MUSICIAN

Grey River Argus, 13 August 1937, Page 12

MUSICIAN

In Workhouse PLAYED ON EX-KAISER’S YACHT. LONDON, July 3. An Australian musician, whose parents gave him a first-class education in Adelaide, has now, after a long and eventful career, found peace in an English workhouse. Arthur Charles Hendric, once so famous that princes of the East and West invited him to their palaces as an honoured guest, now spends his days playing bowls at Southend, Essex. He has no wife. He has no friends. His musical gifts—as a violinist, as a trumpeter—attracted attention nt school. He ran away from home and worked his passage to England. Over the heads of senior men his youth and impudence got him a job as leader of the orchestra on a P. and O. liner. He has told the stories of his greatness to the inmates of the workhouse. They would not believe him. At last he wrote to the ex-Kaiser, on whose incredibly luxurious yacht he had played—and the Old Man of Doorn replied. “After 60 years of music my health collapsed and my talent went from me,” Mr Hendrie said. “Now I will never touch a musical instrument again. I am at peace at last.”