EUNICE EMERSON 1897 – NOVEMBER 1988
Eunice known as ‘Nin’ was an accomplished performer. From her early years she was encouraged by
her musician father to act and sing and Eunice progressed from school and
church performances to political events, World War One charity shows and
amateur opera. Eunice’s amateur career
and even early female suffrage sympathies were encouraged by her parents and
the new freedoms accorded to women during World War One allowed her to develop her
independence.
Eunice one of nine children of William Emerson and Kate nee
Elson was born in Winslow, Buckinghamshire.
Her four elder siblings Florence Kate, known as ‘Topper’ born 1890,
Elsie Ruth, known as Ruth born 1891, William Norris, referred to as Will born
1893 and Jessica Rose, known as Jesse born 1895 all survived into
adulthood. Younger brother Douglas
Elson, known as Doug born 1898 and sister, Phyllis Irene, known as Phyll, born
1906 thrived but Amy Drusicilla born 1903 lived just two years and Basil Gordon
born 1910 died aged six years.
According to Jesse they had a happy childhood with full parental
participation in their upbringing.
Photograph taken circa 1907. Back row Elsie Ruth, Florence and Will with
the dog. Front Row, Jesse, Phyllis,
William, Douglas, Kate and Eunice.
Eunice alongside all the children were encouraged to
participate in the Congregational Church and School drama and music
events. They were likely influenced in
their musical and thespian endeavours by their father William who was involved
in the community as Winslow’s Hon. Bandmaster (a position he held from at least
the start of the twentieth century).[1] Aged thirteen Eunice sang in a trio representing
Winslow Schools at Great Horwood in a fund raising event for the churchyard
walls. Eunice with her fellow students Nora
Bimrose and Jack Rolfe performed Urchins
we, ‘singing and acting most beautifully’.[2]
She also took a leading role as ‘Dick
Whittington’ in the Winslow Schools Children’s Operetta held at the Oddfellows
Hall in Winslow and her brother Douglas also had a major role as Jack
Fitzwarren.[3] Whilst representing her school, most newspaper
reports of Eunice’s early performances were on behalf of the Congregational
Church or Baptist Abstinence Society in Winslow. In 1907 aged only ten years she rendered a
dialogue Ten Little Temperance Boys and
siblings Florence, Jesse and William also performed during the evening.[4] In 1912 she took the premier role as the
Queen in the Congregational Church May Festival and Douglas also shone as
leader of the boys.[5] Perhaps her predominance was wearing thin
when Eunice was reported as being the Queen of the May ‘again’ at the Sunday
School Festival in June.[6] This saturation of Eunice was not just not
restricted to school or religiou establishments and her later performances indicated suffragist
sympathies.
Prime Minister H. H. Asquith dissolved parliament on 28
November 1910 and in the process abandoned the 1910 Conciliation Bill granting
female suffrage. Dissent amongst women was rife and this was not restricted to
adult female and active suffragettes and suffragists. Eunice just fourteen years old expressed her
opinion. In celebration of Liberal
candidate Sir Henry Verney’s victory in 1911 Eunice delivered a recitation of Indignant Nelly.[7]
A
most suitable recitation for children widely performed in the latter part of
the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
However did the messages in Eunice’s performance content highlight her
early suffragist sympathies? Indignant Nelly was performed
extensively in the latter nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and was
considered a suitable recitation for children. A lengthy humorous Victorian verse in children’s
vernacular it relates a tale about a little girl and her brother scared by the
scratching of mice at night. The brother
refused to rescue Nellie’s doll excusing himself with stomach ache but Nellie
fearing that her dollie would be bitten, bravely and without shoes rescues her
baby. Leading to the final punch line
‘Let a woman do a sing (sic) you wouldn’t do yourself’. This was a juvenile choice for a teenage girl
to perform at a political celebration however it delivered a punch. The moral of the verse indicated that females
were more resilient and braver then men. The possibility that this indicated Eunice was
influenced by the female suffrage movement and performed an innocuous verse
with a hidden meaning was further evidenced by her second performance of the
evening. The Curfew Must Not Ring Tonight by Rose Hardwick Thorpe (written
in 1867 but set in the seventeenth century) relates the heroism of young Bessie
in preventing the tolling of the curfew bell that would signal her lover’s
execution. Bessie’s valour gained the
pity of Cromwell and reprieve from death for her lover. The moral of this verse also reflected the
bravery of women and additionally their ability to influence men with their
actions. Professional actresses were
courted by the suffrage movements due to their effectiveness in speaking at
public meetings and also for training other women.[8] Amateur actresses also played a role. That Eunice was permitted or even encouraged
to perform at a political event highlighted that women were involved indirectly
in politics and encouraged by husbands and fathers to lobby for the
franchise. However with the outbreak of
war in 1914 the suffrage movement turned their efforts from fighting for the
franchise to supporting the war effort to prove women’s worth for the vote.
Eunice embraced the opportunity to perform in fund raising
events. Starting with appropriate (for
her age) musical events organised by the Congregational Church in Winslow to
raise money for Belgium refugees in November 1914 Eunice embraced the new
freedoms accorded to women during World War One.[9] By 1915 women escaped domestic drudgery and
the home to work in industry, transport, on the land in the civil service,
etc., replacing men who by 1916 were conscripted to serve in the army. With women working in former men’s jobs, Eunice
aged eighteen in 1915 could argue her case to act to a wider range audience and
performed at the Winslow Concert Hall alongside civilian and service personnel. She rendered a recitation of The Doctor and his Apprentice an apt
early nineteenth humorous verse for a Red Cross fund raising event.[10] Eunice performed throughout 1915-1917 at
various events in aid of war charities. She
was acclaimed for her duologue with Lieut. Scott Gaddy hosted by the Norfolk
Regiment at St Lawrence Hall, Winslow in November 1915.[11] Eunice performed a humorous sketch about a
newly- wed couple on honeymoon in Wales, A
Breezy Morning; a play that just two years earlier would have been
considered too risqué for a girl of no more than nineteen. Eunice embraced the new independence accorded
to women and continued her amateur acting and singing career.
From the late 1920s and still single, Eunice lived with her
sister Phyllis in Salisbury where they both performed in amateur opera.[12] Whether single by design or subject to loss
of a lover during the war is subject to conjecture, (possibly her brother
Williams divorce in 1928 soured ideals of marriage or alternatively she was
happy with her single life). Aged fifty
living in Southgate, London Eunice married John Hildrow in 1947. She
was just one of the women whose lives were changed by World War One. Eunice was influenced by the suffrage
movement, permitted to show her opinions , encouraged to act and sing and was
an example of the early twentieth century emancipated women.
[8] M.
Pugh, The March of the Women: A
Revisionist Analysis of the Campaigns of Female Suffrage, 1867-1914, (Oxford,
2000), p. 225.
