Harry Champion

He made his stage debut at the age of 17 at the Royal Victoria Music Hall in Old Ford Road, Bethnal Green, in July 1882. He initially appeared as Will Conray and went on to appear in small music halls in the East End. In 1887 he changed his stage name to Harry Champion and started to perform in other parts of London where he built up a wide repertoire of songs. His trademark style was singing at a fast tempo and often about the joys of food. After more than four decades on the stage, Champion took early retirement after the death of his wife in 1928, but returned two years later to appear on radio, gaining a new, much younger audience as a result. During the Great Depression of the 1930s, music hall entertainment had made a brief comeback, and Champion, like other performers of the genre, returned to performing.

• Name — Harry Champion • Birth Name — William Henry Crump • Born — 17 April 1865 • Birthplace — Bethnal Green, London, England • Died — 14 January 1942 • Occupation — * Actor • comedian • composer • Years Active — 1882-1942 • Parents — Henry Crump, Matilda Crump

Champion was born William Henry Crump on 17 April 1865 at 4 Turk Street, Bethnal Green, London, the son of Henry Crump, a master cabinet maker, and his wife, Matilda Crump, née Watson. He had one brother and one sister. Few details are known about Champion's early life, as he was notoriously secretive. When he was 15, he became an apprentice to a boot clicker and soon developed an interest in music hall entertainment. Champion made his debut at the Royal Victoria Music Hall in Old Ford Road, Bethnal Green, in July 1882, as "Will Conray, comic". He appeared in minor music halls of London's East End, where he was described as a "comic, character vocalist, character comic and dancer". In 1883 he developed a blackface act in which he sang plantation songs. Local success led him to venture into other parts of the capital in the early part of 1886. Later in 1886, Champion introduced a new act entitled From Light to Dark, in which he appeared alternately in black and whiteface. The following year he changed his stage name from Will Conray to Harry Champion. When asked about the origin of the name, Champion stated: Somebody gave it to me. It was all through a dislike the manager of the Marylebone took to me. I went on tour for a bit. When I came back, he told my agent he'd have nothing to do with me. "Right", said the agent, "but you might give a new man his chance." "Who is he?" asked the manager, and then and there my agent baptised me "Harry Champion" and came and told me afterwards.

• Illustration — Brush with the law over his songs: 1915 press report In 1889, Champion gave up the blackface part of his act. He bought the performing rights to the song "I'm Selling up the 'Appy 'Ome" which brought him newfound fame. The song is noted for being one of the first songs associated with his name. His popularity widened, and he made his West End theatre debut at the Tivoli in September 1890. Encores of his now famous song, "I'm Selling up the 'Appy 'Ome", were often accompanied with a hornpipe dance, which Champion performed. Champion followed this up with "When the Old Dun Cow Caught Fire" (written and composed by Harry Wincott), which he introduced into his act in 1893. By the mid-1890s, he had many songs in his repertory, and he was in demand from audiences. The Entr'Acte wrote, "Champion is a comic singer who is endowed with genuine humour, which is revealed in his several songs, of which the audience never seems to get enough". His earliest known recording success was in 1896 with "In the World Turned Upside Down", followed by "Down Fell the Pony in a Fit" in 1897. In 1898 Champion ceased his style of alternating songs and patter and instead adopted a quick fire delivery in order for him to perform as many songs as he could during his act. He retained this style of delivery for the remainder of his career, remarking, "At one time I used to sing songs with plenty of patter but I changed the style for a new idea of my own, and started "quick singing". I think I am the only comedian who sings songs all in a lump, as you may say". Champion's popularity was at its highest from 1910 to 1915. It was within this period that he introduced four of his best-known songs. "Boiled Beef and Carrots" was first published in 1909 and was composed by Charles Collins and Fred Murray. The song depicts the joys of the well known Cockney dish of the same name which was eaten frequently in London's East End community at the turn of the 20th century. "I'm Henery the Eighth, I Am" was written for Champion by Fred Murray and R. P. Weston in 1910. The song is a playful reworking of the life and times of Henry VIII, in this case not the monarch, but the eighth husband of the "widow next door. She'd been married seven times before." "Any Old Iron" was written for Champion by Charles Collins, E.A. Sheppard and Fred Terry in 1911. The song is about a man who inherits an old watch and chain. Champion later recorded it on the EMI label on 29 October 1935 and was accompanied by the London Palladium Orchestra. The song has often been covered by fellow artistes including Stanley Holloway and Peter Sellers. "A Little Bit of Cucumber" was written by the composer T. W. Conner and was first performed by Champion in 1915. The song is about a working-class man who enjoys eating cucumbers. He later compares them to other types of food, before eventually deciding that it is cucumber he prefers. Champion later took part in the first Royal Variety Performance at The Palace Theatre in 1912. Other performances of note included "What a Mouth" (1906), "Everybody Knows Me in Me Old Brown Hat" and "Beaver" (both from 1922).

The titles of many of Champion's songs, supplied mainly by professional writers, centred around various types of food, consumed, chiefly by the working class community of East London. Food became an essential part of his repertory, so much so that during the First World War, a plate of boiled beef and carrots was known as "an 'arry Champion". Champion also sang about cucumbers, pickled onions, piccalilli, saveloys, trotters, cold pork and baked sheep's heart, all basic elements in a Cockney's diet. With the outbreak of the First World War, traditional music hall entertainment declined in comparison with the new genre, variety. In 1915 Champion recorded "Grow some Taters", which was adopted by the British government's wartime publicity organisation to encourage the home growing of vegetables. Thomas Burke described Champion in his 1918 book Nights in London as the "one man still among us who renders... details of the Cockney's daily day in more perfect fashion than any of his peers." Burke also described his effect on the audience: "His gaiety is not the superficial gaiety of the funny man who makes you laugh but does nothing else to you. He does you good." However by 1918 Champion, like many performers from the music hall era, found their careers on the decline and he was forced into retirement in 1920.

• Illustration — A day at the races: An advertisement from 1947 of the expanding taxi business "Horseshoe Coaches" Champion's main business interest away from the stage included the ownership of a successful business hiring out horse-drawn Broughams to fellow performers. This evolved into a coach business in the late 1920s which became known as Horseshoe Coaches (WH Crump and Sons). The business was later sold and renamed North London Coaches. Upon the outbreak of World War II, the fleet of vehicles was commandeered for the war effort by the British government.

During the Great Depression of the 1930s, music hall entertainment made a comeback and Champion, like other performers of the music hall genre, returned to performing and enjoyed popularity throughout the 1930s. Troupes of veterans were much in demand in the 1930s and Lew Lake's Variety, 1906–1931—Stars who Never Failed to Shine went on tour throughout the country early in the decade with Champion as a leading member. Critics hailed Champion as a success stating "He almost brought the house down with three of his typical ditties". In 1932, Champion appeared at the royal variety performance with other representatives of old style music hall, including Vesta Victoria, Fred Russell and Marie Kendall. That same year he returned to the London Palladium, where he sang "Any Old Iron" and had some success. Further royal variety performance appearances took place again at the Palladium in 1935 and at the London Coliseum in 1938, and he was seen in the successful London Rhapsody with the Crazy Gang at the Palladium in 1937 and 1938. Champion decided not to try anything new because he recognised the fact that audiences liked the nostalgia surrounding his act. On stage, his appearance did not change. He was the embodiment of the spirit of the poorer parts of London, wearing shabby, ill-fitting clothes, old work boots and a frayed top hat. One critic noted "Like music hall itself, Harry Champion was of the people, he expressed the tastes of practically all his listeners, even those who would not openly admit it and in World War 2 he sang to troops who found him a splendid tonic".

On 30 November 1889, at St Peter's Church, Hackney, Champion married Sarah Potteweld (1869–1928), who accompanied him on many of his tours. They had three sons and a daughter. In 1914, Champion moved from the east end to 520 West Green Road, South Tottenham. Towards the later part of his life he lived at 161 Great Cambridge Road, Tottenham. By late 1941 he was admitted to The London Clinic, St. Marylebone. He died there on 14 January 1942 and was buried alongside his wife (who predeceased him) in St Marylebone Cemetery, now titled East Finchley Cemetery, East Finchley, north London.