Ivor Novello Fellowship,

More than 150 letters to Macqueen-Pope, mostly handwritten, with a few postcards, all dating from 1954, written in response to newspaper articles (in The Times, the Stage and other periodicals) announcing plans to set up an Ivor Novello Fellowship (three newspaper cuttings of articles are present, including one with covering note from 'the editor of "The Star"'). Also present are a number of carbon copies of Macqueen-Pope's replies.
Among the correspondence are a number of communications from former colleagues, acquaintances and fans.
Writing to Margaret Ambridge he explains the proposal (4 September): 'The idea is simply to have a Fellowship whereby he may be remembered, to erect a tablet to his memory in the Actors' Church, St Paul, Covent Garden and to have at least three annual events, a meeting and tea party, a dinner, at both of which celebrities will recall him and his works and an annual Garden Party at "Redroofs" - to follow on the tradition he laid down. Income, after deduction of expenses (and I hope all work will be voluntary) to go towards the upkeep of "Redroofs"'.
By the end of the year plans for the fellowship had stalled, as Macqueen-Pope explains to Diana Wilson (2 December): 'I have not been able to proceed with this for some time past owing to great pressure of work and very bad health on my own part. You see, the whole work of this falls upon me and the expense as well, and both are considerable.'
One of the more interesting letters is from Mary Powell, on 4 July: 'I would not describe myself as one of his "fans" but he was my dearest friend from the time he was about 7 years old! I was about 18 & living in Cardiff & just started having singing lessons with "Madam"! I spent many hours & days at "Llwyn yr Eos" & for some reason he became devoted to me & I to him! I took him to his first school & helped him with his first music lessons etc & later I saw so much of him at the old Aldwych "Flat" & in the days when he was struggling to achieve all his wonderful successes!'
Betty Algar: 'I may call myself an "Old Novellian" as I was for some twelve months ballet mistress & principal dancer in the "Dancing Years"'.
Alan Selby: 'I worked with "King's Rhapsody" for over a year, and was also with "Gay's the word" following that, and I was connected with Ivor's tribute at the Coliseum, and therefore have made many friends, who were also friends of Ivor'.
Hermione J. Kennedy: 'I think I was one of the first to meet him, during the 1914 war, when I was singing to the troops in France & he came out with a Concert Party, & was astonished to hear the audience of soldiers joining in the chorus of "Keep the Home Fires burning" which had only just been published'.
Hazel Bailey: 'I was a great fan of Mr Novello's and saw every one of his shows from 1935 onwards - not once but many times. I also had the pleasure of speaking with him on many occasions, and I believe I was the last of his fans to speak to him on the night of March 5th 1951 as he was leaving the Palace Theatre.'
Jack Webster of Fraserburgh: 'Staying in this northern outpost of Scotland one is very far from the centre of things so far as the theatre is concerned but the spell cast by Ivor Novello reached every corner and had me very much in its grip. [...] His name meant little to me until 1948, when I was seventeen. [...] I wrote to him and on my first visit to London I went to see him in King's Rhapsody. On the next night I went to the stage door but missed him; Vanessa Lee was there and told me that he had just gone. "Come back again," she said, but on the following day I had to leave for Aberdeen. I was determined that next time I would definitely speak to Ivor. But, alas, there was no next time.'
The correspondents are: Shirley Adamson; Betty Algar; Ruth Allard; Margaret Ambridge; 'Miss C. Andrews Miss C. Russell'; C. R. Arben; Stanley Ascherberg; Ethel V. Asherson; Hazel Bailey; Kenneth R. Barnes; A. E. Barton; Joan Bazalgette; A. E. Beale; E. Beer; Ivy Blackwell; Marigold V. Blake; Jean Boyd; John Briggs; Ruby E. Campbell; Philip E. Carden; E. H. Carlos-Simmonds; Irene Carter; P. Chanaler; Nora B. Chance; Gladys Claydon; J. M. Clayton; Evelyn Clifford; Bryan E. Colley; A. A. M. Cooke; H. A. Cooke; D. M. Cooper; Sydney Corder; Beatrice Corley; J. C. Costerton; Harold A. Cross; Crossini; Geoffrey Cruley; A. Cunningham; 'Mrs Cunningham & Mrs Buckle'; Elisabeth Cusworth; Margaret M. Davies; Beryl Davis; Joan Davies; Vernon Davis; Donald F. Decks; E. Dennell; Vera Dennis; Elizabeth J. Dinwoodie; W. Dore; P. G. Dymock; M. R. Eddalls; Mary Evans; Megan P. Evans; Henry Fermor; Patricia Fincham; W. D. Fitzgerald; Michael Geer; Joan and Arthur Glover; Audrey Gold; Patricia M. Gordon; Marion Greenfield; R. F. Greenwood; Augusta Griffith; T. A. GriffinRose Hadaway; Florence A. C. Haddow; D. Hall; Mr and Mrs F. Hand; W. Hardy; Emillie Hartley; Karl Hartmann; Henney [Mary L. ] Edith M. Hill; Violet M. Hillman; R. J. Hipperson; Vera C. Hodgson; Florence A. Holdship (Secretary, Theatrical Ladies' Guild of Charity); I. Gwenllian Hopper; K. Hulme; J. M. Hulme; K. F. James; M. Johnson; Doris Jones; Marina A. Jones; Stephanie E. Jones; W. Henry Jones; Ella F. Kelly; B. Keenan; Hermione J. Kennedy; Renée Kennedy; A. Key; Dorothy Kindred; W. Kindred; B. J. King; L. M. Kingsmill; A. H. Laughery; M. E. Lee; Betty P. Lee; Fay Lee; M. E. Lee; Winifred L. Lee; Vera Lewis; Dorothy E. Lowe; A. M. McCalla; Duncan M. McFarlane; Kenneth McGrath; G. Mackintosh; K. Martin; Mary Martin; Edith Martyn; A. H. S. Mason; Artie Mayne; Elsie M. Meston; Mabel Mills; J. Miron; M. Moore; P. M. Moore; Mary Morris; Jean Mortimer; Lilian V. Moyse; Thea H. Mühler; Mackenzie Newton; Adèle Norman; Sydney Farley Nunny; William F. Page; J. Paluszak; A. Parker; Jack H. Parris; Arthur K. Patterson; Geoffrey A. Paulson; Arthur H. Payne; V. E. Pearce; Walter Pepper; E. Perry; Gladys Perry; Robert Pettitt; Joyce E. Pimlott; Dorothy Piper; G. I. Poyser; Mary Powell; Robert P. Primmer; Bert Rayson; Patti Regina; G. M. Redgate; Madeleine Reynolds; Diana Redhead; E. G. Rideman; Valerie L. Ripley (on letterhead of the publishers Longmans); Peggy Rowan; J. Rowley; L. M. Rush; L. Walls; E. Waterson; Dorothea Sample; Alan Selby; Shepherd; Margaret Smith; Edward C. Stansmore; Margaret Stapleton; Margaret Stewart; Josephine Stockmans-Bosschaerts; Muriel Streekland; B. M. Stuart; C. Teape; W. Thatcher; A. Trunkfield; Florence Twilley; Elsie A. TryonAlfred Warburton; 'Miss D Warren' and 'Mr. P Morgan'; Krishna Vines; E. Waterman; W. Watson; Jack Webster; Cecil A. Westrope; Phyllis Whitworth; Ethel Wicks; Olivia Wigram; Diana Wilson; Toné Woollard; J. Young.

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