TomUK

“Great to hear your mum's still going strong David. Sounds like she would be a valuable source of information for Alessandra.
Can't be many others left now, all these years later.”

“Hi Alessandra
I was interested to read about the "Tubby and Enid" project in the press. As you will see from the previous posts, my mum, Hilda Bancroft, was a choir member, then aged 13. I would think your chances of tracing anyone involved on the day are now very slim. It was 85 years ago and any surviving children would be almost 100 years old. However, good luck with the production, I look forward to seeing the final results.
Best wishes - Tom”

“Although my mum's family were by no means rich, her father had a steady job and they could pay their way. She attended Falowfield High School for Girls at the time. Stanley Rose the instigator of the re-union was also not from a poor family. He attended high school as well. Both were at school at an age when many other children were already working for a living.l”

“This will be quite interesting, but from the snippets I've read about the production, there will be a bit of artistic licence used. It is a drama production rather than a documentary. They also keep rattling on about it being the poorest children from Manchester schools who were chosen. Not so - they came from all types of family background.”

“Great to hear that two of the original ladies are still with us. I wonder if they attended the 50th anniversary re-union at the Free Trade Hall in 1979 when many of the original members gathered again to sing their song. This event and the build up to it were covered by the Granada documentray mentoned above.
Choir member, Mr. Stanley Rose was the main organiser of the event and coincidentally, he was my pal's father-in-law.
Tom - 09/01/2010”

“I'm another whos mum was in the choir. The B-side, an exerpt from the opera 'Hansel and Gretel' by Engelbert Humperdink (the composer not the singer!) was also superb. The record was played on BBC radio regularly for at least 30 years, being constantly asked for on request programmes. It still crops up on Radio 3 now and then.
In 1979 on the 50th anniversary of the recording, Granada TV made a one hour documentray telling the story of that epic day. My mum was probably one of the oldest surviving members until her death on November 2nd, 2009 at the age of 93.
For mum's funeral a friend downloaded it onto a CD from the internet - so it's out there somewhere. It is also available on some compilation CD's.”