Frederick Jester Barnes (31 May 1885 – 23 October 1938) was an English
music hall
Music hall is a type of British theatrical entertainment that was most popular from the early Victorian era, beginning around 1850, through the World War I, Great War. It faded away after 1918 as the halls rebranded their entertainment as Varie ...
singer known for his signature song, "The Black Sheep of the Family", which he first performed in 1907. Although popular on stage, Barnes became infamous for his erratic private life and was often named in frequent controversies reported by the press. Openly
gay
''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'.
While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late ...
, Barnes retired to
Southend-on-Sea
Southend-on-Sea (), commonly referred to as Southend (), is a coastal city and unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area with Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough status in south-eastern Essex, England. It lies on the nor ...
and performed in seaside pubs, notably The Cricketers Hotel,
Westcliff-on-Sea
Westcliff-on-Sea (previously known as Milton, often abbreviated to Westcliff, and in the past spelt as Westcliffe-on-Sea) is a suburb of the city of Southend-on-Sea, located within the ceremonial county of Essex, England. It is on the north sh ...
. Suffering from terminal
tuberculosis
Tuberculosis (TB), also known colloquially as the "white death", or historically as consumption, is a contagious disease usually caused by ''Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can al ...
and
alcoholism
Alcoholism is the continued drinking of alcohol despite it causing problems. Some definitions require evidence of dependence and withdrawal. Problematic use of alcohol has been mentioned in the earliest historical records. The World He ...
, Barnes died from
coal gas
Coal gas is a flammable gaseous fuel made from coal and supplied to the user via a piped distribution system. It is produced when coal is heated strongly in the absence of air. Town gas is a more general term referring to manufactured gaseous ...
poisoning at the age of 53.
Biography
Life and career
Barnes was born at 219 Great Lister Street,
Saltley
Saltley is an inner-city area of Birmingham, England, east of the city centre. The area is part of the Washwood Heath ward, and was previously part of the Nechells ward. It is part of the Ladywood constituency in the city.
History
Saltley was ...
,
Birmingham
Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...
, England. The son of a butcher, Barnes became interested in performing as a result of going to see
Vesta Tilley
Matilda Alice Powles, Lady de Frece (13May 186416September 1952) was an English music hall performer. She adopted the stage name Vesta Tilley and became one of the best-known male impersonators of her era. Her career lasted from 1869 until 19 ...
in 1895. Encouraged by the popular pantomime performer
Dorothy Ward,
[Richard Anthony Baker, ''British Music Hall: an illustrated history'', Pen & Sword, 2014, , pp.125-127] he made his debut at the Gaiety Theatre, Birmingham in March 1906, and gave his first notable performance playing the Duke of Solihull in ''
Cinderella
"Cinderella", or "The Little Glass Slipper", is a Folklore, folk tale with thousands of variants that are told throughout the world.Dundes, Alan. Cinderella, a Casebook. Madison, Wis: University of Wisconsin Press, 1988. The protagonist is a you ...
'' at the
Alexandra Theatre, Birmingham, the same year. It was while starring in the pantomime that Barnes acquired his first
agent
Agent may refer to:
Espionage, investigation, and law
*, spies or intelligence officers
* Law of agency, laws involving a person authorized to act on behalf of another
** Agent of record, a person with a contractual agreement with an insuran ...
and attracted the attention of another Birmingham-born music hall artist,
George Lashwood, who, in Fred's own words, 'took me in hand...
lacedat my disposal, free and unasked, the lessons of his long and brilliant career'.
[Tomes, Jason]
"Barnes, Frederick Jester (1885–1938)"
''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2004, online edition, January 2011, accessed 12 June 2012
It was following Cinderella's fourteen-week run that Barnes first performed in London, persuaded by fellow cast members,
The Eight Lancashire Lads
The Eight Lancashire Lads was a troupe of young male Clog dance (British), clog dancers who toured the music halls of Great Britain and Ireland in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Founders
They were founded by Bill Cawley and J.W. (William ...
, to travel with them. Upon his arrival, Barnes played the hated first slot on the bills. However, this was to change when he decided to try out a new song which he had written, "The Black Sheep of the Family", at the
Hackney Empire
Hackney Empire is a theatre on Mare Street, in Hackney in the London Borough of Hackney. Originally designed by Frank Matcham it was built in 1901 as a music hall, and expanded in 2001. Described by ''The Guardian'' as "the most beautiful theat ...
in 1907. It was a huge success and was to remain Barnes' most popular song. As Barnes said in his account of his life ('How success ruined me'), his name was 'made in a single night'. With this impressive start to his career he spent the next few years establishing himself. By 1911, he was top of the bill on all of the major circuits and principal boy in a number of pantomimes.
[
In 1913, his father committed suicide. Two weeks later, Barnes performed at the ]Birmingham Hippodrome
The Birmingham Hippodrome is a theatre situated on Hurst Street in the Chinese Quarter of Birmingham, England.
Although best known as the home stage of the Birmingham Royal Ballet, it also hosts a wide variety of other performances including v ...
, 'a place full of memories of my father. To this day I don't know how I got through that week'. The ''Birmingham Gazette
The ''Birmingham Gazette'', known for much of its existence as ''Aris's Birmingham Gazette'', was a newspaper that was published and circulated in Birmingham, England, from the eighteenth to the twentieth centuries. Founded as a weekly publicatio ...
'' of 30 August commented, 'Fred Barnes has this week proved the hollowness of the old saying that an artiste is never appreciated in his own town. He has gone a long way towards packing the house at every performance at the Hippodrome'. Following his father's death, Fred's career continued to improve,[ and he toured widely, including visits to Australia and South Africa. His other successful songs included " Give Me the Moonlight" (1917) and " On Mother Kelly's Doorstep".][
]
Private life
Barnes was openly gay
''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'.
While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late ...
.[ In an interview with '' The Era'' in 1914, he stated that he had no vacant dates for the next three years and held contracts for the next ten. This was when his personal problems, namely spending and drinking too much, began. He attributed these to dealing with both the death of his father and his newfound success and popularity. The large sums of money he was earning and which he inherited led him to begin spending extravagantly – a habit he found hard to break when he was no longer earning any money. But it was drinking which was to ruin Barnes' career. He missed performances, went on stage incapable of singing or dancing and generally put less and less care into his performances. This led to his being moved to a less and less desirable position on the bill until he was finally back at first turn. ]Managers
Management (or managing) is the administration of organizations, whether businesses, nonprofit organizations, or a government bodies through business administration, nonprofit management, or the political science sub-field of public administr ...
grew wary of him and soon his outstanding contracts were paid off and he was without work altogether. He experienced extremes of success and failure, and escaped to London from his father and his father's lifestyle as a young gay man.[
]
Scandal and controversies
In 1924, Barnes was sentenced to a month in jail for driving in Hyde Park while drunk and in a dangerous manner and without a licence. Following the arrest, he was deemed a "menace to His Majesty's fighting forces" (because of the topless sailor who had been travelling with him at the time of the accident), and was banned from attending the Royal Tournament
The Royal Tournament was the world's largest military tattoo and pageant, held by the British Armed Forces annually between 1880 and 1999. The venue was originally the Royal Agricultural Hall, before moving to Olympia London and latterly the Ea ...
, an annual military tattoo
A military tattoo is a performance of music or display of armed forces in general. The term comes from the early 17th-century Dutch phrase ' ('turn off the tap'), a signal sounded by drummers or trumpeters to instruct innkeepers near military g ...
. Despite this, he returned each year and successfully evaded discovery.[
]
Later life and death
By the mid 1930s, Barnes was suffering from tuberculosis. His failing health led him and his lover and manager John Senior to move to Southend-on-Sea
Southend-on-Sea (), commonly referred to as Southend (), is a coastal city and unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area with Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough status in south-eastern Essex, England. It lies on the nor ...
. By this time any work consisted of playing the piano in pubs while Senior collected tips. Barnes's rent was paid for by Charles Ashmead Watson, while also funding lighting and clothing costs, as well as giving them a weekly allowance of 30 shillings.[ Barnes made a number of attempts to return to the stage, most of which were unsuccessful; a final job in the summer of 1938,][ playing his songs in the Cricketers Inn, ]Westcliff-on-Sea
Westcliff-on-Sea (previously known as Milton, often abbreviated to Westcliff, and in the past spelt as Westcliffe-on-Sea) is a suburb of the city of Southend-on-Sea, located within the ceremonial county of Essex, England. It is on the north sh ...
,["Tragedy of Fred Barnes: Death expected hourly", ''The Daily Independent'', 26 October 1938, p. 5.] restored some of his confidence in his own ability. By the winter of that year, he was told that he had three months to live causing the comedian to commit suicide soon after.[
Barnes died at his lodgings in St Ann's Road, ]Southend-on-Sea
Southend-on-Sea (), commonly referred to as Southend (), is a coastal city and unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area with Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough status in south-eastern Essex, England. It lies on the nor ...
, on 23 October 1938. An inquest found that the cause of death was from the effects of coal gas poisoning, though the gas tap had been turned off, and suicide was ruled out.[
When the jury at the inquest into Barnes's death commented that Watson had been "wonderful", he replied "He was a great man". Naomi Jacob shared the view, and opined that Watson "had one of the kindest hearts in the world and was a fine artist and no mean dancer". The ''Era'' commented on Barnes's "singularly pleasing popularity". His funeral on 2 November 1938, was attended by hundreds of people at St Saviour's Church, Saltley with nearby streets crowded with mourners.][
Barnes was free with facts in interviews and in his own account of his life; his numerous publicity stunts which included announcements of his 'near-death' in a fire and a fake marriage.][ On occasion, he was known to walk around London at the height of his success with a ]marmoset
The marmosets (), also known as zaris or sagoin, are twenty-two New World monkey species of the genera '' Callithrix'', '' Cebuella'', '' Callibella'', and ''Mico''. All four genera are part of the biological family Callitrichidae. The term ...
perched on his shoulder (later, playing the pubs in Southend, he made do with a chicken).[
On 18 October 2021 a ]blue plaque
A blue plaque is a permanent sign installed in a public place in the United Kingdom, and certain other countries and territories, to commemorate a link between that location and a famous person, event, or former building on the site, serving a ...
commemorating Fred Barnes was erected by the British Music Hall Society and unveiled by their then President Paul O'Grady
Paul James O'Grady (14 June 1955 – 28 March 2023) was an English comedian, broadcaster, drag queen, actor, and writer. He achieved notability in the London gay scene during the 1980s with his drag persona Lily Savage, through which he gained ...
, at Barnes' former home in Maida Vale.
Bibliography
* Paul Bailey, ''The wavy-haired, blue-eyed adonis : Fred Barnes (1885-1938)''. In: ''Three queer lives : an alternative biography of Fred Barnes, Naomi Jacob and Arthur Marshall'' (London : Hamish Hamilton, 2001) p. 33-66
* Anthony Barker, ''Music Hall magazine'', issue MH30
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Barnes, Fred
1885 births
1938 suicides
1938 deaths
English male singers
British music hall performers
Suicides in England
20th-century English singers
20th-century English male singers
Suicides by gas
English gay musicians
20th-century English LGBTQ people
19th-century English LGBTQ people