THE SONG "TIPPERARY"

Evening Post, Volume CXVI, Issue 65, 14 September 1933, Page 15

THE SONG "TIPPERARY"

WOMAN WHO FIRST SANG IT

The woman who bought the first copy of "It's a Long Way to Tipperary," and was the first woman artist to sing it 21 years ago, has been revealed by a reader's iet'.|r to an English newspaper. She is Miss Winifrod Bay, of Birmingham (states an exchange). "I thought you would like to'see the first copy of the\ song ever sold," Miss Eay writes. "I was interested in the article in the "Sunday Chronicle" on the men who wrote the war songs." Miss Bay, a well-known music-hall artist, bought tho part rights of the "song that won the war"' from its author (Jack Judge) for 11s 6d. This was in February, 1912, a few weeks after the song had been "I produced the song first at the Grand Theatre, Gravesend, on March 12, 1912,!' says Miss Eay, "and sang it with great success both in London and the provinces. It more than trebled my salary, and filled my date book. . -,-.• , i

"By tho end of 1912 the song was being sung all over the country, and at Christmas I sang it at tho Manchester pantomime." _ ■ "Tipperary's" # world fame came through a stroke of chance. When the Lancashire troops landed at Boulogne in France, in the early days of' the war in 1914, they marched to camp singing tho song, because at Blackpool and the Me of Man that holiday season "Tipperary" was tho song hit of the moment.