019 at 16:55, Moonraker said:

I wasn't able to find anything that might add to our researches on the website of the

John McCormack Society

 

I've emailed its secretary to see if any of its members can shed further light.

 

Moonraker

 

EDIT: I've had a prompt acknowledgement and my query has been passed to "one of our members ... who has written extensively on our famous tenor".

Just had a reply from the aforementioned member: "This is news to me! I find it hard to believe that Mac had anything to do with army kitchens, other than perhaps in passing.  Funnily enough his son, the late Cyril Count McCormack, was indeed involved in catering in the army.  You may have seen pictures of him in army uniform at his father’s funeral in 1945."

 

Moonraker