From the Archives

Fairford Entertainment

In the days before radio, television, video, DVD and the internet, our ancestors had to make their own entertainment. However, occasionally the citizens of Fairford were treated to live performances by touring professionals. The Wiltshire and Gloucestershire Standard for Saturday 6th May 1854 contains the following report:
"Professor Ewart, the celebrated ventriloquist, gave an entertainment in the Crofts Hall, on Monday evening last. The novelty of the performance attracted a very numerous and respectable audience, who were highly gratified with the extraordinary display of talent evinced in this singular science by Professor Ewart. Such continued roars of laughter have never been heard in the Hall since its erection. We were somewhat startled and incredulous on reading the programme for the evening's amusement, but every item was realized to the fullest extent, in an infinitely amusing manner; and if Mr Ewart should, at any future time, visit our town, he may be certain of lecturing to a very large audience."

'Professor' John James Ewart was a celebrated Scottish ventriloquist who made frequent and extensive tours of Britain during the 1850s and 1860s and received much acclaim in the local press wherever he performed. In an advertisement in the Glasgow Herald in March 1855 he claimed to be "The first ventriloquist in Europe". However, in later years it appears that his career took something of a downward turn culminating in July 1869 with him being mugged in Birkenhead while he was the worse for drink and been locked out of his lodgings. The Professor's bizarre behaviour and having frequent lapses into his stage persona during the subsequent trials at Birkenhead Police Court and Chester Assizes resulted in the acquittal of the four robbers due to lack of (reliable) evidence! There is no further mention of Professor Ewart in the press after 1869.

William Child Iles

New Zealand has a thriving local and family history movement, much of which relates to families who emigrated there from the United Kingdom during the 19th and 20th centuries.

One of the many Englishmen who went to New Zealand to seek fame and fortune was William Child Iles. William was the son of Nicholas and Charlotte Iles, both of whom are buried in Fairford. Nicholas Roch Iles was an auctioneer and an agent for the Globe Insurance Company. Apparently he was also an agent for Mander & Power's Dublin stout according to Pigot’s 1842 Gloucestershire trade directory. William was born in Fairford on 26th April 1836 and joined the Army where he became a dispatch rider for Lord Cardigan during the Crimean War. He sailed to New Zealand in 1861 and had a number of jobs including being a warder in Dunedin Public Hospital for 14 years and a coach and wagon driver. One of his positions was as a warder in a mental hospital in Otago. Perhaps William had been attracted to this post because of his family's links with Alexander Iles's asylum in Fairford. William married twice and had 10 children and was a founder member of the Dunedin branch of the Salvation Army. He died on 15th June 1923.

One way to find information on people and events in New Zealand is to search on the Papers Past website at: http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast. This website offers freetext searching of 61 New Zealand news papers dating between 1839 and 1945. More information on William Child Iles of Fairford and Dunedin can be found on the Dunedin Northern Cemetery's excellent website.