Back in the air again after two days of miserable weather. But a dusk reconnaissance ended in rain. The evening brightened with entertainment by a concert party – Leslie Henson’s ‘The Gaieties’.
Log Book
Date: 3.8.18 Time: 7.35pm Rounds Lewis: 400 Rounds Vickers: - Bombs: 4 Time on RE8s: 103 hrs 40 mins RE8: E27 Observer: Hodgson Time: 1 hr 25 mins Height: 3000 Course/Remarks: Dusk reconnaissance. Rain.
Greg had by now adapted his log book entries. He now not only recorded the ammunition fired from each gun and the number of bombs dropped but also noted the cumulative time he had flown on RE8s.
Diary
Saturday 3rd August. Wrote home. Dusk reconnaissance. Returned in rain, engine nothing great. Four bombs & 400 rounds Lewis. Concert party – ‘Gaieties’ in Hangar. Leslie Henson, Errol & Teddie Horton [sic., probably should be Holton]
‘Gaieties’
‘The Gaieties’ was a troupe of army entertainers under the direction of Leslie Henson. Henson had begun his professional stage career before the war, appearing in Edwardian musical comedies, among other productions, in the West End and elsewhere. He joined the RFC, but in 1918 was asked by General Gough to form a touring concert party to entertain the troops of the 5th Army in France. Evidently this survived Gough’s removal and the re-formation of the 5th Army under General Birdwood. So here were ‘The Gaieties’ at 42 Squadron in Rely, just over three weeks after General Birdwood’s visit on 12 July 1918.
Among the members of the troupe was Bert Errol, ‘a noted female impersonator’. Quite possibly it is Errol, and maybe others members of The Gaieties cast, in this photograph from Greg’s collection:
Greg’s diary entry also mentions ‘Teddie Horton’. Possibly this was meant to be Teddie Holton, who (spoiler alert) was certainly performing with Henson, Errol and others in The Gaieties in early November 1918. More on them then…