Kathleen Starling was
born on July 30th 1890 in Aylsham and was the youngest of four girls. Her
father was William Frederick Starling (he left his memories of Aylsham which
has been published by the society) and her mother was Katherine Annie Rees
Starling, nee Corney.
Kathleen became an
opera singer, her father paying for many singing lessons as she grew up.
According to Dad some of these singing lessons were undertaken in France.
She had a stage name,
it was Kathleen Destournel (French for Starling) and she kept that name for all
her public performances. Apparently she did start her career using her name,
Kathleen Starling but later changed it to Kathleen Destournel and it was then
that she had success.
Dame Nellie Melba (an
Australian opera singer) brought Kathleen to Australia to sing. Kathleen's
autograph book seems to confirm that she did come to Australia to perform.
There is an autograph in the book indicating she sang at 'Her Majesty's
Theatre' in Melbourne during March 1911. At this stage none of her family had
immigrated to Australia. Her sister, my grandmother, did not come to Australia
until 1926.
Kathleen certainly
sang in operas with Dame Nellie Melba. She appeared in a number of operas at
the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden including 'La Boheme' in 1919 where she
sang with Melba in front of the King and Queen. She had the part of the musette
in the second act.
Kathleen also played
in a number of benefits and Murray Keable (her nephew-my fahter) stated that
she gave a performance in their barn on their farm, 'The Grove' at Horning for
troops during WW1.
Kathleen continued to
sing and perform in a range of theatres and eventually married an American,
Robert Taylor. Robert or Bob as Kathleen called him was an American
entertainer. In 1939 Bob joined The Entertainment National Services
Association- ENSA and he and Kathleen entertained British Forces in England.
In 1942 they were
asked to organise a concert party to go overseas. They left London on the
'Monarch of Bermuda' during an air raid. It was a ship that normally took 360
passengers but on this trip there were 5,000 personnel. They gave three
concerts below deck.
They stopped in
Capetown, South Africa for three days and then continued on their trip. They
disembarked near Suez and took the train to Cairo. Altogether there were 42
artistes. Kathleen and the other artistes performed at camps near Cairo and
then went to Alexandria. From there they travelled throughout North Africa in
very trying circumstances at times.
According to
Kathleen, "My husband would always arrange to place the stage in a hollow
so that the audience would be raised on the sand hills." Often the lights
would fail and Kathleen would have to finish her songs in the dark. Every time
the entourage would arrive at a camp, there would be a tremendous cheer when
the women stepped out. It was the first time in years that some of the men had
seen women from home.
Kathleen continued to
travel around Egypt and experienced bombings, travelled on buses riddled with
bullets and with no windows to get to the camps in order to perform.
She stated that they
usually zigzagged to avoid holes but on one occasion they couldn't avoid the
holes and they felt everyone one of them as they drove to the next camp. She
thought it would be much better to be on a camel. At one stop Kathleen
discovered their billet had originally been Rommel's headquarters during the
German occupation. Kathleen's group also entertained the American troops as
they travelled around as part of an arrangement with the USO.
Eventually,
Kathleen's husband became ill and the doctors said he should return to Cairo.
However, the troop carriers were congested and it was difficult to arrange. Not
only did Kathleen get to take her husband back to Cairo but she bullied,
pleaded and eventually managed to persuade the officials to transport all her
costumes with them.
It was whilst Bob was
in hospital in Cairo that he read the book written by his sister in law
Rosemary Taylor. It was called 'Chicken every Sunday' and he decided that he
would retire to where his brother and sister in law lived in America.
Incidentally, this book was made into a movie.
In 1946 Kathleen and
Bob went to America via India and settled in Tueson, Arizona.
Kathleen remained
there until Bob's death and then she returned to England and to Aylsham where
she lived with her sisters until their deaths and then on her own until her own
death.
She also had another
stage name and that was Kathleen Reilly.
http://www.cawstonparish.info/williamsr.htm
Chronology of some appearances
1919 London Covent Garden Boheme (Musetta)
1919 London Covent Garden Madama Butterfly (Suzuki)
RECORDINGS FOR SALE
Vocalion, London 1924-05?
Trovatore (Verdi): The night was calm D-02154 03518
Bohème (Puccini): They call me Mimi D-02154 03517
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