G. H. MacDermott
Encyclopedia
Gilbert Hastings MacDermott (27 February 1845 – 8 May 1901) was one of the biggest stars of the Victorian
Victorian era
The Victorian era of British history was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. It was a long period of peace, prosperity, refined sensibilities and national self-confidence...

 English music hall
Music hall
Music Hall is a type of British theatrical entertainment which was popular between 1850 and 1960. The term can refer to:# A particular form of variety entertainment involving a mixture of popular song, comedy and speciality acts...

. He performed under the name of The Great MacDermott, and was well known for his rousing rendition of a war song he was persuaded to buy from G. W. Hunt for one guinea. The song's chorus of "We don't want to fight but by jingo if we do,
We've got the ships, we've got the men, and got the money too!" introduced the word jingoism
Jingoism
Jingoism is defined in the Oxford English Dictionary as extreme patriotism in the form of aggressive foreign policy. In practice, it is a country's advocation of the use of threats or actual force against other countries in order to safeguard what it perceives as its national interests...

 into the English language.

The song became hugely popular in 1878, so much so that the Prince of Wales, the future King Edward VII, had MacDermott sing it for him at a private audience. He was far from a one hit wonder however. In fact he had written and published several plays and acted in many of them. The war song was brought back several times by other artists and was sung in an altered version during the First World War.

Biography

MacDermott was born in Islington
Islington
Islington is a neighbourhood in Greater London, England and forms the central district of the London Borough of Islington. It is a district of Inner London, spanning from Islington High Street to Highbury Fields, encompassing the area around the busy Upper Street...

 in 1845, and named John Farrell. His parents were Patrick Farrell, an Irish bricklayer, and Mary McDermott, also from Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...

, a laundress. He had left home by 1861 to join the navy and in 1866 married Mary Ann Stradwick, by whom he had a son. From humble beginnings MacDermott became a wealthy man. In 1883 he lived in Lambeth
Lambeth
Lambeth is a district of south London, England, and part of the London Borough of Lambeth. It is situated southeast of Charing Cross.-Toponymy:...

 with a young actress Annie Milburn, daughter of actor James Hartley Milburn, and had another four children, all of whom adopted his stage name of MacDermott.

He later became a successful theatrical agent and managed several famous music halls. He died in 1901 from cancer at the age of 56. His youngest child, Annie Louise Mary MacDermott, later became a stage star by the name of Ouida MacDermott. Three times married; she ended up with Jay Wilbur
Jay Wilbur
James Edward Wilbur was a British bandleader and prolifically recorded musician identified with and influential in the Big Band era....

, a Second World War dance band leader.

In an obituary on 9 May 1901, the Daily Telegraph called G. H. MacDermott the last lion comique
Lion comique
Lion comique was a popular style of entertainment in Victorian music halls, a parody of upper class toffs or "swells". The songs the performers of the genre sang were "hymns of praise to the virtues of idleness, womanising and drinking", perhaps the most well-known of which is George Leybourne's...

, artists whose stage appearance resplendent in evening dress contrasted with the cloth cap image of most of their music hall contemporaries. The MacDermott family grave is at West Norwood Cemetery
West Norwood Cemetery
West Norwood Cemetery is a cemetery in West Norwood in London, England. It was also known as the South Metropolitan Cemetery.One of the first private landscaped cemeteries in London, it is one of the Magnificent Seven cemeteries of London, and is a site of major historical, architectural and...

.

External links


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