Accompanying Gracie

Harry Parr-Davies was no more than a name to me until I saw the documentary play about Gracie Fields and realised that the songs Sing as We Go, Wish Me Luck As You Wave me Goodbye, Pedro the Fisherman, and I Leave My Heart in an English Garden were all composed by the same man. This set me about discovering more about him. Consulting the internet, I discovered a web-site and even more importantly was given Gabrielle Bell’s CD of Harry’s music covering the styles and sounds of 30’s, 40’s and 50’s I also gathered as many items of second sheetmusi and two vocal scores. After compiling a family genealogy I start to collate my material into biographical form so I could explore the man and his music set against the times he lived in. I consulted local libraries for Groves and Dictionary of National Biography. Giving ore personal detail were the archives in Neath and West Glamorgan Libraries and I quite quickly came across accounts of the 2005 Exhibition in Neath about Harry, which Edward Beckerleg had mounted with the help of late Bill Hanks. I contacted them both and they were helpful. Edward in particular provided with copies of material on the boards he had provided for the exhibition. Even more importantly, he posted to me CD’s of Harry’s music covering the styles and sounds of 30’s, 40’s and 50’s. Law‘s book on Her Majesty’s Life Guards band gave me further information about his time as a trooper as did the band’s archivist of Life Guards Museum Cumbermere Barracks, Windsor. The census, passenger sailing and newspaper sections of internet genealogical programme Find My Past provided me with material not only about Harry, Gracie, but also about the concerts given by the band. Two more resources proved interesting, but less useful. The editions of Gracie’s and George Formby’s films were interesting in so far as they put their talents on display, despite being often poor in their musical attribution. Many popularist biographies and autobiographies of George Formby, ‘Hutch’, the Hulberts and many more that had contact with Harry revealed surprisingly little about him, beyond the detail of a show for which he was providing the music. The 3 biographies of Gracie Fields and her own autobiography were better here because they retail anecdotes of her relationship with him, even if vague about actual dates. Many of the above books contain factual errors concerning incidents, dates, places and people encountered and the reader is rarely given the source of material. Some are mere fabrication against ascertainable facts. This similarly applies to many newspapers cuttings available over the years. A trawl of local second hand music shops, such internet companies as Amazon, Abe Books UK and The Sheet Music Warehouse, has resulted in two vocal scores, about 100 items of sheet music and a number of revue programmes. For details of the musicals (8 in all) with which Harry was involved, Ganzl’s comprehensive review of British musicals was very useful. Also Harry’s contribution to British films (27 in all) reviewed by internet programme from IMDB was invaluable. This has allowed me to compile a list of his compositions, mainly about 225 songs by sorting out what he actually did and did not write for each of 27 film, 9 revues, 8 musicals as well as a few instrumental works and ballet music.