GREENROOM GOSSIP.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Issue 1355, 13 April 1916, Page 15

GREENROOM GOSSIP.

Mr. John Fuller, senr., has returned to Auckland after a lengthy visit to Australia in the firm’s interest.

The celebrated war correspondent Ellis Ashmead-Bartlett, now tonring Australia, is really entitled to the hyphen in his name. He is a son of Sir Ellis Ashmead-Bartlett, Bart., and is a nephew of Mr. Ashmead-Bartlett, who married the Baroness BurdettCoutts. Like many another young Englishman of position, the famous correspondent adopted soldiering as a profession, and began active service as a subaltern in the Boer War. As a writer he is a comparative beginner, and has never had any continuous connection with newspapers, he preferring rather to contribute articles setting forth his own point of view to various papers in London. It is not generally known that he was an unattached correspondent in France at the outbreak of the present war. It was his vigorous, well-written narratives, so alive with forceful description and military knowledge, that secured him the much coveted post of official British press representative at the Dardanelles.

The Auckland Dramatic and Vaudeville Employees’ Association have inaugurated a memorial to those who have given their lives in the war, and with commendable energy have undertaken the equipment and decoration of the Children’s Hospital, about to be erected in Auckland as a mark of respect to the fallen. It is hoped to realise £3OOO for this object, and committees are working with a will to achieve their end. On Saturday afternoon a monster matinee will be held at His Majesty’s Theatre. Amongst those contributing will be the Strollers (uy kind permission of Messrs. J. and N. Tait) and prominent Fuller artists, while local talent will be represented by Miss Daphne Knight and Miss McKenzie. Mr. W. Bauer, president of the —osociation, and Mr. H. E. Butler, secretary, are working strenuously for a cause that must appeal to all.