I seem to be following a theme of theatre and music this month with my blogs. Following on from last week’s lady, we now have a ‘Dame’. There will be another theatre-themed post at the end of the month.

Back in February, I noticed this great old postcard was for sale on eBay. The description was ‘1924 Real Photo Postcard Performer Bruce Signed Impressed Studio Nottingham’.

Looking closer at the writing on the front of the card, I realised it said ‘Bruce Green’, and on the back, it was signed ‘Uncle Bruce’. Although the back is in a poor state, the name and address are still readable fairly clearly, so I bought it.

Initially, I managed to find lots of mentions and advertisements from the 1900s through to the 1940s in the British Newspaper Archives for shows that Bruce Green performed in. Still, I needed to know what his real name was, assuming that Bruce Green was his stage name, as I couldn’t find any matching records for that name.

Following several leads from Google searches, I eventually managed to find out some information thanks to the Lodge of King Solomon’s Temple 3464 website.

The lodge was held at the Freemasons’ Hall, Hunter Street, Chester, Cheshire. They have a lot about the history of the lodge and a fabulous Biography about Bruce Green, plus his real name!

Bruce, under his real name, was a joining member on 21 October 1911. I would never have been able to find out all this information about him without knowing him well as the Lodge did, so I am indebted to them and their amazing website.

‘JOSEPH BREWSTER HAMILTON GREEN (stage name BRUCE GREEN) was a comedian born in 1876. He enjoyed a long and successful career as a pantomime and music hall artiste playing a ‘dame’.

The inspiration for him to tread the boards came when he was ten years old when he toured England as a choir boy with St Paul’s Choir.

His father was not too pleased and Bruce became a clerk in the Science and Art Department of the Public Service. According to an interview in Era on 6 June 1917 he began work as a clerk aged thirteen and stayed there until he was twenty-six.

During this period, he practiced his singing and wrote songs and a theatre company executive heard him singing in Littlehampton and recruited him for a show playing a ‘bibulous old cockney woman’. He was then offered the ‘Cannibal King’ and ‘Demon King’ in the north of England by the same management; after a week, he was made the dame!

Bruce spent three years touring with the pantomime company also acting as the baggage man when the company could not afford porters. Acton Philips engaged him to play in stock dramas at the Lyric Theatre, London, but he made most of his career impersonating old cockney women, playing seventeen years on the Moss Circuits, never missing a performance; arguably the longest run ever.

On 7 April 1924, he appeared as a male in Copper Nob, a musical review, at the Derby Hippodrome. He toured South Africa and Australia where he received rave reviews; his popular opening numbers being Washing Day and Spanish Burlesque.

By 1930, he had taken a partner into his act, Edith James and in March 1937, he was elected the Honorary Chairman of the Variety Artistes Federation. He was still performing in the 1940s. Joseph Brewster Hamilton Green, a member of Chelsea Lodge (3098), was proposed as a Joining Member of the Lodge of King Solomon’s Temple (3464) on 21 October 1911 by Bro. W. Lund and seconded by W. Bro. A.E. Coveney. In 1923, he was Worshipful Master of Chelsea Lodge, and he died in 1944 aged 68 years‘.

The article previously mentioned from The Era.

The article below is typical of the newspaper reports about Bruce; he was so well loved.

Family History

I can, however, add more information about his family history now that I have his birth name.

Joseph Brewster Hamilton Green was born on 27 May 1878 in Chelsea, Middlesex. His parents were Joseph Brewster Green and Elizabeth Emma Sharpe. He married Amelia Frances Schwindt on 12 September 1901 in Saint Peter’s Church, Fulham, Middlesex. They had two children during their marriage, Irene and Leonard. He died on 18 December 1944 at the age of 66.

His wife Amelia Frances Schwindt was born on 12 February 1879 in Lambeth, Surrey. Her father was Johann (John), and her mother was Amelia (Tuthill). She had four brothers and one sister that I have found so far. Amelia died in March 1962 in Wandsworth, Surrey.

Bruce Green’s father, Joseph, obviously had an influence over his son, as previously stated in the article in The Era dated June 1917. But he didn’t totally give up his day job when he was 26, as on the 1911 census, he is still a Clerk, but obviously performing when not being a clerk. He and Amelia, and their daughter Irene are living at his parents’ home in 1911. So it’s more likely to have been after this when he became a performer full-time, most definitely before 1917, at the time of the article.

Bruce’s parents, Joseph, 1852-1917 and Elizabeth, 1853-1921, married in 1874. Elizabeth’s parents were Jabez and Louisa (Spicer). Joseph and Elizabeth had five children, including Joseph, who went on stage as Bruce Green.

Bruce’s siblings were Amy Louisa, 1875-1915; she was the eldest. She married George Harding in 1901, and according to her entry in the 1911 census, the couple had three children, with just one surviving. George, her husband, died in April 1906. Amy herself died in 1915, leaving a daughter, Amy Sylvia Harding. I was pleased to see that on the 1921 census, young Amy was living with the family. Here you can see she is at home with Bruce’s wife, daughter and her grandmother Elizabeth. Amy is sixteen and working as a junior clerk.

Bruce/Joseph came next, then Harold Brewster 1882-1884 sadly died before his second birthday. Lastly, Twin boys Alfred Brewster, 1888-1907, just 19 when he died & William Brewster, 1888-1920, just 32 when he died.

What was so sad was that young William got married while he was serving in WW1, just two years earlier on 29 September 1918, to Nellie Jane Symonds, but she contracted Pulmonary TB and died on 24 January 1919.

On Nellie’s death record, it says William was a Corporal in the 3rd Buffs, service number 26134. Note: “3rd Buffs” refers to the 3rd Regiment of Foot, later known as the Buffs (East Kent Regiment), a line infantry regiment of the British Army, famous for its use of protective buff coats and its nickname “The Buffs”. 

Of course, I had to know how William died, and it seems that he, too, succumbed to Pulmonary TB.

In case you wondered where the name Brewster came from in the family, I found that Bruce’s great-grandmother was Mary Brewster, born in Suffolk, the daughter of John Brewster. Mary married William John Green, a Proctor, the Brewster name passed through their children and on to descendants of the couple.

Here’s the small family tree I’ve compiled for Bruce on Ancestry: Bruce Green Family Tree

Bruce Green was also heavily involved with the ‘Variety Artistes Benevolent Fund’ during his career, as Chairman, Treasurer and then on the committee, which became the ‘Entertainment Artistes’ Benevolent Fund’ (EABF) and in 2015, officially changed its name to the Royal Variety Charity. 

As a performer in the 1920s, Bruce Green travelled abroad to South Africa and Australia and here’s Bruce on a passenger list coming back home from Brazil. It looks like he used the surname of Hamilton when travelling.

Despite the sadness in his private life, he continued to do what he did best: using his special gift as a Dame to make people laugh and enjoy their time at the theatre.

I was surprised to see that Bruce’s life sadly came to a very sudden end at Waterloo Station. So I looked through the newspaper archives again.

Bruce Green died suddenly at Waterloo Station. He was 66 and on his way to Southsea for his next performance as Martha in Pantomime🎭

Till next time then ………