Kenneth Launcelot Duffield (31 May 1885 – 23 November 1958) was an Australian theatrical composer, writer and pastoralist.

Early life

Kenneth Duffield was born on 31 May 1885, to a wealthy South Australian pastoral family. His grandfather was colonial politician Walter Duffield. He was educated at St Peter's College in Adelaide. Moving to England, Duffield graduated in Arts from

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...

in 1906 and a diploma in agriculture the following year. At Cambridge he was part of the Footlights Club.

Career

As a young man in England, Duffield composed words for songs with lyrics including by

A. A. Milne Alan Alexander Milne (; 18 January 1882 – 31 January 1956) was an English writer best known for his books about the teddy bear Winnie-the-Pooh, as well as children's poetry. Milne was primarily a playwright before the huge success of Winnie-th ...

and

P. G. Wodehouse Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse ( ; 15 October 1881 – 14 February 1975) was an English writer and one of the most widely read humorists of the 20th century. His creations include the feather-brained Bertie Wooster and his sagacious valet, Je ...

, and had a number of songs published. He returned to work at the family station Koonoona in South Australia for eight years. Soon before the outbreak of World War I, Duffield returned to England. He enlisted and rose to be a captain in the Royal Warwick Regiment. He was said to have "entertained troops on a battered 80 franc French piano, which was carried in a 30 franc cart". Between 1920 and 1922, Duffield contributed music for West End revues including ''Puss! Puss!'' (

Vaudeville Theatre The Vaudeville Theatre is a West End theatre on the Strand in the City of Westminster. Opening in 1870, the theatre staged mostly vaudeville shows and musical revues in its early days. The theatre was rebuilt twice, although each new buildin ...

, 1921), ''Pot Luck'' (Vaudeville Theatre, 1921), ''A to Z'' (

Prince of Wales Theatre The Prince of Wales Theatre is a West End theatre in Coventry Street, near Leicester Square in London. It was established in 1884 and rebuilt in 1937, and extensively refurbished in 2004 by Sir Cameron Mackintosh, its current owner. The theatre ...

, 1921) and ''Snap'' (Vaudeville Theatre, 1922). He again returned to South Australia in 1922 to manage Koonoona following the death of his father. His musical comedy '' Hullo Healo'' was first presented in Adelaide in 1924 (as ''Healo'') and at the

Palace Theatre Palace Theatre, or Palace Theater, is the name of many theatres in different countries, including: Australia *Palace Theatre, Melbourne, Victoria *Palace Theatre, Sydney, New South Wales Canada *Palace Theatre, housed in the Robillard Block, Mo ...

in Sydney in 1927. In the late 1920s, he returned to London where he contributed to further musical revues. Duffield published an autobiography ''Savages and Kings'' in 1946, and retired to Adelaide in 1948.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Duffield, Kenneth 1885 births 1958 deaths Australian musical theatre composers Male musical theatre composers Writers from Adelaide