Census and parish records show that Margery’s
paternal line, the Booth’s, were living in Bolton as far
back as the late 1700’s. Margery’s grandfather, Levi
Booth, who was born in 1838, started a business as a
wholesale brush manufacturer in 1860 working from 41
Cheapside, Newport Street in Bolton. He married a
Yorkshire girl, Caroline Roberts Jackson, on 6 August
1863 at St. John the Baptist church in Halifax. They were
to have seven children, four boys and three girls.
The couple lived in Bolton for a few years but soon after
their son Joseph’s birth in 1867, Levi moved his family
and business to Wigan. He is listed in the 1869 Slaters
Trade Directory as a brush maker living at 47 Wallgate,
opposite the Victoria Hotel, calling his business the
‘Wigan Brush Works’.
The census of 2 April 1871 finds Levi, Caroline, two year
old son Richard and two day old baby daughter Sarah living above their shop in Wallgate. At the
time their two older children Walter and Joseph were staying with their grandparents near Halifax.
It was at 47 Wallgate that Margery’s father, also named Levi, was born In 1875. He was destined to
become a brush maker like his father.
Levi later moved his premises from number 47 to 18 Wallgate, nearer to Market Place in the centre
of town. Here he advertised that he was a brush wholesaler and retailer, also selling baskets,
washing lines, cord and twine. A passionate angler himself, he was also a fishing tackle dealer.
By the time of the 1881 census
Levi was employing four workers
at his business in Wallgate but
was now living at 29 Upper
Dicconson St. As his business
grew he moved to Sicklefield
House off Wigan Lane then out of
town to firstly Gathurst Lane in Shevington, then to Common Road in Parbold.
In 1906 he advertised in local newspapers that he was having a moving sale and
relocating his business premises from Wallgate to 25-27 The Wiend, off Millgate.
In 1908 Levi was to lose his third eldest son Richard, aged 39, in tragic circumstances. Richard had
been working as a commercial traveller for his father but had been in ill health for several years and
had been unable to work for the previous month. On Saturday 20 November Levi received a letter
from his son dated the previous day, as a consequence the Leeds & Liverpool Canal near Richard’s
home in Clarence Street in Ince was dragged. Richard’s body was found with two handkerchiefs tied
around his legs. At the inquest held in front of Coroner Brighouse the jury returned a verdict of
‘Suicide while of unsound mind’.
His two older brothers had chosen to make their own way in life. Walter became a brewery manager
in Bolton, whilst Joseph opened a shop in St. Helens selling general goods and brushes from the
Wigan Brush Works. This left just Levi Jnr working in the family business in Wigan.By 1911 Levi Snr and Caroline, who was now blind, had moved from Parbold back into Wigan. They
were living above a shop at 25 Mesnes Street, opposite the Market Hall, that their divorced daughter
Sarah was running. She was selling brushes that her brother Levi Jnr was producing in the Wiend.
Levi Snr died in 1915 in Lytham St. Annes. He had served as a Wigan Town Councillor for over a
quarter of a century, being elected to represent the All Saints Ward in 1886. He served on all the
Council committees and became an Alderman of the Borough in 1901.
As well as sitting as a Magistrate on the Borough bench he was also a Churchwarden of St. Thomas
CE church in Wallgate where for a time he was an overseer of the poor. For over 30 years he was a
member of the Independent Order of Oddfellows, a fraternal order, set up to provide care for the
needy in a time before the NHS and the Welfare State. As well he was instrumental in setting up the
Wigan & District Amalgamated Anglers Association and was its first President.
Levi Booth Snr was buried in Wigan Cemetery in Lower Ince in a double grave alongside his six month
old daughter Sarah who had died in 1874 and his wife Caroline who had predeceased him two years
previously. His son Richard, who had tragically drowned lay, in an adjoining grave.
Maternal Roots
Margery’s mother, Florence Tetley came from an old Yorkshire family that can be traced back to
the 1680’s. In the 1800’s they were cloth merchants in the Bradford area. Margery’s maternal
grandfather James Edward Tetley married a Manchester girl Sarah Elizabeth Myers in 1870. They
then moved to Leigh and on the 1871 census are shown living at 71 Lord Street, James’s occupation
is shown as a coal proprietor.
James then seems to disappear from the picture and his whereabouts are unclear, the next official
record is his death on 11 May 1898 in Queensland, Australia, aged 58. On the 1881 census Sarah is
shown living with her parents Henry and Elizabeth Myers at 1 Florence St in Hindley with her one
year old daughter Florence.
Sarah remarried under her maiden name of Myers on 12 April 1882 at St. James CE church in
Poolstock, Wigan. Her new husband, who she was to have three children with, was Thomas Mort,
a shoemaker and pawnbroker who had a business in Market Street, Hindley.
The census of 1901 shows that 22 year old Florence had left her step family and was once again living
with her grandparents Henry and Elizabeth Myers in nearby Castle Hill. She married Levi Booth four
months later on 17 July 1901 at All Saints CE church in Hindley.
Five years later, on 31 January 1906 a notice in the births, marriages and deaths section of the Wigan
Observer & Advertiser announced the arrival of Margery Myers Booth into the world.
The 1911 census shows five year old Margery and her mother Florence were now living with her
great grandparents Henry and Elizabeth Myers at 90 Barnsley Street, a terraced property just round
the corner from her birth place in Hodges Street. Margery’s father, Levi Jnr is shown as being at The
Wiend, his business address in Wigan on the night of the census.
Margery’s name first appeared in the newspaper when the Wigan Observer & District Advertiser
dated 11 Jan 1913 showed Margery’s name amongst the list of all the school children invited to
Mayor Edward Dickinson’s Juvenile Ball at the Pavillion Theatre in Library St, Wigan.A New Life in Southport
It was around this time that Levi relocated his family to the Meols Cop district of Southport,
moving into a semi detached house at 87 Clifton Road. Levi commuted daily to his business in Wigan
and Margery attended the nearby Norwood Primary school.
The first written record of Margery performing live is an article in the Southport Advertiser
reporting that she sang in an operetta in St. Luke’s church on Good Friday, 10 April 1914, aged
eight. The following year, her great grandparents Henry and Elizabeth Myers moved from Wigan
to live with them in retirement at Clifton Road.
Alas all was not well in her parents’ marriage, in 1918 they separated. Levi petitioned for divorce
from Florence, on the grounds of her misconduct with a man named William Fairhurst at his home
in Clifton Road. Fairhurst was said to keep an off licenced house in Woodhouse Lane, Wigan. He
told Mr. Justice Shearman that his wife had taken to drink and they then entered into a deed of
separation. ADecree Nisi was granted in 1919.
Margery’s parents both remarried in 1920. Her father married Ada Sidebotham in July at Hope St
Congregational Chapel in Wigan town centre. Ada had been living above his brush shop in the Wiend
for a number of years. Her brother was Ezra Sidebotham, a printer of long standing, who also had
premises in the Wiend.
Her mother Florence married William Fairhurst, 20 years her senior, at Ormskirk Register Office in
September. William, whose father was a publican, had been in the brewery trade all his life and
described on various censuses as barman, brewer, mineral water bottler and publican.
Margery’s talent as a singer had been recognised at an early age and it was after her mother’s
second marriage that she was given the chance of professional training as an opera singer.
At the age of 14 she started on the long road to stardom which would require dedication and years
of hard work. Opera singers have to be extraordinarily disciplined, mastering the art of acting and
stage presence. Being bilingual and the ability to sing in several languages is essential therefore the
study of foreign languages at music school is mandatory.
Margery firstly began a two year course of singing lessons in Bolton under the tuition of Welshman
Richard Evans, an ex-miner from Ruabon near Wrexham. There then followed a move down to
London for six months private tuition with Eileen D’Orme in Knightsbridge.
She then attended the prestigious Guildhall School of Music for a further two years training to
perfect her mezzo soprano voice. In 1924 she won the Mercer Scholarship of 50 Guineas, which she
repeated the following year, also gaining the Liza Lehman prize of 10 Guineas.
It was whilst at the Guildhall School that she met and struck up a friendship with a
young German student who was staying in the same digs. His name was Egon Strohm
and he was in London studying English language. They both went their separate ways
to pursue their careers but were destined to meet again.The Journey to Berlin and Fame
On completion of her training Margery found it difficult to secure engagements and after an
illness travelled to Switzerland in order to recuperate. It was here she was advised to go to Berlin to
pursue her dream of being a professional opera singer.
In 1928 she made a successful audition with the Berlin State Opera House (Staatsoper Unter den
Linden). The iconic building, close to the Reichstag and Brandenburg Gate and built by Frederick the
Great in 1741 had just reopened after a two year refurbishment.
After a further six months training under the tutelage of the famous French soprano, Lola Artot de
Padilla she signed a one year contract and made her first appearance in Berlin that year, a minor
part in the opera ‘La Tosca’.
Margery soon became a favourite with Berlin audiences. In 1930 she had a lead part in the new
German opera ‘Der Fremde Erde’’, an honour rarely accorded to foreigners.
On 17 Aug 1932 the Lancashire Evening Post published a short article with the headline banner ‘A
Southport Girl Who Sings in Berlin’, Margery is quoted as saying:
“I love coming back to Southport for a holiday, but I love Germany so much now that I would not like
to leave it. If you have talent the German people will back you up, second rate is not sufficient, nor
will they find excuse for an artist who is out of condition. The Germans don’t think the English have
any talent and will only believe you are English when you have thoroughly convinced them”.
Little did she know that the following year events would unfold that would lead to Germany
becoming a Fascist Dictatorship, the destruction of Europe in the Second World War and the end of
her singing career.
1933 was an eventful year for Margery, her
mentor Lola de Padilla, whom she had served her
apprenticeship under, died in Berlin on 12 April.
A few weeks later on 9 May her mother Florence
died of cancer, aged 54. She was buried in Duke
Street Cemetery in Southport. alongside her
grandparents Henry and Elizabeth Myers who
had died during the Great war in 1915 and 1918
respectively.
Adolf Hitler became Chancellor of Germany on 30
January 1933. It was through his love of classical
music that Hitler’s and Margery’s paths were to
cross a few months later. After five years at the
Berlin State Opera she was now a principal singer
and the only English Prima Donna in Berlin,
singing in German, French, Italian and Spanish.
That year she was invited to sing at the Bayreuth
Festival in northern Bavaria, and was chosen to carry the Holy Grail in the opera ‘Parsifal’ which
opened on 22 July.
Hitler had an almost fanatical devotion to the work of the 19th-century German composer RichardWagner, which to him represented everything that was good about culture in Nazi Germany. His
attendance at the Bayreuth Festival was very well publicised by Joseph Goebbels, the Minister for
Public Enlightenment and Propaganda.
Margery revealed in an interview with the Lancashire Daily Post in December 1933 that she had
met Hitler and also Crown Prince Wilhelm of Prussia and his wife Cecilie, the Duchess of
Mecklenburg-Schwerin. She told the reporter:
“I had dinner with Herr Hitler and the Crown Prince and his wife. I received a beautiful bouquet of red
roses and the people I met were all very charming. The ex-Crown Princess introduced me to her friends
as ‘her baby’ and has promised to promote a concert at Potsdam at which I shall sing”.
The Crown Prince or ‘Little Willie’ as he was known as, was a passionate devotee of opera. He
admired Margery’s singing and they were to become firm friends, this friendship was to prove
invaluable a decade later.
During a later interview with the Liverpool Echo in 1936 she recounts that after her performance she
was presented to Adolph Hitler and said of him:
“He was perfectly charming and they talked about art and music”. Margery was to become one of
Hitlers favourite singers.
Held annually in July since 1876 the Bayreuth Festival is a month long performance of operas
presented by the Wagner family. Performances take place in a specially designed theatre, the
‘Bayreuth Festpielhaus ‘which Wagner personally supervised the design and construction of.
The overall Director was English born Winifred Marjorie Wagner (nee Williams). Originally from
Hastings in Sussex and orphaned at an early age, she was sent to live with relatives in Germany. She
married 46 year old Siegfried, the bisexual son of Richard Wagner at the age of 18 in 1915.
She took over the running of the Festival after her husband's death in 1930 until the end of World
War II in 1945. A personal friend and supporter of Adolf Hitler, she maintained a regular
correspondence with him. They had met in 1923, the year that Hitler was jailed for his part in the
Munich Beer Hall Putsch. She sent him food parcels and stationery in Landsberg Prison, on which it
is thought he wrote his autobiography ‘Mein Kampf’.
Her anti Semitic views led to her joining the Nazi Party in 1926 and in the late 1930’s she served as
Hitler’s personal translator during treaty negotiations with Britain.
Margery’s father Levi died on 12 August 1933 in Wigan, aged 58, whilst Margery was performing at
Bayreuth. He was buried three days later in Wigan Cemetery, Lower Ince, alongside his parents and
sister Martha Annie who had died aged five and half months in 1874. Margery’s parents had both
remarried in 1920 and by a quirk of fate she was to lose them both in the same year.
In late 1933 Margery was hospitalised in Berlin, after an operation she started a period of
recuperation which included a visit back to Southport for a short holiday.
The following year she was invited back to Bayreuth, this time with the solo role of a flower maiden
in the opera ‘Parsifal’ and of Flosshilde, a Rhine maiden in the opera ‘Gotterdammerung’. In the lavish
production 1,500 costumes were used and 800 people employed, 137 musicians alone.
At the time no one was aware that Margery was unwell again and had sung at least 20 times at
Bayreuth in agonising pain, this led to her undergoing surgery again. She wrote to her step fatherWilliam from her hospital bed in Erlangen, just north of Nuremberg in Bavaria, telling him she had
had an operation for an internal complaint.
Hitler expressed concern and gave orders that she was to be well looked after and Goering and
Goebbels sent messages of sympathy. The Queen of Denmark also sent good wishes and invited
her to her country to sing. It was after a two month recovery that Margery was fit enough to start
singing again.
Recognition at Home
Although famous in Germany and on the continent Margery was up to now virtually unknown at
home. After her success at Bayreuth this was about to change.
In 1935 she was invited to sing at the Promenade Concerts, more commonly known as the Proms,
with the BBC Symphony Orchestra at the Queens
Hall in London. (The building was destroyed in the
Blitz in 1941 and the proms then moved to it’s new
home at the Albert Hall).
The Proms Concerts were broadcast on the radio and
soon Margery’s voice was to be heard in every home
in the land. After years of hard work she was finally
getting the recognition she deserved.
Following her mother’s death from cancer, Margery
became a keen supporter of cancer charities and
research. Whilst based in London singing with the
BBC orchestra she took the opportunity to sing in a
benefit concert at the Palace Theatre in the West
End, in aid of the Holt Radium Institute which had
amalgamated with Christies Cancer Hospital in
Manchester two years previously.
On 4 Oct 1935 she sang professionally for the first
time outside of London when she performed at a
concert at the Queens Hall, Market Street in her
home town of Wigan.
Now at the height of her fame, 1936 was a busy
year for Margery. Her new contract with the Berlin
Opera stipulated that she spend seven months of
the year in Berlin, singing on 60 nights during that
time. During the other five months she was allowed to undertake tours.
She finally fulfilled her greatest ambition of singing at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden,
London on 27 April when she played the role of Magdalene in Wagner’s opera ‘Die
Meistersinger’. That year she was to create a record 23 appearances in the Covent Garden opera
season.
It was after her successful debut in London that she announced her engagement to Egon Strohm,
the German who she had first met as a student in London eleven years previously.She had hoped to marry Egon in a quiet ceremony in her adopted town of Southport four months
later. However the news of her impending marriage leaked out, not wanting to turn her special day
into a media circus she cancelled the wedding indefinitely on the pretence that she was suffering
from influenza.
She then secretly rearranged for the wedding to go ahead the next day with only herself, Egon and
the Vicar in the know, with the guests to be only informed at the last possible moment.
Such was the secrecy that the officiating minister Rev. Canon Walter Morris, the Rural Dean of
North Meols, was only given one hours notice of the time of the ceremony. He married Margery
and Egon by special licence at All Saints CE church in Rawlinson Road the next day, Wednesday 26
August.
Margery’s stepfather William Fairhurst gave her away. The best man, Thomas Forshaw, the
Managing Director of Burtonwood Breweries at Newton Le Willows, near Warrington was unable
to make it in time and missed the ceremony completely, only arriving in time for the reception at
Margery’s family home. A neighbour from Lethbridge Road, fifty six year old Hubert Hunt, was
drafted in at the last minute to be the second witness.
Margery and Egon spent their honeymoon in Scotland before returning to Germany. In an interview
with the Airdrie & Coatbridge Advertiser she is quoted as saying;
“When in England, nothing delights me more than go north and sing among my own people”.
A German Husband
Margery’s new husband Dr. Egon Strohm was born 24 Oct 1904 in Trossingen in the State of Baden-
Wurttemberg, the picturesque Black Forest region of south west Germany. His father Christian, was
a member of a prominent Brewing family and lived in a villa he had built in 1925 in Schwenningen,
a town close by Trossingen where Egon was born.
The brewery in Trossingen was founded in the
late 19th century and by 1904 it was known as
‘Zum Baeren’ and owned by Johannes Strohm.
It was renamed the ‘Baerenbrauerei’ in 1920.
The family operated a second brewery in the
nearby town of Schwenningen with the
owners being Gebrueder Strohm (Strohm
Brothers). The brewery used a bear as its
symbol and this became as famous as the
animals on the State crest, a lion, stag and
griffon.
Egon didn’t enter into the family business but
instead pursued an academic career. After
University he moved to Berlin where on 14
August 1928 he married Elisabeth Martha
Czaika. The marriage banns show he was a 23
old student living at Prinzregentenstrasse 83,
Wilmersdorf in the south west suburbs of thecity. Elizabeth, also 23, had been born in Lodz, Poland.
The marriage was not to last very long however. It was dissolved in Jan 1930 and Elizabeth reverted
back to her maiden name, marrying for a second time to Raimond Fredrich Anton Spitzer on 4 April
1931.
During the 1930’s Egon worked as a journalist and radio reporter, whilst also studying for his
Doctorate degree at Heidelberg University. In 1935 he qualified as a Doctor of Law and Economics
after writing a dissertation for his PhD. entitled ‘The British Empire as an Economic Entity’.
At some point after Margery’s arrival in Berlin, which coincided with Egon’s first marriage, the pair
eventually renewed their friendship from their student days in London and this led to a romance
and marriage in England.
With her new contract giving her more freedom, Margery spent her time touring and commuting
between Germany, England and America. She made a flying visit to Lancashire on 31 January 1937
to sing in a Manchester concert in aid of Christies Cancer Hospital and to visit Southport.
Egon met up with her in Southport after a trip to New York, arriving in Southampton on 16 March on
SS Westernland, a German owned transatlantic liner, sailing the Antwerp, New York, Southampton
route.
On Saturday 15 May she sang again at the Queens Hall in Wigan, fulfilling a promise she had made
two years previously that she would return to her home town. The concert was to celebrate the
Coronation of King George VI that had taken place three days beforehand. All benefits went towards
Mayor Peter Winstanley’s Royal Albert Edward Infirmary fund.
In July she was back in Southport for six weeks to stay with her step father in Lethbridge Road. But
Margery had to put all her engagements to one side, including a planned trip to the Isle of Man.
Instead she spent her time frantically searching for her lost dog, a Terrier named Terry who had been
missing for 10 days. She put notices in shop windows, appealed in the newspapers and visited all the
police stations in the area.
At Ormskirk police station they told her they had found a dog answering Terry’s description and had
sent it to Walton dogs home. At Walton she found it had been sold to a Bootle man. At Bootle the
buyer said he sold it to a man in the same street. The search ended in the home of the second buyer
where Margery was able to buy Terry back.
War Clouds Looming
By 1938 the situation in Europe was deteriorating fast. Germany was now a fascist state with
Hitler as Fuhrer having full control of all political and military matters. The country had secretly
been rearming for a number of years and war in Europe was now inevitable.
On 12 March German troops marched unopposed into Austria. In what's known as the
‘Anschluss’, Austria was annexed into Greater Germany.
Hitler next set his eyes on the Sudetenland, the border regions of Czechoslovakia. On the pretext that
German speaking Czechs were being victimised he demanded the region be handed to Germany by
1 October.
The leaders of Britain, France, Germany and Italy met in Munich on 29-30 September 1938 and
following a policy of appeasement by England and France the Czech President Edvard Benes waspersuaded to submit to Hitlers demands. The next day the Sudetenland was annexed to Germany.
British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain returned to England waving a worthless piece of paper
declaring ‘Peace in our time’.
Census and parish records show that Margery’s
paternal line, the Booth’s, were living in Bolton as far
back as the late 1700’s. Margery’s grandfather, Levi
Booth, who was born in 1838, started a business as a
wholesale brush manufacturer in 1860 working from 41
Cheapside, Newport Street in Bolton. He married a
Yorkshire girl, Caroline Roberts Jackson, on 6 August
1863 at St. John the Baptist church in Halifax. They were
to have seven children, four boys and three girls.
The couple lived in Bolton for a few years but soon after
their son Joseph’s birth in 1867, Levi moved his family
and business to Wigan. He is listed in the 1869 Slaters
Trade Directory as a brush maker living at 47 Wallgate,
opposite the Victoria Hotel, calling his business the
‘Wigan Brush Works’.
The census of 2 April 1871 finds Levi, Caroline, two year
old son Richard and two day old baby daughter Sarah living above their shop in Wallgate. At the
time their two older children Walter and Joseph were staying with their grandparents near Halifax.
It was at 47 Wallgate that Margery’s father, also named Levi, was born In 1875. He was destined to
become a brush maker like his father.
Levi later moved his premises from number 47 to 18 Wallgate, nearer to Market Place in the centre
of town. Here he advertised that he was a brush wholesaler and retailer, also selling baskets,
washing lines, cord and twine. A passionate angler himself, he was also a fishing tackle dealer.
By the time of the 1881 census
Levi was employing four workers
at his business in Wallgate but
was now living at 29 Upper
Dicconson St. As his business
grew he moved to Sicklefield
House off Wigan Lane then out of
town to firstly Gathurst Lane in Shevington, then to Common Road in Parbold.
In 1906 he advertised in local newspapers that he was having a moving sale and
relocating his business premises from Wallgate to 25-27 The Wiend, off Millgate.
In 1908 Levi was to lose his third eldest son Richard, aged 39, in tragic circumstances. Richard had
been working as a commercial traveller for his father but had been in ill health for several years and
had been unable to work for the previous month. On Saturday 20 November Levi received a letter
from his son dated the previous day, as a consequence the Leeds & Liverpool Canal near Richard’s
home in Clarence Street in Ince was dragged. Richard’s body was found with two handkerchiefs tied
around his legs. At the inquest held in front of Coroner Brighouse the jury returned a verdict of
‘Suicide while of unsound mind’.
His two older brothers had chosen to make their own way in life. Walter became a brewery manager
in Bolton, whilst Joseph opened a shop in St. Helens selling general goods and brushes from the
Wigan Brush Works. This left just Levi Jnr working in the family business in Wigan.By 1911 Levi Snr and Caroline, who was now blind, had moved from Parbold back into Wigan. They
were living above a shop at 25 Mesnes Street, opposite the Market Hall, that their divorced daughter
Sarah was running. She was selling brushes that her brother Levi Jnr was producing in the Wiend.
Levi Snr died in 1915 in Lytham St. Annes. He had served as a Wigan Town Councillor for over a
quarter of a century, being elected to represent the All Saints Ward in 1886. He served on all the
Council committees and became an Alderman of the Borough in 1901.
As well as sitting as a Magistrate on the Borough bench he was also a Churchwarden of St. Thomas
CE church in Wallgate where for a time he was an overseer of the poor. For over 30 years he was a
member of the Independent Order of Oddfellows, a fraternal order, set up to provide care for the
needy in a time before the NHS and the Welfare State. As well he was instrumental in setting up the
Wigan & District Amalgamated Anglers Association and was its first President.
Levi Booth Snr was buried in Wigan Cemetery in Lower Ince in a double grave alongside his six month
old daughter Sarah who had died in 1874 and his wife Caroline who had predeceased him two years
previously. His son Richard, who had tragically drowned lay, in an adjoining grave.
Maternal Roots
Margery’s mother, Florence Tetley came from an old Yorkshire family that can be traced back to
the 1680’s. In the 1800’s they were cloth merchants in the Bradford area. Margery’s maternal
grandfather James Edward Tetley married a Manchester girl Sarah Elizabeth Myers in 1870. They
then moved to Leigh and on the 1871 census are shown living at 71 Lord Street, James’s occupation
is shown as a coal proprietor.
James then seems to disappear from the picture and his whereabouts are unclear, the next official
record is his death on 11 May 1898 in Queensland, Australia, aged 58. On the 1881 census Sarah is
shown living with her parents Henry and Elizabeth Myers at 1 Florence St in Hindley with her one
year old daughter Florence.
Sarah remarried under her maiden name of Myers on 12 April 1882 at St. James CE church in
Poolstock, Wigan. Her new husband, who she was to have three children with, was Thomas Mort,
a shoemaker and pawnbroker who had a business in Market Street, Hindley.
The census of 1901 shows that 22 year old Florence had left her step family and was once again living
with her grandparents Henry and Elizabeth Myers in nearby Castle Hill. She married Levi Booth four
months later on 17 July 1901 at All Saints CE church in Hindley.
Five years later, on 31 January 1906 a notice in the births, marriages and deaths section of the Wigan
Observer & Advertiser announced the arrival of Margery Myers Booth into the world.
The 1911 census shows five year old Margery and her mother Florence were now living with her
great grandparents Henry and Elizabeth Myers at 90 Barnsley Street, a terraced property just round
the corner from her birth place in Hodges Street. Margery’s father, Levi Jnr is shown as being at The
Wiend, his business address in Wigan on the night of the census.
Margery’s name first appeared in the newspaper when the Wigan Observer & District Advertiser
dated 11 Jan 1913 showed Margery’s name amongst the list of all the school children invited to
Mayor Edward Dickinson’s Juvenile Ball at the Pavillion Theatre in Library St, Wigan.A New Life in Southport
It was around this time that Levi relocated his family to the Meols Cop district of Southport,
moving into a semi detached house at 87 Clifton Road. Levi commuted daily to his business in Wigan
and Margery attended the nearby Norwood Primary school.
The first written record of Margery performing live is an article in the Southport Advertiser
reporting that she sang in an operetta in St. Luke’s church on Good Friday, 10 April 1914, aged
eight. The following year, her great grandparents Henry and Elizabeth Myers moved from Wigan
to live with them in retirement at Clifton Road.
Alas all was not well in her parents’ marriage, in 1918 they separated. Levi petitioned for divorce
from Florence, on the grounds of her misconduct with a man named William Fairhurst at his home
in Clifton Road. Fairhurst was said to keep an off licenced house in Woodhouse Lane, Wigan. He
told Mr. Justice Shearman that his wife had taken to drink and they then entered into a deed of
separation. ADecree Nisi was granted in 1919.
Margery’s parents both remarried in 1920. Her father married Ada Sidebotham in July at Hope St
Congregational Chapel in Wigan town centre. Ada had been living above his brush shop in the Wiend
for a number of years. Her brother was Ezra Sidebotham, a printer of long standing, who also had
premises in the Wiend.
Her mother Florence married William Fairhurst, 20 years her senior, at Ormskirk Register Office in
September. William, whose father was a publican, had been in the brewery trade all his life and
described on various censuses as barman, brewer, mineral water bottler and publican.
Margery’s talent as a singer had been recognised at an early age and it was after her mother’s
second marriage that she was given the chance of professional training as an opera singer.
At the age of 14 she started on the long road to stardom which would require dedication and years
of hard work. Opera singers have to be extraordinarily disciplined, mastering the art of acting and
stage presence. Being bilingual and the ability to sing in several languages is essential therefore the
study of foreign languages at music school is mandatory.
Margery firstly began a two year course of singing lessons in Bolton under the tuition of Welshman
Richard Evans, an ex-miner from Ruabon near Wrexham. There then followed a move down to
London for six months private tuition with Eileen D’Orme in Knightsbridge.
She then attended the prestigious Guildhall School of Music for a further two years training to
perfect her mezzo soprano voice. In 1924 she won the Mercer Scholarship of 50 Guineas, which she
repeated the following year, also gaining the Liza Lehman prize of 10 Guineas.
It was whilst at the Guildhall School that she met and struck up a friendship with a
young German student who was staying in the same digs. His name was Egon Strohm
and he was in London studying English language. They both went their separate ways
to pursue their careers but were destined to meet again.The Journey to Berlin and Fame
On completion of her training Margery found it difficult to secure engagements and after an
illness travelled to Switzerland in order to recuperate. It was here she was advised to go to Berlin to
pursue her dream of being a professional opera singer.
In 1928 she made a successful audition with the Berlin State Opera House (Staatsoper Unter den
Linden). The iconic building, close to the Reichstag and Brandenburg Gate and built by Frederick the
Great in 1741 had just reopened after a two year refurbishment.
After a further six months training under the tutelage of the famous French soprano, Lola Artot de
Padilla she signed a one year contract and made her first appearance in Berlin that year, a minor
part in the opera ‘La Tosca’.
Margery soon became a favourite with Berlin audiences. In 1930 she had a lead part in the new
German opera ‘Der Fremde Erde’’, an honour rarely accorded to foreigners.
On 17 Aug 1932 the Lancashire Evening Post published a short article with the headline banner ‘A
Southport Girl Who Sings in Berlin’, Margery is quoted as saying:
“I love coming back to Southport for a holiday, but I love Germany so much now that I would not like
to leave it. If you have talent the German people will back you up, second rate is not sufficient, nor
will they find excuse for an artist who is out of condition. The Germans don’t think the English have
any talent and will only believe you are English when you have thoroughly convinced them”.
Little did she know that the following year events would unfold that would lead to Germany
becoming a Fascist Dictatorship, the destruction of Europe in the Second World War and the end of
her singing career.
1933 was an eventful year for Margery, her
mentor Lola de Padilla, whom she had served her
apprenticeship under, died in Berlin on 12 April.
A few weeks later on 9 May her mother Florence
died of cancer, aged 54. She was buried in Duke
Street Cemetery in Southport. alongside her
grandparents Henry and Elizabeth Myers who
had died during the Great war in 1915 and 1918
respectively.
Adolf Hitler became Chancellor of Germany on 30
January 1933. It was through his love of classical
music that Hitler’s and Margery’s paths were to
cross a few months later. After five years at the
Berlin State Opera she was now a principal singer
and the only English Prima Donna in Berlin,
singing in German, French, Italian and Spanish.
That year she was invited to sing at the Bayreuth
Festival in northern Bavaria, and was chosen to carry the Holy Grail in the opera ‘Parsifal’ which
opened on 22 July.
Hitler had an almost fanatical devotion to the work of the 19th-century German composer RichardWagner, which to him represented everything that was good about culture in Nazi Germany. His
attendance at the Bayreuth Festival was very well publicised by Joseph Goebbels, the Minister for
Public Enlightenment and Propaganda.
Margery revealed in an interview with the Lancashire Daily Post in December 1933 that she had
met Hitler and also Crown Prince Wilhelm of Prussia and his wife Cecilie, the Duchess of
Mecklenburg-Schwerin. She told the reporter:
“I had dinner with Herr Hitler and the Crown Prince and his wife. I received a beautiful bouquet of red
roses and the people I met were all very charming. The ex-Crown Princess introduced me to her friends
as ‘her baby’ and has promised to promote a concert at Potsdam at which I shall sing”.
The Crown Prince or ‘Little Willie’ as he was known as, was a passionate devotee of opera. He
admired Margery’s singing and they were to become firm friends, this friendship was to prove
invaluable a decade later.
During a later interview with the Liverpool Echo in 1936 she recounts that after her performance she
was presented to Adolph Hitler and said of him:
“He was perfectly charming and they talked about art and music”. Margery was to become one of
Hitlers favourite singers.
Held annually in July since 1876 the Bayreuth Festival is a month long performance of operas
presented by the Wagner family. Performances take place in a specially designed theatre, the
‘Bayreuth Festpielhaus ‘which Wagner personally supervised the design and construction of.
The overall Director was English born Winifred Marjorie Wagner (nee Williams). Originally from
Hastings in Sussex and orphaned at an early age, she was sent to live with relatives in Germany. She
married 46 year old Siegfried, the bisexual son of Richard Wagner at the age of 18 in 1915.
She took over the running of the Festival after her husband's death in 1930 until the end of World
War II in 1945. A personal friend and supporter of Adolf Hitler, she maintained a regular
correspondence with him. They had met in 1923, the year that Hitler was jailed for his part in the
Munich Beer Hall Putsch. She sent him food parcels and stationery in Landsberg Prison, on which it
is thought he wrote his autobiography ‘Mein Kampf’.
Her anti Semitic views led to her joining the Nazi Party in 1926 and in the late 1930’s she served as
Hitler’s personal translator during treaty negotiations with Britain.
Margery’s father Levi died on 12 August 1933 in Wigan, aged 58, whilst Margery was performing at
Bayreuth. He was buried three days later in Wigan Cemetery, Lower Ince, alongside his parents and
sister Martha Annie who had died aged five and half months in 1874. Margery’s parents had both
remarried in 1920 and by a quirk of fate she was to lose them both in the same year.
In late 1933 Margery was hospitalised in Berlin, after an operation she started a period of
recuperation which included a visit back to Southport for a short holiday.
The following year she was invited back to Bayreuth, this time with the solo role of a flower maiden
in the opera ‘Parsifal’ and of Flosshilde, a Rhine maiden in the opera ‘Gotterdammerung’. In the lavish
production 1,500 costumes were used and 800 people employed, 137 musicians alone.
At the time no one was aware that Margery was unwell again and had sung at least 20 times at
Bayreuth in agonising pain, this led to her undergoing surgery again. She wrote to her step fatherWilliam from her hospital bed in Erlangen, just north of Nuremberg in Bavaria, telling him she had
had an operation for an internal complaint.
Hitler expressed concern and gave orders that she was to be well looked after and Goering and
Goebbels sent messages of sympathy. The Queen of Denmark also sent good wishes and invited
her to her country to sing. It was after a two month recovery that Margery was fit enough to start
singing again.
Recognition at Home
Although famous in Germany and on the continent Margery was up to now virtually unknown at
home. After her success at Bayreuth this was about to change.
In 1935 she was invited to sing at the Promenade Concerts, more commonly known as the Proms,
with the BBC Symphony Orchestra at the Queens
Hall in London. (The building was destroyed in the
Blitz in 1941 and the proms then moved to it’s new
home at the Albert Hall).
The Proms Concerts were broadcast on the radio and
soon Margery’s voice was to be heard in every home
in the land. After years of hard work she was finally
getting the recognition she deserved.
Following her mother’s death from cancer, Margery
became a keen supporter of cancer charities and
research. Whilst based in London singing with the
BBC orchestra she took the opportunity to sing in a
benefit concert at the Palace Theatre in the West
End, in aid of the Holt Radium Institute which had
amalgamated with Christies Cancer Hospital in
Manchester two years previously.
On 4 Oct 1935 she sang professionally for the first
time outside of London when she performed at a
concert at the Queens Hall, Market Street in her
home town of Wigan.
Now at the height of her fame, 1936 was a busy
year for Margery. Her new contract with the Berlin
Opera stipulated that she spend seven months of
the year in Berlin, singing on 60 nights during that
time. During the other five months she was allowed to undertake tours.
She finally fulfilled her greatest ambition of singing at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden,
London on 27 April when she played the role of Magdalene in Wagner’s opera ‘Die
Meistersinger’. That year she was to create a record 23 appearances in the Covent Garden opera
season.
It was after her successful debut in London that she announced her engagement to Egon Strohm,
the German who she had first met as a student in London eleven years previously.She had hoped to marry Egon in a quiet ceremony in her adopted town of Southport four months
later. However the news of her impending marriage leaked out, not wanting to turn her special day
into a media circus she cancelled the wedding indefinitely on the pretence that she was suffering
from influenza.
She then secretly rearranged for the wedding to go ahead the next day with only herself, Egon and
the Vicar in the know, with the guests to be only informed at the last possible moment.
Such was the secrecy that the officiating minister Rev. Canon Walter Morris, the Rural Dean of
North Meols, was only given one hours notice of the time of the ceremony. He married Margery
and Egon by special licence at All Saints CE church in Rawlinson Road the next day, Wednesday 26
August.
Margery’s stepfather William Fairhurst gave her away. The best man, Thomas Forshaw, the
Managing Director of Burtonwood Breweries at Newton Le Willows, near Warrington was unable
to make it in time and missed the ceremony completely, only arriving in time for the reception at
Margery’s family home. A neighbour from Lethbridge Road, fifty six year old Hubert Hunt, was
drafted in at the last minute to be the second witness.
Margery and Egon spent their honeymoon in Scotland before returning to Germany. In an interview
with the Airdrie & Coatbridge Advertiser she is quoted as saying;
“When in England, nothing delights me more than go north and sing among my own people”.
A German Husband
Margery’s new husband Dr. Egon Strohm was born 24 Oct 1904 in Trossingen in the State of Baden-
Wurttemberg, the picturesque Black Forest region of south west Germany. His father Christian, was
a member of a prominent Brewing family and lived in a villa he had built in 1925 in Schwenningen,
a town close by Trossingen where Egon was born.
The brewery in Trossingen was founded in the
late 19th century and by 1904 it was known as
‘Zum Baeren’ and owned by Johannes Strohm.
It was renamed the ‘Baerenbrauerei’ in 1920.
The family operated a second brewery in the
nearby town of Schwenningen with the
owners being Gebrueder Strohm (Strohm
Brothers). The brewery used a bear as its
symbol and this became as famous as the
animals on the State crest, a lion, stag and
griffon.
Egon didn’t enter into the family business but
instead pursued an academic career. After
University he moved to Berlin where on 14
August 1928 he married Elisabeth Martha
Czaika. The marriage banns show he was a 23
old student living at Prinzregentenstrasse 83,
Wilmersdorf in the south west suburbs of thecity. Elizabeth, also 23, had been born in Lodz, Poland.
The marriage was not to last very long however. It was dissolved in Jan 1930 and Elizabeth reverted
back to her maiden name, marrying for a second time to Raimond Fredrich Anton Spitzer on 4 April
1931.
During the 1930’s Egon worked as a journalist and radio reporter, whilst also studying for his
Doctorate degree at Heidelberg University. In 1935 he qualified as a Doctor of Law and Economics
after writing a dissertation for his PhD. entitled ‘The British Empire as an Economic Entity’.
At some point after Margery’s arrival in Berlin, which coincided with Egon’s first marriage, the pair
eventually renewed their friendship from their student days in London and this led to a romance
and marriage in England.
With her new contract giving her more freedom, Margery spent her time touring and commuting
between Germany, England and America. She made a flying visit to Lancashire on 31 January 1937
to sing in a Manchester concert in aid of Christies Cancer Hospital and to visit Southport.
Egon met up with her in Southport after a trip to New York, arriving in Southampton on 16 March on
SS Westernland, a German owned transatlantic liner, sailing the Antwerp, New York, Southampton
route.
On Saturday 15 May she sang again at the Queens Hall in Wigan, fulfilling a promise she had made
two years previously that she would return to her home town. The concert was to celebrate the
Coronation of King George VI that had taken place three days beforehand. All benefits went towards
Mayor Peter Winstanley’s Royal Albert Edward Infirmary fund.
In July she was back in Southport for six weeks to stay with her step father in Lethbridge Road. But
Margery had to put all her engagements to one side, including a planned trip to the Isle of Man.
Instead she spent her time frantically searching for her lost dog, a Terrier named Terry who had been
missing for 10 days. She put notices in shop windows, appealed in the newspapers and visited all the
police stations in the area.
At Ormskirk police station they told her they had found a dog answering Terry’s description and had
sent it to Walton dogs home. At Walton she found it had been sold to a Bootle man. At Bootle the
buyer said he sold it to a man in the same street. The search ended in the home of the second buyer
where Margery was able to buy Terry back.
War Clouds Looming
By 1938 the situation in Europe was deteriorating fast. Germany was now a fascist state with
Hitler as Fuhrer having full control of all political and military matters. The country had secretly
been rearming for a number of years and war in Europe was now inevitable.
On 12 March German troops marched unopposed into Austria. In what's known as the
‘Anschluss’, Austria was annexed into Greater Germany.
Hitler next set his eyes on the Sudetenland, the border regions of Czechoslovakia. On the pretext that
German speaking Czechs were being victimised he demanded the region be handed to Germany by
1 October.
The leaders of Britain, France, Germany and Italy met in Munich on 29-30 September 1938 and
following a policy of appeasement by England and France the Czech President Edvard Benes waspersuaded to submit to Hitlers demands. The next day the Sudetenland was annexed to Germany.
British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain returned to England waving a worthless piece of paper
declaring ‘Peace in our time’.