Tommy Trinder

Tommy Trinder was born at 54 Wellfield Road, Streatham, South London, on 24 March 1909, the son of Thomas Henry Trinder, a London tram driver from Shilton, Oxfordshire, and his wife Jennie Georgina Harriet née Mills. After Thomas Trinder was transferred to Hammersmith, the family moved to Fulham.

Trinder left school early for a job as an errand boy. He made his first stage appearance at the age of twelve in a talent competition at Collins Music Hall. Trinder's singing act won the contest and when collecting his award, he was approached by Will Murray who recruited him for his Casey's Court juvenile comedy show. Trinder made his first appearance with the company on 5 June 1921 in Oldham.[1] The company, which also featured Jimmy Wheeler at the time, toured music halls including Sunderland Empire Theatre.[2]

After a few years with Casey's Court, Trinder then joined a dancing act called Phil Rees' Stable Lads. At the age of 14, he performed with them at Folies Bergère, Paris.[2] By 1926, the 17-year-old Trinder was the star of Archie Pitt's travelling variety comedy shows, often appearing at the Queen's Theatre, Poplar, London.[2] Trinder also performed in concert parties and working men's clubs.[3]

Trinder with Jean Colin during the making of Communal Kitchen: Eating Out With Tommy Trinder for the Ministry of Information in 1941

Trinder began to achieve national recognition in 1937 with the revues Tune In and In Town Tonight. He promoted himself with posters bearing the slogan "If it's laughter you're after, Trinder's the name"[4] and would often begin his act with "The name's Trinder. That's T-R-I-N-D-E-R, pronounced Chumley", a dig at the upper classes."[5] In December 1938, he was spotlighted in an end-of-year review in The Era, who said "Tommy Trinder has established himself firmly in his own special niche, as we knew he would. But it is not a niche easy of attainment. To abolish deliberately the proscenium, to get down among the audience, treat individual members of it with easy familiarity, pinch their cigarettes and chocolates and to be loved for doing it... well, I have seen other artists try something like it, and their reward has been the frozen face and the indignant murmur. Tommy Trinder is a truly great artist".[6] In July 1939, Trinder starred alongside Arthur Askey in Jack Hylton's stage version of the BBC's radio comedy series Band Waggon at the London Palladium.[7]

By the time of the Second World War, Trinder was one of Britain's foremost entertainers and his shows brought welcome relief during the darkest days of the war. He had been signed up to Michael Balcon's Ealing Studios in 1938 when it became clear that George Formby was about to be wooed away.[8] Trinder's most successful film was the comedy Sailors Three (1940) in which he, Claude Hulbert and Michael Wilding capture a German pocket battleship. He also took straight acting parts in The Foreman Went to France, The Bells Go Down (a tribute to the work done by firemen in London during the Blitz); and Bitter Springs about a family fighting to make a new life in the Australian Outback. During the war, Trinder worked for ENSA (Entertainments National Service Association) and would joke it stood for Every Night Something Atrocious.[1]

Trinder in New South Wales, 1954

After the war, Trinder was recruited to television. From 1955 to 1958, he was the original compere for ITV television programme Sunday Night at the London Palladium.[4] He hosted his own television series, Trinder Box on the BBC in 1959. Despite his television success he never fully warmed to the medium, believing that the amount of daily rehearsal sapped performances of their spontaneity.[3] He was the subject of This Is Your Life in May 1959 when he was surprised by Eamonn Andrews. In 1979 he appeared in an edition of The Old Boy Network, doing his stand-up routine and presenting a condensed history of his life and career.

Trinder was a lifelong devoted supporter of Fulham Football Club and was chairman of the club between 1959 and 1976. Always a favourite with the Royal family (he made six appearances in Royal Variety Performances between 1945 and 1980), he was appointed a CBE in 1975. He was a proud and active member of the exclusive entertainment fraternity, the Grand Order of Water Rats, serving two non-consecutive terms as its "King Rat" in 1963 and 1965, respectively. He was also President of the Lord's Taverners cricketing charity in 1956.

He lived in an Art Deco-style apartment block – Du Cane Court, in Balham, south-west London – the largest such under one roof in Europe in the 1930s. He moved in with Violet Trinder (née Bailey; they had married in 1932) in 1939, and was still there in 1955. A neighbour described an impromptu encounter she had with him in which her silk scarf had covered her features. He said: "One should never hide a pretty face."[5] His second marriage was to Gwyn (Toni) Lancelyn Green. He moved to a large private estate, Burwood Park in Hersham, Surrey, calling the house "Tiverly". He is buried in Burvale Cemetery, which is close by to where he lived.